Well, that blew our theory out of the water. Maybe it was really authentic.
On the way home, the weather amazed us again. Little ice crystals were suspended in the air, floating down slowly. The lights caught them and they twinkled delightfully, but we soon noticed they started settling on our eyebrows and lashes. Fairy-tale-christmas-cake it may have looked, but it started to sting.
The snow brings out the Sherlock Holmes in me. We've got a theory about certain types of Canadians:
- a lot of them shuffle their feet when they walk
- a lot of them walk very close behind you
We had no idea why they shuffle their feet, and we think they walk close behind you because there are less than a million living in Edmonton and they must crave some kind of human contact. For us, coming from England and hanging around in London, it's quite strange. Most British people are very protective of their personal space, and it makes the paranoid reflex we seem to have developed twitch a little.
Anyway, back to the snow. I've seen footprints where, like "normal" people, the planter has lifted their feet up and lowered them into the snow carefully, to avoid getting wet shoes and soggy trousers. I've also seen lots of shuffling footsteps all over the place. It must be environmental or something.
Where it has settled without being disturbed, the snow is about 9 inches deep. Near our house there's an apartment complex (in England they're called maisonettes) and a cyclist has cut across the snow - at regular intervals the vague imprint of the pedals and the bottom of the feet can be seen. It's very cool, but in a 'not very exciting' way.
On Monday night, Sophia did her belly-dancing recital - I'm sure she'll give you her own side of things, but I can tell you it was not boring at all. About two hours of young ladies showing how well they can wiggle their tummies - and the bits just above and below them - was enough to capture my attention. Very good fun.
Last night was my Wing Chun exam (hence the title of this email). I passed, it went very well. At one point I punched when I should have blocked, but that was just nerves - it all went okay. The cycle there and back was a lot more hellish - this weather has gone from being funny to being deadly serious. I'm seriously concerned about my nose, it seems to act like a heatsink, radiating all the heat-energy from my body. Troublesome, no?
We'll have to get some pictures up of the two of us in our winter gear - the GoreTex jackets are great for stopping the wind and we just layer beneath them. Everyone is telling us to get some quilted down jackets for when the temperature goes below -25, but I'm counting on global warming here.
We still haven't seen Harry Potter, we plan to do that maybe this weekend. I've heard good things, of course, but then it is Harry Potter.
