Posts Tagged "canada"
Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, Nelly Furtado, Nikki Yanofsky and many more in Canada’s answer to Band Aid
In the same vein as Band Aid’s Do they Know it’s Christmas, a huge number of Canadian singers including Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, Nelly Furtado and Olympic star Nikki Yanofsky have come to record a charity single to raise funds for Haiti’s relief efforts.
Support Haiti by buying the single, video or T-shirt at Young Artists For Haiti. And be sure to pass it on so others can help too.
One year without TV – Part One (Short Version)
It’s almost a year since we received any kind of TV broadcast into our home. That’s not to say we don’t watch TV shows, it’s just that we’ve been using different technologies to do it. Here’s a quick summary of the why, how and what. You can read a more detailed version of this post over here.
My first swim in Canada (short version)
I’m a keen swimmer. But that doesn’t mean the same thing in North America as it does in the UK, or even to everyone back home, so I better explain – I love to go to the swimming pool, cruise up and down at my own pace and let my mind wander. If I’m feeling particularly indulgant I might even relax in the jacuzzi (spa/hottub) or steam room afterwards. I’m not a competitive swimmer and have no interest in lap times or personal bests. For me, it’s a pleasant thing to do that has the happy side effect of giving me some regular exercise.
Which is why it’s really sad that I haven’t been swimming in Montréal since I moved here 9 months ago. The thing is, in Canada, it’s not so easy to just “go swimming”.
Read MoreJust how empty is Canada?
I recently discovered this map showing which parts of Canada are inhabited. Ecumene means “inhabited earth”. The green parts are the main inhabited parts of Canada, the red parts are small pockets of civilization outside the main areas, and the grey and white areas are completely uninhabited! I think it’s an incredible visualization of nature’s dominance over man in Canadian land use. If you’d like to read more about this, you can read my blog post exploring just how inaccessible much of Canada’s wilderness is.
Canada, land of empty spaces and vast distances
Canada is overwhelmingly big. The distances and emptiness are awesome in the truest sense of the word. I knew this on some level, but it wasn’t until I tried to explore some of it with my family that it began to sink in. Subsequently I did some digging online that gave me an even stronger sense of just how empty it really is. I learnt about many remote places and how hard they are to visit. Eventually I even found an excellent graphic illustrating how most of Canada is uninhabited, which you can find at the bottom of this article.
A week “in Gaspé”
At the start of September, my parents came to visit for a couple of weeks. We decided this was a great opportunity to explore a bit of Canada together, so set aside a week for what would be our biggest trip yet since moving here – exploring the Gaspé peninsula.