Canada I

[onewhitecrow]

As requested, some bloggery. Staying about 25 minutes out of Toronto, in a house that'd be considered a mansion anywhere in the Old World. It doesn't look much like it did the last time I was here (I was 4) and of course the old folks and the dog are long gone, but I remember the land that counts as 'garden' - a space somewhat larger than the average city park.

I'm up, somewhat sleep-deprived, at 7am local time, trying to keep my tea off all their beautiful things and eating cake because I was told to help myself to food and could not find the bread. Flight in yesterday was unremarkable except for the seat booklet claiming Economy now had "more legroom", which foxed me since posibly the only way to fit a person of my size or over (say, the average Canadian male) in with less would be to assume a foetal position. For 8 hours.

The bilingual labelling of most things here is going to leave me with a mental tic for a bit ("thing! Repeat thing!"), I can tell. It's pretty hot here at present, but very misty. A brief walk in the garden yesterday showed up deer tracks, the smell of several animals I don't know (I suspect the foxlike reek is coyote pee) and all sorts of exotic fungi.

On the theme of exotic, Toronto's suburbs apparently have a huge Indian/Bangladeshi population, which meant the supermarket we visited (the size of a European hypermarket - easily three times the size of the sprawling monstrosity that is Tesco Kirkwall) was absoloutely full of Asian as well as North American foodstuffs I had never seen before. Familiar foods also took a turn for the weird: the default Heinz beans here are alarmingly brown, due to being cooked in brown sugar and bacon fat, with bacon left in. They also sell milk in bags for some mad reason, ice cream in buckets, and chocolate chips in sacks. O_O

Comments

[sweet_sparrow]

Glad to hear you arrived safely! May Canada treat you well while you're there!

I am... baffled by milk. How do you keep from spilling the milk if it's in a bag? Bags tear so easily...

Yay for walks in the garden! *sends good thoughts*

[onewhitecrow]

Apparently the bags are easier to recycle...they decant the milk into jugs to put in the fridge, but yeah...

Guesswhatguesswhat? I saw a hummingbird! Possibly two, they're hard to tell apart because they go whizz faster than bees, but hummingbird!

[sweet_sparrow]

I suppose that makes sense. *always has milk in glass bottles*

Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!! That is awesome! XDXDXD I didn't know they came up that far north. <3

[calissa]

Thank you for sharing this. I really enjoyed the way you wrote it--with just the right level of detail and the right details. I find myself wondering how you would find Australia.

I'm not sure why you're in Canada but I hope you enjoy your time there.

[onewhitecrow]

Thanks for that - it is super-hard for me to select details and something I work hard at (spontaneously asking me 'how are you?' in a sincere manner will usually result in me going 'um um er ar er ...something?'). Too hot, probably...I'm also glad I've been practicing centring and suchlike, because I've had two attacks of landsickness* so far.

Taking/giving my mother an excuse to see her friends over there that she's not seen in 21 years, basically. I have more money than I know what to do with (i.e. over the 1000 cans of beans mark, where it becomes "lots" - I am not good at Capitalisim) but not enough to get a house/'bike/horse. I will try to keep up updates when time/access permit (it's currently 1pm in Orkney, so here I am up for a couple of hours at 8am before the house is awake).

*panic-inducing realisation I am over three days' walk from the sea. I think it's some species of claustrophobia, however unlikely that sounds.