Great Canadiana Adventures #391: Ottawa

Compared to the rut of total un-noteworthiness that have characterised the week since the last entry, the previous couple of days have been very exciting indeed. They would have been exciting even if there had been excitement and wonder in the preceding days, but as there had not, they were - but even more so! [Appalling syntax intended]

We got a tour of Parliament and the Senate as M has a friend who works in the office of one of the MPs there. It was interesting as we got to see the last few minutes of the uproar that followed Harper's smear on one of the Liberal MPs. We also got to go into the members lobby and saw some very bad tempered shouting between the aides of Liberal and NDP (New Democratic Party) MPs about supposed support of Harper's comments by an NDP MP. Good to see democracy at work! (sic.)



We even got to see some of the rooms that were used by some Canada's most successful politicians. The first is Sir John A. Macdonald's actual desk and room. Flash photography is not allowed so the pictures here are a little dark (not had time to brighten them up on the PC). It was pretty amazing to see how he would have worked at the time and met with staff, colleagues, etc.





What was also pretty cool was the original cabinet room.














Whilst not strictly within the 'rules', there was a moment of power politics that came to a head: M demonstrated that it was not only Margaret Thatcher that can take on the seat of power and look intimidating. At the apex of her powers we only had to genuflect three times each and then she was deposed by a citizens revolt which cast her back among the impoverished masses. And none too soon...






The next day was spent recovering from an excellent meal cooked at M's friends house before setting out into Ottawa for the two of us to go ice skating. Now seeing as Blighty has in total about as much workable ice for skating as does a lunatic asylum for potential world leaders (hang on a minute...), I have never been skating before except for once in December 2005. So with trepidation, perspiration and not just a little fear for my fellow skaters, M and I went to get a bagel. It was great; a real bit of 'Canadiana'. A 24 hour, 365 days a year open bagel shop in darkest Ottawa that cooked them on site.

I must say that M was looking particularly fine after chomping on her bagel and I was apparently looking "cheeky". You just can't please some people...



















Anyway, after that we finally went skating! Ottawa has a canal that the City drains almost to dry but leaves about three feet of water that then freezes solid. It is this that turns it into the worlds longest skating rink. Not sure if you can read this properly, but it also boasts the fact on a large billboard. (This link is to a .PDF map so you can see where we went - we went from the top-right down to the Fifth Street cafe/seating area.)



It was an excellent time with M falling not once and me only falling three times over a period of 6.6km. That's 3.3 per cheek or once per 2.2, however you want to look at it. Skating is something that I am very much going to keep up with; for when it works, it is really good!
























At the Fifth Street rest point, we stopped for a diabetes inducing concoction called a 'beaver tail' for, as you may have already guessed, it looks kind of like a beavers tail. A malformed beaver, mind you, but the connection is there with only a little bit of imagination. As it was -9c at the time (-16c with windchill), we thought that they were justified - along with a hot coffee before we skated back to the start to hand back our rented skates.


I had an interesting moment when I was wondering what hurt more: my chin from the freezing wind or my backside from the recent fall I had just undertaken. I concluded that there was, in fact, an equal distribution of discomfort so neither end of my body could really complain (my feet were also killing me from the sudden change in weight distribution to the think sliver of skate rather than my whole sole).


The drive back that evening (Thursday) was particularly galling for me (as a Brit) but was taken with phlegmatic ease by M, who was happily chatting away about worst case scenarios that she had been through and how the snow and ice was not that bad this time... My mind was also casting itself back to thinking of how London grinds to a halt with only 2-4cm of snow and how the place would fall apart if anything remotely like Canadian snow levels would fall.

On that note, I shall have an 'Al Gore is correct' blog entry soon. His An Inconvenient Truth is really quite good and worth examining in more depth. The world would be SUCH a different place if Bush hadn't stolen the 2000 election.

Enough of all that. I shall return soon!