Oh, Canada

Yet another day of seeing to one thing and another - filling out forms, paying bills, shifting earth, writing emails, tidying up. Just one more day and we'll be set to go.

There's a radio show we listen to most nights as we're going to bed, called As It Happens. Only, given that it reports the news out of Canada, it could just as well be called Not Much Happens. Seriously, for really quite a big country not much seems to happen there at all. And if by any chance something out of the ordinary does occur they keep on talking about it for weeks. As a consequence of the lack of Canadian news, they mostly end up reporting what's going on in the USA or Great Britain, but even then they pick up stories such as some scientist in Idaho researching giant earthworms which may or may not be entirely mythical - because compared to Canadian news that's headline-grabbing stuff.

I don't have enough first-hand experience of Canada to judge, but a Canadian friend in the UK always used to quip 'Canada's a fine place - but you wouldn't want to go there for the whole weekend.'

Canadian readers, if you're out there, feel free to respond...

The bigger better bottle bill

The Man writes...hip dudes among you may think of Nickelback as a popular beat combo with some success in the hit parade. However, it also describes the deposit you get back on your plastic or glass bottle in New York: 5 cents. As long as the bottle contained beer or carbonated soft drinks or mineral water.

That's right. The deposit doesn't depend on the type of bottle, it depends on what was in it. And presumably, lawmakers in 1982 couldn't conceive of an America where people pay good money for bottled tap water.

So April this year, New York passed a bill which extended the scheme to all bottled water. This scheme should have started on 1 June, but with wearisome predictability Nestle and their fellow bottlers have applied for and achieved an injunction delaying the scheme for a year. Their suit claims the law’s (admittedly bizarre) failure to cover non-carbonated drinks containing sugar violates the equal-protection clause in the US Constitution. To the tune of 5 cents a bottle.

Kitten heels

Every few years I go mad and buy myself a pair of shoes. Today this madness reached new heights and I bought two pairs of shoes.

You see (call me Imelda) I'm one of these extravagant types who feels the need to wear alternative footwear in the summer. But I've had to mend my sandals twice this year, and though I love them for the good service they've shown me over the past three years, I have to admit it's time I replaced them. And my rest-of-the-year shoes, which I've had slightly longer than the sandals, let in water now - so with regret I'm saying goodbye to them as well.

In other news: our neighbourhood is being stalked by a cat. No-one knows where it comes from, but it has been visiting every house on the street, nipping indoors whenever it gets the chance. It made friends with the Girl and Boy on our doorstep this morning and has been calling back throughout the day, meowing in a winsome way. It's quite unusual to meet a free-range cat, as it seems to be the American way to keep them shut inside, so the consensus is that this one has escaped and may be looking for its old home - or a new one. Alas, pretty kitty though it is, it won't be moving in with us.

Powers of reduction

With a trip looming on the horizon, this is a week for tying up loose ends and getting some necessary jobs done. Today this has meant having the car serviced and running errands in town. There is still a pile of other 'matters to be dealt with', but it's reducing little by little.

The same goes for the pile of earth on the driveway, which the Man has been tackling again this evening. Who knows, by the end of the week we might actually be able to get the car back in the garage.

To sleep, perchance...

I laboured in the yard again this morning, pulling out more weeds and shifting earth around. The Boy was none too impressed with my exertions, as he thinks my chief function during vacations is to be available to help him find the end on rolls of sticky tape. Still, he gamely toted a couple of barrowfuls of soil for me so I'd get finished sooner.

I made an interesting discovery today. For as long as I can remember I've tended to wake up in the middle of the night, often for two or three hours at a time. I find this quite frustrating and have always regarded it as a bit of an abnormality on my part. But this morning on the radio they had an item on sleep patterns of the American Colonial era - and I fit right in! Those days, apparently, it was quite common to go to bed and have a bit of a sleep, then lie awake for a few hours (they even had a name for it - the 'watch') before sleeping some more in the morning.

I find this all quite reassuring. I may be historically out of context, but at least there's a precedent for my on-again off-again style of sleeping and that makes me feel so much better about it.

Making the grade

The Man and I spent the morning pulling weeds and shifting dirt. The pile of earth that arrived yesterday is for the purpose of 'grading' round the house, ie creating a slope so that the gallons of rain that fall every other day will run away from the house. Likewise the snow-melt next winter.

Strangely, although the Man wheeled barrowloads of earth to the sides of the house, the pile on the driveway didn't seem to get any smaller over the course of the morning. I guess we'll have to continue the process as the week goes on and see where that gets us.

With all the recent rain in mind, I'd like to propose a new source of alternative energy: forget solar panels and domestic windmills - can someone please develop gutter water-wheels?

Canoe believe it?

We spent the afternoon at the beach - not the seaside, but Grafton Lakes. It was a sunny day to make up for yesterday's deluge, so the place was packed with people enjoying the fine weather and ignoring the lifeguards who kept chastizing us over a tannoy system.

We were without the Girl, who is off on a mass sleepover with several of her classmates. But we met up with the Boy's best buddy and family, and they'd brought their canoe, so four of our party set off across the lake in it, while three of us stayed behind on the sand. The Boy had such fun he thinks we should get a canoe ourselves - quite a turnaround for the child who a couple of days ago was never going to travel by boat.

We got home at dusk to find this on the drive - not totally unexpected as the Man had ordered it this morning, but we didn't imagine they'd dump it right in front of the garage. I guess we know what we'll be doing tomorrow, rain or shine.