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Thank you, KateEvans in Canada! I've never been to Calgary but my Dad lives near there. I heard that Calgary's gorgeous and well worth a visit.
And thank you, princessfairytoes. "New house, new baby", huh? Sounds interesting... I'll let you know if that works, although I was kinda hoping that it would happen sooner than that! 
Oh well, we'll see.
So, we picked up my Mum at Heathrow this morning. She looked great. I hadn't seen her in about a year and she was looking slim (always her goal) and young (another goal, of course). She's a bit upset about my Nanna, but she's bothered more by the fact that she's had to rush over from Canada to take care of my disabled Grandad because there doesn't seem to be any doctor or government help. My Nanna was the only one who had been taking care of him abd now she's in the hospital.
We took my Mum to the train station and she headed up North to Cumbria. Upon arrival, she gave me a call to let me know that she'd arrive safely. She tells me that my Grandad's a mess. Apparently, he's been trying to take care of himself since my Nanna went into the hospital about a week ago. My Mum ony found out about the stroke yesterday because my Grandad didn't want to worry her and have her rush over. The problem is that he can hardly walk and falls down frequently, only to stay down until someone comes to his aid.
So my Mum's sounding stressed, and I can't blame her. She was off to clean him up and make him something to eat.
She hasn't been able to contact the hospital yet so I don't know if there's been any change to her condition.
We worked some more on decorating our kitchen today but it was slow-going. With my Mum arriving today, our minds just haven't been on it. But it's looking good. We've chosen a pale yellow with white tiles. Very fresh and clean!
That's it for now. Ciao!
O Canada, our home and native land...
To answer your question, nuttysue, I'm from Montreal. That's in the province of Quebec, the French province. I did all my schooling there and I am fluently bilingual.
I've never been to Toronto (well, except for when I stopped at Pearson airport on my way to Vancouver once), but I hear that it's lovely and lively city. Ottawa is the country's capital, but, in many people's view, Toronto really is the heart of Canada. It's big and it certainly seems to host more major sporting and entertainment events than anywhere else in Canada.
Try asking people here in England what the capital of Canada is and I'll bet that quite a few guess Toronto!
Do I have any tips, you ask. Well, the winters are very cold and the summers are very hot and humid. Be prepared for a winter that really gets down and dirty around the beginning of December and stays pretty damned cold until the end of February, sometimes March. Be prepared to dig your car out, only to have a snow removal truck pile it right back up again. Be prepared for winter temperatures sometimes as low as -40C with the wind chill. This doesn't happen often, maybe once of twice a year, but when it does, wrap up tight and cover any exposed skin. Either that, or just stay in. Winter temperatures normally hover anywhere between about zero and -20C.
Summer in central Canada is hot. Actually, it's humid. Walking out of an air-conditionned shopping centre into the August air is like walking into a wall. But, like the winter, the summer weather is changeable and it isn't always unbearably humid.
Also, being in Toronto, you'll be very near the American border. Shopping in the US is fun. Tax free!!
You'll be near Niagara Falls too. And the CN Tower. New York, Montreal, Quebec City!
But I love Canada and I've spent 25 wonderful years there. I will be moving back there with my family soon as I/we miss it so much. Yes, the winters can be a real pain in the ass but, like everything, you deal with it. You just light a fire and curl up beside the one you love and watch the snow fall in big fat flakes.
...then you go out and make a snowman!!
nuttysue, if you don't mind my asking, where are you moving from? And how are you getting into Canada? Are you having someone sponsor you? Do you have family there? I have to sponsor my English husband and his daughhters to get them into Canada. While I wrote this, I was assuming the you were in England. Is that right? I'll have to go look at your blog again!
Monday, Monday...
It's Monday. Boring, boring Monday. And it was about 34C today! I'm sick of it! Please, please stop! I can't stand the heat and humidity anymore. It makes me feel like I'm suffocating. We live in Southeast England. Fairly close to Heathrow Airport where, just yesterday, England hit it's hottest ever recorded temperature of 38.1C. Unbelievable!
So I sit here wearing as little as I possible can while still being decent enough for my stepdaughters to come and see me and I wish for a thunder storm. Hell, a hail storm would do!
OK, I exaggerate.
My holidays are coming up soon. Not soon enough, of course, but soon. I worked today and I work Tuesday and Wednesday. After that, I'm off the rest of the week and for two whole weeks after that. I'm really looking forward to it and I feel like I could really use the break. Don't get me wrong, my job isn't demanding but then, I guess that that's the problem. I'm so bored there. Nothing challenging to do. Hell, nothing to do at all. But I get a decent wage for someone who does very little.
On Saturday, we're heading up the Lake District for our week's holiday away from home. I have family up there and we'll dropping in as well as touring around a bit. In fact, we'll be visiting my Nanna, who is still in the hospital. My Mum tells me that she's regaining some movement in her left side, so we are all hopeful that she'll be back at home soon.
Anyway, we'll be staying in a caravan. I like caravans. We stayed in a really nice one just outside Bude last year. Bude is in... was it Devon or Cornwall? Anyway, it was great! Three bedrooms, a small dining area, a spacious living room area and a nice kitchen. It was really clean too. And not that expensive. If anybody is thinking of staying in that area, let me know and I'll find the name of the place. I highly recommend it. The only trouble was that it wasn't really within walking distance of anything.
I haven't given up on the whole pregnancy thing yet either. (Have you noticed that I'm trying to sound more aloof about it now?) It's still, of course, something that we really want and each month brings new hope. Like last month, I'm feeling good about this month, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Be patient. Don't worry, be happy. Right?
There's a wonderfully cool breeze coming through my bedroom window right now. It feels really good.
We're all going on a summer holiday...
We're off to Cumbria on holiday tomorrow. We'll be heading off at about 4am, as we find that it helps to beat the traffic. We will, of course, be stopping a few times along the way - once certainly for a McD breakfast - so we expect the journey to take 6 or 7 hours. We drove to Cumbria last summer with my Mum and took a bit longer than that actually. We left too late and hit major traffic. It was a really hot day and the slow progress was a real pain in the ass.
So, my hubby's outside now, fixing up the car. He's making sure that everything is running as it should and having a general clean-up. We put the roof-rack on earlier so we're almost ready.
We packed our bags earlier and, seeing as we'll only be gome a week, it was a pretty easy task.
Concerning our baby-making efforts: Do I have any pregnancy symptoms? Yes. But then I did last month too. I'm learning to ignore them until I know that they actually mean anything.
That's it for me. I know that I don't update my blog as often as I could but at least now you'll know why I won't be updating it this coming week.
We're back! Well, we have been since Saturday really, but my Mum's been staying with us and my computer times was severely limited. We took her back to Heathrow on Thursday and she called later that night to let us know that she was home safely in Montreal. She said that it was a bumpy flight though!
We holidayed in Cumbria and I got to visit my Nanna who has recently had a stroke. She's still in the hospital now. And my Grandad is now in a care home for the elderly. His move, to his disapproval, is permanent. My Nanna, when she gets out of the hospital, simply cannot take care of him anymore. He needs constant assistance and falls down frequently. My Nanna is a frail 5-feet tall, possibly even shorter.
On the baby front, I'm nervous about jinxing things, but I am now 12 days late for my period. Counting, of course, on a 28-day cycle. I was, if I remember correctly, 7 days late last month. So I am unsure as to whether I should be counting a 28-day cycle at all. I used to be so regular.
Am I pregnant? Well, I don't feel it. But then I don't know how pregnant feels. And being off the pill for about 4 months now, my body feels all different anyway. What a mess!
So, we're going out in a few minutes to get photos taken of my husband and his daughters for our immigration to Canada forms. We'd like get them sent off this week. And if we get everything back within a month or two, our house could be on the market soon after that and we could be on our way.
Here's me (in my ever-present Rockingham hat) in Windemere last week:
Moving
The girls (my three stepdaughters) are at their mother's this weekend. A very rare treat for their father and I. She - their mother - rarely sees them and doesn't seem to mind. The funny thing is that the girls hardly seem to mind either. Sure, they miss her when they think about it. But it's obviously quite easy for them not to think about it.
I've spent this morning going over our forms for immigration to Canada. As I've mentioned before, I will be sponsoring my husband and his daughters to come into Canada and finally, become citizens. We went and got their photos taken yesterday too. So all we're missing now is something in writing from Stephen's ex to say that the two daughters under the age of 18 have her permission to go.
She's said that she'd be happy to sign something and she's even admitted that she doesn't fancy the idea of the girls living with her again. She also told him that she thinks that the girls would like Canada and that it would provide them with more opportunities that England ever could.
Longing to be a mother myself, I find it hard to understand when a woman can detach herself from her children like that. There is, of course, more to this story and you can bet that their mother sees things in a completely different light but, from where I'm sitting, she has treated them unfairly in many ways. And it obviously hurts them.
But in the end, it just helps the girls make their decision about whether or not they fancy moving to Canada. And they do - all three of them. And we're happy about that.
Covent Garden
We took my Mum into London on Tuesday, a couple of days before she was due to fly back to Canada. We visited Covent Garden. It was the first time that I'd been there and, although I wasn't overly impressed with the shopping, the atmosphere was top-notch.
There were artists and rides and shows...!
I took the picture below. The guy's clothing is all silver and stiff and he's obviously made to look like a robot or a statue. He was really good and really funny. Hope he didn't mind my taking his picture...
(Please ignore the fat guy on the left. No idea who he was!)
