The Plummet Onions

I’m interrupting my regularly-scheduled vacation blogging to do a bit of flogging: particularly the area where I grew up in eastern Canada. The NY Daily News has done a travel feature on the area, focusing on the fact that the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world.

They ain’t lying. It’s an area of natural peacefulness and sometimes-understated beauty, and if you get a chance to go, you should take it.

I grew up a little bit north of Parrsboro (where I went to school), and attended university in Halifax.

Thanks to my mom for sending me this article.

My parents make maple syrup and other maple products on the family farm in Canada, and for the last few weeks I’ve been eagerly awaiting my annual maple shipment. It’s a heavy package (some for our own use, plus some I sell at work) so my mom sends it surface mail. Because it was sent some time ago, it was sent to our old address; I thought it would arrive before we left, but it didn’t.

I wasn’t too worried, though, because I was planning a 3-month postal redirect from our old place to our new. However, when filling out the form, I learned that while the redirect does apply for UK-sent packages sent via Parcelforce (the Royal Mail’s parcel delivery service), it does not apply to incoming international packages.

I rang Parcelforce, who said they couldn’t instruct the local depot to redirect the parcel to our new place until it arrived in the UK. So I’ve therefore been checking the Canada Post and Parcelforce websites each day, usually in the morning, to see when it lands. The Canada Post website also had a facility to request an email notification when it reaches the destination country. As soon as I knew the maple was here, I planned to ring Parcelforce and give them the new address.

Yesterday I worked from home, and it was quite busy all day. I didn’t think to check the delivery sites until after I’d finished work. When I did look at the Canada Post site, there it was: it had arrived in the UK the day before. Perfect!

I checked the Parcelforce website, and it reflected the fact that it had arrived in the UK the day before. It also said that they had dispatched it that day. Not only that, but it had been delivered and signed for. They have an image of the signature, which was an unrecognisable scrawl.

Well, since nothing was delivered to me at our new home, and since they don’t have that address anyway, and we’re now moved out of the old place, I started to worry.

I tried ringing Parcelforce, but of course it was 5:37pm, and they close promptly at 5:30pm.

So, I hoped that what had happened was that our previous upstairs neighbours had accepted it. We did this for each other all the time. I walked over and rang their bell. Luckily, they did indeed have it. The neighbours figured we’d be back for it when they saw “maple” written on it.
Today, after all that’s over, I finally got my notification email from Canada Post. Thanks, guys.

I happened across the current issue of National Geographic magazine today. It focuses on the topic of marine conservation. There’s an article on the Newfoundland cod fishery, and how it’s affected the families and outport towns.

Being in the UK for the last 6 years, I’d sort of forgotten about the Newfoundland fishery woes. It’s unfortunate but unavoidable, I suppose, that people will leave their place of birth to move to the industries that are hiring and paying.

I’d also forgotten how moving NG’s photography is.

You can read the article and see the photos here.

All you Canadians will know about this already, but the Cricket World Cup is upon us. Make sure you cheer on the Canadian team as they go up against the others in their group: Kenya, England…and…New Zealand.

Damn.

At Heathrow, boarding my flight to Ottawa. Man, it seems like I was just in Canada a month ago.

It was confirmed last night: Headz Gamez will not be bringing its operations to my hometown of Parrsboro. In the end, it was a somewhat goofy dream by a single individual. Now that he’s out of the picture, the dream is over.

I feel more than a bit sad about this. I would have liked to have seen something new invigorating the town where I grew up. People were excited about this, and most of us let excitement outweigh our incredulity. Now I’m sure that people feel a bit embarrassed: small-town folk who had a fast one pulled on them by some fast-talking city slicker. I keep thinking about the Simpsons’ Marge vs. the Monorail episode.

Technorati tags: Parrsboro – Headz Gamez