WHAT I LIKE ABOUT CANADA

What I like about Canada:




The people. Well I have to say that I suppose but it is true Canadian’s are just about the  nicest and most polite people on the planet.



The lakes. They are everywhere here in the Okanagan. Cool and clear with the reflections of mountains glistening on the surface. They are both a summer and winter playground and form a chain of wonder that runs through the region.



Mountains. They form a wonderful backdrop to the sparkling lakes. The sheer granite bluffs are magnificent and shame some of the hills we call mountains in Australia. I see them everywhere and I want to climb every one of them.



Seasons. Hot summers and cold winters as it should be. Winters where snow carpets everything and the lakes freeze. The autumn/fall where trees wear a resplendent array of colourful cloaks and the autumn leaves drop to the ground leaving a multi-coloured carpet behind. Summers that are dazzingly hot and encourages you to take a dip in the clear-watered lakes. Spring where the lilacs and sunflowers bloom and the trees spout an abundance of ne foliage.



Wildlife. There are deer everywhere, walking down the road and in the front gardens. Big horn sheep that perch majestically on rocky outcrops. There are bear and cougar too but I am still searching for them.


Supermarkets. It is just different. Just a few tiny things that make shopping in supermarkets a treat. Similar products with different names.



Ice Hockey. I like it. Is this the fastest game on earth.



Curling. Once a doubter but now a believer.



A&W. My favourite fast food chain. Love those Uncle Burgers.



Roads. Generally they are great. The road over the Rockies from the Okanagan is a wonder.






There are many more likes but this will do for now. Of course if there is a like list there has to be a dislike list. That will be in the next blog. Perhaps it would be wiser to wait until I am back in Australia to publish the dislike list!

Back In The Saddle

Back into the swing of things again after the departure of the kids last week. On Monday I dusted off the Asics and got back into an exercise routine. Of course being another year older since I last exercised just before Xmas made it so much more difficult.

No build ups for me straight in at the highest level and consequently almost killed myself. It has been a lifelong story. Get fit and enjoy it, then get injured or go away for work or just get plain lazy and lose all the fitness and then have to start from scratch all over again and again.

I am also back in the editing saddle. As usual I buggered around for ages until I actually sat down at the computer to edit. It has always been like that with writing or university assignments. I always find other things to do but once I commit myself to the task it works out fine. In two days I edited 36 pages which is the most yet. I should (will) have the edit completed by the end of the month.

The weather is still pretty murky here, just the one sunny day in the past 3 weeks. It is like living in London, except with scenery. Apparently because of the geography of the Okanagan Valley and the angle of the sun the weather won't start to improve until mid-February. That said it was 11c here on Tuesday. 

Off to the movies tonight to see Sherlock Holmes. The Penticton Cinema may not be the most salubrious cinema in Canada but seats only cost $6.95 which is a huge plus. When you consider that cinema tickets in Australia are now $16 or more $6.95 is a huge bargain. 

I have seen a few movies over the past few weeks. Avatar, Up in The Air and The Blind Side. Each one was worth the price of admission.  

It is school exam time here at the moment so there is a bit of stress floating around the place.

CANADIAN CRICKET

Over the past five days I have been avidly watching the progress of the Second Cricket Test, Australia v West Indies from Adelaide. A draw seemed a fair result. To someone not familiar with the noble game of cricket playing a game for five days, for six hours a day and then at the end of that time not getting a result would appear a little bizarre. But to those of us who grew up with the game, this is one of crickets attractions.

What other game can you have such quaint terminology as: leg before wicket, silly mid on, square leg, a maiden over or silly point.....well the list goes on and on.

To an Australian the dulcet tones of Richie Benaud signals summer as surely as cicada's blaring from a eucalyptus tree. For those who may not be aware, Richie is Australia's equivalent of Howard Cossell.

Thinking of cricket reminded me of a strange encounter I had about a month into my stay here in Canada.

I was driving into OK Falls and off in the distance I spied something that looked familiar. It couldn't be I thought to myself. No it couldn't be not here in OK Falls, British Columbia. I stopped the vehicle and said to my companion that that strip of green over yonder in the local park looks like a cricket pitch.

"A cricket what?" she answered with a vague look on her face.

"It looks like a cricket pitch. And look at either end there's a set of stumps!" Now she really thought I had lost it. Talk of crickets, stumps and pitches tends to do that with sweet Canadian gals.

I knew an explanation wouldn't suffice so I said lets drive to the park and have a look. She was only too happy to comply with the request of this weird Australian.

We pulled up at the park and to my amazement there were the two opening batsman going out to the pitch to take guard. One team were dressed in blue one-day garb and the other in yellow.

A cricket match was about to be played here in Okanagan Falls, population of around 1000. Go figure!

It turns out that the two teams were made up exclusively of expatriates from the sub-continent and a thriving competition is conducted in and around the Okanagan Valley.

So here I was sitting in my car watching a cricket match in OK Falls, trying to explain the convoluted rules to my companion, whilst just a short distance away a group of boys were playing an impromptu game of baseball.

Cricket being played was the last thing I expected to see here in rural Canada. Life is strange!