Canada Jane

More snow falls

admin — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:37:34 +0000

We got 10 inches of snow overnight last night. Definitely the most so far this season. In fact due to the mild winter last year this is the most snow we have had since March 2011 apparently. More snow is forecast too.

Chris had to go out and use the snowblower to clear the drive, otherwise we stood no chance of getting out the house.

Fist snow of winter

admin — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:35:31 +0000

Although we have had a few flakes of snow in the air before now, Today was the first real snowfall of the season. As you can see we got a good covering, although not so much that we could not get about.

New car

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:21:33 +0000

After much consideration and pondering, we decided to trade in both our Hyundai Tuscan and the Veloster to get a new car. Due to the fact that Chris works from home and I travel 75km a day each way to work and back we were really only using the one car. Most of the time i was using the Velo and the Tuscan sat in the garage. Once winter sets in it will be the other way round, so we thought that this was a waste and decided to only have one car.

We needed one that could tackle our long driveway in the winter, so it needed to have 4 wheel drive and good ground clearance. We also wanted to get a good deal from the dealership so that we could justify the change. After a lot of research we narrowed the search down to a Mitsubishi RVR, Mazda CX5 and a Subaru Crosstrek. It turned out the Subaru offered very poor financing with high APR and the servicing was very expensive too, so we ruled that out. The Mazda also offered not so great financing options plus we would have to wait several months for the vehicle to arrive which we did not want to do. So that left the Mitsi. We took it for a test drive and found it to be good and they had the model and colour in stock and offered excellent financing. On top of that they gave us good values on out trade-ins as well as a $500 gas card, so we went with that.

This is a photo of the car, although it is not our actual car, it is identical. We love the colour which is classed as kingfisher.

Mixing with the celebs

admin — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 17:15:04 +0000

Today at work we had a big campaign launch event. One of the guests was chef Michael Smith who has several shows on TV. He has his own restaurant on campus and so volunteered his time to attend and cook for everyone. He is incredibly tall!

These photos are very poor quality having been taken in low light and on my phone.

My grumpy toad

admin — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 17:12:31 +0000

This is a great photo of a toad sitting on our deck today. Chris managed to get his personality beautifully.

New photos of my car

admin — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:09:39 +0000

Chris took some great new photos of my car today.

Trendy squirrel

admin — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 17:02:15 +0000

Today we saw this very trendy squirrel sporting the latest in designer tail colours.

blonde tailed squirrel

Six years in Canada

admin — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 16:59:40 +0000

Today is the sixth anniversary of Chris and I moving to Canada. In some ways it feels a lot longer, but in others it feels like yesterday.

Canada Day Celebrations

admin — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:12:19 +0000

As today was Canada Day we thought we had better do some, well Canadian. We headed off to Kingston as they promised several events and plenty to do. There was a parade which many people, like myself dressed in red and white. We then watched a civil ceremony with some of the local dignitaries as well as a guest appearance from Sir John A McDonald, Canada’s first prime minister who lived in Kingston. Amazing really considering he has been dead for years.

After the ceremony and an ice cream – it was very hot, we went along the waterfront to watch the tall ships come in to re-enact the 1812 battle. We sat on the harbour wall and waited, and waited, and waited. after an hour and still no sign, it started to rain so we called it a day and left the harbour.

On the way back to the car we wandered round the stalls that were set up in the park selling everything from home made jam to jewellery, art and car parts. Then we heeded back home.

Beach fun and then sad goodbyes

admin — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:57:44 +0000

On Monday, their last full day the girls wanted to go back to the beach. Rather than doing two, 2 hours return trips Chris and I decided to go Cobourg too.

We dropped the girls off at the beach, parked the car and then wandered round the town. We had coffee and cake at one of the many coffee shops and also got some british chocolate and biscuits from the Brit shop there.

The beach area was very busy and crowded and so we walked along to the harbour and then along to the other beach which is pebbles, rather than sand like the other one. Here we found several people wind surfing as well as tons of geese. We wandered back into the town and eventually four the girls again. After several hours we headed home.

Unfortunately we had to take the girls back to the airport on Tuesday. Although their flight wasn’t till late evening we set off early and despite heading into a big thunder storm which frightened the daylights out of them we managed to get to the airport early, thanks to heading off the 407 and taking the toll road.

When we got there they checked in and got rid of their bags and then we all went to Swiss Chalet in the terminal for a bite to eat. We had a nice “last meal.” and then had to say our goodbyes. Lots of tears later and we were off back home again to an empty house.

I am back at work tomorrow and Chris will have the house to himself after sharing with three women for the last couple of weeks.