Winter Wonderland

My company have put us up in an apartment in the centre of town for the first month to allow us to find our way around and get settled. Sarah wasn't so keen on the apartment when we found out it was on the 14th floor. Apparently everything in the flat is sliding towards the windows! The location is great as it's only a ten minute walk from the main shopping centres, the parliament and riverside. We've got a pool, sauna, laundrette, gym and hairdressers in the apartment complex. All very nice, but I hope we don't get used to it as it's only for a month.

After looking around the apartment we walked into town past tattoo and body piercing parlours, teenage grunge clothing shops and convenience stores. Hmm, we're in that part of town. In town we found the Winterlude festival, Ottawa's celebration of all things icy and white. As well as skating along the city canal we saw ice sculptures being carved (see photos). There are snow sculptures and a snow maze across the Ottawa river in Quebec, but we didn't get round to see them.

We got a hot-dog from a street vendor and wandered back to the apartment. I finally got Sarah to move from the doorway and to sit on the settee and we tried to watch a bit of tv. I say tried because there are a zillion channels here and you need a PhD to work out the tv guide. We tried flicking through the channels but with so many you never feel like you've found the one you want to watch. To make things worse the tv channel numbers are different depending on which region of the city and country you are in. After a frustrating hour we gave up and went to bed after a knackering day...