Skates

On the weekend, the girls downstairs - Jen and Laura - took the kids skate shopping.
Nan had given Cayde and Addie some money for Christmas and skates was what they wanted to spend it on.


Bright and early the next morning (ok, it was about 11:00 - weekends are sleep-in days) we walked to the local outdoor skating rink.
There were some tennis courts there as well - anyone for tennis?


Skates on and ready to go.
(I love the funky colours the kids chose for laces)



Delle is a natural when it comes to getting around on the ice.




Just check this out.



A natural I tell you :-)

Happy Australia Day!!!

Thankyou to Lois and Dave who invited us to a fantastic Australia Day party.

It was great to sing along with some of our Famous Aussie songs.

and yes we are being kangaroos!!!

What a way to celebrate being Australian!!!

We are Australian

I have never felt prouder to be an Australian as I have now. It is amazing what you appreciate when you have a chance to stand back and have another look.


We had a great time on Australia day and were able to share stories, poems, songs, pictures, sayings, jokes, food, a slideshow and a love for our country. Mark came in with a stash of vegemite sandwiches and lamingtons and we had a party in the staffroom at school which was a load laughs especially when Mark W did the Tim Tam Slam.

We shared part of our famous Australian poem by Banjo Paterson

.

.

The Man from Snowy River

THERE was movement at the station, for the word had passed around

That the colt from old Regret had got away,

And had joined the wild bush horses — he was worth a thousand pound,

So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.

All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far

Had mustered at the homestead overnight,

For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,

And the stock-horse snuffs the battle with delight.

Then we shared our own version

The Fowlers from Australia

There was movement at Keheewin, for the word had passed around
That the Fowlers had alighted from the plane.
And had joined the wild Canadians – that are worth a thousand laughs
Although their stirring can prove to be a pain.

All the teachers in the staffroom, with their accents that were strange
Scared the Aussies with their humour, what a shame.
They lack thongs, Tim Tams and Lamingtons with no vegemite in sight
They wondered was the Principal to blame.

But no, Boggsy was a friendly one, she had showed them love and care
To Tim Horton’s and Walmart she took them round.
Barb and Shirley were so nice it’s true, they gave a helping hand
But cheating with tissue boxes they were found.

In came invitations, to show the Aussies round
To introduce them to the town of Edmonton.
Old Strathcona, grocery stores and into the great outdoors
Louanne, Simone and Norma showed them fun.

First week of their arrival, the weather turned it on
Minus 30 and blizzards to be had.
Breathe through your nose or your lungs will surely freeze
“Bring it on” said the Aussies, they must be mad.

The car was a find, Bessie the Beater was her name.
Stall or slide was their motto everyday.
To be bogged in the snow was an adventure to be had
And if they stayed to the right they wouldn’t pay

We are different, yet the same and together we all laugh
At the words and the games that we all play
Thankyou each and every one of you for the welcome that you gave
And with that I will tell you “We will stay”

Preparing for Aus Day

It's funny - in Australia, Australia Day is pretty much just a good excuse to have a day off and have a BBQ (while listening to Triple J's hottest 100 countdown :-)

Here in Canada, it is suddenly a celebration of all things Australian: Vegemite sandwiches, Lamingtons, Tim Tams, Waltzing Matilda, The Man from Snowy River. It is just so awesome to be Australian.

I think I'd better defrost the barbie...


Lamingtons. None of the bakeries around here know what a lamington is. Not a problem - we're Australian - we can cope with these sorts of adversities - we'll just make them ourselves.
First, we need a sponge cake mix. Guess what? They don't have sponge cake mix in Canada either. It's called Angel Food cake.
After an aborted attempt to cook a packet mix of Angel Food cake (unfamiliar oven plus poor kitchen skills equals a bit of a mess...) I found a bakery that made me a big slab of sponge.
Delle's infinitely better culinary ability soon had that sponge chopped up into lammo sized blocks and had them covered in chocolate and coconut.



Mmmm - Lamingtons...

Tim Tams - It seems that not too many Canadian supermarkets stock Tim Tams.
Luckily Google knew where to find them - in the Real Canadian Superstore.

Well, our Aus Day preparations are pretty much complete. I'll sort the Vegemite sangers tomorrow so they are nice and fresh...

They eat WHAT in Canada?

Poor chickens. (Well, technically roosters...)

Mill Woods Park

On Saturday, Simone from Delle's school invited us to join her family for an afternoon of toboggan fun at Mill Woods Park.

We brought along Delle's class mascot, Kristy Lou the Koala to join in the fun.

Of course, Cayde and Addison were straight into it, diving down the hill on their sliders, as were Simone's kids, Danielle and Katie.

I gave it a go on kid sized slider. Needless to say, I had bits hanging off all over the place, and I crashed about halfway down the hill.


Trying again with a larger vehicle with considerably more success...



Enough about me, what about Delle and the kids (and Kristy Lou)?


Here they go. Yes, the squealing is Delle.



And yes, when a big person rides on the back with a little person on the front of a slider, they often end up going backwards at the bottom of the hill.



Of course, I had to have a go taking Kristy Lou down the hill.
Here's the view from "Kristy Cam".



It kind of ended in disaster :-) Funny how tricky it is to hold on to the slider and the camera at the same time.

After a quick trip down to the frozen lake at the park we headed back to Simone and Mick's house for a delicious pasta dinner.

With all that spaghetti, I just had to enlighten Simone and Mick to the deep religious significance of the meal thanks to the Flying Spaghetti Monster...

Anyway, thanks for a great day Simone, Mick, Danielle and Katie.

Mark

Farmer's Markets and friendly faces

What a lovely day we had when Louanne, Rick and Kate took us to the Farmer's Markets in Old Strathcona.

It was rather cold when we set off - notice the sign - current temperature -14 degrees.

Much warmer inside and naturally the first stop would be to have faces painted. She reminded us of Pip. She was fun.

And she did a beautiful job.

This place is pure atmosphere and full of characters.

Canadians strike me as a friendly people. We have chats, smiles and laughs at many turns.

And I thought Canadians only did maple syrup.

The food and wares here are amazing. We bought some yummy dips and some crab apple jelly (that I am hoping is just like the one Aunty Helen makes at home). Though I walked straight past the bison meat stand. Ughh!!

These are the cutest mittens I have ever seen. I so want to buy things for Little Miss Freya. You should have seen the baby moccasins.

Do you like my new hat? It will keep my ears warm and give me hat hair that is not as bad as when wearing a beanie (or should I say toque). Of course, I only bought it for practical reasons.

We leave the markets to walk Whyte Avenue and discover more of the uniquenes that is Old Strathcona. Yummy Mexican lunch, more shops then move on to yummy apple strudle and gelato. I like this place.

The highlight however is the company.

Thankyou Louanne, Rick and Kate for enlightening us about life in Canada, for your warmth and for the laughs.

We had a great day!!!

Toboggan or not toboggan, that is the question...

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to slide
The slopes and narrows of outrageous snowfall
Or to join arms against a sea of snowflakes
And by combining crash them?

As you saw from my previous post of the kids in the park, there is a lot of snow in Edmonton at this time of the year.

This afternoon, Cayde's class had their tobogganing lesson - half an hour of sliding mayhem :-)



(I don't get why girls the world over squeal so much.)

Once school was over, Cayde and I came back with Addison for some more fun in the snow.



Ok, so she missed the jump.

Here's Cayde's attempt.



Yeah, so the jump was more of a slight undulation than a death-dealing obstacle of doom, but hey, the kids enjoyed it :-)

Mark

Busted

Every morning when I drop Delle and the kids off to school, I greet Shirley and Barb in the office.

I've been teaching them the classic Aussie greeting of "G'day, how's it going? Not bad, yourself? Can't complain."

So, today at lunchtime, Delle is in the staffroom and ducks up to the office to get a tissue.
What does she find on the tissue box???


Barb and Shirley, you are so busted!

Mark

Shopping at the Chemist

One of the teachers at Delle's school - Norma - very kindly took us on a guided shopping tour to help us find our way around.

She took us to the Chemist.

It was called London Drugs.

Now, I don't know about you but that name makes me think more of rave parties in English cities than a place to buy cough medicine.

Anyway, this was a big chemist.

It was the size of a supermarket.

There was aisle after aisle of shampoos, hair colours, cough medicine, vitamins, pain relief, band aids and the like.

Then there were aisles full of food.
Unusual, I thought.

Then there were aisles with vacuum cleaners and fridges.
What sort of chemist sells fridges?
They must be on drugs (probably from London).

Then I came to the camera section.
They don't just process film and print photos, they sell all sorts of still and video cameras.

Just down the back was the computer section where they sold PCs, printers, upgrade bits and software.

Finally, at the end of an aisle that I had skipped earlier was the ultimate "that's a weird thing to sell in a chemist" product.

A snow blower. (That's like a lawn mower for snow)

Who goes to the chemist to buy a snow blower?
Canadians, obviously.


No, I don't get it either.

(Wait a minute - drugs - snow - blow - hmm...)

The Playground

This is some equipment in the school playground.

Notice the snow...

(Yes, that's a see saw poking out there)

Looks like a bit of an avalanche down the slippery dip.

Since pictures paint a thousand words, this has been my wordiest blog entry yet.
Phew, I'm exhausted.

More words next time,
Mark

Minus 29

How cold was it after I dropped Delle and the kids at school today?

There's a clue in the title of this post - just add degrees Celsius after it and you'll be correct.

Luckily there was no wind, so it was quite pleasant out, as long as no skin was exposed anywhere.

I saw a person out walking, rugged up to the max. Only their eyes were peeking out. Their glasses had iced up :-)

Driving on snow and ice is an interesting experience. I was being really careful around a corner and put the car sideways. I got it under control pretty quickly since I was only doing about 10km/h, just to see a postal delivery van do exactly the same thing one block down the road. Hmm...

(Posties, they're all hoons :-)

Inconceivable!!!

What a change!!! - Oh my golly gosh, how do people function over here???

We allow extra time every morning just to get snow pants, mittens, scarves, coats and everything else on. This makes sure a minimal amount of flesh actually freezes on the way to school. The extremes are certainly experienced as you overheat in all the gear while waiting for everyone else to don their gear only to be hit with the chill when walking out the door. I still have not mastered locking the front door efficiently with fully gloved hands - keys in Canada should just be bigger! (O.K. Mark just informed me that I did not actually lock the door this morning - oops)

I don't get it - It is dark when we leave for school and dark when we arrive home. Here's a pic of the kids as we left for school this morning. If it looks flopping cold, well you're wrong. It's FLOPPING FLOPPING cold.

Please tell me why are we doing this? That's right it's for the rich experience!!!!!!

The weather is (and I quote from Princess Bride) INCONCEIVABLE!!!


All of this said however we are certainly experiencing life - to its coldest.


WE ARE ALIVE!!!!!

PS The maximum temperature for tomorrow is expected to be minus 21c. Not too cold at all really!!!

Blizzard Time!

The Weather Bureau reckons there is going to be a blizzard tonight...

http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?ab33

Blizzard conditions expected tonight and into Wednesday.

A disturbance crossing southern British Columbia will track eastward into Alberta today and intensify. Bands of snow ahead of the system will become an organized snow area tonight and is forecast to extend from the Lloydminster area west into the grand Prairie/southern Peace regions. Widespread snowfall amounts of near 10 centimetres can be expected with local heavier amounts especially over east central Alberta. Increasing winds this evening will combine with the falling snow to generate blizzard conditions in exposed areas across most of central Alberta. Conditions will slowly improve from the northwest on Wednesday as the snow tapers off and the winds gradually diminish.

In the wake of the disturbance on Thursday an Arctic ridge will build down over western Canada bringing clear skies and very cold temperatures. Brisk winds and temperatures near minus 30 will result in extreme wind chills over the High Level region.

Hmm - blizzards followed by minus 30 temperatures - bring it on! (says the dumb Aussie who has no concept whatsoever what it is like to be in a blizzard or to be that cold...)

We've Arrived in Canada

Wow, it feels good to finally sit back and relax with a bit of a blog entry.

Yep, we made it to Edmonton safely. The flight was really long. US Security in Hawaii (where we stopped for 90 minutes while our plane refuelled) was ridiculous. But we finally made it.

Living in another country is strange. Sure, there are some huge differences like the whole snow thing, but there are heaps of subtle differences that continually emphasise that we have moved to the other side of the planet.

Mark