Indiana's surprise...

Before I tell you what Indiana's surprise is, I gotta share this with you:

Last night our internet was on the blink and had officially stopped working by the time we got up this morning. In the end, we called our internet provider and they sent a technician out within two hours!
Apparently we were a 'priority' case because our phone was down and from their point of view it is essential that we have access to a home phone in case we need to dial 911 (the emergency services).
It would seem having a mobile is not a given fact here so our internet was up and running by late morning.

France Telecom would have a heart attack if they had to even do overtime never mind house calls, especially on a SUNDAY!!!


Anyway, as you read earlier in my blog, Indiana was given an early Christmas present. Did you guess what it was? Something to use in the snow.....


Well, here it is:

We went sledding!!! 

Here's Daddy modeling his new hat:

Indiana modeling her hat:

Waiting to be picked up after falling over:

My turn to do a bit of running:

Some downhill work:

That's all for now!

Snow...... At Last!!!

We woke up to a dusting of snow the other day, but by the time Indiana and I got outside, it was melting and had started to rain.

I discovered that cashmere gloves just don't cut the mustard when it comes to Canadian cold and Indiana discovered that the White Stuff is slippery!

Then yesterday it snowed on and off between sleet rain and started to snow in earnest last night.

We woke up to about four inches of it. 

We waited until it had stopped snowing and then we went outside:

knee deep:

what is this stuff?

Every time Indiana fell over she had to lie face down in the snow until I came to get her up because, what with the thick, waterproof boots with insulation, the thick waterproof dungarees (with braces!!!) and the huge coat and mittens, together with knee deep snow (from Indiana's point of view) made it quite difficult to walk!

A couple photos - random this time:

Rabbit slippers - what more could a girl want?!

My horsey friends will be very impressed: 

"cuddle cuddle, Horsey":

Just Chilling:

That's all for now!

Being an immigrant

Well, being an immigrant isn't easy. Having said that, I have spent a large part of my life (thus far) living in a country other than my native kingdom.
Being a European in Europe isn't that bad at all, especially when you speak the language of your adoptive country well enough to pass for a native.
Some of you might be surprised to learn that we are labelled (if you can call it that) 'immigrants', here in Canada. So, now that the shoe is on the other proverbial foot, what does it feel like?

Hmmm. Well, people we have met so far have been friendly, helpful and interested in the fact that we come from Europe.

Let me give you a couple of examples: Jérémie was telling his colleagues that with my BMW we could do almost 1000km (that's 621 miles) with a tank of fuel. They were flabbergasted because this is a concept that just doesn't exist here - not diesel, just the fact that cars are economical (and yes, my BMW was a 3 litre engine - it's just that BMW are very very good at making powerful cars go a long way on one tank!).

Another example, again Jérémie's work colleagues. He was telling one with whom he has struck up a good friendship that we have a house in France still and if we like it here we plan to sell it one day and buy over here. Said colleague asked, purely out of interest how much our house was worth (not that much by our standards as we would hope to get around €300,000 for it on a good day) and he nearly fainted when Jérémie told him, saying that the equivalent amount in CAD$ would buy us a castle here.

Ok then!!


So in one respect we seem to come from a country which people are really curious to learn about.

The downside - oh, yes, there is always one of those - is things like:

• xenophobic remarks that Jérémie has had to put up with at work. Well, we are immigrants, so some people are bound to hate us, just out of principle

• Sometimes Indiana interacts with other children, say in the supermarket or in the park, and parents are all smiley and talk to her, but as soon as I address Indiana in English, the parents seem to move off, and lose interest. And no, I'm not imagining it - Jérémie has noticed it too. This could be due to Quebec's Independence movement and the fact that the Québecois  are not exactly big fans of the British. Hmmm.... Wonder why....... 

• Today we had lunch at Tim Horton's (http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/index.html if you're interested!) and they are collecting food and sundries for the deprived people in the area. I asked an employee how long we could donate parcels for and she looked at me and ran off into the kitchen and closed the door and about 20 seconds later, peeked out to see if I was still there and saw that I was patiently awaiting a response and so closed the door again. What on earth that was all about I don't know! You'd have thought I was speaking to her in Russian or something (no offence to the Russians, of course!).

However, these are just a few random and rare encouters we have had so far and have by no means put us off being here. Let's face it, Canada is a big place so there are plenty of places we can go if Victoriaville doesn't float our boat!

Canadian cuisine and a surprise for Indiana

Today we went to visit our friend Marthe. To be more exact, she is Jacqueline's (that's Jérémie's mum!) friend of 40 odd years. They have been penpals for a long time!

Anyway, Marthe lives just under 2 hours away by car in Montreal and she is a good person to know!
She has a foster son (who is now in his early forties I think) and he is a chef. He therefore wanted to cook us lunch.

On the menu:
Starter: onion soup with croutons and grated cheese

Main course: a savoury pancake with ham, asparagus and a béchamel sauce with two small slices of quiche: one broccoli and one spinach)

Dessert: a traditional Canadian pancake with Marthe's family's own maple syrup with a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a handful of fresh raspberries. Although Jérémie opted for New York style cheesecake with homemade apple purée:

We then went for a ride into the centre of Montreal and had a walk around. Poor Indiana got a bit tired though as we hadn't taken the buggy (long story but we needed to return some stuff to Ikea) and she ended up sleeping the whole ride home though.


Anyway, at Marthe's she had a bit of a surprise. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but let's just say that Santa came early and it's something she can use in the snow. I'll let you guess as to what it might be but until then you'll have to wait for it to snow here properly so I can get you some pictures!!

Some photos from today:

Indiana drawing with some crayons that Marthe bought her:

Marthe's cat "Titi" (short for Wistiti) was pretty unimpressed with Indiana and spent a lot of the time on top of the kitchen cupboards:

When he wasn't up there he was trying to run away from Indiana who kept on charging after him saying "Yoshi, Yoshi). I thought that "Yoshi" meant 'Winston' (because that's what she calls Winston) but I think it might just mean 'Cat', although most cats seem to be called 'Miaow' according to Indiana... !!

Marthe's Christmas tree, which has an impressive collection of international decorations purchased from all over the world on her travels:

Yesterday's snow:

Indiana modelling her winter outdoor attire:

View from behind:

That's all for now!!

Toddlers and Parents get-together.

Today we went to L'Association Parents-Ressources des Bois-Francs.

It's a place where parents and children can meet up. When Indiana and I got there there was a show going on with a coupld of clowns who were telling a story and making animals out of balloons. There were lots of children there aged newborn to about 4 years old.

There are lots of different activities for children AND parents, including special outings and activities for dads, they also do ante-natal classes and they have a crèche. Parents are allowed to leave their child there one half day per week. It's free of charge and means that parents can go off and get things done or simply just take some time out. I am thinking of leaving Indiana there so that I can go for ice-skating lessons. Then when Oxbow arrives I will be going to ride him!

When the children have activities they are supervised by the ladies who run the association which means that parents can get together in the room next door for coffee and a chat. I will try to go there from time to time. Annual membership is $12 for all of us (that's €8 or £7) so won't exactly break the bank. They also have a system whereby you can donate clothes or toys which are no longer suitable for your children and members can help themselves. A bit like a free exchange system.

I didn't take any photos as I would have felt a bit uncomfortable with that, but next time I will!

A Walk in the Park

This morning we had a visit scheduled from a lady whose job description is l'Hôtesse de la Ville de Victoriaville. I. e. Victoriaville's hostess.

Her job is to welcome newcomers to the town and also new babies. She arrived with a basket (made by people of the handicapped association) containing a whole lot of brochures with lots of information about the town and surrounding areas and a few coupons from local businesses.
For example:

the local dentist gave us a toothbrush
the local chemist gave us a bottle of hand soap
We have a coupon for a free haircut, a free waxing session (for me, obviously!!) and 15$ off a TV or appliance of our choice, to name a few.
She was here for an hour and was very efficient and knowledgeable. I am therefore going to be able to explore and find my feet. There is an association which is something like a parent-toddler group so I'll look into that. She also gave me leaflets on battered housewives and domestic violence (no taboos here!) as well as what to do in the event of an earthquake, a powercut when it's -30°C and what to recycle and where. So quite an ecclectic selection of information!!

*        *        *        *        *

Indiana is currently refusing to eat, so I packed her up with a bottle of chocolate milk (which is actually really tasty!) and we went off in the car to find Le Parc Terres-des-Jeunes:

Some of the trees are really old and seem to therefore merit a special mention:

There are some cool signs like this one:

And some inviting paths to walk along:

Signs like these can be found everywhere and all are on the theme of the enviroment. Underneath, lower down, the messages are written in Braille:

Of course, I didn't go alone:

And "Babbi" the rabbit (a gift from papy!)  had to come as well:

We tested out some baby swings:

There are bird houses in the park too - something for 'every'one, literally!!

The park is actually huge. Apparently there is a waterfall somewhere. So lots of exploring to do!

That's all for now!

  

A random day

Today our loan fridge was due to be collected and replaced with a new one. The delivery truck arrived and the drivers told me that there were two dents in the side of our fridge. Obviously this was more than disappointing considering the fact that it was a brand new appliance. The men told me that it was not their fault and that it often happens that appliances are damaged in the warehouse.
He explained that I had a choice: I could either negociate money off or refuse to accept delivery of the new machine.
He then showed me a fridge that a client had refused to accept that morning and it was even more damaged than mine.
One of the drivers called the shop who offered a 90$ rebate. I therefore refused to accept delivery of the machine, got to keep the loan fridge and will be contacted by the store when they have another delivery in.

Impressive or what??!

Went to Walmart again this evening. There is Christmas music playing in all of the shops and lots of people in our street already have Christmas lights up outside their appartments. We saw bauble-shaped bottles of Coca Cola and there are so many different decorations to choose from.

Jérémie and I need to get some snow boots. According to the weather forecast we are due snow on Wednesday. In Ontario (which is the province to the west of Quebec, they already have a lot of the stuff.
Indiana and I were watching the TV and they showed photos of Toronto and Indiana went "WOW" so I can't wait for her to see the snow for real!
Having said all that it is about 12-14°C during the day and drops to about 7-8°C at night so we'll see.

Our next door neighbours have a husky. I've seen him a couple of times already. Tonight when we got back from shopping they were sitting outside their appartment (everyone here has benches or garden chairs on their terrace and you can see them wrapped up warm with thermos mugs of hot drinks reading the paper or just simply relaxing) and Indiana was so excited to see the "woof" as she calls them.
We got really close and the dog is really cuddly yet not an in-your-face sort of way. We were officially introduced and he is in fact called 'Snow' which is a very pretty, yet aptfully chosen name.
His owner told us that she works with small children and she takes her dog to work and he is so good with them and they all love him. She also said that he pulls her along on her snowboard. That's pretty cool!
I hope that we can get to know Snow better as it is so important for Indiana to have her animals and I know she is missing Winston in particular because she often calls him and looks for him in the appartment. It's kinda heart-breaking as she doesn't understand but hopefully the large ginger furball will be over here soon!

Indiana is having trouble sleeping at the moment. It is obviously a combination of excitement, stress, over stimulation yet aslo the fact that I think her afternoon naps are too long and she is also teething.
Pretty bad combination of things but hopefully she'll get back to her routine soon.

Talking of routine, Jérémie and I are adapting to Canadian way of like already - eating sandwiches for lunch (well, I did this already, being British and all that) but Jérémie today told me that he has a cup of coffee with his lunchtime sandwich and NOT afterwards!! Back home, we would often eat late and sometimes have our evening meal watching a film (otherwise you miss the start as everything on French TV starts at 9pm)  and we always waited until Indiana was in bed.
Now, we seem to be eating before Indiana goes to bed (she usually has her bottle of milk whilst we eat) and then she goes to bed. The trouble is that she's having difficulty getting to sleep so we're going around on tiptoe and whispering... Oh and bedtime is now 10:30pm-ish for a 6:30 am start. This way we make the most of daylight hours seeing as it gets dark before 5pm.

Our TV is a 47" screen. It was a bit of a bargain - we saw a 46" screen that we liked at Walmart (see, you really can buy anything there!!) and there weren't any left so they gave us the 47" for the same price!
Not quite sure how that happened but Jérémie paid and left the store before they could change their minds!!! So we've downsized from a 52" to a 47" but our lounge is a bit smaller than the one in France, so it's OK.

I now have a mobile phone. I feel like I've gone back to the 90's as it's not an iPhone (boooo hooooo) or even an android (which would have been an excellent compromise) but for now, we have to be sensible and so I bought something cheapish and cheerfulish. I have unlimited text messages (although not sure this goes for mobiles outside Canada) but calls are expensive to make and you even have to pay to receive them.
I actually didn't want to have a mobile. But we both decided to have one as you never know. Neither of us fancies breaking down in the snow or getting stuck somewhere in a blizzard...

Talking of blizzards, I checked out the Victoriaville website. It gives you a list of emergency supplies to keep in your car in the event of getting stuck in a snow storm or breaking down in the middle of nowhere. The list is pretty extensive...



That's all for now!

Drummondville

We were going to go to Quebec City today but the weather suddenly became quite overcast. The skies threatened but in the end nothing happened. Someone told us that the best time to visit Quebec City is either when it is covered in snow or when the light is bright and the sky is blue. So we went to Drummondville instead. It's about 40km from Victoriaville but takes almost an hour to get there.

This is the place to go to if we're looking for something specific or just fancy a change or require a wider choice of something than what's available in Victoriaville.

Got there just in time for lunch and settled with Pizza Hut. Before some of you start frowning, just look at it from my point of view: we're young (ish) and you only live once and all that, so the odd indulgence won't kill you.
My lunch plate:

I asked for a glass of Pepsi Max (refills free, of course) and it was only 750ml. I felt a bt disappointed....!!! I mean WHO can drink that much and then have a refill???!

I put the salt next to the glass so you can compare the size!!

Indiana enjoying an apple juice:

We did a bit of food shopping this evening. Grocery stores are open to 11pm here. Bit of a novelty but I could do with having Ely to keep me company!!!

Went to Loblaws and took some photos for you:

Christmas chocolate:

Cake, anyone?

For the peanut butter fans:

Might have to get one of these (for Indiana, you understand....!):

If you're a chocoholic, DON'T look at the next photo!

Cookies - gonna take me ages to test them all out for you...

Just to prove to you that a) they DO have fresh fruit and veg in Canada, and b) that I did visit the "healthy" aisle:

That's all for now!

A photo post

I have some photos for you today:

This ISN'T our appartment but one identical. We're bottom left and the French doors open into our lounge:

Off to check on our letter box (which is at the entrance of the residential area and a good 7-8 minutes' walk from the appartment. Note the MOOSE on the blanket!

Our loan fridge/freezer:

The range (note the small bottle of water to give you an idea of the size!)

"When in Rome, do as the Romans".... Therefore...

and

and also

Victoriaville is a very green city. There are biodegradeable/enviromentally-friendly/recycled products everywhere. The following is a photo of food waste bags. They are made of brown paper, are leak and odour proof and make life easier/cleaner/safer for the people who work at the rubbish refuse places (or whatever they're called). Oh, and the bin doesn't smell either!

My Walmart slippers:

Another update coming soon!