Life lately, according to my iPhone

1. Our first Saskatchewan Rough Riders game!, 2. New Vans + blurry cat, 3. "Beef dip" (thinly shaved roast beef in a hot baguette, with gravy dip), 3. Cool Whip (fake frozen whipped cream), 4. Percy Pig delivery from Mum!, 4. Me and my homegirl, 5. Alan Partridge costmetics, 6. My fave slurpee flavour - grape, 7. Maple photobombing me (taken by David), 8. Fake Canadian Bourbon biscuits (not the same).

Calgary Road Trip - Part 1

On the weekend of September 14th, David and I drove from Regina to Calgary for the weekend. We left this fluff ball behind, but don't fret readers, our friend Nathan came and kept her company...

We set off at 4am in the dark and started our 8 and a half hour journey (with rest stops included).

Our first stop was at the town of Swift Current, where we enjoyed an EPIC breakfast from Smitty's. I had the 'Farmer's Skillet', which is a hot dish filled with a a whole omelette, green peppers, spicy sausage, onions, tomatoes, grated cheese, bacon and a bottom layer of crispy hash browns (fried potatoes to the Brits), oh and it also comes with toast in case you need more food! Breaky heaven.

 Smitty's also had some delightful wolf-inspired artworks in the foyers, that claimed to be the 'perfect gift for any occasion', how true.

We reached our halfway point, Medicine Hat and indulged in a Canadian favourite, Tim Hortons. David had a coffee (bleurgh), I had a frozen lemonade (yum) and we shared a box of Tim Bits. Tim Bits are 'doughnut holes', or tiny round doughnuts that have different fillings and glazes, meaning you can try lot's of types without having to scoff a whole tray of doughnuts. Very clever.

Where the name Medicine Hat came from, according to our favourite and most reliable Internet source, Wikipedia: The name "Medicine Hat" is the English translation of 'Saamis' (SA-MUS) – the Blackfoot word for the eagle tail feather headdress worn by medicine men – or 'Medicine Hat'. Several legends are associated with the name from a mythical mer-man river serpent named 'Soy-yee-daa-bee' – the Creator – who appeared to a hunter and instructed him to sacrifice his wife to get mystical powers which were manifest in a special hat. Another legend tells of a battle long ago between the Blackfoot and the Creein which a retreating Cree "Medicine Man" lost his headdress in the South Saskatchewan River.

In Medicine Hat, we also had the pleasure of viewing the World's tallest teepee, which reminded me of those weird gas structures back home. 

We reached Calgary at around 1pm. I don't know whether it was because of the good weather, but the city looked really nice and clean, like a super-sized Regina with a bit more ethnic diversity (and a Topshop, but we'll get to that in Part deux).

Steaks and sporrens

We visited one of Regina's 'Celtic' restaurants. Celtic is when they couldn't decide between the Scottish and the Irish and decided to go for some sort of hybrid. This one is called The Knotted Thistle. There are humorously named burgers and something called Irish nachos (amazing).

Amongst the Celtic faux-stained-glass windows and Irish music you can also find waitresses dressed in teeny-tiny kilts, knee high socks and sporrens (see sneaky photo below). Delightful I'm sure if you're a middle aged male with vague Scottish roots. Not so appealing however, if you're female. Unfortunately, scantily clad waitresses are a common theme here in Canada - I don't know whether these dress codes are enforced by the managers or whether they choose to dress like this but I think it's a real shame that shorter skirts = bigger tips.

David had the 'William Wallace' burger and I had the steak sarnie, which was all open-faced and yummy...

(That big dish of brown stuff is a lake of gravy, just for dipping chips/fries in!!!)

Love the stats

The Stat holidays that is! (I have a terrible sense of humour)

There is a stat holiday (bank holiday to the Brits) EVERY MONTH in Saskatchewan*

January - New Year's Day
Feb - Family Day
March - Good Friday
May - Victoria Day or "Queen's Day" - To celebrate the British Queen
July - Canada Day
August - Saskatchewan Day
Sept - Labour Day
Oct - Thanksgiving
Nov - Remembrance Day - to commemorate WW1 and WW2, all we get is 2 minutes silence!!
Dec - Christmas Day

*Apart from April and June.

So, despite the poor holiday allowance that you get over here compared to the UK (15 days instead of about 21). You do end up getting a boat-load more bank holidays, hooray!

Plus, on occasions like Labour Day or Canada Day, Regina usually has a bigger market downtown, loads of amazing food trucks (see below) and there's sales in all the shops. Much better than at home, where everything shuts down and everyone ends up meandering around Tesco.

Regina's finest

Before leaving the UK, David and I did a little research into eating out in the area. And to our surprise, the foodstablishment ranked at number 2 in the entire city, was Milky Way Ice Cream. How, we thought, is it possible for a place that only sells ice cream to top some of the cities, 'full-service' restaurants?!

Well now we know.

If you're planning a trip to Regina, Milky Way is a must-eat. They serve every kind of ice cream imaginable, in every format you can think of - soft serve (whippy), hard serve (scoopy), in a cone, in a cup, drizzled with sauce and nuts (a praline), blizzards (McFlurry style). I think they actually serve hot dogs as well, but I doubt they get much of a look in. They also do weekly specials, last time we went it was "Banana cream pie". Delish.

Confessions of a Slurpee addict

I love Slurpees. I love them in Grape flavour (which you think is going to taste like raisins or wine but is actually kind of blackcurranty). I love 7up flavour. I love Sour Cherry flavour. In fact I seem to love just about every flavour when it's stirred into crushed ice and decanted into a plastic cup. APART FROM ROOT BEER. I HATE ROOT BEER.

You can get Slurpees - which are "Slush Puppies" to you Brits, from any gas station (petrol station) or 7 Eleven (a glorified One Stop or Londis, without the alcohol of course). They come in 3 sizes and are usually no more than $2. Bargain.

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My bad.

So, it turns out that I just cannot bring myself to blog. at all. Sorry about that folks.

However, I have just read my friend Emma's amazing new blog and decided it was high time that I got my shit together and wrote something on here, so THANKS EMMA!

We've been in sunny Saskatchewan for almost 3 months now. It still feels like a holiday, due to fun things like free refill soft drinks and complimentary tap water in restaurants and because the weather has been like the Mediterranean coast.

We have come across some British/Canadian translation issues, here's some of my personal favourites...

1. Canadians do not understand when you refer to a time as "half" something, e.g. "half 3", they often misinterpret this as half of 3 or half an hour until 3. This can lead to some scheduling issues.

2. "Fags" is a derogatory term for homosexuals, not cigarettes. Do not shout it loudly in public.

3. A "queue" is "line up". For example, "Hey, did you see the line up at Subway?"

And here's a picture of the giant Saskatchewan sky...