Graham Freeman's chronicles of emigration

We recently got back from a week-long trip to Vancouver, where we saw bits of South-western British Columbia. More of that later though.

I’m starting to form a feeling of what I like least about living here. So far, it’s a toss-up between the bad drivers, and the fact you only get two week’s vacation per year as standard. This is a huge country, (Canada, I mean, keep up at the back), and like the neighbours to the south, very few people bother to travel further than they can drive in a couple of hours. You’ll get a few people who’ll head to the Caribbean and stay in an all-in hotel complex, but what’s the point? Which bits of the local scenery/ethnic customs are you experiencing? May as well stay at home. I have no idea why more people don’t venture further – there’s certainly a kind of European Wanderlust in me, as in a lot of Europeans I have met. Maybe I am wrong, but the Europeans have twice the opportunity to travel as do their North American cousins. Four week’s paid vacation, for starters.

But the drivers around here continue to amaze and annoy me. I can be driving down the highway doing the posted 100 limit, with a safe and decent space between me and the car in front, and NO ONE BEHIND ME FOR AT LEAST A KLICK, when some asshole(s) decide to bang up the middle lane doing a buck-thirty-plus and pull in to the gap in front of me forcing me to brake. This happens at least half a dozen times per week, and about twice a week I’ll see someone weave across all the lanes and back again simply to get one car ahead. People! Chill!! You’re getting to where you’re going about 3 seconds earlier, and you’re putting your (and more importantly, my) life at risk. Stop it, and stop it right now. You’re morons who deserve to be struck down by Darwinism, if only you didn’t take out some innocents with you.

Rant off.

So Vancouver was nice ...

First thing - the cam is being tested - it's in beta - it may not work all the time. I have to move it to another computer, one that's more of a server (but not the DC) than a workstation. Then I have to tweak the FTP, then I have to tweak the HTML. Then it will be stable and classed as "in production". Until then, if you can't see an updated image, too bad.

Next thing, we have a new chippie in the garden. Stumpy is so called because it only has half a tail. It also seems to get on better with Lumpy than the other chippies - all of which are seen off by Lumpy as soon as he sees them. Stumpy, however, appears to be able to stare out Lumpy and they've been seen nose-to-nose for a few seconds.

Yesterday we followed Lumpy back to where he's stashing the peanuts. It's at the far side of the steps up the front door of the house next-door-but-one. If you stand on the street while Lumpy is being fed at the deck, you can see him rush across two front gardens with a mouthful of nuts, pop into a shrubbery ("ni!") and a few seconds later come out again and whizz back to the deck. If you're sitting in the back garden with nuts, feeding Lumpy, all you see is him pop out from under the fence and jump onto your lap. You don't get to appreciate how far he has to run to and from the deck to get his winter feed. Cute little bugger, and he's happy to let me stroke him, poke him and tickle him while he's trying to fit peanuts into his pouches.

The squirrels are almost at the point of taking nuts from our hands. I can get the large black one and the grey one to edge up to about six inches away, but the slightest noise will have them scurrying away. Lumpy often foils any attempt to hand feed the squirrels by runnning in and snatching the proffered legume.

Work continues to suck - it's a politik thing, not a work load or "can't do" thing. The worst kind. And for the money I am getting, it may be worth looking at other places if they offer a stable and secure job with more money.

Today will be quiet in the office I hope - it's the Friday before a long weekend - as it's Thanksgiving in Canada. So next week is a four day week, and seeing as I have two weeks holiday each year (travesty!) every day counts, so I booked these four days off, and we're flying West tomorrow to see Vancouver and South West British Columbia. Hopefully we'll see Victoria, and we intend to go to Whistler as well, with a day whale watching thrown in. No doubt there'll be internet cafes there, so I'll try to catch emails and so on.

seeyer

PS - hi to Joel & Linda

The first real frost of autumn hit us this morning. The bird bath was iced over, and a couple of perplexed birds were skating onit, feebly pecking the surface. We'll have to look into getting a heated bird bath, so there's always something for the winter birds to drink.

Deb caught a squirrel on top of the bird feeder yesterday, so at least one has managed to work out how to get up there. Not sure how, which is why I set up a webcam pointing at the back garden. You can see it here. Still being tested, but you can get a glimpse of what's going on. We'll get a better cam later - one with zoom at least, so you can see closer up.

This morning we got a flock of Blue Jays. At least seven flew in, sat in the tree next to the feeder and took it in turns to take peanuts from the hanging bird tray. I've never seen more than two Blue Jays at once, so watching their social interaction was great, even if they were only around for a few minutes.

We're off to Vancouver for a few days soon, looking forward to the break, and to see new scenery. 5 hours in the air to get there though. Ah well.

Off to scrape the car now. Blimey, six more months of this ...