Polish banana drinks on a search for skates

The Pez are visiting!
(They may also do a guest-post)

For those of you who don't know bug, that's our (bug & my) parents...

They arrived on Thursday from Sweden without half their luggage, but at least didn't have to sit on the tarmac like Laura did.

Friday we left them to try and get on Hamilton time and deal with the change from low teens to 30+ and humid!

Today we went in search of ice-skates for Da. He had been communicating with several shops while he was still in Aus. He was originally going to try and take public transport, but lumpy pointed out that would take an inordinate amount of time so we all went on a road trip to the outer parts of Toronto!

The first shop (in Newmarket) had many pretty skating dresses for Mama and I to look at, but I think lumpy was a bit bored and we soon went in search of lunch while Da tried on many many pairs of skates...

The options seemed limited to sit-down restaurants or Mr Sub, but then we spied a Polish Deli... Unfortunately the didn't do hot lunches on the weekend (no snitchzel for us), but we did get a salad, some strange sauerkraut croquettes, a light rye loaf, some cheese, some ham and some juice... All the juice had Bananas in it. We sampled Banana & Lemon (which also had pumpkin); Banana, Carrot & Apple; Banana, Apple & Peach; and Banana & Blueberry. The general consensus was too much Banana for us! We ate in the car with the aircon on because it was so hot and humid out.

Da didn't find anything quite right at the first shop, so we then went off to a second place in Willowdale. Lumpy, Mama & I went off to find cold caffeine and ended up in a Turkish (we think) patisserire. They did very nice (extremely sweet iced coffee). We refrained from the sticky pastry things...

Da found some skates which fitted and we all came home for Thai beef salad.
The End.
(Mother mis-heard and thought I was "reading about Polish Army jokes" instead of writing about strange polish banana drinks! : )

Extremes

We're in the middle of a heat wave. At just after 5pm, it's 32 degrees, with a "feels like" index of 39. Earlier today, that latter figure was over 40. They give us a "feels like" index to account for humidity in the summer and wind chill in the winter. I think I'd agree with their assessment - it doesn't feel like 40 degree dry heat out which is more like being in an oven, but it is as unpleasant in terms of constant sweating.

It has been hot since Thursday. On the radio on the way home from work, they said they're expecting Ontario to use a record power wattage in the next hour (5pm to 6pm), breaking last year's record set also in July. Air-conditioners. I've got ours on now - a clunky old window-unit that came with the flat. We're not that happy about using it in power-wastage terms (increased occurrences of heat waves being statistically linked to global warming and all), but you do what you have to in this sort of heat.

So, we're here in Ontario. In summer, it is as hot and humid as some places in the tropics - and yet there are no decent beaches (unless you like swimming in steel-mill runoff). In winter, it gets cold enough to snow for weeks - and yet there are no decent places to ski (actually we haven't really tested this, it's probably as good as skiing in Aus). I've forgotten why we came here...

...although it's pretty good compared to being in Lebanon at the moment. Apparently there are as many as 50,000 Canadian citizens in Lebanon (16,000 registered with the embassy), and the government is scrambling to evacuate them amidst Israeli shelling. About 5,000 are Canadian residents there on holidays. Most are probably Lebanese migrants who have spent some decades and/or generations in Canada. I'm a bit surprised we haven't heard of a similar situation with Australian citizens in Lebanon - doesn't Australia have a lot of Lebanese migrants? Aha, I just found it on the ABC News website - Australia has about 4,500 people registered with the embassy in Lebanon. And they're also being shipped out, albeit by the hundreds rather than thousands. A report I heard from a refugee from Lebanon said a lot of people may not even be able to get to the ships because some arterial roads have been destroyed.

And there's more bombing going on in Iraq. And Indonesia just got hit by another tsunami. And China and India are having floods.

Perhaps we should all move to Vanuatu. Apparently, they're ranked number one by a new "happiness" index:
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1684800.htm
Zimbabwe was last.

People can't drive

There are some really bad drivers here. People don't seem to know how to use indicators. The way people just vague their way between lanes is astonishing - so much so that I had to start using vague as a verb for lack of a better word. Some people really don't seem to be able to stay in their lane either - I saw someone today straying halfway into the slip lane exiting the freeway before noticing that they weren't in their lane any more.

The scary thing is that heavy freeway traffic really is harder to drive in than anything in Australia (except maybe a few key roads in Sydney and Melbourne for less than 5km at a time). I don't understand how they avoid having accidents like every day. There's also a really hugh variation in driving attitude: you can have the nervous 90km/hr right-lane only drivers (remembering that the right lane is the slow lane here) on the same road as the 150km/hr hoons who appear out of nowhere.

I guess this is why car insurance premiums are so huge here (think 3 to 6 times what they are in Australia), and why they're like double if you're male and under 25.

Guest blog 2

Westfield Heritage Village
Today we 3 lumps went to a fabulous place called Westfield Heritage village. A collection of more than 30 Canadian historical buildings set up by 2 local school teachers who thought that there was not enough local history being taught, so they purchased the land and set up a site to present 19th centruary rural life.

The result is fantastic, each building was staffed by volunteers complete with costume, who knew about the history of the building and were able to tell us about where the building had come from and who had lived or worked there.

Much to my delight a number of the buildings had been used in the filming of Anne of Green Gables (AoGG) and while I won't make it to Prince Edward Island (the home of LM Montgomery) I can say that I have seen a number of the buildings used in its filming and sat at the famous Bright River Train station waiting for Matthew!

We enjoyed some home made biscuits with butter and jam (or scones if you are Australian) and iced tea and Lemonade (no not 7up but real freshly made lemonade).

There were some fabulous characters around the village and it was a day thoroughly enjoyed by all 3 of us (even if the 2 local lumps got sick of my ravings and excitements about AoGG!!)

See the Westfield website.

The village blacksmith making a long-handle kitchen fork - the old-fashioned way.

A covered bridge. Horses won't cross a noisy river because it sounds too dangerous.

The trading post building - c. 1830, moved from Leeds County to the Westfield site. (All of the buildings have been relocated from somewhere in the area.)

The general store is along the main street, and was built in 1848 in Elgin County.

One of our guides demonstrates a camera obscura. We're posing for Lumpkin (not the other way around) - a lens/mirror arrangement projects our image onto paper for Lumpkin to trace, producing an accurate sketch.

Laura playing Anne of Green Gables at the train station.

A fancy soda machine at the general store, which carbonates water on the spot. Flavours of the day were lemon, orange, vanilla, pineapple, strawberry and sarsparilla.

Guest blog - hon member of team lump

Canada day - Saturday 1st July 2006
A bit of background on Canada Day, according to a website on Canada day's history it is a celebration of "the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada." Having said this however like a number of Australian's when asked about why we have Australia Day, the local Canadian people really have no idea and when asked this question promptly answered, "the purpose of Canada Day is to have a day of work, a BBQ or party with friends and enjoy the free fireworks!"

Lumpkin, Lumpy and I spent Canada Day afternoon and evening at Lumpkin's friend's place, all the Canadian people were very welcoming and found it a novelty to have three Aussie's to celebrate Canada Day with!

We enjoyed a great BBQ with lots of great burgers, hotdogs, popsicles and other yummies and introduced the party goers to Haloumi cheese and Anzac Biscuits (or cookies, biscuits here are different.) I might add that haloumi cheese is Turkish and we had to make the ANZAC's to make things even!

We had some very amusing conversations about the different meanings of words in the 2 cultures and i found about the Canadian school system and the real reasons why kids are sent to summer camp! (Thanks to Jess) I also learnt if you want lemonade you have to ask for 7up or sprite otherwise you get many blank looks!! (thanks to lumpkin and lumpy!) I managed to tread on someones toes by saying later in my trip i was going to Victoria island instead of Vancouver island but was later forgiven for my ignorance.

After several threatening rain showers, Ferrinne rounded up the party crowd mostly grad students, post docs and other significant (or insignificant others!) and we took the walk down the hill to Hamilton Harbour to watch the local firework display, a great show (although people didn't have radios blaring like skyfire). I definitely enjoyed the fireworks but was even more excited by a big flock of Canada Geese who were also enjoying the show! (The locals couldn't understand my excitement until I asked if a Kangaroo would be exciting to them!)

All in all a fantastic evening with all the important things, good food, interesting people and a few fireworks for good measure! Oh and did i mention Ferrinne's cute dog Sydney spent the evening with us too!

Pat and Ben: "you can plough my field any time, baby"

The office: Vicky, Ferrinne and Rachel

Ferrinne's dog Sidney is very good natured and has an amusing underbite.

As we watched the fireworks, a gaggle of Canada geese tried to make good their escape. We might have been sitting on their spot.

More Canada Day fireworks across Hamilton Bay.

A good time was had by all. (Laura had the camera, so there aren't any shots of her :-(

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This post was brought to you by our special guest blogger, Laura (an honorary member of Team Lump), who is visiting from Canberra this week. Thanks Laura!