h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there Faegan’s Girl,

Sorry I’ve taken so long to reply to you, but we are having trouble with our telephone line at home and we are off line for a while something to do with up-grading and living in a remote location, I am told it will be another 4-6 weeks before we are back on line – broadband that is. So for this reason I have to wait until I return to work and use the PC during my breaks!

You are correct about my daughter getting excited about Christmas, and she has been for about 2 months; told you previously Christmas seems to come earlier each year!

The weathermen in the UK have warned us to expect a very harsh winter, with Artic conditions. I suppose it will be like always, they know the bad weather will come but do not prepare for it; we end up with roads snow and ice bound, with abandoned vehicles blocking the roads so the snow ploughs can’t do their jobs – that’s if the local authorities remember to have the ploughs maintained and ready! But now all this is supposed to be happening in January and February ’07, so it does not look as if we’ll have a white Christmas, but I know I will have the cool experience of making snowmen with our daughter; she and MOH enjoy nothing more than to throw snowballs at Dad! This may sound strange, but the snow in our part of the country is very slushy; it is not powdery and does not make nice soft snowballs, crush them too hard and they turn to ice balls. The snow on the ground turns to a dirty, brown sludge and dirties every thing. Further north in Scotland the snow is of the powdery variety, much nicer for snowmen and snowballs.

I’ll be on duty Christmas week (I start Monday evening), but at least I’m off Christmas Eve so I’ll be able to help MOH prepare the food for Christmas Day. Also It will be a late night, we have to wrap all the daughters presents after she has gone to bed, but we both enjoy doing that; we have a nice bottle of bubbly chilling to help through the parcel wrapping!

So you’ll be spending Christmas with your parents, is this in Alberta? I’m not certain where about this province is. I have been reading on the BBC site about the Alberta oil rush and Fort McMurray, and how the Cree Indians used the bituminous sand to water proof their canoes 300 years ago. The area sounds very remote – we would love all that solitude. You must enjoy returning to such a lovely place. Living in cities does have advantages, but the country side has the tranquillity and space to roam and grow. I would love to know what Alberta is really like from some one who grew up there; fishing trips, the scenery, wild life and the camping trips.

Lemon Bon Bons!!!! I’ve neither heard of nor seen these for a long time they used to be one of my favourite goodies – oops! I should say sweets. I don’t think my daughter has ever had this particular sweet, have to get her some for Christmas.

Well I’ll have to dash ; the slave driver is cracking his whip.

Take care

Clip_per

I've been so busy lately, I just realized that I don't think I ever responded to your last post! Wow. I'm glad that I am finally on a bit of a vacation and getting a little break from school. Though I have an exam just after I get back to Halifax, so that means I can't completely forget things while I am away.

I am in Alberta now, at my parents place. It is nice to be home for a bit. We live in a town of about 4000 people, so it it small, but not tiny. Sounds like you have done a lot of reading about the area. Where we are is near to Red Deer, sort of in the middle of the province, between the two biggest cities of Calgary and Edmonton. As you say, some areas can be very remote, and others not at all! We have always lived in small places, though we moved around a bit with my dad's job. Lots of camping and hiking, and certainly the wildlife. Where we lived when I was quite small we used to have deer (white tail and mule deer) come right up into our yard, and we would sit and watch them out the window. The scenery is certainly beautiful, and very different depending on where you are in the province (just the one province is quite a lot bigger than all of the UK, so it has quite a lot of variety). Everything from the Rocky Mountains which are huge and beautiful, to the rolling hills, the badlands (I'm not really sure how to describe them, I'll have to see if I can find some pictures to link you to) and then the prairie which is big and flat and open, with people making jokes about watching your dog run away for days....

I've got all my Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree, so that is nice as it is much too busy to be in any of the shops at this point.

I am hopefully going to visit some friends while I am here. I don't get to see them very often, so inevitably coming here on vacation gets very busy trying to see everyone.

I am going to be in England in March, taking a small vacation. Only have one week, but I hope to see a few things, and catch up with a good friend from Ireland.

Well, I should run for now, and help with the Christmas baking. I hope that you have a good Christmas, and work isn't too busy. Hopefully I will talk to you soon, and I promise to be better at replying, now that things have slowed down a little.

Cheers and all the best for the holiday
K

Hi Faegan's Girl ,

It sounds as if you have been really busy on your vacation! Don’t you find that’s always the same; you need a vacation to get over the vacation you’ve just had, if you see what I mean . As for shopping at Christmas time…
Alberta sounds a great place to live, I envy you all that unspoiled space and tranquillity and the variety, seems as though you could spend a life time exploring just the one province. I would love to camp and walk in such a beatiful place.

March will be cold and snowy in the UK, though I would think you’ll know more about that than I. Hope you meet up with your friend.

I hope you have had a really nice Christmas and have enjoyed your break from studying. Good luck with the exams when you return to Halifax, I’m sure you get through with flying colours.

I’ll have to my break is over and the boss is growling



Best wishes to you and your family and have a great New Year.



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