Canada Jane

Finally move in to the house

This week (without internet) has been interesting to say the least.

We finally moved out of the hotel Monday morning and moved in full-time to our house.

Spent most of Monday doing odds and sods round the house. Cooked my first meal using the new oven – not an overall success, but I’ll get there!

On Tuesday we both received our driving licences and PR cards and I got my SIN card (hubby had already got his). So quite a momentous day!

Had to visit Starbucks to get on the internet for hubby’s business until ours is fitted on Friday.

Wednesday – more shopping. Got a few things we had forgotten such as breadmaker, chip fryer etc. Also managed at last to get some bedroom furniture that didn’t resemble the 1950’s! So now both our master bedroom and the guest room are fully kitted out.

On Wednesday night we had just had dinner and I was watching TV, hubby was in the shower when the electricity flickered several times, then went altogether. We looked out of the window and could see some lightening in the distance.

We figured that if we waited a short whilst it would come back on, but no! Over the next few hours we experienced one of the worst storms we have ever been in. Because our house is quite rural and woods surround us, we were a little concerned to say the least. We could see torrential rain and storm like winds whipping round the house. Thunder was regular and loud and the lightening relentless. It was both fascinating and frightening.

Eventually we went to bed as the battery on the torch was running low and expected the power to restore overnight. When we got up about 6am the next morning, still no power, which means no water as we have a well. We could see a house down the road from us had lights on, but assumed they had a generator. I phoned Hydro One our electric company and was told the outage in the area had been reported, but took or details anyway.

Several hours later, a Hydro One truck pulled up to the house and hubby went out to speak with the guy. Apparently about half a million people were without power (that’s a lot over here). He said that he though he knew where the local problem was and could fix it. About an hour later we finally had electricity again – 13.5 hours later!

On Thursday evening we watched the news and saw reports of the storm, which seemed to cover huge areas of Southern Ontario and Quebec. Some places had been devastated by it and a couple of tornadoes had been reported. It seams that in reality we actually got off quite lightly!

Friday, another Starbucks trip and a little bit of shopping, mainly grocery. Then went back to the house to await the internet installation.

Because we are miles from anywhere we have to have either wireless or satellite internet. Of the two wireless is much cheaper, but the chap originally thought we wouldn’t be able to get it, but when he visited he said because we were quite high up if we had a 40ft lower at the back of the house we would be able to get it. So he built the tower, which doesn’t look nearly as bad as it sounds, however because our house is built on bedrock, he could only drill the tower a few inches into the ground. This meant that he would not climb it to align the receiver until it was more secure. This means he has to order some brackets.

So after waiting three weeks for internet, we have to wait a little longer. More Starbuck visits (in fact I am here as I write!)

We have had our house three weeks, and have been without water for three days and electricity/water for 13.5 hours – Welcome to Canada!