Wow, I can’t believe it is March already. All things considered the winter in Winnipeg has been relatively mild (well compared with the never ending Arctic conditions last year) and there has been quite little snowfall, meaning less digging of cars out of snow drifts on a near daily basis. That said it was -27C today but single digit temperatures are on the way and will be here in time for St Patrick’s Day (I hope). Before winter totally disappears, a spot of skijoring is on the cards for this weekend. Akin to water skiing it involves a skier or snowboarder being pulled by a horse and originates as a form of winter transport. Today is it a competitive sport with a series of jumps, however bravery of our participants may not extend to such obstacles on the first try at least, though it is sure to be an entertaining morning none the less.

In the last few weeks I have been out to Alberta again for some meetings in Calgary and to fit in a quick visit to Edmonton. To go from -29C in Winnipeg one day to +15C in Calgary the next was a (welcome) shock to the system but it is still hard to fathom the huge differences that exist between provinces and how Manitoba sadly gets the cold end of the stick. Said visit to Edmonton was originally planned to participate in the Birkie Cross Country Ski Festival which entails a 31 km race, however a lack of snow hampered our training efforts in the run up to the event so we wisely (or perhaps lazily) decided that a shorter jaunt around a local park would be much more civilised. That did, however, allow us to revert indoors to cheer on the boys in green as they took on France in the Six Nations. Happily, they delivered.

Not alone

I have to admit that since I have moved to Canada I have hardly met any Irish people here apart from one or two classmates who also made the leap across the pond. Despite reading countless articles in newspapers both here and at home about the number of Irish people moving to Canada I seem to never meet them. That was until the last few months. In going to see matches you see the array of county GAA jerseys on show and realise how many people from all parts of Ireland now call Canada home. Most came here for similar reasons to me, citing job opportunities and a chance to see the world as their main motivators but I am quite surprised how many intend to make Canada their permanent address (for the vast majority though, Ireland will always be home). It is also quite amusing to listen to the accents now peppered with Canadianisms and I can see that the comments my family made at Christmas about my sounding “American” could be applied to a lot of us over here. Something they no doubt get teased about when they go home too. I knew I was not alone.