Friday, May 07, 2004
Impressions of Calgary
Well, we’ve been here for almost a week in Calgary and it’ll soon be time to go home again for a little while... We’ve been working hard and we’ve got a lot done - we’ve viewed about a dozen homes, picked one to rent, signed the papers and paid the security deposit. We’ve opened a bank account and put some money in it. We bought a bed and arranged to have it delivered before we return. We’ve been to Ikea and bought some stuff we’ll need as soon as we arrive - pots & pans, crockery, pillows, a quilt and bed linen. And Richard and Emma are being very kind and will be leaving us a table and chairs and some stuff to help us get started. Although once we arrive, we’ll have a few days of pure ‘power shopping’ so we can get the house furnished in a few days.
We’ve also been to our new place of work, met our bosses and chatted with the people we’ll be working with. It’s really weird that Paula and I have landed jobs independently of one another in the same part of the same hospital - it turns out our offices are about 2 corridors away from one another! We’ll be driving to work together every day - it’s going to be a little weird for a while until we get used to it!
We’ve also got a real feel for the city, driving from one end of it to the other, and we’ve been up the Calgary Tower to get the ‘tourist view’. And we couldn’t get to sleep the night that the Calgary Flames knocked the Detroit Redwings out of the Stanley Cup! The city just went mad! Next round is the semi-final against the San Jose Sharks, and as neo-Calgarians, we’ll be watching keenly!
We really like the city so far - it’s small enough to be cosy, but it’s within easy reach of the countryside and has miles and miles of green spaces, cycle- and foot- paths. It has a population of about 1 million people, but when you’re downtown there’s enough space that you don’t feel cramped (unlike Toronto, or Chicago, say). And the range of shopping is amazing - you can get anything in the huge selection of malls which are all over the city. And they have great comic shops and bookstores. And I found a shop which sells alto saxophones! Everyone we’ve met has been very friendly, helpful and has exhibited the great ‘can do’ Calgary attitude. Nothing’s been a problem this week, from buying a bed to renting a house - it’s all gone really smoothly!
Snapshots from the week-
Walking along the Bow River at lunchtime on Tuesday - where do all the joggers come from? They just flood out of the YMCA when the sun comes out!
Great dinner at Teatro - excellent sablefish and Italian charcuterie
P buying 6 lots of Dramatically Different Moisturiser at The Bay - it’s half-price here compared to the UK!
Seeing the Rockies for the first time when you come over the rise at Stoney Trail on Crowchild - amazing to think we’ll be waking up to this view for the next 2 years!
Sunshine for 2 days, then heavy rain for 2 hours, then snow for 2 days and then 21oC again today. Weird weather, but normal for May, apparently. And more snow on the way for tomorrow night.
Viewing ‘the right house’ first (right out of the box), then seeing 12 others and coming back to the first (and cheapest!) one just to check that it still felt right (we were back today to drop off our Ikea stuff, and it still does!)
So tomorrow we’ll head out to Banff to get a close view of the Rockies. We had dinner with my new boss tonight, and he and his wife have given us lots of ideas about horse-riding, hiking in the Rockies and various outdoor activities for the summer. Although apparently it’s going to take us about 6 months to fully acclimatise and get our ‘mountain lungs’! After that, the sky’s the limit!
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We’ve also been to our new place of work, met our bosses and chatted with the people we’ll be working with. It’s really weird that Paula and I have landed jobs independently of one another in the same part of the same hospital - it turns out our offices are about 2 corridors away from one another! We’ll be driving to work together every day - it’s going to be a little weird for a while until we get used to it!
We’ve also got a real feel for the city, driving from one end of it to the other, and we’ve been up the Calgary Tower to get the ‘tourist view’. And we couldn’t get to sleep the night that the Calgary Flames knocked the Detroit Redwings out of the Stanley Cup! The city just went mad! Next round is the semi-final against the San Jose Sharks, and as neo-Calgarians, we’ll be watching keenly!
We really like the city so far - it’s small enough to be cosy, but it’s within easy reach of the countryside and has miles and miles of green spaces, cycle- and foot- paths. It has a population of about 1 million people, but when you’re downtown there’s enough space that you don’t feel cramped (unlike Toronto, or Chicago, say). And the range of shopping is amazing - you can get anything in the huge selection of malls which are all over the city. And they have great comic shops and bookstores. And I found a shop which sells alto saxophones! Everyone we’ve met has been very friendly, helpful and has exhibited the great ‘can do’ Calgary attitude. Nothing’s been a problem this week, from buying a bed to renting a house - it’s all gone really smoothly!
Snapshots from the week-
Walking along the Bow River at lunchtime on Tuesday - where do all the joggers come from? They just flood out of the YMCA when the sun comes out!
Great dinner at Teatro - excellent sablefish and Italian charcuterie
P buying 6 lots of Dramatically Different Moisturiser at The Bay - it’s half-price here compared to the UK!
Seeing the Rockies for the first time when you come over the rise at Stoney Trail on Crowchild - amazing to think we’ll be waking up to this view for the next 2 years!
Sunshine for 2 days, then heavy rain for 2 hours, then snow for 2 days and then 21oC again today. Weird weather, but normal for May, apparently. And more snow on the way for tomorrow night.
Viewing ‘the right house’ first (right out of the box), then seeing 12 others and coming back to the first (and cheapest!) one just to check that it still felt right (we were back today to drop off our Ikea stuff, and it still does!)
So tomorrow we’ll head out to Banff to get a close view of the Rockies. We had dinner with my new boss tonight, and he and his wife have given us lots of ideas about horse-riding, hiking in the Rockies and various outdoor activities for the summer. Although apparently it’s going to take us about 6 months to fully acclimatise and get our ‘mountain lungs’! After that, the sky’s the limit!
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Snow in Calgary
Woke up at 06:15 today to find downtown Calgary blanketed in snow. It's May the 5th - yesterday it was 21oC, bright a sunny and I got a bit of a sun-tan. And now, suddenly, it's snowing! Apparently this is not unusual - it's snowed in all the months of the year before this!
It's 10:10am and I'm posting from the Medical Library at the University of Calgary. We got here 4 days ago from the UK and we've been pretty busy. We've found a home, we're setting up a bank account and Paula and I have been to see our new place of work and meet our new bosses. We have 4 or 5 days left in the city before we go home again and get our stuff packed up in the UK ready to move out here big-style in the last week of June.
I've got a 2-year fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the University of Calgary, and Paula has landed a job as the project director of a big nutritional epidemiology / cancer project here at the same centre. It's going to be a big change for us to come out here for 2 years, which is part of the reason for making a weblog to keep track of our impressions of the whole process.
We've viewed over a dozen houses and finally picked the one we like the best. It's been one of those really odd things - we've seen big houses, posh houses, expensive houses, new houses and old houses, but the one we picked is not the biggest or the grandest. In fact, the rent on this house is the lowest of all the properties we've seen, and we could afford to pay quite a bit more. The house just _feels_ right to us. We felt it the first time we went to see it, and when we visited again last night to confirm both of us were more sure than ever. It's got an open-plan living/kitchen/dining area downstairs with a deck, a big double garage and a big undeveloped basement / storage area downstairs with three bedrooms upstairs, three bathrooms and a wonderful 'bonus room' upstairs. We'll post some pictures of it when we get home (forgot to bring the camera lead with us!). A UK/New Zealand couple Richard and Emma and their daughter Hannah are currently living there, but they're moving out in mid-June to a new house they are having built. They've been looking for someone to take over the remaining 3 months of their lease, and it just seems 'meant to be' as their timings fit so perfectly with ours. Now we have to jump thru a few hoops with the utilities companies and the rental agencies, but in a few weeks it'll all be sorted out and we can maybe ship some stuff out to the house before we arrive. The four of us seem to have 'clicked' a little as well, and we were invited over for dinner last night which was excellent. As they're not going to be far away in the new house, we'll have to have them back for dinner again once we've moved in!
It's been an exciting few days, and the jetlag and the altitude are catching up with me, making me feel a bit tired all the time as I'm not sleeping well at present, but I'm still really quite excited about the whole thing. Calgary here we come...
(0) comments
It's 10:10am and I'm posting from the Medical Library at the University of Calgary. We got here 4 days ago from the UK and we've been pretty busy. We've found a home, we're setting up a bank account and Paula and I have been to see our new place of work and meet our new bosses. We have 4 or 5 days left in the city before we go home again and get our stuff packed up in the UK ready to move out here big-style in the last week of June.
I've got a 2-year fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the University of Calgary, and Paula has landed a job as the project director of a big nutritional epidemiology / cancer project here at the same centre. It's going to be a big change for us to come out here for 2 years, which is part of the reason for making a weblog to keep track of our impressions of the whole process.
We've viewed over a dozen houses and finally picked the one we like the best. It's been one of those really odd things - we've seen big houses, posh houses, expensive houses, new houses and old houses, but the one we picked is not the biggest or the grandest. In fact, the rent on this house is the lowest of all the properties we've seen, and we could afford to pay quite a bit more. The house just _feels_ right to us. We felt it the first time we went to see it, and when we visited again last night to confirm both of us were more sure than ever. It's got an open-plan living/kitchen/dining area downstairs with a deck, a big double garage and a big undeveloped basement / storage area downstairs with three bedrooms upstairs, three bathrooms and a wonderful 'bonus room' upstairs. We'll post some pictures of it when we get home (forgot to bring the camera lead with us!). A UK/New Zealand couple Richard and Emma and their daughter Hannah are currently living there, but they're moving out in mid-June to a new house they are having built. They've been looking for someone to take over the remaining 3 months of their lease, and it just seems 'meant to be' as their timings fit so perfectly with ours. Now we have to jump thru a few hoops with the utilities companies and the rental agencies, but in a few weeks it'll all be sorted out and we can maybe ship some stuff out to the house before we arrive. The four of us seem to have 'clicked' a little as well, and we were invited over for dinner last night which was excellent. As they're not going to be far away in the new house, we'll have to have them back for dinner again once we've moved in!
It's been an exciting few days, and the jetlag and the altitude are catching up with me, making me feel a bit tired all the time as I'm not sleeping well at present, but I'm still really quite excited about the whole thing. Calgary here we come...
