Going to Canada eh ?

Over here  some brand names have become generic. For example all tissues are Kleenex and all plasters are Bandaids (not the Bob Geldof type). So I thought I was on safe ground asking for a Biro. But no these are just pens, ok I said to one guy “how do you differentiate between fountain pens, cartridge pens and ball points ?”

“We don’t they are all just pens” and I have to admit is probably a long time since I have seen fountain pens being used.

The next bit of fun was when someone sent me a joke about lifesavers.

No not a bouyancy aid but another name for fruit Polos. Confusion was further compounded when I sent round the office a link to a UK website talking about Fruit Polos.( click on the link if you have forgotten what they are ) This contained a reference to someone being a bit of an anorak. So they said why is a person like a water proof coat?

This led to a long discussion about train spotters (I don’t think they have them here) and how the term now applies to anyone with an obsessive interest in a narrowly defined subject.

My car has a leaky transmission and when the fluid gets too low it won’t go into gear straight away. The solution is to top up the fluid but I couldn’t see where.

I called in to the local garage and Denise said “so the car wont shift eh ?”  To me it meant it won’t go fast but to her it meant it won’t change gear !

Anyway the solution for anyone else with a Dodge Neon is that you pour the transmission fluid down the hole the dip stick came out of.

The other fun thing about this wreck is the driverside wiper blade. The one on it didn’t work too well so I bought a series of replacements. One did not contact the screen and two other flew off the end of the arm. So now I am back to the original blade.

We have noticed that some Canadians finish their sentences with “Eh?” Much the same as some other  people say isn’t it, init, right or n’est pas.

The two main roads between Blackfalds and Red Deer are Highway 2 and Highway 2A. So it seems possible that a conversation might go:

“Did you come on the 2 eh ?”

“No it was the 2A eh ”

“Or even the QE2 eh ?”

Not a ship “just the other name for Highway 2″ eh ?

Our 21 year old kitten has been a cause for concern over the past few weeks. It started with blood  in the eye. We took her to the vets who are open until 10 oclock at night over here.

They did some tests and gave us some cream to put on her eye. Surprisingly she did not like this, became very withdrawn and her eye went black. Lin took her back to the vet again and they ran some blood tests. The results of which were she had high blood pressure and kidney problems. They also gave eye drops instead of the cream.

The eye drops produced a rapid improvement. Presumably as she was able to see better her “outlook” improved and she started to eat again.

The medication for the blood pressure was a separate saga in itself. The vet prescribed a “human” drug which we had to get from our local pharmacist. The dosage called for 1/4 of a 2.5mg tablet. However the smallest tablets were 5mg and there was no way we could cut the tablet into 8 equal sized pieces and then get Penny to swallow one.

Back to the drawing board and the pharmacist was able to make a solution of the tablets and we mix a measured amount in with her food. This she eats without noticing and seems to be making a full recovery.

Some differences I have noticed between working here and in the UK.

I haven’t had to wear a suit since the interview which is just as well as I probably don’t fit them any more.

A lot of local suppliers don’t deliver on their own van so “we” often send out our driver to collect and some times pay using the company’s bank debit card.

Very little carriage is pre paid most often the supplier will ask you for your account number with a carrier and the charges go straight on your account. This stops over zealous salesmen giving away free carriage and would seriously cramp the style of a few former colleagues.

To get goods from the other side of the country can take over a week in transit time and the supplier’s office can be 3 or 4 time zones away.

Although Canada and the US are part of a free trade area (alleged to be the trade equivalent of the EU) you still need customs paper work to import from the States. And now of course the two dollars are no longer equal.

Back home it was the price of oil and copper that affected profitability and supply. Here the price of steel is much more significant in costs and the price of oil affects the demand for our products.

A few more things we have noticed have different names over here. Whilst the equivalents may be obvious after a little thought, asking for the wrong thing in a shop can lead to some puzzled expressions.

Kitchen bin = Garbage can

Vegetable rack = Kitchen bin

Rubbish bin = Trash Can

Biscuit tin = Cookie jar

Lift = Ride

Lift = Elevator

Gutter = Eaves trough

Extension lead= Extension cord

HT Lead = Spark plug wire

Central Reservation = Median

And in business if a supplier can’t offer what you are looking for instead of declining to bid they regret.

Trying to do odd jobs about the house is much harder without the right tools. Blindingly obvious I know but a bit of a shock having accumulated many tools over the years and leaving them all behind. We were putting something up the other day and realised I didn’t have a spirit level !

So far I have bought a cordless drill and a power jigsaw. True to form the first thing I did was snap a drill bit and now after almost 6 weeks I have managed to wear down all the cross head driver bits so they are just pointed.

We have been putting up more hand rails on the steps up to the decking and also the steps to the back door. Fortunately there was sufficient wood left by a previous owner but I had to buy new screws. In the UK for wood screws you have choice of slotted or cross headed. Here we have the third choice, the Robertson head. This is best described as like an alun key but with only 4 sides. Of course I managed to mix all three head types and so spent forever swapping screwdriver bits.

We were looking at putting up an extra out side light and so got a book from the library about the wiring codes as they relate to householders. Apparently if you want to do anything you have to get a permit specifying exactly what you are going to do. Then you have two inspections during the course of the work before the inspector signs off on the finished job. This is part P in the UK only more so.

Some of the phrases in the book were a bit confusing . For example what in the UK would be a two way switch (for going up stairs etc) is referred to as a three way switch. An intermediate switch is a four way switch.

As the normal voltage is low (110V) two phases are brought into houses and cookers, driers and other heavy white goods are run on 240 by connecting them across 2 phases. Fortunately there are different plug and socket arrangements to prevent mis-connection.

We did not use the libraries much in the UK. In recent years our nearest was Petworth and never seemed to be open at the right time.

Blackfalds Library is completely different. It is in the basement of the Town Hall and three nights a week it is open until 8.30 pm. There is a book club that meets several times a week around the roaring fire (probably gas) in the lounge area. The kids can use any one of a row of PC’s to access the internet and there is a coffee bar in the corner that sells refreshments.

One shelf is now set aside for Lin as it contains all the Russian language books in the area. She has even sorted them into (Russian) alphabetical order, though as Pete said who else would know if it was wrong.

Another useful feature as that by logging into their web site either in the library or from home users can order books and the librarian will then phone when the book has arrived. If you want to return a book when the place is closed there is a drop box where you can leave it.

They run film shows occasionally for the children and there is the ubiquitous pile of shoes in the entrance. Canadian children are taught at an early age to remove their shoes when they enter someone’s home or certain buildings. This is to stop them tracking mud or snow through on the carpets etc. David please note this tradition.

We were first in a line of traffic at the level crossing waitng for the train to pass and a woman pushing two toddlers in push chair went close to the line so that the children could wave to the driver. When the gates opened the counter weight on one of the barriers came down on the push chair forcing it over. Pete leapt from the car to help but in his haste forgot to close the passenger door which left Lin stranded at the head of the queue unable to go far because the door was wide open.

Once both children had been removed from the  buggy Pete was able to lay it on its side and disentangle it from the barrier mechanism. It was only afterwards he realised that if the buggy had been  a few inches further back it would have been the child’s head that would have been in contact with the barrier. The consequences of which might have been much worse.

This would not have happened in the UK as there are cages around the counter weights to prevent people getting too close. I guess out here there are just too many to fence in.

Houses reflected in the surface of a small Lake in Blackfalds

A beaver breaks the surface of the water. There were quite a few living in this lake but they wouldn’t pose for the camera. I bet they would if it had been David Attenborough.  It was our David and his friend Donovan who brought all this to our attention.

Below are some other sights we saw whilst driving around.

The roads just go on forever. These nodding donkeys part of the oil extraction process are common in fields in Alberta.

At the end of farm lanes you often see a collection of these boxes for newspapers etc.

Durham Alberta nothing like Durham UK. Just a couple of signs and village hall

These last few show the wide range of buildings on farms.

The power company puts platforms on top of power distribution poles for eagles or osprey to nest on.

We stopped here on our first visit to Canada in 2002. On that occasion we ate in a cafe in the old board walk. A reconstruction of a western frontier town. It was only this time around that we realised how small the town was. There were very few shops and the economy revolved around the arrival of the steam train from Stettler.

The town seems to take its name from a large gorge a few miles away which the road crossed via an old bridge of cast iron hoops and wooden deck, a bit scary.