Fast and Female at Canada Olympic Park

One of the most interesting neighbour we have here at Centro Motel is located just up the road on the way out of town. Canada Olympic Park is always up to something interesting. Whether flinging Municipal Government officials down the fastest zipline on the continent, letting your average Joe and Joette rocket down an icy tube at highway speeds, or just teaching people how to ski, you can always count on something interesting going on up there. Speaking of which, coming up at the end of this month, there's an event you should definitely take notice of.

Something you may have realized if you were paying attention during the last Olympics is that women tend to be vastly underrepresented in sports. In every sport from Hockey to Judo, the women's teams are smaller, have less funding, and are generally regarded as the “B” team when compared to the Men's divisons.

This segregation isn't caused or effected by any one thing, You can argue that Society is to blame, constantly programming young girls to shy away from physicality in favour of femininity, what with Cosmopolitan Magazine and so on. But, a big part of what keeps women's divisions small is the lack of support, and role models, for young girls in sports. If you ask any given Canadian-born professional Hockey player why they wanted to get into the game, and why they stuck with it, it's almost always the same two-part answer; “I wanted to be Wayne Gretzky”, and “the community, the friends I made”. Quick! Who's considered the female equivalent of Wayne Gretzky? Hint: If you don't know the answer, neither do any young girls.

Hoping to provide a solution to the two-part problem of involvement is an organization called Fast and Female. With their events, programs, promotions, and key note speakers, they are looking to build a female-centric community of support and celebration for young female athletes. Coming up on the weekend of the 29^th is their 3^rd Annual Sports Day in Canada.

“Fast and Female - a non profit organization dedicated to inspiring and motivating girls to stick to sports - is inviting ladies ages 8 to 99 years old for a morning of fitness and inspiration at Canada Olympic Park. Held in conjunction with the CBC Sports Day in Canada, the women-only Fast and Female event will feature sporting activities for ladies of all skill and abilities.”

All proceeds from the event will support Fast and Female's programs for 2013.

As the flyer would suggest, you don't necessarily have to be already involved in any sports to get something out of the day. Also, any sport will do. From Yoga, to fencing, to Ice Hockey and Boxing, come on down and meet some of your contemporaries!

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Open Letter to the Graffiti Artists Who Keep Tagging Centro: Could You Maybe Kick It Up a Notch?

Last week, someone managed to tag the entire back side of our building, while also evading our security cameras. I'm not going to show you a picture of it, though. Because it's hideous and, frankly, I'm disappointed that someone would go to all the trouble of learning the timing and spread of our security cameras and then do such a horrible job of painting our walls. Seriously, take some pride in your work, man.

 

Other countries have talented graffiti artists.

It's not that I'm advocating that everybody should run out and start making off-colour squiggly lines on other people's buildings, I'm just saying that if you're going to go through the trouble of setting up an elaborate Splinter Cell style infiltration... maybe make it look a bit more stylish. I mean, right now it looks more like my T-Shirt after the last time I tried to eat a bowl Spaghetti and win a fistfight at the same time.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off a little bit wounded. Graffiti is just a part of living in a city. Every other motel, from our competitors across the Trans-Canada, to the motels and hotels in the nearby Motel Village, have similar problems now and then. At the very least, these “artists” plaguing our neighbourhood should at least pay attention to their spelling.

 

I don't even know what this is supposed to be, but I'd rather have it on our walls than any "tag".

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

The Best Cafe's in Montgomery

Montgomery is often overlooked as a neighbourhood. Sure, in a lot of way it doesn't hold a candle to the more established leisure neighbourhoods in Calgary like Kensington, or Marda Loop. So, it's true that there aren't many cafe's in Montgomery when compared to other areas of Calgary. But, that's not to say that there aren't any good cafes there at all. This is false. There are three.

Lazy Loaf & Kettle

The LLK is kind of like a greasy spoon-type lace, but without the greasy. It's a very laid back cafe that serves top notch comfort food for breakfast, and as their name suggests they brew a mean mug of tea. Overall, it's cozy, clean and well-prepared. The perfect place to kill some time with a good book, or to pretend to be writing a novel on your Macbook (apparently).

Extreme Bean Cafe

It's not that Extreme, don't worry. The coffee here is quite good. Probably better then at the Lazy loaf and Kettle, although I am a pretty picky coffee drinker, so that's not saying all that much. They do have a more fleshed out lunch and dinner menu when compared with the other cafe's on this list, so this would be a surer bet for anyone looking for a god lunch or dinner.

Angel's Cappuccino & Ice Cream

The ultimate in legal highs. Cappuccino and Ice Cream is what I plan on feeding my kids before I drop them off at their Grandparents' place (Give me socks for my birthday 3 years in a row, eh?). At any rate, the ice cream here is delicious, and the combination of it with coffee is utterly fantastic.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Alberta's New Distracted Driving Law

Being a Boutique Motel, we here at Centro tend to have a lot of guests who drive in to get here. It is, after all, sort of the point of staying at a Motel, you are guaranteed of having somewhere you can park your car. However, there's a new law coming into effect here in Alberta that's going to make life a little more difficult for anyone driving in from out of province.

Have you ever used your cell-phone while driving? Obviously not for texting, people who try and drive while texting deserve a swift kick in the butt, but just a regular phone call? Well, starting on September 1^st, 2011 that can earn you a fairly hefty fine here in Alberta.

The new Law, Bill 16, doesn't stop there. Gone are the days when you can eat in our car worry-free, from next week on eating while driving also constitutes a violation of Bill 16. This makes me a little sad. After all, it kind of makes Drive-Thrus sort of pointless. I mean, if you;re going to have to stop and pull over to eat the food anyways, what's the point of using a Drive-Thru to get it?

So, just to recap, from now on in Alberta you cannot Eat, use your phone, or listen to headphones while driving or you'll get a $172.00 ticket. God help you if try doing all three things at once.

Alberta's Newest Provincial Park

A new provincial park is a rare thing. Vast tracts of aren't really just lying around waiting to be re-purposed, especially not if they've been privately owned for a long time. Typically when land of this calibre and proximity to the city becomes avaialable it's rapidly ripped apart and turned into Condo and housing developments in a spectacle reminiscent of a cow being devoured by a school of piranhas. However, that's not what happened last week at all.

In 2006, the Alberta Government purchased over 1,300 acres of land from the Harvie Family, and has spent the last six years developing it into a Provincial park. It already has 25 km of trails, many of which are paved for cycling. The access to this land is located about 35 kilometres from downtown Calgary, basically right next to the town of Cochrane. The land itself is actually pretty spread out, and is shaped kind of like... You know what? Here, take a look for yourself.

 

The terrain is quite varied for such small sampling of the province, and The park preserves and protects some significant natural and cultural features, including examples of endangered ecosystems and rare species, First Nations and early ranching settlements.

Now, keep in mind that, for now at least, this is a day-use only park. There is no overnight camping, no camp fires, and the park is only open during daylight hours. Another thing to keep in mind is the access to water. There is no potable water in this park. Well, none that's been declared potable, at least. So, bring plenty of water bottles, and a filtration system.

For more info you can check out the park's website at http://www.grpf.ca/.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.