Back in Canada

We are back home in Canada, so I guess I need a new blog! I am no longer a BC girl livin' in a British world...but I feel like it at times still. The first day I arrived home I kept thinking, "Wow that person has a Canadian accent!" then I would have to tell myself, "Yes Mindy, that's because you are in Canada and everyone has that accent!!". Tom and I have also been using tons of British phrases...like flat, boot (we are buying a car), pounds or quid (instead of dollar). Those are the main ones--oh and saying I "hired" something instead of "rented". It will fade in time and I will be back to my Canadian lingo. That's kind of a sad thought!

We are looking for a home, a car, a phone, etc. you know all the big things need to get into place. We want to buy a Honda Fit, but there aren't too many used ones out there that are Automatic. Gotta keep looking. I have driven about 10 different cars in the last week. Not only have we been test driving cars, but I have borrowed my sister's, my parents, my cousins, my grandma's....yep can't wait to get my own car!

We have also looked at a lot of suites, some good, some strange, all too small so far. But soon it will all come together.

I am watching Germany lose to Spain at the moment and it's painful. 3 minutes left, and it's 1 nothing for Spain. Grrr.... Oh well, so long Germany, you did well. It is cool that both teams in the final have never won a world cup before. Sad times for Germany though.

Ireland

Well, the Verdict is in--Ireland is one of my favorite places on earth!!! Seriously, it exceeded my already high expectations. The west coast county of Kerry is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever beheld. So much natural beauty. Rugged mountains, lush green valleys, lakes & BC like forests, and the ocean view! It was like being on the East coast of Canada and BC all at the same time (and yes, it was a bit like Vancouver Island in that sense, but more beautiful I would venture to say).

And the Irish people--don't even get me started! They are the friendliest people. We didn't come across one unfriendly person even in all the customer service we experienced. Love the accent too. Tom and I would drive (we drove from Dublin to the West Coast, so it was several hours) and listen to the radio and just try to impersonate the accent in the safety of our own little car (A Black Nissan Micra).

One Highlight: We took a forty minute boat ride to the Skellig Islands (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) about 12 people fit on the boat, and they take you out to this Island that is huge, lush green and mysterious looking (looked like it should be on Lord of the Rings or something). Only a few boats bring passengers everyday and there is nothing on the Island not even a loo. The only thing on the Island is an ancient monastery at the top. After you climb hundreds of rather precarious stairs (built by the monks in 600 AD, no hand rails just pure cliffs) you enter this old monastery that was used from the 600's to 1100's. It's a set of amazingly constructed beehive like buildings, each having a different function. The natural beauty plus the amazing history made this Island visit spectacular. There was also like 20,000 Puffins! They were everywhere... so cute!

The second small island, called Little Skellig, you cannot go on, but we did drive by it in our boat. You wouldn't want to step foot on that island...it's covered in bird crap! This little island "holds Ireland's largest and the world's second-largest Northern Gannet colony, with almost 30,000 pairs".

The Islands were off the coast of a small place called Portmagee (Later we hiked in Macgillycuddy Reeks). Great names. When we got to Portmagee the driver said, "yep you're on the terd boat dere" and we climbed aboard. :) Good times.

I feel like my eyes have been spoiled with all the beauty of Ireland.





And of course, no trip to Ireland is complete without a trip to the Guinness Brewery--Tom was already a Guinness man for years, but now it's safe to say he's a Guinness man for Life!

Paris

Just got back from Paris this week--what a great city. I think I like it even more than London. The tube system is just as good, but they have these 'bike stalls' all over the city where you can pay a euro and grab a bike and drop it off at any of the stands in the city. So we took a bike from the Eiffel Tower stand and cycled up to Arc de Triomphe! Brilliant! Except, note to self: don't leave anything in the basket and walk away...like a camera. It won't be there when you get back. Yep, that was the only crappy thing about our trip--losing the camera! Luckily we were staying with C4C friends, so they let us borrow their camera for the remainder of the trip.

We went to the Louvre, saw the Mona Lisa (small and somewhat disappointing) and the famous French Revolution painting on the front of the latest cold play album (really cool). Went to Notre Dame (but not in it) and ate several times at the Latin Quarter which was, in our opinion, one of the coolest spots in Paris! We ate huge sweet and savoury crepes, Raclette and beef fondue...so delicious. We also went to Versailles, and even though it was closed because it was a Monday, we spent lots of time in the Garden and by the lake, and we ate over-priced delicious gelato!

One highlight was definitely going to the Eiffel Tower at night to watch it sparkle (it sparkles for 5 minutes every hour, and the rest of the time it's just lit up). Guys walk around selling stuff like souvenirs and crap like that, but also wine and champagne. Apparently the park gets really busy at night and everyone buys wine off these guys and just enjoys the view. So Tom and I bought a cheap bottle of champagne (5 Euro!) and drank it while watching the Tower sparkle. There was entertainment all around as groups of individuals gathered to watch the Tower light up. There was even a drunk Swede who bought 250 little Eiffel Towers for 30 Euro so that he could give them to everyone sitting in the park (he did it so that the sales guys would leave everyone alone) and a Spanish/French couple behind us dancing and every so often yelling, "More wine for everyone!". It was pretty funny. But it was a great way to end a long day. By the way, speaking of the Eiffel Tower, we did go up it in the morning, walked all the stairs to the second floor (it's equivalent to walking up 43 floors in a building) and ate lunch up there (amazingly it was not overpriced) and we took a lift up to the very top (yeah that made my knees a little weak)!

Those were the highlights! Now back to work (and off to Ireland next weekend).

Crazy Crisps are Back!

Last year I wrote about how Walker's came out with a crazy chip (or crisp, to the British) flavour contest...well, this year they have done it again! And there are 15 different flavours!! In light of the world cup, they have done a countries theme which is interesting--and so far they are pretty darn good! The best one is French Garlic Baguette, kind of tastes like salty sour cream & onion chips.

If you want to see all the flavours, go to their website: http://www.walkers.co.uk/flavourcup/ Just to give you some examples, they have Scottish Haggis, English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding and American Cheeseburger. Tom really like the American one, but I think it just tastes like ketchup & mustard. The English one tastes completely 100% like Roast beef and Yorkshire, but I am just not convinced I want my chips to taste like that--I want Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner to taste like that, but maybe not my chips.

Blog-eminiscing

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon, the weather sucks, and so I was just killing time on my computer and I thought to myself, I would really like to save my blogs so that I don't loose my posts over time. Next thing you know, I am reading blogs I wrote in 2004 out loud to Tom and we are well on our way down memory lane. I actually totally appreciate reading my old random blog posts because they remind me of things I had totally forgotten. Like the time I dreamt I married my friend Jenn instead of Tom---haha! Or the time I went sledding in -40 right when I moved to Saskatchewan and thought Saskatoon was the arctic. Oh, the memories. Not only that, but reading my old blogs brings me back to times that seem long gone (like the time I wrote about having tea with my grandma -- who has been gone for some time now). Or the time that I wrote about our 'new computer' in 2005 when we got our Acer. That computer is ancient now and long gone, but as Tom commented, it cost us about the same as the computer he is looking to buy right now. It made my smile how I commented about us having to put our old computer in the fridge to cool it down. And then there's the comments about baby's born, and how I won the Baby pool! Those kids are like 5-6 now---scary!! Well, not scary actually, because life is good and we should really be thankful for each passing day. It's this weird thing in our society that we fear getting older. But I guess that's because if this life is all there is, then you might want to crap your pants when it's over. Good thing I don't believe that this life is all there is. Nope, not for one moment. And that's why when I think about turning 30 this year, or the fact that living in Saskatoon was 4 years ago, it doesn't freak me out. It just makes me thankful.

Afternoon Tea in London

Last week my friend Stefanie and I went to London for the day. It was a day full of many unexpected funny moments. We did end up having afternoon high tea in a great hotel (2 for 1!) and even though at one point a huge dinosaur drove by on the street, we had a lovely time eating way to many little sandwiches and scones. Good conversation too, the high point being a discussion in which Stefanie said about Jesus, "Umm, I really don't see Him being a Mac guy" (the whole conversation began because apparently the guy across from us looked like Jesus and was on a Mac). We also witnessed a woman asking a police officer to pose with a toy platypus (and he actually complied!). Then we went down to Oxford Circus--which is just a mistake, because it's swarming with people nonstop all the time...insane, not worth trying to shop there in my opinion!!

London is a crazy place, but I love it. Not to live, just to visit. Covent Garden is one of my favorite places in the city...tons of unique stuff and just a great area to wander around. There is so much more to write about London, and especially our day last week, but I have to go make dinner now.

Oh the Highlands...

Went up to Edinburgh last week with Tom and Arnold. We hired a car and, like the Canadians that we are, drove for hours and saw as much as we possibly could. We did take our British friend Tabby along, but she loves road trips, so she was cool with it. I did have to tell the guys to stop saying, "This looks like BC!" because it was probably annoying Tabby (but of course it wasn't because she's awesome)! Some areas of the Highlands definitely reminded us of BC, but I am not sure if it's just because we have been in Southern England for so long--anything with mountains and lakes looks just like BC to us!

We ventured up to Stirling, and Loch Lomond (which we kept pronouncing wrong) the first day. The second day we went over to Dundee (by accident) and then up to Inverness through Perth and the National Park area. Wow, the drive was incredible. It did not look anything like BC the second day(too bad Tabby wasn't with us)...rough terrains, amazing moss covered mountains... you look at all the soft grass and rolling hills and can't help but think, "no wonder the Scottish invented golf!". We finally arrived at Inverness, a city in Northern Scotland. I think it is the biggest city in the North, but I could be wrong. It boasts of being the "Highlands of Scotland" antd o give you an idea of where it is latitude-wise, it's almost equal to the Yukon border. Oh and yes, we did go to Loch Ness, but I didn't see Nessie...only in the souvenir shops!

We also saw lots of Highland Coos! I love them...especially the famous "Hamish" the coo. Here's a picture of one--took it myself!

Customer Service

One of the things I won't miss about living in England is the customer service. Not only are they rude (more often than not), but they also have this strict 'can't think out of the box' attitude. And this is not just my opinion, I have talked to several people, foreigner and Brits, who agree that the customer service here sucks--and is frustrating in a 'tons of paperwork and no flexibility' kind of way.

For example, today I went in to discuss a monthly bill I pay. Because I won't be here for the entire year, I asked them to break my payments in 12 months instead of 10 months which they currently do. You pay the same at the end of the year, but if you are only staying for half the year, then you would pay more each month (and not get the benefit of two months without pay).

Let me walk you through the conversation I had to endure, and I have simplified it-- I am not even doing it justice:

Me: I would like to have my bill changed so that it is distributed over 12 months, and not 10 as it is now.
Them: Oh I am sorry we can't do that.
Me: Why not?
Them: Because this is the way that we do billing by 10 installments.
Me: Okay. But this is for an annual fee and I am not staying for the whole year.
Them: Yes but you are actually charged per day, so we need to do 10 installments.
Me: Okay, if I am charged per day, then please distribute my bill over 365 days.
Them: No we can't do that because I would have to go back and talk to someone in charge.
Me: Okay, let's try that then. Why don't you go back & ask.
Them (becoming all fidgety because they never want to do more work than the minimal amount): Well, you could write a letter or send an email asking, and they will review your reason and maybe let you do it but probably not, because we don't do that.

Oh my goodness---not even logical reasoning. A serious inability to think outside the box of 'rules'. And then they try to say the same thing a different way to convince you. Or there was the time Tom tried to get our mail forwarded and they made him bring all this documentation of where we lived and then said they don't do university addresses-but we didn't live at a university address, just housing for Marrieds & Couples 'affiliated' with the university. Tom actually had to convince her that we do in fact get mail delivered to us by the postman (she accused Tom of thinking it was the postman when it was actually someone else like a university worker) I'm sorry, do you actually think that Tom could do a PhD at Oxford and not know what a real postman looks like?

There is no such thing as putting the customer first here...at least I have barely ever seen it. Sometimes we get friendly people, which is great, but often we get people just making things up in order for us to go away (no seriously, we know this has happened for a fact). Our Aussie friends just bought a house here and they said it was a nightmare of paperwork and illogical customer service stories. Oh geez. Yep, won't miss that. Especially since I really take my rights as a customer seriously (I am a Martin after all) and I can't get no R.E.S.P.E.C.T. in this country! I have rights people~!

Le Provence

Tom and I went with my sister/hubby to Spain and Southern France last week. It was amazing and even though Barcelona was cool, and we saw lots of great things--including the coast, going to Les Baux de Provence was by far the coolest experience.

We got there early with lots of time to visit the Chateau and see all the history. I highly recommend going to see this 'town built on a rock'. It's surrounded by Olive groves and beautiful skylines...and we were so lucky to have a hot sunny day to see the sights.

The streets in this town are super narrow and jam packed with character. And because it was March, there were hardly any tourists there (which is rare and we heard in the summer it's just swarming with people) so seeing it in the spring and basically feeling like we had the place to ourselves was amazing. Honestly, it wouldn't have been half as nice had it been packed with people. We stayed for a night in Le Prince Noir, one of two small hotels found in the village (only 20 people live up in the village and 3 families pretty much own the whole town). As described by the all powerful wikipedia, it is "set atop a rocky outcrop crowned with a ruined castle overlooking the plains to the south. Its names refers to its site — in Provençal, a baou is a rocky spur." Our hotel, like most of the town was built on the rock face, so we had some of the landscape right in our room (see below)---it was fantastic. Here's some pictures to give you a feel for it. Definitely gave me a new appreciation for France. Oh and it didn't help that I shoved my face with baguettes and croissants the whole time, that made me love it too :)

The view from the roof of our hotel

The hallway in our suite, yes that is rock face.

A typical street in Les Baux

Visitors.

My sister and brother-in-law have come to Oxford just for a short visit before heading off elsewhere in the UK, and then eventually meeting us in Spain next week (so excited!!). We had about half a day to show them around Oxford and it got me thinking about the best places to see in Oxford. In MY HUMBLE OPINION, by the way. So here's my list, if anyone out there wants to start a tourism extravaganza in Oxford (for which by the way, you would make a killing).

1. Oxford University -- 2 -3 Colleges MAX! Oxford is made up of 39 different colleges, and really once you have seen a few, you have seen them all.
a. Christ Church (the biggest one)--Harry Potter/Alice in Wonderland fans, this is your
stop.
b. Exeter College (back Garden has the best view of Oxford, and the best view of the
Radcliffe Camera.
c. Merton, or Magdalen, or for something different, Keble College.

2. The Radcliffe Camera (see above)
3. The Covered Market (so cool!) - Best places: Pieminister, Mr. Moo's milkshakes, and Ben's Cookies, and the so amazing cake shop!
4. The Sheldonian Theatre
5. Cowley Road (see the ethnic side of Oxford) - The Kazbar (a Spanish/North African Tapas restaurant)
6. Head of the River Pub (great place, right on the river)
8. Jamie's Italian (just because it's one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants!)

Those are a few of the best places to visit in Oxford - especially if you only have half a day.

Necropolis

During our time in Scotland, we had a day where we took the students to the Museum of Religious Life & Art and the Necropolis. It was really fasinating to see the history of religion and go to the cemetary. One thing that struck me at the Necropolis was the cool epitaphs that were there...Here's a few pics of them with the writing below (because it's hard to read in the picture).

"Shall man's mighty mind that has mysteries unsealed,

the secrets of God's mighty temple revealed?

Can that mind become matter--a cold clayey sod?

No it shall reign evermore with eternity's God."

"With Christ which is far better"

"Though lost to sight to memory dear,

the faithful friend will drop a tear"

"Be ye also ready" (Powerful on a grave stone!)

"She rests from her labours

and her works do follow"

There were more interesting ones, but I will leave it there for now.

Confused.

I need to friggin' remember what city I am in. It's so hard because every other time I have been to Scotland, I have always stayed in Edinburgh (and that was where project was last year). This morning, I asked for 10 tickets to Glasgow...to which the guy replied in a great Scottish accent, "aye love, that'll be really cheap cause you're already here". Haha....oh dear. And later this evening I ran for a train to Edinburgh, while in Edinburgh. Good one Mindy. Sharp.

Birmingham

It's good to get out of Oxford sometimes. It's such a world of it's own (really a University town feel) and most people say it has a sub-culture of its own. And frankly, I get sick of it sometimes. It's nice to get out, it reminds you that generally people ARE actually down to earth.

Because of my work, I have been traveling by train to Birmingham a lot lately. I love taking the train, being able to work on my laptop (with wifi!) and look out over the countryside at the sheep. Yes. Loads of sheep. Last spring it was nice to see all the little lambs too :) The countryside is really flooded these days, after all the masses of snow melted, it's amazing the railroad doesn't get flooded or houses for that matter, they don't exactly build the land up to protect against these things.

Birmingham: good shopping (maybe just compared to Oxford too!). They have this shopping centre called the Bullring (pic below) near the downtown train station. It's a crazy building, and I can't remember how it got the name again, something about it being where the Market was in the Middle Ages. Not much else to see in the city, although I haven't seen much of it, so I am sure lots of people would disagree. The university is nice, feels like a Canadian university and I bought fresh vegetables for cheap there once (at an outdoor market). I love going to Birmingham because I get out of Oxford, and most of the time I am welcomed into a lovely, cozy home (the McNeill's) and I have a productive day working on the UK national training with my colleague Ruth McNeill. Apparently there is a botanical garden downtown that's really lovely, we'll hopefully work there next time.

So that's Birmingham to me. Not too exciting, but refreshing to get out of this crazy town I live in.

Haiti

This is from my friend Stephanie's Blog...

If we’re able to spend even a few bucks on ourselves, whether it’s a latte on the go at Starbucks, going out to a movie, buying ice cream at the grocery store, etc, then we’re able to give a few bucks (probably and hopefully more) to those in need. A major earthquake has recently rocked the island nation of Haiti, killing multitudes...

My friend found a consolidated list of a dozen charities helping Haiti relief efforts I’m posting here. If you are in Canada, you can redirect to the Canadian division of international organizations (e.g. Compassion Canada, World Vision Canada, etc)

11 Charities Collecting Donations for Haiti (taken from DesiringGod.org)

1. Compassion International
2. Feed My Starving Children
3. Food for the Hungry
4. World Vision
5. World Relief
6. Samaritan’s Purse
7. Love a Child
8. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
9. Compassion Weavers
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Water Missions International

I would like to also add what Power to Change is doing through its subsidiary organization, Global Aid Network (GAiN) – you can click here to read more or give through them.

Still Learning...

Don't have too much to say today, other than the fact that I am still amazed at how many English phrases I didn't know existed or what they meant...for instance this week I learned that a grill cheese sandwich is called a "toastie"(way better word and much easier to say might I add). I also learned that wellies (my rain boots) is short for wellingtons which comes from the Duke of Wellington who brought them (although they were probably leather) into style because of the muck in the fields during his time (or so someone told me this week!).

The other frustrating thing is the fact that I still say things that don't make sense to them at times. And I know, right when it comes out of my mouth, I know it. But I don't always acknowledge it because I just want to get on with what I am saying. For instance, this week I said, 'That is what we have a beef about..." or something like that, which is a phrase they DO NOT use. Also, I told a man his puppy had a lot of 'spunk' which Tom told me afterwards mean semen. Great. Geez, you'd think I would learn.

PS: Stupid rain, it melted all my beautiful snow away. Boo. More in the forecast for Wednesday at least!

New Year, New Post.

A huge dump of snow has fallen in Oxford this past week. Most people I have talked to said that they haven't seen this much snow in England either in over a decade, and some even say their whole lives. We got about a foot of snow on Tuesday night and although we barely made it home from the conference we were attending, once we did get home, we were perfectly happy to be snowed in. This post has 3 parts.

1. Beauty
2. Beauty dampened.
3. A thought about a Bear.

1. Beauty

I have never seen Oxford so beautiful. The snow magnifies all the majestic peaks and divots in the breath-taking architecture that this city has. I have posted a bunch of photos on my flickr account if you want to browse through. We made sure to go downtown that first day, glad that the buses were running even though most of city was shut down (over 200 schools in the area were shut down for the latter half of this week!). We just knew it would be picturesque and plus we both love the snow! Unfortunately, we don't have our snow gear so we have to suffer with lots of socks and our wellies. NOTE TO SELF: don't call your snow pants, snow pants. They are snow trousers. You are basically telling people you forgot to bring your 'snow underwear'--they probably think we have such a thing in Canada!

2. Beauty dampened.

Fell on my ass. Yes, beauty slightly dampened. Last night on our way to a friends birthday (yes, all the snow is still here four days later, but now there is lots of ice too) , I slipped on some ice and fell flat on my hip...at least I thought that for that was were the shooting pain was, but today my hamstring is all swollen and painful. Anyways, embarrassing yes, but more importantly, painful. Advil is my best friend today, and hopefully I am not too black/blue this week (although I don't bruise easily so I doubt it). Needless to say, winter wonderland, less wonderful. But I still long for it to stay......it makes January so much more bearable with snow everywhere.

3. A thought about a Bear.

It's been so cold everyday here. -15 at one point, but about -5 most of the time. I enjoy it because that means the snow won't melt, but I just really feel sometimes I should be hibernating. At least until spring. My energy is low, my motivation is low, it just seems right to cuddle in my bed and not get out. Is that so wrong? I feel like the world would be a better place, if during the winter months the cultural norm was that we slept more...at least a rule that we shouldn't be up if it's dark out (which here is a lot...the days are short--sun up at 815 and down at 415...it's pretty crazy, but we are at the same latitude as Edmonton). I really long to be a bear in hibernation these days. Not depressed or anything just want to embrace winter for what it should be: hibernation time!