or will I or won't I................ Just look at it though.

I've been on a pay as you go cell phone for the last six months, pay as you go in Canada is not like it is in the UK.  You buy a top up card here and it has a use by date!  Back in England 50 pounds would last forever as I didn't really use it that much.

When we came here we didn't have any firends so Pay as You go was the one we both decided to go for you buy $100 but you have one year to use it up unless you loose it and the money doesn't roll over.  The cheaper cards however have a shorter life so a $25 card would only last a month.  If I've remembered that rightly.

Anyway getting back to the sexy iphone. I can use it to browse the internet and see my e-mail,  also as a phone and for text messages.  It just links everything together.  As I am starting to get somewhat of a social life now here in Edmonton the Iphone will help me to stay in touch with everyone.

I am starting to get more shifts at work so while I'm on my break I can read my Expat PM's and stay in touch without having to fire up my PC really quick in the morning, or just leave it for days without being able to get on.

I'm starting to convince myself, I need this phone.  Even Neil was agreeing with me.  I wanted it a few days ago and I have this new thing, I have to wait for a week and really think about the purchase before going and getting it on impulse but the longer I leave it the more reasons I find to own it.

Internet, e-mail, telephone all on one device its amazing, I always said I would never crack, I was never going to get one........................................ now look at me!

One of the things that I've been wanting to visit since we got here was Fort Edmonton Park.  Its a little like Beemish in the North East of England although I don't think it was as big.

Its a living History Museum where the staff are dressed in period clothing and give you the history of the time period your visiting.  There's the Fort, 1846 - The Fur Trade, then the other different time periods of 1885 - The Settlement Era , 1905 - The Municipal Era and 1920 - The Metropolitan Era.

Visitors are encouraged to walk in and out of houses and feel what it was like to live in these time periods.  The staff or they might very well be volunteers were so friendly the two above were telling us how people that moved during their time period found that there wasn't enough housing for the people that came there.  Both Neil and I thought that the people that lived in these tents were looking for gold when in fact these people were very rich and professional types like Architects etc etc.

Houses couldn't be built fast enough for these people which meant that the only option was to live in these tents on a temporary basis.  Temporary sometimes meant two months or two years!  When I asked about how they coped with the winter, they replied that they were told it only got as low as -5 when in fact it was more like -35.  No British Expats or recce trips back then!  In the winter they would place hay bales around the tents to insulate them and pack the snow around creatiing an igloo.  These tent had ovens in them and they used these to keep the tents warm as well as cookers.  Apparently in most cases they suffered heat exhaustion not any sort of cold related illnesses.

One of the main features of the park is the Steam Train, It stops right out side the main entrance and takes you back to the Fort in 1846.  Looking at the Wiki pages they used the train in the Brad Pitt film The Assassination of Jesse James back in 2005.  The film crew spent some money on it to make it look even more like the time period they wanted it for and as a goodwill gresture for the park.

The street car is another attraction, and I was quite surprised that they don't charge any extra money to ride these in the park.

Inside one of the houses

I loved this sign what is now a four hour drive back then it was a full five day trip, wow how times have changed! 

I'm not so sure I would want to travel in this though but back in the day it was considered posh, I guess.

Vehicles and other methods of travel go around the streets

The whole park is spread out across 158 acres, lucky I was wearing my cowgirl boots, god are they sooooo comfortable.  The day was a good one it was also quite reasonable at $20.25 a full day  for both of us and we didn't really get to see it all.  Another day to see the other bits and ride the big steam train is needed.

Neil is back from Yukon as you probally know by now, when he gets his arse into gear I'll get him to post his blog entry about it all.  I'll leave it up to him to tell you folks about it.