Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at noon

That's the title of a book I bought, just on a whim recently.

It's an interesting book and I first heard about a few months while ago on an On Point podcast.

The idea is simple, it's a book on the best time to do things.

From the best time of day to see your dentist to the best day of the year to make an offer on a house(which surprisingly is Christmas day), the book provides all sorts of weird and wacky advice.

It doesn't claim to be authoritative and it's very American focused but I've found it interesting nonetheless.

I think the best advice is on times to buy things, from paint, to video games, to lawnmower and even wedding and prom dresses. The book provides some good advice on buying things, mostly it's when its out of season, towards the end of the season when retailers are trying to make room for different products and also just before the new products come out.

That's all for today

Remembrance Day

One of the things I continually find a bit stranger here in Ottawa is how little people seem to pay attention to Remembrance day. The kids don't get off school, almost all stores are open (though apparently they have to open at 12:30, as this store found out)

People seem to go to the ceremonies on Parliament Hill, then proceed to go shopping at the Rideau centre.

In Saskatchewan we always had the day off in elementary and high school(though it appears not at university).

I'm quite surprised that it's not a holiday here, that the kids go to school on the day. It's one of those things that still surprises me here, and reminds me of those small differences between Saskatchewan and here. The other big one is dalight savings time, but that's a whole other story.

Some of the other things include:
The use of salt in the winter (They use sand back home.. much less pant damage!)
All the snow in the winter (I love how people complain about it here, it's so much colder at home!)
I'm sure there are other things, but I can't seem to think of them this morning.

I also don't understand why the western Canadian windchill factor was replace with the crappy one used here. I.e How cold it "feels" . 1800 windchiil factor anyone?

Some old stories

So I was inspired by XUP's post this past week. It reminded me of some of the hilarious tourist stories that i experience during the 16 months I worked at the NCC's info-centre across from Parliament Hill. It was a lot of fun, got to brush up on my spoken French which has really served me well, and I got to deal with tourists, which is fun until that effect wears off.

So here is a small sampling of stories.

The time I was called a racist

So this guy comes in and i greet him. He asks about tours of Parliament. Well, it turns out they are done for the day (it is like 6pm on a weekend). I give him the times for the next day, provide one or two options, and then send him to the counter where he can get a map and more details. He's quite upset because he's leaving tomorrow and now won't have a chance to see Parliament. (My thought... well uh should've planned better)

Anyways he walks to the counter and I proceed to talk to some other tourists. I'm showing one woman where she can go on our map model, and pointing out a few things. The man comes up to me and says "Is it because she's blond?" I stare at him in disbelief for a few seconds. After I recover I say "excuse me?" and he proceeds to gets really upset, claims I didn't help him at all, etc. I tell him he can write comments in our comment box if he wants, and then he ask for my supervisor who comes out, and has to deal with him.

After a brief conversation with my supervisor the guy storms off, starts yelling at his kids and leaves. Turns out he accused me of being racist while speaking to my supervisors. I thought it was kind of ironic as I was the only non-white person on our entire team that summer.

Is that building across the street a church?

This was a very common question. But one woman was so frustrating to deal with. I explained to her that no, those were the parliament buildings. She didn't know what that meant. Anwyays, after 3 or 4 tries, she leaves saying, what a nice church.

How do I get to Toronto?

This happened so many times, it was hilarious. I never figured out how people could drive from Toronto, and never know how they got there.

When ask about concealed weapons..

So another time, I was working late one night, and this guys comes in from New Zealand. Nice guy, asking away and then he says, so I have a concealed weapon, what documents do I need within Canada? My colleague and I looked at each other and then as we were about to look into, it he laughed and said he was joking.

Anyways that's a small sampling. I actually have some notes about the funny stories. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.