The 12th of this month marked an important milestone in the Alberta Adventure. It was the first anniversary of the Palmer family's arrival in Canada. Yes, believe it or not, we have been here for one whole year. In fact that whole weekend was pretty significant. The 11th was my 51st birthday, so we will quickly pass over that, the 12th was the anniversary and the 13th was Thanksgiving Day here in Canada. A triple whammy in fact. I wondered what to write about to mark this auspicious occasion - our feelings about the move?, our plans for the next year maybe or should I do a summary of our first year? Well, I'm not doing any of those. Instead, I'm going to present some of the more offbeat observations about our adoptive country witnessed to some degree during this first 12 months. A sort of homage to the quirky side of Canada.
First though, I do feel I should mention that Claire witnessed Edmonton's finest in action whilst she waited in the car outside Ikea last weekend. Car driven into car park by some grubby looking ne'er do well, hotly pursued by patrol cars and cornered. Out jumps many policemen who surround said vehicle with guns drawn and proceed to drag the villain out of the car, plaster him over the bonnet, handcuff him and march him off to for a spell in the slammer. 'Quite exciting' she said later, 'I was particularly impressed with the speed and no nonsense manner of the arrest'. In the UK of course, it would have been 'could you please step outside of the vehicle sir, and present your driving credentials'. Over here, it was more like ' get out of the ***** car now or we will shoot you'. Great stuff. Unless you happen to be the poor sap in the car of course.
Anyway, after that little diversion, on to my little list. Here are some of the more interesting observations we have made about the Canadian culture so far...
Canadians treat winter with the contempt it deserves. They laugh in the face of sub-zero temperatures and a foot or two of snow. They only get annoyed when it gets so cold that the barbecue refuses to light.
Canadians walk on the right. Just like they drive. If you pass them on the stairs or a sidewalk they will always pass you left shoulder to left shoulder. In the UK, people will pass you on the opposite shoulder, check it out.
Coffee is a religion. It is not a beverage, it is not a diversion. It is a way of life, OK?
There is only one thing more important than ice hockey. It is just that I cannot think of it at the moment..
Most Canadians mistake the English accent for Australian. Even with the ever increasing number of Brits coming into the country, they still have trouble differentiating between the two.
If you have more than one vehicle in the household, at least one of them must be a Ford 150 truck or similar. How else are they going to move their RV/camper/trailer to the lake at weekends?
The Canadian tv guide requires careful study. For every new episode of House, there are 25 episodes of Friends, Frasier or ER being shown, simultaneously on at least 10 channels. Spotting new series and programmes isn't easy, it is an art form. The movie 'Under Seige' starring Steven Seagal will be always available for viewing at any time.
Canadians are not soft. They will complain vociferously if they do not get good service in restaurants, will haggle over the price of something if they believe they can get it cheaper and whinge incessantly when the price of fuel goes over 1 dollar(50p) a litre.
If your house does not have the following items, you don't belong baby.
An integrated garden sprinkler system.
A barbecue.
A basement with a wet bar.
A garden deck.
At least 6 televisions.
A number of bicycles in the garage, some of which are actually usable.
A firepit.
An electric garage door with two remote controls.
Canadians love. Their gardens, trucks, garage sales, the outdoors/camping, festivals, their basements, Halloween, their country, children, voluntary work, eating outdoors, winter sports, the National Parks and anything involving doughnuts.
Canadians hate. Americans, local government, bad service in restaurants, giving up their weekends to work, walking, untidy gardens, inactivity and people who don't clear the sidewalks outside of their house.
There is of course much more and no doubt I will touch on a number of these in future blogs. It has to be said, that apart from a brief sojourn into British Columbia, all of our experience has been limited to Alberta. I hope that over time I can enjoy observing the resident Canadian in other provinces whilst continuing to discover new things here at home. 1 year in eh?
Friday, 24 October 2008
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Pride comes with the Fall
One of the many benefits of living in Canada is the definite nature of the seasons. I've already talked about this in a previous blog when I mentioned that the arrival of the first day of spring and the distinctive change that it can bring could almost be measured to the day. I feel that it is worth re-visiting for the change from summer. Also, as I will be 51 on Saturday, I have an excuse to start repeating myself. As soon as the weather reporters start talking about the first day of Fall, you can see people gathering in small groups outside your window, looking at the sky and muttering 'yep, Fall is here' as the first leaf decides enough is enough and heads earth bound. This is when the changes become instantly noticeable. One day the trees are green, the next it looks like some demented street artist has been let loose as the leaves transform into all the colours of the rainbow. We are particularly blessed in St. Albert as we have many, many trees and therefore the colourscape becomes quite beautiful.
With the falling of the leaves comes another Canadian pastime. Keeping your front lawns leaf free at all costs. People take great pride in their real estate here and that includes the grounds. The grass is neatly trimmed, shrubs are manicured to within an inch of their lives and borders are relentlessly tended. Therefore, the intrusion of half a ton of leaves on one's lawn is not so much a nuisance but more like a declaration of war. Needless to say, the average householder has a battery of weapons against this invader. They have leaf blowers, mulchers, leaf shredders, vacuums, electric brushes and other assorted gizmos. I have a rake. To be honest, a rake and a bit of elbow grease is all you really need, particularly when your neighbours are quite happy to lend you their equipment, or in the case of our neighbours, actually pitch in with you. With everyone helping, it doesn't take long. Even the kids chipped in, Charlotte specializing in 'leaf compression' (jumping up and down in the compost bins) and Eleanor in 'leaf re-alignment' (dispersing neatly piled stacks of leaves around the lawn).
With the onset of cooler weather (although we have been enjoying an Indian summer) comes another, distinctly North American task - blowing out ones sprinklers. Now this isn't as disturbing as it might sound. The majority of houses, to go with their immaculate turf, have built-in automatic sprinkler systems which can be programmed to water various parts of your garden at any set time. Our house is no different. We inherited a seven zone system (read that - a seven zone system baby), which can be adjusted to suit the weather conditions. They are pretty much 'fire and forget' systems and have a tendency to activate at inopportune times. It is not so easy to forget, as you stroll across your manicured lawn, when a jet of cold water blasts up your trousers. The cats have been led a merry old dance too as no sooner have they figured out how to retreat away from one zone, then another one pops up and zaps them straight between the whiskers. Anyway, I digress. A downside of this otherwise labour saving wonder, is that before the winter arrives and the temperatures fall below freezing, you have to clear out the water in the system to prevent the whole hose network bursting. For this you either need to contact a specialist, who will turn up with a complex system of pipes and a compressor and then charge you much dollar for the service, or you join the neighbourhood compressor society. This is great. One person in your neighbourhood arranges to hire a compressor for the weekend and then just passes it around to anyone on the list. You then carry out the procedure yourself - with the help of your ever reliant neighbours of course. I managed to purge my entire system for the princely sum of $16. Bargain.
Of course, underlying all this activity lies the fact that the big freeze is just around the corner and before we know it, it will be hats and gloves all round. In a strange and somewhat disturbing way, I'm looking forward to the winter and the challenges it will bring. Most of all of course, I'm looking forward to the winter because it gives one a very good excuse to stay indoors and do nothing. After all, it is a bit difficult to clear up your garden when it is under three feet of snow..
With the falling of the leaves comes another Canadian pastime. Keeping your front lawns leaf free at all costs. People take great pride in their real estate here and that includes the grounds. The grass is neatly trimmed, shrubs are manicured to within an inch of their lives and borders are relentlessly tended. Therefore, the intrusion of half a ton of leaves on one's lawn is not so much a nuisance but more like a declaration of war. Needless to say, the average householder has a battery of weapons against this invader. They have leaf blowers, mulchers, leaf shredders, vacuums, electric brushes and other assorted gizmos. I have a rake. To be honest, a rake and a bit of elbow grease is all you really need, particularly when your neighbours are quite happy to lend you their equipment, or in the case of our neighbours, actually pitch in with you. With everyone helping, it doesn't take long. Even the kids chipped in, Charlotte specializing in 'leaf compression' (jumping up and down in the compost bins) and Eleanor in 'leaf re-alignment' (dispersing neatly piled stacks of leaves around the lawn).
With the onset of cooler weather (although we have been enjoying an Indian summer) comes another, distinctly North American task - blowing out ones sprinklers. Now this isn't as disturbing as it might sound. The majority of houses, to go with their immaculate turf, have built-in automatic sprinkler systems which can be programmed to water various parts of your garden at any set time. Our house is no different. We inherited a seven zone system (read that - a seven zone system baby), which can be adjusted to suit the weather conditions. They are pretty much 'fire and forget' systems and have a tendency to activate at inopportune times. It is not so easy to forget, as you stroll across your manicured lawn, when a jet of cold water blasts up your trousers. The cats have been led a merry old dance too as no sooner have they figured out how to retreat away from one zone, then another one pops up and zaps them straight between the whiskers. Anyway, I digress. A downside of this otherwise labour saving wonder, is that before the winter arrives and the temperatures fall below freezing, you have to clear out the water in the system to prevent the whole hose network bursting. For this you either need to contact a specialist, who will turn up with a complex system of pipes and a compressor and then charge you much dollar for the service, or you join the neighbourhood compressor society. This is great. One person in your neighbourhood arranges to hire a compressor for the weekend and then just passes it around to anyone on the list. You then carry out the procedure yourself - with the help of your ever reliant neighbours of course. I managed to purge my entire system for the princely sum of $16. Bargain.
Of course, underlying all this activity lies the fact that the big freeze is just around the corner and before we know it, it will be hats and gloves all round. In a strange and somewhat disturbing way, I'm looking forward to the winter and the challenges it will bring. Most of all of course, I'm looking forward to the winter because it gives one a very good excuse to stay indoors and do nothing. After all, it is a bit difficult to clear up your garden when it is under three feet of snow..
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