Student Abroad and Civil Engineering
October 3, 2025
Episode Notes
Good morning.
Good morning, Les.
How are you doing? I'm doing very well, thank you very much, and you? I'm doing awesome.
Uh, I just had some breakfast.
It was delicious, and uh now it's time to do some work.
Oh, I'm gonna work with you too, but I thought we might chat for a few minutes first.
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Hey, uh.
Did your son leave for school? Where did he, where's he going? You have a good memory.
Not Canada.
He's not going to Canada, nope.
Where is he going? That's really cool.
Uh, he's going to Britain, he's gone, he's there now.
Sheffield.
Wow.
Yeah.
It was really cool.
I, I For the first time I saw my son off at the airport.
You did not go together with, like, on the airplane together, you saw him off.
I saw him off at the airport.
And how long is he staying there? 6 months.
Wow, so half, half year studying.
That's right, he's gonna study until March, then he come back.
What's he studying there? Engineering, he's trying to become an engineer.
Wow, awesome.
It's really cool.
Um, Do you know what kind of engineering he's studying? Sure.
There's a lot of kinds of engineering.
He wants to become a civil engineer.
He wants to build infrastructure, things like roads or bridges or tunnels.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, my, my uncle, uh, was a civil engineer.
He's retired now, but that's what he did, his whole career.
OK.
Did he work? He, he worked in Canada and he also, yeah, his specialty was bridges.
OK.
And water towers.
Water towers.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I would have thought water towers aren't necessary in Canada because there's so much water everywhere.
Um, There there is, but it's not just about water, it's about, uh, uh.
Uh, Al altitude mountains.
It's about mountains.
Mhm.
OK.
So you need water needs, you need water pressure.
OK.
And so if, if the land is flat, you need Some way to get water pressure, and so what they do is they build water towers so that the water is up higher than everyone's toilets and sinks and and so on.
In other words, the water has pressure to come down through the pipes.
Correct.
And so that's OK.
Um, of course, so what I learned, um, actually, thanks to my Smith school, we lost pressure many years back.
And we contacted the the landlord, um, cause we're in a building, we're on the 8th floor of our building.
OK.
And what I learned at the time is that uh, office buildings, apartment buildings, sky rise towers and stuff, they actually have pumps that pump the water up.
OK.
Or else there would be no pressure on the higher floors.
Right.
So in that case, what had happened is the pump had gotten old and it had stopped working, so they, they installed a new pump.
Yes, but I didn't know that, but What my uncle did and what's more traditional, that's been, I mean, hundreds of years.
I mean, even going back to Roman aqueducts is the concept of putting the water up high.
OK.
So, so that you get pressure.
So yeah, my uncle built Not only in Canada, he worked for for uh Canadian firms, but he would build them in other countries as well.
Anywhere that's flat and requires water.
Oh, sounds like we're.
Saskatchewan.
Exactly, exactly.
But also, I mean, most of the time he was rebuilding or replacing an old one, so trying to make it a a better version.
Oh, OK, yes, had gotten too small for the city that was growing or had worn out, you know, over, over time with age, so.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So your son's in England for 6 months.
That's right.
And he's just experience culture shock.
Oh yeah.
That's a very fun topic to discuss.
I'd like to hear about that later when he comes back, his experience with that.
Um, how are you feeling though? Yeah.
What? How are you feeling? I'm feeling OK.
No empty nest.
A little bit of empty nest, yeah, yeah, I kind of miss him, but You, you, you take one thing out and you fill it with another.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So life is good.
Take care, don't be too sad, and uh I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun and good experience there.
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to hearing from him when he gets back.
Yeah, OK, I got back to work now.
All right, see you later.
OK.
Good morning, Les.
How are you doing? I'm doing very well, thank you very much, and you? I'm doing awesome.
Uh, I just had some breakfast.
It was delicious, and uh now it's time to do some work.
Oh, I'm gonna work with you too, but I thought we might chat for a few minutes first.
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Hey, uh.
Did your son leave for school? Where did he, where's he going? You have a good memory.
Not Canada.
He's not going to Canada, nope.
Where is he going? That's really cool.
Uh, he's going to Britain, he's gone, he's there now.
Sheffield.
Wow.
Yeah.
It was really cool.
I, I For the first time I saw my son off at the airport.
You did not go together with, like, on the airplane together, you saw him off.
I saw him off at the airport.
And how long is he staying there? 6 months.
Wow, so half, half year studying.
That's right, he's gonna study until March, then he come back.
What's he studying there? Engineering, he's trying to become an engineer.
Wow, awesome.
It's really cool.
Um, Do you know what kind of engineering he's studying? Sure.
There's a lot of kinds of engineering.
He wants to become a civil engineer.
He wants to build infrastructure, things like roads or bridges or tunnels.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, my, my uncle, uh, was a civil engineer.
He's retired now, but that's what he did, his whole career.
OK.
Did he work? He, he worked in Canada and he also, yeah, his specialty was bridges.
OK.
And water towers.
Water towers.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I would have thought water towers aren't necessary in Canada because there's so much water everywhere.
Um, There there is, but it's not just about water, it's about, uh, uh.
Uh, Al altitude mountains.
It's about mountains.
Mhm.
OK.
So you need water needs, you need water pressure.
OK.
And so if, if the land is flat, you need Some way to get water pressure, and so what they do is they build water towers so that the water is up higher than everyone's toilets and sinks and and so on.
In other words, the water has pressure to come down through the pipes.
Correct.
And so that's OK.
Um, of course, so what I learned, um, actually, thanks to my Smith school, we lost pressure many years back.
And we contacted the the landlord, um, cause we're in a building, we're on the 8th floor of our building.
OK.
And what I learned at the time is that uh, office buildings, apartment buildings, sky rise towers and stuff, they actually have pumps that pump the water up.
OK.
Or else there would be no pressure on the higher floors.
Right.
So in that case, what had happened is the pump had gotten old and it had stopped working, so they, they installed a new pump.
Yes, but I didn't know that, but What my uncle did and what's more traditional, that's been, I mean, hundreds of years.
I mean, even going back to Roman aqueducts is the concept of putting the water up high.
OK.
So, so that you get pressure.
So yeah, my uncle built Not only in Canada, he worked for for uh Canadian firms, but he would build them in other countries as well.
Anywhere that's flat and requires water.
Oh, sounds like we're.
Saskatchewan.
Exactly, exactly.
But also, I mean, most of the time he was rebuilding or replacing an old one, so trying to make it a a better version.
Oh, OK, yes, had gotten too small for the city that was growing or had worn out, you know, over, over time with age, so.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So your son's in England for 6 months.
That's right.
And he's just experience culture shock.
Oh yeah.
That's a very fun topic to discuss.
I'd like to hear about that later when he comes back, his experience with that.
Um, how are you feeling though? Yeah.
What? How are you feeling? I'm feeling OK.
No empty nest.
A little bit of empty nest, yeah, yeah, I kind of miss him, but You, you, you take one thing out and you fill it with another.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So life is good.
Take care, don't be too sad, and uh I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun and good experience there.
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to hearing from him when he gets back.
Yeah, OK, I got back to work now.
All right, see you later.
OK.