Geography Lessons

It's 4'C out today, a bit of a jump from the -12'C we had on Saturday! but that's Calgary for you. Apparently it's all down to Chinooks - here's the science bit;


Chinook winds occur when a mountain range (in this case the Rockies) is exposed to a strong prevailing crosswind. Moist air is removed and the descending air becomes warmer and drier as it is forced down the leeward (downwind) side of the mountains. I have also been reliably informed by today's new purchase "The Calgary book of Everything" that Chinook is a First Nation Tribe word for 'snow eater.'

So, the Chinook that has been warming the city for the last 2 days has melted a lot of the snow that fell over Thursday and Friday - what Albertan's describe as a 'dump' (hee hee), but the ground is still white for the moment.

It's hard to realise, when everything around you is so flat, that Calgary is situated 1,128 m above sea level - compare this to Ben Nevis, which stands at 1,344 m above! the main result of this is the air is thinner, which when combined with the dry cold air and the million layers, can make even light exercise feel like a major work out.

Geography lesson over, now for more of our social studies. We found Ikea at the weekend! I know, really dull, but we have to furnish a whole flat for the 1st December and it's a cheap place to help us on the way. We went back to Kingsland Farmers Market, where this time I made a better choice on the food front and got an Indonesian beef curry - it was amazing, but glad we got 1 to share as the portion was huge!

We had our first night out downtown on Thursday with some fellow Brits who are also finding their Calgary feet. It was great to have a conversation with someone other than Stuart and luckily our new companions were good fun and fond of a beer!! Mind you they could have been axe wielding psychopaths and I would have enjoyed their company -  provided they were fond of beer!  We went to the Design District Urban Tavern http://www.realpubfood.com/photo-gallery/ where you drink your beer out of a jar, we all had some 'trad' ale which I think was called 'fat pig' how apt! We didn't stay out too late though as we were afraid that if we got too drunk we'd never get home!

No interesting pictures this time, as  we've not been anywhere that interesting, but thought you would like to see the (squashed) Scotch pie and beans we had for Sunday night dinner (there's also half a sausage roll there too!). The meat filling was just as you'd expect, but the pastry was a bit of a let down, too crumbly in my opinion, however we'll go back for more if we start to feel homesick!

What I must now find is slimline tonic.. Schweppes tonic seems to be easy enough to find, but no diet or slimline - this could spell disaster for me, so I best get on and research where I can find it...the job hunting is but a minor issue and can wait for the time being!  xxx