General Chat

lol! Persey



It was a fantastic game. Fancy letting the opposing team get the equaliser in the last 24 seconds of regulation time.


Actually, the goalie didn't "let" it, it was a good goal. And he's a great goalie ..... he's also the goalie for the Vancouver Canucks, our hockey team.


The Closing Ceremony was also great ........ it showed the Canadians' ability to laugh at themselves, and at the stereotypes that other countries have of Canada. What with giant beavers, moose, mounties, and William Shatner and Michael J Fox having monologues on being Canadian

The best line was one of Shatner's:- "I'm proud of the fact that we Canadians can have 4 beers and still pronounce 'the Strait of Juan de Fuca' without being censored".**


And then there was Michael Buble, that wonderful singer, hamming up "The Maple Leaf Forever"!



Sorry I haven't been around ........ still very achy so have been limiting my time on herre ...... as well as watching the games events yesterday.


Now we have the Paralympics starting on March 12. But most of those events are up in Whistler, except for Sled Ice Hockey which is down here.


sylvia
xxx




Oh ............. all Canadians know, even when drunk, that Fuca is pronounced Fooca :))))

Marjery

I meant to say that we spent almost a year in Australia in 1975/76, and decided that each State and/or its capital could compare almost directly with a Canadian province or capital city

We were based in Melbourne but drove the Nullarbor to Perth in October, and that was when it was still mainly gravel; then upto NSW and Queensland in March through 2 typhoons.

Those trips were done in a 1966 white VW Beetle, and with a toddler in tow ...... she was 17 months old when we arrived and about 28 months old when we left.

We decided Perth and WA compared to Vancouver and BC ............... both on the western edge of the country and ruled by "them back east"

BUT Queensland could also be compared to BC .............. at that time we both had, or had recently had, crazy premiers, Bjelke Petersen for them and "Wackie" Bennett for us.

Sydney was Toronto

Canberra was Ottawa, of course ....... both cities that had been built to be the capital of the country, and both seemingly disconnected from the rest of the country!


and so it went on!


Then OH took another sabbatical in 1992/93, and he and daughter went to NZ. I was told that I couldn't have a leave of absence (even an unpaid one), and I wasn't ready to quit work, so I stayed up here, and just went to NZ for December and January.

They were based in Palmerston North, but did quite a bit of travelling. They hiked the Heaphy Track, among other things. And daughter spent 3 weeks at the Maori Centre in Rotorua learning how to weave ... she made 2 skirts and a basket.

We rented a car while I was down there, and toured the South Ilsand ...................... down as far as Dunedin, over to Milford Sound, Queenstown, up the coast through Hokitika, etc etc.

We also toured some places on North Island (although we had seen a lot when we spent 10 days there in 1976 on our way home from Australia), I loved Napier! We also managed to get a visit to a farm north of Auckland .......... owned by the family of a friend living in Vancouver.


We were last down in Australia in 2006, and hope to be able to come down again in 2011 ... the rationale this time is that the International Botanical Association is meeting in Melbourne. That group meets every 6 years, and it provides a good excuse to go to another country. OH is retired now (or supposed to be), and says he isn't interested in registering for the meeting or going to any sessions ........ but agrees it's a good chance to meet up with friends from other countries, and an excuse to spend several weeks in OZ.




sylvia

I haven't even made one skirt nor a basket. What a failure!!!!!

I can make a hangi and make Maori Bread though. (^_^).

Persey.

ooooh


I'd love a hangi!

I cna't wear a grass skirt any more.



s
xx

I don't look good in a piupiu - was wondering if your daughter still had hers? I do have a kete (kit) but and it has got a hole in it from overuse syndrome.

Can flick the pois though. Was a requirement when I was at primary school - that and the Maori stick games.

P xx

Good morning /afternoon to you all

Marjery, I live in the Maine et Loire which is one of the five departments that make up the Loire region of France. We are lucky as where we are is a little hillier than the rest of the flatter region and our house is one of the highest about so no chance of flooding even though we can see the river.
We live 5 miles away from a village and just have a few farmers as neighbours and the french that live in rural France are lovely people and we have made several close friends.Rural France tends to be like UK 30 years ago :)
Its a lovely frosty sunny start to the day so hope it stays nice as started the same yesterday but by afternoon was pouring down.
Better go and get some bits done as time flies by sat on here with the PC :))

xx Jill

Sylvia did you see my post re our Vancouver photos 14.40 yesterday, you didn't remark on it so guess you got caught up with talking to other people.

oops Ann


yes, I did see your posting, and as you guessed, I forgot about it when I was posting ..... I've got the attention span of a flea at times!

I hope you enjoyed your time here? Exciting in parts!!!


The Georgia Hotel is undergoing renovation ................. the parking garage that was behind it has been replaced by a 48 storey block of apartments, but the old hotel has been retained. The number of rooms will be reduced by about half as they have combined rooms together to make larger ones. A lot of the old features have been uncovered after being hidden for years, others are being renovated or fascimiles made. The oak-panelled lobby, firepace, and intricate brass on the elevators will remain.

Did you realise that there were 3 elevators, but only 2 of them actually worked? There was a little piece on the TV a couple of weeks ago ...... apparently the 3rd eelvator was never installed, but it has been now! So they have almost half the number of rooms and 1/3rd more elevators!

The hotel has been closed now for at least 2 years, but they hope to re-open it in the next few months.


It has been wrapped in a gigantic Canadian flag for the last 4 or 5 weeks.

I think the new name will be Rosewood Hotel Georgia



and that's probably more than you wanted to know!!!




s
xxx

No, that is actually interesting, I loved the hotel, so 'old wordly' with cocktails in the lounge in martini shaped glasses with an olive. I seem to remember when we arrived from Seattle we had trouble finding where to park the cars (two couples a car each).
We liked all of Vancouver. Grouse mountain was great, especially the carvings although the chairlifts were really dangerous, could easily break a leg getting on or off.
Canada Place we couldn't believe the size of the ships that go up to the Arctic, beautiful but i decided I wouldn't go unless I had one of the outside cabins.
Gas Town was a bit touristy but fascinating if you took time to read all the blurb around and we liked the steam clock (it must have all made an impression because I can remember it all clearly and it was 12 years ago.
Stanley park was one of the nicest parks we've been in, was it there that there is the statue of the girl in a wet suit?

Would like to return one day but I doubt if we will. We went on from Vancouver up to Banff and then the Ice fields, then on to Glacier Park, Yellowstone Park, Spokane and back to Seattle.

Yes

the girl in a wet suit is in Stanley Park


Can you believe, but when the artist first installed it there ....... the city and parks removed it within days.


Well, he had done it without permission! But still, they were so stuffy about it!

I think it was after the 3rd installation that they got the idea that everyone else did want it ....... so it has stayed.


That was quite a trip you had.



s
xx

Good morning
Ann and Silvia, about 15 years ago we crossed the ice fields from Jasper to Banff while on an extended ski holiday, it was spectacular. Do hope to get back to Canada but exchange rate is so bad at the moment and it puts a lot extra on the total price for a trip.
We are still waiting on the last two sheep to birth and are in doubts about one, she will surprise us now and have one :)
It was a lovely day yesterday but its all change today and very chilly over here, still not long until Spring. I picked some daffs yesterday, still in tight bud but will soon flower and lovely to see a touch of green showing on our lilac .
Have a good day

x Jill

Hullo Sylvia I would say that you are dead right in your analysis of our capitals and yes W.A. is the cinderella state as for as the East is concerned.
In the 1980's we had the most millionaires,Rolls Royces,boats and drank the most Champagne and we are still the richest state.
I lived a third of my life in N.Z. and never made a skirt or a basket, never mind walked the Heaphy track. Never even been to see the glow worms but I have done the same South Is. bit you have done when we have been back on holiday. I didn't know Captain Kirk was a Canadian. I was a great fan of his.
My grandfather was going to emigrate to Montreal in 1920 but changed his mind at the last moment and went to N.Z. instead.

You are in the right place more or less to be one of my rellies Persephone, I shall have to have a look at my Auckland street map. When I feel a bit homesick I look at the Real Estate section on Trademe to see if I can find a nice house in the country somewhere.

How many sheep have you got Jill and what sort are they? I suppose they speak French, I learned it for four years at school and still remember a lot but we never learned conversational French . Any nice wineries near you and do you knock up French culinary triumphs for dinner or do you just stick to what you know.? Your area sounds nice. I make a point of watching the Tour de France every year just to look at the scenery. There are some lovely parts of France.

Good evening Ann it was a bit cooler here to-day and there is a little hint of Autumn in the air in the early morning. Can't wait til it cools down so I can start reorganising my garden. March used to be my lift it and shift it month.
I know one or two people who have been on that cruise from Vancouver to Alaska, they say it is lovely. I always fancied a trip from coast to coast on the train but I don't know whether they do that any more. My daughter wants to go to that big shopping centre in Calgary I think it is or Edmonton..

Hallo Marjery, as I said I would only go on that cruise if we could afford one of the luxurious outside cabins so i guess we need to win the lottery. I don't 'do' cruises but looking at the scenery it does look spectacular.
Jill the Ice Fields are beautiful aren't they? Mind you on that trip we were spoilt for choice to pick out our favourite part, from Vancouver which was lovely, to all the mountains across the Rockies, Banff and Lake Louise, the huge expanse of the plains of Montana,Glacier Park which was recovering from the awful fires at the time and Yellowstone with the geysers and Mammoth Hot springs with all the calcification, Beautiful mountains and rivers. And I have to pick just a couple of photos for my scrap pages to depict the holiday!!!

Sylvia, I am glad that they eventually left the statue there she is beautiful.

Hi all

So glad to hear that so many of you have enjoyed visits to Canada.

It is our adopted country, and we love it. The cooler parts of Australia or New Zealand would be our choices if we had to move from here

Marjery ....... they do indeed still do that coast to coast train trip! There is now only one route ...... the Northern one via Jasper, Winnipeg, etc.

We first rode the train across back in 1972, when there were 2 routes. We went by the southern route, and that train went all the way to the East Coast without you having to change trains. But that route was taken off many years ago.

We do it at least once a year because our daughter lives in Nova Scotia. If we go to visit her in spring through autumn, we fly over there and take the train back. We do it both ways by train when we go in the winter, for Christmas.

Our next trip will be at the end of April. J's expecting a baby on March 30, we're flying over there on April 8 (hoping "it" has arrived), and returning by train. We leave Halifax on April 19 and arrive in Vancouver on April 24

.... yes, it takes 5 nights and 6 days. It is possible to take breaks along the route if you want ....... Jasper, Toronto, Montreal, etc


The trip requires taking 3 trains ................... The Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto takes 4 nights and 5 days. The daylight commuter train from Toronto to Montreal takes about 6 hours. Then The Ocean from Montreal takes from about 8pm to the following mid-day.

The Canadian uses the original stainless steel carriages built in the 1950s, with the domed car and art deco-style dining car. The Ocean and the dayliner are modern ......... in fact the carriages on The Ocean were bought from England and have had to be adapted to Canadian use.

The food is superb!!


I can thoroughly recommend it.



The sun is shining today!



sylvia
xxx

I have only been to the USA once. A quick trip to New York, managed to see an Ice Hockey Match, between an American team and a Canadian team.
We went up the Empire State Building and The Twin Towers. Walked across The Brokyln Bridge (from Broklyn). Saw "Kiss me Kate" at the Theatre. Went to Central Park, a Museum, several shops and restaurants.Travelled on the Stratten Island Ferry. In fact, packed a lot into a few days!

Have never been to Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Travelled a lot on steam trains in the UK and Ireland when I was a child. I thought that it was really posh to go in a train with a corridor!

Have cousins in Colarado who love steam trains. They have been on steam trains in many parts of the world, including, I think, Canada and New Zealand. I quite envy them at times.

I have been on the (almost) local, Severn Valley Railway. But it only does day trips. My niece and her husband, had their wedding reception on the train nearly five years ago! It was great.

Sounds like a lovely way to travel (The Canadian) Sylvia.

We have never been to Australia or N Zealand but have been to the US quite a few times.

New England and Vermont (not in the fall though

Boston to Niagara and back to the coastal area at Rockport

Los angeles to Palm Springs, Las Vegas and then the Canyons (Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Archers to name a few)

Los Angeles to Phoenix, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Yosemite, San Fransisco and Disney Land Las Vegas

Atlanta, Cherokee, Nachez, Smokey Mountains, Chatanooga, Nashville, Memphis (Gracelands), Baton Rouge, New Orleons

Disney World five times, some of which were linked to a week at Clearwater.

I do feel lucky to have been able to do these trips and see so much of such a vast and interesting and in some cases awesome country.

We went to Los Angeles in 1992 purposely to go to Disneyland
Flew from Perth to Sydney and connected straight away for L.A. arriving half an hour before we had left Sydney after a seventeen hour flight.
How amazing is that but we crossed the date line. It took us thirty two hours from leaving home for the journey so had a tour of Hollywood to fill in the day.
Also caught a train from L.A. to San Fransisco and walked over the bridge with my heart in my mouth as they had had a big earthquake a few months before.
We flew from there to Hawaii and went to all of the islands as it is something I have always wanted to do ever since I heard about my great grandmother and two of her daughters going for a cruise there in the 1930's. from N.Z.
When we got home people who had been said that we should have gone to Canada instead of America as it is cleaner and safer.
We had so many warnings about don't go here or there or do this or that I didn't really enjoy it all that much although it was interesting.
I have done a lot of travelling in steam trains Theresa in the North Is of N.Z. when they used to run and I have been on the Ghan from Alice Springs to Tarcoola on the Nullabor and from there to Kalgoorlie. We weren't in the Passenger train though but on the Goods train.

Marjery there will always be people to put you off and to be honest I didn't find Canada any cleaner or dirtier than anywhere else. I always found the US to be clean, the only places we were ever nervous were one, when we stayed near the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and two when we stayed at a cross roads somewhere in Utah and it was very near an Indian settlement area and there were lots of mangy looking dogs roaming around

Marjery, I will look up the places you travelled through later.
Have been out and just catching my breath, need a cup of tea and a rest.

It has been one of those days.... I thought that I was so organised.
Had booked a hair-cut at the College in town, and was taking my Library books back too, as the College and the Library are near each other.

I hate to be late, so arrived for my hair appointment ten minutes early. Only to be told that I was ten minutes and TWENTY FOUR HOURS early!

So went to the Library, to return my books, then found that one of them was TWENTY FOUR HOURS late! (which incurred a fine).

Paid my 12pence fine and got some new books. (for the GReaders group).
Now I had time to spare. I have been trying to get through to the CAB on the phone was days. I have either got the engaged signal, or it rings out for five and a half minutes and then cuts off (after an automated message).
So thought that I would use my unexpected 'free time' to visit the CAB Office nearest to me. Got a bus from town to the CAB and found that it was CLOSED, with the shutters down, and no info. visable to say when they would be open again. (There was however a different phone number above the shutters).
Didn't want to have made a wasted (extra) journey, so thought that I would go to the Charity shop, which is a little way down the road and on the other side from the CAB office. I could see the Charity Shop sign, above the shop, so crossed the road to find that ... IT ISN"T a CHARITY SHOP ANYMORE!!!!!!
There are net curtains in the windows and glass fronted door, with nothing to indicate what is happening.

I have just realised that with all this going on, I have forgotten to get any milk Ahhhhh!!!!

At least now I don't need to go and get my hair cut .......
I have pulled it all out in frustration!!!

As I say, it has been one of those days!

Tess

Oh dear Tess, a bad hair day in more ways than one. At least you got your books!!!