Scribblings From A Far Away Place
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Crespie, intelligible Scottish star of the now-disbanded filmcorner and husband of infamous if (very) occasional Curry House Review journo vespie, upped sticks and left for Canada back in December 2007. On a dull afternoon in Manchester, spaceman requested that crespie pen (or rather type) some thoughts & feelings since moving to a new(ish) country.
And here is crespie's first missive from abroad:
January 2008 "Hello all! Now that I am settled in after fooling border control to allow me safe passage into Canada, I feel it is time for some updates. For those who don’t know me (which will be everyone outside of spaceman's [inner] circle), I have been trying in vain to get into Canada for many years now. I hatched a plan a few years back to marry a Canadian, which I was sure would expedite my dreams of gaining some kind of Visa (there are a few you can get). I knocked up the wife just to be sure. And it worked, which was nice. So that’s you pretty much up-to-date on the history of me. For those people who know me from my time in Manchester, I am missing the office banter, curry nights, and general buffoonery (I don’t care if it’s not a real word spacedude), which was my time in the Mancland. I made many good friends, and learned a lot about life, which I like. Our little one ("jespie") spent the first 6 months of her life in Manchester, and I will always remember those days fondly. As for little jespie, she has two teeth now (she bit vespie once, which she was not at all happy about). Also we still have no idea who far along vespie is with mini-me number two. As for Canada (the reason I am scribbling really), its just super. The day we arrived, there was a big dump of snow (so large, that the people who were coming to pick us up, couldn’t get out their driveway), so our first night was in a hotel. But we got home eventually, and have set up shop in the town of Cobourg, which is a two hour commute to the office (yes, crespie is very unhappy at this). We've started looking for houses, but that will be a few months away yet (since no bank will come near me due to my status as an immigrant. I did inform them I wasn’t Mexican, but they still wouldn’t budge). As soon as a house is acquired, there will be open invitations for all. Please do come by. The weather has been a little strange (very cold, then warm then cold again), but better than I'd envisaged. Vespie was sick for about 3 weeks, which was very stressful for crespie, as was the wait for our shipped goods (which arrived 3 weeks late, and incurred a lot of extra costs we were not told about). I also baked once in my time off, which was a rounding [eh?] success! I will bake again should anyone venture over [sounding desperate yet hopeful now]. I will end here for now, but will keep a general update each month or so. Due to the fact we have dial up at home (and its not even on 56k, I think its 34k or something stupid), I have to do all this in the office, so can't spend as long as I would like. Therefore, I will sign off. Hope all is well in the UK. Goodbye from Canada, land of the beaver (heh heh heh heh. Yes, sometimes crespie has the mind of a child)." End of report Bit of a gap in between reports from crespie - he's a busy boy - but he has helpfully backfilled a few months for avid readers.
"Hello again to those
interested in my general updates/rants/thoughts, and also to those who
got mis-directed here (when you really wanted to go to the 'pub
crawl' section). "This was a busy month. Vespie started looking for houses, and I started studying for an [actuarial] exam. Due to the utter incompetence of the exam people at the Faculty/Institute, I would have to sit my exam in the UK. (I was assured for months I could sit it in Canada.) This posed a slight problem for Crespie (me), but it did afford me the opportunity to see all my buddies again. Which I did (see April section).
Some of the houses
vespie checked were funny - one had no electricity (a Morman
house??), and one had squirrels living in it. They didn't seem to
happy sharing, so we didn't bid for that one. There were many
other similarly awful houses (just none as humorous as those two), but
after much searching, vespie found the house of her dreams.
Which was nice. I now had to convince a money-lender to
money-lend. This came at a good time for us, as banks were still
happy to through money around, unaware of the meltdown which was about
to occur (I notice my soapbox inching towards me, but I'll refrain from
bashing the banks for being completely incompetent at their job).
"The snow is
disappearing!! It's not gone yet, but there's only a few feet of
it now!! Anyway, this month started with me going to the UK for my
exams. After the first one, I went to Manchester to catch up with
spaceman and the gang - spacegirl, sarge, windy
(who has recently taken a secondment to work with the Conservative
party. I only add that because I just didn't see it coming.),
henners, brungerio and j-no. We went to the
Deansgate for some pre-meal beers, then went to Shimla Pinks (read
reviews in the
curry review section for this place - truly great). I missed
not have vespie there - she would have loved it [certainly, there
was only limited talk of vaginas this time - see
here]. But a great night nonetheless. "Nothing happened." [Not quite true. Crespie's beloved Rangers lost to Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final, held here in Manchester (at City's stadium). Thousands upon thousands of Rangers fans descended on Manchester and, in Piccadilly Gardens, went on a bit of riot after one of the screens failed shortly before kick-off (spaceman heard reports that the engineer was trying to fix the screen but the barrage of bottles rendered this impossible). Anyway, Manchester was left in a bit of a mess. All the while, crespie was ill in Canada, so the defeat won't have helped his mood.] June
"So we moved into our
house on the 26th. What a nice place it is. It has (amongst
other things) a deck and a basement (and there is a spare room - top
bunk is already set aside for any buddies who want to journey over [er,
who's in the bottom bunk?]). And I now have somewhere to display my
very illegal whisky collection. (For anyone reading this in the
customs career area, its not really illegal. I'm just saying that
for some cheap laughs. Although I haven't checked to be honest.
There is a decent chance they are illegal. Actually, just ignore
this section if you work in customs.)
"The first of July is
Canada day. What an odd place this is when you are from the UK.
There is absolutely no national pride there (not that I saw in my stays
in Glasgow, Edinburgh [not for the UK in those two places, perhaps]
or Manchester - although I understand why in Glasgow!) There are
no Union Flags (not Jacks, they are different) in cities or in gardens.
Over here, almost every house has a Canadian flag on this day (and most
have one all-year round). There are also flags lining the streets
in every town. Weird. But, hey, if they are giving me a day
off, then pass me a flag and a funny hat. And a beer. Mainly
a beer.
"This month began with
the US-backed illegal invasion [um, by Georgian forces] of South
Ossetia on the eve of the Olympics. The US then had the audacity
to tell another country (Russia) not to invade a sovereign nation.
Iraq obviously doesn't count then. This mini-war appears to have
been played through so that nobody notices the largest armada in history
heading to the Persian Gulf to start a blockade of Iran. Whilst
political statements are not the initial aim of this webpage [nor
this website!], my soapbox is always lurking around, and I will find
myself on it on occasion.
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