Posidrive

Your Avatar is making me cross eyed

Posidrive

At least in Calgary in Winter the -40 temperature is the same in both C and F.
Something to look forward to.

Biiiiink

Do Americans call it "imperial" btw? A few websites I use for weather call it "English". Which is amusing.

acer rose

Yep, Americans I know call "imperial" units "English".


And one memorable Texan acquintance of mine claimed that metric was "all a Canadian/European conspiracy to destroy US industry".

Cowtown

Took me a few minutes to figure out what the "E/M" button was on a rental Buick ... turned out it switched the odometer from miles to kms ... only in an American car

gtrvox1

I understand both sides of this: I was born in Czechoslovakia (metric), educated in the UK and now living in Canada. I have no problem with either system and can translate easily back and forth. I don't really see what the big deal is - metric is simple to learn and apply, imperial is cumbersome but once learned, comes trippingly off the tongue in English (just sounds better to say "it's sixty miles away" or "he's six feet tall")

On the one hand, it was silly to force the system down Canadians' throats. On the other hand, I fail to see why people in their twenties and thirties would have been so failed by the educational system as to not be able to use the metric system fluently

GTR

hawkeye

It does seem to have that effect on some folks don't know why

Any way you should be looking into her eyes not her.......

hawkeye

I'm definitely a C-man when it comes to the weather. Just can't get used to F

dbd33

According to the handy American, schools teach that there were three systems, imperial, metric and north American but the Canadians abandoned the north American system and now it's just called US.

Atlantic Xpat

I find it all massively confusing.....

I'm of the generation that was educated in the UK with metric but really is used to buying petrol in gallons, aniseed twists in quarters and driving my car for miles.

Over the years I've switched temperature to C from F and started measuring rooms, timber, furniture etc in CM & M.

I now live in Canada where I buy gas in litres and drive 'K''s. It took me ages to figure out what 16L per 100km meant for my Jeep. (& then it frightened the bejasus out of me!)

Construction & Furniture etc is in feet and inches. 2 x 4's, 2 x 6's etc. I havent really had the need to figure whether nuts and bolts are metric or imperial yet!

In a pub I buy beer in pints. But wine comes in 750cl bottles or litres. Spirits and beers come in bottles with strange descriptions such a 24oz and 40oz. No idea about these....

I work in a business where we package, sell and ship our product in pounds weight. And Tons not Tonnes. Previously in Europe I was shipping in Kg and Tonnes. Pallets were 1 x 1.2m now they are 48" x 48". To make matters more confusing we also sell to customers in Europe & Canada in Kg! So we switch, convert and I muddle my through it on a daily basis.

All part of lifes rich tapestry and the joys of living in Canada!

flashman

To make it easy distances in Canada are measured in driving time.

Souvenir

And are measured in weeks.

dbd

The important thing about nuts and screws in Canada is that any object must be held together with a mixture of Robertson, Philips and flathead screws so as to ensure that whatever tool comes to hand is the wrong one.

On the packaging front, I worked on a system for an abbatoire in downtown Toronto (it's just so glamorous here). That system used all manner of units of measure, no metric but pints, fluid ounces, gallons, US gallons, pounds, feet, cubic this and that. The system worked on the basis that something comes into the building, gets chopped up and less weight and volume of derivatives goes out. It took me a long while to get my head around the idea that an incoming pig (metric, US or imperial) results in a greater weight of derivatives going out. I looked closely at a lot of sausages trying to spot what the computer called "other material".

Posidrive

Whatever the other material might be, I found it in some supermarket sausages at the weekend. Not nice at all. I need to find a good butcher in Calgary. Anyone????

Judy in Calgary

Are you willing to read a book to find your answer?

Calgary is not into small, independent butchers.

When we first got to Calgary, we couldn't find a supply of boerewors (traditional South African sausage). I invested in a hand-cranked sausage machine, bought sausage casings from a wholesale butcher, mixed the relevant spices into ground beef, and made boerewors myself. It was a huge amount of work.

Happily a convenience store around the corner from us now sells authentic boerewors that is made by a British Columbia-based company called Jacaranda Foods.

I don't know if you would like the taste of boerewors. Some people do and some people don't. If you do happen to like the taste of it, the sausages at our neighbourhood convenience store sure are good quality. The store's name is Oakridge Foods, and it's located in Oakbay Plaza at the corner of 90 Avenue and 24 Street SW. By the way, Oakridge Foods carries quite a nice little selection of British and South African foods (British chocolate, South African chutney and such).

A store at which I sometimes shop is Planet Organic. It's in the shopping plaza that's at the SW corner of Elbow Drive and Southland Drive SW. Although I have not been on the lookout for sausages when I've been there, they do sell organic, free-range meat.

I expect to be at Planet Organic in the next couple of days. I'll take a peek at their meat section and see if it includes sausages.

Another place where you might have some luck is Lina’s Italian Market at 2202 Centre Street North. It's a nice little supermarket, but I have never shopped for groceries there. The reason I've been there is that it has a cafe in one corner. I have gone there for Sunday lunch with friends on occasion. I think you have a better chance of finding something suitable there than you have at Safeway.

An Internet search brings up Mercato's, and Italian specialty market at 2224 - 4 Street SW.

The same Internet search brings up Jan's Meat & Deli at 2436 - 2 Avenue NW (on 2nd Avenue at the corner of Crowchild Trail). Its offerings include perogies and Polish newspapers, so I assume it's a Polish establishment.

The Internet provides the names of a couple of other places:

The Better Butcher at 385 Heritage Drive SE (on the corner of Fairmount Drive)

and

Polcan Meat Products & Delicatessen, 329 Heritage Drive SE.

M&M Meat Products is a chain that sells supposedly upscale (albeit frozen) meats. I've been into the branch nearest my home, but have never bought anything from them. They have ten locations in Calgary. When you're living in Cochrane, the one that will be most convenient for you probably will be the one at Crowfoot Centre (on Nose Hill Drive, between Crowchild Trail and John Laurie Blvd).

An interesting resource for high quality produce is Slow Food Calgary.

I notice that the Slow Food Directory lists a business that my dental hygienist told me about but that I have not yet tried myself. It's called Country Lane Farms. They sell antibiotic-free and hormone-free chicken and beef. To buy from them, you have to place an order. They deliver to the parking lots of major shopping malls in Calgary about once a month. To take delivery of your order, you evidently need to go to the relevant mall on the appointed date.

Other potential sources of better quality groceries are the Cochrane Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings and the Bearspaw Farmers' Market on Sunday mornings.

The Calgary Farmers' Market is at the former Currie Barracks, at the corner of Crowchild Trail and Flanders Avenue SW. It operates on Fridays and Saturdays, year-round.

Sunnyside has a farmers' market, but if I am not mistaken it does not run through the winter.

I have not been to the farmers' markets myself, but I imagine they are worth a try.