Homecoming

It's our last night in Ottawa. It's been great, catching up with friends, some of whom we haven't seen in more than two years. It seems trite, but living abroad has opened our eyes to this beautiful city; Tea confessed as much to me yesterday, as, independently, it was coalescing for me.

My heart will always be on the east coast, but I can now imagine a life here again, in a year or so.

A-hikin' again, o'er Crickley

We're back from a great trip home to both Ottawa and Halifax. We got to hang out with Kae, see Mullet Rock play the Rainbow, and celebrate an early Robbie Burns' Day with Joe and Christine (and lots of old friends) -- barely 24 hours before the birth of their first child, James Ian MacDonald, as it turned out! Then it was off to the east coast to share good food and times with our families.

We were up nice 'n' early this morning, hoping to speed along our adjusting to the time zone. The rain had stopped by 9 a.m., so we decided to get out for a bit of exercise. It was also a good excuse for Tea to try out her new camera: a Canon EOS Rebel T1i DSLR.

Grey though the day may've been, many made it out to the Crickley Hill Country Park, where we'd decided to hike. This meant many dogs as well, of course, which Tea loved. And despite the mist and clouds, there were some great views as we made our way to the Air Balloon pub for their carvery. (Bit of a disappointment, that: more in the vein of a Wetherspoons. really, although their seasonal veg was superior; particularly the carrot and parsnip.)

The fantastic views continued after lunch, although I spent more time looking at my feet as the hike went on: all that foot traffic (and the rain, no doubt) made for a very muddy trail. I almost made it back to the car without incident. Near the end, I was taking a picture when I felt both feet slip out from under me; had to sit on a shopping bag for the drive home.

Still, all in all, a great day. We'd both missed our walks through the English countryside.

Check out our Picasa album for more pictures from the day.

The green, green grass of home

Since getting back from Bruges -- I'm still editing the many photos from that trip -- Tea 'n' I have been takin' it easy. Last weekend we went to Tewkesbury for a beer festival, and had a great time. Their abbey really is worth all the chatter we hear on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, and the town exemplifies the best of what we mean when we say 'small'. We met a woman in the tourist information centre who'd been to Ottawa a number of times with a touring company she worked for. (She loved it, of course.) The coincidences continued as we met a few Americans at the beer festival, and had a great chat over a few pints.

This weekend has been all about the Olympics, of course. One more point on the local radio: Eddie 'The Eagle' is from here, and some guest they had on the other day had Tea 'n' I in stitches as he was just cuttin' into Eddie, in the sharp, yet self-deprecating, way the British seem to excel at. "Oh, God, yes, we wheel him out every four years. Only in Britain would we make a national hero of someone who's rubbish. [scathing emphasis] God love us."

The opening ceremony was fantastic; Tea's favourite part was k.d.'s rendition of Hallelujah -- I enjoyed it too, but I'm still partial to Jeff Buckley's cover -- and mine was the fiddlers, closely followed by that amazing "Powering the city" sequence against the representation of the Rockies. The BBC seems to be the only channel that carried it over here. (And the only one that's carrying the Games in general, if only partially, unfortunately.) Still, it's neat getting a foreign perspective on Canada, as they complain about how foreigners only got the minimum amount of time on the hills -- a complaint against the host nation every year, their athlete-turned-commentator was quick to point out -- and marvel at the beauty of Vancouver and the Rockies, and the diversity of our heritage. (They had all sorts of trivia about the Governor General, the RCMP, our flag and anthem -- it was great!) I've only ever flown over the Rockies -- and once at that -- and now, more than ever, I want to see them when I get back. I've got a list, actually, that includes some stuff I really should've done before now, like the Cabot Trail (I've done every other part of that coast, oddly), Gros Morne, Banff and St. Anthony, to name a few.

On that note, a new British friend, Pete, is in Ottawa right now, taking in the ice sculptures and skating, gorging himself on Beavertails. He's even made it out to Edelweiss snowboarding. I'm seeing my home through new eyes -- thanks to mobile uploads to Facebook -- and falling in love with it all over again. There's some truth to that statement about the green grass, I tell ya.

* * *

I've been writing this over a few days. We just got back from a stroll to town for a spot of lunch at one of our favourite spots, Gusto, and a bit of shopping. I actually made Tea breakfast in bed this morning! Probably shouldn't be such a rarity, but I had to mention it, as it turned out so well. I made pancakes -- from a mix of imported Aunt Jemima (thanks, Michelle!), it's true, but that's still a challenge for me -- and they were so fluffy! Tea's now promised to call on my limited skills more often, which is of course the rub with these sorts of successes. (Just kidding!)

'Arctic' living

Well, we've been having great fun the last few days. Comments like, "You must feel right at home," abound as a cold snap, and a nice bit of snow, hit Britain. Southern England has probably seen close to 30 cm of snow over the last two days -- the most they've seen in some 30 years! -- with temperatures hovering around minus 10 degrees Celsius today.


Our backyard Wed. mornHeadlines of "Frozen Britain" and "Arctic conditions" are rarely out of the news. Tea and I must've been in bed for an extra forty minutes this morning, shaking our heads and laughing as BBC Radio Gloucester talked about it almost non-stop. Seriously! "Is it safe for my eighteen-month-old cat to go outside?" and "How do the ducks keep warm?" squeezed out all but a thirty-second piece on the lacklustre coup attempt in the Labour Party. People were phoning in with the temperatures in their areas like they were entering the most lucrative of contests.

We've had a couple of beautiful walks to work; particularly yesterday, when the snow was still fluffy, with that pleasant scrunch; and it was so quiet, with most folks staying home. It's actually getting a bit treacherous now, as sidewalk snow that wasn't cleared has now been compressed to an icy sheen. And I guess that's the main message in all this: they just can't cope. 'Grit' (i.e., rock salt) is running low, side streets haven't been touched, villages are snowed in -- not in a Canadian sense, but a hill of any size, covered in icy snow is too much for most vehicles, especially considering the tires here -- and folks are trying to stay warm in rubber boots. Grocery stores are packed; it'd be like them forecasting another ice-storm at home, I'd imagine.

And there's more snow on the way this weekend, apparently. Still, even if it gets down to the minus 20 °C they're talking about, I find it much nicer than winter in Ottawa: they simply don't get that biting wind here -- well, in the city proper, anyway; my boss lives up on the surrounding hills and paints a slightly different picture. I also like the child-like novelty of it all: a bunch of the younger crowd organized an impromptu snowball fight over lunch yesterday, and everyone's eager to share pictures of the snowmen (and snow-dogs, in one case) they've made. Look for that to wear off as this continues, though; proper mitts, snow shovels and scrappers are all in short supply over here, and cat flaps and mail slots don't do well for keeping houses warm.

Settling in

Well, two more days down -- including our first day at work! We spent yesterday running a few errands and preparing -- both mentally and the laying out outfits variety -- for the big day. One highlight from yesterday that comes to mind is lunch at Café Rouge: I tried ratatouille for the first time (delicious!) and Tea had a fantastic french onion soup with an amazing selection of breads and olives. (Unfortunately I was so distracted by all the tastiness that I only got one picture from early in the meal -- that Belgian beer in front of me, Früli, was really refreshing, incidentally.)

On the way home we stopped in Waitrose again for our first real grocery shop. Of note was the Arla lactose-free cheese I picked up and the Manchego cheese that Tea picked up: the former was fantastic (even my tough critic agreed wholeheartedly), and so was the latter; it's made from sheep's milk, which I now know I can also eat. Very exciting for me... This is the best cheese I've eaten in years, other than a lactose-free smoked gouda that Tea stumbled upon in Ottawa a few years ago. One final note on my lactose intolerance -- yes, it's all about me today and every day ;-) : they have a different definition of 'high-fibre' over here, so, faced with eating straight-up All Bran again, I decided I had to spice it up, so to speak. My solution was flavoured yogurt, and, odd as it sounds, the Activa stuff doesn't seem to bother my stomach. It's a big relief for me, 'cause breakfast has always been the cornerstone of my day.

A few comments on their embracing the 'net over here: when we got home last night we decided to set up a grocery delivery for later in the week; you have to book your spot a bit in advance, so we figured the timing was good, now that we had food for a few days. The Waitrose site was amazing: you can easily pull up the sale items in any category -- my eyebrows went up at seeing Innis & Gunn Original for £1.66, with an additional pound off when you buy three (which I did, of course) -- pull from your favourites (we've been told), and Tea was most impressed by how easy it was for her to isolate which products in any category were dairy-free (e.g., freshly-made soups). The delivery comes this Thursday evening, so we'll see how that part of the experience goes.

Then there was booking this morning's cab (to ensure we were lookin' our best on our first day): we booked it on-line last night, got the confirmation, and then, just as they described in that note, the cab showed up right on time this morning, immediately followed by an automated telephone call informing us of that. In a word: seamless.

Finally, Tea ordered some power adapters for North American grounded (i.e., three-prong) plugs yesterday at a steal, and they were waiting for us at the Royal Mail office before we got off work today. (Tea was a bit nervous about using them with her precious Powerbook, but all's well, as I assured her it would be.) I'm stretching it with that last example, but truly, the 'net is useful here in ways it simply isn't (yet) back home.

We also came home to a fabulous message from Linda, the lady of our land-couple: Tea's fears about wardrobe space have been assuaged; more furniture is on the way. Those two really are amazing, I have to say. We've heard of a few problems with landlords now -- they have many more rights here than they do in Canada -- and feel all the luckier for it.

Finally, remember that essential equipment I picked up the other day? I have a new appreciation for proper -- read: big and sturdy -- umbrellas after today. We walked for a good hour 'n' a half this evening -- picking up the adapters and then supper at The Everest (Yum! Will I recognize when I've become addicted to Indian food?) -- through a series of downpours and showers, and I hardly noticed. As I mentioned to Tea, that sort of weather normally would've kept us in back home, but, as I understand it, we won't have that luxury over here; 'course Ottawans didn't really have that luxury last month either -- only six days without rain in the whole month or some such -- so it was great prep. for us!

Bluesfest in Ottawa

We decided to take a break from all the prep. work -- just a few more weeks! -- and headed down to Lebreton Flats to meet Kae at Bluesfest. The name is a misnomer -- even the organizers joke about it now -- with Sam Roberts and Jackson Browne on the bill that night.

The bus was packed with riders carrying folded camping chairs by the time it reached the venue. We joined the throng that was being directed away from the busiest entrance, and were in and outfitted with our "of drinking age" bracelets in no time.


The array of food stands was really impressive. I don't remember having that wide a selection in years past, although the last one we went to was in front of City Hall (a few years ago now, I guess). Tea and Kae had hot dogs -- Tea, with poutine, and Kae, with sweet potato fries -- and I had a fantastic turkey and pancetta panini with a pasta salad on the side. The Indian food -- Rose's, I think -- looked great and seemed very popular, The Works was there; it was all very expensive, of course, but really tasty and well organized. We also enjoyed Kettle Corn popcorn and a Nutella-topped Beavertail before the night was through.

They had a bigger selection of beers and wines at "The Lounge", so I found myself there regularly. One of my many runs stands out, though: I was in line for another beer -- they had Creemore Springs Lager, which, unlike their pilsner, I really enjoy -- when I saw this guy making his way back down the line asking a question. When he got to me, he asked, "How many are ya gettin'?"

"One," I said.

"Would ya buy me one?" he said.

"Sure," I said.

His eyes had looked a little glassy, but that perked him right up. Clearly he hadn't had much success with the venture, and had expected more of the same. After a bit of head bobbin', chuckling, and muttering "Great!", he realized he hadn't given me any money and began patting his pockets. Coors was $6, so the five- and twenty-dollar bills to his name brought on a deep pondering as he tried to figure out how to ensure we both had enough legal tender to complete our transactions separately. Before I could tell him the fiver was good, he ran up to the front of the line to bum a loonie off his buddies.

That settled, Stephen, as he introduced himself, looked much relieved, commenting, "That's really good of you. I mean, I'm not a bad guy; just looking to get a bit more beer is all." -- the policy was two per customer per transaction, as I later found out, although I still kept buying one beer at a time all night for some reason.

So Stephen and I were chattin' away -- turned out he's a Newfie too -- and we're about two-thirds of the way through the line when he got that concerned look again. "Hang on now; what'd'you get outta this?"

"Don't worry about it, man," I said.

"No, no; you were nice enough to help me out, so I wanna do something for ya," he said, and wouldn't be dissuaded.

Funny enough, what he finally settled on -- again, after much deliberation -- was to buy my beer. This turned into a double rye 'n' coke once we were at the counter, but, hey, I wasn't complaining. We chatted a bit more after that, and, before breaking off to go back to our groups, Stephen said, "Good eye contact, man; keep it up." Hilarious! The kindness of slightly-inebriated strangers prevailed again!

Oddly enough, it was the festival atmosphere that really captured my attention that night. Sam Roberts put on a really good show, and we did wander over to take in some of Jackson Browne's performance, but, for the most part, we just hung out, chatted with other friends we ran into there, and made runs to The Lounge. After the bus ride home, we capped off the night with more good times and music in the form of drunken Rock Band! Superstar!

Back home (for a month or so)

Looking at our pictures from yesterday, I found the urge to blog was still there and thought, "Why not?" Yes, we're home for a bit, but very shortly we'll be back in the UK, so why break the habit.

I was up early yesterday and had some time to work on my drawing class before Tea got up. We decided to continue working on the inventory we'd started the previous evening -- the inventory of our books, music and movies has been done for some time, but now we've finished the furniture, most of the kitchen and some of the electronics. (I still have to take photos of everything too.) Tea dictates and I type; we both feel like we have the easiest job, which works out well.


She's about to have another piece
Then Kae came by for a visit, bearing a gift for our wedding anniversary: a fantastic chocolate cream pie! As you can see from this picture, we're already well into it a day later.

Then the inventory of the kitchen continued, but with the wine flowing now as we looked ahead to our anniversary supper at one of our favourite restaurants, Fiamma, just a short walk away. As you can imagine, our pace diminished -- at some point I started echoing Tea as I typed so she'd realize how far behind I was falling -- 'til Tea gave up entirely and called her sister. The two of them decided to have an interactive opening of the birthday presents Tea'd sent her -- over Skype -- and much hilarity ensued.

Then it was off to Fiamma. Foolishly thinking that the sidewalk was a safe place for a slightly-inebriated person such as myself, in one of those both-zigging-when-one-should-zag situations, I was almost run over by a young man on a barely-coasting bicycle. Thankfully, the rest of the walk was uneventful.

We began the meal with more wine, an anti-pasti tray, and PEI mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce. Yum! Tea had chicken parmesan with fettucine alfredo, and I had linguine pescatore with scallops, squid and more mussels. They really know how to cook pasta at Fiamma, and this time was no exception.

Then it was home for a bit of drunken cribbage. Tea was kickin' my butt all over that half-acre, so I decided to call it a night. At no point did I fall asleep in the middle of a hand -- ah, the advantages of being the blogger/historian.