Going to Canada eh ?

Generally things are quite up to date over here but then occasionally you see something and think. Hey we used to have that years ago.

For example there is a game show called “Wipeout”. No its not the one with Paul Daniels. This has teams of people trying to complete various bizarre obstacle courses, just like It’s a knockout the bit with out Eddie Waring and Stuart Hall.

Also in the supermarket  we saw a couple of old familiar products. The Pilsbury dough  boy with part baked bread and cakes and the frozen concentrated fruit juices. Both of which are big runners her but both died long ago in the UK.

A number of other things appear to be straight out of the 70’s era. Like glass coasters with design and colours from the TV series Space 1999.  Also lava-lamps and kids toys to match.  We’ve also seen plenty of bake-lite early plastic stuff.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been installing a webcam so we can see who is at the front door. This is the same camera we had in the UK so one problem was to create an extension lead that had a UK socket on the end to provide power. Then we had to run the signal cable back to Lin’s PC. We had brought the interface card with us and fitted it to the PC . Using a mixture of ready  audio  and TV coax leads we ran the signal from the front door under the house and then drilled a hole in the bedroom wall to feed it into the PC.

This was our first excuse to get in to the crawl space under the house. We found we couldn’t crawl all the way across because all the waste water pipes were below the floors, but Pete was able to feed the cable from one side so that Dave could grab it on the other side.

Drilling the hole also proved to be a challange as the walls were over 8″ thick so Pete had to buy a drill specially for the purpose. It is all set up now but we still have to fine tune the software as there is some flickering of the images

Winter was back this week. Temperatures fell to -29 (-33 with wind chill) and we had a few snow flurries, only a couple of inches but enough to make the roads slippery and obscure kerbs and road markings. One day Peter found he had parked in the office car park with two wheels on the curb but couldnt tell at first because everything was white and lumpy.

Ash Wednesday was big event for the schools with lots of schools bussed in to special masses at the Catholic churches. The bus company gave Lin their newest and biggest to date.  The vehicle was so awe inspiring, it even shocked the kids into silence.  Lin described it to me and I nicknamed it the enterprise, all I can say is rather her than me.

You may have noticed that the entries are getting further apart timewise. This is because we have now settled into a routine and have become more used to the way of life over here.

We have packed David’s social life to stop him getting bored and eating too much. Tuesday he goes to a youth club, Wednesday and Sundays he has skating lessons. Thursday is Cubs and Saturday he has piano lessons. The local library is well used and last weekend Peter went to a seminar on creative fiction writing.

Twice this week Peter saw an unusual method of avoiding having to  stop at traffic lights.  It is acceptable to filter right even though the light is red and as long as there is nothing else coming. However these guys went in the right lane but instead of turning right they carried on crossing the other carriageway at right angles and then drove off in the same direction they had been travelling in. The question is how did they know there was nothing coming the other way  or did they just not care?

We went out to Sylvan lake today and got a bit of a surprise. It was competely frozen over and the ice was so thick cars were parked on it.  In fact Lin parked on it too.  Worrying, as only a few months ago, the car would have been shoulder height underwater.

Some areas had been cleared of loose snow and were being used for skating and ice hockey. Elsewhere people were riding over it on skiddoo’s and ATVs.  Further out you could see mad people ice-fishing beside there cars.  How do they do that without sinking ?

In the middle of the cleared skating area, there was even a christmas tree in a very large pot,  suitably decked out with fairy lights.  But we couldn’t see where the lights were plugged in.  We can only imagine, that maybe the wires go under the ice.

And here after the commercal break are some comments on the programming. There are the same genre of shows as we used to have in the UK. Home grown shows reality survival, talent shows like Dance Canada and Runway Canada. The Office and Antiques Roadshow are american imports and Who Wants to be a Millionaire has web cam links for the phone a friend bit. There is also Hell’s kitchen where our very own Gordon Ramsey does a lot of shouting and swearing at American chefs and our other great ambassador Simon Cowel offers encouragement to would be show biz performers.

What is interesting are the british shows that are seen over here. Allo Allo, Are You being Served, Life on Mars  and Coronation Street. They also have Thomas The Tank Engine which David watches before he goes to school. The slight difference here is that the narrator is an American, I guess they couldn’t understand Ringo’s accent and they are not allowed to say Fat Controller, instead he is known as Sir Topham Hat.

They have also had exposure to Monty Python and Mr Bean but no one we have spoken to has heard of Blackadder. I guess they are used to Rowan Atkinson as  comic but the sight of Dr House doing comedy might be too much.

Watching some programmes you occasionally become aware that one character talks differently to all the rest. This is your stereo typed limey sometimes played by real english actors.

Driving in this weather presents its own set of problems. To ensure starting it is best to plug the car’s block heater in overnight. It is recommended to do this on a timer but this doesn’t help if you want the car during the day, so we leave the power on permanently. A popular feature is the remote start which allows you leave the car idling for 10 mins warming up before you get in it.  No risk of it being stolen as the engine is cut if the car is put into drive. It can be very unsettling to walk past a parked car as it starts up with no one at the driving wheel.

If you don’t have remote start then you have to get dressed up, to go out and start the car, then come back inside for 15 mins.  This also means you run the risk of having your car stolen. What would be useful is some sort of fan heater that runs from the mains supply and can be programmed to warm up the inside of the car 15 mins before you want to leave in the morning.

When the block heater is on, you get curious effect of a lump of ice forming on the bonnet (hood) where snow has melted and then frozen again as ice. I am just wondering how many people drive away forgetting to unplug the heater lead.

Road surfaces vary a lot depending on how busy the road is. The major highways are ploughed and sanded regularly and can be quite  clear. Town and city roads will have a surface of frozen slush mixed with grit and furrows cut into the surface. This gives a tram line effect as you are forced to follow the tracks of all the others and can make turning awkward.  When Lin is driving the bus all 6 wheels are wider, and usually drives with 1 wheel in and 1 wheel out. In places they will use a grader which scrapes away all the muck and throws it to the left. This gives a good surface but can only be used on single carriage way roads otherwise the fast lane would collect all the spoil from the slow lane.

When driving it helps to have a good memory of what the roads looked like before the snow fell because otherwise it is sometimes difficult to see where the kerb should be. At least once I have turned into what I thought was the car park at work and then wondered if I wasn’t driving across the front lawn.

We now realise why most stop lines at junctions also have a road sign with an arrow pointing into the snow.  This seems superfluous in the summer, but is now vital in the winter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q What brought you to Canada ?

A  An Airbus A320

Q Why did you leave England ?

A Too many immigrants (The irony of course is that very few people in Alberta were born in Alberta)

and us to them

Q Is this as cold as it gets ?

A Just wait and see