Happy Canada Day from England

We’ve been in England for just over a month now.  Today is Canada Day back home, and I’m thinking of friends having bbq’s in back yards, music events in local parks, or celebrating at bigger downtown parties.  We haven’t done much ourselves - a walk down the canal in Grantham, and through the village of Barrowby . . . some grocery shopping, and organizing of AirBnB’s for the next month.  I haven't even sung Oh Canada! yet.

I did a post awhile back on some of the differences between England and Canada, and over the past couple of weeks I’ve found a few more things that are worth noting.  

 They don’t keep their eggs in the fridge.  Not in the store and not at home.  You’ll find them in the grocery store on a shelf next to the bread or canned beans. At home, they are in the cupboard.

The standard greeting does not seem to be “hello”, but instead “y’awright then?”  Reply with “awright, you?”  We’re busy practicing this, with a British accent :-)

Parking on the sidewalk is perfectly acceptable.   The roads are quite narrow, and sidewalks may or may not exist.  You can choose to park half on the road; half on the sidewalk, or just block the driving lane and park fully on the road.  Drivers will simply drive around you.  So we’re constantly driving in the wrong lane, watching for oncoming drivers.  There is an etiquette to this, which we are slowly grasping.

1. 

   Car parked right in the driving lane.  No problem,
   drivers just create a third lane to drive in.

   

   The mail truck parks on the sidewalk too.  You can
   park wherever there is not a white line or double
   yellow lines. (we think!)

   
   

   

   Car parked on the sidewalk.  Makes it easier to drive
   on by.
   

   You can park on either side of the street, doesn’t matter which way your car faces.  So two cars can park back to back or front to front.  This makes it VERY difficult for us to ascertain whether we are driving in the correct lane or not.  We’re constantly checking.  Glen has developed a new mantra:  “Keep Anne on the sidewalk side.  Keep Anne on the sidewalk side.  Keep Anne on the sidewalk side.”  It seems to be working

1. 

   Park whichever way you like on whichever side of the street you like.

   
   
   
   
   Washrooms are not called washrooms.  No-one knows what you’re talking about.  Ask for the toilet.  They understand this.
   
   
   Garden Leave.  This is when you are terminated by your company, and they pay you in lieu of notice.  Presumably it means you have gardening time now.
   
   
   Used tires are sold as “part-worn tires”
   
   
   Glen looked up used cars to see what they cost here.  He found one on Craigslist that was advertised as “fully murdered out”.  I can only hope that means “fully loaded”
   
   
   Back to names on houses - I mentioned this on a previous post.  Today we were chatting with a couple in town on our walk.  The name on their house is “Canberra”, so we asked if they were from Australia.  No, they said.  The house had that name when they bought it, and they have no idea why it is called that. We asked why don’t they change the name?  Turns out, that is how they are registered at the post office, and it would require a lot of red tape to change it.  They have no street number - only a name!!!  You can have one or the other, but there is no need for a number.  We didn’t believe this could be true, so we went and questioned the postmistress in the local post office (which also sells a few groceries, newspapers and magazines).  She confirmed this was true, and acknowledged that it makes it very difficult for the mail delivery people . . . especially when people don’t put a name sign on the house!  Really?  You can do that and expect mail delivery???

2. 

   Barrowby Post office (the beige part)  It's VERY tiny.
   
   

   With regards to mail delivery - they get it here 6 days a week.  Sunday is a day off.

   
   

   A quirky thing I learned in York.  Many buildings have bricked over window spaces.  This means that back in the day, someone didn’t pay their “daylight” tax, and so their windows were covered up.  Shhhh, don’t tell the Canadian government.

3. 

   Bricked-over windows - someone didn't pay their daylight tax!
   
   

   Cilantro is called Coriander.  And Zucchini is called Courgette.

   
   

   Grocery store clerks all sit down on the job.  

   
   

   School uniforms.  I think I’m a fan.  The kids all look so tidy.  All the little girls wear a blue or red gingham dress, and the little boys have a white golf shirt and black or grey pants.  The older kids all wear a blazer with skirt or pants and a white shirt with a tie. 

   
   

   Just about every home bathroom I’ve seen so far has a heated towel rack. 

   

   
   

   Almost no-one uses a dryer.  Laundry is hung on the line in the back yard. 

That's it!  I have no idea how to get rid of the numbers above, so there they are.  Hope everyone back home is celebrating in style - by the look of the Facebook posts, it looks like you're all having fun.  I had a computer conference call with some friends today and it was sure nice to hear their voices.  As much fun as we're having, I sure do miss my peeps!   Love to all.

xo