Englishers in Nova Scotia

Matthew and I went to the 'Progress Centre' picnic today http://www.progresscentre.com/. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and a really lovely do - it was for children who have developmental delays and their families, and there were quite a few kids there who had Down Syndrome. Really cute kids on the whole, although the teenagers were very teenagery (i.e. not cute at all). Noah hid under a picnic table for most of the time due to a very scary Dora the Explorer and an even scarier clown. Alfie was very popular with some little girls who kept peeking into his stroller.

I think there will probably be some suitable girlfriends around here for Alfie when he is older - I will resist the temptation to arrange a marriage now and will generously leave him to make his own decision when he's of age, but I'm heartened to see a such good prospects.

When there are a lot Canadian people all together, I suddenly get feedback on my English accent - it's like being on an old fashioned long distance phone call where you can hear your own voice echoing around your head after every sentence. Luckily people here are SO friendly here. Matthew and I have been comparing our 'that would never happen in England' notes every night.





Halifax is different from London because:

Everybody smiles at you when you walk down the street with children (apart from the man who's renting out his house up the road - Mat went round to view it and he made him pretend to sit on a non-existent sofa and refused to let him walk through one of the doors with the spooky phrase 'no, we don't use that door' - so he's not that typical).

When you realise you are cycling on the wrong side of the road, cars on the other side of the street stop to let you do a U-turn.

When you buy a bike you can test drive it out of the shop without leaving anything behind by way of security, and they even lend you a helmet.

Conversations in shops can last for about 20 minutes and people don't think you are mentally ill if you talk to them.

It's incredibly easy to make friends (I've had four play dates for Noah in only two weeks), however, Mat needs a drinking partner, which isn't that easy to find without seeming desparate.

Alcohol is only sold in government run shops and is one of the few things that doesn't seem half price when you translate the cost from dollars to sterling. And you can't buy it on Sundays.

The weather is better - it's still like mid-summer and it's late September.

There is so much produce in the supermarkets - it takes about half an hour just to walk down the jam aisle! All the vegetables are sprayed with water to keep them looking really succulent, and, I have to repeat it - there is SO MUCH!!!