I found this blast from the past in my Google Drive just now. They’re my dating profile pictures from 2005, back before dating apps were at all useful and only crazy people (including me) were on them. As far as I know, the last one was never used due to the excessive cringe factor. As you can see, I did not have a very good camera back then. I was using a crappy 2002 vintage webcam for it.
Dr Michael Hewitt Benn died in Calgary, Canada on Wednesday, December 21st at the age of 80. He was one hell of a guy. One of the nicest people I’ve ever met and the best boss anyone could ever ask for. He would do anything for anyone and was the epitome of kindness and generosity.
One of the last conversations I ever had with him involved him convincing me he had enough money to keep me employed for another three months. On pestering him about where the money was coming from, it turned out he was intending to make a trip to the bank and take my income out of his own personal account! I turned him down on that offer, but it is a shining example of how generous the man could be.
Mike, you will be sorely missed!
I worked for Mike at the University of Calgary 2004/2005. We published a paper about Lycoctonine … Lycoctonine revisited
I had a key party at my flat in Calgary.
The A-grade University of Calgary Intramural hockey finals of 2005. My friend Janay was competing.
Downtown Calgary is a very picturesque place. All the major buildings in the downtown area are connected by bridges, tunnels and walkways to allow people to move between buildings without getting chilly in the winter.
Some photos I took whilst visiting the West Edmonton mall in Edmonton, Canada. The West Edmonton mall is the former largest mall in the world.
I was planning to catch a bus around Edmonton but I met a local called John Arnieri on the way there from Jasper who kindly took me on a tour of the city. Random acts of kindness like this are very appreciated. Thank you very much John 🙂
The photo below is of the Alberta Legislature building which is one of the most famous pieces of architecture in Edmonton.
Vancouver is a wonderful place I highly recommend visiting if you get the chance. The weather was awesome while I was there. Stanley Park is a huge park area right beside the city center which I skated around while there. I hope to go back to Vancouver some day, might even consider getting a job there if I can.
We had a completely insane bus driver on the trip from Vancouver to Kamloops, BC at 4am in the morning. As we were coming into Kamloops he came on the radio with a slow drunken sounding voice saying he’d got a bit lost and was having trouble seeing straight! But that we’d be in Kamloops in a few minutes! It turned out he was just joking 😛 Joking about being drunk that is, not about reaching Kamloops. There wasn’t much there so I took this pic of a sign as a momento of my midnight visit before catching another bus to Jasper.
