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Ralph in Canada
Having, in mid-winter 1985, visited Frances in Guelph, Ontario, the red-haired Englishman knew several things about Canada before he first came to British Columbia in October, six year later...
Ontario was very (very) cold at Christmas time;
Lakes tend to freeze over, even large ones;
Canadian showers were better than the pathetic dribbling things we have in the UK
There were mountains, pictures of which he'd seen in geography textbooks, but not in Ontario, which was flat, mostly;
He liked Canadian women a lot;
Trains are very long.
In 1991 he caught Greyhound buses from Montreal to Vancouver. It took him seven days.
That year he learned that:
It rains a lot in Vancouver;
Winnipeg is cold, even on Thanksgiving Day;
Nothing happens in Winnipeg on Thanksgiving Day;
Winnipeg bus station is very boring;
Calgary can be hot, and then very cold, in the space of a few hours;
Ontario is beautiful in the Autumn;
The bus station in Sudbury is very boring;
The prairies are vast;
He could shave in shopping malls;
He liked hashbrowns and Oh Henry bars (not at the same time);
You can't walk across Vancouver like you can London — it's too big;
Showers are better in Canada.
The clouds over Vancouver were so low that all he saw, for the six weeks he was there, were damp forests, sloping steeply into the murk, so it took a while to confirm the mountains bit. It also rained a lot in Vancouver and a leaking gutter splashed noisily outside his bedroom window. It didn't matter, for he was in love, coincidentally with another Canadian lady.
He returned to Canada in 1992, this time to Osoyoos, in the Canadian Pocket Desert that survives, just about, in the BC interior..
Now he learned that:
It is very hot in Osoyoos;
He couldn't water-ski;
It is very cold in Osoyoos, but not as cold as Ontario;
He liked big cities;
Osoyoos is not a big city;
He liked cross-country skiing.
He and Lenore moved to Vancouver, which is a great place. Whilst living in Vancouver he:
Enjoyed the amazing BC outdoors;
Ate too much and put on a stone in weight;
Discovered the delights of Afghan food, courtesy of The Afghan Horseman restaurant;
Missed English pubs and beer;
Played in the Vancouver Concert Orchestra;
Became a Canadian citizen;
Travelled throughout British Columbia;
Decided his favourite place was Commercial Drive;
Made lots of friends...
At
Large in Canada Contents
Canada is a huge country. In July, August and September 1997, Ralph was
At Large in this immense continent. He felt small. Some of his thoughts
and experiences are recorded here.
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