One week on....

...and I have acquired an office, a parking space and three projects while Richard has acquired a wii, a road atlas and two new pairs of shoes.

At the weekend we drove to Whitemud park which is one part of the huge river valley park through Edmonton. We went for a short walk along one of the many trails and it looks like a great place for walking and cycling once we get bikes. Didn't see much wildlife though other than a squirrel, various foreign birds (feathered variety before you snigger) and lesser spotted Canadian joggers.

We also did a couple of dry runs to my new work so that I could get used to the route on a quiet Sunday afternoon with Richard beside me providing moral support. I felt ready to deal with anything the monday morning rush hour would throw at me.

What rush hour? I left at 7.30 on Monday morning and arrived by 7.50 with only the smallest amount of queuing at each intersection. What joy. I have my own office (but before you get delusions of my grandeur, all companies out here are laid out with offices for the engineers and cubicles for the technicians). It's an internal one and I can only see daylight if I leave it and wander along the corridor, but it's mine. I'm going to be assisting in 3 new projects so far, a road maintenance (or rehabilitation as they call it over here!) scheme in Leduc (20 mins south of Edmonton), a road improvement scheme in Lloydminster (2.5 hours east, on the Saskatchewan border) and a LRT (tram) scheme in downtown Edmonton. However, I've spent most of the last three days filling in forms and cramming design standards and specifications so that I can hit the... er...road, running. Thrilling stuff.

While I've been out earning money, Richard has been sourcing food, credit cards and other necessities and cooking dinner. The IT job at ISL hasn't come to anything so he'll probably have a look around, when he finally gets too bored in the flat.

Only two more days to the weekend.