One of the freakiest things is to see the concept of six degrees of seperation in action. We have experienced it a few times here in New Brunswick.

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We have some friends (a Welsh couple) who we discovered connections with by accident. The husband went to Nottingham University and stayed in Beeston as a student. During those years he used to go into my Dad's shop almost weekly. The wife's best friend was a dentist in our last home town of Horsell (there were only two dentists in Horsell)..

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Yesterday we were invited to a party by one of my new work colleagues. While there we met his neighbour an English lady from Suffolk. It turns out that I had met her husband in 2003 while we visited Fredericton and both he and I were born in Redruth Cornwall (tiny place)....

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ALSO just to top of the weird evening. My host's wife had an Uncle in the UK who lived just outside Woking (yes you guessed it Horsell) but even weirder .....We lived at 69 Meadway Drive and He lived at 57.... and our eldest daughter used to stop as she walked home from school and chat to him.

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Now tell me that is perfectly normal and not in the slightest spooky!

One thing that does 'pee me off' here in Canada (probably North America as a whole) is the poor quality of electrical goods.  I hear you saying "what on earth is he talking about?", well let me tell you that since moving to Canada (four years this coming Nov 5th) we have brought 2 kettles, 3 irons, 1 toaster and all have failed.

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I was so fed up with buying expensive kettles in an effort to get quality, that after our last electric kettle failed we purchased a low tech, whistling, on the stove (cooker) top type kettle. Ah to be back in the 1960's. But you know what it works every time!  Replacement cost $20 and unlikely to break in the next 10 years.

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We have had the same experience with Iron's it doesnt matter what brand you buy they all seem to have a built in life span of just over a year may 18 months max (funnily enough the warranty for all things electric is 12 months).

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The toaster was the same! So it is back to whacking the bread under the grill and remembering to turn it over (oh the hardships I endure).

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The net result of this crappy product policy, is that you buy cheap and throw away. Something I hate!

I suppose it keeps industry ticking over. Fixing the products is often pointless because of the plastic moulded covers that you need to break to get into the workings.