Article courtesy: Wally Lazaruk What is resilience? Resilience may be defined as the process of adapting effectively in the face of a crisis, struggle, illness, tragedy or other difficult experience.…

(Article courtesy: Gerry Delval) A little over one year ago, I gave a presentation on battery electric vehicles (BEV), including a report on my experience with our Hyundai Kona Electric…

(Life Anecdote - shared by Hugh Stephens) Back in the early 1980s, I was serving as the Political Counsellor to the Canadian Embassy in Islamabad. Relations between India and Pakistan…

The Victoria Restaurant That Isn’t! At least one dictionary defines a restaurant as ”a place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the…

(Article courtesy: Ken Brown)

Two years ago, who could have foreseen a long standing, loosely-knit group such as VRMNC attracting 248 renewing members to participate in just one of our twenty-one or so activities? No one saw that coming, just as no one could have predicted the way Covid managed to nip in the bud our enjoyment of so many activities and friendships. Nonetheless, time has passed, and we are approaching the reawakening of outdoor activities and are continuing with Roger Love’s Zoom guest speakers.

Contributed by: Ken Brown

The National Newcomers Association of Canada (NNAC), of which VMNC is a member, currently consists of sixty-three clubs from Victoria to Nova Scotia. Although we are one of the larger clubs, our flexible formula for membership would need some high octane to catch up with the 472 members in the Kelowna Newcomers Club and an equal number in their Alumni Club! (Just what do they put in the drinking water in Kelowna?) No word on the NNAC website about whether those clubs are co-ed, although the large numbers would make you think so.

Recipe courtesy Allen Meyer

First establish your own sourdough starter (125 grams) and keep in sealed glass jar (with lid slightly loose) in fridge (check method online).

Armamentarium:

• Electronic kitchen scale
• 9- or 10-inch Banneton for proofing
• Metal Dough Scraper
• Exacto knife for scoring bread
• Dough Whisk
• Flour Scoop
• Items above available on Amazon
• 10 cup mixing bowl
• 10 cup Dutch oven with lid
• Plastic bag to cover mixing bowl and banneton
• Parchment paper

Ingredients:

• 250 grams stone-ground whole-wheat flour (Available at Nootka Rose Milling, 4480 Happy Valley Rd., Metchosin. Phone ahead 250-800-1207 for store hours and orders of more than 2.5 kg.)
• 200 grams all-purpose flour
• Additional all-purpose flour as necessary for dusting dough and adding to starter
• 350 grams water
• 140 grams Sourdough Starter
• 10 grams coarse salt
• 50/50 flour/stone ground white rice mixture for dusting the banneton

Method:

1. Remove starter from fridge, add 25 grams of all-purpose flour, 25 grams of hot tap water to jar and mix very well. Place jar in hot water leaving lid slightly loose for one hour.

Add whole wheat and all-purpose flour to mixing bowl, mix with whisk, add 350 grams water, mix well and let sit for one hour.

Prepared by Wally Lazaruk

Article Summary

1. Clarify your priorities.
2. Incline your mind to want things that are good for you and others.
3. Take care of yourself.
4. Feel already satisfied.
5. Appreciate the fullness of life.
6. Associate rewards with whatever you would like to motivate yourself toward.

Motivating ourselves is challenging at the best of times, but even more difficult during a pandemic.

Dr. Rick Hanson in his Foundations of Well-Being program and in his book Resilient offers several action strategies to encourage us to establish and to accomplish our goals:

1. Clarify your priorities

• Identify the key goals in your life in a word or phrase: e.g. Health. Friendship. Finances. Learning. Career. Marriage. Spiritual/Inner development. Having fun. Creative expression. Exploring life. Service.
• Rank these aims in order of importance. Ask: “ If I could attain only one aim, which would it be?” That’s your highest priority.
• Reflect routinely on your true priorities. Let your top priorities draw you in their direction.
• Ask: “Am I giving my time, attention, and energy in proportion to these priorities?”
• Keep letting your true priorities speak to you. What do they say?
• Determine what realistic changes you can gradually make in your time, attention, and resources.
• Build your priorities into your daily schedule and monthly budget.
• Find a sense of enjoyment and meaning in these priorities and let them live inside you.

(Contributed by: Cam Berry)

CRUISING THE WILD BC COAST

A couple of years ago in late May my wife and I drove up Island to Menzies Bay, 15km north of Campbell River to the Marine Link Tours marine base. Along with 10 other guests we soon boarded the MV Aurora Explorer, our coastal freighter for the next six days., and headed north through Seymour narrows and then east along the north coast of Quadra island. The ship serves a multitude of remote forestry operations, fishery facilities and private facilities and resorts throughout the Discovery Islands, the Broughton Island Archipelago Area, and Desolation Sound.

The MV Aurora Explorer, a 135 foot landing craft that transports a wide variety of heavy equipment and general freight throughout remote inlets of Johnston and Queen Charlotte Straits. We travelled 80 km up the rugged Butte Inlet with its spectacular coastal scenery with waterfalls cascading down cliffs directly into the sea. We observed several Orca pods. countless Pacific Dolphins. and other sea life. The history and influence of the early explorers, settlers, cannery workers and native populations is evident on Cortes Island and one gets a glimpse of the rich and famous lifestyles at several stops on Stuart Island.

How to iPhone

by Gerry Delval

Hopefully by now, you have reaped the rewards of synchronizing your iPhone(s) to your email account(s) and cleaned up your contacts as covered in previous articles.  In this final article on getting the most out of your iPhone, we will focus on video conferencing apps, on photos and documents apps and on banking apps.