there's a galaxy of emptiness tonight.....

well this is a first, i am writing todays [its sunday night] blog on a westjet boeing 737 enroute from calgary to toronto - flying westjet is certainly different to yr usual airline. the captain comes out of the cockpit before tke off, inroduces himself and tells a bunch of lame jokes - the cabin crew lark around and the whole thing is very laid back

this weekend was a short one, didnt get in from vancouver until 9 on friday night and was out the door heading for the airport again at 3 this afternoon - still its only because of my induction phase with the new job

its a beautiful night, not a cloud in the sky - not long into the flight we are heading east, over alberta following highway 1 towards saskatchewan

so only time yesterday to play with my lovely daughter and have lunch with N. we went to the good old grizzly paw of course

at this point a big thanks is in order to barnie, rav, jeff, matt and riscardo for the tankard that arrived in the post last week - i love you all

we are now high over sasketchwan - the vastness of the plains evident in the fact that the lights of little towns appear totally isolated - like the lights of ocean liners twinkling in a sea of darkness

well tapping away on this palm pilot is getting tiring - so i am gonna settle back and read my new book, ive also got a load of new tunes from napster to go to listen to - my tune of the day comes from one of these

t.o.t.d
don't worry honey, everythings gonna be alright - anders parker

these bears suck..............

i saw my first Grizzly Bears yesterday afternoon

admittedly they were behind an electric fence at the top of Grouse Mountain in Vancouver but still they were magnificent beasts, although quite what they made of some obnoxious kid next to us shouting to his dad "hey these bears suck lets go & see some wolves" is hard to tell

i have been very busy this week & have been all over this great City, perhaps the saddest part is the area around Hastings Street where the drug addicks, hookers & other misfortunates are gathered in their hundreds - Hastings is truly Skid Row & the sad folks in this part of town don't obviously fit into Vancouver's tag as the world's no.1 city to live in

vancouver is a real mix, loads of chinese immigrants mingle with a sizeable Punjabi population & the usual ragtag mix of Europeans - the scenery is stunning, the house prices escalating & the weather by Candian standards positively balmy

we have been to some fabulous bakeries, coffee shops & two beautiful supermarkets - whole foods & urban fare - it's a food lovers paradise

tune of the day (in honour of a great band who just split) where did our loving go - alfie

way out west...

the flight from Calgary to Vancouver is beautiful, especially if it is undertaken on a clear day - the views this morning of the Rockies was simply breathtaking. eventually you head down to the coast & out into the Pacific Ocean before looping back in on yourself to land at Vancouver airport, there can be few better journeys to start a working week

it was a long day today though, up at 5.30am & back here to my hotel room at 10pm but the people we have met have been unfailingly nice & dinner at Tomatoe Joe's downtown was memorable for the stunningly beautiful waitresses they employ in an ill disguised attempt to pull in the male business crowd - suprisingly the food was good too

tune - banshee beat - animal collective

sipping pilsners in the sun.......

we drove around Canmore today & it's a much bigger place than meets the eye - there is allsorts of housing here from luxury $1m+ mansions to a downtown trailer park, everything, even the trailer park seems to be neat & tidy - all in all a total contrast to the grafiti ridden Soth London burbs we have moved here from

found time to stop by the Grizzly Paw which is a great brew pub, the weather was really sunny & warm & we basked on the sun terrace sipping cool Pilsners! from snowstorms to sunbathing weather in 48 hours! my tipple - a pint of Randy Goat Pilsner, most appreciated on a scorching! afternoon

tomorrow i am off to Vancouver for a week, i've been there before & it's a lovely city - this time it's for work & it's gonna be interesting as it's my first week

good to see Charlton win again, i watched the game on the net & we were lucky to come out of the first half just a goal down, great second half though & five straight away wins is absolutely staggering - take Premier League purchasers Chelski out of the equation & it would be a great competition this year as everyone is taking points off each other

i watched a bit of the MLS Soccer play-offs last night, these semi-final games wer eplayed in seemingly empty stadiums with Grid Iron markings obscuring the pitch, a strange affair but a few familiar faces on display not least past CAFC nemisis Youri Djorkaeff who now plays for Metrostars

there's talk of a Canadian MLS franchise next season with either Vancouver or Toronto looking likely to win a place in North America's Professional Soccer league.

tune of the day - Ghost in a Spitfire - Peter Bruntnell

hello sunshine, come into my life...

just had to record this glorious morning, the picture is taken from our front deck

off to Calgary again in a minute

tune of the day :
hello sunshine - super furry animals 

let it snow..........

oh yes, it started with a few flurries & has grown to a steady rate - the snow has arrived in Canmore

i think the local ski-hills are already blessed with a good base up in the Alpine so the opening day at one of our our nearest mountainsl - Lake Louise - on November 11th will be (a). brilliant but (b). crowded as the 11th is also a bank holiday here


i played football or should i say soccer last night, it was 5-a-side in the local high school gym & it was knackering, 2 hours solid at 100mph from start to finish - predictably a few Brits, a smattering of Japanese & Aussies & the rest Canadians. probably a good summary of the local population in general

our container full of furniture should arrive any minute, it's going to be fun to see just how much of our electrical stuff actually works due to the totally different voltage & electricity over here - everything is full of hidden costs we are discovering

had TV installed last night, it's mainly crap of course but there is a lot of UK stuff available - endless Coronation Street but bizarrely Teletubbies is overdubbed by American voices which makes it even more annoying

tune of the day
novocaine - richmond fontaine

all you joggers going round and round...

everyone out here seems to be exercise mad, you can guarantee that you will see within moments of leaving your house joggers, cyclists, rollerbladers & loads of roller skiers - i thought all North Americans were supposed to be obese, doughnut munching, coke swilling porkers - somebody needs to tell the locals round here

roller skiing looks like good fun & also great exercise, i am definitely gonna give it a go when i get a moment - i might even carry it on if we ever return to London, it would surely raise a few eyebrows if you skied past the stationery traffic on Trafalgar Road in SE10 on a Saturday afternoon

we spent the day in Calgary sorting out customs clearance for our goods, opening bank accounts & generally faffing about

at first sight it's not a very inspiring city but i guess we did spend a lot fo our time in the banking quarter, i guess almost anywhere after London will be a poor relation in terms of cultural diversity, the real joy i think will be discovering Calgary's alternative underbelly (if it has one) - i.e good bars, clothes shops, record stores, book stores etc

after a couple of days absence my tune of the day is travel mountains by espers

view from the back deck

i just stepped out onto our back deck to snap the sun rising & shining on the mountain behind us

thats all pretty much fresh snow from the last couple of days 

from banff bridge

i haven't had much time to take pictures, but here is a good one from Saturday taken from a bridge in downtown Banff 

ethics v desire

i'm doing something i haven't done for a very long time, and i hate it

choosing a car

what i know about cars you could write on the back of a postage stamp (do people still use postage stamps?). basically i need something capable of plowing through canadian winters and a car with a cassette player so i can use my i-pod on the road - it has to get me from here to places like Edmonton, Vancouver & beyond on a regular basis for work

i'm certain i don't want a gas guzzling beast that will contribute to the decimation of the lovely environment we now live in, there are lots of smart looking cars over here & the comfort factor, looks and on-board luxuries do appeal

HOWEVER

i am being unusually sensible & opting i think for a plain old VW (again), with a ridiculously low fuel consumption rating, it may not be that stylish but at least i can drive it with a bit of my conscience intact


off to Calgary tomorrow, our container of worldy goods has survived it's epic journey over the ocean & across 75% of Canada by rail, now only the customs men stand between me & my collection of Cd's & old music magazines!

a quick update

very brief as i'm posting this from an internet cafe in downtown Canmore & we get cable internet installed at home tomorrow, so i'll post more detail then.

but basically

9 hour flight was brilliant, sparkling new Thomas Cook plane with an immaculately behaved baby in tow - we breezed into Calgary bang on time. immediately noticeable that it was a few degrees cooler than London, but the sky was cobalt blue & we could see the Rockies shimmering in the distance

1 hour later we were in our new home, a beautiful place with views of mounatins from front, side & back & again in spotless condition

just a few days exploring so far - Canmore, Banff & Calagary but we have merely scratched the surface, as a lot of time has been spent sorting out credit cards, ISP's , social security numbers etc etc etc

the drive yesterday morning in brilliant sunshine from Canmore to Banff was breathtaking in it's beauty & if I end up commuting from Canmore to Calgary quite a lot, i won't grumble, I'll just think back to the joys of the M25

more soon...........

pps - have found a great pub to watch the Charlton - Fulham game live tomorrow, it'll KO over here at 1pm - come on you Addicks!

packing blues

didn't go to Brighton in the end, thats now on for tomorrow - instead spent all day unpacking our suitcases & then repacking trying to cut down on the stuff we are taking. local charity shops, various family & friends are being showered with surplus gifts. some unsuspecting people have found themselves on the recieving end of vintage cuban rum, full bottles of undrunk spirits & enough books to stock a small bookshop in the Cotswolds

tune of the day - East Village - Circles

8 years....

left our house in Greenwich today almost 8 years to the day that we moved in, it's going to be rented for at least a year while we decide if we want to stay in Canada - despite the momentous life changing experiences we've had in the place, it was with a strangely detatched feeling that i closed the front door & drove off, moving around a lot as a kid I've never been that sentimental about homes.......what is for sure is we're definitely gonna need an additional 757 following us out to Calgary on Thursday, just to take the luggage we seem to be taking

i have to say thanks to The Hawley's Pete & D-Day & also Angus at this juncture for superb Compilation CDs they put together & gave to me as leaving presents - i enjoy making & giving these kind of things, some inspired tracks on both which will be turning up on my tune's of the day in the very near future

i have actually been listening a lot recently to mp3s & torrents, linked through largehearted boy
he's even got the good taste to nominate The Clientele's 'Strange Geometry' as one of his current favourite albums - a great London-centric album, reminds me a lot of old Heavnly band East Village

so a few days in Sussex before Thursday's flight - tomorrow I'm going to Brighton to say goodbye to brothers & sisters, i better make the most of being near the sea as Calgary is well inland - i've always been used to being near the sea, even in Greenwich it's only a short drive to Whitstable, Seasalter & the wonderful Sportsman pub

today's tune - Aint Got No Home - Clarence 'Frogman' Henry

no time for regrets (yet).......

the sun is shining uncomfortably brightly in Greenwich this morning & we have a house full of stuff that needs packing up & shipping down to Kent - theres no food in the house as the cupboards & fridge were cleared

all in all not ideal hangover conditions, especially after gallons of of Staropramen (with Sambucca chasers)!

it was a wonderful night last night, a sizeable gathering of our brilliant friends descended on the lovely Vanbrugh Tavern for our leaving do - i laughed so much all evening, i didn't have time to feel regret at the prospect of possibly not seeing some of these guys for months if not years - that'll come in the next few days i'm sure...

i took my camera along with a 1gb memory card, it was full when i got back thanks to the efforts of several photographers, will post the best up soon

so we move out of this house tomorrow after precisely 8 years, its been a good investment & a great home but you have to move on at some stage

while i type i'm listening to Ohio Heat - Super Furry Animals

october in greenwich

seems to be warmer than usual at the moment, i had lunch in the beer garden of The Greenwich Union with a good friend of mine who can't make tomorrow night

james is the lead singer of a really good local band, The Low Sparks - they should be much bigger & it makes you wonder why they aren't when you see some of the crap passing as NME favourites at the moment.

after i left James I had one last saunter round Greenwich town centre, the Friday market was in full swing & the students were out in force - I do love this place, I wonder how much I'll miss it?

afterwards it was down to Lewisham to get some new contact lenses, Lewisham is a strange place - some lovely Victorianhouses, a dull shopping centre & a constant underscore of violence & menace

i've noticed more of those yellow police signs recently in our neighbourhood people being mugged & attacked

last day at work today & lots of telephoned goodbyes, two weeks off now & with the stuff to do & the big move i think I'll be going back to work for a holiday

i'm listening to as i type.......
nick drake
hazey jane I
time has told me
unreleased demos and studio outtakes collection

exchange rate woes

bloody typical.

in the week before we are about to move, the Canadian $ just goes from strength to strength against the British pound. $2:£1 at present, when i was last out there in early 2004 it was $2.50:£1.

this obviously makes a big dent in your savings & most of the hastle in moving from one country to another seems to be created by managing pensions, savings & income....

saying goodbye.......

until we get to Canmore this blog will be infrequent, mainly 'cos I'm so darn busy at the moment, have been saying goodby to old friends & relatives this week, as well as visiting newcastle for work.
next week i have a work leaving do & on the weekend a big final farewel to a multitude of friends at The Vanbrugh Tavern in Greenwich

until then a week of final packing, saying goodbye & looking forward to that 9 hour plane journey with my 11 month old daughter