It was great to come into Toronto, be met by family, have a good meal and still have five extra hours in a day to relax. Flying with the sun is always easy on the jet lag.
My sister’s (Jill) garden is an acre, and in the heart of a Toronto neighbourhood, a rarity. That means lots of gardening opportunities, but more importantly, storage space for lots of boxes and bins. Within these, Micheline and I quickly discovered many a treasure: many of our wedding gifts (crystal; dishes; furniture), that didn’t make the trip to the UK, so therefore neither to NZ. All my 45’s collection; single vinyl records, some going back to the 60’s… in fact, some had written in basic writing ‘Jill Robinson’, which Jill was surprised to find. Some with Rebecca’s name too; all from about 1964 - 68, still in their tattered original paper sleeves. All the records came in two little boxes, bespoke to fit them, and one in Blue and one in Red, just like we remembered from that time. In another bin, Micheline found a few old school yearbooks, and a book of poetry given to her by some ex-guy. A photo album of ‘bad’ wedding photos — I was sure I buried that a few decades ago, but no… there it was.
The pool was prepped, but not before we had to find, fix and hang a big awning. After my experience in Chepstow, I felt qualified to tell everyone the best way to do things. As the temperature crawled up to +30C, it was a welcome escape.
What is inescapable is that Canada has BIG trees. Everywhere we go, strong mature trees create a vast canopy. A few birds we’ve not seen for decades are about too - red wing blackbirds; hawks and osprey; chipmunks and squirrels too.
It was great to relax, and necessary too, because the flip side of a hot country in the summertime, is the plethora of bad drivers, and seeing as Canada is importing about 800,000 per year more of them, driving in Toronto was an exercise in anticipation (of bad driving etiquette) and quick reactions (when what you feared would happen, did). I’m actually quite used to it, but it was a surprise to Micheline, with everyone hogging the middle lane on a 3 lane highway; seriously big trucks who do 120 km and swerve quickly when changing lanes, and some of them even signal, but not many.
We got through a day of local driving, and another on the 5 hour trip up to Ottawa from Toronto — a journey I’ve driven not less than 200 times. I used to import clothes from the UK — T-shirts with artwork on them — back in the late 80’s. I had shops in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and London, Ontario that all sold them, and I would drive up and down that part of the country keeping everyone stocked up (not my shops; they would sell my stuff on consignment). Driving it felt familiar, and we stopped in Tweed, halfway distance, and the same Chip wagon is still there, even on July 1 — a National holiday — so we had to stop, and sample the offerings: chips / chips with gravy / chips with gravy and cheese curds (poutine) / chips with chilli sauce. I kept it simple (and the car cleanish) - just chips. But of course, this is Canada, so the posted price is just the beginning: I’d long forgotten about taxes - provincial taxes (8%); federal taxes (6%) and all added after the fact, so your $6.99 fries is now $7.97, and so on. Wine at $18 rings up at $20.52, so the $20 dollar bill so handy as I was walking the aisle not didn’t cover it, so I was left scrambling for more money… annoying to say the least. Furthermore, the recent elimination of the penny (New Zealand has gotten rid of both the penny and 5 pence pieces (rounds to nearest .10) in Canada means that the staff have to figure out what to do with these odd totals, so in true Canadian fashion, they just always round up. How kind. Even a purchase at $4.61 … gave the guy 4.60 and he said it was $4.61… I said ‘Don’t you round it to nearest 5, therefore $460?’ … He didn’t get it. I pulled out some coins that I had been saving in NZ for just this occasion, including a Canadian penny. There you go, I said. He looked at it. “We don’t take pennies anymore, you need a nickel.” I looked at him as if to say … “are you nuts? If I give you a nickel (5 cents), you’ll just keep the lot won’t you”. He wasn’t phased. I gave him a dime (10 cents)… “Keep the change” I said, “and if someone else needs a penny, maybe give them the honour of rounding down, so they won’t get pissed off.” The subtlety of sarcasm seems to have died a slow death around these parts.
Coins of Canada: Nickel (5c); Dime (10c); Quarter (25c); Looney (a One dollar coin with a picture of a Loon bird on it… ; Two-nee ( a two dollar coin that has a bear on it, but rhymes with Loonie), so it’s a Toonie. The small copper penny is no longer.