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