Well.......... we're home from our holiday in Canada, and we can't wait to get back there as quickly as possible!! We did have a sale going through on the house but unfortunately that fell through. Had it not been for that we would have been there for Christmas which would have been wonderful, but at least we can make 2000 the year that everything happens instead!!! We will move as soon as the house sells or by June 2000 if it hasn't sold because Andrew who is 11 is due to move to High School here in September and we want to avoid him having 2 big moves with school as well as deciding that by June next year it was long enough to be apart.

We arrived on October 3rd after a 7 1/2 hour flight from Manchester to Toronto, jet lagged and tired but extremely excited at the thought of visiting our new homeland!! The boys were thrilled to be going to Canada but also as thrilled as I was to be meeting Mike again, and this time to meet all his family. Mike was at the airport with his youngest brother John to drive us back to Aurora which is where Mike lives. Aurora is about a 40 minute drive from Toronto. It was a Sunday afternoon to Canadians when we landed but to us it was 5 hours later than that!! Our best strategy for jetlag and the time difference was just to keep going!! We were going back to Mike's apartment which is the basement apartment in a large house. With the house being split level as so many of them are, it backed on to what looked like a field but was the garden. One of the first things we noticed was how widespread everything is there, how wide the roads are, and how there are no fences and hedges like in England. The trees were the most incredible colours of red and yellow that you could imagine and I was really glad to have chosen to go there in the "Fall"

When we arrived at Mike's, we were welcomed by some of his family. We did know that we had a welcoming committee waiting for us!! His mum had insisted on cooking us a meal as a way of welcoming us to the family, and being Italian you can imagine the spread on the table!!! To us it was as if we were eating at midnight or thereabouts!! We tasted real Italian meatballs made by an Italian!!!.......... much better than mine I must say (enviously!!) We met Mike's mum Lina and her boyfriend John (his father died some years before) and they could not have been more friendly.

The first full day in Canada was bitterly cold....fortunately the only really cold day in the whole of our stay......... and Mike took us around Aurora which is only a smallish place. We went to a 50's style diner called Wimpy's (not like our Wimpy's) where we sat in booths with a juke box. Needless to say the boys loved this idea, and that was my first taste of root beer and first experience of a burger so big I could barely eat it. I found out later they use a whole pound of meat in every burger!! The kids had theirs wrapped to eat later!!

During the visit we did the usual "touristy" things and went to Niagara Falls and the CN Tower. Both of these were on our "must do" list, but our visit to Niagara was added to by the fact that we looked up some of my relatives that I haven't seen since I was 3 years old!! So it really was like looking up strangers. The relatives are my mum's cousins, 2 sisters and a brother, all in their late 60's, early 70's now, who have never married and share a house. As my mum had died 14 years ago I was unaware of where these relatives lived, just that I knew it was near Niagara. I have always had a longing to go to Niagara Falls, having been told about it at a very early age. Through my mum's sister I traced the "Worth's" as we call them now to St Catharine's (spelt with an A) which is about a half hour drive from Niagara....... or so it should have been if they had given us better directions!! After 3 calls from the mobile in the car to the Worth's we finally arrived at their house. The welcome was very warm...... seems like the Canadians are all like this........ and as it was the Saturday evening before Thanksgiving Monday we were treated to an early Thanksgiving dinner. Canadian Thanksgiving is much earlier than in the United States, and is always the 2nd Monday in October. Dinner was much like our Christmas dinner and we all tucked in with relish. Home made strawberry and blueberry pie went down a treat with me !! It was very odd talking about my mum to people who were in effect strangers, and also to see family photos in an album in Canada was strange, but we certainly didn't leave as strangers.

Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's family was a little more Italian style, and I'm told his mum often cooks lasagne but decided to do it properly and get a turkey in our honour!! I discovered an Italian cake called canoli (excuse the spelling) and it was delicious!! It was at this dinner we met Mike's other brother Carm, and as with the rest of the family he was very welcoming. My youngest son Paul had difficulty understanding an Italian/Canadian accent though!!

Niagara Falls was awesome ............. but the Canadian Falls get 90% of the water fall their way with only 10% falling to the US border. The horseshoe falls were a wonderful sight, hard to believe after all these years I'd finally made it to see for myself. We did the inevitable trip on the Maid of the Mist boat to see the Falls close up. Why they give you a blue plastic mac to wear I don't know because we got thoroughly soaked to the skin!! At Niagara there is a place called Clifton Hill which is like our Golden Mile and we really didn't have the time to do this as well, but we don't really feel as if we missed much as we are well used to the amusements living in Blackpool.

The day we went up the CN Tower was a really good day......... it was high!!!.... but then again it is the world's tallest free standing building!!...... all 1513 and a bit feet of it!!! The view from the observation deck was brilliant.... but the view from the Sky pod further up was fantastic.............. I've never looked down on skyscrapers before!! After the Tower Mike took us to a famous restaurant called Old Ed's. Apparently Ed arrived in Toronto stoney broke either during or shortly after the 2nd World War, and opened up a restaurant that expanded into what it is today.... a real rags to riches story. The place is more well known for being so unusual........ from the outside it looks OK.... but inside it is so gaudy and "over the top" it is difficult to imagine!!! The comical thing to me was that everything was served with mashed potatoes and peas!!!............. the boys only ordered meatballs and pasta to avoid the mash and peas!!! The walls are lined with photos and autographs of famous people.......... and Des O'Connor!!

One of our nicest days out was to Elmira and St Jacobs, which are about a 2 hour drive west of the city. This is Mennonite and Amish country. To anyone unfamiliar with the Mennonites, they are a race of people who came from the Ukraine and Poland originally.. and many have settled in Pennsylvania in the US and have moved north into Canada. I first became aware of the Amish some years back in the film "Witness" with Harrison Ford. The men all wear black and the women all wear bonnets, and they do not believe in modernisation, although many are giving into that. The real Mennonites have no modern facilities such as gas and electric and think it a sin to listen to music. They are a very religious people who believe in helping each other. They are known to us non members for their "barn raising" where they all help each other when things need doing. If one farmer needs a new barn ALL the Mennonites help them. They still drive around in horse drawn carriages and sell home made crafts or jams etc by the roadside. The Amish are more introvert and do not have any dealings with the "outside world"

We did some shopping in nearby Newmarket, which is where we intend to settle when we live there. It is only up the road from Aurora and has almost merged, but whilst Aurora is a country village, Newmarket is a thriving town with all modern shops and facilities. Mike's teenage boys Luke and Matthew live in Newmarket and the bus service is better.... in Aurora the buses stop at 4.30pm when the kids are home from school!! My boys can't wait to get on a yellow school bus (like in The Simpsons!!!) The Upper Canada Mall is well worth a visit for shopping, and whilst the Canadians moan about the prices being high.... to us Brits it is so cheap it is heaven!! Everything has 2 taxes on, which together make up 15% tax. one is purchase tax and the other is a provincial tax, so you have to get used to adding 15% on your shopping as it is priced net of tax......... very confusing at first. I can't imagine what on earth I will be like shopping when I live there..... it took me for ages to read unfamiliar labels and also to find the English as against the French half of the label!! Even buying the boys juice caused a major rethink......... not so easy as picking up a bottle of juice to take home and dilute!! It was either ready diluted juice......... but in strange flavours like blueberry and grape, cranberry and grape, water melon and peach, and other weird concoctions!! the easiest way of buying juice was to buy a small frozen tub to take home and dilute in a jug. No Ribena and Vimto... Fruitopia was the order of the day. Needless to say, we all enjoyed trying new chocolate bars out......... just wish they'd bring out the Mars with almonds here........mmmmmmmmmm

The people struck me as very friendly indeed , and they were very courteous in shops when serving someone...... something we should take on board. I got used to the local bus services and how to find a place by quoting the intersection streets. Mike heard we give direction as to which pub a place is near.............. well they only have one English pub in Aurora and it isn't quite the same!! You have to be 19 to drink in Ontario and they ask for ID too!! The man on the door insists........... alas I must look over 19 as they didn't ID me!! The Millennium night pub crawl in Aurora is being conducted by bus....with drink on the bus between pubs............ so that gives an indication of how few pubs there are!! And they don't bother dressing up in Canada ......... I have a feeling I will be living in trousers and only wearing a dress at Christmas time!! Still it is a much more relaxed way of life..... they are so laid back they could fall over!!

Needless to say the journey home was one in which neither myself or the boys wanted to make................. but at least we know what to look forward to in the next year. It all depends on whether the house sells before June as to when we can pick up the pieces of the life that is waiting for us in Canada. I feel like I'm living in a void and my life is on hold until we can move. We email still every day and the phone calls have upped a bit............ but we have plans to discuss............ and I'm never more certain that this is the one thing I want most to do................. and the bonus is that Andrew and Paul feel the same. After all it isn't how you meet that matters, it is what happens from then that matters. And we just wish we could get this into action and move!!!

I've probably gone on a bit too long!!................. always got told off at school for "waffling" LOL

Kay

Mike and the boys in their Maid of the Mist macs at Niagara Falls ............
taken before we all got wet!!!! Paul is on the left of the photo and Andrew on the right.
Kay and Mike July 1999

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