Sunday, November 4, 2007

... Then three months later

Uncovering urban lifestyle, contemporary trends and other (Canadian) peculiarities from a totally biased and nonobjective European perspective. Infiltration, intrigues, wonder and more ...



The Stanley Park is still a little piece of land just outside downtown Vancouver. It's quite pretty and filled with trees, shrubs and small wildlife. It thanks its notable presence in the heart of Vancouver to the fact that at one point in history, the Canadians expected the Americans to invade their territory. In their military genius, they deemed Stanley park a vital strategic asset and decreed that no civilian structure was allowed to spoil this formidable green fortress. After someone informed the Canadian high command about the validity of the claims made in South Park - the Movie, it was too late: Stanley had already been designated as a national historic site.


scaring away the yanks with totems

It not only goes to show how influential South Park is in the circles of the military, but also that the Canadians have a well cultivated distrust versus their Imperical Southern Neighbours... as the SO would soon find out first hand.

On the 26th of October, the SO and our offspring entered Canadia with intent of settling here for a while. Her plane was a good 15 minutes early. Packed with her suitcases and one discontent baby, she entered immigration. A good three hours and one very uber discontent baby later, she was allowed to enter Canadian territory, AFTER she had sufficiently made clear that she wasn´t part of an invasion force, had ties (read: a crying disgruntled baby) with a resident (me) and had no intention of killing, mutilating or kidnapping Terrance or Phillip (she was free to do whatever she wanted to Celine Dion).

And thus the infiltration mission grew with two members: the SO and a little female mini us...





It has been a thrilling three month period ever since. A period filled with random events, eventual adventures and adventurous travels. Our belongings came in from Holland, turning our small hideout into an even more infinitesimal space with half of the apartment filled with boxes and the other half filled with chairs. Soon after our boxes arrived, Sinterklaas dropped by (he's allowed to enter Canadia after the draw in the fireworks contest with Santa earlier this year). We celebrated American Thanksgiving (no moose either) . Project "D0T" saw first daylight. Finally, we concluded the year making oliebollen in Laurel, Maryland - US (home of the famous and distinguished Delta Bingo Establishment).

... And all of these miraculous proceedings remained unbloggified. As the saying goes, "time flies when you have to take care of a baby" ( or more accurately, "when you're around a baby" - a lot of credit goes out to the SO for doing the majority of all the hard work (daddy gets to play)). To appease the ravenous hordes of fanatical "Infiltration" readers (*), here's some expectation management for you... priorities have shifted a bit, but the blog will return in 2008 at random times.

Best belated wishes to all of you - M, M & S






(*) Can one person make a "ravenous horde of readers" ?