suspicious or auspicious?

I've come across a sign that appears to be signalling a change:

My first instinct was these red leaves were suspiciously foreshadowing the end of summer (and therefore, from my Calgarian experience, the beginning of the brown season). But, I think they're actually a good sign. Fall is supposed to be the best season out here, so that's gotta be an improvement on (foggy) summer.* And, we were here last fall at Halloween, and it was still sunny with bright fall colours, so that's a sign of some good months to come.

* I know, I know - it feels so wrong that summer isn't the 'best' season!

sunrise

I got up early yesterday morning to go for a run before work, and got this beautiful view before I left.

It was not entirely health-oriented to be running so early; we hosted poker night that evening, so I knew it wouldn't happen after work! Good news on the poker front though - I followed Steve's advice and bet hard, and ended up coming second (after taking most of Steve's short stack on two pairs!).

for your visual stimulation

Here are some flowers on steroids from the Public Gardens!

Normally, we're good with plants, and managed to grow a jungle in our south-facing apartment in Calgary. But, the little guys below aren't such a successful story. We got them at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago. The basil and rosemary were big enough to make it, but I think we need some practice with gardening in damp weather and only morning light. (I think I drowned the little ones. Oops.) Carla sent us a seed kit with Thai herbs and chilis, and they're doing okay - kind of stunted, but at least making progress. I can't wait for the new condo and it's southern exposure!

i did it!

Yep, I did it - I went surfing in the Atlantic!! Steve and I went out to Martinique yesterday, and the waves didn't look too good to him: close-outs, so nowhere to go but straight. However, that's just what I look for in a wave: lots of foam to play in! So I crawled into his wetsuit, put on the booties and gloves, and played in the ocean for a while. It was a lot of fun - the water was pretty warm, so I was toasty in the wetsuit, even those it's too big for me. (Random thought: Steve and I always think of ourselves as basically the same size, so it was pretty funny to see my skinny arms and shoulders in his wetsuit. Turns out I'm the smaller one, at least from the bum up.) Even more positive about the whole thing was that I could almost stand up on Steve's board, which is too short for my skills. But I just need to bring my front foot forward / wider stance, which I can practice. So, when mom and dad bring Devon's board to live with me, I should be unstoppable (until the water is TOO cold!).
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I love Martinique cause it's not very busy, has a sandy bottom, and is right by Harbour Fish and Fries. The fried fish there is amazing (but super bad for you - we have to eat extra healthy afterwards!).
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What else did we do this weekend? Nothing on Friday night - there was a huge rainstorm, which soaked me on the way home from work, but did provide perfect weather for Indian takeout and watching a DVD. Steve surfed on Saturday morning, I went for a run, then we went to Costco. (Another random thought: we are loving the Costco produce section lately, and they have plain Liberte yogurt which is so good over berries or peaches.... mmm... snack!)
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Another important discovery on Saturday: the fancy liquor store by Costco has a bulk wine section, where you can fill up your own bottles for $66 a case. Now we have to save up some wine bottles!
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Clark and Stephanie's housewarming party was on Saturday night. Their place is a new condo (with a semi-circular wall of windows!), and it looks great - Stephanie has great taste, and a good job to back up her taste!
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Now, back to work for the week. I am staying at this temp job until September 14th so things are fairly settled for the moment. Steve finishes anesthesia tomorrow, and goes 'off-service' (i.e. not anesthesia) for 8 months, starting with obs.

Nova Scotia rocks

~ Out wandering around, I've found it interesting how there is a LOT of the same kind of rock out here. I guess the whole region is made of this stuff, and covered with a skiff of dirt. You see it in blasting areas beside roads, in landscaping walls, in foundations of buildings, and just in piles where they're working on stuff. Being not too smart in the geology department, I don't know what kind of rock this is, but I guess it has a lot of iron, because it seems to rust. There's also a lot of granite used in foundations, walls and outdoor stairs / stoops.
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housing, chapter 2: the condo

After a relatively short time looking at places (which felt much longer!), we saw an ad in the paper for a new condo development, called Spice (www.polycorp.ca/spice/). They had some good floorplans, good prices, and the location was a bonus. It's on the north end of downtown, which is traditionally a little more sketchy than the south, but it's gentrifying. So, because of the location, we will get a sweet, brand-new condo for the price of a 10 year old boring one-bedroom apartment in the south end. The downside is that it's not ready, so we won't be moving in until the new year. But at least they're on the fifth and final floor. (More on where we live in the meantime in chapter 3...)




What else can I tell you? The building is (in the process of being) made with ICF concrete, so it's very well insulated and soundproof. It has get infloor heating and low-e windows. Plus, there's supposed to be a room in the parkade to store bikes. Our floorplan is below - one bedroom, one bathroom, a flex room, and great storage. (This is how our unit is laid our, mirrored from the drawn plan.) Our unit will be on the fifth floor, which is the top (heyo! penthouse!), and has 11 foot ceilings (heyo!), and will have three skylights (heyo!), and will face south-west (ahhh, what great light!).



Today after work we went to pick out our finishings:

• Charcoal ceramic tile in the entry, bathroom, and kitchen
• Maple cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and black speckly countertops in the kitchen
• Maple cabinets, charcoal counter and accent tiles, and a raised glass sink in the bathroom
• Bamboo engineered hardwood in the dining and living room
• Boring off-white nubbly carpet in the bedroom and flex room
• Nearly white trim, and "european white" walls (whatever colour that is!)

I think that's it - I am a little excited, and so is Steve! It's going to be great!

housing, chapter 1: the search

(The MacDonald Bridge, which heads to Dartmouth, from North Street)

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One of the things about Halifax that we were excited for was the reasonable real estate market. (Disclaimer: I don't even know if it's really reasonable out here. All I know is that I spent the last three years in Calgary, where real estate is unreasonably expensive, especially for what you get.)

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When we first arrived in June, we moved into a furnished sublet until we figured out where we wanted to live. As soon as we got the internet, we were searching on mls.ca to check out what was available within our criteria; we wanted two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a balcony, and insuite laundry.

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We went on a tour with our realtor of a few places, and it didn't take long to realize a couple of things. First, Halifax is a geographically constrained city. You can either live on the peninsula, which is more expensive, but convenient and more urban. Or, you can live off of the peninsula, which is cheaper, but more suburban and separated from downtown and the hospitals by either a bridge or a roundabout (hello traffic chokepoints!). Second, Halifax is a very old city. There's three types of housing: new, renovated, and old.

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When we combined those two things with our price range, an interesting thing happened: we had to re-evaluate our priorities! We wanted to live within a fairly small area around downtown and the hospitals. We didn't want to buy a 100 year old house. We could only spend so much money. So then we narrowed it down to wanting a balcony, and at least one bathroom and bedroom.

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We looked at some pretty 'ehhh' places. Some were vintage 70s (with $600 condo fees!), some had windows falling out of the cases, some were just very boring and relatively expensive. It didn't look good. But don't worry - there's a happy ending to this story!

(Our housing search area)

weekend fun

Yesterday we were invited out to the lake for a great bbq. One of the staff anesthetists (I'm not even sure if I'm spelling that correctly!) lives out there, and hosts this event every year. Sydney Crosby's summer place is across the street – this is me in front of it.


The weather was sunny but with a cool breeze, which is why we're wearing hoodies in most of these pictures. (I have learned a lesson about outdoor activities out here: it is always colder than you think, and you can NEVER bring enough layers.) The water was really warm though, perfect for jumping on the water trampoline, or going on the sea-doo, or waterskiiing, or wake surfing (yep, there were a lot of water toys, plus a hot tub, a putting green, a tennis court, and many outdoor speakers disguised as rocks). Here's Steve wakeboarding behind the zodiac on his surf board. He's got his booties on for grip, and it worked perfectly.

A late afternoon squall ended the party, so we took off to Lawrencetown in hopes of finding those 5 star waves. This turned out to be a less than stellar excursion.

We got ahead of the storm, and arrive at Lawrencetown to find waves that were not five stars, but worth suiting up for. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes after Steve got in the water, the storm caught up to us, with a little more oomph than it had at the lake. It got super windy with rain pouring down sideways. I scooted up to hide in the car. While I was sitting in there (this is the bad part), a bag of surfboards on top of the van beside us blew off in a gust of wind and hit our car, putting a huge dent in the front panel!!! Very uncool. The owner of the boards and the van was close by, so at least I got his phone number, and hopefully he'll pay for it.

Common sense (even to a new Nova Scotian like me) would say to tie surfboards down in a storm... They are made to catch water, and will catch air too...

Steve got out of the water pretty quick after that incident, due to needles of rain on his face and ice cream headaches from the water, and then we watched the storm blow over. Very pretty, but it would probably have been better to avoid the whole thing...

sunshine!

it's sunny out!!! and we've got lots of fun stuff to do: we're heading out to a lake for an anesthesia bbq, then in the evening we're probably heading out to Lawrencetown for an evening surf for Steve (apparently that's when the 5 star surfing is going to be) and a run in the park for me.

it rained all day yesterday, but i did get out to the Source for Sports (which is Cleve's, not Dolson's out here) and got not one, but TWO, pairs of runners. after much deliberation, these New Balances were the winners, but they were part of the deal where the second pair was only $1. hence the Nikes below. I don't think I've had a pair of Nike runners since high school, but these ones actually fit great. plus, they're Nike +, which means IF i had an ipod nano, and IF i had this other apple gizmo, my shoes would pick music according to tempo and document my runs... weird.

me and the ocean

i have mixed feelings about the ocean. Nova Scotians would not understand this - they are always talking about how they couldn't live away from the water. as for me - having never lived so close to the ocean (in a non-tropical or at least Mediterranean climate), it is something i will have to get used to.


kind of like getting used to always using a towel that is slightly wet because someone else (i.e. the ocean) has already used it.


there are some very positive aspects of living near the ocean; great seafood, cheap seafood, beautiful views, cute villages on the water, cool breezes at night, no need for lotion, surfing and other activities in your backyard (which i haven't taken advantage of yet), etc. Steve loves it.


but...


there are some aspects of living near the ocean which I do not appreciate; the fog, the rain, the damp, the cold. did i mention the fog?

(photos taken last night, 9 pm)

and, let's remember, it IS August. i am a little concerned about what the fall / winter / spring will be like if this is supposedly SUMMER. yikes. (full disclosure: the locals are also disappointed about this summer, or lack of it.)


so it was a little depressing to wake up this morning to another downpour.



we had a plan to head to the beach for an early surf for Steve and some beaching and reading for me, then Brady and Rob were going to meet us out there, fish and chips for lunch, that kind of thing. but, the rain... ugh, no fun if you're not in the water!


so, i think i need to cultivate a more positive relationship with the ocean. instead of it just being a large body of water which wreaks havoc on the weather and makes everything in my house damp, i need to make it into something that is fun too. i've got my sister's surfboard coming out to live with me semi-permanently at Thanksgiving, and by that time i'll have gotten a wetsuit and rented a board a couple of times. if this is what living by the ocean is like, i'm going to have to find something fun to do when wet!


as Steve would say, "in the water!"

more on the Public Gardens

my mom asked if there were really rules against the stuff i mentioned in a previous post. yep.


but i can see their point... it's more of a botanical garden than an active recreation area (that's what the Commons is for, and it's only a couple of blocks away). painting and wedding photos and eating ice cream are all allowed and encouraged.
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also - no feeding the ducks, which does wonders for them; they're very big and shiny.

however, it doesn't appear that jogging is verboten at the cemetery next door. you just need to respect the speed limit and watch for falling rocks!

i'm working on collecting more pictures of Haligonian stuff for you guys to see. hopefully this isn't mind-numbingly boring, but i guess you get to see what i see out here.

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on a more social front - we had poker night at our place on Wednesday. our coffee table can host an 8 person game! photos of the apartment to come soon...

five star weekend

so, we are in for a big weekend - five solid stars! how do we know this? from the surf gods at Magic Seaweed of course.
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http://magicseaweed.com/Lawrencetown-Surf-Report/342/weekSummary/uk/
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surf forecast says we've got big swell, long period waves, and an offshore wind. Steve's planning to head out on dawn patrol on Saturday, and then a full day on Sunday. hopefully we'll get some nice pictures to show you!
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in the meantime, this is a shot at Martinique Beach a month ago, with Gray, Brady, and Steve all suited up.

there are two surfing areas where i've been: Lawrencetown and Martinique beaches. Cow Bay is also good for surfing, but i haven't been out there yet. one of the bonuses of heading out to Martinique is that you get to stop at Harbour Fish & Fries in Musquodoboit Harbour and get the BEST fish and chips for lunch. when you come to visit, we'll definitely head out there!

some pics from walking to work

i've got a temp job that's within walking distance - which is great! i enjoy walking to work, or at least having a bit of a walk in my commute (like i did in Calgary). i think it's a nice break between work and home, and i like the fresh air, looking at people's yards, and moving at my own speed.

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here's my approximate route, from the blue circle which is our new interim apartment (more on that another day...)





i walk through the Public Gardens, which are the green swirl on the right. they're beautiful, and it's interesting (from a transplanted Calgarian's point of view) to see what they've got growing outside here. hibiscus?! and the huge tree behind the goddess is a ginkgo...









the Public Gardens are a no running, no jogging, no walking on the grass, no sitting on the grass kind of place. good for walking to work though... then, just past (or beside) the Public Gardens, is one of Halifax's many cemeteries.

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in our neighbourhood, there's also one on the corner of South Street and South Park Street. downtown, there's the Old Burying Ground which is where many people from the Titanic were buried. i've also come across a couple more on the peninsula. (i guess they were built back when they didn't think Halifax could ever reach that far... but of course it did, and now they provide some nice green space.)





across the street from this particular cemetery is the Halifax Infirmary, aka the HI. this is the main hospital for adults in Halifax, and where Steve does a lot of his rotations. the other major hospital complex is also marked on the map, and includes the Victoria General, aka the VG, and the women's and children's hospital, aka the IWK.

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our apartment right now is great - it takes me about 20 minutes to walk to work, and it's probably 15 to the HI walking. Steve usually rides his bike, which probably takes under ten!

the first entry

well, here we go! time to start some kind of journal to keep those in other places in the loop...

the story: steve and i moved to halifax a month ago (in june 2007) for his residency. since then, it's become pretty clear that we need a new way to keep in touch with all of those family and friends in BC and Alberta!

i'm not sure what this will turn out to be. i hope to post lots of pictures of what we're doing out here, write a little bit about the culture and our experiences, and give you all a picture of the maritimes.