Weekend at Shelley's

This is Shelley & Jeff's house. Shelley is Ops Manager at one of the Nordia centres in Montreal. She's in the same role as Warren at a different centre. She invited me over this weekend to hang out with her partner Jeff & her puppies Bella & Bali. We had fun walking, swimming, BBQing & then we went to see Pirates of the Carribean which was awesome & funny. It was a beautiful sunny hot day of 30 degrees Celsius, but unlike Aussie hot days it actually cools down later. I do like Canadian summers.

Longing

This is Jeff looking at Bella who is looking at him longingly to come & play in the pool. Bella loves swimming. If she's not invited to the pool party she sits inside & wails like she's in deep grief. . .it was all too much for us - we had to let her in to swim.

Swimming with the puppies

The Puppies

Bella the girl puppy is the white lab & Bali the boy is the black labrador puppy, although they're not really puppies - they're both 12 years old. They are so cute & friendly. These are Shelley & Jeff's dogs. We had a great day. We went for a walk, went swimming, played around the house, had a BBQ - and the dogs featured in all these activities.

Timed Beauty

Canadians go all out in summer, especially in their gardens even though it will all be obliterated in a couple of months. Many things in Canada have their season & their gardens are one of them.

There are the most beautiful gardens all around & everyone has one. They are all pristinely manicured and tended to with passion. It's quite amazing. Even the council plants their seasonal bright beautiful flowers on median strips, in parks & around the city.

The last photo is of the setting sun taken from my balcony. It was quite stunning although the photo doesnt quite do it justice. Even the sun is seasonal. At the moment it's bright & warm and feels great to sit in & soak up the rays, but winter sun here has no more warmth than a flashlight. No wonder Canadians love the outdoors.

Quebec License

It's official! I passed my Quebec Drivers License test. Even though I was able to legally drive on Quebec roads with my International license, I couldnt drive in Ontario & I also needed my Quebec license to get insurance for my car.

So in keeping with tradition I passed first go! (I passed my Aussie drivers license first go as well all those years ago, and I even passed my motorcycle license first go.)

The photo is me the day I passed my test which also happened to be my sister's birthday! A double celebration.

Another weekend in Ontario

I love Ontario, I just dont like leaving it. We had so much fun. We hung out with Warren's Mum & Dad, we had friends over, we went walking, just the usual lifestyle stuff. I was still sick with what started as Sinus & has turned into a nice cough. I dont feel too bad just not much energy.

But coming back to Montreal is hard. These photos are of Warren & I contemplating how we are going to get me to Ontario to live, work & play with a legitimate workers visa or better. . .permanent residency. But so far, no luck. Residency takes 18 months. . . I've only been here 6 & I dont think I started my application for a couple of months.

So we sat, we contemplated, we waited for Divine Guidance, and we waited, and we waited. . . .hmmm! We'll get back to you on progress. . .

A Canadian BBQ

This weekend Warren & I had a BBQ Canadian style. It's pretty much the same as an Aussie BBQ. . . .except for a few notable differences. Firstly in Canada the boys do the washing up while the girls are outside playing football. (American football) Hmmm! And the other thing, there were no "snags" (sausages,) no steaks, just chicken, and kebabs, and a mountain of other food. It was great!

These are some friends from work. The one patting Warren's butt with a plastic oven mitt is Joe, the around the table is Joan on the left & Darlene on the right. The idea of the get together was to share each other's photos from our overseas tours. They all went to England and France (apart from Warren & I) but Darlene also went to Germany, Bavaria and other places in Europe. It was a great night & some beautiful photos were shared by all.

Green stuff

. . .ok with a bit of red. These pretty little leafy plants with red berries are actually nasty Poison Ivy. In other words DONT TOUCH unless you want to be scratching for the rest of the week.

This other spot is another oasis in Ontario. It's becoming a bit of a tradition now that every beautiful spot Warren finds for us to go walking or cycling in has a. . . . well a "different" side to it. One time it was a beautiful lake & walk. . . .next to a highway, another was a great bike ride to a dead end construction zone, another was a lovely walk in the woods. . .next to an industrial area.

Well in keeping with this tradition today we found another Oasis in the middle of chaos. I'm beginning to like it now. Today's chaos was that when we walked further into the woods the energy felt strange & I commented to Warren that I had a "bad feeling." We walked on regardless until we saw the prison in front of us. Ah well! It was still very pretty & peaceful. . .until we got to the prison. But I suppose life's like that, moments of beauty in amongst the other realities of life. You have to grab those peaceful moments while they last & even try to bring that peace into the rest of your world.

Wildlife

The only time I heard about Groundhogs was from the movie Groundhog Day with Punxatawney Phil & Bill Murray. . . that is until I came to Canada and saw real live Groundhogs. Now I see them everywhere, but mainly in Ontario.

The second cute little fella, or girl I'm not sure, is a Squirrell we saw in Ottawa. Squirrells in Quebec are brown but these guys are black. I dont know why or what the difference is and no local seems to know wy either.

And the geese with their little fluffy Goslings were so cute. They were running away because Warren & I were chasing them. Well we weren't trying to chase them, just get closer to them to see the little ones. But they took off.

Sculptures

This large spider is infront of the National Art Gallery. It cost 3.2 million dollars. Hmmm! I think Art is important but I wonder how many starving children would have been fed even within Canada for that amount. I know that sounds trite or cliched but so what? I dont really care what it sounds like, its true. I'm sure my sponsored child in Africa would wonder about how we spend our money, says me who just bought a new car & video camera. But there has to be a balance. We cant stop living just because others are suffering, but we can make better choices.

Also on our tour of Ottawa we saw another sculpture and as we awed at it's grandure the tour guide pointed out that the astrological instrument the man in the sculpture was holding, was upside down. At least the Government didn't decide to spend another $3 million fixing it!

Amphibious vehicle

In Ottawa we went on an Amphibious vehicle tour where you drive around the city seing the sites then you just drive into the water. It was so cool.

Here's evidenc of the plunge straight off the road into the water.

Judge Roe & Warren the witness

In our special guided tour through the Federal & Supreme Courts we were allowed to put on the Judges Robes & even sit in the judges chair (for the Federal Court only) In the Supreme Court we were only allowed as far as the podium.

The weird thing about the Federal Court was the energy in it. The energy was charged. When I sat in the judges seat I felt a sense of fairness, not power, and when I sat in the defendant chair I felt an overwhelming negative energy. It was so bad that I had to spiritually cleanse myself after we left. It was horrible, like waiting for someone to tell you if you're going to die or not. Although these seats have never been used for those decisions the feeling was just as intense.

The Supreme Court had a different feeling, more like the decisions that are made here were going to change the way Canada is run. The energy felt like I was in the middle of a debate.

Adventures of Warren & Roe in Ottawa

Our tour at the Supreme Court

So here we are in the Nation's Capitol. We came to claim Warren's birthday present from me, tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil's Quidam. This is my favourite Cirque show and Warren loved it, and to be honest I was quite fond of it of it myself. . . ok I loved it but I really bought the tickets for Warren. . . honest!

We had a blessed time as things were falling in our lap the whole weekend. The only downer was that I was sick with Sinus and feeling very under the weather. Although a few sinus tablets later & I was raring to go. . . .ok not raring, more like chugging along like a teenager learning to drive, negotiating gears & the clutch for the first time. But it was great. We went shopping, did a little touristing, (mostly sitting down stuff due to my lack of energy) and of course our Cirque trek. Shopping never requires energy, I wasn't going to let a headache, fever, lethargy, sneezing & general feeling of ill health stop me! Although I paid for it the next day when we went to Cirque because Warren almost had to carry me home. I was much worse & the sinus tablets had dehydrated me without me replenishing it! Oops! Tip #1 - people need water! Tip #2 there's always tomorrow to go shopping. Tip #3 Always drink lost more water than usual after long trips to Australia on a plane!!

Spirit Orbs go to Court

The Federal Court of Canada

With a couple of "guests" on the defendant's side.

Approach the bench! 

Canada's Supreme Court

It took until 1982 to get a female Supreme Court Judge and it took until 2000 to get a female Chief Justice (who is still currently the Chief Justice.) That's awesome! So the last 6 years have been ruled by a woman! I wonder when the first Canadian Prime Minister will be a woman, or a First Nation person or any other group of people who have yet to be represented.

Changing of the Guard in Ottawa

Pulling up the rear - yes he's a kid

Police supervision, no its not a Mountie hence no horse!