Singinintherainparkingticketquizscores!

Well, it’s been a good week overall – I’ll sum up what’s been happening....

On Monday I popped out to do a little shopping in the car and when I got back parked it up on one of the side roads, where there is no parking limit. Later in the evening we went out to go to the cinema and see the new Bourne movie – but lo and behold, when we reached the car I had ANOTHER FECKING parking ticket!! It turns out that in Canada you are not allowed to park within 9metres of a stop sign. What the fuck! 9 metres is a bloody long way away from a stop sign and there are no markings whatsoever to tell you this. No double yellow lines, no sign showing where parking stops and starts and no bloody warnings. They have spent so much money putting in Stop signs at every 4 way junction that they obviously cannot afford to warn drivers about parking illegally. So I’m another $35 out of pocket. At least the movie was good!! 

Knobbers!

 

The next day was lovely and sunny and so after an early morning run, I spent the afternoon sat outside, reading a book and waiting for the traffic officer to turn up and start ticketing the cars that were parked all day, in a one hour zone. I wanted to get eye to eye with the bloke as he saw the BMW parked up again, then I would get into the car, put the top down and drive off slowly, with the air of an arrogant arsehole that I am, just to show him that $35 is fuck all and really doesn’t bother me. (It's the principle of the matter that gets on my tits!) Unfortunately, he never turned up today and as I looked through the Winnipeg website, I discovered that for $25, you can buy a residents parking pass – if you have a car registered at your address – that means you can park all day long. At least I now know why I am the only car to ever get a ticket here! We can’t get one of these passes though as the BMW is registered at Buffy’s parents place. It was a lovely day though and I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing in the sunshine.

The evening came and we headed down to the Elephant and Castle for the quiz night. A good showing from Buffy’s friends as Walker, Joel, Barry, Leanne, Wayne, Myself, Buff and a couple of others made it and had a huge team of 9 people. We were on fire too and actually came 6^th out of the 9 teams with a new high score of 62!! We normally come last so we were well happy with the result.

Wednesday night was bacon butties and sausage butties for dinner before another trip to the cinema. A little different this time though as the cinema sometimes shows classic movies instead of new releases and tonight it was the 60^th anniversary showing of ‘Singin in the Rain’. I had never seen it and we were surprised when we got to the cinema and saw that it was sold out! We had tickets bought online though, so we got in while a few others had to turn around and go home. Now, if you have never seen the movie, then you are missing out as it is absolutely brilliant. I loved every minute if it and would watch it again right now. It really was a magical experience to watch such a good film for the first time on the big screen. It’s really funny and a great feel good movie. No matter what you think now, go out and get it and watch it. No matter your age or what movies you normally watch – I promise that you will love it. I’m so glad we went to see it. 

A couple of scenes....

...from the movie

It’s now Thursday and I have been into town for the first time in a few weeks. There is a charity abseil down one of the buildings in town and I spent a while watching people throw themselves really slowly off the top of the building, in 50kmh winds, before I visited the library to find a book to suggest to our book club as something to read next month. Then back at home I attempted to make some homemade hamburgers to take with us to the cabin this weekend. They will probably fall apart when cooked, but what the hell – they will taste good!!

He's nearly down.

On the big screem

The sign says 'I did it.'

Later on in the evening, we went into town to attend the after dinner for the people who had taken part in today's abseil. Wilderness Supply, (The company Buffy works for) is one of the sponsors and as such, were given tickets for the dinner. We had a lovely meal and sat about with Rick (Buffy's boss) and his wife and kids, while prizes were given out. There was also a free draw and we won the very last prize - a couple of torches, two flask cups and two cool bags. It will all come in very handy when we go camping for a few days in September. All in all a really good night out  - and totally free, so big thanks to Rick for his invitation!!

  

As this is such a short entry I thought you may be interested to hear some weird and fun facts about Canada:-

The one dollar coin is called a ‘Loonie’, after the bird that appears on one side (The loon, not The Queen who is on the other side!) The two dollar is called a ‘Toonie’. 

A loon on a loonie

 

Black Widow spiders can be found in Canada – along the southern edge, where it is warm!

Canada is a native word that means ‘Big Village’.

Canadians consume more Macaroni and Cheese than any other country on earth. It is more commonly known here as ‘Kraft dinner’, and I love it!

Mmmmm dinner!

All business signs in the province of Quebec, must be written in French. (Montreal is the 2^nd largest French speaking city in the world, after Paris)

The motto of Canada is ‘From sea to sea’ and the national animal of Canada is not the Polar Bear, it is The Beaver!

So there you go - a few things you may not have known before. Dont worry though, there is not a test, but I may do some more in future posts!!