Do Not Pass Go..

..do not collect $200, go directly to winter. It's an often repeated joke in Calgary, "there are two seasons here: winter, and road reconstruction". On September 16th, we had an all-time September record high temperature of +33C. There then followed a week in the low-to-mid twenties. Then about 10 days of 'seasonal' weather (a nebulous term in these parts). And then ten days ago we went straight into winter. Daytime highs below zero, negative double digits at night, and repeated threats of snow. Having to wear full winter regalia for the five minute walk to work, that sort of thing. And here's the scene on Wednesday morning after 24 hours of steady snowfall:It's back to 'seasonal' now and the snow is largely melted, but it's going to be a long, long winter if we consider it could be May before it finally stops. An occupational hazard of living here, I suppose.

A Taste of Yorkshire

Quite a few months ago, when I went to Kelowna for the long weekend to talk inorganic chemistry all weekend, I ended up meeting a fellow Yorkshireman who is working in Vancouver at UBC. He'd done some really really nice work in uranium chemistry during his Ph.D. in Sussex, and once upon a time I was going to be following on his work when I had a job lined up in the same lab in Brighton. That fell through, and as a result, I'm here.

I was introduced to him by someone in another discussion group (we were split up from our Calgary colleagues) much later that evening after drinks. Very late in the evening actually, as said group from UBC were busy doing some impromptu landscape gardening. To cut a long story short, he bemoaned - as did I - the little things from the UK he can't get hold of: proper bacon, (also my pet moan) and Yorkshire Tea. "Can't find it anywhere". I remarked that he should have moved to Calgary, given that we have a "british shop" in the nearest large mall to me. There may have been some scheme hatched for me to send tea to him, but I can't remember due to beer intake and he was three sheets to the wind and probably couldn't either.

Two weeks ago, I am walking through said shopping mall on Saturday afternoon, having resolved to make the most of the nice day while we still had them. I decide to pop in to "Good Taste of Britain", and there we are, on the shelf, between the marmite and the bottles of Irn Bru are boxes and boxes of Yorkshire Tea.
I have warned people off going in there when they come to visit, given the prices. I am still from Yorkshire, after all. Yet I ignored my own advice and bought the box you see above, for $12. At present exchange rates, that's about four times what it's worth. Maybe my Yorkshire-ness is slipping. (!) But now I have to drink lots more tea. Which is not a bad thing when it's cold outside, I suppose.

Happiness Is..

...chasing Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo out of a Flames-Canucks game by the second intermission. This was the Flames' most convincing performance of the fledgling season by far, and a 5-0 lead by 40 minutes could and should have been larger but for the goalposts. Sadly, they couldn't add any further scoring, and the last 10 minutes saw the officials take pity on Vancouver, rewarding them with a string of soft penalties. Three goals duly followed, making everyone twitchy, given what happened on Monday night (see below), but Canucks forward Alex Burrows did the decent thing by getting sent to the penalty box inside the last two minutes.

(How I haven't got to a nearly a year of this blog without mentioning Burrows I'm not sure. Think of the most annoying, irritating sportsman you can. And then multiply that by a thousand. The sort of player that dives repeatedly, and is the classy sort of guy that knocks out the front teeth of amateur Quebec goalies with his stick in the offseason. Oh, and he pulls hair in fights, like a girl. That an act of selfishness on his part torpedoed any hopes of a comeback makes me warm and happy inside).

Yet another game in which the Flames fourth line dominated. There was a little bit of scoffing when they signed Brian McGrattan as the 'enforcer' in the summer, but he had the last laugh tonight, destroying Darcy Hordichuk in a fight, before bagging both an assist and a goal. Two points each for Dustin Boyd and Brandon Prust.

So to Monday then. I'd ordered the Flames game at Chicago on Pay Per View. It was a holiday and nothing was on. I paid through the handset and saw the first four minutes. Then nothing. I put on the radio while trying to get through on the telephone. This happened:
Five goals in five-and-a-half minutes. I gave up on hold on the phone and left a cross email on the TV company's website. The picture came back, and within a minute, Chicago pulled one back. Jokinen missed a 1-on-1 in the closing seconds, but it didn't matter, leading 5-1 after 20 minutes? Game over? The Flames certainly seemed to think so, and coasted through the second period. And then this scoring sequence came to pass:This tied the league record for biggest defeat overturned in a single match. The only consolation in the end -aside from points galore for my hockey pool teams - was that my angry email resulted in me getting the game for free.