Missing Canada?

Finally I've got round to setting up a blog where I can rant on things unrelated to my work. My "work" blog originally began as a way that I could try to link being a Christian with being an economist. That still runs, and is mainly work related, hence not really the place to write all the thoughts that come across my head that I think I'd like to write on something people might even choose to read.

I do wonder about the value of setting up a blog. I can rant about the world around me to my friends, so am I just spending more time online I could be spending socialising? Or am I spending more time that I should be working? I'm also not taking much in while I do this, just ranting my own self-declared important and interesting views. Maybe I should spend this time reading? Reading my Bible even, perhaps? Or doing some work? Or finally transferring all the numbers from my old phone to my new phone? Or watching the football?

Anyhow, I thought I'd lament on missing being in Canada, since I am. I don't think I'm missing being on holiday as such. Anyone who knows my girlfriend lives in Canada will know I have a good reason to miss it. I certainly miss her a lot and miss being in the same city as her. But there wasn't just that there. I was there during the autumn, so I didn't get the freezing cold winters they get (though even in September there was at least three frosts!), but then also I didn't get the wonderful hot summers I kept being told about. There's a lot more to learn about a place than you learn in one month, and for sure the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. I think right about now it's browner over in Edmonton than here in England, and yellower in the summer, but maybe I do fancy that move away from Oxford.

I have a wonderful base in Oxford, and I've had five memorable years there. I have a great church to go to, I have many friends both in church and in the economic department, and there's no doubt I'd leave them behind. I'd have to attend a church which sung some of the most lame Christian songs I've ever heard, even despite otherwise being very biblically sound and forthright (this is Beulah Alliance church), and I'd be starting from nearly scratch in terms of friends. Would I be able to carry on doing economics? Well, I think I'd only be moving there if I got a job with a university, so yes I'd carry on doing economics. It could be pretty exciting too, and I wouldn't shut off working with people back here in Oxford, given the modern age and Skype, email, and super-fast internet connections.

Anyhow, this was all prompted by playing a track I listened to loads while out there last month, which is Mi Swing Es Tropical by Nickodemus, which is the salsa track off the recent Apple commercials. I'm sure I'll rant a lot more on this and on other things on here. Woohoo...