Monday, December 26, 2005
A Tuscarora Christmas, 2005
This year we had what Calgarians refer to as a 'brown Christmas' - all that means is that there is no snow, and no ice (yo!), but it also means this year that it is unseasonably warm. I have to say that I am not complaining in the slightest - what it means for me is that there are no icy roads, and I don't have to dress in about 6 million layers any time I want to go outside. We know that it will change, but we're enjoying it while it lasts.
Just to prove what the weather is like:
Here is the back garden from the deck (with its lovely brown grass)...
And here is the 'in-out' thermo clock reading at about 2pm on Christmas Eve - about +17 in the house, and +13 outside. Just a wee bit of a difference from a couple of weeks ago.
And of course, the reason for this unseasonable weather... the Chinook arch as seen from the back upstairs window...
Indeed, it was warm enough for us to get out for a walk while wearing what in Northern Ireland would be considered normal clothes for going out for a walk in - no gloves, no hat, no scarf, no fur-lined boots - just normal clothes and a light waterproof coat. This is me outside the house at 6pm on Christmas Eve - the picture is a little blurry because we were trying to get the window lights, so we had to turn the flash off. Note that there is no snow or ice on the drive, or on the garden or on the house...
Anyway, before it got too warm, J managed to get his first skate of the season on Bowness Lagoon. I'm not sure it was officially open for skating, but we went anyway; he skated, and I acted as official photographer. We figured it was probably thick enough to skate on reasonably safely, as there was a Bobcat out on the middle of the ice, and we felt that if it didn't fall in to the Lagoon, that J would be okay as well. We think the Bobcat was used to take out the fire pits on to the middle of the ice, or perhaps its bucket was being used to scrape the ice to make it smoother - who knows? I wasn't too hot at taking the action shots - firstly because it was a bit dark, and secondly because each time I pressed the button on the camera just as he skated into view, he had managed to skate out of view again by the time the shutter actually activated. Maybe action photography isn't for me... flowers I can manage, but I'm a bit duff at things that move!
So, here is the speed skater on his first foray on to the outdoor ice (it is him - honest!)...
The Lagoon has a few rules...
We can't figure out why you're not allowed to have dogs on the ice...does this sign actually mean dogs only, or does it also refer to other small domestic animals? For example, would you be allowed to have a cat on the ice, or perhaps a hamster?? Also, no hockey sticks are allowed, but what about other sticks? Would they be okay? Who knows...?
Okay - less of the rambling (and I promise I haven't had any wine today yet!). Back to Christmas Day... first of all, a very big thank you to everyone who sent presents - we just loved them all! Everyone was very thoughtful, and we really appreciated everything we received. Thank you also to everyone who sent cards - all are displayed on the bookshelves in the downstairs living room.
Christmas morning was spent opening presents, and then catching up with people who now seem to be spread all over the world. We made use of the webcam, Skype, email - and I think the only mode of communication we didn't use was the regular telephone. I think Skype (or at least, something very like it) will eventually sound the death knell of the land line based telephone - it might take some time, as there are many skeptics out there who don't believe that making free (or virtually free) telephone calls over the internet is something that will catch on, but then people thought that email would never catch on!
Oh, by the way, the presents were opened to this on the TV...
Strange, but true! This, or something very like it, was playing on several of the TV cable channels for most of Christmas morning - the sound track is of a crackling fire, and I think the fire itself is probably on a continuous loop - funnily enough, we haven't watched it long enough to see if this hypothesis is correct. That might be a little sad!
Dinner was the usual - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, veg, gravy etc. We got the 16lb turkey on Christmas Eve and brought it home to be trimmed to a more manageable size - even we couldn't manage to eat all that turkey. The surgeon sharpened the knives, laid out the board (with the burn marks from when it was set on a hot cooker ring some time last year), and did the business... we ended up with a very neat 'crown', which takes less than half the time to cook, and only provides leftovers for about 4 days, rather than 10. Is it any wonder we only eat turkey once a year - by the time you've eaten turkey, cold cuts of turkey, turkey curry, turkey whatever else, you don't really want to see (never mind eat) turkey for a little while.
So here goes with the procedure...(apologies to any vegetarians - you might want to skip the next four or five pictures)
And here is the final product (we had started to cut it up before we took the picture)...
Here is the final dinner table, laid out buffet style. And no, it wasn't dinner for ten people - and no, we didn't eat it all (in fact, we probably didn't eat even half of it and it will be on the table in more or less the same fashion for Boxing Day!).
This is the wine buff of the house (proudly wearing his 'Green And White Army' teeshirt), pouring our very expensive bottle of wine.
Dinner and wine were consumed, TV was watched, and that was Christmas Day. It was all very relaxing and restful (apart from my usual fight with the roast potatoes where I managed to get the oven gloves wet, and then burnt my hand while trying to rescue the rapidly browning potatoes from the oven).
J and I both have holidays until the 3rd of January, so I suspect that the next few days will be spent reading new books, playing new Playstation games (he bought me my very own wireless controller!!), getting out for long walks, and simply winding down.
Finally, keeping up with the plant photography theme, here is the amaryllis on Christmas Day...
More later
P
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Just to prove what the weather is like:
Here is the back garden from the deck (with its lovely brown grass)...
And here is the 'in-out' thermo clock reading at about 2pm on Christmas Eve - about +17 in the house, and +13 outside. Just a wee bit of a difference from a couple of weeks ago.
And of course, the reason for this unseasonable weather... the Chinook arch as seen from the back upstairs window...
Indeed, it was warm enough for us to get out for a walk while wearing what in Northern Ireland would be considered normal clothes for going out for a walk in - no gloves, no hat, no scarf, no fur-lined boots - just normal clothes and a light waterproof coat. This is me outside the house at 6pm on Christmas Eve - the picture is a little blurry because we were trying to get the window lights, so we had to turn the flash off. Note that there is no snow or ice on the drive, or on the garden or on the house...
Anyway, before it got too warm, J managed to get his first skate of the season on Bowness Lagoon. I'm not sure it was officially open for skating, but we went anyway; he skated, and I acted as official photographer. We figured it was probably thick enough to skate on reasonably safely, as there was a Bobcat out on the middle of the ice, and we felt that if it didn't fall in to the Lagoon, that J would be okay as well. We think the Bobcat was used to take out the fire pits on to the middle of the ice, or perhaps its bucket was being used to scrape the ice to make it smoother - who knows? I wasn't too hot at taking the action shots - firstly because it was a bit dark, and secondly because each time I pressed the button on the camera just as he skated into view, he had managed to skate out of view again by the time the shutter actually activated. Maybe action photography isn't for me... flowers I can manage, but I'm a bit duff at things that move!
So, here is the speed skater on his first foray on to the outdoor ice (it is him - honest!)...
The Lagoon has a few rules...
We can't figure out why you're not allowed to have dogs on the ice...does this sign actually mean dogs only, or does it also refer to other small domestic animals? For example, would you be allowed to have a cat on the ice, or perhaps a hamster?? Also, no hockey sticks are allowed, but what about other sticks? Would they be okay? Who knows...?
Okay - less of the rambling (and I promise I haven't had any wine today yet!). Back to Christmas Day... first of all, a very big thank you to everyone who sent presents - we just loved them all! Everyone was very thoughtful, and we really appreciated everything we received. Thank you also to everyone who sent cards - all are displayed on the bookshelves in the downstairs living room.
Christmas morning was spent opening presents, and then catching up with people who now seem to be spread all over the world. We made use of the webcam, Skype, email - and I think the only mode of communication we didn't use was the regular telephone. I think Skype (or at least, something very like it) will eventually sound the death knell of the land line based telephone - it might take some time, as there are many skeptics out there who don't believe that making free (or virtually free) telephone calls over the internet is something that will catch on, but then people thought that email would never catch on!
Oh, by the way, the presents were opened to this on the TV...
Strange, but true! This, or something very like it, was playing on several of the TV cable channels for most of Christmas morning - the sound track is of a crackling fire, and I think the fire itself is probably on a continuous loop - funnily enough, we haven't watched it long enough to see if this hypothesis is correct. That might be a little sad!
Dinner was the usual - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, veg, gravy etc. We got the 16lb turkey on Christmas Eve and brought it home to be trimmed to a more manageable size - even we couldn't manage to eat all that turkey. The surgeon sharpened the knives, laid out the board (with the burn marks from when it was set on a hot cooker ring some time last year), and did the business... we ended up with a very neat 'crown', which takes less than half the time to cook, and only provides leftovers for about 4 days, rather than 10. Is it any wonder we only eat turkey once a year - by the time you've eaten turkey, cold cuts of turkey, turkey curry, turkey whatever else, you don't really want to see (never mind eat) turkey for a little while.
So here goes with the procedure...(apologies to any vegetarians - you might want to skip the next four or five pictures)
And here is the final product (we had started to cut it up before we took the picture)...
Here is the final dinner table, laid out buffet style. And no, it wasn't dinner for ten people - and no, we didn't eat it all (in fact, we probably didn't eat even half of it and it will be on the table in more or less the same fashion for Boxing Day!).
This is the wine buff of the house (proudly wearing his 'Green And White Army' teeshirt), pouring our very expensive bottle of wine.
Dinner and wine were consumed, TV was watched, and that was Christmas Day. It was all very relaxing and restful (apart from my usual fight with the roast potatoes where I managed to get the oven gloves wet, and then burnt my hand while trying to rescue the rapidly browning potatoes from the oven).
J and I both have holidays until the 3rd of January, so I suspect that the next few days will be spent reading new books, playing new Playstation games (he bought me my very own wireless controller!!), getting out for long walks, and simply winding down.
Finally, keeping up with the plant photography theme, here is the amaryllis on Christmas Day...
More later
P
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Countdown to Christmas...
Okay - we've been getting a slightly hard time lately for relatively infrequent blogging. To those of you who have missed out on the regular updates of life in Tuscarora, I can only say that we are truly sorry! However, its been a little too cold lately for doing anything much exciting outside of the house, and as for inside the house, we're not sure that anyone would be too excited about a blog that is likely to consist of what we had for dinner, what we watched on DVD, the fact that we spent yesterday throwing out a lot of junk that we seem to have accumulated over the last six months or so, and the fact that we did a major clean (not just a middle of the floor clean - otherwise known as 'boy cleaning') of bathrooms, kitchen, larder, dressing room, bedrooms etc. Told you it was exciting!!
Also, we haven't made an out of town excursion anywhere since Labour Day...so we haven't got any exciting pictures or stories about new places and new experiences. However, we do have the beginnings of big plans to do some driving up the California coast at the end of March next year - he has a conference in San Diego, and it seems like too good an opportunity to miss. While we've been to San Diego and San Francisco before, we flew between the cities, and we think we might have missed out on some great coastal scenery. However, we'll keep you posted on that one...
Regular readers will also know that we spend an inordinate number of words talking about the weather. I think that this is because the weather is so 'in your face' here...and as such, has a greater potential to impact direcly on day to day life. For example, we range from baltic enough to literally freeze your flesh and skin if you are daft enough to expose anything other than your eyes for any length of time - to being flooded so badlly that we have to conserve water because the water treatment plants can't cope with all of the debris that has been stirred into the river - to being so hot in the summer that we need fans in the bedroom at night to guarantee a little bit of sleep. Therefore, when its really cold, I just can't resist passing comment because its so different from anything we ever experienced at home. Apparently the fact that its a dry cold here, means that it doesn't feel so bad, but believe me, when its below minus 20 with a north wind, it feels cold enough to me. I know I've said this before, but when you breathe in and your nostrils freeze up, its cold, and the fact that its dry just doesn't help.
So speaking about how the cold can impact on life, there was a good story yesterday about a child who managed to lick a metal gate post to see how cold it really was, and who then got stuck. I don't quite know how they got him freed up, but I'm sure it was sore. Apparently it happens every year. Or how about a fire at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in High River yesterday - it was so cold that the water that the firemen were trying to spray on the fire froze almost as soon as it had left the hose. Several firefighters slipped and injured themselves on the ice created by their hoses, but they had to keep going to try to save the building. Or how about the ice jam in the Bow River just east of Calgary? When the river started to freeze, some big blocks of ice got caught up somewhere, effectively jamming up the river. The river that wasn't frozen then started to put pressure on the 'ice jam', meaning that it is likely to burst pretty soon, with the potential to flood the immediate area. Apparently, the people in the area just have to pray for a warm-up that is sufficient to melt the ice blocks even a little bit, so that they will float off down the river.
Anyway, I suppose that this cold weather is reasonably festive - currently we have bright blue skies...
as well as an icicle or two (which suggests that the temperature is starting to warm up a little again)
And (best of all) a Chinook wind forecast to start tomorrow and to last for a day or two... apparently we are to warm up from a current day time high of about minus 15 degrees C to something in the plus 4 or 5 range, at least until Thursday. Have to say that I hope our street will thaw out properly this time. After the last snow, we got just enough warm air to melt everything a little - just so it could form a horrible layer of clear ice right over the road surface. That ice has been sitting there for the last week, and they haven't been able to put out any salt on the roads, as it doesn't work at these sorts of temperatures. So, lets hope it melts and evaporates this time.
So, back to more festive matters... we got the tree up last weekend, and unwrapped the Christmas decorations.
I think these tree pictures are a bit of a re-run from last year, but here goes anyway...!
Unlit tree (with loads of presents - Santa is very organised this year - thanks to all who have sent gifts in the mail - we really appreciate it)
And lit tree...
The lights that you can see around the tree are our new LED lights which are stuck to the inside of the windows. Last year, we made a mistake by putting up lights with bulbs that heat up. They were very pretty, until we realised (with some horror) that they burned little marks into the white PVC window frames. Luckily, we caught on soon enough to take preventive measures ... and we only have two or three little pink and yellow spots in a couple of the frames (oops). This year, we discovered the LED lights, which don't heat up and don't burn the windows!
Some new additions this year are the bendy reindeers...I'm not sure if they're meant to stand up, but I actually like them better this way...
Other new additions were these three little trees, sent all the way from home (thanks mum!) - they're sitting on top of the telly...
The bronze tree is new - the silver one was purchased last year from Bragg Creek, so his little bronze friend was purchased this year from the same little hut in the woods...
Actually, they are a little incongrous, because on the same table, we have our German nativity scene - thanks to Anna and Johannes for many of the pieces. These little figures are made of wood, and the big metal Christmas trees don't really fit with the scene, but to my mind, that's kind of what our Christmas decorations are about. We can look at everything, and we know exactly where it came from, or who gave it to us, and it doesn't matter one bit that it doesn't conform to any particular style or colour scheme - in fact, that's what makes it all so good!
Plants are starting to make an impact as well - we have a poinsettia (clashing wonderfully with an orange paper Ikea light)...
There's an amaryllis on the kitchen table that just keeps producing stalks - number three is just starting to emerge...
And we also have a plant that was a gift from someone who we helped move house. Its called a lipstick plant
It produces deep purple coloured flowers, that are supposed to look like lipsticks...very pretty..
So there you go - only a week to go until Christmas (must remember to collect the turkey). J is hoping to make his first excursion out on his snowboard this week, and is also hoping to get skating on Bowness lagoon. Given the weather, its bound to be frozen solid by now. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to watching all of these activities while sipping hot chocolate!
More later (but not too much later!)
P
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Also, we haven't made an out of town excursion anywhere since Labour Day...so we haven't got any exciting pictures or stories about new places and new experiences. However, we do have the beginnings of big plans to do some driving up the California coast at the end of March next year - he has a conference in San Diego, and it seems like too good an opportunity to miss. While we've been to San Diego and San Francisco before, we flew between the cities, and we think we might have missed out on some great coastal scenery. However, we'll keep you posted on that one...
Regular readers will also know that we spend an inordinate number of words talking about the weather. I think that this is because the weather is so 'in your face' here...and as such, has a greater potential to impact direcly on day to day life. For example, we range from baltic enough to literally freeze your flesh and skin if you are daft enough to expose anything other than your eyes for any length of time - to being flooded so badlly that we have to conserve water because the water treatment plants can't cope with all of the debris that has been stirred into the river - to being so hot in the summer that we need fans in the bedroom at night to guarantee a little bit of sleep. Therefore, when its really cold, I just can't resist passing comment because its so different from anything we ever experienced at home. Apparently the fact that its a dry cold here, means that it doesn't feel so bad, but believe me, when its below minus 20 with a north wind, it feels cold enough to me. I know I've said this before, but when you breathe in and your nostrils freeze up, its cold, and the fact that its dry just doesn't help.
So speaking about how the cold can impact on life, there was a good story yesterday about a child who managed to lick a metal gate post to see how cold it really was, and who then got stuck. I don't quite know how they got him freed up, but I'm sure it was sore. Apparently it happens every year. Or how about a fire at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in High River yesterday - it was so cold that the water that the firemen were trying to spray on the fire froze almost as soon as it had left the hose. Several firefighters slipped and injured themselves on the ice created by their hoses, but they had to keep going to try to save the building. Or how about the ice jam in the Bow River just east of Calgary? When the river started to freeze, some big blocks of ice got caught up somewhere, effectively jamming up the river. The river that wasn't frozen then started to put pressure on the 'ice jam', meaning that it is likely to burst pretty soon, with the potential to flood the immediate area. Apparently, the people in the area just have to pray for a warm-up that is sufficient to melt the ice blocks even a little bit, so that they will float off down the river.
Anyway, I suppose that this cold weather is reasonably festive - currently we have bright blue skies...
as well as an icicle or two (which suggests that the temperature is starting to warm up a little again)
And (best of all) a Chinook wind forecast to start tomorrow and to last for a day or two... apparently we are to warm up from a current day time high of about minus 15 degrees C to something in the plus 4 or 5 range, at least until Thursday. Have to say that I hope our street will thaw out properly this time. After the last snow, we got just enough warm air to melt everything a little - just so it could form a horrible layer of clear ice right over the road surface. That ice has been sitting there for the last week, and they haven't been able to put out any salt on the roads, as it doesn't work at these sorts of temperatures. So, lets hope it melts and evaporates this time.
So, back to more festive matters... we got the tree up last weekend, and unwrapped the Christmas decorations.
I think these tree pictures are a bit of a re-run from last year, but here goes anyway...!
Unlit tree (with loads of presents - Santa is very organised this year - thanks to all who have sent gifts in the mail - we really appreciate it)
And lit tree...
The lights that you can see around the tree are our new LED lights which are stuck to the inside of the windows. Last year, we made a mistake by putting up lights with bulbs that heat up. They were very pretty, until we realised (with some horror) that they burned little marks into the white PVC window frames. Luckily, we caught on soon enough to take preventive measures ... and we only have two or three little pink and yellow spots in a couple of the frames (oops). This year, we discovered the LED lights, which don't heat up and don't burn the windows!
Some new additions this year are the bendy reindeers...I'm not sure if they're meant to stand up, but I actually like them better this way...
Other new additions were these three little trees, sent all the way from home (thanks mum!) - they're sitting on top of the telly...
The bronze tree is new - the silver one was purchased last year from Bragg Creek, so his little bronze friend was purchased this year from the same little hut in the woods...
Actually, they are a little incongrous, because on the same table, we have our German nativity scene - thanks to Anna and Johannes for many of the pieces. These little figures are made of wood, and the big metal Christmas trees don't really fit with the scene, but to my mind, that's kind of what our Christmas decorations are about. We can look at everything, and we know exactly where it came from, or who gave it to us, and it doesn't matter one bit that it doesn't conform to any particular style or colour scheme - in fact, that's what makes it all so good!
Plants are starting to make an impact as well - we have a poinsettia (clashing wonderfully with an orange paper Ikea light)...
There's an amaryllis on the kitchen table that just keeps producing stalks - number three is just starting to emerge...
And we also have a plant that was a gift from someone who we helped move house. Its called a lipstick plant
It produces deep purple coloured flowers, that are supposed to look like lipsticks...very pretty..
So there you go - only a week to go until Christmas (must remember to collect the turkey). J is hoping to make his first excursion out on his snowboard this week, and is also hoping to get skating on Bowness lagoon. Given the weather, its bound to be frozen solid by now. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to watching all of these activities while sipping hot chocolate!
More later (but not too much later!)
P
Monday, December 05, 2005
December Blizzard
Hello from a snowy, bitterly cold Calgary! Now this is what I call a winter!
It's been -20 and below for over a week, intermittent snow mostly and we haven't seen the sun for days. There's a massive 'arctic outflow' of cold air flowing down from the frozen north, blanketing all of western Canada in freezing weather.
First the snow came a wee bit, really just a dusting:
And then it came a bit more seriously:
Today we're having light snow again (this is type 2 snow - 1. is flurries, 2. is light snow, 3. is heavy snow and 4. is snow day snow), plus winds gusting up to 60kph, blowing the snow that's already on the ground into drifts.
This is what it looks like now:
I don't know if these are technically blizzard conditions, but visibility is poor (we can't see the river from our house and it's only a mile away). There's a weather advisory out suggesting that you should only travel if essential, but luckily we are taking a day off and we're staying put. Environment Canada says it's gonna warm up later in the week:
(Still don't know what a dewpoint is, must look that up sometime)
This is good news, because although winter activites have started up, it's really a bit too cold to be out and about doing them just yet. Snowboarding is fun when it's -10 and above and the sun's shining, but it's not much of a laugh when it's minus 20 with a windchill of -30 and you have to keep remembering to check yourself for frostbite. Same goes for skating. COP has been taking advantage of the cold snap and has been making snow 24 hours a day for most of the last 7 days, which means the boarding will be good there in the months to come. When you look at it from here, COP seems to be on fire, but rather than issuing smoke, it's pouring out clouds of snow!
The City has also been filling up Bowness Lagoon, ready for skating. Essentially, they have to fill it up with water over several days (and it's a _big_ lagoon), then wait for the ice to form and become stable and then send the polishers out (a bit like a Zamboni, but crossed with a tractor) to level the surface, as natural ice is usually very bumpy. This process was still underway last week, but I'll check in again in a day or two to see if it's ready for skating!
Speaking of skating, I've finished my second Adult Learn-To-Skate class at the University and have been recommended to join the Adult Beginner Shinny class in January. Shinny is to Canada what five-a-side footie is to home. Really it's an informal, turn-up-and-play game of ice hockey. I've never played before, but apparently my skating is now good enough to give it a go, so I figured what the heck, I might as well! I'll have all the protective gear on (don't worry) so I should be OK, and it should be a Real Canadian Experience! I might even be the first Northern Ireland White to score a goal on the ice!
I'm also getting my snowboard ready for the new season, and one of the snowboard mags I got had a good guide to tuning it up, so I have now ground the edges so they are nice and sharp (the edges are what lets the board 'bite' into the snow for turning and stopping). I have also done something else I've never done before - I waxed my board! FIrst step is to take a piece of tough plastic and scrape all of last year's crap off the bottom, so it's fairly smooth. Then to take a bar of board wax, which is about the same size and shape as a bar of hotel soap and you use an ordinary iron to melt it onto the bottom of the board. You just drip the wax down from the iron and it covers the board in lots of little 'splats' of wax. Once all the wax is done, the fun part starts. You turn the iron up a bit and then just iron the bottom of the board, melting all the little pieces of wax and spreading them out along to board and up to the edges, to form a single smooth layer of wax right along the board. If you keep the iron moving fast and it's hot enough, the wax spreads out like toffee.
And then you put the board out in the cold for a bit, let the wax harden and then take into it with your scraper again to smooth off any excess wax. And voila, you have a nice waxed board which should go like a rocket! I'll keep you posted on how it rides later this month!
Hmmmm... what else is new? Well:
We were out last night at the Huber household for a little Swiss-German-type Advent Christmas Party. A great time was had by all and the food was fantastic! The Breitmeyers were also there, and they're off back to New Zealand for a month from this Thursday. Safe travels!
My Fantasy Football team (Athletica Athabasca) is now officially third in the League, only 9 points off the top! Eagerly awaiting this week's update. Go boys go!
P went to the spa at the Fairmont Banff Springs on Saturday, and had a very relaxing time. Turns out if you get a massage, you can stay at the spa all day until it closes, so while it might seem relatively expensive ($149 for a one hour mountain stone treatment), it actually works out to be fairly good value. P and her friend from work arrived up there at 10am and left at 6pm, having been massaged with mountain stones, and having spent the rest of the day lounging around in hot pools, cool pools, steam rooms etc.
No news to report on jobs, no firm offers here or there. Time will tell, I suppose. We had a good visit to Edmonton and it seems like an excellent job, but I have to wait and see what's on offer. We omitted to show you a couple of good pictures from the West Edmonton Mall, which is a huge version of Abbeycentre on steroids, and comes complete with its own indoor ice rink, pirate ship, performing sea-lions and climate-controlled water world, as well as 100s of shops. Wow!
Ice skating
Pirate Galleon
Oh, we also discovered the true Canadian food, Canadian Smarties, or as they call them here, "Smarties, Eh?"
And we've had a nice few sunrises when the snowclouds lift for a bit:
Work-wise, I've been pretty busy lately with my assignments for the Masters in Medical Education courses, which accounts for the relative lack of blogging lately, and I still have 2 to hand in before December 14th, so I have to get my skates on. Iive finished on Gynae Oncology, and December is a research/write-up/holiday month for me before I start on colorectal again in January.
Oh, all of you NI/European people will be getting various envelopes and packages from us in the next few days - don't open until Christmas!
Love
J (&P)
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It's been -20 and below for over a week, intermittent snow mostly and we haven't seen the sun for days. There's a massive 'arctic outflow' of cold air flowing down from the frozen north, blanketing all of western Canada in freezing weather.
First the snow came a wee bit, really just a dusting:
And then it came a bit more seriously:
Today we're having light snow again (this is type 2 snow - 1. is flurries, 2. is light snow, 3. is heavy snow and 4. is snow day snow), plus winds gusting up to 60kph, blowing the snow that's already on the ground into drifts.
This is what it looks like now:
I don't know if these are technically blizzard conditions, but visibility is poor (we can't see the river from our house and it's only a mile away). There's a weather advisory out suggesting that you should only travel if essential, but luckily we are taking a day off and we're staying put. Environment Canada says it's gonna warm up later in the week:
(Still don't know what a dewpoint is, must look that up sometime)
This is good news, because although winter activites have started up, it's really a bit too cold to be out and about doing them just yet. Snowboarding is fun when it's -10 and above and the sun's shining, but it's not much of a laugh when it's minus 20 with a windchill of -30 and you have to keep remembering to check yourself for frostbite. Same goes for skating. COP has been taking advantage of the cold snap and has been making snow 24 hours a day for most of the last 7 days, which means the boarding will be good there in the months to come. When you look at it from here, COP seems to be on fire, but rather than issuing smoke, it's pouring out clouds of snow!
The City has also been filling up Bowness Lagoon, ready for skating. Essentially, they have to fill it up with water over several days (and it's a _big_ lagoon), then wait for the ice to form and become stable and then send the polishers out (a bit like a Zamboni, but crossed with a tractor) to level the surface, as natural ice is usually very bumpy. This process was still underway last week, but I'll check in again in a day or two to see if it's ready for skating!
Speaking of skating, I've finished my second Adult Learn-To-Skate class at the University and have been recommended to join the Adult Beginner Shinny class in January. Shinny is to Canada what five-a-side footie is to home. Really it's an informal, turn-up-and-play game of ice hockey. I've never played before, but apparently my skating is now good enough to give it a go, so I figured what the heck, I might as well! I'll have all the protective gear on (don't worry) so I should be OK, and it should be a Real Canadian Experience! I might even be the first Northern Ireland White to score a goal on the ice!
I'm also getting my snowboard ready for the new season, and one of the snowboard mags I got had a good guide to tuning it up, so I have now ground the edges so they are nice and sharp (the edges are what lets the board 'bite' into the snow for turning and stopping). I have also done something else I've never done before - I waxed my board! FIrst step is to take a piece of tough plastic and scrape all of last year's crap off the bottom, so it's fairly smooth. Then to take a bar of board wax, which is about the same size and shape as a bar of hotel soap and you use an ordinary iron to melt it onto the bottom of the board. You just drip the wax down from the iron and it covers the board in lots of little 'splats' of wax. Once all the wax is done, the fun part starts. You turn the iron up a bit and then just iron the bottom of the board, melting all the little pieces of wax and spreading them out along to board and up to the edges, to form a single smooth layer of wax right along the board. If you keep the iron moving fast and it's hot enough, the wax spreads out like toffee.
And then you put the board out in the cold for a bit, let the wax harden and then take into it with your scraper again to smooth off any excess wax. And voila, you have a nice waxed board which should go like a rocket! I'll keep you posted on how it rides later this month!
Hmmmm... what else is new? Well:
We were out last night at the Huber household for a little Swiss-German-type Advent Christmas Party. A great time was had by all and the food was fantastic! The Breitmeyers were also there, and they're off back to New Zealand for a month from this Thursday. Safe travels!
My Fantasy Football team (Athletica Athabasca) is now officially third in the League, only 9 points off the top! Eagerly awaiting this week's update. Go boys go!
P went to the spa at the Fairmont Banff Springs on Saturday, and had a very relaxing time. Turns out if you get a massage, you can stay at the spa all day until it closes, so while it might seem relatively expensive ($149 for a one hour mountain stone treatment), it actually works out to be fairly good value. P and her friend from work arrived up there at 10am and left at 6pm, having been massaged with mountain stones, and having spent the rest of the day lounging around in hot pools, cool pools, steam rooms etc.
No news to report on jobs, no firm offers here or there. Time will tell, I suppose. We had a good visit to Edmonton and it seems like an excellent job, but I have to wait and see what's on offer. We omitted to show you a couple of good pictures from the West Edmonton Mall, which is a huge version of Abbeycentre on steroids, and comes complete with its own indoor ice rink, pirate ship, performing sea-lions and climate-controlled water world, as well as 100s of shops. Wow!
Ice skating
Pirate Galleon
Oh, we also discovered the true Canadian food, Canadian Smarties, or as they call them here, "Smarties, Eh?"
And we've had a nice few sunrises when the snowclouds lift for a bit:
Work-wise, I've been pretty busy lately with my assignments for the Masters in Medical Education courses, which accounts for the relative lack of blogging lately, and I still have 2 to hand in before December 14th, so I have to get my skates on. Iive finished on Gynae Oncology, and December is a research/write-up/holiday month for me before I start on colorectal again in January.
Oh, all of you NI/European people will be getting various envelopes and packages from us in the next few days - don't open until Christmas!
Love
J (&P)
