Going "Home" part 1

Foreword: This is late, very late, but whatever, I'm gonna post it now and part 2 later once I get it all written.

Well I went back to the UK for a week as I said in my last "filler" post and a number of things happened; I spent time with my mother, I spent most of 24 hours travelling, I slept on a couch for 6 days and I managed to turn half my back into a mess of pain.

I guess a little explanation is needed, so here we go; I needed to cross the Atlantic for a couple of reasons, for one my visitor's visa was about to expire (although to be honest Canada isn't that worried so long as you're not trying to work or claim for anything), and I still had to tell my mother the plans that Kata and I had with regards to marriage and our future.

I booked my flights with about 6 days warning, which caused no little amount of anguish to my darling Kata (and to me naturally) and I sorted out my other travel requirements (Airbus to Toronto airport and back) and then spent my last few days before travelling with Kata trying not to think about 7 days away from her and our life.

The day of my trip came on Wednesday 24th September and after a last afternoon of passion and affection, I left our apartment and started my trek to London, England. The first leg of the trip is always pretty easy, get into the airbus and wait for 100 to 120 minutes for the driver to head along the 401 highway to YYZ (Toronto Pearson).

This journey there were 3 other passengers and another driver being taken to Pearson to pickup a vehicle. The driver and one of the passengers were both of American origin, although the driver also has Canadian citizenship and in very little time talk turned to politics. Frustration at the American banks which were collapsing with alarming frequency, disgust at the banks' directors who were bring given "golden parachute" payments from the banks despite their clear ineptitude, anger at the politicians who had allowed such things to befall the nation due to lack of regulation and wonder at whom would be capable, if any, to restore the nation and more so the world's finances back to a steady ship as opposed to the sinking ravaged hulk that we were being shown every day.

Debate did run over the presidential candidates and their running mates; concern over the very notion that the GOP candidate would win and very real concern that if somehow he did win, he could very well die before the end of his term and leave his woefully inadequate running mate in charge of the world's most powerful democracy. The consensus however was that Obama would win the election but not if voters were complacent "every vote counts" was certainly mentioned, although as I've mentioned previously, truly every vote doesn't really count, or at least doesn't count for as much thanks to the vagueries (british spelling) of the electoral college system used in the presidential election (swing vote is a fantasy movie, not based in reality in the slightest, although I must admit I've not seen the movie for fear or wishing ill on Kevin Costner, nah not really, it just looks terrible).

So in any case, after listening for a while to the conversation I sat back and relaxed listening to music on my Creative Zen media player and I drifted off for a while. When we arrived at the airport I was the first to leave the bus since terminal 3 is first on the drop off route (International travel is for the most part handled by terminal 3 of Pearson). I headed in, picked up my ticket (as I'd booked less than 2 weeks before travel I had to get my ticket at the travel desk) and then I checked in for my flight. I took a short wander around the shopping area, not that there's a huge amount of it in terminal 3, and then I headed for security. Now at the risk of being misunderstood, the following is without prejudice or overstating, every time I've travelled out of Toronto, and I've done it 4 times now, I've noted that the vast majority of the security staff and store workers on the departure side of the terminal are of Indian descent (India the Asian country as opposed to the native American peoples), mostly 1st generation immigrants. The Tim Hortons (a bastion of Canadian coffee shops) is entirely operated by Indians (I assume the franchise is owned by an Indian family and they have brought relatives to Canada to work with/for them), the other food emporia and stores also have a high percentage of Indian staff. Its kinda weird but I take it as part of the rich Canadian culture of immigration which enriches the nation (I for one know that immigration is a positive activity after all I'm technically an immigrant about to emigrate once more).

One thing I suck at is waiting for things to happen, in this case I get pretty bored and antsy waiting for the flight to board and ultimately take off. My frame of mind is that until I get on the plane and the doors close I'm still responsible for what happens. After the doors close, its out of my hands and things are down to the flight crew, only then do I relax, or at least try to relax.

Anyway, as I was saying, because of the way things are these days, you have to wait around for 2 to 3 hours before your flight takes off and of course you need to keep entertained, fortunately I'm used to trying to keep myself entertained and I always take way too much stuff with me, so I settled down, stuck a DVD into my portable DVD player and started watching. I only managed 20 minutes before boarding started. Since I had asked for a seat near the back and on the aisle (leg room and proximity to the emergency exit in case of disaster) I was in the first major group to be boarded. I reached my seat (28D) and got myself set for the journey ahead, magazine, creative zen, bottle of water, hoodie, then I waited to see if I would be lucky enough to get an empty row or at least a seat between me and 28F (the other aisle seat on the central section of the airbus A310). Unfortunately the entire row and in fact the entire aircraft filled up and the passenger to my immediate right (28E) was an above average width adult male (less wide than me but still wider than say Kate Moss).

I have never been able to sleep properly on a plane. Trans-Atlantic flights are moderately long, 7 to 8 hours, and west to east are "best" done over night so that you can sleep on the flight and be fresh in the morning when you land. Unfortunately for me that doesn't work, the planes are uncomfortable and busy. I'm a big man and although I fit relatively well into the seats, my shoulder width means I get bumped almost constantly when people walk past me. The length of my legs mean I have to leave one leg in the aisle if I want to improve my comfort level, which again causes problems. Also thanks to my shoulder width my head is mode forward than most in the seat, which means for comfort reasons I need to have a pillow behind my head for any length of flight.

OK moaning aside, the flight was pretty normal, the movies were meh (Indiana Jones 4 which sucked and Vantage Point which I'd seen with Kata in the Cinema. Although I did watch Indiana Jones 4 to see how badly they had destroyed the Indiana Jones franchise. To my mind the recent South Park episode said it better than I ever can), the food was fine (it was President's Choice Indian food) and after 8 hours of passing out for 20 minutes every hour or so, we were finally landing at Gatwick airport. I made my way from the airport to Fulham Broadway underground station where I met my mother and we made our way to Hendon where she lives.

To be continued...

Off to the UK for a week

I'm flying off to the UK today, for a week, visiting my mum for the first time in over a year.

I don't want to go but I kinda have to, I'm adamant this is the last time I'm doing it before Kata and I get married.

The last week or so has been pretty crappy, both of us dreading today's arrival, but here it is. I'm waiting for the first part of my journey to begin, air bus to Toronto Pearson airport, from there its a direct flight to London Gatwick airport and from there a couple of train journeys until I get to my mum's place.

By the time I get there I'll most likely be utterly exhausted and utterly depressed, I was last time I went back to the UK and left Kata behind, though that time it was for 2 weeks.

Anyway, just a short post to say what's happening and once I'm back I'll try and get back into writing regular posts.

Filler 3

I've been ill the last few days, so has Kata, not that its a good excuse, but I've not been in the right frame of mind to blog, although I have been in the right frame of mind to play Spore (which is a time sink and a half).

I have a few things on my mind, going back to the UK for a short period, looking for work, having to most likely get married sooner than we both considered...

So I'm gonna try and get back on the blog horse, but no promises.

Work

I'm trying to find a job, really I am. Its hard though when you're trying to find work in another country. Well it is when you go from the EU to anywhere else. The EU has an open borders and open work policy (for the most part) within the original EU countries (about 12). If you are from one of those countries you can move around amongst them, live and work there, no problems, no questions asked. Its a nice system but its one I never had to take advantage of.

I'm in Canada now and the situation is this, I want to live here, most likely for the rest of my life, I want to work here, pay my taxes to this nation and partake in all it offers whilst taking back as little as necessary (the way the government want it).

I have skills, I have a diploma in Stained Glass Production Techniques (a level 2 skilled job on the NOC list) and I speak English fluently (naturally) and I have basic French (from high school). I've never been in trouble with the Police in any country, I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, I drink responsibly and infrequently and I'm healthy.

I've absolutely fallen in love with this country and its people and all I want is the chance to give of myself to this nation. If I'd decided on this and thought about it properly I'd have applied for some kind of work visa or the skilled worker immigration, but I didn't, I was thinking only about how much I loved my new life with my darling Kata and what the future would hold.

I've applied to a number of glass companies in Ontario now, waiting to hear from most of them with regards to any interest (one did reply saying they don't do anything with stained glass, although my skill cover everything they are looking for to fill the job). I think the real reason they weren't interested is they don't want to go through the hassle of proving that the job they are trying to fill couldn't be done by a Canadian worker.

Its a bit of a catch 22 for an employer, I'm looking for someone to work for me, I can't find anyone easily and there's a foreigner wanting to do the job, but technically in Canada somewhere there's someone who can do the job. I know that's probably not the way it goes, but still, it make my side of things harder.

There is one relatively simple way for us (Kata and I) to fix things, get married. We had planned to marry next year, in June of 2009, but it looks like we may well have to bring that forward, which causes problems with getting people to come for the festivities etc, but we'll see.

So if you believe in crossing your fingers or some other superstition (prayer, stinky socks etc), do them for me getting a job some time really soon, thanks (I won't though, I'm not superstitious).

Politics

I'll start by giving and outline of my political viewpoint, how it has changed and where current leanings are.

When I was young (before voting age) I didn't care about politics, most people don't I feel. Politics and political policy are hard to grasp when you are young, you don't really care who's in charge as it never really affects you directly.

If the ruling party changes income tax, you don't get a % of your allowance taken off or added on in line with taxation (maybe parents should in order to prepare their children for the real world more).

The only time that politics actually affected me directly before voting age was when the teachers went on strike because the government weren't going to meed their pay demands, which gave us time off school, something we liked when we were young but something we dreaded as we reached exam age and a strike in the wrong place could ruin your future, or at least put a dent in your exam results.

When I started university I still wasn't of voting age, although not for long. University (or college) is a starting point for many a political career, or just a first foray into the tangled web that is politics. On the first week at university no fewer than 5 political groups were trying to persuade the fresh new faces to join their political group. If I remember correctly (it was almost 18 years ago now) the Conservatives, Labour Party, Scottish National Party, the SDP, Socialist Worker Party (oxymoron), the Communists and possibly the Green Party. I even think the Official Monster Raving Loony Party were there too, but I'm probably making that up for comic effect.

As you can imagine being thrown into this kind of political mire at a young(ish) age can do one of 2 things, turn you on or turn you off to politics. In my case it kinda turned me off and left me feeling that it didn't make much of a difference to me who was in charge as long as they left me alone. These were the days when the Westminster Parliament still ruled the entire UK without question, devolved power to the Home Nations didn't come to fruition until the mid 1990s when New Labour swept to power after the fall of John Major's government.

I did flirt with Nationalism for a while, being brought up Scottish, you tend to feel that the English shouldn't be allowed to run your life (as they pretty much did until the Scottish Parliament was reinstalled) and that independence from the United Kingdom wasn't a bad idea. I also flirted with Conservatism for a brief and lamentable period, although no more than to vote for them in 1 general election and later rue that I had ever done something so silly.

So let's push forward to today. There isn't really a political party for me, I'm Liberal in my political leanings, but at the same time I'm environmentally concerned and I tend to like government to keep out of much of my business, but I also don't think the "free market" should be allowed to have its own way either. So basically, I'm a Liberal, Libertarian, Socialist Green, and of course I'm an atheist, so nope, no one political party for me.

Now I don't find that this attitude has caused me any problems, I can find my way through life with these attitudes without having to subscribe to any one party. Sure I have to hope that my fellow citizens don't mess things up by voting a radical party into power, which for the most part they don't, but sometimes even the centrist parties (as most of them have become) can have some idiotic policies that they wish to push.

Therein lies the problem, no matter how I feel, my 1 vote carries no weight, not even in a proportional representation system will my single vote carry any sway, at least not in a realistic government, one with more than 2 parties you can vote for (I'll come back to this point later). In a PR system even if the 2 main parties are 1 vote apart, that 1 vote will make no difference as they will both still receive the same amount of seats in the parliament and an inevitable coalition government will be formed (see the Israeli Knesset for proof, only once in all its years did they almost have a majority party in power).

Let me return to my comment on a realist government. In most of the democratic world, the members of parliament and the political parties of the country are numerous, they usually number more than 5 parties, of which 3 are relatively powerful and the rest are lesser parties with often very specific agendas. The main exception is in the USA where basically 2 parties rule the country, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Now technically speaking if the elections were held using PR, then every single vote would count without a doubt, especially in the Presidential election, but the system is a complete mess. In the USA they use the Electoral College system, which is an extremely poor way to elect the single most powerful person in the country, but hey, they think it works, so whatever...

The Presidential election is almost upon us, as is the Canadian general election. I know I should care about who will rule over Canada, but to be perfectly honest, the Canadian Premiere is far less important than the next President of the USA even in Canada. I guess one day I'll pay attention to the political situation here, but not yet.

With regards to the US Presidential choices, I find it hard not to choose one candidate that I'd wish with all my being to become President, no surprises for guessing that its Barak Obama. I'll give you a few reasons; 1, he's young and seems to be highly principled and highly motivated to try and change the USA for better, both domestically and Globally, 2, he's not George Bush (the single worst President in living memory for US foreign relations and domestic prosperity) 3, he's not 71 years old unlike John McCain, 4. his Vice Presidential nominee isn't some nut job from Alaska, and finally 5, he's a really well educated and intelligent man who genuinely appears to give a damn about someone other than himself (unlike Bush and McCain).

I am currently living in hope that the American people as a whole won't make another hideous mistake and that they elect Barak Obama to the Presidency, because I've no idea what will happen to the world if they elect a Republican demagogue like McCain after 8 years of the demagogue buffoon George W Bush.

Here's hoping come January 20th (stupid date to swear in a President) its Barak Obama and Joe Biden who are on the dais and not John McCain and Sarah Palin....