Home Comforts (if/when needed)

If we've been quiet for the last few days, it's not because we've been off driving the new car everywhere (OK, we have but...) we've been without internet access as the wireless router we are hooking up to failed! While we've been offline, we've been noticing that, as and when we get hankerings for "home", there are plenty of familiar things to latch onto here.

For instance, Cadbury's chocolate seems to be readily available - many brits say it tastes different here but to us, it's the same although it is wrapped slightly differently. We also picked up a bottle of HP Sauce at the supermarket the other day...again, identical to the UK version. Christmas crackers are everywhere, which is different to the US, where they seem much harder to obtain. Jordans Muesli is here...a fave for Eam.

On TV, Coronation Street is here (although 6 months behind the UK storyline) and there are numerous other British serials such as Midsomer Murders and Heartbeat (not that either are of major interest...but hey, there's a long winter ahead of us!) You know that mad woman Aggie (or whatever) from "How Clean Is Your House"...well she keeps popping up here too, (we doubt we'll ever feel so homesick as to watch that show!). HMV record stores are here...and they have a whole section of DVDs entitled "British TV".

After the Saturday afternoon footie in the UK, you get the BBC Final Score programme where Garth Crooks and other ex footie players sit down to discuss the days results...well whad'ya know, we get that here, (but of course it's on Saturday morning!) And as we drove around Calgary today, Eamonn was listening to Blackburn v Liverpool on the BBC Radio 5Live broadcast via the satellite radio in the SUV. Also on the footie theme, we have made arrangements for the installation of our cable TV package when we move into the new house...and Eamonn was able to order the Setanta package which features many live premiership games. Jan sighs in despair!

If you ever wonder whether they have a certain thing here in Canada, just drop us a line and we'll let you know or we'll go find out.

J&E