The Pride of a Nation

            Ok, this is officially my very first blog (queue the bubbly), so take it with a pinch of salt and try to be understanding that this is all new to me, I am merely a tool, probably in more ways than one, but a tool nonetheless designed to take the weird and wonderful opinions I have spinning through my head and post them on this blog for your enjoyment (I use the word enjoyment loosely).

            So…‘I’m on a bus,’ not quite T-Pain and Lonely Island but I’ll get there. The bus by the way has free wi-fi on it 'modern technology ey? I am reminded of the things that I have experienced during the past 10 months. I mean, some women have been pregnant during the months I have been touring North America, and now they sit with a beautifully dull and slightly chubby baby, and while the baby decides where on his mummy he wants to be sick next, I am thinking about Canadians, whilst sitting on a bus heading towards the United States capitol, namely, Washington D.C.

            I have lived in Vancouver Canada since January, and only moved away at the start of October to begin my journey across the country. I say ‘my,’ but I do it hand in hand with my beloved companion and sidekick Rheannon Llewellyn… And by sidekick I do of course mean fiancée whom without I would be lost, not only because she is my soul mate, but because she always carries the tickets… Along the way we have seen much, a land of plentiful things which is occupied by amazing people, I would name them but I fear there would be some misspelling, so I won’t. Places we have been include, Vancouver Island, San Francisco, Banff, Whistler, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Toronto, New York City and most recently Philadelphia, and like I said we are currently heading towards Washington D.C as I write this. We do intend to do more and that is all to come, places like Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa await us in the near future.

            But that’s enough of formalities, getting to know my amazing life of living out a suitcase is good and all but I have more pressing issues on my mind. I want to say how in Canada there was an interesting sense of patriotism, towards the obvious of course, but also for Her Majesty the Queen. Dare I say even more so than back home in the United Kingdom, maybe it was because I’m British and automatically when Canadians find this out they mention the royals and the bloody wedding! So obviously this would spark a conversation about the monarchy and how they see it, but I think it’s more. At least from the people I got to know and love there was a definite sense of pride from still being associated with the crown. I mean as a country Canada doesn’t have much of a history, the country itself was founded in the year 1867, on the 1^st of July, and only in 1982 did it become independent from the United Kingdom. Which is a bit blah when you consider England became a unified state in AD927 and has evidence going back all the way to the 5^th century. So perhaps Canadians do feel a sense of belonging to British history, simply for a lack of one for themselves. Perhaps belonging is the wrong word, more of a pride in our history, and I just hope that when I do eventually arrive back in Blighty, I won’t feel that it is missing.

Dan