Another country #7

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I love this sign. Just one of those reminders that we are, to use one of my brother's cuter phrases "in foreign". Here are a few notes from a very large country:

Valentine's Day
Very big here. I was alerted to this by spotting that cards could be purchased in multi-packs and in one of those rare moments, actually bought the right thing for the kids to send out. All three of them gave and received Valentines from everyone in their class. It was a bit of a litter-fest really and they also got quite a lot of candy. Mmm.

Candy
Can I just say Yuk! Too much bubble gum, too much oogey cherry flavour, too much peanuts and chocolate (a combo which is frankly wrong). Too much candy. These Canadian dentists must be miracle workers because despite all this crud, they really do have beautiful teeth.

Birthdays
Now here are some areas where they are doing better than the UK. Firstly, the cake is eaten at the party. Now isn't that a good idea? When I told another parent that we wrapped cake in paper napkins and put it in the party bag (sorry loot bag) they looked at me like I was bonkers. Also, presents seem to come in bags topped with tissue which look very nice and are much easier to preserve from small tearing hands and so can be reused. We have seen again though how much younger the children seem to stay here. Max's laser quest party was great except that all but four of the blighters were too scared of the dark to do the laser questing (and two of the four were called Braithwaite). And Dominic's last party for an eight year old friend was really a Wacky Warehouse-type place which I think is aimed at younger kids back home.

Language
Maddie really does say "jeepers" and they all say "awesome". I don't. Dominic's accent has become so bizarre that he says and also spells the word health as "healf". There is a boy in Max's class called "Hearie". It's spelt Harry of course but if I say "Harry" Max shouts at me that I'm wrong. (Can anyone hear me screaming....) Also Braithwaite is practically unpronouncable for Canadians and certainly impossible to spell.

The doctors
Am I moaning? Time to end on a more positive note. Recently I had to take Maddie to the doctors. There's no appointment system, you just walk-in and wait. But how about this. The receptionist told me there was a forty-five minute wait and gave me a voucher so I could go away and have a cup of coffee and just bob back when it was nearly time for us to go in. Now that's civilised.