Global homelessness

Posted on June 12, 2011 by waggadventure

OK, so we’re not trying to make light of a serious issue, but we are, technically, homeless. A couple of days ago, our lawyer did the lawyer stuff, the real estate agents did the real estate stuff, and the new owners got the keys to their new house. Bankers then did the bank stuff, our mortgage was paid and the residual went to our checking account.  So, we don’t own a house, we aren’t renting anywhere. We are homeless.

The last shot of the house as 'our house'; Lisa had to sit on the front porch because there was no furniture.

Unlike most homeless people, we are doing just fine. We won’t be sleeping under bridges, panhandling, dumpster diving, etc. any time soon.  For the month of June, we are motoring around the UK, staying in quaint little bed and breakfasts, dining in Michelin-starred restaurants, and just generally decompressing after several stressful months of planning and prepping the move. The exact moment we became homeless was 12 noon MST, 1900 GMT, on June 10. At precisely that time, we were  speeding down the A303 highway, about 20 minutes out of Salisbury.We had hoped to be in a pub where we could toast the sale, but Air Canada had different plans…so we did a quick fist-bump (Dan was afraid to take his eyes off the road!), and toasted it at the Avon Brewery Inn a couple of hours later.

Much of this trip is vacation; actually all of it is for Dan, but Lisa is presenting at 2 conferences. And we are also using the trip as a re-fueling mission, because when we get back, we will be scrambling again for a few days, then on a one-way flight to the land of Aus. And when we get there, Lisa starts work immediately. We are also spending some quality time with two close friends (H & J) before they depart on their own adventure in Alabama, USA.

Our itinerary: Flying from Edmonton to London (the real London, where people don’t wear track pants) rent car and go to Salisbury, Oxford, York, Windermere, Stirling, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Manchester. It is our first time in many of these places (done the Scottish cities before, but not the English). And yes, we’ll finally get to experience Stonehenge; photos to follow in future posts.

We no longer have an address, just a container number.

Even though the house has still been ‘our house,’ for the last few days we have been staying with friends while our stuff was packed and loaded. The container is somewhere, probably sitting in the big freight yard between 99 St and Gateway Blvd in Edmonton. Some day, it will arrive in Sydney, be quarantined, bug bombed, checked for refugees, rabbits and catnip mice (sorry Malachi, we know you’ve been hiding your fav toys in your crate, but customs won’t like that!). Hopefully we will get our stuff by late August, and have somewhere to put it; when we finally arrive in Wagga on July 7, our ‘home’ for the first 10 days is The Lawson Motor Inn, courtesy of Charles Sturt University. It is a nice motel, with a large bedroom and a kitchenette (a refrigerator, kitchen sink and microwave), but it isn’t a fully-equipped home. We won’t be grilling ‘roo steaks there, unless they happen to have a barbie in the courtyard.

The backyard birds didn't want to move with us, so we let them stay. The cats weren't given the same choice.

Our quest for a home in Wagga will be a rental, for the short term; we’ve been told by our bank (we already have an Aussie account) that they won’t approve a mortgage for a few months, so we won’t be jumping into the housing market immediately. But we’ve spent a lot of time on www.domain.com.au, which is sort of like the Canadian MLS site, but including both sale and rental properties. Rentals in Australia (or at least Wagga) are done by realtors, who handle the transaction as the property managers. And though we have met, and engaged with, a real estate agent in Wagga, we will have to talk to a variety of agents in July; although an agent can sell anyone’s house, when a company has a listing for a rental, another company’s agent can’t rent it out.  So it will be a matter of going office to office and seeing what is available.

Part of our problem is that we need to have an address for much of our transition. The movers want to know where our stuff is going. The cat transit people want to know where to dispatch them on dismissal. The banks, both in Canada and Australia, want to know where we’ll be living. Canada Post needed to know where to forward our mail (kind of a moot point since they’re doing rotating strikes). Our friends want to know where they will be coming to visit (and we want you to know where to send the house-warming presents!). So, for now, our official address is Lisa’s office at CSU. We will have to change it again, later, but for now it works as a ‘home’ of sorts. Of course, given the hours Lisa puts in at work, she might as well ‘live’ at work… but no, that’s not what we’re trying to do here! And visitors probably won’t want to stay in her office, despite their being kangaroos on campus.

At least we won't have to live under this train bridge in Wagga; it was a bit flooded last time we were there.

There isn’t much pre-arrival legwork we can do, either; according to our agent, renters only give 2 or 3 weeks notice on rentals. So, until we are in town, it would be hard to predict what might be available. Our agent did, however, tell us that we might have a bit of a tough time finding a house that allows cats – Aussie landlords, it seems, don’t like cats (insert spitting and clawing action here). Maybe we’ll have to point out that cats could best solve the mouse infestation in the Riverina; or, we’ll just introduce any potential landlord to Lester. No one could deny him a home. You may recall our earlier posting, where we wondered if Lester was the one who sold our home, with his endless belly displays.

People in some countries live in abandoned sea cans. We could do that, except there wouldn't be room for us with all our belongings. The movers just managed to get everything stuffed in, with no room to spare.

There are a lot of nice houses for rent currently, though, so we don’t think we will have a hard time finding something that suits our needs. We are pondering exactly what we want:

It needs to be cat friendly. Lisa wants two bathrooms (Dan is a bit of a pig). Dan wants a gas stove (electric just doesn’t meet his culinary skills any more). Lisa wants central heat (she gets cold easily); Dan wants central air (gets hot easily). Most of these requirements probably mean a newer house, but those are mostly away from the CBD, which is an appealing location. People keep telling us we need a pool (even though neither of us swim) because it does get hot in Wagga. We want a place we can garden.  So many things to think about!

The back yard was getting a bit scruffy by moving day. We hope that everyone who spent time here, eating and drinking, enjoyed those times as much as we did. We will graciously welcome you to our new garden when you come visit us in Australia.

But for now, we are going to put these thoughts on hold and enjoy our homelessness. We’ll try to post pictures of some of our adventures as we travel around the UK. Stonehenge (at dawn!) is a good spot for photos, as is the place we are staying in the Lake District. We’re back in Canada for July 1st (how appropriate!), where we’ll be sure to post a lovely tribute to Canada Day. Until then, stay tuned… we’ve got a few posts coming in the next few weeks.

Posted in Canada, Moving, real estate, Riverina, small town culture, wagga, weather, wine | 1 Comment

Allied Forces

Posted on June 9, 2011 by waggadventure

Packing. The longer you are going for, and the farther away, the harder it gets.  Degrees of difficulty, on a scale of 1 to 10:

  • Quick weekend drive out of town: 1
  • Flying across the country for a week: 2
  • Going to another continent in the same hemisphere for a 3-week vacation: 4
  • Adding work clothes to any of these trips: +1
  • Vacation on another continent in other hemisphere: 7
  • Add work clothes to that: +1
  • Moving to another hemisphere, when you have no idea when you see your stuff again: 10.

Today, we board a plane to the UK for a 3-week vacation…that’s a 4. But Lisa has conferences there, so we’re at 5. But as soon as we are back, we leave for Australia…which would mean we are at a 10 difficulty.  But we think that combining any of the two means you combine the level of difficulty exponentially; that could be 105, but we think 510 is a bigger number, so that’s what we will say the degree of difficulty has been this past week.

Every stage of our move requires specific packing: the few days at friends’ place before going to UK; UK vacation component; UK conference component; back in Canada for a few days; Australia hotel, Australia work for Lisa, Australia job hunting for Dan, Australia post-hotel…

We're not too worried about the Air Canada flight; those 777s have a lot of cargo space. But the puddle-jumper from Sydney to Wagga might not have as much trunk space.

Fortunately, Lisa is Air Canada Elite and can check 3 bags for free. Dan is Air Canada Prestige, so can check 2 bags. This means we can take 5 suitcases of stuff to Australia. Going to the UK is a bit of a challenge though because we aren’t flying back together (that story is too long for a blog post!); officially, we could still check 5 bags but there is a huge chance at least one would get lost…not by Air Canada, but by Dan on the days he is alone. And we’d have to lug them around the UK. So Dan will probably end up doing laundry in Aberdeen and we will take as little luggage as possible.

So what do you pack? The UK component is easy: jeans, shirts, some conference clothes, toothbrush, etc.  And some specialty items, such as walking sticks for a day-long hike around Lake Windermere, games, eReaders, camera, laptop…

The Aus one gets tougher. We don’t know where we are living or when we will have our possessions (more about that in a later post).  We will be staying at The Lawson Motor Inn for a while, where we can at least keep things in the fridge and there will be some basic utensils and dishes. But if we rent a house before our belongings arrive, we will have nothing. And we don’t want to buy stuff, because we already own it and everything we are taking is good.

When the Allied forces came to pack our house, they started in the kitchen. Dan's planned salad for lunch became a bit pathetic: carrots, tomatoes, asparagus, pea tendrils and beet tops, no dressing, eaten by hand out of the container the beet tops came in.

So we are taking some strange items.  We have plastic plates and bowls, cups, and cutlery from a Tupperware picnic set. We have acrylic wine glasses (and a good cork screw – hotel ones suck!), kitchen tongs, Dan’s Japanese kitchen knives, a cutting board, measuring spoons…sort of like “have kitchen, will travel” except we don’t have a kitchen, just the things that go in one.

We have to bring a whole variety of clothes, because we are going to be in warm weather in the UK and cold (well, cool) weather in Australia. So there are shorts, and there are winter coats. There are sandals and there are gloves. T-shirts and sweaters.  And of course, for both the UK and Wagga, Lisa has to look presentable, so she has some suits and dresses (and dress shoes, the scourge of efficient packers worldwide). Dan at least doesn’t have to be too formal in the UK – one restaurant we are going to doesn’t allow jeans, but he has some nice pants with him.  For Wagga, he needs clothes suitable for any job interview, so there are dress pants and shirts, jackets and ties (and again with the shoes…dammit).

Some things just wouldn’t fit, so no running shoes for example (no jogging on the Wiradjuri Trail yet), but we did squeeze in a Frisbee for a bit of relaxation. And a cribbage board, a few decks of cards, the full size Carcassone game with all expansion packs. And we stocked up on toiletries, because we are picky about those. Lisa loves Kiehls, and doesn’t know if she can get their products in Wagga or will have to start doing mail order; Dan knows he won’t be able to get his goat’s milk soap that he buys at farmers market, but hopefully can find something similar when the 6 bars run out.

All of the above are just material goods though and if we had to live without them, we could. What we can’t live without is the big folder of paperwork, things like our eyeglass prescriptions, medical files, cat documents, etc. And we have 2 duplicate hard drives, with 250 gb of Lisa’s research data, our photos, and our iTunes files. Technology is a wonderful thing!

Damn! Stonehenge sold advertising rights to Allied movers. Actually, the tall ones are Ikea cd shelves, the two shorter ones are speakers, and the other one is a table, wrapped and ready for transit.

Everything else, we are entrusting to Allied Movers. They get our furniture, our dishes, our art (specially built containers for the Alex Janvier and Maureen Enns pieces), our knick-knacks, towels, bedding…our home really. On Monday morning, a lone person came and started wrapping and boxing dishes in our kitchen. A couple of hours later, 3 more people came with huge bundles of paper, lots of boxes, and a lot of energy. Within about 3 hours, almost everything was boxed up, and our couch looked like a huge roast wrapped in butcher paper.

We keep slip covers on the furniture to keep it clean, just like at grandma's house.

On so today (Thursday…yes, the same day we’re flying to the UK – yipes!), all that stuff was packed into a sea can; it was supposed to happen Wednesday, but someone forgot to order the container! It will go from Edmonton to Vancouver by either train or truck, then get loaded onto a ship where it will float across the Pacific to Sydney. That will take about 8 weeks. Then it goes to Australian customs, who will let off a bug bomb in the can, and then quarantine it for a while. They might want to inspect every item, or none…they have full control over our stuff, and can burn it if they so desire.  In a way, as much as it has been stressful planning a move and a trip at the same time, this time away gives our stuff a head-start on its voyage. By the time we get to Wagga, it will be half-way there.

The Allied forces loading our belongings. It happened at the last minute, and just barely fit!

At least we aren’t dealing with the cats ourselves. When we moved to Edmonton, we had two cats and carried them with us in the cabin of the plane. We had an entire suitcase devoted just to them: food dishes, food, litter boxes and litter.  But then we didn’t need to bring as much stuff because we knew our belongings would be arriving at the same time as we were. This time, cat moving professionals (yes, these people exist! What a cool job) will be managing the process. More on that to come…

Posted in art, Australia, Canada, cats, decluttering, Moving, travel | 3 Comments

Among my souvenirs

Posted on June 4, 2011 by waggadventure

So, you are leaving the country of your birth, to take up residence about as far away as you can get…what do you take with you as a ‘souvenir’? Not counting your Canadian passport, which, as we said weeks ago, we are not giving up.

Nothing says Canada like great Aboriginal art. Alex Janvier, of Dene Suline and Saulteaux descent, is one of our favourites and one of Canada's best. We are very proud to own these two pieces.

We have a lot of things that are uniquely Canadian. We have, for example, 2 paintings by Alex Janvier. Though his work falls on the abstract side of things, it is Canadian Aboriginal art, and will always say ‘Alberta’ to us.  We had some deer antlers in our garden that Dan’s dad found on his property – those would have been great reminders of home – but we’re pretty sure if we tried to take them, the Australian customs people would have just torched the entire sea can and we’d have to replace our furniture. The antlers are now safe in a friend’s garden.

This is the guy responsible for ruining Lisa's desire for Canadian souvenir clothing... Next, he may just ruin our country.

But we also thought that the event required something new…a ‘purpose-acquired’ memento of Canada. This, of course, gave Lisa incentive to go shopping, which is a love/hate event. Loves doing it, hates not finding the perfect item.  And it wasn’t like the expectations were really high at first – on a recent trip to Vancouver, the quest was for a nice Roots Canada hoodie (of better quality than the non-Roots, but still “official,” 2010 Winter Olympic one she has where the logo has already peeled off); sadly, Roots was sold out. She also thought that she might like to take the money from the Piper
Award from UofA and spend it on a piece of art. That was a great idea, but rationally, should she really spend $3000 on art right now? Maybe not.
But even something as simple as a hoodie from Roots seemed impossible to find. Is it too much to ask for some good ‘Canada’ clothing? Even Stephen Harper wore a Roots Canada jacket during the election! Oh, wait… maybe this isn’t the best souvenir ever. Damn you, Stephen Harper!

This is a photo Dan took of Inglis Falls. The one we were given is much nicer

In the end, Lisa bought a couple of small items. One was a water colour by Fanny Fynebuik, who is the mother of a close friend. It is called “En Route to Jasper”, a pastoral mountain scene filled with trees and crystal blue water… and very different from any other art we have. At the same time, she bought a similar piece for her former doctoral supervisor as a retirement gift, so for a lot of reasons there is sentimental value to this.  While in Owen Sound, Lisa also bought a few books…one was a photo book of the Grey-Bruce area, and two were mystery novels by local writer Richard Thomas, part of a series set in the city. And her family gave her a professional photo of Inglis Falls, one of the great landmarks of the region.

While Lisa wasn’t sure about what to choose as a memento – photos, paintings, books, clothes – Dan was sure that he wanted to commission a piece of original art. There was a bit of thought about exactly what, and a lot of pondering about who to do it. It all came together in Owen Sound though. In Edmonton, there were too many choices; Owen Sound had only one: Tattoos by Zap.

Shortly after arriving in town (and just before that great trip to Yummy, Yummy!) Dan had a 2 minute chat with Alex, Zap’s main artist. Dan told him very vaguely what he wanted (an inukshuk with a Canadian flag on one of the rocks), handed over a $40 deposit, and set an appointment for later in the week. Alex sketched some circles on a piece of paper, nodded his head, smiled and kept saying how cool it all was. He was very pleased that we didn’t arrive with some pre-planned image pulled from the web. We wanted to leave it to the expert!

The stencil version that Alex worked from. OK, so it isn't HUGE, but bigger than Dan had thougth he would get.

Choosing a tattoo artist, especially for the first one, is a very big decision. When we showed up for the big event (what Dan’s sister referred to in an encouraging message that morning as Ink Day), we knew he had made the right decision. The sketch that Alex had done was exactly what we had envisioned, but better. It was also huge! Dan’s vision was a small, sedate little tattoo; maybe just an inch or two tall. But Alex had other ideas… and we’re glad he did!

Dan’s appointment was the first of the day but they were running a bit behind, so we had to wait maybe 20 minutes for them to set up. During this time, a young woman came in to discuss some tattoos that someone else had started, but she wasn’t liking how they were being done. She was shopping around for someone to fix them.  Alex talked to her, asked her a few questions (who did that? how old are you? you want me to fix that?), gave her a price and asked if she wanted to schedule a time. She said no, she was still shopping around.  After she left, Alex was flabbergasted. He talked about how he hated situations like that – an 18 year old woman, making a decision as serious as getting a huge tattoo on her back, and basing it all on price.  And, sadly, her tattoo was a mess!  It was obvious that he took this seriously; he was an artist, in it for the creativity, not just the money.

The artist in action. Dan isn't wincing too much!

And as we chatted (while he inked the inukshuk into Dan’s skin), our first impression of Alex was reinforced. He would do something, sit back and ponder it, do a bit more, look, smile, think, ink, smile more… He obviously enjoys making art, and this happens to be a medium where he can make a decent living doing it. And after about 90 minutes of chatting about Australia, art, life, Alex’s upcoming wedding, etc. (it was something like getting a hair cut with a bit of additional pain and loud punk rock music), Dan came away with the ultimate Canadian souvenir. And, Lisa came away with some great photos!

About a week after the inking, it was all healed and looking beautiful! Maye if Dan loses his passport some time when coming home to Canada, he can just pull up his sleeve. This tattoo is as good as a Nexus pass!

Pain factor: not bad. Dan is a bit of an idiot, and too often reaches into the oven to grab something but forgets to put on an oven mitt…ends up with a big red welt on his hand.  He compared the tattoo process to this, but with no residual pain: unlike a burn, the tattoo pain stopped as soon as the needle did. A couple of days later, with the healing process going very well, Dan commented that if he had known it would have been so easy, he probably would have gotten a tattoo years ago.  But then again, it wouldn’t have made as much sense. This one is special. Lots of people just get some tribal thing, a skull, some flowers, whatever…nothing wrong with that…but this one has deep meaning. It wasn’t just a tattoo, it was an event, a marking of a major event in life (and seemed to make more sense than another client at Zap who chose a brass knuckle tattoo to commemorate her first child (!) and was now looking for something to mark the birth of kid number two).  It might lead to more, and it might inspire Lisa to get one in Wagga – Dan gets the going tattoo, Lisa gets the arriving tattoo? Stay tuned to see what it is… and feel free to comment here with suggestions.

Posted in art, Canada, Moving, Owen Sound, small town culture | 5 Comments

All in the Family

Posted on May 31, 2011 by waggadventure

After a fantastic meal (okay…we cooked it, so we’re a little biased) and fun at Dan’s sister’s place, followed by a lovely brekkie in the morning (thanks B!), we decided to check out what was new and happening around town before heading to Lisa’s parents’ house. Dan had a special errand to run that day (more on that in a later posting), and we followed that with a great lunch at a new Thai and Japanese (strange pairing, no?) restaurant in town – Yummy Yummy! Seriously, that’s what it’s called. We always like to check out the shops and restaurants around the main street when we arrive in town (which takes all of 15 minutes); we made a trip to the Ginger Press, stopped in at Phoenix Bookshop (owned by Dan’s sister and brother-in-law), and wandered town from end to end looking for new places to eat and shop.

For the last several years, we have only been going to Ontario in the autumn, but in the spring, trilliums are in bloom. The white trillium is the official flower of Ontario. This somewhat more rare purple one was growing just south of Dan's parent's house.

Despite initial misgivings (Owen Sound isn’t known for its culinary greatness, particularly when it comes to Asian cuisine), but armed with a recommendation from brother-in-law D., we were happy to find that Yummy Yummy came by its name honestly. It really was yummy, yummy! So yummy that we actually went back for another visit later in the week (and yes D., Lisa did order the same dish twice and it was the same both times; green basil curry with a nice kick to it… mmm… super yummy! Yummy yummy.).

Food, family and friends are closely linked in our lives. We meet and greet while we eat, and this trip to Owen Sound was no exception. One of our fav places in town (though not on the roster this trip, unfortunately) is Norma Jean’s Bistro, the site of our first date – history in the making! Many people in town also enjoy the Harrison Park Inn, which has been the site for many family dinners with Lisa’s family (and yes, we ate breakfast there twice on this trip). On Dan’s side, the Wiarton Inn & Restaurant (north of Owen Sound, on the way to Pike Bay) has been the venue for many “ThanksGiven” dinners.

We took gifts (photos of us from formal night on our xmas cruise) to Dan's parents. Like all cats, their cat, Bear, much preferred the packaging.

On this trip, we had two very special farewell dinner events planned for us, which together showcase the many great times we’ve had over ‘bread and wine’ with our families. The first was a family dinner on Lisa’s side at Shorty’s Bar and Grill. Yes, it’s a sports bar but it has great food. We were thrilled that H & J could make a surprise visit to join us, after H lied to us in April saying we wouldn’t see them again before we left. They’re just lucky we don’t hold grudges and will let them visit!

The second was a family dinner at Dan’s parents’ place in Pike Bay. Dan’s mom made her famous, super-cheesy lasagna (with venison mince! Now that’s yummy, yummy) and perogies (thanks B for grilling those to perfection on the BBQ) and the siblings brought a ton of salads. All this, topped off with not one but three desserts — blueberry pie, cherry pie and apple crumble. Yes, we tried more than one (how can you choose?).

Who doesn't love a grizzly bear breaking a hockey stick! How Canadian is that?

Another key event this trip was following the happenings of the Owen Sound Attack – Ontario Hockey League Champions – as they played in the Memorial Cup. We are not sports fans. We don’t watch hockey (sorry – “ice” hockey, as the Aussies say);  we don’t even like hockey. But you have to feel a great deal of pride for the home town team, especially when they’ve had their best season since time began (or something like that; suffice to say that they didn’t even make the play-offs last year). By the end of the week, Lisa could tell you that Hishin and Wilson were out for the series with injuries; she was on the hunt for a hoodie…again (more on that in the next post)… but the fans in OS beat her to it! No luck there. Dan, on the other hand, would just shake his head in dismay, while worrying that Lisa was becoming a true fan. He did wonder what beer logo the Kootenay team logo resembled most closely… but that’s the extent of his hockey knowledge. In the end, the Attack lost the tie-breaker game that would have secured them a spot in the semi-finals for the Championship… and Lisa promised to stop watching (at least till next year). She hasn’t promised to stop shopping for a jersey or something, though; the Attack logo is just too cool!

Another staple of family get-togethers is the game-play. No, we don’t get into family cage-match fights (though it would be fun to bet on specific pairings… hmm… perhaps a future blog post), and no, we don’t sit around dreaming up how to mess with one another’s heads (wait, maybe we do… how would you know? Paranoid anyone?). No, the traditional games we play on visits home are serious marathons of bid euchre on Lisa’s side and “12 games at once” Yahtzee on Dan’s side. Yes, we live on the edge; we’re crazy people… And we have a competitive mean streak. We’re also very good at these games. Oh yes – and cribbage. And Dan and his dad play a lot of crokinole. Sprinkle in a few walks in the woods/nearby subdivisions and the odd glass/bottle of wine/beer and you’ve got yourself a good ol’ Ontario weekend! Look out Wagga… we will be bringing all of these games with us. Happily, given the Scottish influence in both Canada and Australia, games like euchre are common to both countries. Yahtzee and crokinole… we’re not sure, but we’ll do our best to infiltrate!

Lisa's great-grandparents had nice chairs but no house.

Another important part of family gatherings is sharing family stories, looking at photos and asking questions of those who “were there when…” On this trip, we decided that it was time to borrow some old family pics and get them scanned to digital. Many old pics, especially those from the early 1900s are rapidly deteriorating. And, thanks to the wonders of Photoshop, Dan will have his first project in Wagga – to do a bit of cleanup to these pics and then send them around to family members. We really enjoyed hearing all about the people in the photos (cousins, great-grandparents, etc.) and sharing a laugh at some of the old stories. And, when we’re on the other side of the planet, we’ll now have some great mementos to carry with us.

Dan's great-grandparents had a house, but we don't know if they had furniture.

As you can see, this was a bit of a nostalgia trip… including some tears and lots of hugs and kisses. We’re so glad that we had the opportunity to see everyone and spend time together. We had some great (and much needed, after all the kijiji-ing and packing!) down-time… and also had the chance to plan for the future. We helped Lisa’s sister buy a new computer, so that she’ll be able to run Skype for long-distance video chats. And, we showed Lisa’s brother how to run Skype, so that he and Lisa’s parents will be able to connect for some video conversations, too. Lisa even scored a new Ipod when she found one at the side of the road while walking with her dad and sister. Dan’s thrilled at that, since it will add an extra 16 MB of music for the long flight to Oz. And Lisa’s happy, since that will cut down on the interruptions from Dan (“are we there yet? Are we there yet? Where’s the flight attendant with my wine?”) while she’s watching a multi-movie marathon in flight.

Posted in Canada, cats, family, food, Owen Sound, small town culture | 2 Comments

See you later, buenos noches, bye bye…

Posted on May 27, 2011 by waggadventure

OK, so we aren’t gone yet.  We still officially live in Edmonton, but have been away for the past 10 days (so no blogging). We’re now back for a couple of weeks before another venture.  And it seems to be that ‘farewell’ season is upon us. This year, it happens to coincide with mosquito season in Edmonton (and probably Winnipeg; hi H & J… great seeing you last week! We’re glad you’re getting out of there soon, and remember that Wagga has an air base).

The first of the goodbye parties took place earlier this month, an “it’s all over but the crying” party (thanks again C & A!). Lisa has been lunching like crazy with all the wonderful folks at UofA and beyond. And, we’ve just returned from Ontario where we were visiting family and friends, catching up with old acquaintances, and saying Auf Wiedersehen (for now). This move is a big event. We are both the youngest child in our families, with 3 older siblings each. We were the first of either immediate family to move out of Ontario. And now, we are the first ones to live abroad (Dan’s nephew is in Ireland, but we’re not sure for how long).

The first stop in Ontario was London, where we lived for all of the 1990s and where we attended the University of Western Ontario. Lisa has 4 degrees from there (BA, BEd, MLIS, and a PhD) and Dan has two (BA, MA). We haven’t maintained a lot of connections from then, but still have some good friends and colleagues there. Our reason for going to London was actually for the retirement party of Lisa’s former doctoral supervisor, who is now a close colleague and good friend. That event gave us the opportunity to see lots of folk at UWO who we might not have been in touch with otherwise, including some of Dan’s former instructors at j-skul.

This wasn't taken in London, but it is exactly what we were seeing. Ugh. or maybe Ugg.

During the 90s, London wasn’t too bad, but it seems that the American financial collapse of a few years ago hit them hard. As we walked around town, all we could think was: we actually lived here!? Wow, what a pit. Dan un-affectionately called it Boganville. The downtown is littered with people in track pants, standing around, smoking, swearing, and spitting.  We saw more track pants on the street than we’ve seen anywhere in a long time (one of Lisa’s former students who is now completing a PhD at UWO – hey, C! – even commented on this scary trend over a beer at the Grad Club; that’s one of the best spots to hang out in London and on campus).  Dundas Street, the main east/west street through downtown, was littered with young adults (as in, early 20s) just sort of lingering, as if there is nothing else for them to do. And maybe there isn’t…much of the downtown core is empty stores, bars, fast food places, and dollar stores.

In an attempt to avoid downtown London, Dan went through the Thames River valley parks many times. It was beautiful, but he kept getting attacked by fowl. This goose tried to kill him.

So, while we had a wonderful time there (thanks J & W for joining us at Braise – the only restaurant in London that would survive in a real city! An awesome meal!; and thanks G for the wonderful dinner at your house…and nice to see everyone else), we are really glad we don’t live in London anymore. It was actually quite sad.

And while this visit to London wasn’t about us and our leaving Canada, the timing was convenient and provided an opportunity for us to distribute waggadventure business cards (yes, Dan is a marketing guru!). Blog hits went up that night!

Dan's sister (left), her husband (right), and Lisa (centre) enjoying an after dinner stroll. Owen Sound has some beautiful hidden spots in the city.

After fleeing London it was time to go see family. First stop was to see Dan’s sister and her husband in Owen Sound, where we had a great time (thanks B & D!). We went to the Covent Garden Market in London before heading north, where we got some supplies (to add to what we brought from Edmonton) to make dinner. Okay, so London isn’t all that bad… you can get some good, organic fare, but still… Some game terrines (mmm…duck and pistachio!) and local cheeses served as appetizers, while we made risotto with wild BC mushrooms and wild leeks (what all the top chefs call ramps).

If you are driving through Ontario and see a pie shop that has a horse and buggy parked next door, as the one in Williamsford did, stop and get a pie. You know it will be amazing!.

The meal was capped off with an amazing lemon buttermilk pie (sprinkled with raspberries!) from Williamsford Pie Company. And of course, several bottles of wine… A great evening!

Next stop…well, that will be a surprise for the next entry. But for anyone who has been bored by this post (and if you weren’t there, you probably really don’t care about our trip so far), here’s an entertaining story: on the way to Ontario, some asshole baggage handler at Air Canada managed to throw a suitcase hard enough that it shattered a bottle of shiraz…yep, an inky dark red Aussie gem destroyed in a suitcase. We’ve traveled with wine (successfully) on many trips, so we weren’t expecting this mess! It was in a ziplock bag, but the bottle was so battered that it cut through the bag. So, we arrive with red clothes, and one less bottle of wine than we had planned on.  Fortunately, the people at the Delta Armouries in London (especially Alex!) were fantastic. They sent the clothes to an overnight cleaner and cleaned the suitcase and Lisa’s white running shoes themselves. And, they even sent a replacement bottle of red wine to our room! What more could anyone ask for from a hotel? Anyone going to London…stay there!

Left: the remnants of a bottle of Sister's Run shiraz. Right, Lisa's cute white running shoes. They are white again, thanks to the cleaning staff at the Armouries. Lisa was glad no clothes were permanently damaged; Dan was glad it was a bottle of wine that broke and not the rare Balvenie Rose whisky that he took with him.

Posted in bogans, Canada, family, Owen Sound, pie, small town culture, wildlife, wine | 6 Comments

What’s in Wagga?

Posted on May 16, 2011 by waggadventure

Small towns don’t always have all the amenities of big cities. But then again, not all big cities are created equal either. So while Wagga might not be Edmonton, in terms of what there is to do, Edmonton isn’t Vancouver, Toronto, London (UK….we left the other one to come here, and Edmonton has more), Paris, Sydney, or all those other cities we like to visit.

Wagga may not be London, Paris, or even Edinburgh, but none of those great cities of Europe have kangaroos. These ones aren't Wagga 'roos; this photo was taken near Towoomba in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney 0n 0ur first trip to Australia, but they will be similar.

When we lived in London, we frequently drove to Toronto for the arts and food scene. One year, we drove daily for the jazz festival, because we couldn’t get time off work and school to just spend a few days. The 2 1/2 hour drive was nothing. London is a city of over 300,000 people, but it had the unfortunate situation of being between Toronto and Detroit, so there was no reason for any interesting touring musicians to stop there, for example. It is supposedly a bit better now, but probably not much.  Similarly, there was no Ikea. London wasn’t a ‘supply hub’ for the region, so despite its size, it actually just served more as a commuter suburb for the GTA.

Edmonton, on the other hand, is the big city in north-central Alberta. People come here from northern BC, northern Saskatchewan, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories to shop and be entertained. It has an Ikea, as well as the West Edmonton Mall(you can stay at the Mall; many people do – to swim in the fake pool, lose money at the Casino, watch the Penguins in their concrete pool). It has all the big chain stores. You can buy pretty much anything you want here. It has a lot of major concerts.

The Wagga art gallery isn't as spectacular as the new Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, and probably won't have a Warhol exhibit any time soon, as the AGA does. But we shouldn't be too quick to say that, as the Wagga gallery does have a Goya etching show coming, very similar to the one at the AGA last year.

There is finally a great art gallery. Edmonton is, mostly, a real city.  But the longer we have lived here, the less important some of those aspects have become. We’ve outgrown Ikea. We hate the Mall. We don’t listen to mainstream music (and even if we did, we don’t like concerts in places like Rexall). Much of what a big city has to offer isn’t of interest in this point in our lives. We are looking forward to a small town life, more relaxed, less hectic. Maybe we’ll even get to know our neighbours! Here in Edmonton, we’ve spent countless summer days and nights (thanks to the very long days and few bugs!) on the front porch, playing cribbage and drinking wine, with not another person in sight (except as they ran from their SUVs to the front door or let the pooch out to pee).

The big attractions in Wagga seem to be the museum, the art gallery and the…OK, so there aren’t any more. Maybe the race track. Many of the Commonwealth countries that have retained a more British influence still take this seriously. There was a big race recently; people dress up and go for the afternoon, presumably to drink way too much and socialize more than for the actual race. That’s horse racing, to be precise, not cars or dogs, in case anyone was wondering. The ladies wear hats – or fascinators, as is all the rage now (thanks Duchess of Cambridge!); Lisa is looking forward to purchasing something really wild for next year’s event (watch this space for a pic).

The museum and art gallery are small-town places – we don’t anticipate any major exhibits of modern art, for example, but we will be going to each new exhibit. There’s also a theatre that seems quite busy, with some sort of show 3 or 4 nights each week. These range from drama to musicals to ballet to…well, should I even mention the Meatloaf and Rod Stewart impersonators there recently?  We don’t go to theatre in Edmonton, but might try the Wagga one (oddly, it might be more interesting to us than the polished, professional theatre in Edmonton!). We wouldn’t go to the Meatloaf or Rod Stewart impersonator, but then we wouldn’t have gone to the real thing here, either. Did we mention that we both grew up in small towns? Lisa in Owen Sound, Ontario (which then, and now, has a population of 21,000); Dan in Pike Bay, Ontario, a hamlet of about 50 people… if that.

What Wagga is hoping to get is a new museum, dedicated to the life of Dame Edna Everage.

Dame Edna was 'born' in Wagga... Would you come to a museum of her life? Wagga Council is hoping so, and so are we so you will have something to visit.

For those who don’t know Dame Edna, she is a fictitious character created by, and played by, Barry Humphries. Her show used to be on television here in Canada, and was actually quite funny.  Dame Edna was born in Wagga, hence the proposed museum.  The best thing about this: Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne…Dame Edna is a character, but has a very well-crafted history. So, the museum would be in the birth place of someone who wasn’t actually born.  Canadian comparison would be a Red Green museum somewhere, if Steve Smith (the guy who created him) actually bothered to create that complex of a life story. Maybe he has, but we’ve never paid attention.

What else does Wagga offer? Well, for one, a more laid-back lifestyle. It is a more outdoorsy world, a rural community based on agriculture more than business. It doesn’t have the crazy traffic that Edmonton has – we will be so happy to let go of that horrible “15 km in 45 minutes”  commute each morning.  It has a cool little downtown. It has wineries. And wine festivals. It has Thai food, Indian food, a couple of excellent nouveau Wagga restaurants… so we won’t suffer!

What doesn’t it have? It doesn’t have traffic (as already mentioned, but worth mentioning again).

This dog was devastated that it snowed in the Snowy Mountains. For those of you Riverina residents crying over the snow, don't cry too hard because your tears might overflow the Murrumbidgee River and Wagga is on a flood plane.

It doesn’t have snow. That is a huge one!  It snowed in the Riverina this week…5 centimetres of the white stuff made huge headlines in the newspapers; people (and dogs) got photographed standing in it. One resident commented that “there was even snow on the windscreens [windshields, for North Americans] of cars.” But it didn’t blanket the entire area; Wagga didn’t get any as far as we can tell. The hardest hit place was a town called Laurel Hill (population about 165). What is missing, however, in all the online accounts of this devastating blizzard is that Laurel Hill is in…drumroll please…THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS. And it is winter. Cry me a fracking (nod to BG fans!) river…you don’t know snow and cold. Comparatively, for Canadians, this would be like whining that Jasper got a bit of snow in late November. Of course, the Laurel Hill snow would have melted by noon, because it got up to a ‘chilly’ 5 or 6 degrees Celsius that day. Yes, maybe cold for there, but for anyone who has lived in Edmonton for the past decade, bloody tropical.

Posted in agriculture, Australia, cultural differences, Riverina, small town culture, wildlife, wine | Leave a comment

Mi casa, tu casa

Posted on May 11, 2011 by waggadventure

Several years ago, Dan took Spanish lessons. They did him absolutely no good! During our time in South America over the 2010 Christmas and New Year’s holidays he generally just had a blank look on his face when anyone said anything to him in Spanish.  Lisa knows as much Spanish as Dan; does anyone really need to know how to say more than paella, chorizo, manchego, empanada, and vino tinto (nos gusta rioja y priorat)?

Our house is no longer our house. That pile of snow that is holding the sign up is a big part of why we are leaving.

We also know ‘mi casa, es tu casa’. My house is your house.  People have always been welcome in our house, and we let them feel at home, or more accurately made them feel like they were at home by making them get their own beer out of the fridge… We are great hosts, but maybe not great servers. After the first drink, you are on your own.  But now, ‘nuestra casa es su casa’: our house is their house. Whoever ‘they’ (the buyers) are.

And it is beginning to feel like someone else’s house. Much of our day-to-day routine has been interrupted.  The basement, where we spent a lot of time, is pretty empty. There’s a home gym that we don’t have time to use, and a stereo that would get used, except sitting on the floor listening to music seems odd. No big screen TV; no couch; no books…

The cats aren’t the only ones missing the barstools in the kitchen, either. Probably 98% of our meals were eaten there; many of you enjoyed wine and snacks from them, watching us cook, before moving on to the dining room for dinner.  Now we actually have to use the dining room table for just the two of us. This completely messes up Dan’s morning routine because he times everything so precisely (to allow maximum sleep-in time); having to take 12 steps each way from the kitchen to the dining room (and figure out how to read the paper on a different table surface) now makes him late for work. Lisa’s happy, because dinners now resemble ‘real’ dining, and she can watch the grass grow (literally!) from the dining room window.

Not eating dinner at the kitchen island also means we don’t see much of the six o’clock news. We might see the start of it while cooking, but then can’t see the television from the dining room as we eat. And we also got rid of the bedroom television, where we often watched the 11 o’clock news and Lisa monitored morning news. So we are a bit out of touch…anything happened recently we should know about? Luckily, we did catch the election (yay NDP; boo Harper majority!). For everything else, ignorance is bliss. We are monitoring Wagga news online, of course (federal budget just came down!)… but it’s odd to feel disconnected from the pulse of our current nation.

This is an empty deck. It used to house the best BBQ ever!

The most painful sale of all was the barbecue! It was a hard decision. It was a great barbecue (Vermont Castings, stainless steel) and we took a bit of a financial hit selling it. But, the reality is, we don’t know where we are going to be living and whether our next home will have a natural gas hookup.

And with the Australian rules about what can be brought into the country, it would need a very, very good cleaning. All the charred food bits would have to be cleaned out, for sure. But the bigger issue would be spiders. When Dan was cleaning up other outdoor items to pack, he found lots of little spider hives (we have a lot of brown spiders in our back yard) and trying to clean the barbecue well enough to get them all would be a challenge. Australia has enough spiders; it doesn’t need any of ours.  So, no barbie for us for now. And pretty much everyone who has dined at our house has had food from that grill or rotisserie. You name it, we’ve probably grilled it: asparagus, runner beans, squash, bacon, tomatoes, fennel, and all the ‘usual’ meaty fare. No kangaroo yet, but in a few months, it will happen. And we’ve grilled (Aussie lingo) in all weather: -35, snow, rain…many readers will remember scrambling to clear the table in the backyard as thunderstorms blew in while Dan (and Dinesh – yummy tandoori chicken!) cooked.

Lovely spring daffodils! We planted these bulbs in the dark, as it snowed, the first autumn our landscaping was complete.

And that brings us to the yard. We love that yard. We designed it (truly!), nurtured it, and had a lot of fun meals with friends and family back there. But some of the first things we sold in the purge were the garden tools, so it is starting to look like hell. There is some major pruning to do, raking, weeding, etc… all the general spring clean-up that we would be so eager to do now that the weather is nice.  Spring bulbs are flowering, our trees are budding, and the weather is warm.

Last weekend, Dan stood with the cats in the kitchen nook, staring back at the yard, wanting to garden. By the time we turn over the house to the new owners, it will be a disaster. Luckily, we aren’t around much to see it deteriorate, but in our last week we will probably do a ‘perp walk’ from the garage to the house, coats pulled over our faces, not so we can’t be identified but so we can’t see around us. And we’ll keep the blinds closed in the house.

This is a flowering crab tree (a "snowball" - so appropriate for Edmonton). We hope it flowers again, before we leave. Under it, the complete mess we won't be cleaning up.

As much as some of this hurts, we are looking forward to starting again in Wagga.  A new barbie…no shrimp for Lisa, but we’ll get to experiment with ‘roo.  Gardening will be better. The season will actually be long enough for things to grow! Our tomatoes in Edmonton froze on the vine most years, still green.  We are going to live an outdoor life; the Aussies will probably think we are nuts…wearing shorts, cooking and dining outside, mid-winter…but when compared to Edmonton, it will be warm.  A couple of days ago, Wagga’s museum tweeted to “rug up! it is freezing in Wagga today”. Rugging up, it seems, is the term for layering on warm clothes. Or getting a toupee… we’re not yet sure. But freezing? It was + 7 Celsius. Tropical for Canadians like us.

For the new people who bought our house, nuestra casa es su casa, we hope you enjoy the yard as much as we have (read – you better damn well take care of it!).  For all our friends reading this, especially the Canadians who want to vacation where +7 is called freezing, when we finally arrive in Wagga and find a place to live, once again mi casa es tu casa. Come visit. We will be so happy to see you we might even serve you two drinks before you are on your own.

Posted in decluttering, Moving, real estate | 2 Comments

Herding cats, part 2

Posted on May 8, 2011 by waggadventure

OK, a tip for all business owners out there: if someone orders a product from you, and you don’t have it, tell them that. Or at least respond to your email, or answer your phone.

Ellie likes her new kennel.

These are the things that didn’t happen when we ordered the airline and Aussie-approved ultra-secure carriers for the kitties, from the company that Air Canada recommends. After waiting several weeks, far beyond the expected delivery date, we tried contacting them. No replies to emails, no answering of phone. Finally got through, and they said there was a problem with the supplier, and they didn’t expect any for a few weeks. Well, you could have told us that…it’s not like we were just ordering these things for fun. Moving these cats is a costly venture, but the more important thing is that all the detailed instructions are followed to a T – anything done wrong could result in our little guys going into quarantine for 6 months! So having the proper carriers is crucial.

Lester likes his new kennel, including the special mat from DryFur that will account for any "accidents" mid-flight.

We eventually found a company in the southern US that sells good carriers, and they sent them by courier on Good Friday (what? doing business on a holy day south of the Mason-Dixon…capitalism beat out religion!) and they were here within a week. We now have these monstrous kennels (for the record, Sky Kennel #200 medium size) in the living room, letting the kitties get used to them. Lisa, ever the good librarian, also informed our animal removal company of the problem with Air Canada’s supplier, as well as the name of the US company, so that they could inform other clients. We’ve yet to receive a finder’s fee, but we’re hoping… Lisa also found a company that specializes in making kitties comfortable on long journeys – DryFur.

Malachi would rather go in the box, but Air Canada probably won't allow it.

The cats obviously don’t know what is happening, but we think they do sense that something is up. They are acting a bit weird lately. It might be that they are freaked out by the number of people coming to the door to buy our stuff. Or it might be that we have sold so much of their favorite stuff. All three of them loved to hang out on the bar stools in our kitchen; someone bought those. All three of them loved to sleep on the old ratty couch in our basement; someone got that for free. Lester and Malachi spent a lot of time on the futon in our office/spare bedroom. A friend took that away last week. They like to chew on plants…those have now turned our friends’ loft into a jungle (thanks W & P!).

Lester almost went with the futon to its new home...he wasn't going to let go.

We think that we have to get rid of the tree/scratching posts that they use constantly, scratching, fighting, watching birds, sleeping. But we have to figure out how to do it: what’s the strategy to list them on kijiji early enough to ensure they get bought, but not too early that we have to live without them? It’s a conundrum. The move itself is going to screw with their world enough that we want to keep them happy for as long as possible before they leave.

All three cats staged a protest to prevent us from selling their tree.

The rest of the cat moving process is very up in the air. Air Canada doesn’t allow you to  book an animal into cargo more than 30 days ahead. We have made plans with the pet relocation company to pick them up on July 4. They will fly to Vancouver that day, stay overnight in a facility there, be inspected, locked into their kennels and shipped to Sydney on July 5. The only glitch would be if there were a lot of other animals traveling that day, and there wasn’t room for them. It probably won’t happen, but we are keeping our fingers crossed just in case there is an international pet show in Australia and people are shipping their show animals that night.

We will be on the same plane from Vancouver to Sydney. We won’t be near the cats – they will be in cargo, we will be in economy. They will probably be more comfortable than us. They won’t know we are there (although Ruthy, our pet relocation expert, assures us that they will know and that they will appreciate our psychic presence!), but we will know that they are with us. If the plane goes down somewhere over the Pacific we can make a spoof of Lost starring our cats and whatever other animals are on the plane. How will it end? Dan won’t know… he refused to watch the show.

We won’t get to spend much time with the kitties in the near future. They will be spending a lot of time at ‘camp’, the wonderful Calico Hills Kitty Lodge where they go when we are away. We are going to be in Ontario for almost 2 weeks in May, so they will be at camp. Then they go back to camp the first weekend of June, because our house will be getting packed and loaded June 6th to 8th. Cats + boxes = a bad combination; they’d end up getting packed away by mistake. Then, we go to the UK for 3 weeks before we move to Oz (talk about bad timing!). So the cats are having an extended trip to summer camp. When the cat removalist picks them up at Calico Hills on July 4, we will be there to see them off. We expect tears (Lisa and Kelly, their ‘camp mommy’, who loves them like they were her own! Will Dan cry? Watch this space for an update). When they land in Sydney, someone picks them up and takes them to the Eastern Creek Animal Quarantine facility; we board a plane to Wagga without getting to see them. Expect more tears… well, just from the jetlag. And we’re very pleased that our good friends in Sydney will be able to visit the kitties during their imprisonment (thanks M & H!).

We then have to find rental accommodations that are cat friendly and count the days until they get shipped from Sydney to Wagga (expected “release date” is August 6).  Fortunately, cats don’t understand time and things will be back to normal very quickly. Lester will be thrilled to see us, Malachi will be his normal aloof self, and Ellie will be as bitchy as ever.

Posted in cats, Moving, quarantine | 2 Comments

The Alberta Advantage, Part 2: mountains

Posted on May 4, 2011 by waggadventure

Yes, there is more we like about Alberta than the food, as discussed in the AA Part 1 post (for new readers, that’s “Alberta Advantage” not “Alcoholics Anonymous”).  Maybe what we are going to miss the most (except for the people we are leaving behind) is Jasper.

OK, so we aren't trying to single out those from central Alberta as the only in-breds in the country. There will soon be a post on the Bruce Peninsula, where Dan grew up, in Ontario.

Not  being from Rocky Mountain House (sorry KM!), we don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many times we have been to Jasper.

Jasper is a 4-hour drive from Edmonton, and almost everyone who has come to visit us has made the trek, some more than once.  It is one of the most spectacular places in the world – the scenery is beyond description, and it just “feels right”. Dan’s opinion has always been that the moment you cross into the park, your blood pressure drops by 50%. Sure, you have to drive through Edson and Hinton to get there…ugh, are there worse cities on the planet? Probably not…but Jasper is an oasis in the gem of Alberta.  On one trip back from Jasper, we took the very long route down the Icefields Parkway, and out the David Thompson Highway. Along Lake Abraham, it is beautiful, but you end up in Rocky, which is right up (down) there with Edson and Hinton. So no matter how you try to get there, it is a challenge to the senses.

When you are this close to a grizzly, you think more about an exit strategy than focusing the camera.

When we first moved to Edmonton, one of Lisa’s colleagues told us that we needed to go to Jasper, and to stay at Becker’s Chalets. We did, and we loved it. Rustic, rural, relaxing, tranquil…think of a happy, positive adjective, that is Becker’s and Jasper. For a couple of years, we foolishly got attracted to Banff, but Jasper has been the highlight of the province: elk, goats, coyotes, sheep, pikas, deer, forest fires,  Maligne Lake (best chance of seeing grizzly bears), Cavell Meadows…

In one weekend last summer we saw several bears (including a grizzly so close that Lisa was worried, even though we were in the car that we are now trying to sell!), and  a pair of young marmots playfighting. How many people can say that?

Young marmots play very much like our cats, Malachi and Lester; it looks like they are trying to kill one another but really it is just play. Unlike cats, however, they shake hands like boxers before attacking.

December 26, 2010, summer in the southern hemisphere. Cape Horn in middle of summer is not as warm as Jasper in summer.

We are pretty well traveled. Dan has been to Europe more times than even someone from Rocky Mountain House (or Tobermory, for the Ontarians) can count on one foot. Lisa has been there more than most of them can even count. We’ve seen central America and the Caribbean; we’ve been to Australia twice, so far; this winter we rounded Cape Horn; and now we’re re-locating to a gateway to explore the south Pacific. But honestly, it can’t get any better than what we have had in our backyard for the past decade.

We probably shouldn’t admit it, but we really haven’t explored the rest of Alberta as well as we could/should have, and there are things we don’t really know:

This is supposedly in Vegreville, but we didn't see it the one time we drove through town. I guess we blinked.

  • What is Peace Country like?
  • Is Frank Slide really haunted?
  • Does Vegreville really have the world’s biggest pysanka?
  • Are there parts of Hinton that don’t smell like a pulp mill?
  • Is Medicine Hat really the world’s biggest trailer (Aussies, read caravan) park, metaphorically speaking of course?
  • Which is the better way to die in Fort Mac: drug overdose, STD, or drowning in a tailings pond?

OK, so maybe what we don’t know about Alberta we really don’t want to know…

What we do know:

  • driving a Toyota Echo through a herd of bison puts their size into perspective (we were glad it was silver, not brown, because given its size and shape, one of the bulls might have wanted to mate with it);
  • the statement “but it’s a dry cold” really means something;
  • the best drive on the planet is the Icefields Parkway;
  • if you are ‘in the know’ there is a restaurant in Calgary where you can eat horse (anyone want to try it, ask us and we’ll tell you);
  • that the best museum in the world (and we’ve been to many) is in Torrington, Alberta. (We don’t want to steal someone’s photos for this one, so please click on the link to the museum. You’ll be glad you did.)

OK, so maybe not as nice as Jasper, but the mountains in Banff are still pretty sweet.

We’ve been to Drumheller, but never south east of Calgary to experience the Canadian prairies. We haven’t make it north either. Alberta is a lot of flat land, except for the western border that is the mountains, and every year when deciding where to go for a local holiday, we would ponder all different parts of the province, and then come to our senses and head back to the mountains. Australia doesn’t have real mountains. We’ve been to the Blue Mountains, to the west of Sydney. They are nice, but they are ‘plateau’ mountains – about 1000 metres high, but flat with ravines instead of peaks, and you can drive across the highest point. We’ve been to Tamborine Mountain, southwest of Brisbane. Beautiful spot! At the edge of the Riverina, there are the Snowy Mountains, which we will visit, eventually. It actually does snow there, but we doubt they will be really special compared to the Rockies. The Australian ranges are more like the Grampians or other mountains in the Scottish highlands (one of our other favourite places) – beautiful, but more like the Alberta foothills than “real” mountains. Then there are Blue Mountains in Ontario…tiny, not really mountains but they tell people they are to attract skiers from Toronto.

There are other mountains in the world that rank with the Canadian Rockies – the Andes (been there), the Himalayas (not been there yet), the Swiss/Italian alps (not been there yet either) but it is the Rockies that are special to us.  We finally booked our flight to Australia. The Vancouver to Sydney flight is at 2340 on July 5; the ‘normal’ feeder from Edmonton to Vancouver would have been at around 2030. Instead we opted for an earlier flight, leaving at 1840. It means that we have a longer layover (yummm, chickpea salad and horrible BC wine* in yvr Maple Leaf Lounge), but it also gives Dan a chance to fly over the Rockies one more time in daylight…you can track the David Thompson Highway past Lake Abraham on that flight. We can’t wait! (Lisa’s edit: screw you, asshole; for the first time in the 18 years we’ve been married, I’m taking the window seat!)

* this is not to say that BC wine is bad; there are some really great ones (Blue Mountain pinot gris, for example, or on our last trip to Vancouver we had a really great cab franc from Fort Berens winery in Lillooet).  But Air Canada lounges at Canadian airports typically have two reds and two whites, none of which are enjoyable. They are sufficient to put you to sleep for a long flight and far superior to the plonk they give you on the plane, but that’s about it. In contrast, the Air New Zealand lounge at the Sydney airport (that AC/Star Alliance elite get to use) has a spectacular selection of 6-8 Aussie and NZ reds and another 6-8 whites, and a self-serve pancake machine. Yes, you read that right, a pancake machine.

Posted in Australia, Canada, mountains, small town culture, Uncategorized, wildlife | 2 Comments

The Alberta Advantage, Part 1: the food edition

Posted on May 1, 2011 by waggadventure

Last Saturday, we ate a lot of cheese. While this might not be any different than most days, it is notable because we also learned how to make cheese, how to make pasta, and how to make sausage. It was all at a one day conference called Eat Alberta.

The Eat Alberta conference was presented by Slow Food Edmonton, which is a convivium  (hoity-toity word for chapter, I think) of Slow Food, an international movement that started in Italy in the late 1980s. According to their website, “Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment.”

It is all about good food, local food, honest food. It is about everything that the big chains, whether they be grocery stores, mass-market producers, or chain restaurants, are not about.  It is, pretty much, about how we have tried to live our lives in the past decade or so. But even though the ethos of Slow Food is very in tune with our philosophies, and we’ve known about Slow Food Edmonton for years, we never really paid much attention to the organization. We went to an event they host called Indulgence a couple of times; it is a great event that teams a local producer and a local restaurant to create a dish, then a BC winery pairs it with one of their offerings. So, for example, the chef at Red Ox makes something with Irving Farms pork belly and Blue Mountain winery pairs one of their wines with it. For about $60 or so (not sure what it is this year) attendees can sample 16-18 of these creations. A fun and filling night of some of the best food Edmonton has to offer, and good Canadian wines. That’s been our only Slow Food experience previously, and it was a damn good one – one we would return to, but last year we were out of town (can’t remember where) and this year we will be somewhere in the UK. But if you are going to be in Edmonton in mid-June, look into it.

We took home our dough from the pasta class; here's Lisa prepping it for cooking the next day. Last time we had this machine out, the kitchen looked like something from an I Love Lucy episode. This was so easy! She won the apron she is wearing at the conference, for having one of the best aprons that day.

The Eat Alberta conference had an opening keynote by the farmers at Sundog Organics, about how they quit their jobs and became farmers. There was a closing keynote Kevin Kossowan, a local food blogger, discussing his From Local Farms project.  In between the keynotes, we learned how to make sausage with Allan Suddaby. It was very interesting, because it really wasn’t that hard. It was actually a lot of fun. Next session, Kathryn Joel of Get Cooking Edmonton taught us how to make pasta. Dan had tried making pasta once before, and it was a disaster. Again, not as difficult as we were expecting; like with sausage making, you just need someone to show you and then you practice.

Some of Smoky Valley's cheese - Valencay on the left, St. Maure on the right.

Holly Gale from Smoky Valley Goat Cheese showed us how to make goat brie…well, she used cow’s milk but the principle is the same. This was a bit harder. Not as hard as you might think, but time consuming. She did a small batch, starting with 2 gallons of milk. When she does it in her shop, she does 60 gallons, it takes her 12 – 14 hours, and she does that 2 times a week. And she raises goats. And markets the cheese (literally, takes it to markets to sell…). We would say that Holly is the hardest working person we can imagine meeting, but that would discredit all the other amazing farmers and producers who work just as hard.

This event was exactly the kind of thing we wish had been going on for years! We’ve shopped at the farmers’ markets here since we moved here – Old Strathcona mostly, but in the past year have been having a really interesting time at City Market. We love the fresh produce, we love meeting the farmers, and we love supporting the local economy. As an example of just how we fit into this, our dinner when we got home was leftovers of something we had made a couple of nights earlier – stuffed peppers.

Not as perfect as the first night, when the filling was fresh, but still a good meal. The wine was the only non-local ingredient. We aren't fans of Alberta's fruit wines.

The peppers (bought from Doef’s at Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market) were stuffed with Irving Farms masala pork sausage meat, finely diced nantes carrots (from Helen at OSFM), quick cook Alberta barley (that we got delivered from Eat Local First), and West Country Herbs coriander. Except for the chicken stock the barley was cooked in (and maybe the spices in the sausage), it was all local, organic, fresh, and yummy. We also had some little tomatoes from Gull Valley. Good for us, good for the environment, and good for the Alberta economy.

Despite the fact that the Edmonton environment is really not meant for human habitation, farmers have managed to grow interesting and quality food. Yes, there are a lot of starchy root vegetables consumed in the winter (we’ve grown to love beets), but growers have adapted to grow some fantastic produce. Doef’s, Gull Valley, Peas on Earth…just a few examples of OSFM growers who seem to defy nature.

Wagga Farmers Market from across the lagoon

The Riverina area of New South Wales, Australia, is a much hotter climate (details on a future blog entry, but for now let’s just say that the 3 times a year that it gets frost is about 100 times less than Edmonton gets frost, but it is crucial to the wine production so we can live with it) but we wonder about how the local food scene will be.  Wagga has a farmers’ market, but only once a month…we’re used to going to OSFM weekly, City Market maybe every second week in summer, and maybe occasionally another one mid-week for more fresh asparagus (only available from Edgar Farms for 6 weeks…eat it while it is fresh).  Presumably other Riverina towns, like Junee, Lockhart, and Gundagai, will also have them, and if so we will just have to plan road trips for our food. We will definitely be looking into it, as the ethos of slow food (and, similarly ‘living local’) is crucial to our existence.  At least we do know that the local Riverina wineries will be good; the fruit wineries in the Edmonton region…well, as mother always said, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything.

Back to Slow Food…there are a few chapters (sorry, convivia) in Australia, but all the ones in New South Wales are near Sydney. For those in Edmonton, that would be like saying that all the ones in Alberta are south of Lethbridge. There is, however, one in Canberra, ACT. Canberra is the capital of Australia, ACT is the state (Australian Capital Territory);  it stands alone, landlocked within NSW, about 150 km from Wagga. We have a feeling we will be frequent visitors there as it is the closest big city.  We could join that convivium. But, chatting with a SF rep at Eat Alberta, we learned that you can start your own regional convivium, or university-based one. We are seriously thinking of doing this. It would be a great way to meet people..people who we would want to eat with!…and to get to know farmers, bakers, producers, chefs, and even just foodies like ourselves. And to contribute something to our new home.

So, the Eat Alberta conference was really a bittersweet final event…yes, final because we really don’t have much more time here…in that it was a celebration of some of the best that Alberta has to offer. But it was also an inspiration.

Posted in agriculture, food, Riverina, wine | 2 Comments