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Greetings from Canada! I arrived safe and sound on Sunday afternoon and passed through immigration without mishap and into the loving arms of Sara at the arrivals gate. As it’s Stampede time we were also serenaded by a country band so what could be more fitting.

We managed to manhandle my excess baggage into her car and with great excitement I finally got to see my new pad. I love it! It’s weird suddenly going from 1 bed in W12 to a whole house with an upstairs and a basement in Calgary and right now it’s sporting a minimalist look but once my furniture etc arrives I’m sure we will fill it up. It’s got all mod cons and lovely garden from which I’ve already enjoyed a rhubarb crumble made by Sara. And now it’s got a very fancy toaster too! I couldn’t resist this one when I saw what buttons it had: I’m calling it the Gina G toaster.

I ended up posting my kettle a week or so in advance, padding the box with Yorkshire tea. I feared my package might get intercepted as the least subtle drugs deal ever but as it was it arrived unscathed. I also brought a few other essentials to make the kitchen more homely:

Sara has been fab driving me around to pick whatever else I need to get settled in. On Monday we were inside when the most incredible hailstorm broke out. The noise on the roof of the shopping centre was like a stampede of horses and we later saw hailstones on the ground that were the size of marbles and upwards. This did an enormous amount of damage across town (including my bedroom window!). The bonnet and roof of Sara’s car is dented in multiple places and this amazing video shows every window in a University of Calgary greenhouse getting smashed in under a minute.

That’s how it is in the West!