Life in the slow lane

The Venue

Famous For Ribs


What I would order if Jan let me

Yep my garden is somewhere under there

My very depleted and snowy woodpile

More pallets to cut up

Note to Canadian Dogs - dont leave toys out in

the garden coz if it snows you lose em

"Yes Gizmo, thats the power chord to the

Christmas lights, and no you can't eat it !!".

Well its Monday morning, ive just took jan to work and im too wake to go back to bed. With a freshly brewed coffee (Tim Hortons & french vanilla cream) and the possibility of a bacon sandwich later i thought i would share a few observations with you about life in Canada, in winter, in Raymond, in the trucking business............ and away from the truck.

As you know i have finished now till 28th although Jan has only got 2 days off, one of those being Christmas day. We have just emerged from the weekend and it came and went frighteningly quick. Its not as though we actually did anything specific, Friday night we planned to go out for a meal, as usual Luke got the privelage of choosing the venue, and as usual it ended up being Montanas, we tried suggesting other resaurants, we even tried bribery but no, Montanas it had to be, he loves it there coz the food is excellent and he gets to draw on the table while we are waiting for the food, well we got there and it was closed for refurbishment, so poor old Luke had to choose again.

Luke couldnt decide, Jan wanted to go to East Side Marios and i wanted to go to Tony Romas, in the end i won and Tony Romas in was.

Its the first time we had used the place, it was pretty good, the head waiter and our server seemed to have a little communication issue and ended up confusing each other which was mildly amusing so they only get 7/10 for service. The food was excellent, Jan and I both plumbed for the Prime Rib, mash potatoes, gravy, corn and a side of coleslaw and Luke sampled the southern fried chicken and we shared a starter of a platter of spicy fried shrimp. The food gets 10/10 and there was plenty of it. The whole lot was a tad over $100 so its not particularly cheap but for the quality of food we would proberbly go there again, 8/10 for value for money.

So that was the extent of our planned weekend, the rest of the time was late mornings followed by leisurely breakfasts, drives into Lethbridge to get last minute presents and bitznbobz that we had forgotten, a little bit of snow shovelling and watching a few movies...........

So why the heck did it go so fast ???

Anyway its gone now so its a snowy, wintery Monday morning in Southern Alberta, it was snowing again as i drove Jan in to town. The roads were a bit dicey with a light covering of powdery snow, 80 kph was the order of the day, it couldnt have been too bad, i only passed one car in the ditch.

Mark Campbell on CJOC-FM "The Lounge" was telling us that snow was falling (no shit sherlock) and the temperature was -23 but with the wind chill it felt like -35.

Not in our car it doesnt Mr Campbell, the heater's on full blast and the butt warmers in the seats were doing their jobs well so it was toasty bottoms all round.

Ive just took a peek thru the blind (behind me in the lounge) and its just getting light which reminds me, my next little chore is to grab some more firewood and stack it in the den, i think i am going to have to cut some more this afternoon, we've got about 15 pallets behind the garage to cut up and my once huge woodpile is looking a bit dwindly (thats not a real word but it describes the woodpile perfectly)

We have used the wood burner a lot over the last few days and i think i may have over done it slightly, i literally shove as much wood in the furnace as will physically fit and the thing with wood burners is unlike a gas fire, you cant turn them up or down. Luke complains it is too hot in the den and Jan goes round opening windows after me and im back down there stoking the flames like Casey Jones' manic fireman ( i think thats what you call them, you know the guy i mean, the one on the steam train who shovels the coals)

I cant believe how fast time is going, this is our second Christmas in Canada and i really does feel as though we have only been here a few months, i just wish Jan had a little more time off. This blog will be 2 years old next month too, i still sometimes go back thru it and reminisce, there has been so much water under the bridge since we first got the idea to come over here. We are just about at the end of our PNP application now, everythings been done and sent away, all we are waiting for now is the "Yes" or "No".

Im not sure what would happen if they said no, of course we would be devastated but at least at the moment we know we are safe until the middle of 2010. Apparently the immigration people at Seattle are snowed under with applications and the waiting lists are ever growing. I got a message that they are even asking people not to turn up in person to get passports stamped. The other option is to send them off and that used to take about 10 working days, at the moment it is taking about 20 days.

The frustrating thing is, all of this that has happened so far has been done with our own hard work and determination, we made it happen and we were in control. This one thing (PNP) is totally out of our hands, we are at the mercy of the authorities. Im not sure what is more frustrating, the waiting or the fact that i have no control over it.

So what do i think the future holds for us....................

In the long term i have no idea, i think we wil have to leave Fate in charge for a while.

In the short term i think the answer is Curry.......................

Yep its definitely curry, i picked up 2 kilo of chicken thighs over the weekend so this morning i am going to use the slow cooker and make a Chicken Rogan Josh, that should be a nice surprise for Jan when she gets home tonight, Chicken Rogan Josh on a bed of wild rice served with chopped onion and tomato, and a side of mango chutney.