Swimming!!

Yippee!! Hooray!! We're swimming today! Nothing more to say...

xx

Flex

After nearly 6 months of a "dodgey" mini van we finally got our new lease car and it's a beast!

Unfortunately we weren't able to get our first choice of car but we're actually quite pleased with what we ended up with.  It's a Ford Flex which is a model not available in Australia and truthfully it's not the most attractive looking car but it has all the bells and whistles!  This thing is the fanciest car I've ever driven and it includes some super nifty features like leather seats, remote engine ignition, seat warmers, remote boot opening/closing and the phone syncs up with the audio system.  I've heard that the remote ignition and seat warmers are very nice to have once the temperature drops!

I'm very pleased with the reversing camera but all the beeping and sirens are a bit annoying!  Trying to reverse park on the other side of the road is tricky on its own but trying to do it down town with the car beeping and flashing at you is really stressful!

I find it a little strange that in Quebec cars only have number plates on the rear of the car but the rest of Canada has them at both ends.  Maybe it's to avoid detection through speed cameras although I must admit to never having seen one.  Speed limits also appear to be completely optional.  Honking and tail gating on the other hand seem obligatory...

xx

Almost swimming...

After weeks and weeks of looking at a very yukky green pool while enviously hearing our neighbours splash around in their sparkly clean pool, we are finally half way to swimming in our pool!

After lots of negotiating we finally got the go ahead to have the pool emptied and the holes in the liner repaired.  (It's very common in Quebec to have a vinyl liner instead of a concrete pool because of the harsh weather conditions.  This method means the concrete won't crack but it does run the risk of getting holes in it).

What a gross job!

After it was cleaned out a lady actually got underneath the liner to look for holes!  It was so funny to see her walking around under there!  She quickly repaired the holes and vacuum sucked the liner back in place and now the pool is being refilled.  With any luck we'll be swimming by the weekend!

Yippee!!  Hooray!!

xx

Date night

Going to restaurants with kids is a tricky business and we've only done it once in Montreal and it required a lot of help from some "i" devices! So Fanta Pants and I took advantage of Nifty and Pearl staying with us and headed into the village to a lovely French restaurant we've been very keen to try out.  The food was so delicious, the setting lovely and we barely spoke about the children!

It's in a very old stone building and being summer we ate outside but I'm sure it would be really lovely to eat inside in the winter too.

We even started with cocktails - a kir royale complete with summer berries and a Manhattan!  Fanta Pants and I are pretty predictable when it comes to dinner out.  If there is duck or rabbit on the menu that's what we'll be having and given this is a French resto we were in luck!  All the food was delicious and not nearly as expensive as in Australia.

It was really a lovely night out and I think we're going to have to find a good babysitter soon so we can do this more often!  Adam Hills is coming to town with the "Just for Laughs" comedy festival and I think we'd both really enjoy some Aussie humour!

xx

Strawberry picking

I would like to be able to tell you that our little tribe picked all these delicious looking strawberries but unfortunately that wasn't really what happened.  Due to the extremely hot weather recently the strawberries ripened much quicker than usual which meant by the time we arrived at the farm just before midday today they were all gone!!

Luckily a tractor ride around the farm, some very fat pigs and a very cute bunny helped relieve the disappointment.  We went to a place called Quinn Farm on Ile Perrot which is a little island just 25 minutes drive south west of us.  They specialise in "u pick" for strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples, pumpkins and Christmas trees which you can actually chop down yourself!  I'm sure we'll be back again soon to try some of the different fruits.

After a picnic lunch we decided we'd like to have a look at how the strawberries are grown and I'm really glad we did.  We were the only ones and there were still quite a few good strawberries to pick.  Even though some were quite small, they were sweet, juicy and super delicious!

(Yes Fanta Pants's t-shirt is quite rude for an Aussie!  It's from a quintessential Canadian company called "Roots Canada" and it's logo is a beaver... hmm.  Export potential for the Australian market = very low.  Giggle factor for Aussies living in Canada = very high!

xx

School's out for summer!

That's right, school finishes today for 9.5 weeks!!!!  9.5 weeks?!?  WOW!  That's a really long time...

No more big, yellow school bus for a while!

Once I realised how long the school holidays were we started planning lots of fun stuff.  Nifty and Pearl are still here so we'll try and fit in some sightseeing and maybe a little trip or two before they go.  We've got a big trip planned and hopefully we'll have some friends come to stay as well.  We've joined our local pool where we'll have daily swimming lessons and there are a lot of activities on a the library.  Action Boy will also go to a day camp for a week.  Maybe our pool will be open by the time summer is over... grr, grr, grr!

From the weather we've had over the last couple of days there's no denying the next couple of months will be hot and humid.  Yesterday was quite unbearable in the house.  Luckily the basement feels like it has an aircon and so we spent as much of the day as possible down there!  Fanta Pants keeps his beer in the cellar down there and the bottles were practically drinking temperature even though it felt like 40 degrees upstairs!

To escape the heat we took our taco dinner to the park across the road for a refreshing picnic.  The fresh breeze was just what we all needed!  Isn't it amazing that kids have the energy to run and play no matter how hot and sticky it is?  

xx

Humidex

Environment Canada doesn't just measure the temperature, when it's really cold and really hot they put that measurement into a formula to create wind-chill and humidex temperatures.* (See below if you're keen for a more scientific explanation)  These formulated temperatures are what the weather "actually" feels like when you take all the other elements into consideration.

Ordinarily I would find all this weather/science talk quite boring but we're in the midst of a mini heatwave.  It is very hot and humid here... yesterday it got to 32 degrees with a humidex reading of 40 degrees!!  I would have never imagined it would get this hot!  But we were all acutely aware of how hot it was yesterday and today!  It's forecast to get to 43 degrees today!  It's so humid and there isn't a breeze....  In less than 6 months we have experienced a temperature variation of 70 degrees Celsius!  It's really amazing that somewhere so seriously cold then gets so incredibly hot and humid!  

Luckily this debilitating heat should move on tomorrow and the basement is beautifully cool so we're hanging out down here.  Unluckily our pool is still very green and unswimable.... ggrrrrr.  

xx

*Q.

What is the "humidex"?

  A.

The humidex is an index (a computed value as opposed to something measured) devised to describe how hot or humid weather feels to the average person. The humidex combines the temperature and humidity into one number to reflect the perceived temperature. It takes into account these two important factors that affect summer comfort. It is therefore a better measure of how stifling the air feels than either temperature or humidity alone. A humidex of 40 with, for example, a temperature of 30 degrees means that the sensation of heat when it is 30 degrees and the air is humid is more or less the same as when it is 40 degrees and the air is dry. We must be careful not to depend on this interpretation alone: it is a mere indication of physiological reactions, not an absolute measure

www.weatheroffice.gc.ca

Field trip

The school year is drawing to a close and that means end of year field trips.  Having live-in babysitters means that I can volunteer to help out at these kinds of things which is really nice.  (Thanks Nifty and Pearl!).


Yesterday it was Action Boy's turn so off we set in a big yellow school bus and headed to a gorgeous little hobby farm in the heart of rural Quebec.  The teacher even pointed out a one room school house along the way!

It was a hot and humid day but all the kids a ball feeding animals and having tractor rides.  There was even a camp fire to roast marshmallows!

Shame about the mosquitoes!  They are a SERIOUS problem here!  The warmer weather means you want to spend time outdoors but the minute you step outside you're attacked!  Poor Little Miss D reacts terribly and the other day her knee swelled up in a hot, red puff ball that ended up in a bruise!  Nasty.  Unfortunately they really do seem to prefer young flesh too...

Sitting around a camp fire in a very green forest feels just like the American movies I watched growing up.  This summer thing also feels just like a movie - a very long break from school, kids playing in the street, walking into the village for ice cream and registration for summer camp.  It's all very novel and fun!

xx

Trapped on a trampoline

I'm sure it has become obvious but I've become quite fond of our crazy furry friends who live in the backyard.  I think they are loving summer because we are eating outside a lot and of course there is always something "left" behind for them.

Today a couple of them were having a quite a lot of fun chasing each other all around the backyard and ended up on the trampoline!

It was so funny!  I'm not sure if they were really cross at one another or just playing but they were making the cutest noises - "tchtchtch!"

xx

Birthdays

I'm exhausted!  We've celebrated two birthdays in two days and we've still got Father's Day to go tomorrow!

Baby A celebrated his first birthday yesterday with a teddy bear's picnic and was very pleased with the cake and new toys.

Then today, we had an early party for Action Boy.  So as not to miss any friends who might be away, Canadian kids with summer birthdays usually hold the parties before school finishes.  That means there are three weekends of parties for us!

Our party went quite well but 11 little boys running riot in the backyard was a bit of a hand full - what were we thinking?  In the end it went well and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The Lego Star Wars theme worked well but maybe the pool noodle light sabres I made weren't such a great idea.  It looked so cute on Pintrest but in the hands of little boys they were just whacking sticks!!

A much better Pintrest idea was the Yodamelon!  A real winner.

xx

Summer and syrup

Uncle Rugby commented that I need to change the name of this blog to "Summer and syrup"!  While the snow has melted the berries are more plentiful and cheaper than ever!  What's even better the air miles are reducing too with strawberry season kicking off in Quebec last week.  Hopefully we'll manage to pick our own at a farm this weekend too.

While on the hunt for pre-rolled sheets of puff pastry, we found two punnets of raspberries for $3!!!  Amazing!  Unfortunately the pastry sheets are proving to be very elusive.  Like a detective I've been following up leads but as yet my sources have only lead me into dead ends.  I feel an email to the pastry company coming on...

xx

Doctors

All is not lost in the world family doctors in Quebec.  I never thought this would actually happen, but it has and I'm SO relieved!  Somehow I managed to convince a paediatrician to take on all three children!!!  Amazing huh!? (Apparently some doctors might see one of your children but not the others...)

It has taken five months and many phone calls to various clinics and in the last week there have been several phone calls between me and the receptionist.  With Baby A about to turn one I put in extra effort to ask around and make more enquiries and it paid off.  I really wanted him to have a proper check up when he gets his immunisations and now we have an appointment!  Yippee!

When I first called up, the receptionist asked "What's your story?".  Of course I then played up that we are only here for a short while and it worked.  In the end she said we were very lucky to be taken on and joked that it may have been the accent that sealed the deal!

xx

Beaches

That's right, we found a beach only 15 minutes from home!  It's really not quite the white sandy beaches we're used to but it was still water and sand and the kids had a ball.  Even Baby A!

This beach is part of a Parc-nature called Cap-Saint-Jacques on the Saint Laurence River and as such we had to pay to get in!  $26 for 6 people and parking!

Not realising we would have to pay to get in, we only planned for a quick dip but I'm sure we'll be back and we'll set up for the day.  In the lush greenery behind the bush there were lovely picnic tables, BBQs and loos.

This beach will have to do until we head south next spring.  The destinations in the running at the moment are Mexico, Cuba or somewhere in the Caribbean...

xx

Seasonal

I am still in awe at how Mother Nature has managed to bring life back to what was a barren, snow covered land.  It's truly amazing how lush and green everything has become in a relatively short period of time.

We've had some really lovely weather over the last few days and so we've taken advantage of it and heading out and about.  We took Pearl and Nifty to the lovely flea market in Hudson we'd visited before and we picked an interesting collection of goodies.  Among other things, Fanta Pants was keen on a lovely decanter, Action Boy got some lovely coat tails for dress ups and we got some maple syrup.  It's much cheaper to buy it by the tin ($6.50 for 500ml) and it's always nice to buy direct from the producer.  There are generally four flavours - light, medium, amber and dark.  The syrup in the supermarket is usually medium but the darker the colour the stronger the taste.  We have just tried amber and loved it so I was super keen to get some dark.  I'll let you know how strong the flavour really is!

After the market we headed to a lovely pub on the water - Willows Inn.  Very casual but so lovely!  It was the first weekend open for the summer and it was pumping!

I guess the weather will be good until the end of August when school goes back and until that time, it seems that people are heading outside to soak up as much warmth and vitamin D before the leaves fall.  Just like you see in American movies, there are summer jobs everywhere for the young people - as waiters, lawn mowers, summer camp leaders.  It's such a contrast to the endless summers we're used to!

xx

Festival Season

This weekend the Formula 1 Grand Prix rolls into town and this event marks the beginning of the summer festival season.


Unfortunately for organisers and fans alike this year's event is a bit different from previous years.  Due to the threat of protests, organisers cancelled the "Open Day" in the pits and security has been seriously beefed up.  For the first time in a long time this year's event isn't sold out which I'm sure will have run on consequences for the related tourism businesses...


The race is held on a little island on the south side of Montreal.  Lucky for the race drivers that they get decent roads to whizz around on!  Those cars wouldn't last 100m on an ordinary Montreal pot hole ridden street!

http://www.skysports.com/

Montreal is famous for it's summer festivals - especially the Jazz Music and Just for Laughs festivals.  There are so many other outdoor activities happening as well.  We're hoping to check out a few of these festivals and go strawberry and blueberry picking as well as trying out some of the water and animal parks.  Along with all the end of school year activities and birthday parties we're pretty busy and loving being able to enjoy the warmer weather.

xx

Tourism

Our VIP guests arrived safe and well - we'll call them Nifty and Pearl.  The children are especially pleased to have their grandparents here lavishing them with fun and attention!

It's not easy to be a tourist where you live because you're pretty wrapped up in your day to day life but today we thought we'd give it a go.  Nifty had read that an area called "The Plateau" looked like an interesting endroit to check out.  I've not been there before but had heard that it was a funky, artsy kind of place but without any particular major monument or attraction.  Just somewhere interesting to wander around and grab a nice bite to eat.

Unfortunately it didn't work out that way.  We found the area to be quite dumpy and run down and a lot of the restaurants and shops weren't opening until midday.  There seriously weren't many redeeming features.

To top off a shoddy outing, the traffic going home was terrible.  We had to be home in time to meet the school bus so we'd left an hour to get home and lucky we did because we made it with about 5 minutes to spare!  Next time we head into the city, I think we'll try a more "targeted" approach to sight seeing!

The day wasn't all lost, we did pick up some of those amazing bagels from St Vivateur's and I had a closer look the Bixi Bikes.

Bixi bikes are public bike system that seems to be a very popular alternate means of transport.  The bikes are available between April and November and there are over 400 stations across the city with over 5100 bikes.  You can pay per trip or subscribe for the season.  What a fab idea!

xx

summer coat

Our little furry friends have well and truly shed their winter coats and are now sporting very short fur that is turning quite brown.  There are now some baby squirrels running around too.  Squirrels by nature are pretty crazy and energetic but these babies are even more so!  It doesn't appear that they've had their "what to do about humans" lesson yet either.  The babies come very close to the house and don't move out of the way of cars.  (Sadly there's a bit more road kill than normal at the moment).

This cute little guy below is by far the bravest of them all.  He doesn't run away when we're around and even ran between Fanta Pants and Action Boy kicking the footy!  He will often stop and pose for photos too!  That's my kind of squirrel!

Is he showing off his muscles?

Also in the garden at the moment are these beautiful roses.  Their perfume is just delicious.  It continues to amaze me how some of these plants manage to survive through the freezing winter to then be able to produce such delicate flowers!

Fortunately this rose plant is quite high up and not very strong so our furry friends can't attack the blooms!

xx

Guests

We've got some VIP guests arriving tonight and we've been busy little bees getting the room ready.  After this house, it's not likely that we'll have a guest room so we didn't really want to spend a lot on getting it together.  We followed the wise words of Bob the Builder "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle"!  Besides new sheets and towels everything else was either in the house, from a flea market or the op shop.

I'm quite pleased with what we managed to pull together, especially these cute pics and old tapestries.

The guest room is a sweet little room which and must have been a later addition to the side of the house.  It has it's own little bathroom and side entrance so it may have been a granny flat.  Luckily for those who will get to sleep in there, the room is quite separate from the rest of the noisy house and so won't hear thumping on the wooden floors upstairs which usually starts at around 5.30am...

In other exciting news, some of the peonies are ready for picking!  They are just beautiful and I'm super excited that they were just growing in our garden.  The pretty pink and red ones are ready but the white ones are still buds and amazingly there are still so many buds left on the bush!  I think we've got about three weeks worth of stunning flowers!

xx

Disappointing

I was very excited last night when Fanta Pants said "I hear pan-demonium coming up the street!"  I grabbed my phone and raced out the door.  We live in a lovely part of suburbia so the only student demonstration action I see or hear about is in the media and I since I've been following this strike quite keenly I was keen to see it up close!

Well, I was very disappointed when the demonstrators walked past.  There were only eight of them!?!?!  Are you serious?  They were obviously expecting more as they had a security detail...

miserable effort...

I get the feeling that there is a real English v French thing happening with this debate too.  There seem to be far less English speaking students involved and people around here don't seem to be supporting the whole strike like they are in the French speaking areas.

The provincial government and the student associations had been negotiating seriously for the last few days but last night they called it quits without an agreement.  The government is refusing to continue to put a freeze on tuition fees (which are currently the lowest in Canada) and the students are refusing to accept that.  The new fees will take effect in September when the new academic year starts but who knows what will happen?  Will some students not re-enrol?  Are they cutting their noses off to spite their faces?  It's their education and futures that will suffer for the sake of $250 a year.  I try very hard to understand the cultural and social history of Quebec to see where the roots of the argument lie but I just can't come to grips with the call for free higher education.

The most militant of the student groups has vowed to disrupt the Formula One Grand Prix which is scheduled to start next week.  If that does happen it would be very embarrassing and disappointing for the whole of Montreal which seems to live for its summer festivals and tourist attractions.

xx