At last...

As promised, a few photos from my trip to newfoundland. i will post more soon.

lumsden beach

somewhere near badgers quay

ben, jordan, daniel, matt and jonah

(ben, jordan and jonah are matt and daniels cousins)

me and matt

daniel (matt's brother)

dad's trip

yeah yeah. i'm doing the photos today. dad has just been back home for a bit and did some touristy things through darren's work www.freshtrackstravel.com (i think). anyway, he has written a testimonial for their website so i just thought i'd post it here for you all to read.

Dad says:

I have just had a great holiday in my home country of Australia! Most of the time was spent in my home State captital of Adelaide, South Australia. It was winter but temps in the early 20Deg C made it very pleasant. The city is laid back with a beautiful mediterrean climate. Lots of coffee shops that spill out onto tree lined streets both downtown and along the beautifil Norwood Parade. The early colonial architecture and stone buildings are quite unique and very attractive. Adelaide is the only Australian city founded by free settlers rather than convicts from Britain. We caught the new Tram from the beachside suburb of Gelenelg into downtown Adelaide. The downtown streets are very wide and the city was planned by Colonel Light to be exactly a square mile. Walks along the lazy Torrens river and a sneak visit ( no one stopped me!) into the historic Adelaide Oval (home to Australia for many Test cricket matches) were further highlights! The view of the city of Adelaide from Mt Lofty is impressive, complete with a fairly new cafe/restaurant and tourist shop. We visited the hsitoric German town of Hahndorf where craft shops, coffee shops and German pubs selling genuine German sausage meat and beer will whet the appetite of any tourist! Unfortunately we did not have time to tour the Barossa Valley, another German setltlement which produces some of the finest wines in Australia.
We moved onto Sydney. I had forgotten just how impressive Sydney and Sydney Harbour are! Circular Quay is the gateway, by way of numerous ferry rides, to some great scenery as well as beachside suburbs such as Manly. On the way you pass by Sydney opera house and the Sydney Harbor bridge. At night we took a ferry which sailed under the great bridge, stopping, like a sea taxi, at interesting little ports, dropping off homebound commuters while we alighted at Darling Harbor. Here we found a myriad of restaurants spilling out onto the Darling Harbor walkway underneath great sea going yachts, hotels and shopping malls. A place of real life and excitement. Next morning we set off for "The Rocks", which is the original old Sydney town where convicts and their soldier guards first settled in 1788. Some of the old stone buildings still stand and are worth exploring. It is here we commenced the 'climb of our life' . The Sydney Harbor Bridge climb is one of the best tourist.things I have ever done . It is a 3 hour experience! We gathered in our group of 12 for careful instruction on safety procedures and then fitted out into our climbing gear. Some parts of the climb are a little challenging but when you stand on the very top and view Sydney Harbor, the Opera House and beyond it is just magnificent! It really is a 'must do' activity when in Sydney. You can also climb at night to view the lights of Sydney and surrounds and I want to do that next time! The day we climbed the 'Winter temp" was 25deg C!! As an Australian I felt very proud of Sydney and particularly Sydney Harbor. Britsh tourists are arriving everyday in Sydney in their hundreds and it seems like everyone of them are climbing the Bridge. North Americans need to know the good news about touring Australia and particularly Sydney!
Ross

wallpaper

yesterday i had my first experience with trying to remove wallpaper. who has wallpaper these days anyway? what a ridiculous idea. think about it. wall. paper. paper that you glue to your walls. stupid idea. anyway, the removal wasn't going so well and we ran into a few issues along the way. so the decision that was made - lets just wallpaper over the wallpaper! ha. i am most looking forward, and scared at the same time, the idea of matt and gareth, maybe being ably assisted by myself, trying to wallpaper the room. i'll keep you posted on this.

and i promise, i will not go to sleep tonight without having posted pictures from my trip on this blog...

wheelie snekaers

ok, so i haven't (obviously) posted any photos of the newfie trip yet. i will soon though i promise. my blog today is a gripe about those roller sneakers. i don't know what else to call them. you know, those sneakers that when you click them somehow they have wheels. well, today at the shooping centre there were all these kids with those wheelie sneakers on. well, there were two. but, they were reckless and dangerous. skating around, out of control. crazy crazy kids. i remember when i was younger my mum would never let me wear my blue and yellow roller skates inside the house. i ask you, is there any difference with these youngters wearing their wheelie sneakers inside the shopping centre??? i think i am going to start a new movement. it's going to be called the no more wheelie sneakers group. anyone want to join? i think this group is going to be really popular. jump on the bandwagon people, come on.

newfoundland

i really had a great time in newfoundland.
we flew into deer lake, there's not much there but an airport. we went and stayed at cornerbrook which is close by. matt's parents live there. we stayed there two nights, then we travelled to Badger's Quay (or wesleyville) which is where Matt was born and where lots, well some, of his family still live. from matt's parents house in badgers quay, one set of his grandparents live 200m down the road in one direction, and the other set live 200m down the road in the other direction.
we had a good time there. we didn't do all that much - went to the beach (we even swam and it was freezing), ate caramel tart, went out to hermit's cove, where the keans come from and they even have their own small cemetry out there, ate caramel tart, we spent time with matt's family (i met about 120 of his relatives and that's just some of the grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins - no kidding, there's so many of them) including the 60th wedding anniversary of his grandparents (on his dads/keans side) - so that was family only, but when there are 13 kids who have their own children and grandchildren, that's a big party (i don't think i have ever seen so many tall, blue-eyed, good looking people in the one room before), we played fast scrabble and ate lots and lots and lots of caramel tart. (i think i put on weight in the last 10 days).
on monday we drove down with daniel (matt's brother) to st johns. tuesday we hung out around there and then spent tues night with some of the cousins. we flew home to toronto on wednesday (yesterday). so there you go. my trip to newfoundland in two paragraphs.
some of my thoughts from my trip - i love holidays. newfoundland is a beautiful place. it reminded me a lot of scotland (and nana) the culture and countryside. i love caramel tart. mmatt has a huge family. his fear of flying isn't as bad as he makes out - though it definitely does exist. it was good just to relax - stay up late and sleep in. i love caramel tart. i wouldn't want to be there in winter - way too cold, i think, for my liking. though they all assure me with all the winter things you can do, i wouldn't get cold and i would love it!?!?! oh, and did i mention i love eating caramel tart?
i will try and post pictures tomorrow!

back in TO

so i have made it back safely to Toronto from Newfoundland. we had a great time there. but this is just a quick one to let you know that i will be back in blogger action tomorrow. so, hold on, just one more day. i'll be back.

you know you're Australian when...

i have been a good girl. 3 blogs in 3 days. (if you hab=ven't been checking in daily like my mum does, then you may have some reading to do!!! they are all quality blogs too!?!)

four things have happened to me in the last week that have made it clear that i am an aussie. and today it will be your pleasure to read about them (just quickly):
1) who knew there was a difference between a summer coat and a winter coat. certainly not i. aparently there is. well whoop de do you canadians, aren't you great for needing two kinds of coats. i'll just make a statement here that the only 'coat' i own is my ski jacket. hmmm.....i am so an aussie.
2) today, sunday, i had to pop out to the shops. i got there at 10.30pm, thinking that by this stage the shops would have been open for 30mins. no, no, no. here, the shops open at 12pm on sunday. good one. i am so an aussie.
3) this one also relates to winter, apparently when all the snow falls, etc, etc, i need winter shoes. not just my regular shoes, but ones with good grip, water protection and preferably some sort of insulation??? what the??? i am so an aussie.
4) today i am hopping on a plane to go to Newfoundland for 10 days with matt. this is where he is from. with all the news about hand luggage etc at the moment, he's like don't take a carry on bag at all, my aussie attitude (after looking up the airlines website) was a firm 'she'll be right mate', i am so an aussie.

somali group and mccrae

here's something else i do over here - somali group (with my accent, some people have mistaken that for smelly group). they use the office to do tutoring on saturday afternoons and cheryl and i help tutor. the kids are really great. so well behaved. regularly throughout the year, they go for 2 hours, but in summer, they go for up to three. this really tests me, nevermind the kids. cheryl will usually send me a funny text or two to get me through till the end.

last night i had a group phone call from jayne, annie, aaron and luke. it was great. it was fun. we also discussed going down to mccrae in jan (only after matt and beth's wedding, so i am sorry they won't come). i can't wait. i love going down to that old house. doing nothing. getting fish and chips. or roast dinners. or jayne making risotto in that high quality kitchen. walking down to the beach with no shoes on. doing nothing. having bbq's on the front porch. eating blocks of black forest chocolate. reading trashy magazines, some that have been in that house for at least 15 years. watching dvd's. doing nothing. there have been some great times down there. like when annie, without realising it, adopted a new zealand accent and called beth 'bith'. or when we watched the shane crawford special and fell in love. or when i dreamt about fryzie two nights in a row. i can't wait for mccrae.

201

i missed a milestone. my last blog was number 200. so if you feel like celebrating today, or even if you don't, you can celebrate the fact that you are reading my 201st blog. oh and haven't there been some good blogs in the last 200. there was the one about...um...oh well, i can't think of any right now, but if you're still reading, they can't have been too bad. anyway, good on me for 200 not too bad blogs.

moving right along, matt and i drove mum to the airport yesrterday. she flew out of buffalo, which is actually in the states and only about half an hour from niagara falls. i did what i siad i would not do (ahh yes, remember that blog???), i went back there. mum really wanted to see them. she loved them too. so she's 'safely home' in seattle. i use that quote from my brother, little did he know, but he rang the night before mum left, also the night there was a shooting about 5 doors down from us. by this stage, mum thought the news about the shooting had made it across the country and daz was wondering if she was safe. (he he- kind of funny???)

so it's been a buys week with mum here, which was great. but also working too. and then on sunday i am heading off to newfoundland. matt and i are going and staying with his parents and brother which will be good fun i am sure.

other news?
- i got to speak to beth the other day and that was a real highlight of my week. i miss you betho.
- the weather is still nice. though the last few nights have been getting a little cooler.
- i am really beginning to look forward to the Igniters starting (there are only 3 of them). though i still have a lot of organising to do before that happens.
- i have now eaten a combined total of 4 timbits. (a canadian things, the holes of donuts from Tim Horton's)
- we ended up looking after a rabbit this week at our place 'pretty' is his name. hmmm. i can't wait till he leaves
- dad is in aus - if anyone sees him, can they remind him to bring me home some cadburys' black forest - this is of high urgency and importance. in fact, if you know you are going to see him, maybe just buy it, give it to him, then ask him for the money, that would be greatly appreciated

one lesson i am learning (though i am sure i have learnt this before, somehow i keep forgetting) - live life in the moment. too much planning and forethought (though some is necessary) can waste your timeand energy. sometimes it's better to take things one day at a time.

why is it?

mum is here, after a mammoth journey. we have had some packed days and today is rest day. we went to the park for a picnic with some friends and it was lovely. i had to come and do a few things in the office, so she is having an arvo nap on the couch at home.

some things i have been thinking about recently (in brief - and that means just a snippet of my thoughts, not the things i have been thinking about while wearing only undies...)
- why is it that some men, regardless of what you look like, or what you are wearing, think that because you are a woman, it is their right to call out to you/treat you with no respect whatsoever. this is annoying.
- why is it that sometimes when you get what you ask for, you realise that there were some other conditions that you really wanted but forgot to add.
- why is it that coke tastes different in Australia than it does in Canada - for the record, i much prefer Aussie coke. i hardly even bother with it here, it's not nearly as good.
- the same goes for cadbury chocolate - oh how i miss blackforest.
-why is it that when i see my mum cry, i cry
- why is it that some of the most annoying things for us to do, can mean the world to someone else when we do them
- why is it when we have lots of money, we 'need' things and find it hard to live simply
- why is it when we don't have lots of money, we can clearly see the things people 'need' and know that it's a waste.

humidex

i have got some serious blogs stored up inside my head that will come out soon. but right now i have to blog about toronto's crazy weather. the last few days have been HOT. i mean HOT. but apart from just the heat, toronto has ridiculous humidity. they even have this thing called the humidex. so they give you the temperature and then they give you the temperature with the humidex. so yesterday, for example, it was 36. however, with the humidex it was 47. so the temp is 36, but feels like 47. yes, that's a massive jump. i know. i have been in it the past few days. but as i type, these massive winds have just picked up and there's going to be a massive thunderstorm. it's still hot, with the humidex today it was 37. but there's a change coming. yay. nice.

on the flipside i mentioned in my last blog that in winter it gets down to -20, or when you then add in the windchill, -35 - what the...??? also in a separate conversation, they told me last winter wasn't very cold and there wasn't much snow. i was thinking, oh, ok, a few odd days of snow here and there, then they continued, yeah, it was only knee deep. these words, snow, only, knee deep - do not go together in my language - ONLY???? what the...???

oh well. i guess i have said that i don't want life to be boring...this is something new for sure.