Taylor Swift Concert - 8th July 2009

The first of our Stampede concerts started with Taylor Swift, who was supported by Kellie Pickler.













Video footage, not the clearest, but you get the idea!

Kellie Pickler - California


Kellie Pickler - Red High Heels


Taylor Swift - He Belongs To Me


Taylor Swift - Teardrops On My Guitar


Taylor Swift - Love Story

J&E

Saskatoon Farm

One of our favourite local places to visit remains the wonderful Saskatoon Farm, just a 10 minute country drive from our home...Whilst there, we were lucky enough to see a Swainson Hawk circling overhead and Jan was quick on the draw to take a couple of snapshots...J&E.

Canada Day - Trip to Sheep River Provincial Park

Our lives feel like they are flying by here...we are clearly having a lot of fun! Another Canada Day (1st July) brought another Public Holiday and a chance to get out and about in the beautiful scenery that surrounds us, this time with Robin, one of Eamonn's clients and a damn fine chap! Here's a whole bunch of shots from our trip out to Sheep River Provincial Park in Kananaskis Country, a very scenic 50 minute drive from our house in Okotoks. Enjoy.Here's Robin!
It was a really cloudy day!...
J&E

More Deer In Okotoks

We know we have posted about deer in the local area before, but we never get tired of living amongst these lovely animals. We often see them at dusk in and around the houses and greenery in the Crystalridge area of Okotoks. Just remember, drive carefully!J&E

Gardening in Alberta

Last year we planted a number of plants in our back garden. We had selected plants that were supposedly hardy for the region but all the same, after what has been a long winter, we sort of suspected we would never see any of them again. However, we were wrong! We are pleasantly surprised to report that plants in our north facing garden with winter temperatures of -20 to -30 have actually survived! We are now thinking that it might be possible to have a garden in Alberta!

In early May our Crab Apple was just twigs, with no leaves or flowers. Since then though, the leaves have been coming on gradually and the flowers seem to have come out in just a few days! This plant (we can't remember what it is!), didn't even lose its leaves over winter and now looks as though it is going to surprise us further with bright pink flowers.And there is much more continuing to bud, sprout and grow. We now think that, from the whole garden, we MAY have lost just one plant, unless of course it recovers over the coming weeks.Less hardy plants can survive too. We have had to bring this one in on a few occasions as temperatures can go into minus figures overnight, even in May. As summer comes on though, it should be OK to leave it out all the time, unless we get some freaky weather.So, maybe Albertan gardening is perfectly possible - it just takes a bit of extra thought and care.

J&E

Job Hunting Resources - Calgary and Surrounds

As is the case all over the world at present, Canada is working its way through an economic downturn. Here in Alberta, we are not insulated from that although we do find that the attitude of your typical Albertan and the media here is relatively positive, compared to what we heard from the UK media when we were back there on holiday recently.

Eamonn felt it might be useful for those coming to Alberta if he did a bit of research on job hunting resources. In this task, he received tremendous support from McBride Career Group Inc...
McBride Career Group
McBride are contracted by the provincial government to provide services that...
a) assist the unemployed in accessing meaningful employment opportunities,
b) assist working Albertans in their career development goals and
c) support employers in the hiring, training, development and retention of capable employees.

McBride's contacts page details offices across Alberta, but including Calgary, Okotoks (on Elizabeth St) and High River (12th Ave SE)...
McBride Contacts

One way in which McBride can help is to critique your resume with a view to helping you sharpen its appeal to Albertan employers. They also run workshops that help with this.

For those yet to arrive in this part of the world (who therefore cannot meet with McBride representatives face to face), they directed me towards a couple of great resume writing resources...

A Resume Checklist ...and Resume Templates and Examples ...and what looks like a fantastic resource for those NOT yet in Canada...the opportunity to have your resume reviewed by a career counsellor after submitting it online

More generally, there are links to a myriad of employment related top-tips sheets.
Top-Tips

There is a wealth of information on job hunting in the excellent booklet...Advanced Techniques for Work Search

Also, the Working In Alberta booklet has lots of useful information aimed at those newly arrived in the Province or planning to move here to work.

Turning to resources elsewhere, as many folk know, we have posted extensively on the BritishExpats website. This features an excellent WIKI which has much good advice on job hunting.
Job Hunting Instructions
Job Hunting - Canada

The Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS) also have links to lots of useful resources...
CCIS

IF you need to consider having your qualifications assessed for equivalency in Canada, the International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS) can help.
An alternative is World Education Services...WES

Both of these take a considerable number of weeks to process your assessments and this may involve you in contacting a variety of educational establishments, so DO THIS WELL IN ADVANCE of you needing the outcome for job applications. Note also that these are both chargeable services.

For those coming to Alberta to practice a trade.
Trade Secrets
Within this site, you can learn about the varying certification requirements for different trades
A to Z of Certifiable Trades

We hope these resources are useful for you.

Kind regards,

J&E

Garden Birds of Alberta

When we moved into our home, we had no garden to speak of, just lawn, no trees or plants. We were quite disappointed last spring and summer when we had no garden birds visitng us. As regular readers will know, we spent a lot of time last year knocking our rear garden (or yard, as it is called here) into shape. As such, we were really quite happy when these fellows appeared in our garden last weekend. Perhaps the addition of the plants is working!

We are not entirely sure what they are as they aren't anything we would have seen in the UK. We have looked in our Alberta bird book and think they could be:

Chipping Sparrow

Western Tanager

Yellow Rumped Warbler


Blackpoll Warbler

We're sort of guessing here so if anyone knows exactly what they are, we would love to know!
J&E

Tipping Etiquette

We often get asked about tipping etiquette in Canada and thought it a good idea to do a little research.

After numerous trips to the US and Canada, we personally feel comfortable leaving a 15-20% tip (of the pre-tax total) and have always treated tipping as part of the cost of eating out. We use this percentage as a general rule any time we are provided with a service, so this would include bars, pizza delivery etc.

Tipping is also expected in hotels, when staff bring luggage to a room or you make use of the valet service. We tend not to make use of these services, but if we did we would pay the luggage handler $1 for each case and perhaps a couple of dollars to cover any smaller bags. We also leave a tip for the chamber maid when we stay in a hotel, usually a couple of dollars per night, depending on length of stay and service.

Tipping is also customary for other service providers such as hairdressers, manicurists, and taxi drivers. In these cases the percentage of tip is really up to the individual, but a 10% minimum is common.

Tipping is not a requirement in some counter service shops eg. coffee shops, ice cream shops, cafes, although "tips jars" are often placed on the counter tops to make you feel you should. It is really not necessary and purely your choice.

You would not tip in supermarkets when they pack your shopping and/or bring it to your car.

Generally waiters and waitresses are not paid very well in Canada so they rely on tips. Perhaps this also forces a better service in restaurants as they really need to earn that tip? Sometimes, the service is not worth a tip, but most of the time it is.

If in doubt, ask the service provider what the norm is. We have found most people to be pretty honest and we have had people refuse tips where it isn’t expected.

Links that outline the tipping system:

Wikipedia

Trip Advisor

Living & Working in Canada

All this said, at the end of the day tipping is an entirely personal choice.

J&E.

Small Garden Visitor

After what has been a long and snowy winter, we got a chance to put the bird bath back out in the garden (rear yard!) the other day. Normally, we would expect it to take days or longer before any visitors would come along. On this occasion though, it was adopted almost immediately and we had to run for the camera so we didn't miss the moment!However, it's not the case that Okotoks is devoid of birds in winter. A Realtor colleague of Eamonn's was kind enough to share a couple of shots taken in mid-winter. Brent and his wife Cynthia (thanks for sharing the photos guys) have a plethora of bird feeders in their rear yard, which backs onto the local golf course. The birds (in this instance, Partridges, although they have many other visitors) clearly find this something of a safe and welcoming haven in the coldest of weather!J&E