Carrick to Calgary

I'm worried about the rabbits because they are white and the ground is still rather disconcertingly not white. This is absolutely not a complaint on my part, but it just seems weird! There they are, jumping around on green lawns, with their pure white fur that's designed to blend in with white snow and ice, and there just isn't any snow or ice - nor is there forecast to be for another day or two.

Actually the weather forecast for this week is probably better than we have seen during most of the rest of the year (including the dismal summer). Here is a screen shot of Environment Canada's weather forecast for Calgary yesterday...



Its just a pity that it gets dark before we're due to leave work these evenings - with these temperatures, it feels like summer rather than the start of winter. However, I'm reassured that this won't last, and we should just enjoy it while it does.

Anyway, Canada Olympic Park opened for skiing and snowboarding last Friday, but we're not sure that they will manage to sustain a snow base for much longer. They did say on Friday that they had a snow base of 50cm, but over the last couple of days, the base has started to look very very patchy.

However, the sunrises and sunsets are something else at the moment...






Of course, the pictures can't really do the colours full justice...

By the way, the pumpkins have now been migrated into the bin - we figured that if we left them much longer, that they would turn to complete mush and would be very unpleasant to lift... so here they are, just before being trashed!

Apologies for the slight delay in posts from me - I've been a bit busy lately with work and assignments for my Masters in Medical Education classes. But now I'm back again, with some great news - my Fantasy Football Team Athletica Athbasca has been doing well in recent weeks and this week has risen to the dizzying heights of equal third in a league of 36 teams. The Athletica is the team that rose from the ashes of last year's Rocky Mountain Rovers, the Team That Was Bound For Cup Glory. We're on 515 points, 24 points from the top spot (Shorn of Wright-Phillips is at #1 on 539, and Soft in the Middle is #2 on 525, while Monaghan United and I are tied on 515 points).

Chalkie's All-Stars (Sambo) are 11th on 468 points, The Bow Valley Wanderers (P) are 15th on 455, The Head Smashed in Buffaloes (RoyBoy) are 20th on 428 and Milebush United (Robbo) are bringing up the rear on 383.

Athletica Athabasca is doing well for a number of reasons:

1. The defence has started to work together. Danny Mills has garnered 35 points, Liam Ridgewell is on 21 and even Jamie Clapham is doing well on 10, while the centre of the defence is John Terry (a stellar 89 pts).

2. Chelsea's Frank Lampard is just a star - 131 points so far this season, and the sky's the limit - keep going, big man!

3. Liverpool's Steven Gerrard is performing consistently well in midfield, 85 points to date.

4. The two new arrivals in midfield, Wigan's Bullard and West Ham's Benayoun are scoring well, 24 and 16 respectively.

5. Henry's back off the injury bench and scoring for the Gunners, 88 points now and more to come!

And we have the best midfield in the league, and are 20+ points clear of our nearest midfield rival at present.

So here's to the rest of the season, the only way is UP!

J

Well hello - back from Edmonton, which was chilly but had no snow. Apparently, there was quite a bit of snow here on the ground in Calgary this morning, but by the time we made it back down here from the provincial capital, most of it had melted.

However, the cool temperatures aren't doing a lot for the pumpkins. We're now running an experiment to see just what happens if you leave them out in the frost and snow. This experiment is currently running on the deck, as we figured that the neighbours might get the city by-law officers to come and fine us for leaving decomposing vegetable matter on the front steps!

This was how they looked midweek...with little snowy hats...



And this is how they look after another couple of days at sub-zero...




Anyway, its been a busy week since last Sunday. Sunday night started off with a small halloween party - yes, Sunday night does seem like a slightly strange choice for a party, but if we'd had it on Saturday, Geri and Christine wouldn't have been able to come - so Sunday it was. We did a little bit in the way of decoration...

Here's a view of the table, with a very fetching orange plastic table cloth...



And pumpkins in their full glory...



This one has a bit of a Darth Vader theme going...



And here are a few of the lights that we couldn't resist buying in the Co-op...



They didn't come out so well in the photograph, but basically, they are strings of small white lights that have 'scary' Halloween type shades. The ones we got came with witches on broomsticks, green frankenstein monster heads, coffins, skeletons, and our favourite - bleeding mummies!



We had the usual starters (i.e. chips and dips) supplemented with vegetable pakoras, which we found in the Co-op. Then we had marinaded chicken skewers, marinaded steak, steamed string beans, rice and peanut sauce. Sounds like a weird combination, but there wasn't a huge heap left, so I think it was all okay. We finished off with a beautiful banoffee pie supplied by the HERBs. For entertainment, Mr White then decided that we should do some bobbing for apples in the sink...! For the record, I managed to extract an apple in 7 seconds; Mr White took 50 seconds... I think he might need some practice!

There was also a little bit of dressing up by the small people who came - Hannah was very pretty as a pink poodle, while Ben was a scarily mobile Tigger...




Next day was Halloween itself - and as mentioned previously, there were some pretty neat neighbourhood decorations...

We liked this one - witch loses control of broomstick and crashes into lawn...



Or how about, man minding his own business on park bench has head turned into a pumpkin...



Or barfing pumpkin anyone??




Mr White was busy getting his Edmonton talk finalised over the next couple of days; in fact, he was so busy that he had got 2 new playstation games in the post, and hadn't even opened them. So, on Wednesday, he did the three hour drive to Edmonton, got a reasonable night's sleep, and then started the meet and greet process on Thursday morning with several of the surgeons who work up there. On Thursday night, he went to dinner with some of the guys, and then came and met me off the bus. I have to say that the bus (The Red Arrow) is great. It left Calgary at 6pm, stopped in Red Deer for 10 mins, and then arrived in Edmonton at about 9.30pm. It has plenty of legroom, a power socket at every seat so that you can plug in a lap-top if you feel like it (I didn't!), reclining seats, free tea/coffee/soft drinks and a toilet on board. Someone did suggest that I should fly up to Edmonton, but to be honest, I think the bus was a lot less hassle. I showed up at the bus station 15 minutes before it left; I would have had to be at the airport an hour before departure: the bus has no security checks; airport security checks are a pain in the butt: the bus leaves you in to the centre of Edmonton; the airport is 30 minutes from the city centre, necessitating a $45 taxi ride into the city on top of the airfare. The bus was $50 one-way and in my opinion, you couldn't beat it. (Well, actually you could - the province is dithering about whether or not to put in a high speed rail link between Edmonton and Calgary, and I think that would be the best option all round. However, Alberta is a province in love with the automobile, and I'm not sure what it will take to convince the government/population that a train would be a good idea - maybe if oil hits $100 a barrel, people won't be so keen to drive for 3 hours to get from one city to the other?).

Anyway, the hotel we were staying in was great - I think it might once have been some sort of university accommodation - the name says it all - 'Campus Tower', but it has obviously been refurbished quite extensively to make it fit for grown-ups(!!). It was right on the edge of the university grounds, and overlooked a lot of the building that is going on at the University of Alberta. We had a 'Queen Suite', which actually was a suite, with a separate sitting area, bathroom, fully equipped kitchenette and bedroom - all very spacious.

Living room...



Kitchenette...



Bedroom - looking out towards kitchen...



And all of that for $130 (about £60) per night. The hotel itself didn't have a restaurant, but there were plenty of places to eat that were within easy walking distance.

On Friday night, after J had done his talk and spoken to yet more surgeons and was absolutely pooped, we wandered down into the Old Strathcona region of town, and went to Murietta's for an early dinner. Saturday was spent looking around Edmonton a bit (as well as a very very small bit of the West Edmonton Mall - think massively expanded Castle Court with casino, waterpark, hotel, full sized ice rink, performing sealions(!) and you might be close). It seems like a reasonable city - not drastically different from Calgary - despite what people in Calgary will tell you. Its quite funny - Calgary people look down on Edmonton, saying it is a more 'working class' city, whereas Edmonton folk will tell you that Calgary is full of yuppy upstarts who have no culture. Calgarians will tell you that they have warmer winters than Edmonton because of the warm Chinook winds, but Edmontonians will tell you that it is easier to garden up there because they don't get surprise frosts in August... who knows??

However, our feeling is that they have more things in common than they would like to think,

Anyway, it snowed down here this weekend (we're told) and didn't snow up there - much to the glee of the Edmontonians we met.

So there you go - a potted summary of last week's excitement and travels. Not much excitement coming up in the next week (I hope), except that we're thinking that the White/Brietmeyer winter curry evening is a bit overdue, and as such should be held this upcoming weekend. Thinking of going with a Thai theme, rather than Indian...?

More later...

P

Sunday morning here in Edmonton, 10am and -4. We had some flurries yesterday but they didn't 'stick' (=lie). More snow is forecast for today however, and the weather forecast suggests that there might be some more as we head south on our three-hour drive via Leduc, Ponoka, Wetaskiwin, Red Deer, Airdrie and finally Calgary. We have our snow tyres on the Jeep, though, and we're seasoned winter drivers (well, J is) so we shouldn't have any trouble. We've had a good time in Edmonton, had a good look around the city and, as we came to See a Man About a Dog, it looks like the Dog is very interesting indeed and is nicer than any of the Dogs we've seen so far. Time will tell whether we buy that particular Dog, but it looks promising...

We'll be in touch,

J&P

Just a quick post today, to let you know that winter has arrived! -6 overnight and 5cm of snow this morning, with ice forming on the top of it, creating traffic chaos and dozens of accidents city-wide. Seems most people didn't have their snow tyres on yet! Doh! Anyway, I don't have much time as I'm off to Edmonton to See a Man About a Dog, but here are a few quick pics of the current snow-state and one of our favourite pumpkins! Until next time,

J


Decomposing on the Deck


Snowy street


Snow on the deck


Scary!