Sorry!!

Hello Everyone!!

I know that i have been very very slack and need to update this properly!! I promise that i will be better!!

We have been having a ball over here, and i have plenty to write about, so i will get cracking soon...

Here are some pictures of our mascot "Kiwi", original i know!! We will post some of us soon!

He loves beer almost as much as we do!

Taffy and Tails

Hello again!!

Well we have now officially done the proper tourist thing in Ottawa! Brenda had organised a skating party on the canal with some friends of hers, so we met up with Kim and Pierre, and then went and had Maple Taffy and Beaver Tails.

What on earth is that you might ask? Well Maple Taffy is kinda like a Maple Syrup lollipop, where they boil down Maple Syrup until it is nice and thick, and then pour it into a blob in the snow and stick an ice-block stick in it. It was very nice!! It was very very sticky and we thought our mouths might stick together, but was well worth the probable trip to the dentist!! Lee was in sweet-tooth heaven. :)

MMMMM!!! YUMMY!!!! Maple Taffy. (note our patriotic all black jackets!! go kiwis!)

Then we moved onto the Beaver Tails... after we went skating for a while... (honest we went skating... we didn't just put our ice-skates on and go and eat!!). Beaver tails are quite a famous Ottawa thing, and they have stalls on the canal that sell them. They are like a big flat donut that you can get with different toppings. Becs went for the cinnamon and sugar, while Lee had chocolate and hazlenut topping (which is pretty much straight nutella on top of a warm donut... delicious!). Was definitely a great experience, and i am sure one that we will have again while we are here. YUM!

Lee in line to get our Beaver Tails. This is just after Becs stacked it and then refused to go any closer to the stall! On ya Lee for coming to the rescue. :)

Becs record of no falls while skating is now gone! :( While we were getting in line to get the Beaver tails, the ice was very uneven and slippery... so sure enough, klutzy Becs managed to end up on the ice!!! But she was told that it was done very gracefully, and managed to get back on her feet with no problems. She was happy about this because she had envisaged falling and not being able to get back up, and the authorities having to get in a crane to lever her off the ice! Thankfully not necessary. :) Whew!

This is us at the very starting point of the canal, which runs for 11km or so... soon you will get a shot of us at the other end of the canal, having skated the whole way! :)

This is us with Kim and Pierre on the canal with one of the snow plows they had to use to clear the ice coz it was snowing! (Pretty wicked eh?? Must be thick ice!)

The day was topped off by stopping at Wild Wings restaurant, where they specialise in... yep you guessed it... chicken wings. There are big buckets on all the tables for you to throw the bones into, and big rolls of paper towels for sticky fingers! Bill and Brenda were there to show us the ropes thankfully, as it is all a bit different in this part of the world!! We sampled a couple of different Canadian Beers, which were not too bad at all... and were both happy to find a good lager that we can drink! :) It ain't quite Steinlager, but all in all not toooooo bad!! :) The wings at this place were pretty good too! They come in about a million different flavours, and taste pretty good. Think of KFC covered in yummy sauce, but a million times better!! We then stopped at another restaurant/bar for a couple of drinks on the way home, which was very enjoyable. :) We are hoping to get back to that place sometime as they have live music there at times, which is always good.

One of the other crazy things that Becs has done recently, is to jump into an outside spa-pool when it is minus fifteen degrees outside! That was an experience and a half... you can sit there and play with the snow while you are soaking in the tub... was great for the legs which still had not recovered from aerobics 4 days prior!! (yep... i am fit... NOT!) Will definately have to do that again soon... no excuses as the spa (or hot tub as they call it) is right outside the back door!

So the mission for the next few days is to get our Ontario drivers licenses so we can buy a car. And we are going to Toronto on Thursday to visit Lee's little sister Danielle, and meet her boyfriend Drew. We are really looking forward to that! :)

Hope that everything is well wherever you are in the world...

Ogdensburg, Upper New York State, USA

Thursday dawned and we had planned to go across the border into the USA with Bill and Brenda, who have a parcel service there for buisiness reasons. So, we got organised, rugged up, and into the car we went for about an hours drive south to the border. That was of course after they had unplugged the car from the mains power supply so that it didn't freeze!! Geesh... the things you don't have to think about when you live in Australasia!

The border of Canada and the USA in this area runs along the St Lawrence river, which is HUGE! And almost completely frozen at this time of year... it looks really impressive. You have to drive over a bridge from the Canadian town of Prescott, to get to the other side of the river where you hit US customs, and the town of Ogdensburg. This was quite an interesting process, and we managed to get through it without being shot or tasered!! Well done kiwis!!

We arrived at the booth and Brenda got out of the car to talk to the guard, as did Bill which caused the guard to become somewhat jumpy and ask "where are you all going, and what are you doing??"... geez mate... don't ya wanna see our passports?? After Brenda said that there were two Canucks and two Kiwis to go through, he directed us to another building. That was of course after he had almost wet himself laughing at us wanting to come over here and experience winter! People really do think we are crazy! Ah well... crazy kiwi's... what can we say??

Once we got inside the building, we had to fill out some forms, and it is now standard procedure for people to be fingerprinted and photographed! Nah... we didn't feel like criminals... honest we didn't!! Becs has never been printed in her life, so that was a bit different for her. At least they use a computer program and don't use ink... i guess that is a bonus! Well, we got through that process and were issued with a temporary visitors visa, which is valid for 90 days. What a bargain for $6 USD each!

We were now in the USA, in a small Up-State NY town called Ogdensburg. It was a really bizzare experience going across the border between two towns where there is only a river separating them, and they are totally different! Accents, road signs, metric to imperial... and all only a river separating! Unreal. It also felt a whole lot colder in this town than it did back in Metcalfe! Even though temperature wise it was probably warmer. We were told it was because we were by the water... Geez... wouldn't want to live by the water in these temperatures... it was really really cold!

Icicles on a house near the river.

View of the river in Ogdensburg near the old port area.

We went to the Fredrick Remington museum while we were there. He is quite a famous US artist from the late 1800's to early 1900's. The museum is in the old family mansion, which is absolutely gorgeous. There was a lot of lovely fine art, and amazing sculptures to look at which was really interesting. Also several Tiffany lamps, which were pretty impressive! We got to talk to some interesting people too. The tour guide had a kiwi daughter-in-law who used to be in the ladies All Blacks squad! Small world eh?

The beautiful old mansion that houses the museum.

This is a picture of probably his most famous sculpture. Called Bronco Buster. The detail is incredible!

This was probably our favourite painting. It was such amazing detailing that is almost looked 3D. Very impressive!

Once we had finished at the museum, we were headed out to a small town called Canton where there was apparently a pretty good Chinese Buffet. We were all pretty hungry by this time, so decided to stop at a diner and get some milkshakes. Well, Lee went in and said that it was just like something out of an American movie, where the waitresses were like, "What would ya like Honey" and "OK darrrrrrlin". And the milkshakes were really really Yummy!! :)

The Chinese was pretty good too. We got fortune cookies at the end, and were advised by our friends that you have to add "in bed" to the end of the sentence. Was hilarious. This is what we ended up with:

"good news of a long awaited event will arrive soon.... in bed"

"forgive the action, forget the intent.... in bed"

"playing safe is only playing.... in bed"

and the last one

"if i bring forth what is inside me, what i bring forth will save me.... in bed"

Well, you are now pretty much caught up with our adventures so far... nothing to report from Becs today as i sat on my butt typing this blog all day. Lee managed to get into the workshop today and is sinking his teeth into making some armour... so he is a happy camper.

Fitness and Brekkie

Wednesday dawned bright and sunny, with a temperature of only minus 27 degrees and a wind chill factor of minus 39 degrees... piece of cake! We are hardened Kiwi's after all...

Of course, on the coldest day so far, we both had things to do outside! Lee had agreed to shovel out the driveway as it had snowed the day before, and i had agreed to (wait for it... are you sitting down?) go to step aerobics class with Brenda. (Yeah i know... crazy eh?).

Lee and Bill clearing the driveway.

Keep up the good work Lee! :)

The funny thing about being outside in such cold temperatures is that the inside of your nose freezes together... it is the most bizare feeling because you are breathing away and then your nose feels as though it is going to stick together from the inside! Interesting.

So we walked to aerobics class down the street from where we are staying, and by the time i got there i was absolutely frozen... it is hard to describe just how cold it really is... it is insane!! I have never been in anything like it!! Thank goodness for beanies, scarves and gloves is all i can say.

I don't have to tell most of you that exercise and I don't really mix. This is because aside from the fact that i am one of the clutziest people i know, i have no real sense of rhythm (well when i am sober anyway... i sure think i have rhythm when i have a couple of wines under my belt, however the truth of the matter is different entirely). So in the past when i have gone to a class like that... i am the one at the back of the class totally out of time to everyone else, and when they turn around to face the back, i am totally shamed because i am doing something that more resembles a cross between an African war dance and a spastic chicken, than aerobics. I am sad to say that this time was really no different to before, and step aerobics is way harder than normal aerobics because you have to try not to fall off the step as well as trying to keep time and try not to resemble the spastic chicken... sigh... maybe next time. Was fun anyway, until i got up the next day and could hardly walk! I think i have learned my lesson.

We then went to a local diner down the street for brekkie. Man was that a culture shock!! I have never heard so many ways to have eggs and bacon!! And has anyone ever heard of home fries?? Hmmmmm.... where do i start??

Well, apparently if you order eggs over-easy, that means runny yolks... and over-hard means hard yolks. Okay... no worries... even i can figure that one out. So then you get onto the bacon... geesh! There is back bacon (i guess kinda like our middle bacon... with the fat trimmed off) and then there is side bacon (which looks like streaky bacon)... and then of course there is the pea-meal back bacon, which is the back bacon from above coated in pea-meal. Okay... got that? Well then you get onto the home fries... which is fried cubes of potato... of course!! Why would you call it just fried potatoes??!! :) And the other interesting thing is that with your various different orders of bacon and eggs comes a container of jam to put on your toast. Hmmm... i found that kinda interesting... people eat the bacon and eggs and then spread jam on the toast and eat it at the end. I guess that would put a slightly different spin on the good old bacon butty!! I ended up having a cream cheese bagel!! It was just easier! :)

Ottawa City

On Tuesday we went into the central city to get our Social Identity Numbers (so that we are able to actually work!) and to have a look around.


We were told that there is a commuter bus that leaves from Metcalfe Post Office at about 0650 in the morning and goes right into the central city. Great we thought... so got up early which just about killed us due to jet lag, and made our way to the post office and waited for the bus. We then went to get on and pay our money only to be told that the bus was only for concession card holders as they are really busy due to a bus strike. EEK!! Thankfully the bus driver took pity on us stoopid Kiwi tourists and let us on anyway!! We were really gratefull to the locals who befriended us and told us where we should get off in the city centre.


Much to our delight, it decided to snow that day, and it was so PRETTY! It wasn't even that cold believe it or not. We wandered around the city, and found somewhere to sit and wait until the city opened up at about 9am. We also managed to find some phone cards so that we could call the family back home which was great!!


The snowflakes were really really pretty... they look just as they are drawn in pictures! Was a real buzz for Becs as she has never really been out in snow before.

We managed to get our social ID numbers with no problems, and our plan was to go skating on the canal, but the weather decided to pack up and get quite miserable, so we headed to a cafe for a while and took shelter.


Ottawa really is a beautiful city. There is so much history there, and most of the buildings are really old and have beautiful architecture. We are looking forward to having a closer look sometime soon.


This is Lee getting amongst it in the snow outside the National Arts Museum. We were waiting for someone official to come and tell us off!!



Lee at the same spot. You can see the parliament buildings in the back of the picture.



Becs at the same spot too! The canal for skating is not far from here. Does she look cold and miserable or what?? :)

So we had a really good day in the city and managed to get everything accomplished that we needed to. It was a shame we never got to go skating because we lugged the skates around all day!! Ah well... next time. The only thing that was a bit yucky was that when it snows, they put salt down on the roads and footpaths so it doesn't turn into ice. This in turn creates this really disgusting sludgy stuff all over the place that soaks through your shoes and into the bottom of your jeans. Mental note: wear boots next time, and tuck in jeans!! :) Especially when you are going to put in some serious miles like we did this day.

We were lucky to get home as the bus driver didn't want to let us back on the bus as i don't think she was supposed to... but once again our pathetic looks and the fact that we are definately not from around here ensured that she took pity on us and we made it home safe and sound. :)

And that concludes another entry. Hope you are not getting bored yet! :)

Double Double

Well, here i go still trying to catch up on what we have been up to so far!! It is quite a process!!

The night we went ice skating and didn't fall over, we went around to some friends of Bill and Brenda's for Hot Chocolate and choc chip cookies after skating. Morrie and Myrna have 2 really awesome dogs, so we were able to get our canine fix at the same time as trying some of the best choc chip cookies we have ever tasted! (thanks Myrna!)

Here are some pics of us with the dogs.


This is Mia... what a cutie!

Lee with Beshie and Mia. Lovely dogs.



After Morrie and Myrna's place we were introduced to a Canadian Icon. We were taken to Tim Hortons, which is a coffee and donut place that is world famous in Canada, and there is pretty much one on every street corner! We were told that the way to order coffee was to go in and order a "double double". We looked sideways at our Canadian friends, but it ended up that we got a coffee with double cream and double sugar. Not bad at all. :)

This is us with our "double doubles"!

Ice Skating

The first day we were here, the first thing we did (after eating our yummy brekkie) was to go out and buy winter boots, scarves, gloves etc from a local store that Bill and Brenda kindly took us to... then we went to Canadian Tire, a franchise here, to buy ice skates!! We both got a pair of hockey skates and were ready to hit the ice. We never knew that the skates actually have to be sharpened before you can go skating on them!! There was a line of about 20 people waiting for their skates to be sharpened!! Just as well we were at the front of the queue.

That night we went to Ben Franklin Place which is a fountain in the summer and an ice rink in the winter, and where there is a wall to cling on to!! (which as you can imagine we needed desperately!!). We managed to find our feet and realised the hard way just how slippery that ice really is when you are trying to glide effortlessly across it on two thin pieces of steel!! Becs managed to make it through without falling (more good luck that good management as most of you know how much of a clutz she really is), and Lee ended up on his bum a couple of times, but no problems!

Then we went to China Town for Pho. For those of you who have no idea what Pho is (as we didn't), it is Vietnamese soup. We got a huge bowl of chicken and mushroom soup with noodles. Was really really yummy and filled our tummy's before the next adventure.

We then went skating on the Rideau Canal, which is quite a famous place to go skating, and apparently people come from all over the world to skate there. The area you can skate on is approximately 7 miles long, which we are going to do before long with a bit of determination and practice!! The ice that night was not very flash, and some parts were very very slippery, which poor Lee managed to find out when his feet decided to jump out from under him and he landed on his dodgy shoulder!! Bugger. But he picked himself up and carried on skating with no worries.. and is planning on avoiding landing on that shoulder in the future. :) The great thing about Lee is that if he falls over, he just cracks up laughing and picks himself up and carries on. I don't know that Becs would be quite the same and there would probably be tears and tantrums!!

Becs skating next to the wall at Benjamin Franklin Place.

Lee skating next to the wall.

At Canadian Tire, purchasing our iceskates.

We have since also been skating again at Ben Franklin Place, and neither one of us fell over!! Hallelujah!

The next skating mission is to go skating on the canal on Sunday, so hopefully our new found no-falls run of luck will still be in place! Will write about it and let you know!

Arrival in Canada

Hello everyone!

Well, here we are in Canada... and it is REALLY COLD!!!

We arrived in Ottawa at midnight on the 9th Jan, and were met by Bill and Brenda, our Canadian hosts. As it was minus 18 degrees outside, they brought along some winter coats and gloves and touques (beanies) for us to wear. Thank god they did!! It sure is a huge contrast to the 40 plus degree days we had gotten used to in Laverton and the lovely humidity in NZ!

We walked outside the terminal building, and there was snow everywhere!! We have never seen anything like it! You drive along the roads here, and there are huge snow banks everywhere... people are constantly having to dig their way out of their homes and driveways or they would never be able to leave their houses!! It is pretty amazing how they can live in this environment!! And we think it gets cold in NZ!!! YEAH RIGHT!!! :)

Our wonderful friends took us on a tour of the city of Ottawa at night, and we got to see the Parliament buildings which are absolutely amazing, and HUGE!!! We also went to the outside of the museum of Civilization, where we could look across at the Parliament buildings on the other side of the river. Ottawa is really interesting because there is a river that runs through it called the Ottawa river that acts as the border between Ontario and Quebec... so you drive across the bridge and all of a sudden you are in Quebec, and all of the road signs are in French, and there are different laws etc... it is really trippy! We drove past about a million museums! Ottawa is really lucky to be the capital city of Canada, as they have lots of museums... and we are hoping to visit some of them before long. We also saw a whole bunch of other interesting stuff but i was way too jetlagged to take it all in!! Was very strange to be driving on the wrong side of the road, but we survived to tell the tale!!

We then travelled out of the city to Metcalfe, which is a village of about 1500 people that is situated about 20km south of the city itself. We were introduced to where we would be staying, which is a really neat loft above Bills armoury. There are pieces of armour adorning the walls, and Lee is in heaven!! There is a lovely gas fire, which is very necessary... especially when it is minus 30 degrees outside!! The only mission is that if nature calls, it is about 15 steps across from the workshop to the house to use the facilities!! Brrrr... wouldn't want to run across in the PJ's, with bare feet that is for sure!

Here are some photos from around Metcalfe.

This is a photo of Becs in front of a snowbank across the road from where we are staying.

Huge eh??!!

This is a small stream that has frozen over.. just down the road. Beautiful!

This is also just down the road... can't beleive how much snow there is!!

This is where we are staying... the house was built in 1867. We are staying above Bill's armoury around the back of the house. (Note the car shelter to the right of the house, which is like a tent and is used to keep the snow and ice off the car).

The next day we woke up to find that Brenda had made us a traditional Canadian brekkie, which consisted of pea-meal back bacon, pancakes and maple syrup. YUMMMMMM!!! Was absolutely delicious, and the maple syrup is to die for over here... especially when it is from a sugar shack (where they make it) just down the road. Highly recommended.

Welcome

Welcome to our blog for our adventures over the next year or two while we are tripping around Canada, and Europe eventually.

More to come soon...