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Taking stock

May 9, 2021 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Well, here we are in May – already a third of the way through the year…

We are also – as The Girl pointed out to me this morning – now a full sixty weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic…

This is probably as good a time as any to take stock and to see how the year – and the pandemic – is progressing. It would seem sensible from our point of view to take as a yardstick the post that I wrote back in January in which I looked forward (as has become my habit during each January) to the coming year – laying out our plans, hopes and dreams for the months ahead.

That post contained a list of things that we very much wanted to be able to do. I make no apology for repeating it here:

  • To get to see family and friends – face to face!
  • To be able to entertain again
  • To dine out
  • To see some live theatre
  • To enjoy some live music
  • To attend a live sporting event (preferably Rugby!)
  • To be able to travel… anywhere!

So – how are we doing on that list? The answer is – of course – badly!

We must not be too down-hearted. The positive news is that both The Girl and I have had our first vaccinations. We even hear rumours – which we fervently hope will turn out to be true – that the second jabs will be made available somewhat sooner than the sixteen weeks that are currently being touted. Canada is apparently taking delivery in May of a vaccine delivery larger than those of the last five months combined – which is cause for an optimistic two cheers.

Now, I know that in some other places in the world – and I am thinking particularly of the UK in this instance – progress in the vaccine rollout has been significantly better. Friends and family back there have either had their second jabs already or are shortly so to do. There is much talk of ‘opening-up’ back in the old country. Now – the optimism could turn out to be premature and it may all end in tears, but let us hope fervently that it does not. I hope that the UK gets a decent outdoor summer season in some form and that as things move into the autumn life really does begin to return to some sort of normal.

Here in Canada things are not looking so good. In BC – and in particular here on the Island – we are reasonably protected, but other parts of the country are still suffering high rates of infection and talking about locking down further. I fear that our summer will be much like that of last year.

Aside from the wish-list posted above my January scribblings included one or two other projects or plans slated for 2021. In my next post I will report on how those are going.

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Also very Canadian…

April 28, 2021 in Life in BC | Permalink

This time from the Guardian – who also seem to have a bit of a Canada theme going. Who can blame them?

Hummingbirds halt controversial pipeline

Gotta love those cute little hummers!

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Oh! Canada…

April 26, 2021 in Life in BC | Permalink

From the BBC:

Canadian beavers take down town’s Internet

 

Oh dear! What can I possibly say?…

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Time passes

February 3, 2021 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Time passes, and little by little everything that we have spoken in falsehood becomes true.

Marcel Proust

I receive a sharp reminder once a year of the passage of time… and in particular of the passage of time since I started writing this blog. That reminder comes in the form of the renewal demand from my hosting company for the pleasure of supporting my various websites – of which this blog was the first, having been created back in 2012. I started blogging at the end of January that year so now is the time that I must stump up in order that I may continue so to do.

For those gentle readers who don’t really get this whole blogging thing – there was a time when blogging was all the rage. That was the few years before I took it up, naturally, and by the time had I started keeping this journal the youngsters were already saying – “Blogging?… Nah!”

Now, of course, I am nearly a whole decade further behind the times – and you know what? – I really don’t care that I am old-fashioned. I am sixty seven, for goodness sake. I am allowed to be old fashioned.

For those of you who like statistics – in the nine years that I have been writing this blog I have written 925 posts (averaging just over 100 posts a year – approximately two a week). If the internal statistics are to be believed I have written nearly 365,000 words in that time and uploaded some 2,590 images – many of them my own photographs.

Not bad, huh?!

I started blogging when I learned that The Girl was going to take up a good job here in Victoria, even though I still needed to work for a few more years in the UK before I could retire and move to Canada to be with her. Faced with the prospect of carrying on a long distance relationship with an eight hour time difference I figured that I would need to find things to occupy my time (other than working!). When her job fell through and she came back to the UK some ten months later I decided to keep the blog going – documenting our eventual move to British Columbia, which was rescheduled for 2015.

I could have stopped once we settled here but I decided to keep it going – as a way of keeping a foot on both continents. I am blessed to have regular readers on both sides of the pond who seem happy to keep up with my chunterings.

Has the blog changed much? It is certainly less verbose than it used to be and I don’t reach for the thesaurus quite as much as once I did. I enjoyed getting to explore the language and to play little games with prose, but as I have grown older so have I started to keep things a little more simple – more straightforward. I have noticed that I do the same with song lyrics – which is no bad thing…

Having made it this far I will, naturally, be shooting for the complete decade.

After that – who knows?

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Out with the old

December 19, 2020 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

Just for completeness – and who doesn’t like a little completeness – I thought I should wrap up my thread from earlier in the year about having to apply for a new Permanent Resident card (documented here and here). Well – I finally have it – and here it is:

You will notice that I have intentionally blurred some of the detail for security reasons. My face – on the other hand – usually looks like that first thing in the morning!

This is the old and now redundant card – strangely suffering from a similar lack of focus.

It struck me – as I was manipulating these images – that there is perhaps something a little perverse in having a Permanent Resident Card that must be renewed every five years.

That seems to be a whole new definition of ‘permanent’.

The instructions that came with the new card dictated that the old one should be destroyed. Naturally I did as I was directed: herewith the proof:

Hmmm! I think one of my projects for 2021 must be to try to get my citizenship sorted out.

Onward and upward!

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These boots were made…

December 6, 2020 in Life in BC | Permalink

Well – not boots actually – but I could not off the top of my head think of any other footwear related couplets from which I could plagiarise a post title.

When I was a  considerably younger man I really had very little time for slippers. Now that I write that it feels like an odd thing to say; I don’t suppose than anyone actually gives time to domestic footwear. What I mean is that I didn’t feel the need for/couldn’t be bother with such things. Living in residences with carpets probably probably made a difference; we have little truck with such things here on the west coast.

I suppose also that I am now guilty of re-enforcing the stereotypes concerning such cosy domestic items – that they are only for old-folks; something your father would wear in his dotage (mine did!). I guess the truth is that I have now become (am now becoming!) that old-timer myself.

Either way – when we came to Canada half a decade ago it seemed like the right (and sensible – no-one needs cold feet) thing to do to acquire said comfy accoutrements. Further – being in Canada – they should undoubtedly take the form of Moccasins. A suitable pair was duly located – purchased – fallen in love with and worn until they fell apart.

Those are they on the left. On the right is the virtually identical pair with which I have just replaced them.

Well – if it ain’t broke…

If – on the other hand – it is broke…

When I was a  considerably younger man I really had very little time for slip-on shoes. You know – the sort of thing that doesn’t have laces (Tom Allen on ‘Mock the Week’ – “Duh! Espadrilles“).  I mean – let’s face it – shoes without laces aren’t real shoes, now – are they? Not for an English gentleman anyway (they’re called ‘loafers’ for goodness sake!).

Anyway – when we came to Canada half a decade ago and acquired not only an rather splendid inside but also a quite extensive outside  – one containing a barbecue (which the gentleman abroad is expected to use year round) and continuous and copious quantities of pine needles, etc – it suddenly made perfect sense to have some footwear that could easily be slipped on an off every time one needed to rush out to attend the grill! Of course – being in Canada – they would have to take a somewhat more rugged and substantial form than most casual English shoes (one really can’t barbecue in Hunters!). Needless to say, a suitable pair was duly located – purchased – fallen in love with and worn until they fell apart.

Those are they on the left. On the right is the virtually identical pair with which I have just replaced them.

Well – you know what they say…

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Eddies…

October 18, 2020 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

“I have detected,” he said, “disturbances in the wash.”
“The wash?” said Arthur.
“The space-time wash,” said Ford.
Arthur nodded, and then cleared his throat.
“Are we talking about,” he asked cautiously, “some sort of Vogon laundromat, or what are we talking about?”
“Eddies,” said Ford, “in the space-time continuum.”
“Ah,” nodded Arthur, “is he? Is he?” He pushed his hands into the pocket of his dressing gown and looked knowledgeably into the distance.
“What?” said Ford.
“Er, who,” said Arthur, “is Eddy, then, exactly?”
Ford looked angrily at him.
“Will you listen?” he snapped.
“I have been listening,” said Arthur, “but I’m not sure it’s helped.”

Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I received the other day an email from ‘Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’ (funny! – I don’t recall that title previously including the ‘refugees’ bit!) concerning my application to renew my Permanent Resident card. This missive included the paragraph:

“This confirms that your application for your Permanent Resident card has been received by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on 2020/07/08.”

Making allowance for the fact that here in Canada dates can appear in a variety of odd formats – though not in the correct one (to an Englishman at least) – I calculate that this means that my application was received by the IRCC on July 8th this year – the which would be about right.

I am – perhaps understandably – a little mystified as to why they should send me an email to advise me of this fact on October 14th.

The email also advises me that I can check the progress of my application by visiting the appropriate part of the IRCC website and entering my Unique Client Identifier (UCI). Perhaps – I muse – they have just started processing my application – which might account for their sudden correspondence.

I follow the guidelines.The IRCC website claims never to have heard of me!

I wade through the notes trying to establish why I might appear to be missing from the system. The site helpfully informs me that this is probably because my application has not yet made it to the processing stage – and until is has I officially don’t exist.

Sooooo… Three months after I submit my application IRCC randomly sends me an acknowledgement, even though they have not – and apparently have no intention of – actually looking at it anytime soon.

No – I don’t get it either. What is it about bureaucracies?

 

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Have passport…

October 7, 2020 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid…still won’t travel!

A few weeks back my new UK passport finally arrived. I now get another ten years of winging my way around the world until I have to go through that palaver again. Right now – of course – I have no desire to hop on a plane to go anywhere.

Still – I could if I needed to…

The new passport was delivered to our residence by one of the better know carriers. The chap who rang our doorbell did not ask for a signature (no-one seems to do that any more in these grim times) – but he did, however, cheerfully remark:

”You’ll get another one of those in a couple of days.”

He was not wrong, of course, for a few days later my old passport – corner docked as per – also turned up. What worried me somewhat was that the man clearly knew that the package he was delivering contained a passport. I suppose it was not a difficult guess, given that Victoria is teeming with ex-pats who must all on occasion receive double deliveries of passport sized packages.

Still – living in a small community is all very well but there are (or should be) limits…

Incidentally, whatever the ghastly brexit mob might claim (and however the thing appears in the accompanying image) this passport ain’t blue (that’s just the light in the photo – honest!)…

…it’s black!

Anyway – I hope that you still feel that it was all worth it (I just bet that you do!).

Sorry – that was only for those who should have known better! As you were…

 

Now then – where’s my replacement Canadian Permanent Resident card? No point being able to leave the country (should I ever wish so to do) if I can’t then get back in!

 

 

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Huzzah!

September 2, 2020 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

With regard to my application to the UK Passport Office, from whom I have been waiting patiently for some good news… I think that the attached needs no further explanation:

Now just waiting on the Canadian equivalent for my Permanent Resident card…

How about it – Canada?

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Always going back

July 31, 2020 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

“It’s said that you can never go home again, and it’s true enough, of course. But the opposite is also true. You must go back, and you always go back, and you can never stop going back, no matter how hard you try.”

Gregory David Roberts, ‘Shantaram’

We find ourselves in a brief period of anniversaries – the which are as ever cause for celebration… and in these difficult times any reason so to do is to be seized upon with gratitude.

The weekend before last saw the fifth anniversary of our arrival (or re-arrival in the case of The Girl) as residents in Canada. As I have noted in other recent posts, this milestone is significant for various reasons – not least because I can now apply for Canadian citizenship to add to my British variant. It seems somehow appropriate that The Girl and I should each be a citizen of both countries, as both have been particularly good to us.

On which note – the image that accompanies this post is apt and heart-felt. I am most grateful both to Canada and to Canadians for taking me in and helping me to feel at home here. I will never forget the kindnesses that we have been shown. Canadians are – by and large – a generous, modest and gentle people (traits shown up all the more by the manners of their nearest neighbours) and have thus earned my undying respect. Thank you one and all.

We will certainly be making the journey across the water again (when the current crisis has abated) and I will naturally always be drawn there – but Vancouver Island is now my home and I am delighted at that.

Next time – yet more anniversary news…!

 

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