Driving back

I was surprised last night to discover that England had won another match, not so much that England had won, but that Kevin had taken his England shirt with us to wear on Monday, which we had read was the day of the match. Still, good news anyway and Kevin wore the shirt today as a sort of a retrospective tribute.

Britain needs Tim Horton's. Timmie's sells unpretentious coffee at reasonable prices, doughnuts - yeah, maybe we don't need those so much - soups and sandwiches, croissants, wraps etc. All at - yes - reasonable prices.
This morning we called in at Timmie's to get wraps, filled croissants and coffee before heading off, and I spotted a slight glitch in my plan. My experience so far of Tim Horton's has been that the staff are always polite, patient and pleasant and a little older than your average Mackie D's or Dairy Queen staff. I'm sure this is a deliberate policy.
In Britain, staff in fast food places tend not to be so smiley, although I have noticed that Starbucks staff seem to make more of an effort, so it must be possible with careful selection of staff and training. Probably. But I wouldn't put money on it.

So back to sunny Richmond where the temperature is ten degrees less than the Okanagan but feels more uncomfortable and sticky already. We had a straightforward trip from Kevin's parents house in Surrey back to our home, anyone travelling in the opposite direction had a miserable one. The traffic was backed up further than we could see and did I mention the heat was stifling?
Flexible working means the rush hour starts mid afternoon these days, so goodness knows what it'd be like if everyone still left work at 17.00.

The Guardian's Canadian correspondent Anne McIlroy is drawing attention to a little pickle Canada seems to be in at the moment.
Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of choice of most Canadians apparently, has been apologising for something Canada did in 1885, and monetary apologies to boot. Now everyone wants a slice. An American journo even jibes, tongue in cheek that 'American Canadians' are the ones who have received most abuse.
Yeah, Stephen, you need to let sleeping dogs lie. Go for a little trip into BC's interior and chill out. Mind you, I have only ever met one Canadian here who voted for you, so the whole thing's a bit of a mystery. Perhaps something else that shouldn't be looked at too closely.