Oh, Canada

On July 1st, 1867 a loose collection of British and French colonies joined to form the Dominion of Canada. I was personally responsible.

There's supposed to be thirteen, I don't know. Not including the Canada one obviously. Maybe they don't have the newest province (Nunavut) yet? How many do you see?

Every July 1st they celebrate my contribution by holding a massive street party in Ottawa. The place was nuts. Downtown Ottawa is packed full of people, shoulder to shoulder, watching horse displays, air shows, street theatre, acrobats, and bands. It was pretty amazing.

One of the main streets in Ottawa.

Aflame with patriotic spirit, we slept until lunchtime. But we did manage to catch an amazing diving show... the final act was a woman diving from over 30m into a 10' deep pool.

These people all died instantly.

Canadians get pretty fired up... drunken gangs of teenage boys chanting "Can-ah-DA! Can-ah-DA!", temporary tatooes, red and white clothing, the works.


We went to a barbeque at Peter and Jenny's for the evening, and feasted like fuedal rulers. Jenny had us playing "Pin the tail on the beaver" and that kind of thing; Elli won a pair of red and white oven mitts (for some reason, both left handed), which are actually very useful as we don't have any! It was great to see everyone again, we've been busy with work and haven't been around in a while.

Elli gettin her Canada on with Chrissy.

We eventually staggered away, having eaten and drunken too much, back downtown to watch the fireworks. They were pretty amazing against the backdrop of the river and the gothic sandstone parliament buildings. After that, we managed to meet up with Mische and his friend John and drink into the wee hours.

All in all, a pretty enjoyable day. Following are the words to the Canadian national anthem, which we just learnt (err... sorta).

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.