O Canada!!!

"Our home and Native Land, true patriot love... blah, blah blah blah blah blah". For those back in Blighty unsure of such a lyrical begining to this post, this is part of Canada's National Anthem - and alhtough my home and native land remains the dark side of Warrington, I feel some obligation to be aware of the "O Canada" tune, seeing as though I was handed my residency status here in the big white north last Thursday. It took a rather long time to get all of the papers processed - as like all government departments in any country, speed is not of the essence when it comes to filing immigrants - and also my medical after medical after medical tests put a spanner in the works for a while (forutnately they now see fit to let me and my testicle live here unobstructed by paperwork for the timebeing). After dashing around in the morning to get more photographs taken (I'd neglected to read the back of the sheet they sent me about "things to bring to the interview") Brina and I showed up at immigration central in downtown Calgary for a 1.00pm meeting. The immigration meeting (for the officer to make a final decision on whether I could stay here as a resident or be shipped back to the industrial wastelands of northern England) was scheduled from 1.00pm to 1.15pm. Only there were 50 other people with exactly the same time scheduled meeting to see one of three immigration officers. Luckily I was one of the first in, and Brina had to be there to prove she wasn't a mail order bride. The officer quizzed Brina quite hard about having sponsored other people into Canada - we both got a bit edgy, but it turned out that the officer was having a bit of a customs Canada wind up joke (the cad! - for "cad" read "tosser", but I can only print that now that they've handed over the papers!!!).

Apart from fighting off a killer bug last week (bug as in sickness and fever, not as in giant bumblebee) and writing lots of reports this weekend all is very steady here. It's still getting colder, although is really mild compared to this time last year (check out last years posts, it was bloody freezing last November). Had a couple of wee stints on the bike and am shackled to the windtrainer during the depressingly dark week nights. This month is just a blur and I'm not too sure where it has all gone to.

Shall leave you with the lovely news that Sunshine opens tomorrow (Lake Louise was open last week) - so here comes the good stuff of winter..... (struggled to post a webcam shot of Sunshine as it's dark there right now - so you just get the shot at the top, taken from Goatseye if my geography serves me correctly).

Keep fighting the authorities you anarchists,

Forever your illegal alien,

S&S.