(Just keeping this place warm, until I have something to add.)

Poupoune still doesn’t like it when I put her boots on. But she doesn’t bite me anymore, she just growls and shows her teeth. I can even do it myself now, without Alison holding her in a blanket. When the boots are on she stands frozen for a while in protest, but when the door opens she trots through the hallway, happily wagging her tail. Tadadum, tadadum, tadadum…

It was cold today and after a while, even with her wind proof coat, the cold got to her. She still followed us but with difficulty, and was really happy when we were home and she could shed the clothes and boots and warm up near the fire. Oh wait, we have no fire.

She’s getting older and doesn’t have the energy for really long walks. She has a chronic liver condition, and has only a few more years to live, at most. I’m fearing the moment we have to put her down. Of all the dogs I had in my life, she’s by far the dearest to me.

We’re leaving Vancouver Island and now finally we have a day of foul weather. We do a short hike along the rocky point of Ucluelet, and the storm and rain makes it even better.

Then we head back to Victoria where we’re going to spent the night in a Moter Inn, have breakfast with someone from A.’s high school in Nigeria (who she hasn’t seen in 28 years), drop off our rental car and then go take a bus on the ferry back to Vancouver.

After spending two days in Victoria we rent a car to explore the rest of Vancouver Island. It’s raining cats and dogs but halfway on our way to Tofino, in the middle of nowhere, I really have to pee. I pull off at the first parking and luck is with me. It’s not raining as hard anymore and there is even a real composting toilet. But hey, the trees surrounding me are really big… I accidently stopped at a major tourist attraction, one of the few remaining stands of century-old Douglas fir.

I go back to the car and tell A. that even though it is raining she has to put on her shoes and coat and get out of the car. We walk around in the rain in a rainforest and it is great.

Montreal, 29 January 2009. via MPA

This morning a man survived a major avalanche in Montreal, Quebec. At the time of the accident the man was removing the recently fallen snow from his car. The victim, surprised by a wall of snow several metres high, managed to dig himself out before the rescue teams arrived. The rescue dogs didn’t need to come into action.

The victim is, considering the circumstances, doing well and can soon get back to work.

According to an article I read this morning (in French) it hasn’t been this cold since January 2003, my first winter here. I remember I bundled up back then, and I will do the same thing later today when I have to go outside.

My friends from the Netherlands and Belgium, here to install that machine, are extremely lucky they can witness this. Later they can tell stories about it to their grand children. They want to go skiing this weekend, but I had to temper their expectations.

Co-incidentally Poupoune’s new winter snowsuit arrived today. She hates it! I’ll post a picture later.

Made it to Yulblog on my skis. Here they are signing up blogs to be included on the register of Montreal blogs. I had already signed up from home, so this post might show up on their meta-montreal-feed.

Poupoune likes walks, but when they involve doggy boots, windproof capes, a biting cold and blowing snow? Not so much.

— Hello?

— Yes.

— Is this the complaints department?

— It is.

— I want to file a complaint.

— You’re at the right address.

— I have a very bad day. It’s the aniversary of my mother’s death today.

— I’m sorry to hear that.

— I was going to go cross country skiing with a friend.

— …

— But first I had to dig out the car from under the pack of snow and the thick layer of frozen snow, soaked with freezing rain. Then I found out that the second-hand snow blower we bought this fall —together with our neighbour— doesn’t want to start. It worked fine last fall, but now it doesn’t want to budge.

— I’m sorry to hear that.

— The I started to remove the snow by hand, hit a large plaque of frozen snow and then the handle of the snow shovel broke off.

— Sheesh.

— I removed the handle, re-attached it —it’s 15 cm shorter now— and went on removing the snow off the car. The car is covered in a thick layer of ice. I have to run the engine and the heater for a while to be able to remove it.

— Yeah.

— But first I have to defrost the doors because they are frozen shut. And then I found that Alison had left her door open the last time we used the car (2 weeks ago). So the battery is completely dead and possibly really dead. And I had just bought a new one a month ago.

— O my.

— So now I have to defrost the door, get into the car, try to open the hood, remove and try to charge the battery and then start the engine, defrost the windows and hope for the best. O, and I still have to dig out the car as well.

— Wow, that’s a genuine complaint. I’ll pass you on to my superior.

— I don’t think we’re going to ski today.

Today was the day of the Citizenship test. I had myself reasonably well prepared but as I wrote before I’m not very good at studying dry facts. So I was a little bit nervous. The invitation mentioned I should take 3 hours for the test and you can ask a lot of questions in 3 hours.

First I had to wait in a waiting room with about 50 other people. Sitting there I noticed my nickname on the wall, right under the Coat of Arms of Canada. I had seen the Coat of Arms before, but had never read the Latin motto underneath it. It says “a mari usque ad mare”. It means “From sea to sea” and I interpreted it as a good sign.

We were then led into the test room, with rows of desks, all with a freshly sharpened pencil on top. One side for people that took the test in French and the other side for us English speakers. The test consisted of 20 questions of which I needed only 12 answer correctly. They were all really simple questions, and just reading the booklet would have been enough to answer them. One of them for example was: “What are the two official languages of Canada?”. On top of that they were multiple choice so I was finished in 5 minutes. For good times I went over all questions again but then I really had to hand in my answer paper. I would be surprised if I didn’t score 100%. I was the first to finish and then had to go to another room where after a short wait I was interviewed to see if my understanding of at least one of Canada’s official languages was sufficient. I started in Mandarin but then switched to Spanish.

The women checked if all the stamps in my passport matched the dates that I had indicated on my application form as dates I was outside Canada. They matched. Subsequently she asked some questions about my housing situation, sources of income, and if I had a partner and what his/her profession was. And then it was over and just 25 minutes after I had entered I was outside again, where it was still snowing.

In about 2 months I’ll have my swearing-in ceremony where I have to sing “O, Canada” and swear allegiance to the Queen. Better start practising: