New Scotland

"I was Out East last weekend," a colleague said on Monday. I must have looked puzzled, because she clarified that she had visited a friend in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Yesterday I myself flew even Easter, to Halifax, in Nova Scotia, for a conference (the Canadian Pain Society, since you ask). "Here I am in New Scotland," I thought as the plane landed. I listened for bagpipes at the airport.

There weren't any (thank goodness) but the hotel's bellhops are wearing kilts, which is particularly impressive given how cold it is. Just like Old Scotland.

Canadians in kilts

A few of my favourite things in Halifax (other than the excellent conference presentations): the gorgeous sparkling Central Library with its green roof and nice cafe; Propeller craft brewery; water, water, everywhere.

You can take the boy out of England, but...

I know that on some of these high-falutin, fancy-type blogs, 'guest bloggers' occasionally make an appearance. When opportunity knocked, I decided to take advantage and try some of that myself. My son Gabriel has agreed to share what he wrote for his grade 9 geography class, in which the pupils are studying environmental conservation. Gabriel decided to jazz up his contribution a little; I do hope his teacher appreciates the effort.

Water Usage:

-The average Canadian uses 10,000 litres of water each month (which is approximately 41,666.67 cups of tea).

-A ten minute shower can use up to 300 litres of water. A two minute shower, therefore, can use up to 60 litres (which is approximately 250 cups of tea)

-Up to 30% of water in pipes is lost from leakages (approximately 0% of that is tea).

-An average adult male needs to drink around 3 litres of water a day to be healthy, while an adult female needs around 2.2 litres a day. Most Canadians drink up to 5 litres a day (approximately 20.8 cups of tea)

-Canada ranks second among countries in the highest daily water usage per-capita, using about 149,600,000,000 litres a day, or 149 billion, 600 million litres (623 trillion, 333 million, 333 thousand, 333 cups of tea)

-Around 9% of Canada is water. Exactly 0% of Canada is tea.