Be like a turtle, get your head into your shell

Nash's yoga class at the Yoga Tree this morning. I have been going to Yoga Tree for 3 weeks now, on an introductory month of unlimited classes for about $50. As I had not been practising at all since leaving Trinidad and before, I thought I would try it out. It's about 2 blocks walk away, so easily accessible...all plus points. I love the studio, it has a tranquil feel, has a living wall- the wall behind reception is made of earth and planted with trailing plants and foliage. It has 2 studios, upstairs, the studios the hot room, where heaters heat it up for Hot Yoga classes and downstairs, the studio has a yoga wall, with ropes, for Iyengar practise, it also has blankets, blocks, straps, foam blocks, chairs, bolsters- all props that can be used in yoga practice.

I have tried a few different classes, different teachers too. Hot yoga with Karin at Level 2 is challenging, and I managed a head stand in my first class. I was really surprised I was able to do it. I have yet to master the crow... but it will come. My core and upper body strength needs work, and am working on them..hehehe

Jason, who owns the studio and is a charming young man is a great teacher too. I did one of his classes at 8am on a Sunday, and a lot of what he did in class reminded me of the Moksha I practised in Trini. These hot classes have the room temperature set to 35-38C. Reduced heat is less taxing with the room set at 28C, just hot enough to build up a sheen, but not dripping like you do in a hot yoga or Moksha class.

http://www.yogatree.ca/rh_studio.html if you want to have a look at the studio.

Anyway, back to Nash's class. He calls himself the 'Tree Hugger'. Florence had suggested I try his class. It said it was a Hatha class. I walked into the studio and he had placed some cards to mark where people could place their mats. Mine was something about our thoughts and how they affected every aspect of our lives, about the mind being powerful. About thinking about where we want to be rather than what we don't have, about positive thought and our conscience.

Nash was very personable, he introduced himself, made newcomers feel welcome, ask about any injuries, asked if anyone had any areas they would like to work on specially..and so on and so forth. He had a great sense of humour. Then he asked us to choose some crystals that he had brought in and to take it back to our mats... that's something new, I thought, cards, crystals, whatever next! I went with the flow, Jennifer, Florence, Juanita were in the class too, as were some other ladies that I recognised from other classes we have done together. We were encouraged to relax, to let our bodies do what it could, encouraged to laugh. Nash led the class, changing his voice to low and slow, almost comical at times to motivate us to let go, breathe slowly, let go and let our muscles stretch. And if we break wind, so what?? We are in the wind relieving pose after all! hahahahhahaha

This months theme was healing, as it was September and remembering 9-11, Nash had made month number 9, the healing month. He explained what the colours of the crystals we chose signified, I had chosen a red/purple pink a light pink crystal. Mine signified my legs for the red, and my heart for the pink. Also for the bit of purple-intuition. So, these crystals would give us energy to heal these areas of my body and mind. He said the pink crystal would heal my heart, to love people I knew but first and foremost, to bring love and energy into my own heart, that it's important to love yourself. We all know this, but I have always found it a bit difficult to do just that, I am getting better at it though. There's hope for the future.

We worked our core and lower back, in positions, holding them for longer than normal, almost like in a Yin class. It was good to have more time to focus on each pose, allow myself to relax completely in the pose. He also said that is our right buttock muscles hurt during threading the needle pose, it means that we have held tension in there caused by a male person upsetting us when we were a child, and to let that go, to breathe in, accept that it upset us and then breathe out and let it float away. Now, if you have pain on the left, then it was pain caused by a woman and to do the same... I had more discomfort in the left, and I tried my hardest to breathe it away, to let it go and not let it affect my life anymore....The class finished with a lovely savasana and I felt ready to face the world, head held high, heart full of love and positive thought.....

Feeling slightly more settled

After all the confusion about apartment viewings, realtors and agents last week, not to mention the stress of knowing what was the best thing to do, this week finds me feeling better. Phew, I hear you all sigh, no more neurotic Suyin venting her rage at these pages! I wish I was better at coping with things, not to be such a drama queen and so emo, as the kids would say.

It was a combination of the stress of where were we going to be living from the end of month and the time of the month! When I had my hysterectomy, perhaps I should have asked for my ovaries to be removed too. Dave says, at least before I had some signs of knowing when you're madness would end. My mum too was plagued by angry week- this is the nickname Dave and the kids have given my so called 'time of the month,' hahahha. She would fly off the handle at anything, there was no distinguishing between trivial and important... and guess what?? I am like that too. The joys of being a woman come with a price I guess. If I live till I was 75, and had an angry week a month since menarche, that would be 63 years X 12 weeks a year, this is assuming angry week doesn't last longer than a week! The grand total is 756 weeks, that's like 5292 days I will have spent being angry for no good reason! That's about 500o happy days wasted. Perhaps it's a big price to pay for being a woman.....

The math may be wrong though, do these weeks carry on beyond menopause? I am struggling to remember how my mum was and is.... my dad used to love provoking my mum during her 'angry week,' he would wind her up, and she would bite and bite hard, and all hell would break lose, and that somehow made my dad happy? Weird huh? Perhaps it made him feel like she responded to him, cared about what he said and did... love is blind! As I got older and realised what he was doing, I used to ask him why he insisted on provoking my mum like that and he used to say, I can't go to sleep until she's shouted at me at least once a day! I cannot repeat here what I said to him.

Redoing the math, lets say I'll hit the menopause in the next 3 years, so that reduces the number of angry days dramatically...35x12x7=2130 days, less than half my original number... is that still too many days to be emo and angry for no good reason? I would think that would be a resounding yes. I do not really want to be angry..or feel angry... it's such a waste of my energy...it's a negative feeling and sometimes makes me say and do things I wouldn't normally do if I was thinking straight, instead of having red rage to cloud over everything. Is anger ever necessary? Possibly not, can't really see any need for anger. See, when calm and rational, I can debate this, if I was angry though, I would probably shout my own arguments out the window.

Anyhow, our offer for the lease of the apartment for the next 9 months was accepted and we get the keys on Wednesday. We spent the weekend shopping for some essential furniture as the place is unfurnished. Delivery of beds, sofa, dining table this Friday, am excited! Bedding also had to be purchased as well as towels, a chopping board, 2 halloween baskets that were so cute the children decided they would be a necessity, and Jasmine actually took hers to bed with her! So, elevators to book for the deliveries, time to pack us here, ready for the move. No school for the kids on Friday either..... parents evening the evening before.... it's all happening this week. Before I end, have also got a lunch date tomorrow with the lovely Karen, they moved over here from Trinidad in July... finally, back to my ladies who lunch status!

Update on the elevators, can't move on Friday, elevators booked till 5pm on tht day, dang! Never mind, will have to find out what the alternative will be... watch this space but not too closely!

Toronto

City of immigrants, one of the friendliest cities and now one of the most expensive cities to live in the world.... this would be Toronto. Just released today, on the news that Toronto has ranked number 8 as one of the most expensive places to live in... and who have just moved here?? The Family Jordan of course, who else hehehe

Actually, I am not laughing very much. My mood was reflected in the weather today. The skies turned grey at about 8.30 and rain poured down, first as a fine drizzle then heavier drops. I left it as late as I could to get to Yoga to see if it would ease, but it didn't, so got very wet, walking to 2 blocks to get there, that's about half a mile in English. Was late for the hot class, so went to Level 1 Hatha instead, which was good. I reassured myself that Yoga was not all about losing weight and getting that lovely figure I've never had, but also about my inner well being and doing the lower level classes give me time to breathe, think/ or not think and devote my practise to inner peace.

Is Toronto friendly?? Yes, I think it is. At Yoga when new people I met found out I was new to their country, they openly welcomed me to their country and hoped I would like it here. On our first visit in June, we found that customer service here was excellent, and after coming from a country where this didn't exist, we were very pleasantly surprised. The staff in Maccy Ds were very courteous and friendly, the staff at the bank where we opened a non-resident bank account were extremely helpful and friendly too. When they found out we were coming back and may move into the branch's area, they gave us a local information pack that the bank had put together so we could familiarise ourselves .... it was like the citizens advice bureau! We now know why they were so friendly though, to get our custom.

Banks here charge for everything, you pay a monthly fee unless you have an agreed minimum balance in your account, for eg $1000, you pay for cheque books 50 cheques for $31.54, pay for transactions if you go over your monthly limit- 65c per transaction. Better not make too many mistakes with the cheques- they look different to the ones I am used to, and have spaces for names and addresses on the top left hand corner, and some funny memo thing on the bottom and alongside it, a picture of a chair ????what does that mean. The cheques would take 1-2 working weeks to arrive, and if you needed them in a hurry, you pay $16 extra and they come in 1-2 days. Not only do you have to be able to afford what you write on the cheques, you have to be able to afford to buy the bloody things, who uses cheques these days anyway?? You can't even pay in S'bury's with a cheque now, but I am not in the UK am I?? I have to keep reminding myself this.

Is it friendly, truly friendly? To be honest, I am not sure yet, maybe after several months of living here, I will reassess the situation. I was offered a lift home though by a fellow yogi, it was raining really hard after yoga, and I declined several times but she insisted so I said yes in the end and was very grateful as I would have got a good soaking had I walked. After nearly 20 years of living in a country where I was an ethnic minority, it seems I have come to another where I am not. The Yoga Tree is run and owned by a young chinese couple, the yogis in class consists of orientals mainly, and I live in an apartment where most of my neighbours are chinese and speak cantonese. I have become a majority... well on this bit of the Highway 7 anyway. It's like I've moved back to Malaysia, apart from the weather and that they drive on the wrong side of the road!

Whilst we were walking down on of the main thoroughfares in Toronto, this greeted us, shouts of, "I hate you! I hate you all... I want you all to die, and go to hell. I hate you, I want you all to go to hell" you get the picture, this was hollered over and over again by a deranged woman. Initially I thought she was cross at someone, it's like something my kids would say to each other or secretly say it to me if I wasn't letting them have their own way. But is transpired that she was not hollering at anyone in particular, just all of us that she was walking past.

We were on our first trip to the city, we used the subway from Yonge and Sheppard and got off at Union Street, then on a streetcar to get to the harbourside. At the weekends, you can buy a day travel pass for $10 and it can be used for up to 6 people, eg 2 adults and 4 kids. You can travel on the TTC subway, streetcars-which are a bit like trams, and buses too, and you can go all over the place.

It was a sunny day and warm, and many people were milling about, we had stopped for an ice cream, a small was 2 scoops, portions are big here. We were on our way to check out the pet warehouse play area thingy. As in the UK, the Canadians love their pets and they have this huge warehouse where you can bring you pets to use the equipment and have fun with them, they are allowed in the cafe, though not by the serving area. This was downtown Toronto, the CN tower looming overhead. They have shows about pets, pet awards, pet advice, boards with pictures of pets that have saved their owners lives etc etc, pet haven. Why did we go in? We don't have any pets at the moment, nor are we considering having any in the near future. I guess Dave was just curious to see what was in there and Mitch wanted to pet some dogs. We spent about 30 mins in there.

The harbourside was a hive of activity, they have all sorts going on there at the weekends, and most of it is free. The Sunday we went there was a hot and spice festival as well as Taiwan Festival with stalls selling crafts, jewellery and food and drink. There was a live performance by a Taiwanese hip hop rap band. Interesting.. and they invited some guest artistes who were in the audience to join in with a rap jam session. There was a duo from Taiwan who'd just performed in NYC and a local Torontonian rap singer. The band tried to get the audience to join in, and we did, it kinda worked.

A lot of Taiwanese food stalls were serving delicacies, we didn't have any but the kids had some bubble tea type smoothies. No tea, but mango smoothies with tapioca pearls. What? you say, bubble tea?? tapioca?? The tapioca pearls were about 5mm in diameter and were black pearls made of tapioca flour, and were chewy affairs, took a bit of getting used to but Jasmine loves it and I do too, as it reminds me of eating ee- a type of desert we had at home every year one everyone's birthday. Most of you won't know what this is, but my malaysian chinese friends will. You could have all kinds of tea with these tapioca balls at the bottom and they provide you with an extra wide bore straw so you can suck all the bubbles/tapioca up!

Here is a pic of the bubble teas!

Pearl Milk Tea is a sweetly flavored tea beverage invented in Taiwan. Drink recipes may vary, but most bubble teas contain a tea base mixed with fruit (or fruit syrup) and/or milk. Ice blended versions of the drink are also available, usually in fruit flavors. Bubble teas usually contain small tapioca balls or pearls called "boba". Pearls made of jelly are also available in many places. These teas are shaken to mix the ingredients, creating a foam on the top of some varieties, hence the name.

Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, first spread to nearby East Asiancountries, migrated to Canada before spreading to Chinatowns throughout the United States, and then to various college towns along the West Coast.^[1]

There are many variants of the drink, depending on types of tea used and ingredients added. The most popular kinds are "bubble black tea" (traditional Chinese: 泡沫紅茶;pinyin: pào mò hóng chá; literally "froth red tea"), "bubble green tea" (traditional Chinese: 泡沫綠茶; pinyin: pào mò lǜ chá), and "pearl milk tea" (traditional Chinese: 珍珠奶茶; pinyin: zhen zhu nǎi chá).

A common misconception in its English usage, the name "bubble tea" is often associated with pearl milk tea. However, "bubble tea" simply refers to the shaken or whipped drink base. "Bubble tea with pearls" is a more accurate description of the Taiwanese shaken/stirred/whipped tea containing tapioca pearls. Pearl milk tea (of which "bubble tea with pearls" is a subset), also known as "boba milk tea", can refer to any milk tea commonly used, such as Hong Kong-style milk tea, combined with tapioca.

Taken from wiki, so read with caution as to accuracy!

We were also treated to performances of chinese musicians, tai chi demonstration, dancing, chinese tea ceremony, the importance of recycling... Recycling??? The Taiwanese are very eco friendly and showed us a fabric that was made from recycled plastic drinking bottles, it made a polyester type of fabric and also a fleece, so t- shirts, blankets, baby wear, scarves and sock were all displayed. Very impressive... considering the kids school at the moment have an unwritten ban on plastic bottles, and teachers saying to them, no plastic bottles in my class, they kill dolphins!! So, my kids who bring plastic water bottles that we use and reuse are afraid to drink their water in class! This is ridiculous of course... it's the irresponsible humans that do not control their waste that are killing the dolphins, not plastic bottles. We have ordered the school's metal drinking bottles but they have yet to arrive, so, we're having to use plastic ones in the meantime.

The way I am feeling at the moment, I may just ring the school tomorrow and discuss this with them. Scaring kids so they don't have a drink??? What is friendly about that???

Is Toronto expensive? I would say yes, but if you shop wisely then perhaps it's about the same as London, and London was rated 10 in that list of most expensive cities in the world. Property is not cheap either to buy or let, letting is worse. I think there may be some landlords who do not look after their properties like they should. Certainly, some of the properties we saw for let in June proved this, but they were still demanding premium rates. I am not entirely sure how it all works, as my last post showed.

TV news in Toronto has reported problems with bed bugs in some residences and it seems quite a wide spread problem, not only on the bedspread but affecting the whole house. I am a strong advocate for hard wood flooring, always have been and always will be, carpets can harbour all sorts no matter how well your vacuum cleaner works. I remember the old thick pile we had at Fellows Road, which I vacuumed twice daily when the kids were small, and when we took the carpet up to lay the laminate flooring, there was a pile of sand on the overlay... sand the kids must have carried in from the sand pit, but all the vacuuming failed to pick it up, so, who knows what else it failed to pick up.

We did see some lovely apartments and one house yesterday that were decent and very attractive. We have put in an offer on one of the apartments but after filling all the forms, we will now have to wait for the landlady to say yae or nae. The apartment has 2 bedrooms, is a corner lot so is very bright, and we will have the use of a pool, gym, sauna, jacuzzi. It is unfurnished, so we will have to furnish the whole place, the lot, as we would have to do if we had bought our own place. This is because we decided not to ship our furniture over, we couldn't anyway, as our tenants are still using it!!! Wouldn't be very fair on them.

All this shopping should fill me with joy and happiness, but I am not feeling happy at all, me the shopaholic, who jumped at any chance of a trip down to the shops, even if it's window shopping. This is all becoming to much of a chore. I am not excited about anything, I miss all my friends, and I am hating it here at the moment. There, I've said it. I know why we had to come, but I am finding it all too difficult at the moment. I know, I know, what have I got to moan about, people in Pakistan homeless, starving, many have died, people in Haiti having to rebuild after the earthquake last year.

Just feeling a bit sorry for myself.. perhaps it's PMT making things worse, I hope so, if so, it will pass in a few days and I should be back to my old self.

Better end with something funny, well it was funny to Dave and I yesterday anyway. We were sat in the gardens of the apartment we went to view yesteday, on a bench looking at the fountains, and I had looked up at Thornhill Towers and say that it had green glass windows and said to Dave, "Those are the green, green glass of home." How we laughed......

My nomadic life

Well, whadya know, we're on the move again, not too far this time I hope but to another apartment/ accomodation whilst we wait for our house to complete and buy something in Aurora.

The kids have started in school and are settling in quite well, Jasmine has made some friends already and the thought of moving schools in the near future brings out cries of dismay.... I don't want to move schools, I don't want to leave my friends, but the headmaster is scary and so..... LOL
Mitch says he's not bothered if he has to change but I feel this may not be true.

So, this is the dilemma. We do not have a date for when the sale of our house in Beeston will complete, therefore we have not enough capital for a downpayment for a house here. We have looked at some amazing houses here and if I can work out how to do it, I will post some pics of our favourite ones. The ones for sale have been finished to a high standard and they all look like show homes, like no one lives in them...truly amazing, unlike any viewing experienced in the UK. We are not looking at the top end of the market either, just in the low to moderate price range.

Currently, we are living in a furnished suite the company has provided for us, you know all about this from my 1st posting! The rent here is CAD$3500 a month, and far too pricey for our budget to stay for 6 months. So, am now looking for alternatives around the school's catchment area and only wanting a 6-9 month lease, because most leases are for a minimum of 1 year. 9 months would take us to the summer hols for the kids and they would then start in Aurora next year.

We have a lovely lady called L as our realtor. Now, a realtor is like an estate agent that works closely with you in order for you to find your ideal property. She may be an agent herself and have properties that she sells, or lets out( called leasing here). Unlike the UK, where you can go into any estate agents, look at what they have and then choose to view, here, you go with your realtor, they will arrange all the viewings with whatever agents the properties you are interested in is registered with.

I now fully understand how it works here. I found out by making a few mistakes! Well, they do say you learn from your mistakes, don't they. Who's they, by the way??? Listings of properties can be viewed on line via MLS. I have been using this for many months now, to see what's available on the market in the area we want to live in.

In my haste to get ourselves somewhere to live temporarily, I rang the contacts on the apartments I was interested in just to ask if they were still available, and was told I had to speak with the agent, so left details for them to ring me back. 2 did, and we went to see one apartment at lunchtime, which was ok, and would suit. Then another rang and this one asked if I was an agent. I said no, and that I was interested in viewing the apartment and some near here. She pounced then and said oh, I could also arrange for you to see those. The bell dropped with a clunk on my toes. If she showed me the apartments, then she would get the commission..... AHAAAA!! D'oh, which meant L would get nothing for all her hard work! I told the agent that we had a realtor and that it wasn't necessary for her to show me the rest. I then quickly emailed L to apologise. L called and we discussed how we would proceed, she was happy to step aside, I quickly told her that was the last thing I wanted! I told her that I wanted her to find our next house to buy and for her to try to arrange the viewings of the other apartments. Phew, I hope I didn't trod on too many toes. I can be such an idiot at times... you know me, Mrs I want it, and I want it not now, not tomorrow but yesterday!

Fried Mee Hoon

I am playing with the idea of starting a food blog, as suggested by my friend Evy. My cooking is mainly simple but that's because I had fantastic training from my mother, Rose, who is a fantastic cook. Most of the dishes I cook are simple, as I am not the most fastidious person ever.

Simple is relative I guess, what may be simple for me, may not be for others, right? And vice versa. As I was saying, my mother is the most amazing nonya cook, the things she churns out of her kitchen are better than any restaurant... so I had a brilliant teacher. I was sous chef in her kitchen for many years, starting with just peeling all the onions and garlic needed for the week on Sunday mornings, after she returned from the week's marketing.

I guess I must have been about 8-9, about the time I was sensible enough to use a paring knife without causing too much harm to myself or others! So, every Sunday, I had a huge bowl of shallots to peel and a smaller one of garlic. With these she would make into a curry paste that she would use throughout the week. Some of the garlic was minced for the stir frying of vegetables. Alongside this, I had to deshell about 1-2 katis, or about 1-2 lbs of shrimp, which would be divided into little packets and frozen, again for stir frying with vegetables during the week.

My mother worked full time, so all the preparation for meals to be cooked during the week started on Sunday, ready for use as the days rolled on. Initially, I was excited to help, woo hoo, mummy finally letting me into the kitchen to help, but I usually carried out my duties at the dining table, out of her way, as she prepared the other foods that she had bought for the week, and cook lunch all at the same time, multi tasking, my mum was an expert at that. In the years that went on, it became my Sunday chore, I would go to the kitchen as she returned from the market to get the bowl of shallots, another of garlic and my supply of shrimp.

As I got older, I got let into the kitchen more and more, and be delegated more duties, mostly I would food prep, she would cook, and I was there to wash up as we went along, in this way, I learnt by watching her. It also meant that when we sat down to eat, all the pots and pans would be clean, and any prep plates we used would be washed clean.

My mum had the knack to recreate dishes that we ate when we were out. If she ate something she liked, it was almost as if she instinctively knew what was in the dish and would whip it up at home. Most of my European friends would not know the wonderful nonya dished she cooked but my Malaysian ones would. She made the best otak otak- steamed fish in a curry paste all wrapped up with daun kadok and coconut leaves, perut ikan- a sour curry made of loads of finely sliced local herbs and veg, pineapple and the secret ingredient, preserved fish guts- yummy, right??? LOL.. she made wonderful things like popiah, lam mee, law mee, yam cake, rice porridge with dried oysters, nasi ulam, nasi kunyit and chicken curry....All time consuming dishes but all wonderful and delicious.

As we all left the nest, she cooked less and less and all these recipes are in her brain, she never used a cook book for these local delicacies. Apart from all these, she would cook the simple everyday food that my famiy ate with rice everyday apart from Saturday, which was a non cook day for her. I, too, have carried on this tradition and try not to cook on Saturdays, hehehehe. That was a day we would eat out, and gave her and I a rest from kitchen duties.

So, I am going to try to post how I made fried mee hoon with prawns and fish cake.

The ingredients are

1in ginger, finely julienned

4 shallots- finely sliced

2-3 cloves garlic- chopped

1 piece dried wood fungus, soaked and finely sliced when rehydrated

5-6 dried shitake mushrooms, I normally soak these in hot water, shortens the soaking time, sliced when rehydrated

3 inches of chinese fish cake- you can buy this form the chinese grocers

100g of shrimp, raw or cooked

2in square of pressed tofu- firm tofu- this is pan fried till all sides are golden brown then cut into sticks

1 egg- beaten and fried as a thin omelette, when cooled- roll and slice thinly

Cilantro/ coriander leaves and spring onions chopped

The 3 above ingredients are garnishes to be added at the end.

1 packet bean sprouts

about a handful of sliced veg eg- pak choy, cabbage, chives, choy sum or use a mixture

200g dried rice vermicelli or mee hoon, soaked in cold water till soft.

Cooking oil

Soy sauce, salt and pepper

.

So, start cooking, pour about 2tbs of cooking oil into a heated wok, any would do, I used light olive oil, as that was all I had.

Add shallots,ginger and garlic and fry till fragrant. Be careful not to over brown the garlic as it's bitter if burnt. I would suggest adding the garlic last after the ginger and shallots have been cooking for about 2 mins.

Next add the mushrooms and wood fungus, stirring the ingredients as you add them, fry for about 2-3 minutes, add shrimp and fish cake which has been sliced thinly, fry for 2 minutes, add the green vegetables that you are using, fry for a minute and add the mee hoon/ vermicelli, using spatula and aid of tongs or chopsticks begin to turn the noodles in the wok as you cook them, this may be a bit tricky as your wok would be pretty full by now. Add about 4 tbsp of light soy sauce, continue to toss the noodles and other ingredients for 4 minutes, add bean sprouts and continue to cook until vermicelli softens and all veg is cooked but still crunchy. Season to taste, you may need more soy sauce or salt and some pepper.

Dish up, and garnish with the fried tofu, spring onions, coriander and the sliced omelette. You could also garnish with sliced chillies if you like hot food. Another good garnish is fried thinly sliced shallots, just fry some sliced shallots in some oil til golden brown and crispy and top the noodles with that- it's Dave's favourite garnish as the shallots are crunchy and slightly sweet.

Enjoy!! This is just a trial, please comment if you want more food blogs, should I keep a separate one for food alone?

Pond Drive, by the side of Highway 7!

A new blog. Suyin's ramblings, rambling thoughts, rambling life, thought it was appropriate.

I am sitting in the open plan living room in the apartment we've been given to live in for 2 months whilst we try to find our own accommodation. I'm sat on the sofa, TV in front of me, this place needs an update, it's not even a flat screen HD TV! We are on the 5th floor according to the lifts but in actual fact am only 3 floors up as there is no 1st or 4th floors. Looking to my right, out the large windows and french doors, the skies are cloudy and a tad grey, we made it home from the school bus drop just in time before the rain came down. I can see more high rise buildings and also some townhouses. Looking to my left, Mitch is sat in the kitchen diner at the dining table doing his homework, and just out the kitchen window, I can see Highway 7, busy with traffic. It's a 6 lane highway, 3 lanes in each direction.

The apartment has 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms, one is the master bedroom ensuite. There is also a walk-in-closet in the master bedroom. Mitchell and Jasmine are sharing a room and so far so good, it's the first time they've had to shared a room... and funnily, I think they are liking it, I wonder how long this will last!

Apartment life; never lived in an apartment before. At first, I wondered if we would have enough space for us all, or would we be tripping over each other, would we end up killing each other as we struggled to find our own space?? This is the 2nd apartment we've lived in, we had a 1 1/2 bedroomed one for the frist 2 days, Mitch slept in the living room, not ideal, but ok for 2 nights. Plus it was in North York so within easy access to the city via the TTC, or subway and bus transit to us non Torontonians. More about the city later....

I am pleasantly surprised that I like living in an apartment...the open plan living means one gets the feeling of space, the master bedroom is large, so I can go hide in there if I need to get away. There are stairs that take us down to the basement where the car is parked, there are lifts for all other exits as the doors leading off the stairs are alarmed, guess people only use stairs as a fire exit! I like the kitchen diner concept, there is no formal dining room, but that does not bother me. The kitchen is the heart of the home and eating in the kitchen area is cool for me. There are disadvantages of being in an apartment too but they are so minor I shan't bother talking about it.

The location of the apartment, alongside Highway 7 is not great to say the least. If you kept all windows closed and had the air con on, you can't hear the traffic. All along the portion of the highway where the apartment is situated are more apartment towers, shopping plazas, mainly oriental eateries, with a few banks, a yoga studio(yay), shops, nail bars, some doctors surgeries, MaccyDs. Behind the apartment, well the entrance, are townhouses and more serviced apartments, or furnished suites as they call them.

Mitchell and Jasmine's school is about 1.8km away, across the busy H7, and they are travelling to school on a yellow school bus... we could walk it in about 30-40 minutes, but they have chosen to bus it. They seem to have got on a good start. The first day we took them to school, as we had to register them and had only managed to get registered at the board the Friday before. We met the Principal, Mr, F, who had a high vis vest on, a big smile on his face and he wished everyone a good morning and welcomed us enthusiastically to his school. He had a nasally, cartoony voice, in a nice way, Dave said he sounded like Top Cat. He said, "Good morning, welcome, how are you all? Welcome back to school" He seemed very sincere, and for that I forgave him his voice. Mitchell joined his class as they came in Grade 7 with Mrs McT and Mrs Clark, one of the ladies at the school office suggested we leave Jasmine with her and she would see her to class. I sensed a quiver in Jas's lip as we said goodbye. We were reassured they would be brought back on the school bus and were advised of where it would stop and the times of pick up and drop off for future reference.

The good news is Jasmine actually made some friends on her first day, she's in a mixed class of Grade 5 and 6, not really sure how that works, but it must as her teacher, Mrs B taught a similar class last year and her introductory letter to students and parents was very upbeat, positive and motivating. Mitch is finding it a bit stressful, being in Gd 7, he has to move around to different classes for different subjects, he was excited about this at first, but as he's new to the school, and doesn't know where everything is and having a locker for the first time ever has thrown his confidence a bit. He's also worried that in a few months, he'll go through this all again as there will a change of schools if we change addresses.

Dave started work on the 30th and has 2 weeks to settle him in, a lot of form filling going on, applying for an Ontario driving license, getting his social security number, meeting his team etc etc..... He has been loaned a car by the company for 2 months, initially it was a left hand drive Saab,a stick shift which was not driving right, and now a Toyota Sienna, auto transmission, it's a minivan, that's what they call them, an MPV for the likes of you and me..and it's great, self opening rear and boot door, just great!

And me?? Well, a housewife for a while longer. Work permit not granted at port of entry, which was Toronto Airport. Why? Because I already has a visitor's Visa in it from my last visit.... why Visa?? Because I am Malaysian, of course, why did I not apply for a UK passport? I ask myself this every time I have to obtain a Visa and nobody else in our family has to. Oh well. We arrived here on the 28th of August, the flight got in at 5.30pm. Our instructions were, to ask to see an immigration officer to get our work permits and the kids student visas. We were to pay $150 each for the work permits.

Oh Oh before I get to that... on the flight, they made an announcement for a medical doctor's assistance... and guess what??? There were no doctors on that flight. Maybe it was because it was not a full flight. Anyhow, I think, none of the doctor's could be arsed, probably afraid of litigation or something. Anyhow, being conscious of my code of conduct, I said to the stewardess that I was a nurse and if they needed me, to get back to me, plus Dave was a paramedic some 10 years ago! They came back to us and said, you're it, no doctors have admitted to being on that flight LOL.

We were taken to 1st class to see a gentleman who said he had chest pain, clinical history head on, hx obtained, all the while observing his well being. He looked anxious, but did not look like he was experiencing cardiac pain, but looks can be deceiving, right? I check his vital signs, he was not clammy or breathless, said his chest felt tight...... anyhow, from my clinical expertise, which was not great as I just had a year off work, and with Dave's expert eyes too, we both decided that I would observe him for the rest of the flight which was about 4 hours! I reassured him, he had reported some viral illness type symptoms and being a chain smoker of cigars, I said I would keep an eye on him, but said he was probably coming down with a viral infection as he was coughing and sniffling a little. I contemplated a pulmonary embolus as a differential diagnosis as he had joined the flight in London after having flown from somewhere else and it was a 5 hour flight. He said he took aspirin daily, and had no calf tenderness, so I overruled that thought. I had a look at the in flight medical kit and was impressed by what drugs they carried, and I also checked they had a defib on board.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, his pain improved, said he was reassured by my visit and he was happier. Well, for him it was uneventful. For me, on returning to my seat after checking on him, I was in economy of course, way back in economy, and he was in first class, a bit of a trek lol. I got stopped before I got back to my seat, an elderly lady had a nosebleed, and it was bleeding for the last 20-30 minute and every time she thought it's stop, it started again. She was an ex nurse, so knew what to do. This was her first nose bleed though, so it was a bit scary as it didn't seem to stop. She was on a shed load of meds for various things, one of which was aspiring daily.....making sure she was not hypovolaemic, we set upon trying to stem the bleed, from pressure on Little's area, to ice on her forehead and around her neck. One passenger suggested using some tampons instead of tissues to make a plug and that worked really well. We were about an hour to landing...... what a flight.... I said I should think about going back to nursing when I got to Toronto, was this a taste of things to come?? Work on the flight out??? Too much too soon, we were rewarded though, I got given some champagne as a thank you from the staff on board. We will crack this open when our house sale goes through!

So, we're in the immigration hall, well, it really was a room, and it was jam packed, full of people entering Toronto.... we had arrived along with all the students about to start university.... arggghhh. Kids were tired, no sleep on the plane, Mitch was flat out on the floor, Jas managing to find a seat and was reading. The queue snaked along the hall, trying to accommodate more people that it was built for. It's our turn after about 2.5 hours, Dave gets his WP, kids and I get our Visas, all with different expiry dates as our passports all due to expire in the next 2-3 years...We finally get out, retrieve our luggage, which of course by this time had been on the belt for about 3.5 hours and so the flight details were no longer showing on anything.. it was amazing that we actually found them all!

Dave went to see about a hire car, one should have been reserved for him, but there was no record, so we taxied to the apartment on Hollywood Ave, Off Yonge, which incidentally is the longest road in the world, about 1086km! We were all dead on our feet, it was past 10pm and our UK body clocks thought it was 3am...no dinner, but Dave went out and got a Wendy's takeout, which was not great, not going back there unless we were starving! Our frist night of our new life in Canada...... a new adventure begins.....