Fresh Bread on Christmas Day

Santa was very generous to small person this year, a christmas sack busting at the seams with goodies.  Before we get to that I must tell you this...Small person was in bed on Christmas Eve by 7.30pm.  He can't tell the time, it was dark, and Iron Man 2 makes most people drowsy.  He put out a glass of milk (I suggested brandy, but no, Santa likes milk and cookies here).  There were also three enormous carrots "they'll be hungry, it s a long night for them"...so young yet so wise.

By 8pm all was silent then there was an almighty thud...A small person is at the top of the stairs, teary eyed..."Santa is on the roof, I heard him, I need to see Santa".  Back to bed and much explaining later, that it was ice shifting, not Reindeers landing, finally he goes to sleep.  Sooo excited.

By 8am, no sign of him stirring - do we really have to wake him up?  At 8.10 a small person appears dragging the sack of goodies, very excited as he expects an electric guitar...As I had explained, he already has a guitar - it just needs new batteries...good old Santa, new set of duracells in the sack and mini Brian May can play again.  Soon there is wrapping paper everywhere, a pile of toys and a very happy boy who is now busting to open the presents under the tree.  Wait!

A hangover and need for air lead me to go out into the ice world, to the bakery, for fresh croissants and bread.  I hope I don't fall over.  "don't worry mummy, hold onto buildings as you walk, and if you fall over get up and walk somewhere else where it isn't slippy".  Great advice, out into the cold I went, a brisk minus 13 degrees.  Bakery smells amazing - fresh bread, mmm.  It is heaving with Italian men - the 5' 6" taxi driver type rather then Latin gods - all drinking expresso.

Back home small person is still busting to open his presents.  We start, then there is a 10 minute interlude, where gets to have a think in his room, after he acts like Dudley from Harry Potter bemoaning the quantity of presents he has under the tree.  We take the opportunity to remind him about Esland (in Africa) and Sandoline (in Haiti), the 6 year old children that we sponsor.  Greedy isn't cool.

Ping pong; paper airplane making and Happy Feet...duck rather than penguin is roasting in the oven, small person is eating popcorn and chips...glass of chardonnay beckons.  Merry Christmas one an' all.  Small person is looking forward to Boxing Day, friends to play with...Yay!

White Stuff Continues To Fall From The Sky

A month has flown by and joy of joys our furniture arrived from the UK - that's 12 weeks door to door. Small person is loving finding his toys, despite being asked not to open every box.  He disappeared into the basement yesterday for an hour only to return with the game of Operation.  "Have you been unpacking down there?"  "No, I just found it" okay, so I asked him to show me where " it was in that box at the back, behind that big box, if you climb on here you can see inside it". Hmmmm

Gary has purchased a stud finder, which is a DIY tool not a dating website.  Don't worry landlord...he likes to over engineer hanging our pictures.  He's usually right about this stuff.

Over the last month we have explored on foot (no car...pesky finance rules) and found an awesome. ( translation to British of awesome is good)  spa that offers a fabulous massage.  Went there after a slide on the ice left me crooked.  The Dollarama is still Small persons favourite store, so much so that a gift card might be coming from Santa.  And Small persons party this weekend, at a local art store franchise, was a huge hit.  10 kids, fimo and a plate of wotsits...it had all the elements of a great afternoon avoiding snow.

Saw Santa this weekend, he says hi. I was telling the kids at the party that we were off to see Santa the next day.  2 of them told me that Santa is fake.  What is that about? These kids were 5 and 6 years old.  Stewie was confused by this and many questions followed.  I clarified the situation "these kids were obviously on the naughty list so got no presents last year".  The truth is out there.  Happy Holidays!

At last, the weekend

Another week in Canada has flown by.  Some weeks back we were at the wine store buying a bottle of Pinot.  Gary joked that we should buy the 2 litre bottle...yeah right, like we have no class.  This week we bought that bottle, having polished of a carton of wine the other night.  OMG it is so stressful having a five year old, a crazy work week, one TV and no car.

Lots of long days, twice to the city to get my Laptop fixed.  Both visits end in failure.  Maybe next week the IT guy will find my office in the depths of the office, left at the disused mail room, mind the bins.  I had a lovely email apology today from the banshee who screeched at me down the phone yesterday.  She was raging about an IT problem and thought  I was responsible.  I waited for her to breathe then jumped in and stated that I was the customer not the supplier.  Don' t shout at me.  "Well who should I speak to," she raged.  Oh the desire to say "bovvered" in my best Vicky Pollard was hard to stifle.  Who knew training truely had emergencies.

Lots of walking this week.  Stewie's learning about the senses so lots of time spent listening, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching...I smelt fresh bread and cakes on the way to the GO bus.  Small person  jumps off the school bus and tells me he spent time kissing a girl called Rihanna during class when the teacher wasn't watching.   Omg!  As we walk home I ask what Rihanna looks like.  " Who's Rihanna?" He asks.  So fickle or Walter Mitty? Hard to say.

Small boy had great fun last weekend, playing "soccer" in the street with the kids across the street.  He so wants friends to play with it is painful.   The Boys kicked the ball and dodged cars whilst the little girl and I painted pine cones and made decorations out of pipe cleaners.  Our Christmas window box is a work in progress.  Our one strand of 50 White Xmas light is no competition for our neighbours

What a day, what a week, what a month!

It's been crazy at work.  Long days at the office and days off full of work interspersed with trips to the park.  Stewie and I ventured to the water park earlier today. It's all turned off, as at -6 wind chill I imagine it wouldn't be the most fun.  We truely are the only people in Canada who move places without a car.  We walked there, then played Tag back as that was the only way to get the frozen child home.

Parents day meant talking to the teacher.  "What form of education did he have in the UK?" Floored me a little but my asking effective questions training kicked in and I ascertained that she wanted to know if he can read or write. I showed her his work book from UK and she exclaimed " I knew it, he's clearly a bright child".  Seems his focus is on social activities at school. Transpires that he is playing the dumb card, but I have informed them that he defaults to lazy because he had servants in a previous life.  Light bulb!  They have now moved him to sit next to a bossy girl who takes charge...a future in HR beckons for her!

Back at home we filled the day with painting, model making, watching cartoons, and me working as it was my day off.  Stewie painted with his tongue out, a sign of full concentration, and he declared that when he is grown he will be an artist.  Fabulous that he can do something he loves...although it may be a transient goal.  Last week he was going to be a Rock Star, and the week before, a baseball player.

A long weekend without a car beckons. Lots more walking interspersed with fabulous Italian pastries from my local deli / bakery.  300 yards away and awesome.  The aromas at 7am, as I walk to the GO bus are amazing.  Stewie tells me that the "busagne" taste great too.  Garfield and he being huge fans.

Global Mobility - With Back Ache?

I woke up early last Monday, my back aching as if the baby was coming very soon.  Strange as I am not pregnant, but given the pain, and the closeness to December, I suppose miracles could happen.  Whilst the pain was dreadful, the prospect of getting medical help was worse.  Coming from the land of the NHS - universal healthcare, free at the point of need, I found myself weighing up the pro's and con's of claiming on my private medical insurance or just handing over a bag of Looneys at a walk-in clinic. 

I decided on a walk-in clinic, which is an ironic terms as walking is not wide spread in Canada, folks favoring the car for every excursion.  So I hobbled, in pain, into the clinic to be told that it was $60 cash to see a doctor.  "Do you mean cash cash?" I asked the man, me being used to that term meaning the use of a debit card.  Sadly he replied "yes, cash cash, there is a Bank of Montreal accross the street".  Now "accross the street" is quite a way away in a car led society, and I had no car.  I hobbled there and back, took about half an hour, and the pain was awful. 

As I waited to see the doctor the receptionist declared to another patient that they lived in the same street as me.  Who needs data privacy eh?  I got to see the Dr very fast.  He asked me to bend and touch my toes.  I couldn't, but I assured him that that was normal.  Those toes have been far away from my fingers for years.  Diagnosis - I had experienced a back spasm and the solution was muscle relaxants, anti-inflamitories - and here's the kicker...exercise.  "The worst thing that you can do is sit or lie around".  Seriously?  Hmmmm.

So, one week later, I am feeling a lot better.  Exercise does seem to help and sitting still hinders.  Many conference calls this last week have had me doing yoga whilst participating - another virtue of remote working - no one can see you stretch!  A calm weekend at Blue Mountain (which is actual a hill) saw me hobbling from Starbucks to the "paint your crockery" studio whilst Major and Minor went swimming at the Aquatics Plunge Park.  Of course I was too poorly to go there with them...I was, honest!

Backwards and forwards

Left my home 40 days ago for a huge adventure. The month leading up to that was filled to bursting with spreadsheets and lists of things we had to tick off. (I guess that should be check off, but I can't bring myself to speak North American outside the office).  Looking back we have achieved a lot.

• Stewie started school this week, on the Tuesday after the Thanksgiving weekend. Wednesday he rode the yellow school bus for the first time.  What has he done at work this week?  All I can get from him is that you need to wear your inside shoes inside; they did maths (math?) which was focused on pumpkins; and on his first day he did music twice, either side of recess, whatever that is.
• Gary refered to crisps as 'chips' yesterday. That was just plain weird. Not so much an achievement as an observation of the surreal.
• I have managed to open 2 bank accounts, one in the city at "the worlds bank" where incompetence is required.  I'll be closing that account next week as I have since opened one in Bolton where Jeanne, my bank manager, phones me to let me know my credit card is in the post.  Customer service like I have never seen before. 
• Bus and train trip to the office is relaxing...

We are moving into our new home in 12 days...exciting times.  Our furniture is still in a container in the UK, expected who knows when...we shall be camping out, inside, for while but we'll have beds, TV and each other so let the fun continue!

Challenging myself

One of the many reasons we chose to move to Canada, and live in Toronto, was to enable Stewie to live in a more diverse society - or maybe I don't need the word more there...any diversity would be a plus.  This last two weeks have been fascinating.  Children are oblivious to the diversity around them - everyone is a friend they haven't met yet, not a person to be judged or feared.  I, on the other hand, have been checking myself hourly, challenging prejudice that I thought I had grown out of. 

In Britain I am of a generation that straddles the passive racism of the 70's and the 21st century's complete acceptance of all faiths, races and sexual orientations.  I know now what is right, fair and equitable and I know what is unfair, offensive and wrong.  Whilst I know this I have been challenged this week by my early years programming that, for a split second, makes me weary of  people who are different to me.  It's a profound realisation. 

Having spent years working with people from all parts of the world I thought I had embraced the  diversity around me - I actually now think that I have been ignoring much of that diversity, regarding everyone as "equal and similar" rather than "equal, better, different".  I think I have missed out on all of the interesting stuff about people in my bid to be liberal and inoffensive.  I truly hope these words are not offensive...I question everything now!

I like the incredible diversity around me; the fact that many many people came from somewhere else to live here. I like that Stewie has already played in the park and made friends with kids from India; Korea; Japan and Canada. And the "so what" in all of this...I like it here.

Hey Presto on the GO Train

There are advantages to moving house each week.  You get to see the City from a different perspective each time.  Last week I was being trendy and urban, getting the trolley car East to West.  Three dollars dropped into the slot taking travellers as far as you care to go.

This week I travelled West to East along the Lakeshore riding the GO Train.  A two story green monster of a train that looks like it would plough through snow with ease.  Arriving in Union Station and taking the PATH to the office - around 29 kilometers of shopping malls and corriders below the ground.  It's like mole city down there, well if moles drank coffee, ate bagels and snacked at Mr Greek.

Hightlights this week are simple pleasures -

• Buying my Presto train pass (like Oyster) and clicking in and out at stations;
• Actually taking a lunch break and spending 40 minutes walking through the PATH exploring - felt like Logans Run down there, but without the age limit;
• Listening to Stewie go native ...It's a couch, no longer a sofa; "mom, those buns smell so good"; "put that in the bin please Stewie - no dad, its called the trash.  We need to talk American now"

The reality of being new girl is that you have to tell your story again and again and again; conference calls all starting with a 10 minute enquiry and update on my time in Canada so far.  Office conversations by the kettle like... "Where are you going to be living?  Bolton? Why?  Do you know where that is?"  I am starting to think that commuting is not big over here. 

The joy of my communte will be 90 minutes of peace, reading and writing - working through The Artists Way and scribbling my morning pages.  I have read just 2 books in the last 6 years (Stewie will be 6 next month!) and so I am looking forward to the luxury of book and pen...Assuming I get a seat of course.  Or maybe I will be quirky crochet woman...the options are endless.

Left Home 25 Days Ago...

Be careful what you wish for, because it will happen. 

Two years ago we wondered "Could we go and live and work in Canada?  Where would we live? Where would Stewie go to school? What job could Gary get?" 

Friends asked "Why Canada?"  "Why not" was our usual first response.  We have never been deep thinkers when it comes to big decisions.  Think of an idea - talk about it for 15 minutes - do it, seems to be our approach.  When we decided to get married..."Shall we go to Las Vegas and get married...should we tell people?  Tell a few.  Okay, lets do it."

Maybe we are impulsive?  I don't think so.  More likely private and logical with too much of life already spent on introspection, picking over the minutia or "what if?" and "why was that?"  I like to think that I am the big ideas person and Gary follows my lead but anyone who really knows Gary knows that isn't how he rolls.  He is the pragmatist whose take on reality can seem brutally frank some days, but truth be told he is the secret dreamer - he suggested Vegas; he rooted for Canada; he spurred me on when it all fell through.  So together we jumped through a few hoops, planned, re-planned, and planned again (Oh how I love to plan!) - and here we are, 25 days from our home and living in our 5th temporary accomodation.

Are we all having a great time?  Not yet.  Stewie is a ball of rage most days, missing kids his own age, and the routine of school.  High on too much brightly coloured shouting TV.  Gary is missing being a worker - he hasn't said as much, but housework and washing are clearly not filling the void for him.  And me?  I seem to have been at work much of the last month, mentally if not always physically, so in many ways I don't feel like I am here yet.

Things that I am so greatful for since leaving our home on the 12th September - meeting fabulous creative people at Vale House; knowing that my little allotment is being cared for whilst we are away; being welcomed into my new office by lovely Canadian people - I feel like I have worked there for ever already; realising how many truelly great friends we have in the UK - that has been the wrench of moving - leaving a happy home and stepping into the fear;

Is it fun? Not yet, but it will be.