Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Page count: 2653
The weather is something that is different in Southern Ontario, when compared to weather back in England. For the most part, weather in the UK is pretty much like the day before, and there are very few extremes. It drizzles a lot, and there's usually some cloud somewhere in the sky.
Not so here. The temperature can jump 10 degrees from one day to another and then back again, while the skies are open and the sun shines. Then there's a complete thunderstorm like you get in movies - lightning strikes less than a kilometer away and the thunder is deafening, the rain dumps down and two minutes later on the highway you're out of it and the road is bone dry. We were driving from Kitchener to Guelph at the weekend, and we could see ahead of us the dry/wet line across the road. The difference between huge downpour and bright sun was no more than 3-5 meters, and the cloudburst was less than a kilometer wide. Out the other side it was bright again. Astounding.
When it's hot here, it's muggy hot - so 30 degrees seems like 45, which is almost unbearable. Luckily, it's usually only 25 that seems like 35, but still, that's a hot day in any language. Recently, there's been consistent rain north of Toronto, which has resulted in the flooding of Peterborough - a city that's now declared a state of emergency. Scenes reminiscent of England's floods each November. Some things happen everywhere ...
Also, from the 01st July this year, the Ontario government has introduced a new tax aimed at bringing in more money for the health service. Judging by the drop in my pay packet today, I’m paying an extra $450 per year in taxes. That’s more than a 1.2% rise, and though I’m a new employee here, I doubt I’ll be getting a rise in the next 12 months to cover that. Inflation will continue to march on too, so by the time I get any increases, I’ll still be down compared to where I was when I started.
Back to work ...
The weather is something that is different in Southern Ontario, when compared to weather back in England. For the most part, weather in the UK is pretty much like the day before, and there are very few extremes. It drizzles a lot, and there's usually some cloud somewhere in the sky.
Not so here. The temperature can jump 10 degrees from one day to another and then back again, while the skies are open and the sun shines. Then there's a complete thunderstorm like you get in movies - lightning strikes less than a kilometer away and the thunder is deafening, the rain dumps down and two minutes later on the highway you're out of it and the road is bone dry. We were driving from Kitchener to Guelph at the weekend, and we could see ahead of us the dry/wet line across the road. The difference between huge downpour and bright sun was no more than 3-5 meters, and the cloudburst was less than a kilometer wide. Out the other side it was bright again. Astounding.
When it's hot here, it's muggy hot - so 30 degrees seems like 45, which is almost unbearable. Luckily, it's usually only 25 that seems like 35, but still, that's a hot day in any language. Recently, there's been consistent rain north of Toronto, which has resulted in the flooding of Peterborough - a city that's now declared a state of emergency. Scenes reminiscent of England's floods each November. Some things happen everywhere ...
Also, from the 01st July this year, the Ontario government has introduced a new tax aimed at bringing in more money for the health service. Judging by the drop in my pay packet today, I’m paying an extra $450 per year in taxes. That’s more than a 1.2% rise, and though I’m a new employee here, I doubt I’ll be getting a rise in the next 12 months to cover that. Inflation will continue to march on too, so by the time I get any increases, I’ll still be down compared to where I was when I started.
Back to work ...
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