I didnt know Bill was a woman

Halifax today!

The  whole of the coast here seems to be very unlucky with shipwrecks but we hadnt really appreciated how many until we saw a timeline in the Maritime museum of the Atlantic
  Perhaps there ought to be a new law of probability , something like

 "As the length of time a ship spends off the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia increases, the probability of it sinking approaches 1.000"

We saw artifacts from the SS Atlantic, got me wondering if the reason for the delay in rescue efforts was due to the sinking occurring on April 1st !
 The theme continued with one of the bodies having been discovered to be a girl who had dressed and worked as a sailor....... reported thus

The discovery of a girl in sailor's garb, whose life was sacrificed in efforts to save others. She was about twenty years old and had served as a common sailor for 3 voyages, and her sex had never been known until the body was washed ashore and prepared for burial. She is describes as having been a great favourite with all her shipmates and one of the crew speaking of her remarked "I didnt know Bill was a woman, he used to take his grog as regular as any of us, and was always begging or stealing tobacco. He was a good fellow, though, and I am sorry he was a woman""

White Star line didnt seem to have learned much apart from "women and children first" from this sinking, as 39 years later yet another infamous disaster smacked them in the stern...............................................

Some of the items recovered or washed ashore are preserved in the museum

We had a little sit on the deckchair too!

Al was threatening to build one of the massive models of a steamship but I found one that would be far more easy to display !

The rest of Halifax harbour was a nice walk, even if it was a bit hot for both of us...

famous Canadians............
Justin Bieber
KD Lang
Pierre Trudeau
Donald Sutherland
???????????   anyone else

What about Cunard, a native of Halifax apparently      

Who Knew?

What's a Bluenose?

 I think we get a little blase about world heritage sites, living a few miles from one!
I drive through Avebury twice a day on the way to work and back, summer time is the worst, coach loads of tourists,all looking to cross the road, all looking on the wrong side of the road. Lunenburg is a Canadian world heritage site so it had to be worth a visit, right?

All the houses within the actual heritage site are painted different colours, some even painted purple giving the town a sort of stage set appearance, things get a bit more real looking down by the harbour with the ships and fishing factories side by side with historic buildings.

Theres a distillery

We tried some of the liquers, Rhubarb one was nice-ish but things went downhill from there and the cranberry and blueberry ones werent so nice and we decided against buying any, the stuff pouring into the steel bucket is the actual distillate, the bloke opened the little hatch to reveal a log fire running the still.

walking along the seafront and harbour in the bright sunlight, there was more typical Nova Scotia scenery.........

There was a lot of things named "Bluenose" this and that , we had no idea what the Bluenose was all about, until we found a ship, with hoardes of people crowded round it......

Al solved the mystery, The Bluenose is the ship on the Canadian 10c coin!

Pretty innit?

Later on we ate our Subway rolls in Halifax public gardens

Kind of reminds me of Halstead town gardens, on a larger scale !

Joined to the sea and the sky

Driving round Halifax doesnt really give you much of an idea of what Nova Scotia is like, sure 40% of the province's population lives here but its not the NS you see on the TV or pictures.

We drove out to the coast to see the SS Atlantic Centre, Al is really the steamship fan but, you know me, anything impressive and engineered is good to look at.

The SS Atlantic was a White Star line steamship sailing from Liverpool, that ran aground in 1873 off the coast with the loss of 562 of the 920 people on board, no women or children survived and THIS is the pivotal moment in maritime history, the "women and children first" has been used ever since this accident to ensure that those who are less strong get a chance at survival too.

I saw a sign on the way there to Peggys Cove and we headed there- without knowing it was one of the most photographed sites in Canada and one of the most touristy, coachloads of people packed into a town with a winter population of 35!

Al and I had lunch at the restaurant, still with no real idea whether we were paying a little or a lot, neither of us had looked up the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar before we came. 2 meals and drinks came to $CAD 36.
 The table next to use were indulging in the North american obsession with seafood, massacring a lobster whilst wearing a plastic bib and taking copious photos........dont ask me, in all y trips to the continent I have never worked it out, why the seafood thing is so important.
I had the buffet once in Harrahs in Atlantic City, yes, its a casino, No, I dont gamble but I went along for the experience, and take some photos, anyway, you got your salad and then handed it over to a chef lady who chopped it for you and handed it back, there was a pile of crab legs, the long spider crabs they catch on Deadliest Catch, people were piling their plates high and pouring ladles of melted butter over them. I took a couple and back at the table tried to get into the meat, the legs were not hard and easy to crack like Cromer Crabs, they were the consistency of a fingernail and a nightmare to open. Once inside the tiny bit of meat was frankly not worth the effort at all. So much for the fishermen risking life and limb on the Baring sea!

On the way back we stopped at the memorial for Swissair flight 111, I vaguely remember something in the news  from 1998 about a plane crashing into the sea whilst dumping fuel to land, all 229 people died in the accident. The memorial is 2 huge rocks, one dedicated to the people who died and one to those who helped in the recovery operation.
There is something profoundly humbling about looking out to sea and realising that fellow travellers, set off on a flight from New York and ended their journey in this stretch of water.

view out to sea from the memorial

Anyway, I got back and checked the exchange rate
$CDN 36 is £20  Bargain lunch after all!

3 wheels on my wagon

Or actually 3 wheels on the suitcase AGAIN what is it with Brussels, 2 flights on BA to BRU and twice the case has come off the other end with 3 wheels instead of 4, wouldn’t be so bad if it was the same case but this one was a different case. None of my cases seem to last more than a couple of years. Usually if needing another case while we are away, I visit the thrift store on Route 73 and purchase one for the grand sum of about $10 to bring home.

Plenty of time to contemplate it because the weather at Heathrow is causing a 45 min  ground stop over here in BRU. No point in us taking off to circle London in the remains of hurricane Bertha for an hour when we could be sat on the tarmac in BRU.

Our connection time of 1hr 10 is now in serious jeopardy as the onward flight to Toronto is alledgedly leaving on time at 13.05. There is a later flight to Toronto which will miss the connection to Halifax but connections via PHL or ORD are possible as well, I should be well and truly used to IRROPS out of BRU. I hope BA look after the flights and connections as well as US, I may have sworn off their hard product but their ability to reschedule is second to none, I was met it PHL at the airbridge by a lady holding my new Boarding pass and hotel vouchers, of course it later went bits up again, as you will remember, but that part ran smoothly

YUP- nothing doing out there.........

We arrived to chaos at Heathrow, queues of people shoving and pushing, some of the staff had to shout to get people to calm down. I rang BA but they said I had to rebook through the desk, joining the queue.

Rebooking was no problem once we managed to get served, a later flight to Toronto followed by a later flight to Halifax, Simples! Al even managed to find time for sandwiches and cake in the lounge.

Not exactly the 787 we wanted to try but at least we are getting there!

Tootling round the taxiways of Heathrow , we happened on one but 2 of the BA A380s, and a Concord, planespotters.....not us!

Still some remains of the storm but once up in the air it looks calm enough

Aaanyway 8 hours later and we were approaching Toronto

What do Birds think?
I just love it when you see a city from up here, all the scenery and then a cluster of tall buildings with roads leading to it rising out of the landscape, what do birds think of it when they see it?
Chickens wouldnt think anything because their idea of flying is leaving the ground for a few feet as they run down the garden to meet me!. The bantams can fly but dont usually bother because they are having plenty of fun at ground level.

Leaving the plane in Toronto, we met another FTer who directed us to the connecting flights immigration desk, no queue, no 101 questions either- "because its a nice place to come" seemed to satisfy them!.

A connecting train ride between terminals and a quick visit to the Air Canada desk was all it needed to get the ticket and back into the system. It turns out that since we last flew Air Canada, it has turned into a very nice airline, all the seatbacks have screens the seats are comfortable and the food wasnt bad either although Al and I both regretted eating a dinner on the flight- our second of the day!

Here at last!

Finger Problem

I once heard a pilot of a Fed-Ex plane tell ATC that the reason for his go around was a "finger problem"
Finger problem is apparently pilot-speak for "made a mistake" Thats the excuse I'm using for this latest adventure! Not a mistake but wandering fingers on the keyboard.

Al and I are going to take in a few days in Halifax, Nova Scotia and on to see Lisa, we had talked bout Halifax when Dunc was here but never got round to it so a sale fare seems to be an ideal reason to go.

You knew it wouldn't be a simple trip right?

Brussels, obviously, if we didn't save the fare by flying from BRU then we would have to fly WT+, the last time I suggested that to Al, he gave me a look like I had hurt him- lets see how he does when he has to buy his own flights!

Anyway the overnight at BRU is followed by LHR-YYZ thats Toronto, and then on to Halifax. I am immensely fond of Canada, everyone actually seems pleased that you made the journey, the Immigration isnt as harsh and you could stay for 6 months at a time if you wanted to. Maybe we will take a side trip while we are at Lisa's ...........something stands in the way though

2 hurricanes heading for Hawaii, the first to make landfall since the 1980s so thats a trip to Hawaii out of the question, shame I think Al would like it there.

I have been "hurricaned" before, Hurricane sandy in 2012, I knew it was coming before I left for the US, I asked Dunc "will Jeffs house blow down?" having been reassured that it wouldnt I continued my trip.
  High winds that would be called "very windy" over here are far more damaging in the US, our houses are mostly brick, tiled roofs, not many trees in the streets but over there, with wooden houses, light felt tile roofs and everyone living the dream surrounded by loads of trees in their yards, its a whole different matter, our coast tends to wiggle in and out in small stretches whereas theirs goes on for miles and miles with no break, making them more vulnerable to storms and hurricanes.
 Lis had done the preparation before I arrived, stockpiling food and a gallon of water per person per day, as the storm picked up, the trees bent over in the yard, the electricity went off but was back on after 45 mins, and I fell asleep in the recliner chair.
Later on as the wind picked up, Lis woke me up to make sure I got to use the loo before the electricity went off again. We spent the evening watching the weather channel as the reports got more and more serious, the Govenor of NJ on the TV telling people to leave the coast areas and evacuate,  the Govenors of PA and DE giving warnings to their states populus. The hurricane made landfall and tore through the state leaving beaches washed away, boardwalks destroyed and further up wreaking havoc and damage to the North.

If you look at the map you can see that Hurricane Sandy, the second most damaging in US history was a direct hit in line with Lisa's house.

Such a direct hit that there was very little damage at all in the immediate area, a few miles either side and there was destruction, trees down and railway lines flooded and affected but in the little area surrounding Atco there was not that much to show.

On top of that there are the remains of hurricane Bertha crossing the Atlantic in time for our transatlantic flight to Toronto on the 10th

Going to be a fun trip by the looks of it!