Observations on being in the colonies
Jun. 22nd, 2015 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abendgulesCanadians take their summer weather for granted. They have no idea how blessed they are to not have to feel like the weather is out to get you on a daily basis.
I haven't worn sunglasses this often possibly since my last visit - there's almost no point in the UK.
My demographic matches Q107 radio exactly.
Or rather...Q107 has changed to match my demographic, and stay abreast of it. When I listened to it in the 1980s it was relentlessly and exclusively hard-rock. I have no idea what that would mean now to a teenager, if it even exists now.
Today I listened to a Journey song from 1982, which makes it 30+ yrs old. If they'd played 30+ yr old music in 1983 it would have dated to early 1950s, and except for Elvis I don't think there's anyone who would have qualified for their playlist. So the target audience has definitely aged.
It's somewhat dismaying, how nostalgic and happy listening to it makes me.
White, and magnolia ('cream' or 'ecru' to the Canadians) are the new black in cars.
My mum's old car and my loaner car are both white. Everyone and their dog has a white car now, with a handful of distinctly creamy-white cars standing out in the parking lots. Wonder how they're described in the marketing bumf?
Canadians are more wired and online than when I was here last; I don't think Timmy's had wifi, for instance (though maybe it did and I just didn't need it). Even my mother has wifi, much to my surprise.
However, the options available for pay as you go phones are crap. I am pouring money upon the Canadian telecomm economy like water.
For a country with such excellent telecomms skills and services, it's mad that 50c/minute is the best I can get outside the GTA. With a phone 'based' in Oshawa, everyone I want to reach is long distance.
Tim Horton's looks more and more like McDonald's and less and less like a coffeeshop; 'breakfast sandwiches', 'lunch menus' hardly a mention of bagels on the board. Sugar syrups, coffee drinks, and smoothies, whipped *things* everywhere.
Humph, mutter mutter mutter... at least the coffee is intact, so long as you ask for a small.
I haven't worn sunglasses this often possibly since my last visit - there's almost no point in the UK.
My demographic matches Q107 radio exactly.
Or rather...Q107 has changed to match my demographic, and stay abreast of it. When I listened to it in the 1980s it was relentlessly and exclusively hard-rock. I have no idea what that would mean now to a teenager, if it even exists now.
Today I listened to a Journey song from 1982, which makes it 30+ yrs old. If they'd played 30+ yr old music in 1983 it would have dated to early 1950s, and except for Elvis I don't think there's anyone who would have qualified for their playlist. So the target audience has definitely aged.
It's somewhat dismaying, how nostalgic and happy listening to it makes me.
White, and magnolia ('cream' or 'ecru' to the Canadians) are the new black in cars.
My mum's old car and my loaner car are both white. Everyone and their dog has a white car now, with a handful of distinctly creamy-white cars standing out in the parking lots. Wonder how they're described in the marketing bumf?
Canadians are more wired and online than when I was here last; I don't think Timmy's had wifi, for instance (though maybe it did and I just didn't need it). Even my mother has wifi, much to my surprise.
However, the options available for pay as you go phones are crap. I am pouring money upon the Canadian telecomm economy like water.
For a country with such excellent telecomms skills and services, it's mad that 50c/minute is the best I can get outside the GTA. With a phone 'based' in Oshawa, everyone I want to reach is long distance.
Tim Horton's looks more and more like McDonald's and less and less like a coffeeshop; 'breakfast sandwiches', 'lunch menus' hardly a mention of bagels on the board. Sugar syrups, coffee drinks, and smoothies, whipped *things* everywhere.
Humph, mutter mutter mutter... at least the coffee is intact, so long as you ask for a small.
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no subject
Date: 2015-06-23 01:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-24 05:34 am (UTC)Yeah, wifi is everywhere.
It must be odd to come back after being away so long.
Hope all goes well in those colonies! Crikey, those provincials, eh?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-25 06:07 pm (UTC)How long are you here for? There's an event in Orono from July 1st to 5th....
*hugs you*