so far) adjusting my body clock and thermostat at 9.00 am Sunday morning, 4pm hometime. Making the first pot of coffee in my new percolator.
Well we made it out to Calgary with no hiccups on Thursday 16th, which frankly is a small miracle given we only received our visas on the 7th! We left Manchester in the pouring rain and arrived 10 hours later to 30C heat, an Ingham rep (based in Banff - yes!) that I randomly worked with Canoeing in France10 years ago…and the lovely Carmen who we will share a house with this year.
Carmen is Alison's sister, who I am exchanging with.. She is 25, full of beans, very easy going and a BMW-Mini salesperson with lots of nice cars for me to ‘test drive’ at weekends and she has a great set of friends.
Calgary is at the foothills of the Rockies in Western Canada, about 1 million population and booming thanks to its oil and gas industry. There is quite a high rise downtown (centre) and then a sprawling grid system of suburbs – we’re in the north east about a 10 min drive from the airport and a 20 min drive to the city centre.
We’re in a lovely 3 bed town house with a tiny little yard with a few weeds for plants – so Vic has been appointed head gardener and shall see what I can do!
Here’s a couple of things we’ve been up to since we arrived…
Saw the Canadian football (not soccer) match of the season between Calgary Stampeders and Vancouver Lions. The evening was run by a pub who laid on a bus and provided a tailgate party in the parking lot with all the (scrumptious) hot dogs you could eat and all the cold fizzy beer you could drink. Just the way to get in the mood!
Then we sat down for 60 mins of play somehow spread over 4 hours, lots of burly men running at each other in armour, cheerleaders and pom poms, a horse that runs around the pitch every touch down and a streaker that didn’t quite get his top off before being pounced on by police! Ended in a thrilling draw after rare extra time but Vic was half asleep as it was 7am UK time by the final whistle! It was without a doubt the most fun I have ever had at a sporting event. Much more chilled out than football or rugby games at home andall those frequent stops between downs allow ample opportunity for chat, witty deriding of players, explanations of 'what-the-hell-just-happened' to the newbies and beer drinking.
I bought a large red plastic horn to cheer on the Stamps, but it sounded more like a moose’s mating call on its last legs. This caused much hilarity around us and almost caused a riot when a BC fan borrowed it, a Stamps fan jumped on him from several rows above and 4 policemen got involved! Don't worry, somehow we got the horn back!
Vicky has discovered frozen yogurt – sin free ice cream and milkshakes – why this hasn’t caught on in the UK I have no idea.
We went for a lovely run along the Bow river around the edge of downtown with a friend, Shawna, thoroughly earning our iced coffee and rocky-road cake afterwards (a kind of chocolate brownie with marshmallows on).
We’ve been teaching Carmen to cook (she’s a fast food girl) – so Risotto and cheesecake were on the menu last night and were great successes.
We've aready been pretty busy getting sorted with mobile phones and that all important coffee machine and stocking the kitchen from a supermarket we don't yet understand. Calgary is quite dry, lots of open prairie good for cattle and heat so that's about all they row. You can get cheap meat, bread and beer (all the basics then...) but any fresh veg comes up from way south in the stated or over the rockied from BC making load of the stuff we take for granted very expensive. 70p for one lettuce and a pond for a pepper! Also, none of the tea and coffee was fair trade. For all that I sometimes moan about how materialistic UK society we are much more globally aware than Calgary culture.
Another thing we should all be greatful for is our mobile phone service. We're about 10yrars ahead of the Canucks. You have to pay to recieve calls as well as make htem. You have to pay to have voicemail, pay for call to it an even pay long distance rates to check your messages outside you home cell. The whole shebang is double the cost of an equivalent pay as you go basic service at home. we couldn't eeven bring our own phones out: their phones are sealed units that you can't change the Sim card in, another rip off tying you to you provider. Still we do now have phones at least.
Next steps are to buy a car (that will last us through -40C winters and get us up in the mountains regularly), go walking in Banff for 4 days and catch up on some sleep before I start work on Mon 27th. Bring it on; 15 weeks and no half term. I have never worked taht long in my life!
Hope all is well for you
No photos to post yet, but the video footage is already building up.
Cheers,
R
1 comment:
Ahoy there, Dentons.
Shame about the mobile phones. Just wait until you need to do some banking. But I look forward to you informing us about how mobile phone charges were the greatest of your stresses and strains in that fantastic country. Have a Tim Hortons' visit for us!
Dave & Andrea
PS We've got a great Rocky Road recipe if you want it (from a Canadian, of course)...
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