A Capital Idea!!

Canada and Australia share many things. They are both VERY BIG, don't have large populations, are reasonably affluent, love sports, have some what similar histories, fought the same wars, and they share the Westminster System of Government that they inherited from England.

AND because of THAT they share POLITICIANS. Wonderful and caring when speaking out on the injustices of the world, wise when they speak of the common good for all, good to their constituents AND whether it be Stephen Harper or Julia Gillard or Michael Ignatieff or Tony Abbott or any of the leaders of the other parties, all of them can always do it much better than the other mob. But meeting politicians wasn't the reason for our next trip!!!!!

Canada and Australia both have beautiful Capital Cities and Ottawa was our next destination. Canberra's climate  in winter is reasonably cold but Ottawa's is b@##%* freezing, but then again we are in Canada. And we also were going to Winterlude http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/winterlude/ . And for us to skate along the Rideau Canal http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/winterlude/rideau-canal-skateway/ .

But the main reason for us travelling to Ottawa was to meet up and stay with our friends Sharon and Jim who we stayed with in the summer of 2007 when temperatures were in the high 30's. They were good host's then and were equally good host's this time. It was a fun weekend and they were great hosts.

To get to Ottawa we were faced with a 6 hour drive on winter roads and winter roads in Canada can set a few challenges. We were warned of these by our friends Peter and Leslie who were (understandably) concerned about a couple of Aussies heading off at night through Algonquin Park on a snowy night.

We  had "Mrs Garmin" our CuRVy and a good driver to get us there and none of them let us down although "Mrs Garmin" told us she was RECALCULATINGGG a few times until we agreed on the route we were travelling. The trip was fine albeit a little snowy to start with and we arrived at Sharon and Jim's at around 9.30pm. Time for a drink and a catch up before bed.

The next morning we were looking forward to another winter Carnival and this time with us we were going SKATING! The view of the back yard was a little different to the green area we had BBQ'd in on a muggy night in August 2007, as was the temperature.

 

But we were "hot to trot", maybe not the most appropriate saying for Winterlude but we were keen and we mounted the TRUCK!!!! Makes the CuRVy look little doesn't it!!!! And Jim's truck is even a really big one and the amazing thing was just how comfortable it was to travel in.

But our main agenda for the day, apart from seeing Ottawa and Winterlude, was to take on the 14km of the Rideau

Canal and with my incredible balance skills I was ready to skate. After all it doesn't look hard for the Hockey Players we watch on the TV so for us I'm sure it will be a breeze. So we laced up

 

Andddddddddddd we were up up and awayyyyyyyyy

So in all of this where was the "master of athleticism and balance" ????????? Where else but

Ohhh well it's lucky I have Julie and my friends. The sleds are available to rent and with the help of Julie and Jim a couple of people who are somewhat limited by MS were able to join the thousands who skate on the Rideau Canal each winter. Oh and we weren't alone as thousands skate every day it is frozen. The ice is maintained by the City and people of all sizes and ages come and enjoy....

Luckily we had to quality of pushers

 Maybe they're thinking of the four person Bobsled in 2014. I'm sure I'd be a good driver!!!!!

The rest of the day was for sightseeing which was made much easier for Julie by having a driver and not having to rely on Mrs Garmin and Mr Frost for directions. Ottawa is a lovely city summer or winter and I'm sure this won't be our only trip for 2011. Jim and Sharon are such lovely hosts.

And no trip to the nations capital would be complete without 

   

Our Ottawa Senators!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some interaction with .....

Ontheroadagain

Well the good times had to end and after being almost on time for the bus we were away!!!!!!

I'm sure if I had stayed another couple of days the way my sign language was improving I would have ended up being fully bilingual after all I had mastered oui, non and merci. How good is that????

As there was no news bulletin saying that neither Toronto nor Quebec had moved closer to each other either physically or indeed politically it was going to be a long, long trip!! But at least we could rest and relax and I was quite happy to watch a movie to pass the time.

Unfortunately an outbreak of "bus fever" emerged which necessitated an emergency stop

And as you know you can never be toooo careful with a serious case of "bus fever"!

After this there was an added bonus on the way home. We made an unannounced stop in Montreal which became our lunch break. For those who had been missing out on what appear to be the Canadian way of life they were able to return to true Canadian food

Well in the end we finally arrived where our cars had been left and as we made the trip back up Highway 400 and then Highway 11 it was easy to reflect on the many highlights of a wonderful weekend. Due to the organisation of the CLEE group and in particular Alison, Andy and Margi with the help from a group of enthusiastic fellow travellers it was a great weekend where we happy to say boujour Quebec!!!!

Merci beaucoup 



Hotel de Glace, great music and CRAZY Boaties

1.  

Well we had managed to survive a huge day after the long bus trip, but there was no real time for a lazy lie in at the luxurious (by our standards) hotel. We had been warned to be on the bus by 9am. Those that know me well also probably know me and on time don't often occur simultaneosly, however we did make it this time!!! (sort of)

There was a reason for us to be on the bus on time and the reason was to check out some future accommodation ideas http://www.icehotel-canada.com/ mmmm a very cool place. Well I guess I could use pun after pun but all jokes aside this is somewhere I could see myself staying one day if only to say I had been kept on ice, or had been with the cool people, or had dropped in for a cold drink.

After that succession of very ordinary puns I'd better stop and get a drink!!!

So a quiet little drink was next on the agenda, 4 Caribou's and a maple whisky to be precise, and if you are asking this is not a case of a rose amongst the thorns but a beekeeper surrounded by exchange teachers. Perhaps if I hang around these people long enough I might start to learn something. Probably won't happen but you never, never know!!!

Enough of that frivolity.

After I resisted the urge

to go to church

And it was back on the bus and back to Quebec City!!!!!

I have often shaken my head at and wondered at the sanity of Surf Boat Rowers (Boaties)  but what I saw when we took the Ice Ferry that crosses on the St Lawrence River made our Boaties seem almost normal!!!

Yes they are standing on the ICE! They row until the ice gets to hard to go around and then clamber out and run along the ice with their boat before relaunching their boat and continuing. They were training for a race where they cross the river 5 times!!!!

One thing is certain that is not something that is on my "bucket list", but like the George Bass Marathon it's fun to watch. Being on the ferry across  the river was cold enough.

Back on land brought more of one of my favourite actvities. WALKING, but it was worth it, this is a beautiful place summer or winter.

After a fruitless search for a non existant restuarant we were forced to put up with great food yet again. This gave another excellent opportunity for us to use my now excellent grasp of sign language and Julie's increasing memory of schoolgirl French. Truly the food in Quebec City is great and the friendly service is as good as I can remember anywhere.

While we had been walking, hiking, trudging and limping around the city we had seen a flyer for a group that were appearing that night at Theatre petit Champlain http://www.theatrepetitchamplain/ . We had seen Galant, Tu Perds Ton Temps at the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival in 2007 and if they were good then in a tent with a small crowd in a packed theatre they were unbelievable!!! Listen to www.galanttuperdstontemps.ca/ and you'll get some idea of what the night was like.

I don't think that there were any other people in the audience (of around 200) whose first language was English and I am quite certain we were the only who would have known or indeed cared what Don Bradman's batting average was..........

Bonjour Quebec jour numuro un

Well what was in store for us after the trip, the breakfast, the Cathedral and the frozen waterfall?

I guess you could sum it up with two words Quebec City!!!! After we arrived at our hotel one look out the window gave us a plenty of ideas

So there it was, the question was what was our next move? Well if you know anything about this team there was going to be plenty happening.....

First stop was a trip along the ice and snow sculptures and the Bonhomme Headquarters where Julie  found a friend and Bruce found yet another ice cream he coudn't eat, oh well never mind.

I guess you can't have everything.... but maybe one day as they say you never, never know.....

And there was always fruit. Someone mentioned

an apple a day. And after all there is no saturated fat in a lovely crisp cool apple is there?

Altho it still wasn't very filling.

What the ice and snow carvers are able to do is unbelievable and we passed people working away on carvings of all sorts of things...

Some of the carvings were very interesting 

hmmmmmmmmmm after all we are in Quebec!!!!!

After a walk around the town we realised the Bricklayers here were a tough breed

 

We thought a cool drink would be very nice before dinner so we went to the Ice Bar. The dark liquid in the ice glass is called Caribou and its taste  is reminiscent of spiced port but then after a few out of the frozen glasses you may as well be drinking either Dr Jurd's Jungle Juice or Rocket Fuel!!!!!

After our cool drink we thought dinner in a more traditional setting would be fitting and rather than anything modern we settled on

The oldest restuarant in Canada and we weren't dissapointed in any way..

A superb way to end what had been a long and wonderful day

   

Bonjour Quebec.....

After a cool and snowy week our house, roads and paths looked like this....................................

 

But a quick look at the events calender showed that we weren't going to be looking at this peaceful scene for long. So we boarded the mighty CuRVee and set off for Toronto. 

Sooo where was the final destination and what was the reason for the trip????

The answer was Quebec City and Bonhomme!!!!

First we had to get there. For that reason our initial destination was Toronto where the Teachers Exchange League had arranged a place for us to park cars for the weekend at no cost. After we had parked and had a quick cup of coffee we headed into Toronto by metro bus and train. Interesting!!

We were waiting at Union Station in Toronto which I thought was an amazingly busy place for 9.30 at night. But it dawned on me that the reason there were so many people wearing smiles was that this was the crowd from a Toronto Maple Leafs home game and that the Leafs had won.

We were on the bus by 11pm and according to Google Maps we were going to travel 794km and the trip by car should take 9 hours and 1 minute, hmmmmmmmm doesn't sound like the most fun under the sun. Oh well the theory was that I would get some sleep on the bus and that the destination was worth it.

As I stumbled off the bus rubbing the lack of sleep out of my eyes I put a cross through the first theory and looked forward to finding out whether the destination was indeed worth the night in the mobile pleasure palace.

Breakfast was a very good start!! When you have to alight from the bus to go to a breakfast restaurant it may as well look like this. Chez Marie's breakfast was just as the restuarant looks. Very traditional and very good!!!! 

Quebec, as well as being very French is traditionally very religious so naturally our next stop was at a Cathedral. But when you have Cathedrals like this you can understand the reason for the stop.

After the breakfast and the uplift gained from the Cathedral we had to rely on nature...

We had been to Montmorency Falls in the summer of 07 and the fact that they were now solid ice only added to their beauty.

All of this before we'd arrived in Quebec City so maybe the bus trip would be worth it!!!!!!



A weekend at home (sort of)...

Oh well after a couple of weekends where we were very much on the go the time came where we really needed to take a couple of deep breaths and slow down (just a little).

There are some things that you just have to change when you move. One thing for us was to  get our Ontario Driver's Licence. We had to give up our New South Wales licences and their mournful looking photographs and swap them for brand new Ontario licences with an equally their mournful looking photograph. Oh well our new ones arrived so the thought was we better go for a drive and test it out. So we fuel up to head off to Orillia.

While we were filling up with Gas we were joined by some of the interesting vehicles Canadians have. The Muskoka area sees hundreds of snow machines zooming around most weekends. Julie is threatening to go riding one soon (not sure that's a good idea Carm).

By the way fuel is around $1.08  in Gravenhurst and this seems to be a fairly good price to me.

What's in Orillia? Well for one thing there is a CAA shop. For those who aren't aware CAA stands for the Canadian Automobile Association which has an agreement with Australia's NRMA and that gave us the opportunity to stock up on maps. It's not that we don't trust our girl Garmin but a map is a sort of reassuring thing even if you can't read it as fast as Garmin the GPS works. Never mind, we have both now!!!!

We returned to Gravenhurst where we prepared  to go out to our first musical event. Mmmmm about time, but I guess we have been reasonably busy! The event was a coffee and folk music night and took place took place at Muskoka Place Gallery near Port Carling. http://www.muskokaplace.ca/

This event was made much easier by us being driven to the show by Peter and Leslie who are friends from just around the corner. Leslie had met Julie at Exercise Classes and invited us to call around and have a drink, we had ummed and ahhhed for at least 37 seconds before accepting their invitation. Off we went on foot, on a dark and snowy night (after all walking is one of my strengths and when you add my balance what could be easier). However a good night was had by all! I guess I can't really speak for Peter and Leslie, but at least we had a good time!!

That feeling must have been at least somewhat mutual as we learned about many events in music, on film and in the arts community and what's more we were invited to them. That is what led us to Muskoka Place Gallery and a show that included a drummer and story teller, a native flute player and Lorne Brown ( a banjo player, singer and story teller).

A good night, good company, interesting music and musicians and fabulous artwork! John and Pam Cowan would have been well and truly at home at this event.

Sunday saw us up reasonably early and heading to Barrie to meet for lunch with Sharon and Jim Taylor who hail from Ottawa. Sharon is a person with MS who we stayed with them on our Eastern Adventure in 2007 and it was very nice to meet with them again they were in Barrie for Sharon to have a follow up after her CCSVI treatment that she had in the hope that it would make a difference to the MS journey. It will be interesting to see what effect the treatment has for her.

Moose Winooskis was the venue for our meal. Have a look at the website http://www.barrierestaurants.com/Moose-Winooskis.  Whatever you see on line only tells half the story!!!!

A quiet weekend at home????? Oh well I'm sure next weekend will be much quieter.

Only an all night bus trip and a weekend in Quebec City.............

School activities including Wayne Gretzky's Birthday.......

Weeelll it had to happen!

Sooner or later I would be called on for more than cleaning, vacuuming, washing, ironing and cooking. Oh and did I mention scintillating conversation and the immense knowledge of everything you need to know about just about everything.

The frantic call came for assistance at school. And I was just the person who an experienced teacher would call on. All the knowledge was there, the body was fit and functioning and the most important thing was that I was AVAILABLE AND CAME AT THE RIGHT PRICE!!!!!

So, you may ask, what was this assistance that needed such expertise???

In the first place there was the winter hike!!!!

 

So what was the destination????

The Gravenhurst Library

Canadians are a bit more used to the cold than we are and it's refreshing to see that schools, children and their parents allow excursions like this. And what was my role, apart from moose patrol, come along and watch.

The next assignment for me was the

Wayne Gretzky Birthday Celebration!!

Well that is what Canadians know January 26th for. For some of those residing in countries other than Canada especially most of those living near where I normally call home it is Australia Day!!

And for Mrs Frost's Class (and School) for at least a few hours Australia Day celebrations took the place of the Wayne Gretzky 50th birthday party.

So what was my role in the party? None other than the head balloon inflater, (assistant to) the cheif damper baker, spreader of the honey, and 2nd sprinkler of the (green and gold) hunreds and thousands for the fairy bread. What a role!!!

And after we sang the National Anthem and we showed that we were indeed Girt by Sea a good day was had by all......

And then we joined the rest of  Canada and

went back to the great One's Birthday!!!!!!

Well I guess we had to go there.........

Having reduced the number of Frost's to two and increased the numbers of cars to one it was time to "have a bit of a go". On our calendar there were two appointments for the same weekend. An Exchange Teacher's welcome to Canada followed by a conference and information session in Toronto. Or a welcome home party for our friends Greg, Marianna Caralina, Maea and Julia and their family who were in Jerrebomberra last year. The welcome home was in C#**#@*wood. 

So what would you do?

Well I'll you what we did, it was easy!

WE WENT TO BOTH, OF COURSE!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful new friend Garmin the GPS has has turned out to be. Not sure whether it is a he or she but whatever it sure seems to be able to find its way around which makes for a lot less stress in and around the CuRVee.

We had arranged to stay with  Cheryl Howe in Toronto. She had done 2 exchanges to Australia and the latest on was as Principal of Sutton PS, which is a school and an area that I knew reasonably well having presented a Surf and Water Safety talk there. Sutton is also near the home base of a couple of well known beekeeping families, Cheryl knew both the Bingley and Kershaw families well.

We were driven to the welcome which was good as we walked through the door and were welcomed with a drink, I guess we were in the right place at the right time. The welcome was, in a word, welcoming! LOL!! It was nice to meet some of the peopole who have done a similar thing to Julie and transferred 24,000km to start teaching different kids in a different place and in a vastly different climate...

After we were collected we returned to Cheryl's and talked Australia, Canada, Exchanges, kids, teachers, parents, Departments of Education, travel and weather. Oh and as Cheryl was a wine lover we talked WINE!!!!

The next morning saw us in a High School meeting with the Canadian League of Education Exchange (CLEE). This was an informative, valuable and entertaining meeting and I'm sure we benefited greatly.

Following the meeting we headed to lunch at the Swiss Chalet (yet another restuarant chain) with Ingrid, Belinda and Emma who are the youngest of this year's exchange teachers and have yet to get cars. Unfortunately we and Garmin the GPS disagreed on where the Swiss Chalet actually was so it took a bit longer to get there than we had hoped. Never mind we got there and the food was good and even "Frosty friendly".

Well then we had to bite the bullet and head to Collingwood. It's a hard thing for a couple of true supporters of the only team, the mighty Saints to go to a place called Collingwood after last year. I don't really know how it happened but in 2009 became friends with an Exchange Family who became Geelong supporters and in 2010 became friends with people who became Collingwood  supporters. I think I'll make everyone I meet this year pledge allegiance to the Mighty Saints!!!!!

Apart from those minor issues it was a great night. They and their extended family were amazingly friendly and inclusive which is something which seems to ingrained in all Canadians. And they have such great houses!!!!

The trip home took us along a similar route to our trip from Owen Sound which made it a little easier for both the driver and the navigators (me and Garmin) and this time Jimmy and Frank hadn't left a train parked on the road. However, there was quite a bit of snow falling and on the road but I guess it is winter......