Gerard’s CC:World

As posted in my blog last year, people in Ottawa enjoy going outside when the temperature drops below -10° Celsius. Winterlude, or should I say the celebration of Winter, this year is no exception to the rule. Today was a beautiful day here in Ottawa and provided for a great excuse to go and see the ice sculptures and the canal before the end of the “Bal des Neiges” as it is called in French.

In addition to the great ice sculptures, local inhabitants go and skate on the canal… well, I’ll see next year if I want to give it a try again. It’s been so long that I haven’t skated on ice that I’m not sure if I could actually still stand straight.

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As blogged last January, Winter 2006/07 had a slow start. Well looks like the 2007/08 Winter is off to a strong start… Positive territory for the temperatures (in Celsius) seems to be a fading memory and we are already at the third snow storm in Ottawa… see it for yourself:

Every year, there seems to be this concept of “it’s really cold today, let’s do something outside”… In Ottawa, they call it Winterlude, e.g. North America’s greatest Winter celebration. At that time, you can skate on a 7.8 kilometer “skateway”, which in summer is a man-made river.

There are also those who are much more gifted with their hands than I am and who take part in the International Ice-Carving Competition. Really impressive temporary-work of art.

And for those who wonder, there is a difference between -10° and -20° Celsius… when the air you breath freezes your nose, you can tell it’s cold outside

Winter finally made its way to Ottawa, with about a month delay… we’re now on average between -5 and -10° Celsius!

A few more weeks and the Canal should freeze. Time to get myself some skating shoes

Yes, big changes are in front of me. After almost 4 years in the UK, we will be moving west to live in Canada. And now that we have the visa in my pocket, I can make it public. I have accepted a new position at Corel and will be moving with my better half to Ottawa, ON in Canada early November… just in time for the winter
As time goes on, I’ll certainly continue the “Living in…” series, but with an Ontario view this time. I can already tell you that opening a bank account is almost as bad as it is in the UK, with the only advantage that you don’t need a utility bill to get started… but you start from scratch with the credit history
That’s it for now… flying back shortly to the UK to finish organizing the move.