Day 4

 I had a pretty good day today!

We started by going on a walking tour, which I found interesting. There are many random sections of wall round Exeter, some of which you’re allowed to walk on. I also learned about the descendants of a tried ‘witch’ in Exeter, who are currently trying to get their ancestor a pardon. It stands on really interesting legal ground - if the court decides to pardon the ancestor, the descendants can sue for damages, which is stupid because this happened years upon years upon years ago; but if they dismiss the suit on literally any grounds, they may be accused of implying that the ancestor actually was a witch. However it goes, it’ll be absolutely wild to watch, especially because it’s not one of those open-and-shut cases where if you do it right, you can be in and out in thirty minutes but one where every possible answer opens another can of worms - the only real way to win for the courts is not to play (keeping the case out of court.)

I also went into the Exeter tunnels. Mom got a bit claustrophobic and left early, but me and my dad learned a lot.

All in all, I had fun.

Day 3

 I am so beyond tired again, but I have to do this.

I had a great time at the games today. Canada won the first game, and the second was a chaotic mess that ended in a Fijian victory, somehow. I got a pointy foam finger and a pinwheel, and wore the Canadian flag like a cape most of the day.

We had supper at the Ship Inn, which was pretty good. They put on the England-Australia game, and then a documentary about stoats. I don’t know why they thought that rugby fans would like stoats, but by god they were right

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Day 2

 Hey all! ‘Tis I, Gwen, aka the kid from the title.

Today was our second day of travel and I am so beat. I didn’t really have the downtime yesterday to post, so the TLDR is that there was six hours of plane, a half hour of bus, and then ten hours of sleep.

Today, we took the train from London to Exeter. It was some three hours, and not much happened. We checked into the hotel and then wandered out to the RWWC Fanzone, which was incredibly underwhelming. Me and Mom played chess at a really big chess set until Mom forfeited and Dad pointed out that I had been in check for dozens of moves and no one had noticed. I’m a disgrace to my chess club!

Then, we went to a pub for supper, which is where I am now.

The Internet is forever.

Well.

So - this blog was lots of fun as we lived in Norway & Malta 2008-2011, and I thought I was going to restart it in May 2013, when it looked like we were taking an on-ramp to a move to Québec. 

I guess that didn't really happen! The world has moved on - Our move to Quebec City never quite fully bloomed (I worked for Davie for about a year, living part-time in Quebec City, and then returned full-time to Halifax. Kes & Gwen visited, but never stopped being based in Nova Scotia).

We've lived in Halifax ever since, and though life has been varied and interesting, we haven't had many grand adventures of the "Kes & Ashley Go Places" variety. Hence, no blogging.

This September, though, we're undertaking a really exciting 4-week trip to England, Italy, and a wee bit of Germany, so Kes thought to check whether our blog was still live. Lo & behold, it is (hence the title of this post)! So - here we go with a re-animation.

AND... we now have a 13-year-old in our household, who's a really great writer, so the plan is that all three of us will be sharing our experiences here, over the next little while. We get on the plane to London on Thursday (September 4th).

See you soon, as we head off to the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 in England (Exeter, Bristol, London), as well as Italy (Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice), and Germany (the castle-y bit). A really basic version of our plan is in the image below.

Cheers,

Ashley

Next Adventure - Quebec!

So - here we go again!

This is Ashley writing, and this will be a bit odd, perhaps, because the blog's URL, of course is "mortonsabroad.blogspot.ca", implying that we would be "abroad" when we wrote about things here. However, the title (see there, at the top of the page) talks about us "Go(ing) Places" - and that's about to happen again.

I have accepted a position at the Chantier Davie, the Davie shipyard in Lévis, Quebec. I start on Monday (the 27th of May). I can only imagine that this will be another fascinating adventure. It is certainly a comment on the state of things in Canada that I feel as much trepidation (probably more) about a move to a city within my own country as I did about two different moves to foreign countries. However, there has been a significant enough barrier built up between the unilingually-French parts of our country and we Anglos that it certainly is a challenge. Clearly, though, one that we're excited to take on.

In case you missed it, in between the last blog post and this one, there has been an addition to our family. Gwen, our daughter, is now 16 months old, and is awesome. However, I won't be writing much about her here - we've decided that it will be her decision about how much or how little of her life gets lived on the Internet - and she can't realistically make that call, yet, when the most complex conversation we currently get is a response to "What does a cow say?" (The answer, as you might have guessed, is "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!") We may blog a bit about how child-care works in Quebec, if that becomes relevant (we're not pretending that we don't *have* a child), but not about day-to-day occurrences in her life.

The shipyard is actually in the former town of Lauzon (Quebec has had a lot of municipal mergers over the last few decades, so that became "Lévis-Lauzon", and then just "Lévis" over successive rounds of mergers.) That's on the South side of the St. Lawrence River, but part of the broader metro Quebec City area. I think that it's most likely that we'll live in Quebec City proper, however. It's got most of the arts & sports facilities, has the kind of density that can support a decent transit network, and is where the University (Laval University) is located.

If we do, that will mean that my commute will include a ferry every morning and evening. I must admit - I'm kind of excited about that prospect. During my university time, I made one really big backpacking trip that ended in Hong Kong. I didn't have enough money to stay on Hong Kong island, so I stayed in cheap backpacker accommodations on the mainland, and took the ferry across to the island where most of the interesting things were, every day. It was then that I realized how wonderful it could be to have a few moments in transit on the water every day to start (and end) your day. There are times when it will be bad, I'm sure, with delayed sailings and terrible weather. However, I think that's a bargain I'm willing to take.

The shipyard is 188 years old. If you're interested, the main website is here: www.davie.ca A (very!) brief history of the place is here: http://www.davie.ca/index.php?p=7&l=en.

There will be lots more to write about in future posts (for example: did you know that women aren't allowed to change their name to their husband's at marriage, in Quebec?). However, this is just meant to get this up and running again!

All the best,

Ashley

Back in Canada

Hi! So we're back in Canada, meaning the blog about our travel is going dormant.

Best wishes,

Working hours in Malta

Working hours in Malta....appear to be a suggestion at most offices. This photo was taken at 09:30 in valetta on a workday. Not a good photo but note there are still significant numbers of suits and briefcases. Definitely too early for shoppers and tourists... I happened to be changing buses on my way to a meeting when I noticed how many people appeared to be on their way to work. No wonder whenever we interview people my office makes a point of stating 'the office hours are 08:30 to 18:00'. What I don't understand is how everyone else seems to arrive after me and still leave before me..and heaven forbid you try to schedule a meeting with anyone before 1000 or after 1500..must get back to Canada before I start getting too lax...