The Blue Pearl

You must be going to the wrong malls! We obviously have a better class of mall in Calgary- are all pretty smart and newly built (with the exception of Deerfoot) There are plenty of things to buy and if you want to dress like your granny you'll be in your element

Toasting marshmallows (ok,on a campfire outside) has certainly been possible over the last few weeks in Alberta, until the recent fire ban.

Good god no. That's very down-market. I only mentioned it because it's handy for Yorkdale.

Really? where do you live? Nunavut? why cant you install a log fire ?

I stand corrected - where do you hunt then? I said HUNT

Yes, no need to shout.

I don't hunt. I'm British.

Not really, had been to Canada a few times on holiday and to visit the outlaws. Although, i didn't realise how fake some cradles were until I actually started living here.

I thought it would be a bit of boring shit hole. I wasn't disappointed.

After knowing f all about Canada (and I mean nothing) aside from it had a Maple Leaf on its flag, I had lots of stupid ideas about what things would be like.


eg everything would be dirt cheap ( thats the perception of the uneducated working classes when considering emmigrating to either Canda / Oz or NZ), I thought Drumheller would have buses to get you to and from work, and I thought everywhere was as picturesque as those mountain scenes that you see on postcards.

There was a very rude awakening within about 5 minutes of the recce trip

I had this dreamy view that it would be cheap (???), full of very friendly helpful smiley people where there would be no drugs.
I have since found that there are some extremely rude people, very lazy people at work who are there due to their mates (but I am in a small company), very expensive food, some very bad service (RBC, Bell Aliant, Fedex) and the constant use of a fax machine (????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) havent seen one for years and I still can hardly bring myself to use it.
BUT I have also found wonderful people, smores, happiness and very pleasant children and teens.

Since I got over the shock of my dream disappearing I love it for what it is

When I first visited back in 2006, I was very naive really...

In my head: pine forests, log cabins, men in lumberjack shirts, (OH would sooner die), lots of snow, ice-skating on a frozen lake and returning home to a roaring fire *sigh*

In reality: Lots of vast, grey cities with ugly apartment blocks in my part of the world. Hardly any snow, which turns grey as soon as it hits the ground. Hamilton certainly wouldn't win any prizes - but then neither would I, so we're perfectly suited

One thing I had been prepared for was the sense of humour (?!), as accurately portrayed by Terrence & Philip from South Park. That's pretty spot-on really. Comedy over here usually consists of a) people falling over b) people trumping.

But you're here nontheless.

And so you went anyway? Did you fall and bump your head as a kid?