Blog entry: 4 The ‘SAIT penitentiary’
So, we did not get dinner, supposedly we were too late. We were told we would get our first food pack at 10am the next morning, we did make a Walmart order, which luckily turned up early. This meant at least we had milk and Frosties! We also ordered coffee from Tim’s but we found out later that day that the Tim’s delivery marked the end of our abilities to get food delivered at different times of the day. As of the second day we were told we could only have one delivery at 10am each day, well, good thing I got pre-arranged meals with Jess. Oh wait! Shit, no I hadn’t! The cost had seemed excessive, at the time. The issue now was that any dinner I ordered would be cold, come dinner time ………. So, our new plan was that we shared the meals and got additional snacks from Walmart. After our Tim’s, I called reception and I said I needed some fresh air. Unfortunately, unlike the Hilton I was banned from leaving the room full stop! So, no fresh air breaks. Coupled with the fact we had no heat control in the room and the building had been set to high. This was not helpful and further exacerbated by the worlds tiniest window which barely opened. It had been one day, and I was already fucked off, from this day on we referred to the student accommodation as the ‘SAIT penitentiary’! I personally think Guantanamo Bay would have been more accommodating. Still, I was happy the time difference of moving had me getting up around 4 in the morning, this meant at least I could get some early morning photos. To be honest taking and editing photos, along with watching an art series on Netflix or listening to Mark Rebillet had become my day plan. At least for the first week, I managed to block out the bad accommodation with my dedication to trying new photography ideas. Most couldn’t spend all this time messing with photography, but since 24 I have discovered a love for learning that I thought school had destroyed, not to mention it was part of my move plan and more to the point our plan for our first company.
As has become the norm with this blog, there is a back story to my love of photography. So, rewind. I’m at Disneyland and more specifically the entrance to Epcot. It’s a hot day in August 2001 and I am in the main overpriced gift store. You couldn’t miss me, I’m the slightly chubby, nearly bald headed one, with less than 1% dress sense; epitomised by my beige trousers that were deliberately two sizes too big and black shirt with flames on the bottom and sleeves.……. and before you ask, yes, I had picked the shirt and chose to shave my head and no, I didn’t fucking suit either. I looked like Eminem if he was well feed and had an unhealthy enjoyment of science. I had been saying to my parents that I needed a new camara for a while, my first camara was bad! It was a Kodak Instamatic 133-X and would always overexpose on the top left corner, not to mention you had to manually wind the film. But in the Epcot gift store I had found the replacement. It was a silver, newer model of kodak. This had auto wind and a built-in flash. I wanted a Leica but the kodak actually fitted my budget. From that day on, I would proceed to take it on all school trips, holidays and even days out, right up until my last year of school. I moved on to a Nikon Coolpix compact, I actually had two Coolpix before moving to a Canon crossover and then finally Nikon’s DSLR range. I don’t remember my early work being of any quality to write home about, but by 21 and with my Canon, I had started to take a real interest. In 2011 I went on a coast-to-coast trip of Canada. To be more precise I went on a coach trip where the average age was 70, kind of like a tour a rock band would do, if the tour was called ‘Gods Waiting Room’ and it was less about rock and roll and more about tea, cake and piss stops. That said, it was a good move. I worked out I wanted to live in Alberta and more precisely; Jasper, Banff or Canmore (so nearly there). And I also managed to get 3,284 photos, and as the trip went on, I found I was getting comparable shots to some of the others whom had camaras 3 to 4 times the cost and lenses that required extra bags. This said I was no Andre Kertesz, Robert Mapplethorpe or Andreas Gursky, but as with lots of things I have done, it needed a little time to prove, and this would come. I had moved towards Go-Pro videos for snowboarding and cars and would soon start my commercial flight training, which would consume a solid 3 years of my life.
Needless to say, I qualified and started to allow other things back into my life. Queue 2018, while arranging our move to Canada, working at Harrods aviation in operations and instructing on light aircraft, this was the time for my photography to come back in. I had recently reconnected with an old friend, Ben. One of my old school drinking buddies, he had pursued a career in mostly wedding photograph, a highly skilled photographer in his own right. To be very clear, I have absolutely no interest in wedding photography! But within weeks I was looking at proper DSLR bodies and lenses. Even though we were saving and had limited spare funds I knew I had to get something, this would prove to be significant. Within one year of owning my Nikon 7500 I had taken 25,000 photos. It’s not a lie or exaggeration to say I took my camara everywhere with me! And this was where, as I have done with many things in the past, I returned to photography with an all or nothing attitude. I started going to a local photography group and watching photography programs on TV, I couldn’t learn enough. Jess, Ben, his wife and me would go out and take photos and I would take any advice I could get. Within a short period of time, I was becoming fluent with my Nikon and small adjustments and settings were becoming second nature. I had started using Adobe and learning the dark art of editing, as time has gone on I have become more computer literate than I would ever have imagined. I created our websites, logos, adverts, watermarks and, at the moment while writing this, coding our first newsletters.
So, the idea of having a whole 2 weeks of nothing in which to find something productive to do, got me working on miniature shots, colour flash coupled with monochrome and some other self-indulgent projects. All the time looking out the window thinking about how badly I never want to live in this part of Calgary. It was pure city! Crazy part is 2 of the 4 jobs I’ve had have forced me to drive past the ‘SAIT penitentiary’ twice a day! We had discovered the airport staff between Toronto and Calgary had felt the need to look through my locked box of very personal documents (something no other security had felt the need to do), so this had to be checked. We also had to sort a car, house insurance and a bed before leaving as we needed transport, insurance to move into our rental and somewhere to sleep! Again, flu would help with all of this ……so even though I had been driving since 2006 and I had 15 years no claims bonus, Canada would not accept this. This was due to the flu delays meaning my insurance was cancelled over 1 month before I got out of quarantine and that was the cut off to accept any previous history. And even though we had worked out a good amount for a second-hand car last time we visited, now the prices had gone stupid, mostly as no one could get new cars thanks to flu. I would learn Alberta’s standard of second had cars is appalling, even spending a good few thousand couldn’t guarantee a roadworthy steed. I so badly hated on MOT’s in the UK, but after living here, I so badly wish they had some control. As this blog proceeds, I will explain some of the appalling shit I have witnessed working on cars in Alberta.
I had overly researched a bed, we had a Tempur mattress in the UK and this was a tour de fuck force of a bed! So I had looked at Tempur in Canada. Unfortunately Tempur was a budget stretch as we had just moved so I looked at Canada’s equivalent; ‘Endy’. I had assumed the delivery would be easier as it was a Canadian company…..this was a mistake, but we will get to that. Now, finding a rental while still in the UK was hard. We couldn’t see them, we couldn’t have a Canadian bank account (which made most very nervous) and we had no Canadian papers or links. This is where a phenomenal real estate agent Rhonda came in, we had met with Rhonda 4/5 years earlier and she had kindly shown us around multiple properties. The intention was to sell before leaving and set up the purchase of a house to coincide with our arrival…… none of this had gone to plan and 95% due to flu crushing flat sales in our area of the UK and the stop on new houses due to flu skyrocketing the prices of the second had market in Alberta. But still this very lovely and patient lady had tempted us with lots and had helped us narrow down our area to live in- a township called Cochrane. This is 1 hour from Banff, Sunshine ski resort, and 30 mins from Calgary. She offered to go and view any properties we liked the look of and gave really detailed feedback on the area and if it was a good call or not. We initially had one promising place, but it was owned by a local religious cult (this was the impression I got) and when they asked or religious status I knew my very science based views would not fit with their God fearing ones. I was right, they found an excuse and turned us down. While looking we stumbled across some properties owned by a lady called Gwen, another absolute legend, she seems to rent 50% of the rentals in Cochrane. She was very relaxed in regards to us paying from an English account and sorting paperwork out on arrival. We looked at two she had, she then recommended a 3 bed with double garage, this suited perfectly, and we agreed. She also had passed us onto a broker who found our home insurance for a reasonable price. More to the point she got all the home details off Gwen, which was handy as we were stuck in the ‘SAIT penitentiary’ with limited information. We finally found car; I had said I wanted to ‘scratching my Japanese itch’ ……. unfortunately, the 2004 Mitsubishi Outlander we had found wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it was just in time. We had done our last flu test and should be free by the latest the 28th assuming a negative test. This obviously didn’t go to fucking plan. Come the 26th we still hadn’t heard, and we should have. We contacted the test company and they said ‘computer said no’. Come the 27th I was done! This was now fucking with our plan and the combination of confinement and lack of things going to plan, I proceeded to go full Karen mode and complain. Suddenly on the morning of the 28th with no negative test the ‘SAIT penitentiary’ told us we could go? I questioned this and they said it was fine. We booked a Hilton for the night as we couldn’t move into our home till the 30th and got the fuck out of their ASAP. I’ve never left prison but imagine it would have a similar feeling. We got a taxi and went all 4K down the road to the Hilton Calgary University Northwest. And after a very short check-in went to a restaurant Jess had been bugging me about. It had been on a programme called ‘You Gotta Eat Here’. I can’t lie, it was nice to have real food!! And I totally agree, if your ever in Calgary go to Big T’s!
