The arrival of our belongings - at long last!!
On a rainy day in May our container arrived with all of our belongings. It was very surreal to see all of our stuff being unloaded and made the move seem very real. Within 2 hours everything was off the truck and in the house. Imogen had her cot and we had our big TV yey! We have unpacked most of our stuff but still have boxes of books and CDs here and there - its going to take a while to find a place for everything but this house is starting to feel more like home.
THE HOUSE!!!
Many of you have been asking of pictures of the house, I wanted to get most of the things unpacked and the house set up before I took photos. We live in a 3 bedroom detached house, over here they go more by square foot - ours is just under 1900sqft. Downstairs is open planned, kitchen, dining, living and office area with hard wood floor. There is a downstairs toilet and laundry room and a double garage. We have a large undeveloped basement which is great for storing everything. Outside we have a good sized decked area leading to grass. Upstairs there are 3 good sized bedrooms. Ours has a master en-suite with a corner bath tub, two sinks and a standalone shower. There is also a family bathroom on this floor and what people over here call a bonus/family room. This room is our TV room and is one of the larger rooms in our house. The house has views of 'downtown' from the front and the glorious Rocky Mountains from the bedroom window. So here are some photos and a couple of the lake across the road.
Arrival of Gizmo
After many weeks apart we were finally re-united with Gizmo. He had a long trip which started in a Z4, then onto a forklift truck, then a plane, another forklift, a van and finally our car! Needless to say he was very happy to see us. It has taken him a couple of weeks to make himself at home.
Cats and Dogs need to be licensed here and there are strict rules as well. Dogs are not allowed of leash unless on your property or with in a designated no leash zone, these are usually situated well away from children's parks. Cat are not allowed of your property at all. This is problematic as try telling a cat not to follow his instincts and explore, even more so problematic as we so not have a fence around our property. He has shown a desire to leave the house and we have spoken about getting him a kitty leash lol but can't bring ourselves to do it.
Chariot
Wanting to make the most of the great outdoors and the arrival of our bikes we invested in a 2nd hand chariot for Imogen. I have only ever seen these once or twice in the UK, they are very popular over here. Imogen doesn't seem to mind being pulled about and we can store a lot in there so can take a picnic, balls, toys with us.
I'm free!
Alastair has bought his commuter car so I am now able to go out further than the local park during the day.
I say Tomato, you say Toma'y'to..,. I say Mobile - you say Cell... I say boot you say....
So in my last blog I mentioned I'd like to include bits about the differences over here.
I mentioned the mail and how this is delivered. No one has letter boxes on the front of their house, nor do we have the stereotypical north American post box at the end of our drives. Instead we have large boxes on every street with smaller numbered boxes (not with your house number, with a key number).
This is where your mail is posted and collected from. Everyday the post man opens the whole front of the boxes and sorts out the mail. Any parcels are left in a large box at the bottom and a key for that box is placed in your box. You then have to post the key back through the post box. So every day around 5pm Imogen and I take a little walk down to the post box to see if any thing has been left. We are not looking forward to this in winter - this responsibility may be passed over to Alastair to do on his way home - hop out and back in the car!
Alastair has bought his commuter car so I am now able to go out further than the local park during the day.
I say Tomato, you say Toma'y'to..,. I say Mobile - you say Cell... I say boot you say....
So in my last blog I mentioned I'd like to include bits about the differences over here.
I mentioned the mail and how this is delivered. No one has letter boxes on the front of their house, nor do we have the stereotypical north American post box at the end of our drives. Instead we have large boxes on every street with smaller numbered boxes (not with your house number, with a key number).
This is where your mail is posted and collected from. Everyday the post man opens the whole front of the boxes and sorts out the mail. Any parcels are left in a large box at the bottom and a key for that box is placed in your box. You then have to post the key back through the post box. So every day around 5pm Imogen and I take a little walk down to the post box to see if any thing has been left. We are not looking forward to this in winter - this responsibility may be passed over to Alastair to do on his way home - hop out and back in the car!
We have both noticed that drivers are very courteous here. When crossing the road in the burbs drivers stop to let you cross (you don't get this downtown). A friend I have made who is from Toronto says that this is a Calgary thing!
Quite often you have an extra assistant at the store to pack your bags and then ask to help you out of the store. I am yet to take them up on this offer but think come winter I may say yes!
Quite often you have an extra assistant at the store to pack your bags and then ask to help you out of the store. I am yet to take them up on this offer but think come winter I may say yes!
So here are some facts and figures for you number boffins out there!
Location | Size (in sqmi) | Elevation (airports) | Population | Notes: |
UK | 94,060sq mi | 58,789,194 | ||
Grtr Manchester | 493sq mi | 125ft | 2,600,100 | |
Manchester City | 44.7 sq mi | 464,200 | ||
Northern Ireland | 5,345 sq mi | 1,685,267 | ||
County Antrim | 1,098 sq mi | (Aldergrove) 268f | 616,384 | |
Belfast | 44.4 sq mi | (George Best) 15ft | 65,500 | |
Canada | 3,854,085 sq mi | 32,623,490 | 50 x bigger than UK! | |
Alberta | 255,541 sq mi | 3,724,832 | 2.7 x bigger than the UK yet less population than Greater Manchester and Northern Ireland put together. | |
Calgary Met Area | 1,972 sq mi | 3640ft | 1,079,310 | |
Calgary City | 280.5 sq mi | Royal Oak (where we live): 4134ft | 988,193 |
Out and About
Last weekend we made the most of our time and went back to a place near Elbow Falls called Allen Bill and finally got to use our Cobb BBQ which was rather successful and something we want to do again soon. We really love being able to drive to these wonderful places. here are some photo's of that day.
We also went and had a walk around Cochrane Ranch to do a spot of Geocaching.
Canada Day is Canada's birthday. It is the day that three British colonies became a single country - Canada on 1st July 1867.
It is a national holiday and celebrated by all. We headed down to Princes Island Park for the festivities. A lot of people were wearing red, there were bands, stalls and fun activities for all. It was VERY BUSY as you can see from the picture of the bridge!(another link about the park)
Here are some photo's of Imogen playing in the paddling pool, at the park and at the splash park. Its been so hot here lately that Imogen's bath time has been in the paddling pool most nights! Imogen and I went to our first splash park this week also. Imogen really enjoyed herself. there are a few of these around the city. We are really starting to realise how much this city is geared up for families!
It is the start of Calgary Stampede this week and of course the royals are visiting on Thursday also! I am going to try and make it down to the parade on Friday and hopefully to an event next week. Soooo that's it for now from me, feel free to comment - I do like hearing from you and as always I hope you enjoy reading what we have been up to!
