Meeting Fellow Kiwis

Last night Andy and I went to a meet some fellow Kiwis from the Kea group. If you don't know Kea is for NZer's and Aussies to get together around the World. We had a great time. We met at Hemingways in Toronto, in a part of Toronto that we hadn't visited before. We will definitely be going back there!

There were Kiwis and Aussies (mostly Kiwis) who had been in Canada 20 years and we were the newest arrivals (by only 1 month though). It was great because they knew what challenges we were facing and knew what to tell us.

I also managed to find out that "The Big Carrot" in Toronto sells all sorts of gluten free stuff so will definitely be paying that a visit in the near future.

Was a great night!

This is Bryce, a Kiwi we met last night - been here for 3 years.

Well, today Andy and I went and sat our G1 drivers license. It's really funny, I've been driving in NZ with a full license since 1980 and now I'm a beginner again! Not really, as I can still drive using my NZ license.

We went out to dinner tonight to celebrate. The place was called The Muddy Duck. The food was OK, they gave Jenna croutons and cheese on her salad even though we asked for no wheat, no dairy. The Polish waitress was fantastic and spent ages chatting to us.

Andy complaining it was too hot - we made him sit outside instead of in the air conditioned part. We thought it was great!

Also complaining that steak here is not the same and he can't wait to get a NZ steak (what's he complaining about he had NZ lamb chops last night).

Jenna - what can I say - looking fantastic in her rapist glasses!

Jesse - is he not the coolest dude around!

Oh, apparently I am now of Polish decent. I've had two people this week mistake me for being Polish. Was at the Polish supermarket the other day and the checkout woman spoke to me in Polish - just had to look at her blankly, sorry.

You might ask what I was doing in the Polish supermarket - I went to look for "real bacon" for Andy. He hates streaky bacon and that's all you can buy here.

A Lazy Kind of Sunday

This morning started nice and easy. We sat around watching a movie while Andy applied online for a job. The weather was quite gray looking. Jenna and Jesse decided to go to the park but when the thunder and lightning started a few minutes later they were back quick smart!

Just as well because 10 minutes later the heavens opened and it rained - hard. It still amazes me how it can be sunny then a torrential downpour with electrical storms and then sunny again.

We went to Chris and Cristina's for a barbeque lunch. By the time we got there the rain had almost stopped. Andy of course had to help with the BBQ - here's the proof - even half way around the World and he still has to BBQ at other peoples houses!

After this photo he quickly handed to BBQ tools to Chris so that he wouldn't be caught.

Andy's not really as mean as this photo makes him look!

Of course, Jesse had to get in on the act as well!

If you could see his feet Zorra is there as well, checking on the meat!

When it was time to eat we could easily have sat outside. It's so hot here now. On the way home the temperature in the car (reading the outside temperature) said 32 degrees. It's not really the heat, it's the humidity. You can actually see it in the air. The air looks thick and you feel wet when you go out.

So I drove home on the highway! When we got home the aircon went on and we just blobbed out. Too hot and tired (and full!) to do anything.

Sights of Toronto

Ok, thought I'd make up for the lack of blogging over the last few days by blogging twice today.

Went to Toronto but didn't end up at the Greek Festival. We thought that we might do a real touristy thing and take the double decker bus tour but it was actually quite cool today (20 degrees) so we decided to visit the Royal Ontario Museum. When we got there we changed our minds about that too - fickle lot us. We got sidetracked by the cool houses and buildings so we drove back home via Bloor Street (one of the many long streets that go from Mississauga through Toronto).

As we drove I took some photos. I didn't take many of the houses. I want to go back and do that because they are very cool but Jenna needed a bathroom stop so we couldn't drive down all the streets we wanted.

Jesse in front of the courthouse.

Jesse holding up the courthouse.

A Toronto Tram. They run right down the middle of the street on tracks. The passengers have to walk out into the street to get on. Note the fire hydrant. Mississauga ones are red.

The following photos were all taken from the car.

Large Canadian flag - you see these everywhere.

Black Angus - assumed this was a pub.

Runnymede Public Library - funny name.

Shopping, shopping and more Shopping

OK, well I haven't blogged for a few days because I have been so busy shopping. I think Jenna and I have a self-challenge - how many days in a row can we go to Ikea. We've been the last three days in a row.

We bought a new lounge suite - it's grey (not blue) from The Brick.

We bought bar stools from Ikea.

We've bought towels, sheets, duvets, etc.

We also bought second hand beds for the kids. We will sleep on our air bed until we move.

We have discovered that on the whole delivery men are unhappy folks. Although the one true Canadian delivery guy we had was great. Most are not Canadian born. In fact, most people we have met are like us - imports!

We've also had some dramas with our house as the fridge wouldn't work so our landlord had to get a new one. We seem to have landed slap bang in the middle of the Polish community here in Mississauga.

Jesse has made friends with the neighbourhood children so we're not seeing much of him except when he returns home all covered in mud. We're still living in a construction zone so there is lots of machinery going non-stop.

We've also got gib stopping still going on although they call it dry-walling here. They laughed when I called it that.

I have been very brave and driving myself and Jenna around this week. I've been on the expressway a couple of times but only with Andy in the car. It scares me a bit. I'm certainly not prepared to drive into Toronto on the expressway yet. The other day we went into Toronto and I was navigating using the GPS. Andy thought he'd ignore both Delilah (our GPS) and me and take a different turn off. He paid for that - we ended up on this incredibly busy highway with about 6 lanes. I tried to take a photo coming down the hill of the lanes - with all the highways there were about 20 lanes. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough and I don't think I'll be able to convince Andy to drive that way again just so that I can get a photo.

Andy has been job searching - nothing yet but there's lots out there. Hopefully will get something soon.

Today, we're going into Toronto to a Greek festival. Should be fun. Will post photos.

The Long Weekend

Yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday here so we went to the beach - another beach. It was great. The weather was wonderful and the beach was great. There was a waterpark there, no slides but lots of fun for the little ones anyway. We sat out in the sun for about 2 hours and just soaked it up. Jesse and Andy got a little sunburnt but we didn't have any sunscreen on. They have both turned a lovely shade of brown today.

I've also uploaded some photos of our house. It looks great in the photos. We are the one with the for lease sign out the front and that's a picture of our beautiful real estate agent. She's been wonderful to us.

On Saturday we moved in although that's a bit of a joke. We had one car load of stuff. We needed to shop and we did. Was really impressed at how much house stuff (dinnersets and cutlery, etc) we got for under $600. We bought an airbed and camp stretchers for the kids because we don't want to buy lots of stuff until we move again. Having slept on the camp beds one night the kids complained so much that we went and bought them air mattresses to put on top.

On Sunday we went out and purchased the most important piece of equipment (that's Andy talking). A 40" plasma TV, a blue ray player and a sound system. They came as a package deal, all that including taxes for $2000. Now it's sitting on the floor in the lounge and we have to use the air mattresses to sit on while we watch it. Really need to buy a couch next! Of course Andy spent the rest of the day setting it up and then had to go and join Blockbuster so we could watch something as our cable's not connected yet.

Today we went to Ikea. That took almost the whole afternoon. We bought some bar chairs (very comfortable, I'm sitting on one now) and some drawers for Jesse because he's having trouble controlling his clothes in a suitcase. Now Andy has some manly "assembly work" to do but he's finding it a bit hard with no tools.

That's about it for now. Hope you enjoy the photos.

A House, A Car and A Visit to A Beach!

It's late here and I should be sleeping but I thought that seeing as I haven't written for a few days I should otherwise you might think we'd dropped off the face of the Earth.

Yes, we finally have a place to lay our heads! It's been a long road but we have finally negotiated for a short term house - 2 months. The house is brand new and we can move in tomorrow. In fact, it's so new that it's not yet finished so we will put up with the builders for a few weeks. The gib dust will make us feel at home, having just been through a renovation. It's not really that bad, they are just putting the finishing touches on, like installing the gas fire which they did today.

Anyway, it will give us somewhere to live for the next couple of months until we get jobs and decide where exactly we would like to live.

So, that's the house. I'll post a photo when I have one but forgot to take my camera today.

A Car!

This is a frustrating story. We have spent a couple of days this week looking at cars. We have decided that we would like an SUV, some of you will laugh! The roads are so much bigger here and there are a gazillion trucks so we thought something bigger would be good - also we need to consider the snow. Okay, so you're still laughing - for those of you who don't know, in NZ I always cursed the SUV owners because, driving a car that was low to the ground, I couldn't see past them. Now, I understand why they drive them.

Anyway, enough of that. We test drove a few - yes I actually drove on the wrong side of the road! We decided on two, a Nissan Xtrail which felt good to drive and had all the extras but it was black and I'm not so keen on that - it's been so hot here, the idea of getting into a black car just doesn't appeal. We also liked the Pontiac Torrent which is a nice looking car and felt nice to drive also. It has heaps of room in the back for our long legged daughter.

We agreed on prices for both - around the $18,000 mark with tax and on-road charges - you have to add all sorts of things to the price so if you think you're buying a $15,000 car, you end up paying about $18,000.

I rang an insurance agent only to be told that you can't register or insure a car without an Ontario drivers licence so we couldn't complete the deal! You can imagine how frustrating that was!

The most frustrating thing that we've found here is that no-one seems to know what the hell is going on! Every person you ask gives you a different answer - even if they work for the same company! Anyway, so the end result is that we now have to sit our drivers licences to be able to buy a car. So we've arranged to rent a car for another 2 weeks so that can happen. It's funny, we can drive a car but just not buy one!

So that's the frustrating part of the week. Now for the good part!

A Visit to A Beach!

Yesterday we drove to Windsor which we thought was going to take about 2 1/2 hours but ended up taking more than 4 hours. Chris and Cristina wanted to go to a lovely beach but they thought it was a lot closer than it was.

The cool thing about this was that it is just across the river from Detroit.

This picture is of a dead body we found washed up at the beach! They do say that Detroit is very dangerous.

No, not really, it's of Seb - he just looked like he was dead lying in the water so I took a photo of him.

This one is of Detroit - Jesse took this photo out of the car window while we were driving alongside the river.

Kids playing in the water with the Vortex.

Chris and Cristina taking a walk.

Totem pole at the beach.

Jesse playing in the sand.

Andy and the kids in the water.

Ok, it's well after midnight so I'm going to sleep now. I'll post the rest of the photos tomorrow.

Thunder and Lightning

It's raining today again - it seems that we have brought some unseasonal weather with us. Everyone here is complaining about the weather - it's meant to be about 30 degrees but instead it's averaging about 23-24 and it seems to rain every day. Having said that, it didn't rain yesterday, it was beautiful.

There have been many thunder storms since we arrived, the most impressive was on Sunday but it's happening again today so thought I would blog about it. The lightning is fork lightning and the thunder is like a gun shot. We were driving around looking at yet more houses and the lightning was all around us, the thunder was almost instant so it was obviously right there. Like nothing I have ever seen before.

Yesterday we put in another offer on a house. The other one fell through as the landlord was simply being unreasonable about the terms. This house is short term - for 60 days, just to give us some breathing space. It's brand new, still being finished and we have agreed to live with that in return for the landlord throwing in internet, cable and paying for all utilities. The offer was presented to them last night so we should hear sometime today -keep your fingers crossed.

Today we are hoping to buy a car. We've been driving a rental since we got here and it's costing a fortune so we need to buy something. Not great car hunting weather but it has to be done.

That's it for now, will no doubt blog more later.