My Canadian Experience
Report for May to July 2023

KEY Details About Canada's Government Pensions in 2023: CPP, OAS & GIS | Retirement in Canada

Canada has already had a record year for wild fires and we're not finished yet.  It has also impacted the USA and Europe.

Here where I live we have not had any issues but there again this bit of South West Ontario does seem to avoid extremes of weather.  1 hours drive around Chatham and you're into extremes of weather.

This period has seen me watching a lot of YouTube videos about Jordon Paterson, the Canadian clinical psychologist. I added a page to my Electric Canadian site to show two of his videos which you might find interesting.  One of them is about how to make marriage work and how to look after your children and the other is about how to write essays.  I found both very interesting so wanted to share them with my site visitors.

On the subject of YouTube I have taken out a Premium membership so I can watch them advert free. I did drop Netflix as I found I just wasn't watching any films.  In fact I now hardly ever turn on the TV these days other than to watch the news.  However I do find a lot of bias in the news reports so I now pick my news sites and mailing lists that I feel more confident with.

I used to always read the Conrad Black column but he's now behind a pay wall so it's been some time since I last read anything from him.

I got my Covid booster shot and I also took delivery of a new blood glucose meter, the Freestyle Libre 2.  I haven't yet used it as I still have 3 weeks of the old style patches left to use.  This is the meter where you stick a patch on the back of your arm and the meter just needs to go near it to read it.  Lots better than pricking your finger for sure.  The current meter is quite accurate but note that when you compare the meters 90 day reading to the official A1C reading I get when I get my 3 monthly blood work done, it's usually up by 0.5.

I do have some issues with the current regime in that I no longer take metformin as they said it was causing problems so now have another brand I'm taking. They have stopped providing me with the short acting insulin but have persuaded them to let me use it when needed.  It's just that it can happen that I go quite high and need to bring things down a bit.  the new long acting insulin is just meant to be taken once a day so can't really be used for fine control.

Have also lost 15 pounds in weight as I've been eating less and am now back under 200lbs at long last.  I'm aiming to get to 180lbs at least by the end of the year and perhaps a little better.

I'm still getting home deliveries of groceries but have been heading out to do some special shopping such as going to Pardoes on Lake Eire where I pick up some local fruit and vegetables also going to Fricks, the local fish and chip restaurant and also the local British store to get some Irish sausages and the occasional Scotch pie and black pudding.

I really wish I could get some small pork pies such as I used to get in Tesco back in the UK.  You can get these in Canada but they really aren't very good.  I still order some small tins of Ox Tongue from the UK as you simply can't get Ox Tongue in Canada.

My new advertising company has come up trumps and have managed to make that extra $100  I needed so that's good.

I also note that MyHeritage has changed my default advert to search for "Scottish Records" where is used to just be MyHeritage so that's likely better for my Electric Scotland web site.

New neighbours all around me. Across the road I have a family with kids and I noted a couple being shown the central flat.  Across the road on the side I have a couple but I think they are moving back to Nova Scotia. I hardly ever see my longtime neighbours on the other side of the house.  They seem to have three kids which are a bit noisy but just during the day when they are on holiday so not bad really.