Chapeau / Pembroke

Allison McLaughlin

Let’s welcome our neighbour, Allison McLaughlin.

Hi, Allison! Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi, I am Allison. I have called the Ottawa Valley and Pembroke home for the past 23 years. Originally, I was from Paris, Ontario. I grew up in the country with my grandparents’ farm across the road.

I went to Queen’s University for my undergrad. Then I worked in London, England at the Barbican Centre of the Arts and spent a year travelling abroad. I became interested in education early, working with youth summer camps and spending a year in Korea teaching English. I briefly returned to Canada and worked in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the Education Department. I then left for Australia to pursue my master’s in teaching from Griffith University. Upon my return to Canada, I secured a teaching position at a private school in the GTA. That summer I came to the Ottawa Valley for a wedding — my husband crashed it — and I’ve been here ever since.

I took a teaching position at Dr. Wilbert Keon School, which is part of the Western Quebec School Board, teaching primarily secondary English and art. During that time, I have been very fortunate to have many professional growth opportunities — I trained as an educational coach (London, UK), a WQSB literacy consultant, an administrator, and the Ministry of Education roles of coordinator and project manager for English assessment and secondary evaluation. I was able to lead the creation of the Secondary V (Gr.11) English provincial leaving exam. For the past four years, I have instructed a course for Queen’s University Professional Studies Department called Leadership in Professional Settings under the Faculty of Education.

When I am not working, you can find me teaching yoga on Thursday nights at White Pine in Pembroke. Yoga has been a large part of my life since university, and I love the community, connection, and personal growth that comes with this practice.

I love dogs, my kids, books, the outdoors, and an active and healthy lifestyle.

What’s the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?

During COVID, I was already working at home on a contract with the Ministry creating evaluations. Both of my daughters were at home, and it was a zoo — trying to work, focus, listen to meetings in French, and parent two younger children online. Some days, I would smell something burning in a meeting, and I would mute my screen and cover my mouth and yell, “NO COOKING while MOM IS WORKING!!! Is there something BURNING???”

After a long day in May, I went upstairs from my office and saw a scribbled post-it-note on the table. I could hardly read it. It looked to me like it said, “I’m going to shop down the street.” Okay, I thought. Hmmm. Maybe the kids took off to go to the store — one of the few places where we could purchase essential items. My partner came home, and we were sitting outside, and we heard this noise coming up the sidewalk: “Bummmp, chugggg, bummmp, chuugggg, bump.”

I went to the driveway and saw our youngest daughter with a friend from across the street with a Step 2 Wagon with one broken wheel, and this thing was filled to the brim with random weird items. I instantly pieced the puzzle together. She wasn’t going to the shop down the street — the kids went to SHOP the STREET. It was May bulk garbage pickup, and there was my kid in all her glory with a new broken Step 2 wagon, a pair of men’s size nine red soccer cleats, a hoverboard without a charger, a broken computer monitor, and a BODY PILLOW!!! Poor kids were dying to shop, to go exploring, to adventure to well — anything during that time. Too funny, and truly another person’s junk is another’s treasure.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?

I lived in Korea for a year and ate a lot of interesting foods – kimchi, japchae, jjigae, ttekkbokki, and beondegi. The weirdest was Gaebul or Penis Fish, which is a marine worm. To be honest — it was in a big pot of bubbling soup/stew. I tutored a lovely family, and I was sick with a cold. The mother took me out for dinner and told me that this soup would help me feel better. I think I ate “around” it as it was a little out of my comfort zone.

I did, however, eat puffer fish and sannakji, which is live octopus. The tentacles still move, curl, and cling. I don’t think I would eat this again knowing what I know about the intellect and abilities of the octopus. To this day, I still love Korean food and cooking, but I am more of a sundubu jjigae girl.

*** Note: Kimchi is a dish made with fermented vegetables. Japchae is a stir-fry with sweet potato glass noodles. Jjigae is a Korean stew. Ttekkbokki are spicy simmered rice cakes. Beondegi is street food made with silkworm pupae. And sundubu jjigae is a tofu stew.

Who is the best-known celebrity you have ever seen in person?

I once spoke to Quentin Tarantino outside the Temple Bar Pub in Dublin, Ireland, in 1997. He was standing outside looking at the menu. Mira Sorvino was with him. She was wearing a long black trench coat and stood silently away from him, staring off into space. It was raining and a bit cold as it was late December. I told him I really enjoyed his films. The 1990s saw the success of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and I think that around 1997 Jackie Brown had been released. It was probably the height of his filmmaking career. He was mildly unpleasant and off-putting. A weird but funny interaction in my opinion.

What was the worst style choice you ever made?

I had a Pixie cut a couple times in my life — which I loved and chose. When I was living in England after university and didn’t have a lot of money, a friend of mine and I went to a hairdressing school in central London for inexpensive cuts — a bad style choice.

My friend was a guy, and his hair looked okay, but mine was a complete disaster. The hairdresser I got was from Italy and spoke hardly any English. I basically mimed out my description of a short Pixie cut. She was tall and thin, and her arms were extremely long, and all I could see were long thin arms and pointy elbows and her face riddled with uncertainty. She kept positioning the scissors to cut and then changing her mind and direction. I was in a state of shock and panic. I came out of that place with a bizarre Chelsea haircut, and I could have died. My friend and I laughed until I cried and then headed to the pub and were grateful for 99p pints to drown my misery. Life lesson — pay for the quality haircut.

*** Note: Google describes a Chelsea haircut as having a shaved or closely clipped top, back, and sides, blunt-cut bangs that are left long across the forehead, and sideburns or a nape-length mullet to contrast with the shaved sections.

If you could be any animal, which one would you be? Why?

Easy question: elephant. They are highly intelligent, they grieve their dead, and bury their relatives. They feel deeply, and it is proven that they have deep relationships and a huge emotional capacity. They are sensitive and caring and look out for each other. Elephants have extensive memories and recall. They can create art. Elephants are matriarchal and women lead their families for life, and the groups consist of mostly females that have a tight-knit community and connection. They eat plants. Elephants are physically strong and sturdy, and they are just simple, beautiful, mesmerizing, and majestic.

If you could be on any reality TV show, which one would you choose? Why?

Alone or a survivalist show. I think it would be interesting to test myself, although I don’t want to go to the extreme cold thing. I would like to test my skills in the tropics. I’ve always wanted to go on a silent retreat, and I think this kind of experience is similar.

You’ve just won the lottery. What will you do with your windfall?

If I won the lottery, I would make sure to help my children with their futures, but I have also dreamed of just quietly paying off people’s mortgages. Like, walking into the bank and just saying, “I want to pay off this person’s mortgage without them knowing.” I think that is another kind of lottery win — for a person in need to just have that financial freedom and wiggle room to make a difference in the quality of someone’s life and for them to perhaps be able to make different choices with that financial freedom. I would love to be an anonymous benefactor — a quiet behind-the-scenes supporter of social projects, the community, education, and scholarships.

What do you miss the most about being a kid?

I miss the eternal optimism of youth, the dreams, the excitement of firsts, and of the future — not knowing what might be around the corner, what direction life might take. There is a sense of freedom in the uncertainty and unchartered territory of being young. I miss the blind faith, hope, and joy of being innocent and young.

Thanks for sharing with us, neighbour Allison.

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Next week, we will welcome Adrienne Carfagnini.