A pre winter mishap ...

Winter in Canada has not quite arrived yet. The first official day of winter is 21 December 2009 which is next Monday. This concerns me some what because it is already colder than anything I have ever experienced. Forecasts for the coming days indicate maximum temps of -16 degrees. Minimum temps fall as low as -24. Oh lord.

However, Joep and I are embracing it. We invested in sturdy winter coats and it is more than manageable. I still walk to work every day and I even managed to get my Christmas shopping done and make it home in one piece through a snow storm on the weekend!! This is quite a feat for someone as accident prone as I am.

In addition to managing it, we also see the funny side of it. Last week the snow started for the first time. So when the snow storm hit on Wednesday morning, Joep decided he would walk me to the office. We rugged up nice and warm and set out. The wind was blowing a gale and there was a decent amount of snow coming down. Even the Canadian’s said it was a lot so it must be true! Within minutes of leaving the house we were both in hysterics laughing. As you probably saw on the polar bear photo’s, the hoods on our coats don’t allow for much peripheral vision meaning that you have to turn your whole body to be able to see either right or left. Having a chat is therefore quite difficult. Made even more difficult by the fact that every time you turn left or right you slip on the icy roads. It is also very entertaining. Our walk took a long time due to numerous laughing breaks. 

My walk to work is broken up by the Rideau shopping mall, which provides a nice warm break from the street for a few minutes. Whilst in this mall Joep decided to turn back and leave me to walk the rest of the way alone. I don’t blame him! I made it alive and the work day went on. The walk home was not as stressful because the storm had passed so I was left to wade through snow banks without the wind knocking me over. Plus the novelty of having snow banks to wade through kept me very excited!

HOWEVER – On Thursday morning things got more interesting. I had an early presentation at work which saw me leaving the house before 7am and therefore before the sun had risen. Joep didn’t offer to walk me to work this time!

As I left the front door I was amazed at the amount of snow that had fallen in 24 hours! It’s deceiving though because all the snow from the roads gets plowed to the sides of the roads so it seems like there is more than there is. Either way, as I reached the first crossing on my walk to work I had to climb up a snow bank to get onto the road. It was only a meter high however when I reached the top I lost my footing and slid down the other side to the road below. It was dark. No one saw me. So I gathered myself up and hit the road again.

I reached the mall without further incident and basked in the warmth for a few blissful minutes before exiting the mall on the other side and preparing to cross a relatively large, busy intersection. As I exited the mall I saw that the pedestrian light was about to go red and, being the impatient soul that I am, I decided to rush across the street. Alas, I had forgotten that I was wearing uggs and that the road was slick with ice and snow.

I was reminded of these facts very quickly.

I set one foot hastily onto the road and was about to dash across when I lost my footing. I slipped and slid with my arms waving in the air loudly proclaiming ‘WOOOAAAAAHHHH!’ for a meter or so until I was nicely positioned right in the middle of the traffic waiting to drive. Then, just as I reached a central point, both of my legs rose gracefully into the air and I fell with a not so graceful thud onto my butt in the middle of the intersection.

I was mortified. Which of course made me start laughing. Which then made it very difficult to stand up again. I tried to stand up a couple of times but my feet kept slipping out from under me and every time this happened I would laugh a bit harder than the time before. My ability to stand up was further impeded by the fact that I was wearing about 15 layers of clothing. I was like a pregnant woman trying to get out of an overstuffed armchair whilst holding a giant handbag with a laptop and a lot of pens in it all of which were rolling across the road. Eventually I had to roll myself around a bit in order to manoeuvre my legs under me before I could stand up. Disaster.

After an obscene amount of time I finally made it back onto my feet and sheepishly slid across the road. By this time, the light for the waiting traffic was well and truly green and changed to amber within seconds. I would like to give a huge shout out to all Canadian’s at this point in time. Not a single soul honked their horn at me. They all waited patiently without getting annoyed. I am very impressed and grateful because I was embarrassed enough without anyone drawing more attention to me. 

I think things could get pretty interesting here in Canada when winter hits for real … Canadian’s are hardcore. I am a very big fan of them AND of their hilarious snowy, unbelievably cold winters. For now.