PaoloSmythe

hahahaaa i am defo showing the missus this thread.

we know about the mountains, we also know about the rain soaked cities.... and the smell of cow shit everywhere near calgary......

we have been out to BC / alberta for a few weeks on several occasions and tried to live 'like the locals'... but this is easier said than done over such brief periods and more often than not, in a mountain resort.

my missus, who's from the mediterranean would go bonkers i think if she couldn't be certain of a hot summer (i can live without to be honest) and so a desert lake (of all things) is perfetto!

cheers mate. i am sure to bother you with more Q's soon.... such as do you have to pay for TV licenses?

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true_richard

ahahahahahaha pay for tv licenses - only the uk has invented such a thing as far as i know. people just pay their cable provider for whatever package of channels they want, or bundle their cable, phone & internet with one company for one lower package price. or get a satellite dish and pay them... or don't (although those with free satellite will lose it next year when signal types change to digital, or so i was told.)

if we had to pay for tv licences i'd start a vancouver tv party & start pitching the things off a ship into the harbour.

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PaoloSmythe

honestly, the TV licensing laws are one of my pet hates. it is infuritating!

for those who do not know.... back in the good old days of one maybe two black and white, grainy TV channels which would air from about 5 pm to 10pm, the BBC was publicly funded; ie you paid a tax!

now.... you have a gazillion channels from the world over, but to watch any of them, you have to pay the BBC this tax still (which is £135 per year).

it is worth noting that the BBC sells their programming the world over to people who do not have to pay tax to watch their programs. the BBC makes a huge profit from this, and yet, we still have to pay tax.

because of the presumption that everyone watches TV, if your address has no license registered to it; the BBC are allowed to assume you are watching their shows without a license and thus, you are a criminal. to this end, they send out letters which closely look like and are worded in accordance to those letters sent out as acourt summons!

even if you announce that you do not watch TV, you are pestered every 6 months by the license people, who request permission to enter you home to check for the presence of a TV or anything similar. if you say no, then you really do get a summons.

one wonders what would happen if a private cable / satellite TV provider / programmer tried such aggressive and out right threatening 'sales' tactics.

it is a disgrace. yay canada!

rant ends.

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mpdsnowman

That is the classic example of big brother in action. I would love that job...knock, knock, whos there...BBC(Big Brother Censorship). I need to come in and just make sure you are not watching TV

Whats that!!!! a bong!!!! Dont worry, thats not my department

But honestly what these cable/dish network/satalites charge is just as greedy as the bbc...which by the way I was always a BIG fan of the bbc radio network. We used to pick it up on some secondary short wave channels

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M P D S N O W M A N

Penguin

Yo

I hope to move to Vancouver soon. Actually I have to visit first, but people tell me if I go there I might not come back. Haha.

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true_richard

it's true.

i may not be financially wealthy, but you simply can't beat the richness of our surroundings here! just the other day i was talking to a buddy on the phone the other day and i literally burst out laughing at how awesome it is to live here when our biggest dilemma is weather to go mountain biking, kiteboarding, or snowboarding on our next after work trip out for some fun. aaaaaah, vancouver. 8)

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Penguin

WORD!!!

I don't need to be financially well off, as long as I can snowboard I'd be happy.

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PaoloSmythe

if by being able to snowboard, you would include the ability to pay rent, eat food, buy lift tix etc.... then in 'couver or whistler or in all places in between, being able to snowboard and being 'well off' are one and the same thing!

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true_richard

ah yes & no... sure it's an expensive city, but you don't need to earn the kind of money it takes to buy a house here in order to live here and enjoy the place.

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PaoloSmythe

well living in london for the past decade plus.... i am hoping a move to counver will put me on easy street! (fat chance but still....)

so what the latest news from V?

do you think an english accent would do me any favours with the locals? if so, should i go for an upper crust, queen's accent or salt of the earth mockney cockney?

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