Wednesday, December 01, 2004
dimSum, Saltlik, Swimming and Sushi
Hey, it's Wednesday so it must be time for a blog! We've had a good week, pretty busy out and about and we had our EIGHTH (wow!) wedding anniversary yesterday too - where does the time go? No news from the NI "Peace Process" ("NI deal still possible" says the BBC today, not just as optimistic as last week, Ukraine is still in a mess, George Bush is visiting Canada today and otherwise all is well with the world.
My Big Boss Man is off in Europe this week so I'm having a bit of a quiet week, spinning my wheels and typing in research data. We had a good weekend, though. Off to Chinatown on Saturday lunchtime with the HERBs and R's mother from NZ. Lots of lovely dim sums (Melissa - they still had the crabmeat wrapped in bacon - yum!), just great, and a bargain at 15 dollars (about 6 quid) per person. We got a bit of a surprise when we got back in the Jeep, however, as it wouldn't start at all. So we had to call the AMA (Canadian version of the AA) and sat in the cold (-4) for 45 mins until they came to have a look at it. The jump start failed to get things moving, and then we realised that the automatic transmission on the Jeep hadn't gone fully into 'PARK' and still thought it was in 'REVERSE'. As a useful safety feature, apparently automatic transmissions won't start at all (or even make a sound) if they are in 'DRIVE' or 'REVERSE', so once we shifted into 'NEUTRAL' the Jeep started like a dream. Go figure - it would never happen in a car with a manual transmission and clutch. We won't make that mistake again.
Our Saturday plans got back on track again with a visit to the MEC for some furry fleece pants and waterproof trousers for both of us, in preparation for skiing next weekend (see below). And then we hit the shops in Kensington to do the last of our Christmas shopping. We're hoping to get all of the presents away by the end of this week, as Canada Post is so rubbish that we can't depend on their own Last Posting Date. After our shopping extravaganza, we went out to dinner to Saltlik, a steak place downtown and then on to a show (wow!), 'The Black Rider' at The Big Secret Theatre down at the EPCOR centre for the performing arts near to the Calgary Tower. Great music, good story, a good night out. It was -8 on the way home, but the Jeep started OK (this time) and we made it home for 11. Sunday was colder and greyer, and we spent it at home doing chores (as they say here) and roasting a leg of Alberta lamb.
Our plans for Christmas here are well-advanced - all the pressies are bought and most are in the post already, we have our outside lights up (front and back - pictures soon) and we're scouting for trees. We'll be doing Christmas dinner with the Breitmeyers on the Big Day, and we should both we off for most of the 2 weeks around the holidays. And my present arrived from Denise and Roy today (thank you!) while P has cards and gifts from Julie and Carole already.
This week has been good so far, with swimming last night (12 lengths for me, and quite a few for her too, mostly without the float) followed by the first of what will probably be many visits to our local sushi bar. We had decided to go our for dinner to celebrate our 8th anniversary, and this sushi place was only 5 minutes away over in Crowfoot. It's called SUSHI BOAT and is a classic sushi bar, with seats organised round a big circular trough in which are floating a big chain of plastic boats with sushi loaded on the deck. As the boats float past, you reach out and grab whatever takes your fancy. The chefs are in the middle of the big circle and are busy making the sushi you're eating. If you get your timing right, you can watch the chef make a particular bit of sushi, check out where he puts it on the boat, and then (if no-one snaffles it) grab it when it comes past you! The plates are all colour-coded so you can figure out how much you're spending, and they have all sorts of things to choose from. You can also order specific pieces of sushi if you like, but we went for the authentic 'pick up what you see' experience last night and it was great fun! Both of us have seen sushi bars before on TV, but we're never actually been into one before. Highly recommended as a fun dinner out, and cheap too - only 60 dollars (25 quid) for 2, including drinks.
The weather is on the turn at the moment - it's sitting at -3 to -6 most days but we're due a mini-Chinook on Thursday and Friday, so they're forecasting +15 for those days. Then Saturday will be -3, Sunday -8 and Monday/Tuesday will be -18! Youch! It's gonna be COLD!
Which is good, in a way for our weekend activities, as on Saturday we're going skiing for the first time in almost 20 years! Our only other time on the slopes was on a school trip to lovely Glencoe in Scotland in 1984 or so, and there wasn't even much snow to speak of then. Everyone at home that we told we were coming to the Rockies said "do you ski?" and we said "yes" for the lack of anything else to say, really. We should have a bit more fun this time though, and there is fresh snow forecast for Saturday. We're taking Richard and Emma along in the Jeep, so the four of us will be having fun on the slopes! We might even stop in to the Hot Springs in Banff on the way home for a bit of a warm! We're fixing their ski box to the roof of our Jeep on Friday night and then heading off to Sunshine at 0800 on Saturday. We should be skiing by 10am!
We also took the Jeep for its first service and inspection today - we figured it was a good time to get an independent appraisal before the winter sets in for good and we get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Turns out it's in pretty good nick, although we are getting 2 problems fixed - firstly, part of the steering linkage needs to be replaced and secondly the catalytic convertor has been removed and badly replaced, so we need some repairs on the exhaust. Apparently it's OK not to have a 'cat' here in Alberta as there are no emission standards (unlike home), so we can pollute the atmosphere as much as we like until they change the law ... Anyway, we're having the work done on Friday morning so it will be all done in time for our ski-trip.
That's all for now,
J
PS Apple just opened its online Music Store in Canada today, after a long delay. At last we can legally download music here!
My Big Boss Man is off in Europe this week so I'm having a bit of a quiet week, spinning my wheels and typing in research data. We had a good weekend, though. Off to Chinatown on Saturday lunchtime with the HERBs and R's mother from NZ. Lots of lovely dim sums (Melissa - they still had the crabmeat wrapped in bacon - yum!), just great, and a bargain at 15 dollars (about 6 quid) per person. We got a bit of a surprise when we got back in the Jeep, however, as it wouldn't start at all. So we had to call the AMA (Canadian version of the AA) and sat in the cold (-4) for 45 mins until they came to have a look at it. The jump start failed to get things moving, and then we realised that the automatic transmission on the Jeep hadn't gone fully into 'PARK' and still thought it was in 'REVERSE'. As a useful safety feature, apparently automatic transmissions won't start at all (or even make a sound) if they are in 'DRIVE' or 'REVERSE', so once we shifted into 'NEUTRAL' the Jeep started like a dream. Go figure - it would never happen in a car with a manual transmission and clutch. We won't make that mistake again.
Our Saturday plans got back on track again with a visit to the MEC for some furry fleece pants and waterproof trousers for both of us, in preparation for skiing next weekend (see below). And then we hit the shops in Kensington to do the last of our Christmas shopping. We're hoping to get all of the presents away by the end of this week, as Canada Post is so rubbish that we can't depend on their own Last Posting Date. After our shopping extravaganza, we went out to dinner to Saltlik, a steak place downtown and then on to a show (wow!), 'The Black Rider' at The Big Secret Theatre down at the EPCOR centre for the performing arts near to the Calgary Tower. Great music, good story, a good night out. It was -8 on the way home, but the Jeep started OK (this time) and we made it home for 11. Sunday was colder and greyer, and we spent it at home doing chores (as they say here) and roasting a leg of Alberta lamb.
Our plans for Christmas here are well-advanced - all the pressies are bought and most are in the post already, we have our outside lights up (front and back - pictures soon) and we're scouting for trees. We'll be doing Christmas dinner with the Breitmeyers on the Big Day, and we should both we off for most of the 2 weeks around the holidays. And my present arrived from Denise and Roy today (thank you!) while P has cards and gifts from Julie and Carole already.
This week has been good so far, with swimming last night (12 lengths for me, and quite a few for her too, mostly without the float) followed by the first of what will probably be many visits to our local sushi bar. We had decided to go our for dinner to celebrate our 8th anniversary, and this sushi place was only 5 minutes away over in Crowfoot. It's called SUSHI BOAT and is a classic sushi bar, with seats organised round a big circular trough in which are floating a big chain of plastic boats with sushi loaded on the deck. As the boats float past, you reach out and grab whatever takes your fancy. The chefs are in the middle of the big circle and are busy making the sushi you're eating. If you get your timing right, you can watch the chef make a particular bit of sushi, check out where he puts it on the boat, and then (if no-one snaffles it) grab it when it comes past you! The plates are all colour-coded so you can figure out how much you're spending, and they have all sorts of things to choose from. You can also order specific pieces of sushi if you like, but we went for the authentic 'pick up what you see' experience last night and it was great fun! Both of us have seen sushi bars before on TV, but we're never actually been into one before. Highly recommended as a fun dinner out, and cheap too - only 60 dollars (25 quid) for 2, including drinks.
The weather is on the turn at the moment - it's sitting at -3 to -6 most days but we're due a mini-Chinook on Thursday and Friday, so they're forecasting +15 for those days. Then Saturday will be -3, Sunday -8 and Monday/Tuesday will be -18! Youch! It's gonna be COLD!
Which is good, in a way for our weekend activities, as on Saturday we're going skiing for the first time in almost 20 years! Our only other time on the slopes was on a school trip to lovely Glencoe in Scotland in 1984 or so, and there wasn't even much snow to speak of then. Everyone at home that we told we were coming to the Rockies said "do you ski?" and we said "yes" for the lack of anything else to say, really. We should have a bit more fun this time though, and there is fresh snow forecast for Saturday. We're taking Richard and Emma along in the Jeep, so the four of us will be having fun on the slopes! We might even stop in to the Hot Springs in Banff on the way home for a bit of a warm! We're fixing their ski box to the roof of our Jeep on Friday night and then heading off to Sunshine at 0800 on Saturday. We should be skiing by 10am!
We also took the Jeep for its first service and inspection today - we figured it was a good time to get an independent appraisal before the winter sets in for good and we get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Turns out it's in pretty good nick, although we are getting 2 problems fixed - firstly, part of the steering linkage needs to be replaced and secondly the catalytic convertor has been removed and badly replaced, so we need some repairs on the exhaust. Apparently it's OK not to have a 'cat' here in Alberta as there are no emission standards (unlike home), so we can pollute the atmosphere as much as we like until they change the law ... Anyway, we're having the work done on Friday morning so it will be all done in time for our ski-trip.
That's all for now,
J
PS Apple just opened its online Music Store in Canada today, after a long delay. At last we can legally download music here!
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