PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

What happen to the good old days when Canadians were quiet modest being who did not rub it in other peoples faces how good they may think it is to be Canadian!?!?! Recently I have spoken to too many Canadians who rave about how great our nation is. Some even go as far to tell me that soon I won't consider England my home... after all Canada is far better!!(?) People shout at me..

"Welcome back to the best Country in the world!"

(spoken like a Stereotypical American?)(British Pride)

Coincidentally, with an increase in Canadian editions of popular American TV shows like Deal or No Deal and Entertainment Tonight we appear to be shedding a stereotype for which the rest of the world once loved us (maybe even adopting another nations stereotype?). Just remember our reputation as a nation is on the line and so to Canadians everywhere I recommend sucking up our pride and avoid others' prejudice.

(You know how in films with old trains the passengers reach their arms out the window to open the door from a handle on the outside? many of GNER's trains are still like that. Fantastic!)

ANOTHER VISIT TO BRIMHAM ROCKS

(Dave, Pete and Lee take to the Rocks)
Typical. When we go in August it's a grey cloudy day (see August 2005) but when we go in January it's bright and sunny, but boy was it cold!!(Pete and Lee)

(Lee Shows us how it's done)
This may be Lee's last visit to Brimham rocks for awhile as he returns to sunny California at the end of February.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS 2006

(Pete, Lee and Dave at Goodricke)

Sounds like Pete has left a bit of a legacy at Battle of the Bands. One of the bands has taken to playing his sea chanties and the Mario brothers theme!! We wonder if it is worthwhile doing a Paul Simon. Taking the rights to the sea tunes and copyrighting them as Simon did with the rights to Scarborough Fair.(Angela and Pete: Ok... so there was some smoothness to your strategy)

I too was remembered for my band involvement as the retarded girlfriend who wore a top reading "BIG PETE... better than Bonham, Moon and Grohl at bashing his instrument" (What!?... He was the drummer!)

HAMPSTEAD HEATH

Yes-I'm still wearing my Canadian hat. And it was well worth it. I was freezing! Then again feeling a bit worse for wear may have something to do with my Leicester Square experience the night before? It's possible to combine the hard working goodness of the third year with the party hard rebellion of the first year.

London's skyline. If you look close you can see the Gerkin on the far left. Although the photos are not much to look at, it was pretty neat to see Londons skyline from a park. This included the London Eye and Westminster.

ANYTHING GOES...

(Alley Shop in Richmond, London)

In big cities people will do anything to be noticed and the same goes for businesses. Without coming out and saying it this clothing shop had an interesting tactic to attract customers' attention. If you're lost as to what white stuff is I can tell you that they aren't advertising milk. Maybe the clue in the bottom of the right hand window is more exclusive?

I WANT A SQUIRREL!

While wandering Richmond we found a park by the Thames that had more squirrels than I had ever seen. Most importantly they were so friendly and unsurprisingly really fat. Some of them were probably the size of Millie.

I wanted to go and buy nuts to feed them but someone wasn't having any of it. Many came up to me to eat out of my hand even though I had nothing. I have concluded that I WANT A SQUIRREL! - much like the rich kid in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

We did have a squirrel... Squirt was great. When I was about 6 years old Mom picked me up from school with a baby squirrel. It had fallen out of a tree and Mom had agreed to foster it for the humane society. We kept Squirt in a cage until he was old enough to live in a bird house in the backyard. He'd bury nuts in between you legs and act puzzled when he returned to find them missing. Calling him to you, he would climb up your leg and perch on your shoulder.

Our neighbour had a painter working on her house one day and Squirt decided to say hello. Unfortunately animals in Canada can get rabies and the man decided Squirts friendly behaviour towards him was a symptom. Terrified he locked himself in his car from the big, bad squirrel.

When Squirt was old enough we let him go at Apps Mill. Apps Mill is my favourite place for walking. As a child I would always look out in the hope of seeing him again.

SEVEN YEARS ABROAD(my walk to campus)

Yes, it has been seven years. About the first 3 months of my adventure are remembered as though it was a dream sequence. Everything I remember about it is so surreal. And, given the amount we gave up to move and the amount we had to take in, I'm surprised more tears weren't shed in those early days.

I had always lived in little city suburbia, so Thorpe Waterville, a village of no more that 30 dwellings in the middle of what felt like nowhere, was a particularly bleak experience. The first weeks we slept on the floor with winter coats, as we hadn't figured out how the central heating worked.

School was awful. Uniforms, an extensively advanced curriculum and a lack of knowledge of the British vocabulary not to mention everyone thought I was American, destroyed any hope of self-esteem. The boys would sing "American Woman" everytime they saw me. When my form tutor (home room teacher) took the register I had to say "yes sir." That and reading Romeo and Juilet out loud in my first English classes used to make me feel so embarrassed for my accent.
On the first anniversary of our moving to England we found ourselves by pure coincidence in the Fox Inn, the pub next door, in the very place, right down to the table, where we had eaten exactly a year earlier. The pub owners, by then friends of ours, recalled to us how they thought we were arrogant Americans that day!

I can honestly say without a doubt that I am an entirely different person for the last seven years. I have learnt and experienced so much and I am exceedingly grateful for that. Yes Mom and Dad, this is a thank you. Thanks for taking a risk that turned out to be a great opportunity for all of us.

I don't know if I will see the full 8 years or that I won't see 10 or 15 years. One thing is for sure I will always be torn between 2 countries I call home.

A PROMISING END?

I got some brilliant results yesterday to mark the 50% point in my degree. Less than 6 months and 25,000 more words to go! I got my first, first class essay too. It used loads of recent journal articles and concluded...

"Lifestyles are learnt in childhood and, regardless of the underlying causes, it is lifestyle that creates childhood obesity. Reversing obesity trends and their consequences for the future should therefore start in childhood."

Hopefully the western world will clue into this before it's too late.

RED HAT GOES TO AEROBICS!

Note the mirrors. They were installed over Christmas for dance and aerobics classes. Any thoughts I had of being a lengthy klutz has been more than confirmed!

MODERN "ART"
This is a picture of the reception at Wentworth College, home of the Department of Sociology, or at least it would be if not for this ready rusted contraption which not doubt cost thousands. A few weeks ago fellow students witnessed this thing being towed through campus to its current destination. Many thought it was destined for a hole in the ground given its industrial purposeful, not to mention unappealing, appearance but no... this my friends is art!