Jill Browne, from home and away

The weather is only scary if you have to drive. The highway east of Calgary was shut down when I woke up this morning, and it sounds like people were stranded, cars in the ditch, people being put up in the little town of Bassano wherever they could find space. The RCMP said they would be getting out there to help people “at first light”, which I love the sound of.

Last night the wind was dramatic.

It’s grey and cloudy yet again today.

It’s actually not that bad outside now, but I’m glad I’m not going anywhere.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Weather today:  Around freezing and overcast all day.  No sun.

There’s lots of choice for Vietnamese food in Calgary.  It’s one of the cheaper lunches, and leaves you full for the rest of the day.

My friend was shopping at Best Buy and suggested we meet at the nearby Pho.  It’s actually called Le’s Pho, 8180 – 11 Street SE, Calgary.  Forget the address.  Get to Heritage Meadows (between Deerfoot and Blackfoot, at the east end of Heritage Drive, down on the flats).  The Best Buy is at the south end.  Le’s Pho is across the parking lot.

I’m actually having trouble figuring out if it’s Le Pho, Le’s Pho, Le’Pho, but I know the location is right.

My friend had a big bowl of beef soup, I had the chicken on top of vermicelli.  We shared an order of salad rolls.  The total bill before tip was $24.05, and as far as I could tell it was a 50/50 split.

It’s one of those Vietnamese restaurants that you find all around Calgary.  Though the outside is kind of featureless industrial, the inside has the unmistakable ambience of “let’s not spend a lot of money on the furniture and decor”, which is fine by me.

I’m not a connaisseur of this food.  I like it once in a while, and I got what I came for.  No complaints.

It was odd that the waiter didn’t want to give my friend a knife to cut the salad roll in half, though.  He seemed to find the request a bit of an outrage but complied anyway.

If this map is ridiculously small, I believe you can enlarge it and it should show you where I mean.  The little arrow may be on the back of the building, though.  That’s just a Google Maps thing and I couldn’t change it.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Calgary, Alberta, Canada: Home

It just occurred to me (doh) that in most postcards people talk about the weather.

I’ll start mentioning it daily if I remember.

Since the New Year started, we have definitely felt wintery, but not all that cold.  What does that mean? At the warmest part of the day it’s been around -5 degrees C, just enough below freezing to be convincing and for the snow not to melt.

We have had a fair bit of snow so far this winter, but not like the storms elsewhere, like in eastern Canada and the US, or in Europe.

There’s a layer about 8 inches deep (let’s call that 20 cm) most places, though the depth varies with the wind, the tracking down by people’s feet and cars, and the shovelling from one spot to pile it in another.

Today was pretty bright and sunny.

Sunrise: 8:40 a.m.

Sunset:  4:42 p.m.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Calgary, Alberta, Canada: Home

Just realized I haven’t left the house today.  Winter can do that.  We had a brilliant day, but the sun comes up at 8:40 a.m. and goes down at 4:40 p.m.

You snooze, you lose.

But some people in the family got out for a skate on our local lake.  It’s an urban, man-made lake, but out there on the ice, it feels as natural as any other lake.

In years when the ice is very clear, I feel my toes tingling and my knees getting a bit rubbery skating  just a few feet above the cold black water.  And when the ice cracks, or moans, or hisses, or does any of those active ice things, I want to run for shore.

It’s silly really.  They only let us skate on the ice when it’s strong enough to hold the Zamboni!

Happy New Year,

Jill