London via my iPhone: Canada Day - July 1, 2011 @ Trafalgar Square

Canada Day - July 1, 2011

I must admit that after living in Canada for almost 13 years, I never celebrated Canada Day as I did here in London @ Trafalgar Square!

O2 truck was there taking pictures and face-painting all the Canadian fans

Fancy practicing some hockey?

Québec Stand showing what La Belle Provence has to offer...

British Columbia was present as well...

The Mounties horse ...

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

View of the fountain (earlier in the afternoon)

Trafalgar Cup Street Hockey Tournament

Passing the puck...

More crowded with people cheering at the hockey game

Poutine is readily-available across Canada, but it only really tastes good in Quebec

(specially after the party hours :)

Warwick Quebec is the place where poutine was invented, back in 1957 by restaurateur Fernand Lachance, who died recently at the ripe old age of 86, leaving not only his calorific imprint but also some serious questions about the low-carb fuss.

Warwick still produces the very best cheese curds which are shipped all over Canada.

The best gravy also comes from Warwick. Theirs is totally vegan and must be dark brown and just the right consistency when served.

Poutine is Acadian slang for mushy mess and is best described as a heart attack in a bowl.

By the way, there is a proper way to pronounce poutine, and it's not 'poo-teen'.

The phonetic pronunciation is 'peu-tin'

The recipe calls for French fries (known as chips in the UK) with gravy and cheese curds.

For those of you who are not familiar with what a cheese curds is a very special rubbery white cheese which melts perfectly well for Poutine.

This is NOT a Poutine as The Cheese - is the most important part of a good poutine. It must be FRESH white cheese CURDS. These curds have a taste and texture very different than actual cheddar cheese. The cheese curds will actually squeak in your teeth as you bite into them.

This want to be Poutine had what I believe to be cheddar cheese and not the real cheese curds nor the authentic gravy so...

I opted to have the curly fries which were to die for...

(yes, must not forget how passionate I am about potatoes)

Bison Burger Stand

Molson Canadian Beer stand

Tim Hortons

A little bit of history:

It was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, by the Canadian hockey player Tim Horton and Jim Charade.

Selling coffee and donuts but, the

line was too long and so I did not have the French Vanilla Cappuccino I loved while living in Canada from them...

The way people enjoyed their food (picnic style) well prepared for the sunny Canada day London had!

Canadian flags all around Trafalgar Square

Another one...

No idea of how many Canadians are in London

Best Canada Day outfits...

Canadians better known as the Habs & the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey players are archenemies on the field but here I found these two wearing the teams' shirts walking together on stilts

(now this is a sight not to be seen in Canada)

I fell in love with the "volunteer's t-shirt". So I approached the Volunteer stand and asked if they had an extra x-small t-shirt they could give me as my first Canada Day in London souvenir.

"No, they are counted and are only for the volunteers" the Volunteer gentlemen replied.

"How can I become a Volunteer" I asked
"You need to apply on the website and it will have to be for next year" Volunteer replied

"There must be something I can help or assist with today and not have to wait for next year" I said

So, to make a long story short yes, I got my Volunteer t-shirt and my task was to fill out 5 sheets from top to bottom with name, surname, email address, phone number, nationality, residence place, and how they heard about Canada day @ Trafalgar Square of people attending the celebration. A lot to fill out...but the good thing was that by giving their info they could win a trip for 2 to Toronto to see the Juno Awards.

It was fun and I had a good laugh and met a lot of Canadians while doing my job as a volunteer ;)

Me with my t-shirt...

One of the guys filling in his info ...

The funniest one...

Loved the t-shirt of this one...

Done my volunteering job now it is off to continue celebrating Canada Day...

Beer competition...

People getting ready for the concerts

Opening with Justin Hines singing the Canadian National Anthem

Great Plains - a First Nation’s dance company representing Saskatchewan’s Aboriginal groups including Cree, Dakota, Nakota, Dene, Saulteux, and Ojibway nations. Developed from their predecessors the Prairie Indian Dance Troupe