Signs from the heavens

Tonight, for the first time since we arrived (in fact, it was about 6 minutes ago) we saw the northern lights. The aurora borealis. Spirits in the sky (no, nothing to do with Gareth Gates!). OH MY WORD! It's indescribable. Apparently they come in various "flavours" and we got vanilla. They are the wispy white slow moving ones, not the brightly coloured pink and green and stuff. It's like saying something is a minor miracle. They danced and swayed and flared and amazed us! We drove out to where there are fewer street lights and just sat staring until they faded.

It's unlike anything I've ever experienced. No wonder native indians believe the spirits of all their ancestors live above them and come to visit from time to time. I promise you, if those lights asked me to hike up a mighty river and wrestle a bear, I would have! Powerful stuff.

At the end of our first dinner party in Moose Jaw with the friendliest bunch of people, we feel really fantastic. A good day.

That is all.

Gran

It's not every day you become an octogenarian. Happy Birthday, Gran! You are the best ever and I hope you have a wonderful day! I have been thinking of you SO often since you commented. I had some soup just the other day that reminded me of your soup. I have also discovered that there is a muesli here called "Harvest something" that is EXACTLY like yours. I wonder if perhaps all the exotic world-wide trips are actually sponsored by your huge Canadian Muesli empire!? Who can tell?

Anyway, just got off the phone and it sounds like you were about to have a terrific day. I hope being 80 is as fun as being 70 was! Crazy old traveling lady!!

I (we) look forward to seeing you in December!

love you!

See. Don't know where it was before. Oh, and my name is not Lamont. It's the other one.

Andrew, for crying in a bucket!

It seem blogger photos are working again, so scroll down to see the photos where they should be. Mixed with words. Yay for blogger.

That is all.

MiniMe

In the spirit of furthering our North American experience, we went along and joined "The Y". Why? No. Y! As in YMCA. I didn't get a leather hat, or construction hat, but we did get access to the gym and Courts. The gym is ... well, its okay. Gyms here (okay, in rural Canada as far as we know) aren't very snazzy as a rule. There are nice pieces of equipment (like treadmills and stationary bikes with their own cable TV's built right in) but overall there is a certain lameness. It seems to be an extension of the whole "Eat until you need your knees replaced" attitude. Somehow you would think that more food = more ways of burning it off, but alas. That is NOT the case.

We also ventured down into the courts. We have every intention of staying fit and slim (which is what we are now) during the winter months, and indoor sport seem to be necessary for that. We could do what everyone else does and claim it's the puffy clothes, but we are going to be back in the south of the globe right in the middle, so that just won't fly. We rented out raquets and goggles (PLEASE! as if we would would WEAR goggles) and went in.

It was like we were playing squash, but had shrunk to half our size. The ball is bigger. The rackets are bigger, and the court is bigger. We also discovered why the lame folks wear goggles (not that it made us want to. An eye is a small price to pay for not looking like a TURBO dork). The ball moves like a little blue missile. We have gotten not-rubbish at it now though, having worked out a few bits and pieces. To help you out when you try it, not getting hit helps a LOT.

Oh, and be sure to get the rhythm of the word right when saying it, otherwise noone will know what you are talking aboot. Fast, then slow. Ready? rakt-baaaaaaal. Got it?

Oh, and we did find a town called "Andrew". I thought I'd put a photo up, but now I can't find it.

That is all.

Names

Yesterday Claire said she treated someone from... wait... she couldn't remember. She said the name was funny (as if Moose Jaw isn't) and that it's close to the US border. So I just pulled up google maps and had a look around. Now I can't work out if it's "Radville" (although it sounds like a place I'd like to live), "Brokenshell", "The Gap", "Surprise Vally" or perhaps it's near "Big Muddy Lake". "Hart Butte", "Willow Bunch"?

Crazy place.

That is all

Pics

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I have been trying EVERY DAY to put photos up for you people!! A "You go, man!" or "I'm rooting for you, dude" would help!? Okay, so that's not what I mean. I just can't stand it anymore. So I've added the pics to my flickr account.

Click This to see the photos

And when you want to see photos, I will just link to the flickr account on the side ---> Under "Links". I know its nicer to see them in-line like this, but what can be done? We can't stem the tide of writing brilliance (okay, thoughts on nothingness) bursting forth from my ... well, I'll leave that now. I just wanted to use the word "forth", and I did that already.

So go look at the photos. I'll upload more there now. It's easy (so I have no excuse). DAMN!!! Why did I tell you!?

Since the move

So, we've been busy bees. I would love to have kept you more up to date, but this uploading photos problem is keeping me from forging on. Well, as you can see, it WAS, really. I'm going to just carry on. Images or not.

So, where did we leave off...

So, we headed up to Saskatoon for Claire's exam. We were tailing Chris, and I got the distinct impression we were slowing him down, even though the dealership gave us a BMW 325i to zoot around in while they sorted out the bits and pieces they had neglected when they delivered the car.
AAAAanyway, we stopped in this little nothingness of a town (because we all needed to waz), and Chris got totally freaked. He said it reminded him of the setting for a horror film where there is nothing for miles, and zombies come out of the petrol pumps and kill people. I told him that Canada was metric and they had no miles, only Kms, and he felt better.

We stayed in the Hilton, and had coffee, but nothing much happened. Exam, packed up, headed for Cypress Hills. Its supposed to be some geological anomaly, blah blah blah. Nature, animals, not home. Thats all. It too wasn't terribly special. It's like cabin-central though. Everyone and their dog has a cabin. Big, small, cheap, crazy expensive. Check it out

Then it was on to IKEA land. Well, Calgary. But we were MOST interested in IKEA since they offered us the chance to cheaply furnish our new spot. Apart from IKEA, we went to a latin restaurant (although i suspect it was latin-american), and a place called "the garlic clove". We came out stinking to high heaven, and loved every smelly bite. There were honestly 40 individual roasted garlic cloves on top of my bree starter and Claire's mussels were dripping with garlic bits. The car stunk for two days afterwards. Best meal we've had since we got here, I think. Steak plus garlic!? Can you beat it? (hint: the answer begins with "N")

Oh, I forgot. When we were at Cypress hills, we 'popped' (hour drive) down to see the largest Tyrannosaurus skull EVER found. Well, maybe in saskatchewan. But come on! How often do you get to stand next to something that's 65,000,000 years old (give or take - i dont think the thing ACTUALLY died in September 64997994 bc). And it was standing next to us too. It was JUST as lucky. We had the world's fastest tour (of the one roomed museum) because we got there 30 minutes before it closed. Was worth every Montana-radio-station-filled minute of the drive. We were both dino-dorks when we were kids, so almost indulged ourselves in the gift shop (I mean, they have this thing where a mini skeleton is 'buried' in clay and it comes with scrapers and brushes and stuff to dig it out. Like a REAL paleontologist. Only smaller.). We did feel kind of sorry for the dino-dorks that work there now. It's going to take them another 15 years to finish uncovering the bones. And they've been at it for .... Oh my word, this story is getting BOOORRRINNNGGG!

So we drove home and that was that. Nice little break, really. First in a while.

That is all

Moose Jaw

Well, we are here, and settling. "Ing" and not "ed" because we have no stuff. We have a borrowed bed, included washer/dryer and fridge, and a couch (our very own).

Okay, let me back up a little and give a run-down of the past few days (weeks).

So we left Yorkton. No fan-fair. No crying fans. Not even a phone-call. Nothing. Claire made the effort to get flowers for the emergency room nurses who she's spent the past six months with. They in return ate a donut. Well, that's what I think they did. Anyone having trouble working out why we aren't sad to leave? I thought not.

Seldom has there been a place I've lived and left and KNOWN, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that I would never be back. It really hasn't been a bad time (as you know), but its been in spite of the place. It's like Yorkton is where boredom goes to die, and then doesn't. Crops, snow, donkeys. All interesting. Put them in Yorkton, and they become Main attractions.

Like this:


So we tested the load-space of the little blue bug of cuteness to the max. Thank all things thankable that we dumped a bunch of our stuff with Chris in Moose Jaw the week before, because it was a tight fit. See?


Actually, it was a "didn't fit". We left our toaster oven behind (no, not a toaster - a toaster oven. Never saw one in SA. Its the appliance that has prompted tacos to include warnings of fire and doom. Okay, just fire). We didn't even stop for coffee (we took to buying our 'coffee' at 7-eleven. Its actually hot chocolate and vanilla flavoured hot-water). If someone had warned us not to look back for fear of turning to salt, we would have been safe as houses. Man, I'm really giving it to Yorkton, hey? Anyone whose been there BETTER comment. Back me up.

But you know how they say "the grass is always greener", well sometimes it just is. Moose Jaw is cuter and bigger at the same time. It has a hill. Just one, but its there. It has Al Capone's car(thats a story for later. Watch this space). It has cappuccino. It also has sunsets to die for.

Okay, so does Yorkton.

It also has meter-maids. Well, men ones. We got a ticket for "expired meter" on our first day, so we've been to city hall already. We've also been given a tour of the town by Claire's new employer, and Claire has been sent "welcome to our city"-flowers by the surgeon.

Our apartment is massive. Okay, its big. Okay, its small, but its 50 times bigger than our last little place. Okay, its about 4 times bigger. But it has a kitchen, and two bedrooms, and bathroom, and a laundry, and a storage-room-strange-thing, and a lounge/dining room. Our last place had a room with a bed, couch, sink, stove, toilet, bath. I mean, we have a passage!

and some other stuff:


It's a bit like a pop-up book, except its a chair. And a box.

She is.

EDIT: It seems to be sorted out. Phew. I know noone was keen on having to navigate over to flickr.

Right, now i'm getting annoyed with Blogger. I've had this post open for like 3 days trying to upload the photos. So I'm going to just sign off and come back to insert them later. At least now everyone can have a quite read. See you soon.

Oh, and everyone who commented gets a snail mail. Just pop me your addresses, so I know where to send. Geoff wins for the funniest post, Gareth for getting Canary Seed, and Emma can have a for wheat, oats and sunflowers. :). I'm sure Gareth won't mind if I give them to her, eh man?
That is all (except it isnt - flippen Blogger)