More travelling - Sherbrooke

This week I went to Sherbrooke which is about an hour & half away from Montreal. It is a beautiful little country town with many snowfields nearby - some of the best in the Province apparently. I havent gone snowboarding yet but when I do - near Sherbrooke is where I'll go.

Here's my hotel room, a mural on a wall & a cute street in Sherbrooke. It was snowing those big white fluffy snowflakes when I arrived. It was enchanting. On the menu for breakfast was something in French called "Pamplemousse." After laughing hysterically I discovered that it was grapefruit juice.

I have become so Canadian I'm catching myself saying "herrrre" instead of the Aussie twang "heah" (here.) And also I've become a French Canadian as the other day I was talking about my Rideaux de douche (shower curtain ) & I couldnt remember the English word for it!! hahaha.

Its been a bit up & down weather wise. It can go from a mild -3 to a cold -18 with a wind chill of -30 in no time. I dont dare go out without thermals on these days. I cant afford any more toe freezing incidents. I think I look like a bright red Yeti in my Kanuk with only my nose & rosy cheeks poking out. More piccies of Sherbrooke to follow. . .

Sherbrooke

Sunrise at Sherbrooke in Quebec. For some strange reason I seem to be up at dawn a lot lately. I still go to bed around 11 but am waking up at 5:30am. And when I saw this view from my hotel room in Sherbrooke - I didnt mind a bit at the lack of sleep.

My training at work is going really well, now I just have to keep the momentum up & follow up before they forget it all. I've been travelling every week for a few weeks now & it started to catch up on me. I have a lovely bronchitis type chest infection & am barking much louder than a German Shepherd barking at the postman.

Redecorating

Warren & I decided to skip the tour of Mont Royal seeing as it was stormy & -30. So instead we went to places like Ikea & Rona (like Bunnings) to redecorate my apartment. So here's the finished product. New piccies on the walls thanks Warren doing all the boy stuff of hooks & picture wire. And a few new plants.

So I have to tell you about Canadian politeness. Warren opens the car door for me every time & I asked if that's a Warren thing or a Canadian thing. He said its both. And its true. People open doors for you, they wait politely while you move out of their way, they let you in while driving (as I've witnessed from the passenger side) and a passer by today helped an old guy get to a cab. He was just walking down the street & when he saw an old man with a walker try to negotiate the icy footpath. He didnt stop to ask if the old guy needed help - he just helped. I'm sure the old guy was grateful. And I do like the car door being opened for me, but seeing the old guy get helped today was very heartwarming. What a lovely culture. I love Canada.

Warren's trip to Montreal

Here's the sickeningly happy couple. Yes it's official Warren is my new boyfriend and we truly are very happy. He drove 7 hours from Ontario to Montreal to visit me for the weekend. It was about 5 degrees in Kitchener when he left, and it was -18 with a wind chill of -30 when he got here. Also the day after he arrived Montreal had this freaky storm & the main highway was closed because of a 60 car pile up. There was ice everywhere.

The photo below of Warren in the wind storm was incredible - I had to hold onto him because the wind nearly blew me down the street. As you can see from the picture of Warren's car it was a little icy. We nearly got stuck because he parked in puddle but the puddle froze over, but with a push from Warren & me in my first driving experience in Canada - we got out. Mind you I only drove 2 feet. But it was fun driving with the gears on the right had side & sitting in the driver's seat in the left.

Anyway - we had a great time - we went & played at Ikea. Warren builds his own furniture so we were looking for ideas. . . .ok I did spend some money but it was worth it.

We went shopping at Ikea - lots of fun 

The wild storm blew over the bus shelter and closed the highway  

It was -18 with a wind chill of -30.  

Warren drove 7 hrs to come to a storm 

Workout Challenge

Ok - so I thought I'd better get back into exercising & focussing on my weight loss. . . or lack there of seeing as I havent exercised regularly for about 3 months, and I'm getting a little pudgy around the middle.

So Warren whom you've met earlier in this website & I are on a weight loss challenge. We have 12 weeks to lose as much as we can based on percentage rather than actual weight loss to make it fair.

So I bought some exercise Dance DVDs & these pictures are of me doing the African Beat Latin Heat DVD. I also have Urban Street Hip Hop & a Salsa one but I havent tried that one yet. Its lucky I've got lots of space to jump around in. I dont think I look quite as elegant as the woman on the DVD.

So far so good, I exercised 4 times last week & both days this weekend. This weekend was our first weigh in. . . .I lost nothing, maybe that Apple Pie I had in Quebec City did make a difference. I'll try to do better next week.

Speaking of health as you can see my once Australian tanned skin is so lilly white it looks green. I'm missing my vitamin D intake via the warm sun. The sun comes out but it couldnt warm an ant under a magnifying glass if you tried.

More photos from Quebec City

This is Old Quebec City. It seems everyone has an "Old" part of the city that is truly beautiful & full of boutique shops, restaurants & cobblestone buildings & road. They all share the similarity of having so much character. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I could feel my toes & it wasnt -30 degrees.

The other photo is more ice sculpting in the Ice Castle & the last photo is the bridge in Quebec City over the St Lawrence River. I was sitting on the train taking that photo.

You know it's cold when. . .

. You know it's cold when. . . .there are heaters in the toilet cubicles at work
. . . .on your way to work you drive past someone's snow sculpture of a tv cabinet & seat.
. . . .when the locals build a whole Castle out of ice with ice drawers & chairs
. . . .when your toes freeze because they're the only things without thermal underwear on!

So this is my trip to Quebec City. I loved it. I caught the train and it took 2 & a half hours. For regular readers you'll know that I already visited Quebec City but didnt take many photos. So here below are some very interesting photos of the Ice Castle. Unfortunately I didnt get to visit the Ice Hotel, which is a real Hotel made of ice including the plates, the cups, the chairs, the furniture, the walls and yes even the floor & the bed are made of ice. You are equipped with a snow coocon to sleep in which is apparently very warm & very comfortable. Can you imagine drinking from a glass that is made of ice?

Anyway these photos are of the Ice Castle which is the same but smaller. That's me standing infornt of the ice stage. You can see the ice wall I'm leaning on is made of ice bricks. The snow sculpture of the tv was actually beside the road at the traffic lights on my way to work. Someone had just decided to sculpt some things out of the mountains of snow. Quebec has much more snow that Montreal and is also colder. I had a wonderful time & walked through Old Quebec which again is like the Rocks in Sydney.

Nordia in Quebec City

Ginette HR Manager of Nordia who is the one that picked me up from the airport when I first got here.

The snow was blocking my door in the hotel room

The hotel in Quebec City which is I where I had the conference last time. Lots of trees indoors.

A gymnast made of snow 

A chest of drawers & chair in the Ice Castle 

A room in the Ice Castle with Ginette 

This is a fridge made of ice in the ice castle 

St Laurent Riviere (St Lawrence River) also travels through Quebec City as well as Montreal

The Ice Castle - yes made of real ice blocks

My trip to Ontario

This week I went to Ontario. First Kitchener (an hour out of Toronto) was my first English speaking city with no snow on the ground since I got here. It was nostalgic listening to the English language again, and seeing grass for the first time in 6 weeks was great as well.

I worked with Warren who's the Operations Manager at Kitchener & Corunna and had the most fun I've had so far in Canada. I'm meeting so many wonderful people over here. I'm making friends everywhere I go.

Gus is the Regional General Manager for the 2 centres & his family run a Greek restaurant nearby which we had a feast in. And I mean a "FEAST" Baklava & all! And mum they have your statue in the middle of the restaurant.

The beautiful water shot at the top is taken just across the road from Corunna (2 hours drive from Kitchener). . . .no I didnt drive, Warren did. The land across the water is the USA.We had lunch there because it was so warm - (about 5 degrees. . .maybe warmer!)

And then you drive down the road from that beautiful spot to the chemical plant. (The other photo.) Corunna has many of them clumped in the one spot which they call Chemical Valley, and that it is. The Corunna centre had an issue 5 years ago & some people are still affected by a chemical accident which put dangerous chemicals in the air. Very reassuring!

The hotel room in Kitchener had exactly the same apartment number as my apartment in Montreal. Spooky! Nice Hotel rooms but there was one major issue THEY HAD NO TEA FACILITIES, only coffee. I was horrified and am still trying to recover. No cuppa tea!!! What are these Canadians thinking? That's like going shopping & not buying chocolate!

Anyway below are some more piccies from my trip. When I arrived back in Montreal security was extremely heavy. I thought that was odd but wrote it off as a Canadian thing. I turned the news on when I got home & there had been a huge drug haul at the airport! hahaha. Trust me to be embroiled in the middle of some great incident and not even know it!