Going to Canada eh ?

More observations on shopping.

In supermarkets the checkout staff pack your bags for you, sweet but time consuming if you are in a hurry.

It seems incongruous to be pushing a trolley and hear the songs of your rebellious youth being played over the supermarket speaker system. Somehow I never thought I would hear Led Zepplin as musack.

The sliced loaves are closed with the plastic tags the UK used in the 1970s. Old fashioned you may think until you realise they are much more useful for re sealing the bag than a bit of sticky tape.

David was always fascinated by the live crabs and lobsters in the tanks on the seafood counter. We haven’t the heart to tell him what was going to happen to them.

Driving around you notice that a lot of cars have chips and cracks in the windscreen. The chips are from the winter gritting of the roads, far more prevalent than in the UK. And the cracks are from heating the windscreen too rapidly when it is frozen. Neither are covered by car insurance but fortunately they are not a cause of MOT failure either.

Our ageing cat Penny has now joined us in Canada. She is approx 21 years old and has survived being the playmate of both boys as they grew up, several house moves and now a 9 hour plane journey.

She flew on a British Airways flight that landed in Calgary at 19.15 on Friday and we went to a cargo depot to collect her. First we had to find it, not as easy as the directions made it sound because what they forgot to mention was that there were no signs to tell people the road names you just had to guess and of course we guessed wrong. Then we tried to turn around and met the other symptom of Calgary traffic mis-management. There is no easy way to do a u turn on the big free ways.

Anyway we got to the depot by 19.30 and had to wait while they filled out some paperwork. Then we had to take the papers to the customs office right in main terminal building. This involved Lin doing several circuits of the arrivals area while Pete went into the Terminal building. Eventually Peter got the papers stamped and asked to pay $31.50 for the process. Then we went back to the depot had to pay another $45 processing fee before being re united with our pet.

She seemed a bit sleepy and was wet where her tail had splashed in the water bowl but otherwise un harmed. We put a harness on her and set her on the back seat with David and pile of sliced meat. After a while she became restless and started to explore her surroundings. At one point Pete had a Davy Crocket style hat but with a live cat tail, at another point she was looking out of the window howling at the street lights.

We eventually got home about midnight and she immediately hid under Davids bed where she spent most of the night. David has been very proud of her taking her around the estate showing all his friends (and probably anyone who could not get away fast enough) his 21 year old cat.

Penny in the kitchen at Wiston Ave circa 1987.

Kathy the manageress at the Aladdin took us out for dinner on one of our last nights there. She took a shine to David and they were about the same height but he is not yet interested in girls(never mind the age difference).

This is the gliding club Lin has joined in Innisfail.

And this is the one she went up in.

The other week Pete was finally able to get an Alberta driving licence. We had tried a week before to get one  at Red Deer Registries only to find they were no longer open on Saturdays. Fortunately another registry Vital Documents was open on Saturday and Red Deer Registries were happy to hand over the file they were keeping on Pete’s “unusual licence”.

They performed an eye test took a photograph and signature but were confused when they asked for a weight and were given an answer in stones. Anyway they issued a temporary licence which enabled Peter to join the local library. I don’t know how they cope with non drivers who want to borrow books.

Anyway back to the license, it is only good for 5 years then you have to have another eye test. They were amazed that we didn’t have to do the same in Britain. On the other hand they don’t have MOT tests for cars unless the car is over 12 years old and then it has to have a mechanical inspection. Once you have had the inspection you can get an insurance certificate. You then take the insurance cert with the bill of sale for the car and your drivers license to the registry and register the car in your name. At that point you are given a number plate and that number is transfered from car to car when you change cars.

The sticker on the plate is the equivalent of the tax disk (about $60).

This is the car we bought a Chrysler Plymouth quite small by local standards only a 3 litre V6 engine. Lin drove it back from Innisfail with Pete driving the Avis car which we then dropped of in Red Deer having had it for nearly 3 months. This was the furthest Pete has driven in Canada as Lin does all the driving normally.

Front and rear views of 101 Silver Drive . The windows below the balcony are our bedroom and the ones at the back are Dave’s room.

It would be nice to get feed back and news from “Home”.

Email address is wagstaff_01@yahoo.ca and the snail mail address is PO Box#2637, Blackfalds, Alberta, T0M 0J0

Our un-accompained luggage is on its way and Penny should be flying out soon.

The other week we got two flats, though not in the same language.

The Canadian flat (=English puncture) was in the front tyre and being a Sunday we put the spare on and waited to see what deal the rental company had with local tyre outlets. It turned out they do not have any arrangements and the cost of repair was down to us.

Lin took it to Kaltyre who then ferried her and Dave back to the hotel while they fixed it and then collected her when the work was done. They also asked her to call by a week later to have the nuts tightened. All this for $20 (approx£10) beat that Clarkson !

The other flat is the one we are now living in. Here they are called condos, apartments, suites, duplexes or four plexes. We bought a load of second hand furniture and a couple of second hand TVs. The internet connection come through the TV cable but there is an unsecured wireless network in the neighbourhood.

We bought a new HDD video recorder and then found the old TVs didn’t have Aux sockets so they weren’t compatible. Only one thing for it then…………new TV as well. We got a 27 inch CRT style as they were cheaper than the smaller 20 inch or LCD types. I guess maufacturers are using up the old tubes while they still can.

Programming the video is still a bit hit and miss as it doesn’t interact with any electronic programme guide and there are nearly 100 channels to chose from.

The North American wiring system has a a few quirks of its own. Like Europe the plugs are not fused, all protection is done back at the consumer unit. The moulded plugs are quite compact so you can see why the Wieland Gesis system has not made an impact, there is no space saving.

Sockets are usually twin outlets but with both earth pins at the bottom and the sockets are always installed verticaly. This has 2 disadvantages. There is the possibility during installation to get the socket the wrong way up. Secondly when an appliance has a moulded plug with right angle cable exit it can only go in the upper socket otherwise it obstructs the lower socket, this also causes the cable to bend back on itself if the appliance is below the level of the socket. Sounds complicated but basically they had the chance to make nice and neat and blew it.

The interesting thing is how they do a 6 way adaptor. The back of the unit has 2 pairs of pins so that it uses both sockets of a pair and gives you 6 sockets to plug into, that part a least is an intelligent design .

Getting the post is an experience. There must be nearly 3000 mail boxes in the Post Office and just near by are 3 very large dustbins. What happens is the Post Office staff put junk mail into your PO box at the back, you collect the mail at the front. Sort it out before you leave and put the junk mail in the bin provided. Why not miss out the middle man and get the PO staff to put the junk mail straight in the bin. It would be quicker for them and us.