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Victoria

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Oak Bay

July 13, 2012 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

Staying – as we have been – in Oak Bay this week (for reasons outlined in this previous post) is a most interesting and illuminating experience. When Kickass Canada Girl described Victoria to me – shortly after her first visit home subsequent to our having met – it was one of the places in which she informed me she felt she could happily live. Now that I know it a little I can see why.

As the Brits amongst you will immediately recognise from the accompanying photographs, Oak Bay is a pleasant ‘village like’ community that has – visually at least – a great deal in common with the English Home Counties. For one thing, the ubiquitous evergreens give way to the deciduous, and in particular – as the name suggests – to the stout English oak… well, to the Garry oak, anyway! It speaks volumes that any damage caused to one of these splendid trees – in Oak Bay itself – results in a $10,000 fine.

In the light of all this it comes as no surprise to find that a certain breed of English ex-pat has made this enclave their home.

There is certainly money in Oak Bay – and it smells like old money. This villa is – by all accounts – merely a summer residence!

The village itself is well equipped with coffee houses, bistros, beauty salons, a plethora (for some bizarre reason) of dental hygienists and – as you can see – a pretty decent salumeria and butcher.

There is – in Windsor Park – a rather lovely cricket and rugby ground – but cricket in Victoria will feature in a future post, so I will say no more at present.

There is also one of the nicest marinas in Victoria which, I am told, boasts a pretty decent restaurant. The yacht basin itself is home to some of the tamest ‘wild’ harbour seals I have ever seen. A local lady told me that they are the former inhabitants of a marine park released into the wild when the park closed. They certainly know how to put on a show for visitors and – of course – to earn their supper in the process.

Could we live in Oak Bay now?

Cute – and faux-British – as it undoubtedly is the answer has to be ‘no’. However serene and well kept the neighbourhood is, it still feels busy – rather too full of (very proper) people and (admittedly slowly driven) cars. These days we yearn for the more open spaces of the peninsular – with little passing trade, a decent deck and views of the ocean and mountains…

…and, of course, closer to our dear and lovely friends!

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A week and a half!

July 9, 2012 in Life in BC | Permalink

Safe to say when I arrived in BC just over a week ago, looking forward to a good rest, I did not expect a week such as the one we have just experienced.

I have already made reference to the redecoration of Kickass Canada Girl’s son’s apartment. Naturally the actual painting and associated works were only a part of the endeavor. There was also much running around picking up shower curtains, light fittings and other electrical bits and bobs – not to mention waiting for plumbers and electricians and so forth.

The fact that the Girl’s son was staying with her at our dear friends’ farm in Saanichton also added a certain frisson. Quite apart from needing to move him and his belongings back into his apartment once all was ready, there was also the heightened tension resulting from the difficulty of finding space and time to oneself. Of course, those with children will shrug their shoulders and say – ‘So what? That’s how it is…’ Not having had children myself I am perhaps simply not familiar with the rigours thereof.

And speaking of which – the week was further complicated by the not unwelcome demands for attention of our dear friends’ young sons. These entailed trips to the iMax and to the cinema to see the latest Pixar – ‘Brave’ – and much playing of trains and so forth. All a total joy in any other week of course…

Finally – but by no means least – all of this coincided with a crisis at the Girl’s charity, as a result of which she endured a highly stressful week of long hours, culminating in a very long day in Vancouver on the Saturday. She was in need of a very large Martini when she finally returned from that particular jaunt.

There were points at which I really did begin to wonder just how much of a holiday this trip was going to turn out to be, but when I finally got some time to myself on the Saturday afternoon I did find the opportunity for some useful reflection. I have visited Victoria quite a number of times now, but thus far all bar one of the visits have been holidays for us both, and have been marked by the relaxed and carefree nature of our time here.

This has – therefore – been a most valuable experience, giving me as it does a glimpse of the life that I will lead here once I am no longer just a casual visitor but a permanent resident. Naturally though, I hope that – in future – any further such crises do not all occur simultaneously!

This week we are house-sitting for one of the Girl’s colleagues in Oak Bay, which will provide another new experience. The Girl also has Thursday and Friday off…

‘For this relief, much thanks!’.

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Brentwood Bay

July 8, 2012 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

One of my favourite places on the planet!

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Making other plans

July 4, 2012 in Life in BC | 2 comments

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”

There is considerable debate as to the exact origin of this quote – before it became a John Lennon lyric… so let’s just stick with Lennon.

I really didn’t get a chance to plan ahead in much detail for this trip to BC, though some vague ideas had been floated before I left the UK. As it turns out this is just as well. Thus far we have pretty much had to make it up as we go along.

Having left School on the last day of term (making my exit – as detailed in a previous post – just as soon as the boys had made their own break for freedom) I was blessed with a reasonably trouble-free flight via Calgary to Victoria.

The only incident worthy of note – and then only for reasons of personal embarrassment (and thus amusement!) – occurred whilst I was standing by the emergency exit doing some leg stretches at 35,000 feet over the Northwest Territories. The emergency exit on the Airbus A330 features a large curved aluminium handle, nearly 2 foot wide and standing proud of the door by about another foot. Facing away from the door I had stretched my leg up behind me. When I brought it down again I contrived to catch it forcibly on said handle. I had a momentary vision of the exit door flying off into the void and of all of us travelers being sucked out into the upper atmosphere – before coming to my senses and recognising that, if such a thing were possible, they would not have built a huge protruding handle onto the door just where any idiot might accidentally catch his foot on it.

As it turned out the only casualties were my big toe – which is now a very fetching shade of black and blue – and my pride, as I almost fell into the laps of my sleeping neighbours. Attempts to pass the maneuver off as the latest in calisthenics did not – frankly – convince.

Diverting attention for a moment from my own clown-like behaviour I must take a second to grumble about the antics of some of my fellow passengers. Three examples of extraordinary (to my mind at any rate) behaviour:

  • The passenger who – when the seatbelt sign was illuminated during some mid-Atlantic turbulence – refused to fasten his belt. The stewardess told him that she would remain standing over him until he had done so, but he continued to argue for some considerable time.
  • Another passenger who – when asked during a bumpy descent into Calgary to stow his bag in the overhead locker – held up the Stewardess by arguing that it might get crushed. He seemed not to care that the plane was on its final approach and that his truculence was preventing the Stewardess from strapping herself in.
  • Finally, the gaudily attired ‘woman of a certain age’ who – as we waited for our baggage at Calgary, on observing that I was already standing on the precise spot behind the blue line that she clearly wanted to be in occupation of when the belt started – simply stepped directly in front of me and blocked my path. She did, however, receive her just reward. My bag appeared first and – as I swung it from the carousel – I inadvertently (honest!) clipped her with it. For once in my life I did not apologise!

Having arrived in Victoria somewhat weary and jet-lagged, I was hoping for something of a break. Events conspired against me and I spend two of the next three days – with a much needed break for Canada Day – helping to redecorate Kickass Canada Girl’s son’s apartment. Yes – I know that I have not until now mentioned that the Girl has a grown-up son who lives on his own in Victoria… Consider it mentioned!

Anywho – there is still plumbing and electrical work to be done on the apartment, and the Girl herself not only has to work this week but also finds that she has to attend an event in Vancouver on Saturday. Hey ho! I have booked some serious spa treatments for next Sunday, so let’s hope that the relaxation can finally start in earnest then.

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Reasons to be cheerful

May 8, 2012 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it
You’re welcome, we can spare it – yellow socks
Too short to be haughty, too nutty to be naughty
Going on 40 – no electric shocks

Reasons to be cheerful – part 3″

Ian Dury

The weekend just gone was the Mayday Bank Holiday in the UK. Normally, not having to go to work on a Monday – and consequently not needing to commute into London – would be cause for unalloyed joy. In this particular instance, however, it meant another day of staring gloomily out of the window at the rain. There was, apparently, a small tornado in Oxfordshire – but we didn’t even see that much excitement!

I did feel rather sorry – paying yesterday, as I did, a brief visit to our local market town – for the good burghers of that community. Considerable work had clearly gone into the setting up of the annual May Fayre, with stalls, stands and fun and games throughout the town. Nothing is quite so sad as the merry English fayre under inclement weather. Being English we don’t have the good sense simply to abandon the event altogether and neither is there a Plan B. Everybody turns out regardless, hip flasks full of Dunkerque spirit, and has a thoroughly miserable time tramping around the sorry-looking amusements, wishing that they were somewhere – anywhere – else.

Kickass Canada Girl informs me that the next public holiday in Canada is in another couple of weeks time, when Victoria Day is celebrated – in honour of Queen Victoria’s birthday. This is so splendidly bizarre a notion that it could almost have been designed purely to make the British feel more at home… which maybe it was. Wikipedia has this:

Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, May 24 was by imperial decree made Empire Day throughout the British Empire, while, in Canada, it became officially known as Victoria Day, a date to remember the late queen, who was deemed the “Mother of Confederation”. Over the ensuing decades, the official date in Canada of the reigning sovereign’s birthday changed through various royal proclamations until the haphazard format was abandoned in 1952. That year, the Governor-General-in-Council moved Empire Day and an amendment to the law moved Victoria Day both to the Monday before May 25, and the monarch’s official birthday in Canada was by regular vice-regal proclamations made to fall on this same date every year between 1953 and January 31, 1957, when the link was made permanent by royal proclamation. The following year, Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day and in 1977 it was moved to the second Monday in March, leaving the Monday before May 25 only as both Victoria Day and the Queen’s Birthday.

Got that?

This all reminds me somewhat of my previous school which celebrates, as its major open day each year, King George III’s birthday – the 4th of June. For a variety of (doubtless) very good reasons – mostly to do with public examinations – this day never actually falls on June 4th, but is usually several weeks earlier in late May. It is still – needless to say – called ‘The 4th of June’, which can be confusing to the general public since street signs are put up advising of traffic restrictions for… ‘The 4th of June’!

 

Now – all this rain, grey cloud and the current miserable climate are no doubt responsible for us all suffering from SAD. This apparently genuine condition was defined and named by Norman E. Rosenthal and his colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health in the US in 1984. They must have been tickled to bits when they came up with that particular acronym. Nice one chaps!

I, however, have good reason right now not to be sad (see what I did there?). In a few weeks time the Girl is going to be paying an unexpected visit to the UK, for reasons that I will expand on later. Whoopie! She will be here just in time for our next public holiday at the start of June which, this year, coincides with the Queen’s Jubilee – for which we get an extra day off! Celebrations all round – but let’s hope that the weather has also perked up by that point.

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…what we get!

May 3, 2012 in Life in England | 1 comment

“Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” – Mark Twain

I added to this blog – some short while ago – a ‘Today’s Image’ feature. The intention was that I would regularly upload and display images captured day by day with the Fuji x10, which I now carry with me as a matter of course.

Those reading this post in real time will observe that the current image is of a rather splendid clock. Residents of Victoria will recognise it as being one of the predominant features of the atrium of the Bay Centre in that fair city. Now – clearly this must have been taken some weeks ago, before I returned to the UK.

The reason for the image not being more up to date is that the weather in the UK since I returned can only be described as ‘shocking’, and I have not felt moved to go out looking for photo opportunites. This has been the wettest April for a hundred years – indeed the wettest since records began. We have now moved into May and are all deeply disappointed to discover that the weather is no better. I struggle to recall the last day on which it did not rain, or indeed on which we were not overshadowed by the regulation thick blanket of grey cloud. Depressing!

So bad are things that the cricket season – which should by now be well under way – has seen virtually no play throughout the first three weeks. The only positive – from the reader’s point of view – is that you have thus far been spared my ramblings on the subject of that great game.

So much rain has fallen in the past week that some areas in the west of England are in serious danger of flooding, and the papers have been full of images of rising water levels as rivers burst their banks.

And yet…!

England is in the grip of a drought! Though April was washed out, March was one of the driest on record – as have been, in fact, the last two winters. The aquifers are at an extremely low level and it will take many months of rain for them to be fully replenished. The papers are carrying – alongside the photos of flooded fields – headlines warning that we may, by the end of the year, see standpipes in towns and villages as the water supply is cut off.

Only in England!

When referring to the weather in Victoria, Kickass Canada Girl is partial to the familiar quotation – “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute”. This saying apparently originates in New England and – contrary to some popular belief – was not actually said by Mark Twain. I do myself like the variable Victorian climate (which is clearly a good thing) as it seems to me to elude the dreary inevitability inherent in much English weather.

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On hold…

April 17, 2012 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

Kickass Canada Girl is the proud owner of a mobile phone of the ‘i’ variety – more specifically a version with a ‘4’ in it. She acquired this in the UK some time ago on a contract – indirectly – with one of the major mobile telecom providers here. I say ‘indirectly’ because she actually purchased it through one of the UK’s largest retail outlets – formerly just a food store but these days – like everyone else it seems – dabbling in all manner of services.

When she realised that she would be re-locating to Victoria the Girl took steps to ensure that the handset would be appropriately transportable – a process apparently known as ‘jailbreaking’, though one which is – I am reassured by Wikipedia – not actually illegal. She had no clear picture at the time as to what exact use she might make of the phone in Canada, but wanted to leave her options open.

On taking up her new post (if you need to get up to speed on all this please do start here) the Girl found herself the proud possessor of a company Blackberry. (Cue stirring rendition of ‘O Canada’!… Incidentally, I had always been slightly sceptical of the Girl’s claim that very few Canadians actually know more than the first line of of this rousing roundelay, but she and I recently attended a rugby match in Victoria and it has to be said… she’s not wrong! Still, Wikipedia reveals the following: “There are no regulations governing the performance of “O Canada”, leaving citizens to exercise their best judgment”… so that’s alright!).

Where was I? Oh yes…

I am sure that there are some very good Blackberry handsets – in fact I know that there are. This one, unfortunately, was not one of them. Put frankly, this one was a crock of… well – I am sure you get the idea. Let’s just say that after the iHandset this left something to be desired – or so the Girl forcefully informed me.

We dug out the iJailbreak and visited the charity’s telecom provider. ‘No problem’, they said, and happily sold us the required microSIM. They also informed us that we would need to activate this SIM – online or by phone – but that we would have to wait for three days because their network management was ‘undergoing annual maintenance’ over the Easter weekend (huh?!). Wait we duly did, however, and I subsequently found myself endeavoring to activate the new SIM the day before I headed back to the UK. That’s where things became tricky.

The online activation appeared to work, but the phone could not find the network. I called the helpdesk. They were closed for the night! I called the next morning. I was taken through an extensive diagnostic process, at the end of which the (most helpful) techie informed me that though the phone was jailbroken it was still actually locked to the previous network. They could see the SIM across the network, but the handset itself could not.

Two possible courses of action became apparent. We could try to find someone in Victoria to ‘unlock’ the phone or we could wait until I returned to the UK, where I could contact the carrier there to ask for the unlock code. Not being willing to leave the iPrecious in the hands of the type of uber-geek with which I am (sadly) all too familiar we opted for the latter course. The only problem, of course, was that now that the microSIM had been activated and the old SIM terminated we could not use either handset.

Back in England I called the network operator. ‘Yes’, they said – ‘because you have had the phone for more than a certain time we can arrange for the unlock code to be sent to you’. Naturally they made it sound as though they were doing us a huge favour. ‘But’, they continued – ‘it may take up to 28 days’. Twenty eight days?! This was not going to go down well with the Girl, who is pretty fiesty at the best of times!

One of my bright young things at work suggested that we should – in the meantime – purchase an adapter for the microSIM so that it would fit the Blackberry. At least then the Girl would have a working mobile. As I could see samples online for only a few pounds (dollars… much the same!) I suggested this to the Girl and she went hunting in Victoria. After being bumped from one store to another and back again she was on the point of giving up when the incredibly helpful assistant at the Fido store on Yates Street (name check for going above and beyond) pointed out that the adapter – merely a small piece of plastic designed to make the microSIM bigger than is really is – was strictly unnecessary, and that by judicious insertion and a bit of jiggling the microsSIM would actually work just as well in the Blackberry!

Kudos to Fido for being massively helpful for no real gain (other than attracting a potential future customer) – boos and hisses to Apple for adopting the microSIM in the first place (sheer bloody-mindedness I reckon) – to the UK carrier for taking 28 days to send a few digits by email (what on earth do they do all the time!) and also to all carriers who do not automatically unlock handsets once the initial contract has expired, thereby indulging in what I consider to be absurd and restrictive practices.

Phew! Time to lie down in a darkened room…

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SitRep

April 15, 2012 in Moving to Canada | Permalink

Returning to the UK from Victoria has not been easy. Some of the reasons for this need little elucidation – I do not like having to leave Kickass Canada Girl again, particularly as my next trip to BC will not be until the very end of June (the day after summer term ends). Being together again – particularly in BC – was such a sweet experience that we are now both finding ourselves – to put it mildly – rather glum and listless.

I also find the jetlag particularly difficult to deal with when travelling east. On this occasion the first few days seemed relatively straightforward, though a closer examination would have revealed that my sleep patterns were far from normal. Just at the point at which I was congratulating myself on having escaped the worst effects the lack of sleep caught up with me and I crashed. I am now fighting to get things back into a regular pattern. I have been going to bed late to try to ensure that I sleep though the night, but then – finding myself awake at 4:00 or 5:00am and unable to get back to sleep – have been suffering through the days.

Jetlag makes no sense to me in any case. Why should I wake in the middle of the night on return to the UK? Exactly the same happens when I travel to BC and neither time corresponds to my normal waking hour at the other location. Methinks the body simply doth protest too much at being made to alter its habitual routine… Methinks I am getting old!

On this occasion the fact that I tweaked my back moving furniture in the Girl’s suite the day before I left – and that I then had to sit for 10 comfortless hours on the flights back – only made things worse. My back is slowly recovering, but the discomfort has not improved my mood.

Still – enough complaints. I should take the opportunity afforded by writing this post to reflect on the progress that the Girl and I made during my visit to BC. Read on…

 

In an admittedly small – though significant – step towards becoming a resident, I now have a Canadian bank account. The Girl and I opened joint chequing and savings accounts with CIBC, who were – it must be said – incredibly helpful. Since returning to the UK I have transferred to the new account – through the same currency exchange that I used previously – a fair sized chunk of our savings, so that we have monies ready in BC should we need to put down a deposit on a property or to set in motion any other course of action that would lead to us becoming properly resident. At this point each small step forward seems significant.

Over the last few years the Girl and I have looked at a fair number of properties on the peninsular, and we viewed several more on this occasion. The main difference this time was that we saw two properties that we would happily have purchased immediately. One – in Brentwood Bay – would have been a most practical proposition, with good potential for rental income. The other – north of Saanichton – was set in particularly beautiful gardens and had a breath-taking view over the Haro Straight. We both fell in love with the latter and would have made considerable sacrifices to acquire it, but someone else clearly had the same idea as another offer had been made even before I left Victoria.

We had hoped that the Girl’s new position – with its commensurately higher salary – coupled with her renewed status as a Canadian resident, would have facilitated the acquisition of a mortgage – which we would currently need to cover any purchase until such time as we can sell our  property in the UK. It seems, however, that mortgages in BC are now harder to come by – a position that mirrors that extant in the UK. We were forced – reluctantly – to accept that we could not make an offer on either of the properties that we had viewed. It seems that we must again first concentrate on the sale of the apartment in South Buckinghamshire.

Each time I visit BC we initiate further advances and, of course, with the Girl being there full time things are that much easier. Still much to do, though, including applying for permanent residency – of which more later.

 

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A pictorial potpourri

April 9, 2012 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

Today I have to return to the UK after what seems an all too short stay in Victoria. I have been snapping away with the Fuji x10 throughout my visit, and this post consequently comprises a miscellanea of images.

These were taken around our dear friends’ farm:

Food shopping around Saanichton is very different to the UK. The local supermarket is called Thifty’s – and looks completely unlike any Waitrose or Sainsbury’s I have ever seen:

…and this is the very wonderful Orr’s in Brentwood Bay – fabulous meat and delicacies such as black pudding, and a cornucopia of delights from home for the British expat. The model of the paddle steamer Waverley in the window betrays its origins north of the border (the Scottish border, that is!)

I really liked the way the waitress in the Prairie Inn in Saanichton carried her change:

I love Sidney by the Sea. I think you can see why:

…and finally, something of a surprise:

Kickass Canada Girl discovered that the Maple Leafs (Rugby Canada’s development squad) were playing the Ontario Blues (national champions) in an exhibition match at the new Bear Mountain Stadium. Being big rugby fans we thought we would go along. We went early in case it was sold out (it wasn’t… come on, Victoria rugby fans!) and found ourselves the first ones there. We got into conversation with what appeared to be the head honcho, and found – to our surprise – that he had been to school in England, and had subsequently taught – and coached rugby – at the school that I worked at prior to my current school. We had overlapped briefly but not met. We also found that he has a residence in London a stone’s throw from where I work now. Small world!

As the conversation wound up I asked his name. How embarrassed was I to find I had been talking to Canadian Rugby legend, Garreth Rees?! Doh! He is now in charge of Rugby Canada and their splendid new Centre of Excellence at Langford.  Great things are anticipated for what is clearly a growing sport in Canada.

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Loving the alien!

April 5, 2012 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Any fears that I might have entertained concerning seeing Kickass Canada Girl again after a month apart disappeared in about 10 seconds flat last Thursday evening, at the culmination of my lengthy trek from London. It was as though we had just come home from a day’s work rather than having been an ocean apart for an extended period. I can’t help feeling that this bodes well, though of course longer periods of separation lie ahead.

These things are difficult to judge. My readings on long distance relationships (LDRs) suggest a plethora of potential pitfalls (not to mention an abundance of alliteration!) and offer much in the way of advice – of some of which I will certainly not be availing myself. I intend to write something more detailed on the subject in the near future, but for now the sights, sounds and sensations (there I go again!) of British Columbia are filling my senses and leaving little room for extended contemplation.

This next stretch – through the School’s summer term – will pose a more severe challenge, until the end of June when I can again return to the province. That visit will, fortunately, be a little longer than this one. This 10 day trip has – largely on account of the excursion to Kamloops – been not nearly long enough for all that we need to accomplish.

For now, though, I am content to be here, to help the Girl settle in to our dear friends’ suite and to do whatever I can to assist her with her new job. That – for the present – means casting an eye over the charity’s IT setup, to see if things can be sharpened up a little. This is what we Brits would call a ‘busman’s holiday’!

As I may have mentioned before, the Girl really is quite remarkable. When she and I met I was filled with admiration at the courage and sheer pluck she had displayed in uprooting her life and decamping to a strange city – where she knew no-one – to take on a new job for a concern with which she was unfamiliar. Now she has shown similar chutzpah in returning to Canada to take up a high powered position – on which a considerable amount rides, both for her and for the charity – and to live apart from her most ardent supporter – ie, me! Yes, she is blessed with wonderful friends who seem to exhibit similar traits of fearlessness, but this is still a big ask and I am once again awestruck.

So – things still to be done before my return:

  • Open a joint savings account
  • Look at some more properties on the peninsular
  • Talk to telecom providers about iThing contracts
  • Book flights for summer visits in both directions
  • Visit more friends and relations
  • Assorted domestic chores
  • Cook ‘thank you’ dinner for our good friends in Saanichton
  • Find time for further blog entries!

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