sheff2van : sheffield -> vancouver

Getting to know Canadian culture has been a helluva'n eye opener. The main thing to say is that there are a myriad of cultures to get to know. Living in a big city like Vancouver, immigration is big and by far the greatest number of immigrants here are Chinese. There are also a lot of Japanese as well as Koreans, Vietnamese, Greeks, Indians, Italians etc and of course us Brits.

We've got George Bush in the country today.

As in nearly every other country in the world, polls showed most Canadians would have preferred Kerry as the President. So I guess he wanted someone to call on to show off the new Sherrif's badge he's gotten. He's also got a new missile defence system to flog, but Canadians think that if anybody ever invades they'll come from the south.

Following the recent US election there's been talk in the media about American deciding to move up't north, looking for a Canadian Alternative or Canadians offering to Marry an American.

Or Canada just spreading south...

It was the final of 'The Greatest Canadian' last night.

In third place was Pierre Trudeau, the Prime Minister in the 70's, and probably the only one of the top ten who'd be known in the UK besides Alexander Graham Bell (who was born in Scotland). Second was Terry Fox, who was from Vancouver and famously attempted to run across the country after having a leg amputated due to cancer.

And the winner was..... Tommy Douglas, who sounds like a Canadian version of Nye Bevan, as far as I can make out. He was the premier of Saskatchewan province five times from 1944 and was 'responsible for 70 bills aimed as social and economic reform' including starting Medicare (the equivalent of the National Health Service in the UK). And he did it while reducing the provinces debt by $20M.

Went to see Avril Lavigne last night.

It was at a big hockey stadium - when the lights went off I reckon and there was more emotion and screaming going on than for a whole season of matches. And with all the light-sticks being waved it sure did look pretty....

I only went in order to take Josh (of course), and we were greatly outnumbered by female members of the audience. But I enjoyed it and liked her - there seemed to be a bit more honesty aout her than somebody like Shania, for instance, but if anything she was trying a little too hard to impress the crowd. She didn't talk as I'd imagined though, as in interviews she sometimes seems fairly opinionated.

We went up Grouse Mountain again today. It was very quiet, not like during the summer months when we have had to wait in line ups (queues!) for everything up there! There was swirling fog when we set off and I was not too optimistic for the view, but because we had Jane (Keeton) here we decided we had to chance it anyway.

There is snow all over the place and I was reminded of our first visit in May when there was still snow on the ground then. There is an outdoor skating rink now and Josh and Rowan (and at times Simon) skated around quite happily with these little frames - a bit like a zimmer for youngsters ;-)