logloglog

Now I’m officially Canadian we thought it was a good idea for me to find out how big this new country of mine (Mine!) really is. So we waited until a good deal came by and booked a trip on the train to Vancouver.

Alison is used to travelling by train. She does this trip actually for the second time, the first time was when she was a teenager together with her mother. But the last couple of years she has travelled so often between Montreal and Toronto that she collected enough points to almost pay for the train fare of two of us. And our flight back from Vancouver will also be on points. I’ve never travelled on points before and I like it.

Tuesday we left, first with the ‘normal’ train to Toronto where we changed onto the “Canadian“. We are lucky and have a tiny bedroom in the Park car, the special car with a bar and a panoramic observation deck on top that is located at the rear end of the train. Our trip to Vancouver will be more than five thousand kilometre, and it will take more than 4 days. No, that doesn’t make for a good average speed, but the train is old and it runs on tracks that are owned by a freight train company (CN or Canada National) so we have to wait fairly often for the numerous passing and upcoming freight trains, often loaded with hundreds of containers. And it also stops in a couple of places so we can stretch our legs and breath in some fresh air. The photo above is taken in Hornepayne. Google it and you’ll see it is in the middle of nowhere. We’re in general travelling in the middle of nowhere. No mobile phone access for almost 30 hours now, so no twittering and mobile Internet either. I’m having redrawel symptons.

On board are about sixty people (the train is not even half full) of very different backgrounds. We get to meet them when we have breakfast, lunch or supper. So there’s the woman with fear of flying who went to a business trip to Montreal from Vancouver who was now returning home. I didn’t dare to ask if her company was paying for it. And the 14 people from the UK and Ireland that got a “Do Canada in 10 days” package deal including visits to Niagara Falls (with optional helicopter ride), Jasper (dogsledding) and Vancouver. They paid a suprisingly low price, which reminded me of the time I tried to book a flight from Amsterdam to Vancouver with a stop in Montreal. Flights to Vancouver were only 100 euro more than to Montreal, but if you wanted to combine things then the price went up to triple the amount. So I never did it. I might have done a package tour like theirs though since it was quite affordable.

There are also a lot of retirees who, after years of working hard, explore Canada the slow way. Some can hardly bridge the snowy landings between the cars to reach the dining car.
this morning I spoke to a German man who was going to visit his niece in Vancouver and whose command of English was very limited so he was very happy he could speak German with me. In the meantime Alison had a conversation with a native trapper who just got on the train on a whistle stop and was going to the next town to take a plane. But the details of her conversation I unfortunately missed.

As I write this we’re 40 minutes away from Winnipeg, our first civilisation in almost two days. But we’re 3 hours late, caused by those freight trains, so our time in Winnipeg will be cut short to one hour. Not that it matters much, I’ve been there before. After that I’ll be entering new territory. I’ve never been more Western in Canada before. I’ve been to Seattle and the West coast of the US, but never to the Canadian West coast. We’ve another day of rail over the prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and then into the Rocky Mountains. We will be pausing our journey for two days in Jasper and then continue on the next train to Vancouver. More soon.

Black Friday, white snow and a loaner dog.

On Black Friday, when you are suposed to support the US economy by buying things you don’t really need, we managed to sneak away with Aliosn’s uncle’s dog Alias for a hike. It was cut short because the dog was tired and fed up with the snow accumulating between his toes after an hour. He should have worn doggy boots, but uncle Sean didn’t have any available.

On our way for the American Thanksgiving celebrations with Alison’s family. Even though the weather predictions only mentioned “some flurries” we ended up in a snow storm near Mexico. No, not that Mexico, but the town of Mexico, in up-state New York. After some googling (an iPhone is really handy in the car to look up points of interest and to settle disputes) we found out that the region gets the most snow in all of the Eastern US. This is caused by the lake-effect from nearby Lake Ontario where moist air is blown ashore.

We managed to pass the storm without any damage although I saw some cars in the ditch and even saw a car, coming from the opposite direction, spin out and go straight into the median ditch right in front of me. A spectacular sight with a huge fountain of snow. The passengers seemed to be unharmed. In retrospect I should have called 911, but I’m not that used to having a cell phone on me.

In a couple of weeks there is yet another election. Frankly, I’m getting a bit tired of those elections, especially since my citizen application is going nowhere, and I can’t vote myself. A friend who also applied for Canadian citizenship but a couple of months earlier heard that it takes 2 months longer when you live in Québec.

But I digress. There are a lot of election banners in our riding. The incumbent candidate of the Parti Québecois apparently isn’t too confident he will be re-elected because he literally covered the streets in election banners. Not only the main arteries and intersections, which I see in other ridings, but also the residential streets are plastered with PQ banners. On our quiet street almost every hundred meter there is a banner attached to a tree or pole. What a waste of good plastic.

Maybe there is a reason for him to be worried, because one of the competitors for his seat in the Assemblée Nationale is one of the spokespersons (they have two and don’t call them party leaders because that sounds to undemocratic) of Québec Solidaire. In last year’s elections —we seem to throw them like birthday parties— she managed to get 26% of the votes, without much of a campaign. So this year she might actually beat him.

So a few days after PQ’s banner action the Québec Solidaire also put up banners in our street so now we have even more banners. More good plastic wasted.

But I must admit that it’s much more fun to vote in a contested riding. Here is a link to the Québec Solidaire website so you can read their program, but it is all in French. They apparently don’t want any anglophone voters.

I agree with almost all their points (except the separation issue but who takes that serious) so they might get one anglo vote. But only if Alison follows my advice and checks the box in the voting booth.

Exactly seven years ago the iPod was introduced. It was also the morning after the first night Alison and I spend together. We didn’t realize then that both events would have so much impact and longevity.

Happy anniversary iPod and Alison! May the seven-year-itch be gentle on all of us.

(click for bigger version)

After yesterday’s Canadian elections (aiaiai, the Conservatives won a lot of seats) it is now time to pay our full attention to the presidential elections of the United States. The elections are three weeks away and Alison has already received her absentee ballot. Last time (4 years ago) she received her ballot 9 months too late. It had been “mistakenly” sent to St. Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands and it took a very long while to finally reach us. And it didn’t even arrive in a bottle.

Anyway, Alison is a dual US-Canadian citizen and it’s time to vote. Just as with the Canadian election, her vote doesn’t really matter. I don’t think McCain has much chance winning in the state of New York, but if they’ll ever use the popular vote for statistics it might show up. If they actually open those absentee ballot envelopes. I heard they are only opened and counted if the outcome is too close to call.

Alison always lets me vote since I’m more au courant of the political news than she is. [Okay, that's not true, and she wasn't happy with it. See her comment below.] Not that the choice at hand is particularly difficult this time around.

But filling out the ballot actually is difficult. So maybe my American readers can help me. Let me explain. I’d have expected to find entries for the candidates of the parties on the ballot: Obama for the Democrats, McCain for the Republicans and maybe one or two others that are running as independents. But instead there are 10 choices for president and vice-president. (click on the picture above to read the entries)

McCain & Palin have three entries and Obama & Biden two, and then there are no less than 5 independent candidates, four I’ve never heard of and Ralph Nader.

But why does McCain/Palin have three boxes? So their chances would triple? To confuse the uneducated or first-time voter? I’m well educated and I do find it highly confusing.

Of course I’m going to vote for that one, but which box on the ballot should I check?

Should I choose: Democratic Electors for Obama/Biden or Working Families for Obama/Biden?

What is the difference? Will it affect the outcome of the election?

If you have the answer, please let me know in the comments. Thank you.

A while ago I bitched about the exorbitant surcharges of ticket monopolist Admission. I eventually went ahead and bought my tickets for Sigur Rós at a small music shop in town, and they charged me a much lower price. But even on their tickets Admission put a 2 dollar fee.

And today was the day of the concert. Since Alison didn’t want to go I’d tried (albeit a bit late) to sell my second ticket to someone, but nobody wanted it or they had already made plans for tonight.

So I bluntly told Alison she had to come and she grudgingly complied.

I learned a couple of things tonight:

• Sigur Rós does not have a female lead singer. He just sings at a very high pitch.
• Sitting far away from the stage on a stand does not improve your connection to the performance, but is more comfortable.
• Even though Sigur Rós plays very quiet music on their albums, live on stage they are much louder.
• Sitting far away does not protect to said loudness.
• A last-minute visit to Jean Coutu to buy earplugs and cough drops proved extremely worthwhile.
• A prohibition to bring alcoholic beverages also means that water bottles will get confiscated.
• Water on sale on the premises is $3.75 and will be delivered in bottles without a cap to promote spillage.
• A prohibition to bring cameras doesn’t mean there isn’t an abundance of cameras (I didn’t dare to bring mine, hence the bad iphone-made picture above).
• Meeting a familiar face in the audience does give a lone soul a sense of belonging.
• I had a good time.
• To her surprise Alison liked it also. She even wrote about it.

We got up very early today to start Alison’s driving education. Early in the morning the parking lots of the malls are still deserted and provide safe grounds for teaching inexperienced drivers the basic working of a manual car.

We practise using the clutch, braking and changing gears. And, by necessity, making turns, because the parking lot is not that big. Alison really liked that particular part of the curriculum, especially when she drove a bit too fast and the tires started to squeal.

It wasn’t as stressful to be taught by me as she thought beforehand, so that was good. I wasn’t totally at ease but nevertheless managed to keep my underpants clean.

Warning: if you go on the road during the next year please be aware that you might share the road with Alison.

She is going to try to get a driver’s license, and has just passed her theoretical test and now she is the proud owner of a learner’s permit.

(For readers outside Québec/Canada: in order to get your driver’s license you first have to drive with a learner’s permit. That allows you to drive a car but under certain conditions: amongst others you’re not allowed to drive during the night and you always have to be accompanied by an experienced driver. This period lasts at least a year after which you can do a Practical Driving Test to get your ‘real’ driver’s license. In European countries you have to do all your driving lessons in an adapted car with a qualified driving instructor and can only drive your own car (with or without passengers) after you passed a very difficult practical driving test. I had to take it three times before I passed after taking more than 50 hour-long lessons costing 30 dollars each. Ouch!)

So now I have to teach her to drive. My plan is to start with a few test runs on a big empty parking lot early in the morning where I can teach her to the basics of steering, braking and shifting. After she has mastered that I’d suggest her to take a couple of lessons with a real instructor, in a car that is equipped with double brake- and gas pedals. When she is more or less comfortable in normal traffic we can continue her driver’s education in our car.
I’m not looking forward to that day since I’m sure I will be terrified. But I’ll try to be brave and behave like a man. And not shout at her. And be relaxed. And breathe through my stomach. And give her concise instructions. And be patient. And.. watch out!

Anybody has other suggestions to make this as painless as possible? And are there readers that drive manual cars and want to take Alison for a ride in our car after said lessons? I’m sure she will be much more comfortable with someone other than me sitting next to her. And I will probably too.

5 years later.