Lakeport’s Wee Willy dark Scottish-style beer is not bad. At $1.10/bottle, it’s not bad at all.
Category: o canada
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mother’s day treat: critters!
We were visited by the raccoon family last night; mother and four little ones. Please excuse the ‘painterly’ blur; it’s kinda hard to handhold a 300mm lens for 1/3s exposure. Plus, wee raccoons are speedy little things.
This one was taken a few days back (of the mother alone) in better light:
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bandits in the backyard
momma raccoon climbed up the tree and walked along the back wall — followed by her three little ones. They were very sweet.
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pass the port
I just picked up my Canadian passport. I am teh canada now!
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M.I.N.O.T.H.
= man in need of Tim Hortons.
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Energy Saving Tips for Canadians, #1: a name thing
Canadians are remarkably profligate in their energy use, and I think I know why. It’s not to do with the oft-cited scale of the country, the size of our houses, our cold winters or our hot summers, it’s something simpler than that; it’s what we call our electricity.
Power here is generally known as hydro, and with it comes images of tree-lined rivers with bears happily fishing for salmon. Local electricity companies tend to have that watery thing in their name: Toronto Hydro, Hamilton Hydro, London Hydro (Crieff Hydro is something quite different, though). Some happy green images, eh?
I propose that we stop using the term hydro, and replace it with the snappier smog belching, nuke leaking, only fractionally hydro. It’d certainly make yer average Kathy or Doug drop their double-double (or donut, or dumaurier) when they got their smog belching, nuke leaking, only fractionally hydro bill in. Energy use would plummet, and at no cost to anyone!
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in London
At least I’m in London voluntarily this time; on a CEAA Screenings course.
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… with raspberry vinaigrette!
Paul and I often talked of doing this, but I see someone’s done it for real: they hacked the GO Train scrolly LED signs to read Stephen Harper Eats Babies.
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deserted
Where was everyone in Toronto today? Doing their taxes?
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Tax Time
Phew – that’s the 2005 income taxes filed for Catherine and me, and also my GST return in. I don’t grudge paying taxes (no civilization without taxation, after all), but I hate filling out the returns. I’m also too cheap to get someone to do it for me. Sucks to be me, eh?
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Groundhogs!
I took far too many pictures of groundhogs today. I got some really strange looks from people waiting at the bus stop near one of the burrows.
To learn more about the groundhog, please see http://scruss.com/gallery/v/groundhogs/
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collapse or creation?
Is this picture:
- A news image showing a construction site that collapsed, killing several workers, or
- A work-in-progress image from the Royal Ontario Museum?
Answer after the break.
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four years
It was snowing four years ago. You don’t forget the first day in a new country.
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timwin
Don’t want no car, don’t need no barbecue… But I can always use another coffee from Tim Hortons.
(for those outside Canada, every spring, the Tim Hortons donut chain has a prize promotion. It always provokes a national response little short of hysteria. You can win big things, but winning a coffee is just dandy by me.)
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first groundhog of 2006
On the rockery at the ex-Beaver Lumber place on Warden just north of Dennison. I used to see ’em here when I worked at Gandalf.
It was big, fat, and looked a bit grumpy.
Just after seeing this one, I saw another at a familiar haunt at Warden and Dennison. It’s springtime!
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i really do remember when all this were fields, lad …
Off to markham, to are some of my old haunts. The sweetcorn and pumpkin truck farm is now buried under a mall. Gandalf Graphics is now a self-storage, after Larry Downey and the few remaining staff went to Total Graphics in Vaughan. Most of the fields where I watched groundhogs gambol are now building sites.
Is nostalgia supposed to cut in after less than four years? At least one thing remains the same; Markham Delight in the 1st Markham mall still does the best fried beef rice noodle you can get for $5. And that soymilk they have!
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1656 days from PR application to Canadian Citizenship
I found my old misc.immigration.canada post where I gave the timeline of our application. I’ve now got a few dates to add to that line:
01 Jun 2001: Sent forms with all fees
13 Jun 2001: Receipt acknowledged
26 Jun 2001: Medical forms and interview waiver received
07 Aug 2001: Took medicals
01 Sep 2001: Visas received
02 Apr 2002: Arrived in Canada
18 Mar 2006: Took citizenshipIt’s been hard work, but worth it. Canada’s a decent place to live.
Some observations on how immigration worked for us:
- We did the application ourselves; all you need is on cic.gc.ca.
- Research ways of getting your money into Canada without incurring swingeing foreign exchange charges. This was perhaps our single biggest cost, and I’m sure we could have avoided some of it.
- Canadian banks are rather stuffy and inefficient. Expect to pay bank charges, and also expect the “free banking” banks to turn you down until you have a credit history.
- It takes several years to become credit worthy in Canada. It took about a year before we had a credit card at all.
- Get to know and love your public transit system. Most Canadian cities have decent transit, and living near a busy transit hub gets you around quickly.
- Join the library. Books, internet access, and information of what’s happening — and free, too.
- Owning a car is quite expensive. It’s not the purchase price or the fuel cost; insurance for new immigrants with no insurance record is unbelievable. If your employer can put you on their policy to drive one of their vehicles, you’ll find that it’ll cut your insurance premiums drastically.
- I ended up changing jobs more than I thought I might.
- Volunteering helped me get into the industry I really wanted to be in.
- Professional qualifications don’t import well. Ontario is getting a bit better at accepting foreign qualifications (my UK CEng counted for nothing) but there’s still a long way to go.
Not long after we arrived, I remember being slightly irritated when a fellow UK immigrant said, “The first three years are difficult, then it gets easy.” Looking back, I now agree with him.
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run to the LCBO
… for they have Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer. I haven’t had this since I was back in Scotland.
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my home and adopted land
I became a Canadian citizen just after 10:00 today. I was the only Scot out of 107 new Canadians.
My planning’s excellent; my UK passport expires today…
