My blog - October 2005
One Year
October 25th 2005, 7:00am
Today (or to be more accurate, yesterday, since it's now one in the morning) Naomi and I have been together for one year. And in that one year we've spent approximately five weeks together. This evening we went out for a meal at the top of the Calgary Tower. That's the red thing in the picture. It was great food and even better company! And the restaurant revolves once every hour, so we got to see the sun set over Calgary as we ate.
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Above and Beyond
October 22nd 2005, 7:07pm
Yesterday Naomi and I went car shopping. We wanted to get a VW Golf, but didn't manage to find one. But at the last secondhand car yard we went to the guy let us look through a copy of autotrader in his office, and search on his computer, and use his phone to call people. And he was searching for a VW for us too. We were surprised at how helpful he was being - but I guess he gets a little bored sitting in the office on his own all evening!
An hour or so later we asked if we could look up the location of a cinema on google since we were going to go and watch Batman Begins a bit later, but he already knew where the cinema was, and then let us borrow a car from the car yard to drive there. Which was pretty cool since we probably would have missed the film if we'd had to take buses. And after the film we were to give him a call and he'd come and get the car and we could take the bus home. So we did that, except when he got there he drove us home instead.
That's certainly more than I would expect from a used car dealer!
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Pool
October 19th 2005, 8:16pm
Last Friday we went to play pool again. This time we went to the pool hall just down the road instead of going all the way into town, so we actually got to play pool. But they had different rules so I kept losing without knowing it.
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Feels Like Home
October 10th 2005, 3:12pm
That's where home is. Although you can't actually see my apartment because it's in one of the blocks on the other side of the place where all the blocks of apartments are. Whatever you'd call that. A campus perhaps? Anyway, you can see the recreation grounds opposite the apartments where the baseball field is, and Sarcee Trail, which is the main road running down the west of Calgary. In the distance you might just be able to make out the mountains. The other day we went past a lake on the bus and could see snow covered mountains the other side - looked very nice, but I didn't have my camera with me.
Yesterday I went to church in the northwest of Calgary. It took two busses and a c-train ride to get there, and we had to set off two hours early, but I really liked the church. It was nice and small - just a couple of hundred people perhaps, and had a really nice family atmosphere. The worship was dire, but that might have been because it was a special service, with it being Canadian Thanksgiving here this weekend, so we're going to try it again next week. And I've worked out a bus route which takes half and hour less, so I won't have to get up at silly o'clock.
It doesn't actually feel like home here yet - I miss having friends, I miss my car (at least, I miss being able to go for a drive and explore) and I get frustrated by people not being able to understand me. Such as yesterday when I asked for a Coke in MacDonalds and they didn't understand. But this is a picture of some guys playing cricket on the tennis courts outside my apartment yesterday afternoon, which makes me feel more at home!
Culture note: You can use American coins in Canada as if they were Canadian money.
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Bottlescrew Bill's
October 8th 2005, 10:02pm
I went to Bottlescrew Bill's Old English Pub last night. We found it on the internet when looking for pool halls in Calgary. It did have a pool table, but it was in use, so we had a pint and some food instead. When you first walk into the pub it looks like and English pub. Although not in any way an Old English pub. But then you start to notice the differences. Like when you sit down and a waitress comes over and asks what you want. And the people you are with ask for the beer menu. And then you ask for an Old Speckled Hen and it comes in a can. It wasn't a bad place though. Just not very Old English.
Language Note: In England when you put stuff in a bottle to preserve it you call it bottling. In Canada it's called canning.
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Comment posted by maret at 10:02pm on October 8th 2005
Sounds like a typical pub in estonia!
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Settling In
October 7th 2005, 5:39pm
I've been here for just over a fortnight. Is that all? It feels like I've been here much longer. The first week I was here I had a bad cold and got an infected cut while shaving, so it wasn't all that fun. Just sitting around doing not much and trying to rest and get better. But now I am better, Naomi is in Calgary, I have my computer set up so I can work during the day and spend evenings with Naomi.
Yesterday I didn't work though, I went shopping with Naomi, and got some new trainers and jeans. I still need to get a winter coat though, as it'll be getting really cold before too long. At the moment the weather isn't too bad. It has been cold (-2), warm (20ish), dry, rainy, sleety, snowy, frost, windy - I don't think it's hailed yet though. And I thought British weather was random. It's far more random here, and the temperatures are weird - the other day I walked over to Nomi's in the afternoon and it was really cold, and then when I walked home at midnight it was quite warm. You always need a coat because you never know what the weather will be like in ten minutes time.
The picture is of the block of apartments I'm living in at the moment, with Naomi's brother Paul. Her sister and sister's husband (Colin and Aubrey) live upstairs in another apartment, and she lives in an apartment ten minutes walk down the road.
On Sunday we went to church. It was enormous. There must have been about fifteen hundred people there - about ten times more than I like to have at church. The service was ok, but I'd rather go somewhere a little smaller and a little closer to home. Then we went to the Farmers market with nearly all of Naomi's family - everyone I mentioned above plus her mum who had driven her over from Prince George with all her stuff in a huge pickup. Which is what the picture is of. Naomi didn't want to be in the picture. I don't know why. She's beautiful. And the pickup really is huge - even for Canada.
Language note: In Canada, you probably don't live in a house. It's more likely to be an apartment, condo, duplex, fourplex, townhouse, loft, villa or street (if you're homeless). Just don't make the mistake of calling any of them a house.
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Comment posted by DaVerne at 5:39pm on October 7th 2005
Hmmm interesting comment. My perspective is a little different. From what I see and the people I know - most live in houses. None of our friends or family except for newly weds and singles live in apartments or townhouses, etc. You are correct - if you live in a house you want it to be called a house and a townhouse is a townhouse and an apartment is an apartment. They are all "home" to whoever occupies them, however. :)
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Comment posted by Maret at 7:00am on October 25th 2005
Congratulations!
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