[leslie]

came to ottawa to visit aged grandma for all of 7 days and am trapped in hotel with a toddler with 2 severely infected ears, forbidden to fly for 7 days more and the anti-b not doing its job. the 2 of us were meant to leave for nz mid-may!!! lets just say thankks amex for upgrading us to 1-bed suite as babe getting high on all the meds and finding it v hard to sleep. recommend buying airline tickets on amex - its 1st time we've used it in 20 yrs but they have been great.

what hasn't been great but is most interesting is the experience of dealing with canada/ canadians. i was to get some documentation while here but gov't demands are impossible even without sick babe and so will be doing it when we get back to london. who'd a thunk? totally inadequate immigration were awful to everyone on arrival. they bumped me/babe to officialdom for not carrying letter from hub to say ok to bring babe alone (?????????). 20+ brits in there and one kindly soul gave me her number in line when max started getting hysterical after 1 hr wait with another to come as she had to wait for friends anyway (3am uk time). amusing, brits being decent and canadians being repugnant. everywhere i go bureaucracy has run amok and people looking a bit stunned. helpful people a rarity. design element long gone. huge corruption scandal involving former pm. big reality check. ottawa, the capital city and crown jewel, is a mess. for people who are weighing up nz/ canada ... they are poles apart. research carefully. just want to go home and get packed/ off to nz before they repatriate me and i end up in iraq or something.

recommend hotel 'lord elgin' if coming for a recce. boring but staff are helpful (must have superlative human resoures dept). rates good on hotels.com. god help you...

[Diny]

amusing, brits being decent and canadians being repugnant

Amazing eh .... somebody does something nice for another person and it's still looked upon in a negative manner :no

Leslie ... sorry to hear about your little one. Ear infections are the pits .... just like tooth ache there's just no getting away from the pain. I hope the medication kicks in soon and you are allowed to continue your journery.

Maybe the stress of everything is causing you to have such a dystopian view of Canada. I am sooooo hoping that one day you manage to report that you're actually happy with a place, country, it's politics, social climate etc etc etc

I wonder if such a place exists :?

Good luck and hope all gets back on track for you soon.

Diny

[leslie]

actually diny, am the teeniest bit happy with new zealand. thanks for your concern! that comment re. kindness - not sure how you interpreted a positve as a negative? where i come from that sort of thing is referred to as 'eating humble pie'. someone unexpectedly did a nice thing for a stranger and it becomes commetary on anothers 'warped' world view??? possibly mis-read - its been 6+ nights since i slept.

re. sick babe. learned big travel lesson today. spent this am waiting in a private medical clinic only to be shuffled into famed childrens hosp. thanks be its still an example of how to get medicine right. medics alert, clean and competent and with the exception of atila's wife, the registrar, gentle with the babes. max' 41 deg daytime temp was waaaaaay down in no time and it looks like we'll make flight no.2. guess the lesson is when travelling go to the top - had we not gone with the clinic (recommended by members of ancestral axis of evil) the week would have been a lot different. it could have been much worse too - was told max got off lightly. next time the hosptial, no faffing about.

[veronica]

I must admit Diny I couldn't figure out how you made that a negative either, but that aside when I went to the UK in Feb. a guy collapsed on the tube train and about 5 people, all normal english people judging by the accents(and mostly smartly dressed) jumped up to help him. They helped him off the train and got the station people there to take over. Impressed me as I have the capabilities in that situation of a last aider.
When I caught the tube back to Heathrow I had some awkward bags and some confusion about where to change trains (without stairs) for the Piccadilly line. I met with nothing but helpfulness from the others on the train both in information about the best place to change (hammersmith) and physical help with moving the bags across a crowded train. The great British Public is composed mainly of people like you and me and its important not to lose sight of that and just read about the actions of the small minority and take it to be the majority.

I have also found that if you approach people with a smile and a friendly manner you get a far better reception from them. After all each action gets a reaction.

On the subject of Canadian Immigration we have found in our family the West Coast is friendlier than the East. When Kerry left UK to do her overseas experience 6 years ago her reception in Canada was very hostile. She was travelling with a friend who had the tickets in her hand when they separated Kerry from her and gave her the 3rd degree about why she was entering Canada without an onward ticket. She was there for over 3 hours and wouldn't let anyone go out to speak to Helen to confirm what she was saying. Had her in tears of frustration because they wouldn't let her prove she had the ticket by going and asking Helen to show it to them. Not a good start.

Sorry to hijack your thread there Leslie and hope the littl'un is feeling better.

[sarahc]

I think Diny is probably referring to the describing of Canadians as repugnant - a pretty negative comment on a whole nation!

I visited Canada many years ago and found most people friendly - and the scenery in the Rockies was spectacular!

Sarah.

[Diny]

I think Diny is probably referring to the describing of Canadians as repugnant - a pretty negative comment on a whole nation!





That's exactly what I was trying to say (reading back over my post I can see how my point didn't get across too well - sorry).

It's just that no matter what good happens some people always manage to report a negative. However, I guess under stress we could all be guilty of this.

Leslie .... good to hear that Max is on the mend. When Fergie was 18 months old he was taken ill whilst we were travelling and it was a nightmare. Very worrying.

Diny

[veronica]

I too think that Canadians are great people, I was just referring to the immigration people we have as a family dealt with at the airports on the east coast. although I will agree that I am guilty of gross generalisation here....I can never work out if a particular job makes people the way they are, or they go for that job because they are like they are.

[leslie]

i said canadians BEING repugnant, not ARE repugnant. immig behaviour was reprehensible regardless of how joe public behaved (there goes theory on swearing). it was embarassing watching them deal with largely polite, helpful people, esp the elderly greek mamma who spoke no english but had a note written in english to get her through, in the manner in which they did. especially in the middle of the night. abu graib issues come to mind. scathing. loathesome.

canadians are not the worst of the lot but surely with the amount of privilege and opportunity afforded compared to much of the world we can do far better. behaviour inexcusable.

canada is a bit of a dichotomy (sp?) and our experience here illustrates the point. on one hand you have these excellent, switched on medical professionals that cost a bundle and on the other the cheaper (???) private clinics where they took money and did nothing to ensure the welfare of my son. all these people came through the same system and there is no justification for the large gap in attitude and professionalism. its just sad.