scrubbedexpat143

I quite agree with you, with my usual 'qualifications'. In my (quite extensive as I grew up in New Mexico, less so nowadays as I've not been back to either country for some years) experience, food is cheaper south of the big border, but overall the quality sucks. In most American supermarkets (not for nothing do many of my US friends call them "stupor markets") isle after aisle of junque food with often pitiful fresh produce sections tucked into the corners where a majority of the hot polo can bypass them. Canadian supermarkets and food stores have always impressed me, notably so in Toronto where European and Asian shops can be found on almost every block. Canada has it in spares over its southern neighbor where quality of life is concerned. Ditto Australia. Which is surely one of the big reasons why I've been so happy living Down Under since the '70s, where we eat like kings and the good wine flows like, well, water.

Oops, I had forgotten about "eh". Even if after 47 (going on 48) years away in distant lands, my SO and friends still catch me out using it.

Agree about the skiing, hockey, Tim Hortons and other purveyors of over processed garbage made edible by health-damaging processes and overloads of sugar and other additives. Growing up in New Brunswick in the '50s I even incurred the wrath of my stepdad by refusing to watch Saturday night hockey - my argument even at that young age was "everybody in school talks about the hockey results on Monday anyway, so I don't have to watch it!" which alas, got me no plus-points at home.

Yet as an ex-Canuck I dutifully cling to my cherished druthers. To this day I would never ever again drink Moosehead Pale Ale, which most likely disqualifies me as an expat New Brunswicker. In the '90s a brewery in Tasmania briefly made it as a boutique drink but the locals scathingly referred to it as "moose piss" and nobody ever bought more than one small bottle of it. The brewery eventually closed and was bought out by one of the larger bar makers who wisely discontinued the brand. I still have one bottle of it in our home bar as a token memory, but after 20+ years it's likely vinegar now, or worse.

I hold a fond place in my heart for Cherry blossom chocolate bars which I believe are or were made in Canada by Lowney's). Haven't had one in years but hm, the memories. So yes, some Small Pleasures From Hom matter.

jerry brewer

seems i can' edit my typo to ....

cheers J
​​​​​​

Jerseygirl

You have 2 hours from the time you posted to edit. Drop me a PM with the exact changes and I will edit it.

DMajor

Would you ever move back to Devon?
You must miss the Cider and cream teas...lol

jerry brewer

Hi
I must admitt sometimes i look back at south devon life , but i think it is with rose tinted glasses, as when i check the local papers i see mainly doom and gloom, and crime, and shops closing down

but to be fair i think there is a bit of that here in bc as well

i think now the most i would do is 'snowbird' to south devon for a few months over winter, as it is milder there

I can get cider here, not scrumpy, and i can get clotted cream in small glass jars, but it is different

one thing i miss is dartmoor, a safe wildlife area to walk on, you dont need bear spray there

and being able to get an ivor's

https://ivordewdney.co.uk/

and maybe lidls




cheers
jerry

shelley748

Been here 22 years- feel like I am somewhere over the middle of the pond- by that I mean I feel not quite British but not Canadian either. We have quite a few Canadian friends but the bond isn't there like we had with our UK friends and that we still have with our UK friends.

I felt very Canadian when the people of this great land got together and drove from all parts to Ottawa to remind Trudeau that we would not live under mandates any more (especially when everywhere else was opening up and not us)- and the reason I felt the pride was because we all came together as one nation at that time- set aside the other "white noise".

dbd33

Are you talking about the truck parade? The event sponsored by the Russians?

I threw eggs at those people. I stood on the pavement and made wanker signs at them. Many others did. We could do that, as a crowd, because we were all fully vaccinated.

Pulaski

I knew that the population of Canada isn't huge, but I had still imagined that there were more than 2,000 of you.

shelley748

Did you not see the videos of crowds on the over passes in 2022 and alongside the highways in minus 30C temps? There were way more than 2000 and in Ottawa itself over the period I would say over 500,000- which is a big deal.

dbd33

Fortunately, they've all gone home or off to jail now. Forgotten by most.

Pulaski

The police reports said there were 2,000. As with other things, your estimate seems a bit fanciful. .... But aside from bikering over estimates of numbers of protesters, the reality was that the vaccination rate was 85% for truck drivers, and over 90% in the Canadian population at large, which seems a lot more like "all Canadians coming together", than a few idiots at the side of the road.

CanadaJimmy

My impression of the truckers was just a bunch of people who never liked Trudeau or the Liberals from day 1 looking for an excuse to whine and moan about it. Additionally, much like Jan 6th in the US and Brexit, many of the participants were likely riled up and escalated their behavior due to Facebook acting as an echo chamber for them, with pages like "Canada Proud" and all this nonsense. It certainly didn't make me feel Canadian but rather sad to see Canada another victim of this kind of social media-fueled political division which is a global problem.

dbd33

Yes, quite!

shelley748

whatever- you are entitled to your opinion I am to mine- enjoy your day

Pulaski

Not just an impression, that is true without a shadow of a doubt, and I say that as someone with some sympathies with the protesters and Brexiteers, but the idiocy and ignorance regarding matters of medical science in 2020-2021 stretched my political sympathy beyond breaking point.