A trip to "Cran-hole"

A lot has been happing since my last post, so here is a day in the life from early on in our stay.

A trip to "Cran=hole"

Canada is a very friendly place. I think part of the reason for this is that Canada is designed to function in person. You get lots of chances to practice you friendliness when you do everything in person, like going to the bank to setup an appointment to open a bank account in person, and collecting your physical pay check in person from work, and then banking your pay check in person at the bank ("direct deposit? sounds like a good idea, but how would you know when you have been paid?"), and then paying your rent in person at the real estate agency and so on. However, things do run very smoothly here in person. I can now understand why my Canadian friends in Sydney couldn't get over there first trip to the RTA. Unfortunatly things dont run as smooth if you are trying to accomplish something by phone or internet (or should I say fax).

To work in Canada, you need a SIN (like a tax file number) and to get a SIN you need to apply at Service Canada. Now Claire did this 6 weeks before we arrived by mail, and all I needed to do was re-activate mine from when I last worked in Canada, despite this, our SINs were not forthcomming. We were told our options were to resend applications (with our passports) and wait 6-18 weeks, or drop in to Service Canada and have them issued on the spot. The problem was Service Canada was in Cranbrook (aka Cran-hole) which is 1.5 hours away and this was before we had our new wheels. So we caught the twice a week medical bus for $2.50 that takes Fernie patients to Cranbrook hospital.

The medical bus was lots of fun, and we were lucky to get a seat. The highlight for me was when the middle aged female driver pulled off the road and explained she wont be a minute, and we watched her duck into the toilets at a truckstop. Sure enough a few minutes later we were back on the road, and 10 minutes after that we were in Cran-hole.

Personally I think the name Cran-hole is a bit harsh, as it was a pretty cool town. It even has a Wal Mart. Sure enough we were in and out of Service Canada in 15minutes with SIN in hand, and then filled the next 4 hours looking at ski gear and sampling some of North America's finest fast food. I also had a business meeting with Interior Health about setting up a street vending cart (sausage sizzle) before getting the medical bus back to town.

Here's a pic of some of our mates at the bar...