Climate looks fine in New Zealand!

Wanted to write something about climate change having heard the politicians setting ambitious targets for Canada by 2050!

With elections galore in Canada and the Uk in political turmoil, an unseemly scrambling is occuring to suggest that green politics has a place at the core of every politician. They appear caring, statesman like, and( particularly in Canada) as if they are playing on the global stage. The North Americans 300 million in the US, and 30 million here in Canada, know that if they could just persuade India and China to stop delvelopment everything would be FINE.

Canada is desperate to develop an International image after several polls found that it didn`t have one, aside from lumberjacks and bears. The environment would appear to be perfect. As one of the least densley populated countries on the planet, the second largest by area, 10% of the worlds fresh water-we have it made!

Unfortunately, are politicians are even worse at prevaricating than most, perhaps reflecting a population that is making a huge thing out of Halloween and "Canadian Idol" and doesnt want to be bothered by voting...

What the f**K

Ok, not been at the blog since reading a great article in Macleans about the internet being a total waste of time.
Actually I have been very busy, but if I may sum up...... 95% is 'Adult content" the rest is the daily diet we get on tv, the top ten google searches being about pop stars, somebodies wedding night video, Manchester United and a basketball rapper.
The rest is peoples` uninteresting blogs about the daily grind and how they hate Mondays ( I have every Monday off in November).
NOW , whilst I don`t doubt that blogs are written in an attempt to gather witty comments from all over the globe from like-minded individuals, many are written "just because".
The internet can be a fascinating place at the blog level. Whilst so many servers and on-line journalists and wanabe journalists, repeat the same news stories from around the globe, many bloggers, wikipedia people ,and the like are putting their tiny pieces of the jigsaw out there.
Surf the net, go out and add your own specialist knowledge/theories, see what happens.
I downloaded a picture of Niagara falls for a fascinating blog on eating sandwiches and reading the paper whilst on a work break at one of the most beautiful natural wonders on the planet, ....and I got this,
I think it is either a nanobot or a new species of err, something...............

Citizen Smith

This archive image from promotional material published by the Tooting popular front early eighties .
Walking past the subway early today, was stopped by a man handing out leaflets on behalf of Mr Che, whom is running for the city council.
Mr Chen appeared out of left field and shook my hand. I told him that Iwas an immigrant and therefore could not vote, he said"I am an immigrant too" and moved on to kiss a baby .
He had not really addressed my issues which are that as a landed immigrant and not a Canadian citizen I am unable to vote. I own property, live, and pay taxes in this city, not enough.
Until 1988, being British was enough, now perhaps because there is an election for Mayor going on there are rumours of a change?
This brings up the whole citizen thing.
Citizens born in Canada do not have to swear alleigance to the queen.
Citizens born in the Uk do not have to swear alleigance to the queen.
To be a Canadian Citizen I have to wait for three years, apply, memorise the names of a lot of hockey players, swell as the national anthem, and then swear alleigance to the queen!
Swearing alleigance to Canada would be so much easier for all of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants whom chose to come to Canada.
The Australians keep having votes to become a republic and staying the same, perhaps the Canadians are saving themselves the trouble and expense, but why not let all your citizens vote?
I for one am desperately keen to have my say on the issue of storm water runoff and the implications for the number of new car parks created this fiscal year, I fear that in three years time people may have moved on......

Kayak

Queued to get into the basement parking area of the Mountain equipment coop for its bi-annual sale.
My friend bought a boat, well a kayak, as opposed to a canoe. There was lots of good advice on how to carry the 60lb weight(over the shoulder with the cockpit facing in and the nose down) how to pack in camping gear, and the best way of getting it safely on to the roof of the car!
How we laughed, ......to be fare to the staff member he didn't laugh when my friend said he doesn't have a car, and anyway wants to tow it from the back of his bicycle on principle.
At fifteen feet long everyone was impressed when it went into a second floor appartment without a crane ( we borrowed a car to get it home..just this one time).
When the trailor gets built , it should be a cinch to get my longboard on as well, Lake Ontario here we come....

life in the city

Starting to get cold again, busy sweeping leaves off the deck. New job offered it`s final hurdle today in the form of a medical, five stops on the subway( could have walked but was wearing the suit).
Small office in the basement of the shopping mall, I am the only one in a suit (never can over- dress, unless its` a particularly rough bar), we all look nervous as today we find out if we are blind ,deaf , or just not up to the mark. I pass with an unexplained hearing loss in one ear, and an unexplained excellent result on the vision front.
My current job now has seven weeks or so before I tell them where to go, it has not been fun, but concentrating on taking their money and drifting through the day has helped! I mastered this in my last post and wonder if they noticed?
Been to busy to blog recently, though have noticed that two cricketers have gone down to NANDROLONE, they must put it in everything these days.
Tomorrow am due to get up early and accompany a friend to buy a Kayak, hit the gym, watch some football, all around the Canadians continue to celebrate Halloween, someone should get them a calandar...

helicopters f***ing expensive.

Was reading this excellent blog the other day when the issue of military helicopters came up(it always seems to come up doesn't it)? joe.

The Aussies are forced into taking second- hand US ones and the British have been told the cannot have any at all!

Its amazing how few helicopters (& ships) actually exist. At any given point every military, Aid and NGO agency is flying around in somebody else's aircraft. It is of course COST. AK 47's are cheap, Sea King helicopters are not.

The photo was taken when a colleague and I managed to blag our way onto a Military search and Rescue helicopter for the day.

It was a fantastic day flying on one of the TWO aircraft in the unit, they were both around 30 years old at the time and this was 8 years ago! It had crashed and been repaired, something that doesn`t happen with pc`s tv`s or pretty much anything these days.

Several years ago, the issue of cost arose in the purchase of several new Chieftan tanks by the UK military. Essentially they go about 50mph ANYWHERE with a crew of 4. It was pointed out that for the same money as one tank, they could purchase 625 Fiat Panda 4x4's. These small cars could hold 2 crew and go ALMOST ANYWHERE faster than the tank.

Moving on.. back to the future

Back when shirts and ties were the order of the day, before squad suits then polo shirts , when we all had faith in the future, I started a job as a trainee Paramedic.
that's me on the far left, coincidentally as far as possible from a group of senior management ( if you look very closely you can see the dream of sitting behind a desk glinting in their eyes)
Several years later I have the chance to do it all again, another uniform, another training facility, another country.

Racing them

During the life of the horizontally opposed flat four, we went to "BUG Jam 2000" (BUG Jam 1999 sounding like a sci fi series, and Bug Jam 2001-so yesterday).
Held at Santa Pod international Drag circuit in the UK.
We rolled south out of Leeds joining other bugs on the M1, before queuing for hours in the country lanes.
A night spent in the tent no more than 3 feet from our neighbours and ten feet from a mobile DJ passed all too slowly but in the morning we were good to go!
Exactly like car heaven I didn't know what to see first which was how I came not to sign up for the drag racing. You had to be 14 years and have long sleeves, and sign a waiver for the usual death problem. The long sleeves is a British Motor sport archaic rule, ok to be smashed to pieces, but lets not get those arms cut!
The cars and vans lined up in matched pairs (there were professional VW racing beetles in attendance) and ran the quater of a mile in around 25 secs! I know 3 or 4 is the norm for the tv dragsters but this is the real world!
The racing beetles went about 12 secs, they ran a few Golf Gti's all modern and quick with their skirts, big exhausts, and baseball cap wearing slackers, best did around 18!
I believe their are street racing clubs for VW`s in California, here in Toronto we are plagued with illegal street racing and they haven't even the decency to drive cool cars .
So todays message, if there is one is, if you are going to do something dangerous, stupid or both do it in style. The world will forgive you, and if not, hey you still look cool......

Cool cars!

No explanation needed, its a `73 (Good year!) , not mine but had a fun time driving it around.
Can I just say that those people whom bother to spend all their time and money on such things need a "tip of the hat" from the rest of us for brightening the day...

Circus of the damned?

Let me just say that this is not my idea, but that I am intrigued, AND, since I work with the people creating this project, and they are great people, I thought I would use this blog (which has a readership in excess of myself) to publish a picture or their flyer.
According to the accompanying script it features an evil clown amongst others , is there any other kind? So I will leave my better half at home !
I don't really blog about my work, as to do so honestly would lead to "problems", suffice to say it is a big company with a miriad of interesting employees, two of whom do this when not in the 9-5 grind, will go and check it out.........

la voiture

So this looked like a great car, so at the appropriate age I traded MONEY for a horizontally opposed flat four, a `73 vw "bug" which in the proper tradition of great cars made me weep on walking away!
Oxygen, water, and salt, combined to to make me cry rivers at the welding bills, and we had it shot.
Weeks turned into months, and the golf GTi was so special I have no photographs!
On the day it was stolen I had porridge for breakfast and had a so- so shift in the EMS business.
Months passed, we bought a 214i Rover, drove it to Portugal and back-FAST, no photographs.
We arrived in Canada, the place is crawling with AWESOME RIDES in the summer and 4x4s and wind tunnel boxes for the rest of the year. What to do ?.......... Back to the days when LOOKS WERE ALL, for the record I think I remember a late 60`s Morris Minor, also a Ford Escort of the same period, (you had to bring your own air-bags) I was better looking as well ,mid- life crisis..........

Catching waves in downtown Toronto.

Back to my second love, we took a trip to New York City. It took ten and a half hours, and a further 60 minutes to here LONG ISLAND, the nearest surf to the downtown core of Toronto!
There were lots of surfers out and as soon as I change jobs and get some four day weekends and a VERY economical carhttp://citizen146.blogspot.com/2006/10/why-dont-i-just-get-decent-car.html I should be set! It seemed warmer in New York state, the sea was definitely warmer than Lake ontario, all I need is a surfing buddy. Those I left behind in the UK have an arduous two hour drive to Scarborough and some quality waves. I wonder if any New Yorkers need a British surfer to to make them look good ?

why dont I just get a Decent car?

Since arriving in Toronto we have been "existing" very nicely thank-you very much on infrequent diet of hire cars from the local Budget.

In order to pick up large quantities of Wine from our local supplier/to shop at all the supermarkets(field testing them)/or just to get out and see the sights, they have been invaluable. It is hard to go to the supermarket on the subway.

My work situation may change shortly and a residential course is part of the deal, I have been dreaming of cars, our current rental is a Ford 4x4 with a "full leather package" and heated seats, honestly it was all they had left at the back of the shop, will it be our last ever rental?

Above is a Pontiac Parisienne, there is some debate on the spelling. I drove past one whist working and as usual had not got a camera with me. This one was matt black due to the sun/salt and had cracked and dirty red leather interior, it was gorgeous.......