Go Blades Go

Callum and I went to watch our first ever ice hockey match with Eda and Sam. We saw the Saskatoon Blades play against the Prince Albert Raiders. The arena is about 15 minutes away by car and is used for concerts as well as ice hockey matches. We arrived as the teams were doing their warm up on the ice, and even though the match hadn't started, I was amazed at what these guys could do on a pair of skates.

We had tickets in row 6, roughly in the middle of the rink. It was a great spot to watch from, where we could follow the play close up. Neither Callum or I knew much about ice hockey when we went, but we had Sam one side, and Eda the other who both know lots about it, so they were able to explain what was going on.

The game play was soooo fast it was really difficult to keep up with what was going on. You could lose sight of the puck in an instant, and before you knew it, you'd missed a shot on goal. By the end of the first period, I was starting to get the hang of following the play, and really getting into it.

Well, we really got value for money out of our match. At the end of the 3rd period, it went into extra time, which is a sudden death round, and then to penalties. We were all on the edge of our seat by the end of it, cheering for the Saskatoon Blades, willing their penalty shots to go in. Well, in the end the Raiders took the match, mainly due to a better goal keeper. Callum looked really gutted, but after a little consoling, began to agree that it was a great match and that if his home team won every time, it wouldn't be much of a league.

We have picked up enough of the rules for when we watch another match, thanks to Sam and Eda for giving us the idiots commentary, and helping us find where the puck had got to! I have a feeling we'll be getting to quite a few matches in the future.

We thought it was about time we wrote a entry with how we were settling in.

So here it is ... You know your becoming Canadian when
You're looking forward to the weather warming up to -16C next week!

We will be moving on the 1st of January, to heir new house at East View, Saskatoon ... we don't have a postcode yet, but we'll find that out shortly. (Found it S7J 3J2).

We saw the house a couple of weeks ago. It's a semi detached house, with 3 bedrooms, a family room, and a basement. It has a good sized back garden (back yard), and it looks as if it has had several families in it over the years. It looks like a fabulous place, and it's in a really nice area, close to Callum's school. Chris already has a corner of the basement picked out for starting his next homebrew project.

Eda and Sam will be over when we get the keys, so hopefully between all of us, it shouldn't take long to get moved in. With the size of the rooms, there will be space enough for us to have a space for guests, which is exactly what we were after.

So, if you want to come over to sunny Saskatoon, we've got the space starting from the New Year, so just let us know when you're coming. We're all really looking forward to seeing you!

Our stuff has arrived! It only took 5 weeks, which puts it about 3 weeks ahead of the expected arrival date. At the moment, we are still living in Cameron's house, so we have put it all in storage. The kids are delighted to be able to get to their books and toys again. We should be able to move all of our stuff into our new house at the beginning of January. At the moment, we are really looking forward to having our own space and our own beds. All we need now is some warm winter douvets!

Chris has discovered a few people at work who go climbing at a local climbing gym. He has been several times now, and took Callum with him the last time. Callum is a little unsure of heights, but was doing really well. They have a variety of routes, from incredibly easy, to far too hard for Chris.

Chris has been playing a game with some other climbers in the bouldering room, called 'Add a hold'. This involves the first person getting on the wall, and moving one hand to a new hold. The next person then gets on and follows the same holds as he previous person, then adds another hold, so each time the next person adds one more hold. When no-one can repeat what the last successful person did, then you have a winner.

Like everything else in Saskatoon, it only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to get to the gym after work, so Chris can go straight form the office, climb for an hour or so, and still be home earlier than when he was working in London.

The CTO in Chris' company also goes climbing, and he has an 8 year old that likes climbing too, so we are hoping they can get together on a weekend soon and go as a group.

Chris went shopping with Aidan to buy a car. In he end, Aidan bought a car, and Chris ended up borrowing his original car Mavis, as her part exchange value was likely to be negligable. Mavis is a 1994 Dodge Caravan, and she has a definite personality. Now that Chris has insured her, we have learnt a few things about car ownership in Saskatchewan.

The number plate on a car is registered to a person. Chris went in to insure Mavis. Insurance is state regulated, and the basic insurance is a standard, state regulated price. When you get a car, you have to register it in your name. This includes fully comprehensive insurance, with a $700 excess. Having registered the car, Chris was given a new number plate which has stickers on it showing when it (and the insurance) expires. So yesterday afternoon, Chris was outside unscrewing the existing number plate from Mavis, and putting on the new one.

You can't register a car in Saskatchewan unless you have a Saskatchewan issued drivers license. The person who bought Mavis didn't have a local license, so having bought Mavis, sold her to a friend for a dollar so he could get her insured. Another interesting fact is that it is only the first time that a car is registered in Saskatchewan that it gets inspected (MOT style). You can drive round in a rusty bucket of bolts with no brakes for years, just so long as it was originally inspected the very first time it was registered in the province. That could explain why there are so many cars going around that are falling apart here!

Now we just have to get used to driving an automatic, on the wrong side of the road, turning right on red lights in a city that only has one roundabout. Other than that, we are all set!

For those of you who haven't heard, we are now in Movember. This is the month dedicated to honing ones manly mustache, in the name of a good cause. So, as with all good causes, there is a cost attached. I'm raising money for prostate cancer research, and would like your donations please. You can find details of my efforts so far here. To donate in the UK, you need to go to http://uk.movember.com and choose the donate to Movember link. Anything you can manage will be greatly appreciated. Close family will know just how much cancer has affected us, having lost my Nan and Grandad to it, and my mum having survived breast cancer. If you do donate, please send me an email with how much you gave so I can update my progress as you will be donating in pounds and my team efforts only show canadian dollars.