All posts by Gina

Why Canada?

November 11, 2009arrival, Food, Why Canada?arrival, Food, impressionsGina

A classic English breakfast/brunch:

A classic Canadian brunch:

Ultimate Eggs – layered hash browns, sausage, back bacon, sweet red peppers and two lightly poached eggs topped with a sundried tomato and feta butter sauce

– I think you can see what Paul felt about his first meal on a glorious sunny Sunday morning in Toronto the day after our arrival in October 2009:

Could Paul really eat this?

November 11, 2009Food, General, Why Canada?bigger, Food, impressions, sizeGina

They say everything is bigger in North America . . .

(sorry about the picture quality, I was laughing too much!)

Canadian Humour

November 11, 2009General, sportculture, humour, sportGina

Few people can fail to be aware that Ice Hockey is pretty important in Canada.

Toronto’s team, the Maple Leaves may be a financial success, but are not known as winners on the ice.

Recently the Toronto Star ran a selection of Maple Leaf jokes, of which the following is a taster:

Q: What do the Leafs and the Titanic have in common?

A: They both look good until they hit the ice!

Q: What do you call 25 millionaires sitting around watching the Stanley Cup playoffs on TV?

A: The Maple Leafs

(the Stanley Cup is the NHL championship trophy)

Q: What did the Leafs fan do after Toronto won the Stanley Cup?

A: He turned off his PlayStation.

Update on Our House

November 10, 2009arrival, Househuntinghouse purchase, houses, our houseGina

The closing (completion) date for our house purchase has now been set for Monday 30 November, so by the start of December we will be living in our own home!

Below are a few more photos of the house.

Highlights (week beginning 2 November 2009)

November 9, 2009Museums & galleries, Sightseeing, Torontomuseums & galleries, shoreGina

It’s been such a busy time doing that I don’t get to write things up! So here is a brief summary of the ‘firsts’ and highlights from the last week.

Buying a house (OK, I did report on this one)
Venturing downtown for the first time since we’ve been here to see Where the Wild Things Are at the Imax (as Imax is a Canadian technology, this seemed appropriate) and drifting out of the cinema into a bookshop where we browsed until well after 9.30 pm.
Friday night at our local (Quigley’s), doing our usual half-time swop between risotto studded with PEI (Prince Edward Island) Mussels and bursting with calamari, scallops and prawns, tomato and basil and a spicy chicken, bacon and chipotle pasta, washed down with Creemore (a fine drop of beer from a small town we visited in July) and accompanied by live rock, much of which took me back to my early 20s.
Going to the mall (another first) and investing in a really good mattress – the Brick (a major furnishing store) had a one day 50% sale on mattresses.
Scarborough Bluffs – where sculpted cliffs rise steep and tall and, on an unseasonable November day, I basked on a rock in the sun, savouring the shore’s soothing susurrus and the dancing diamond path across the water to a sliver of silver tranquility on the horizon.

Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood