That’s not a good number. We’re supposed to be trying to reduce the amount of CO₂ we pump into the atmosphere, not create more.

So today, I offset my flights’ carbon emissions. British Airways has a link with an organisation called Climate Care, which funds projects to create sustainable energy. It works out how much a tonne of CO₂ costs to offset, and the conscientious flyer pays. And they give you a nice certificate to file and prove your green credentials.

Anyway, now I feel green. So would it please stop raining?

There are some good reasons (well, reasons, anyway): I’ve been very busy. I’ve just finished working twelve days straight at Enzyme (lots of overtime pay – yay!); I’m still trying to write two essays before returning to Durham; I’ve been working on various projects for the JCR; I’ve discovered Weeds, and have promptly watched all 26 episodes; and I’ve been teaching myself how my lovely gorgeous new MacBook works.

But here is, at the very least, a brief update. First things first, thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes. Strangely, being 21 doesn’t feel much different to being 20. There’s nothing (I think) that I can do here that I couldn’t before (I can’t stand for the Canadian parliament anyway).

This weekend is Labour Day weekend, so there’s no work on Monday – woo – so I’ve taken myself off to Quebec City to do some sightseeing (I’m blogging this using the hotel’s free Wi-Fi). It’s a bit of a strange city, to tell the truth: it’s the capital city of the province, but Montreal has all the financial/commercial clout, so all it has to do is the governing. Quebec City is the only fortified city in North America (think York, British people), and is, I believe, a World Heritage Site. It also has the oldest stone church on this side of the world. Like York, it’s full of tourists.

On Thusday, the mayor of Quebec City, Andrée Boucher, died. She was, apparently, ridiculously popular. Her funeral was today, in the centre of Quebec City (from now on, I’m just going to type Québec – it’s shorter) – so there were huge (-er than normal) crowds, lots of important people, and a saturation of policemen. I got off the train this morning knowing nothing about this (I knew she’d died, but not about the funeral and crowds), and was a bit bemused by the fact that all the flags (and in Québec there are a lot of them) were at half-mast.

I’ll upload photos of Québec as soon as I can. And, with any luck, it won’t be another three weeks before my next blog. And I may talk about some of those things I meant to talk about…

Potter night – with thousands of crazy Canadians, at least three of whom were Little Britain fans. Gah, I can’t escape him.

Washington D.C., featuring guest appearances by Segways and iPhones.

The Bourne Ultimatum – in the running for Dafyd’s Film of the Year. Definitely the best of the three-quels we’ve had this summer.

The Simpsons Movie – 80 minutes of pure fun. Excellent.

The FrancoFolies in Montreal – the third mega-huge festival the city’s had since I’ve been in Québec.

And much, much more (well, not really). There may, possibly, be a special appearance by a cuddly little beaver I found hiding at the side of the road, if I can get my phone to work to retrieve the photos…

A reminder, too: it’s my 21st birthday on Thursday. This Thursday. That is all.

On Friday I finally got a social insurance number (this involved a rather enjoyable couple of hours out of work, so that was fun). But… both of the banks in Sainte-Adèle close at 4pm on Fridays (and, in fact, every other day of the week but Thursdays). They’re not open at all on Saturdays and Sundays. Crazy.

So today was the first chance I had to open a bank account. I stopped in at the Caisse Populaire (what we in the UK would call a Mutual, were there any left) and asked to open an account. The nice young lady on reception smiled, apologised, and said she had no appointments available before July 25th. Pfah. I want my money now.

On to the Banque Nationale, then. The receptionist there smiled, apologised, and said it would be impossible to see me before 5 o’clock. This was at 4.45. Guess with whom I opened an account…

Here, you have to pay for absolutely every service at the bank. It’s a bit strange – $1 to deposit a cheque, and so on. The bank does “packages”, where you get a certain number of transactions and whatnot for a set monthly fee. Coming from somewhere where any attempt by banks to charge you for your own money makes newspaper headlines, it takes some getting used to…

[Clicky for bigger at Flickr]

Those crazy Canadians took the word “guichet”, which can mean both “ticket window” and “wicket”, and picked the wrong translation.

Well, I found it funny, anyway.

[More of my Montreal photos at Flickr]

I’m working, as some of you may know, for Enzyme Testing Labs, a computer games QA company. I’m supposed to be testing the linguistic accuracy of games. Which means, basically, that I play computer games until I find a spelling/grammar/syntax/translation/stupid mistake, at which point I fill out a bug report, then keep going. I’ve signed quite a hefty NDA, so there’s really not a lot I can say about Enzyme, but I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that I’m the only UK English speaker there, so I get to do all the English testing. (There is an American chappy, but he doesn’t count.)

I landed at Montreal Trudeau airport at about 7.30pm local time (half-past midnight BST) on Wednesday, but didn’t actually leave the airport until 11.30 (4.30am BST) – this was because we were waiting for a German chappy who was also starting at Enzyme, and he had some immigration/work permit related problems. Anyhoo, the next day we weren’t expected in work (thank goodness), so we spent the day discovering quite how little there was to do in Sainte-Adèle. Friday was first day of work, which we spent filling out forms and getting some training in how the company works.

Yesterday (Sunday) was Saint-Jean Baptiste day, which is Québec’s national holiday. So there was a concert and firework display in the evening, which was nice, and today (Monday) is a day off, which is also nice. What’s better is that next Sunday is Canada Day (or CanaDay), so next Monday is also a day off. Paid days off, that is.

I’ve got a couple of photos of the town to upload, which I shall do shortly.

Woo.

Anyway, I thought I’d drag myself away from staring at the letterbox and post something. So here it is.

Soon (when I get round to it) I’ll write something about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (pretty awesome) and The Lord of the Rings the musical (totally bonkers, but also pretty awesome). I will, I promise.

Now, as well as changing the yellow background to white and tidying up a little (just a little – it’s now slightly easier to find what you’re looking for), they’ve added this little gem: “the average processing time for a fully completed, standard application is approximately 4 to 6 weeks.” So, double what it was four weeks ago, when I submitted my application.

Gits.

In the meantime, I have a little bit of 1990s Canadian nostalgia to keep me going, from the legen-wait for it-dary How I Met Your Mother:

I’ve done my time in Egypt (studying Arabic at the University of Alexandria), and for the last few months I’ve been trying to organise a placement/job in Québec, to improve my French. Just over a month ago, I was offered a job by Enzyme Testing Labs, proofreading computer games (that is, checking that the English used in the game is correct). I eagerly accepted the job and applied for my work permit, which is required to work in Canada.

Five weeks on, I’m due to start in Montreal on Monday. I was set to fly today. But I don’t have a work permit yet. The Canadian High Commission in London (bonus points to anyone who can find what they’re looking for on that website) has had my application, along with C$150, since 20 April. They suggest that most permits are issued within about three weeks, but that you can ask for an update on its progress after ten days. This I have done, using the email form on their website twice, and faxing them (who uses fax anymore?). No response. They have no direct email address, no telephone number, and don’t accept visitors in person.

So, I’m still sitting at home, frustrated, unable to travel to Canada to start this job until the High Commission sends me my work permit. When will that be? Who knows?