Late night

So I'm late posting tonight, we had guests, my friends Lori and Beth from the Nature Park and their partners. Which meant we were equal parts Brit to Canadian. I think Perry's Canadian, Edmonton is still in Canada isn't it? I'm just kidding of course. And Kevin did us proud on the scram. This was a tough one to plan, it was like one of those language exercises we used to set.
'Birgit ißt kein Fleisch, aber sie findet Eis lecker. Harald mag nicht Gemüse und er kann nicht Milchprodukte essen...usw.'
Anyway, we had an evening where we just laughed non-stop, well except when eating.

Kevin cooked, I did the shopping, that worked, each of us thought we had the best deal. I did have to spend longer in yesterday's traffic jam than usual, but it was worth it. When I got to the checkout, I carefully chose the most competent looking cashier, my criteria are probably no less lame than anyone else's, I choose a middle aged woman whenever possible. Yesterday this worked well. The man behind me in the queue had only a few items and I asked her to put his stuff through first, as I'm used to in Britain. He seemed to not want to do this, but he was up against two middle aged women so tough, he was going through whether he liked it or not.

As I was paying my bill she said, all in one sentence,
'So, d'you want a free chair, say yes, you didn't hear me say that.' Ok, I got a free Canada day spectator chair with a maple leaf on the back, in a nice carrying case. Not that I wasn't entitled to it apparently, it was in the flyer, but I was supposed to see it myself and ask.
'Happy Canada Day,' she said, 'if you know what I mean.' I assured her I knew.

This morning, at the Office, the painter made a point of saying goodbye when he left, addressing me by name. Why do I even bother to mention this? Because no-one in the Office ever does. They leave, they walk past, they say nothing. Bizarre behaviour.

In the afternoon I had 'booked' a phone call from the BCCT. They were supposed to call me between 13.00 and 16.00 to discuss my dilemma. No phone call came. At 16.10 I decided to phone them, and lo, the secretary hadn't written down the phone number. The man I spoke to was more sympathetic than I had anticipated. It seems they have dealt with British universities before. I could virtually hear him shaking his head.
'Yes, with the British universities we pretty much don't know what we're going to get until it arrives,' he said.
He also listened to my tale of woe about my teacher training and had some helpful suggestions.

It's hot. Tomorrow is the salmon fest in Steveston to celebrate Canada day. Sounds yummy, but is going to be missed by our household, we are packing up Barb's house which is being sold. Sales go through very quickly here, a couple of weeks from offer to completion. And of course, tomorrow is the Big Match, followed by the other Big Match. I'm relying on everyone else to influence the outcome.