Souvenirs - Burlington, Ontario, Canada

I was browsing through the dollar store when I came across this little bit of Canadiana. For those tourists who want to take home a token to toss in their junk drawer, here's quite a collection: socks, hacky sacks, key chains, pens, flags. My personal favourite is that tamborine-like thing with the feathers and the picture of a first-nations man (I think that's the politically correct term, though this thing is hardly PC anyway). If there's something that does a worse job of representing the culture I grew up in, I challenge anyone to find it. You're it, Carol!

Statue- Burlington, Ontario, Canada

This sailor is close to the waterfront, and is part of a World War II Navy Memorial. It has flags and wreaths and a list of names on it and everything. Elsewhere, we have another statue of a soldier which also has a list of names (but I don't have a pic of that one). The names are all of dead people, which is kind of sad, but at least this guy has a nice view.

Statue - Glasgow, Scotland

In front of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall stands this statue of Donald Dewar, the first First Minister of Scotland. After the creation of the Scottish Parliment in 1999, he was the first person to hold the post. This statue, located at the top of Buchanan Street, was unveiled in May 2002 by then Prime Minister Tony Blair. You probably can't make it out from the photo, but in keeping with his famous unkempt appearance, it shows Dewar wearing a slightly crushed jacket.
A little piece of trivia: the statue was later taken down and re-erected on a 6 foot high plinth to protect it - not from malicious vandalism but a Glaswegian cultural trend of putting orange traffic cones on the statues head! Ironically this is considered a gesture of respect by many in the city as most of the cities statues have found themselves wearing the familiar orange cones!

Construction - Glasgow, Scotland

Ok ok ok ok ok... apologies for the delay. :'(
I'm back! We don't have a construction saying here, but there is a noticeable increase in the amount of construction taking place in March every year. Why, I hear you ask? Well, it's the end of the financial year and there is a sudden need to spend any unspent budget. *lol* It's true!
The colour of choice here is usually red, white and blue. The first sign of construction (or road works as we call it here) is the red triangle with the man digging (or as my Mum always says - putting up his umbrella!)

***Update***

A wee update for all you International Tag readers out there...

Petrol in my little corner of Scotland has now reached a staggering 115.9 pence per litre!!! OMG!!! That's an increase of 21p (or 22%) since I posted this image! Jen, that makes it now 2.30 dollars in your currency. :P

Construction - Burlington, Ontario, Canada

There's an old Canadian saying: "We don't have four seasons, we have two: winter and construction." So now that the snow's been all melted for a while, it's time for workers to start digging holes in the middle of the road for no apparent reason (I'm sure they have a reason, it just isn't apparent). Anyway, orange is our colour of choice for construction signs. It prevents people from crashing into roadworkers, and lets everybody know that, yes, you will be caught in traffic today. You're it, Carol!

Traditional Drink - Ontario, Canada

Beer is the best I could come up with. I hate beer, personally, so rather than buying some I just snuck up to the bar while we were at a family gathering and snapped a picture, all covert and spy-like. As you can see, the beer on the left is even called Canadian, Molson Canadian to be exact. For a while they had this highly patriotic ad campaign which consisted of an average-looking Canadian guy going up on stage in a movie theatre and reciting the following:

Hey, I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader....I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dogsled....and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I'm certain they're really really nice. I have a Prime Minister, not a president. I speak English and French, not American. And I pronounce it 'about', not 'a boot'. I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack. I believe in peace keeping, not policing, diversity, not assimilation, and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal. A toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced 'zed' not 'zee', 'zed'!!!! Canada is the second largest landmass! The first nation of hockey! and the best part of North America. My name is Joe!! And I am Canadian!!!

There were all kinds of parodies of this. (It's funnier if you're Canadian). In case you're wondering, Molson (makers of Canadian and Molson Ex on the right) is brewed in Montreal, Quebec and Labatt Blue is brewed in London, Ontario. Coors is American, so just pretend it's not there.