Likes and Dislikes in Canada so far....

I would like to preface this one by saying that I understand that these points may not necessarily apply to the whole of Canada but you can take that up with someone who gives a rats ass.....

• Like.... the public transport system. The TTC (Toronto Transit Commission), as far as I'm concerned provides an excellent service, particularly when coming from the likes of Dublin Bus and Irish Rail. The subway and streetcar schedules are super frequent, I'm rarely waiting too long for one (except in the middle of the night, when you could be waiting half an hour.....when it's -15 out. Not that pleasant). My favourite thing has to be the drivers though. Maybe it's a public transport driver trait across the world to have an amazingly sarcastic sense of humour. Case in point; on a streetcar one evening and a woman got on talking on her mobile phone. Well, she was shouting and she had the other person on speaker phone so it was a very annoying conversation to have to listen to. Next thing, the driver gets on the intercom 'Excuse me lady, no one wants to hear your conversation. Please either hang up the phone, or get off the streetcar. Thank you'. I nearly wet myself. No one else seemed to think it was that funny though......
• Dislike..... milk. At home we've got full fat, low fat, slimline, whatever. They've the same stuff over here but they also have 'percentages'. As in 2%, 1%. That's not milk, it's a percentage, as Tracy would say. Also, it comes in bags as well as in cartons. Plastic bags of milk feel so weird. I can't even describe it if you've never felt one. Everyone seems to have these special plastic jugs that they use for them. You cut a wee corner out of the bag and plop it in there. Why you don't just empty the milk from the bag into the jug, I do not know. Strange.....
• Like.....the Plummers. I've had a few issues with the odd crazy Canadian since I got here, and haven't met a huge amount that I would be able to admit that I was overly fond of. Apart from the Plummer family. I don't think that there could be a more welcoming or easy going family within the entire North American continent. They should be on the Canadian Tourism Boards advertisements for reasons to come to Canada.
• Dislike.....HST. Harmonized Sales Tax in other words. Nothing, NOTHING that you buy is actually the price that is listed. You get to the counter and realise that the exact change that you've scoured your wallet for is no use to you as you forgot to consider the taxes. According to Wikipedia (the bible of completely accurate information), when they were introducing the HST in Ontario in 2010 was opposed by 74% of the population. Nice to know it matters what the public think!
• Like.....my job. Not many people get to say that these days but I thoroughly enjoy my job. Not that I don't have my off days and I have met some crazy people (not the good kind either) but working at Global Village has been an extremely welcome break from the office work of the last 3 years. I've met some great people, there's a bar on the premises and a smoking patio. And, although I complain about it sometimes, I've learned that I really enjoy folding sheets!
• Dislike.....lack of chicken fillet or breakfast roll availability. Snack food is very different here. It's all pizza slices and pizza slices and more pizza slices. They don't have the same kind of deli vibe that I'm used to where you can get an ol ham and cheese sandwich made up (or the legendary chicken fillet roll). Some of the convenience stores do have counters with samosas, meat pies, imitation cornish pasties, sausage rolls, etc. Even they're not the same. The only sausage rolls I've been able to find are beef ones, not even pork ones!
• Like.....poutine. Yes, I do love poutine. Let me explain it for anyone who may not know about it. It's basically gravy chips with cheese curds but the Canadians consider it very precious and unique to them. Before I tasted it for the first time, I was advised that I had to be very careful where I tried it to ensure that I was tasting high quality poutine. Apparently, the cheese curds have to be really squeaky, the gravy should be chicken or turkey (with a hint of pepper), and the chips should be thin cut and crispy on the outside. I tasted it in the BierMarkt and was very happy with it!
• Dislike.....LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). The LCBO and the Beer Store are the only places that you can buy alcohol in the province of Ontario apart from licensed premises like bars and restaurants (where you can't get take out). If the opening hours don't suit you or you don't have one too near to your house, it can be very awkward. Which I found out to my detriment last Sunday when I discovered that most of them close by 6pm at the latest. Shocking.
• Like..... Steamwhistle Brewery. I've mentioned them in a couple of blogs before but I cannot get enough of these guys. Not only is the Brewery a great attraction and good fun, the beer is really tasty and has been made in the most efficient and green ways. As their motto goes 'Do One Thing Really, Really Well'. Too true, too true. 
• Dislike.... there's no Fitzgeralds. It's been really hard to find a bar here that I can call home. I have searched high and low (which is really tough here considering how expensive it is to drink over here). Lennie and co have pretty much ruined me for any other bar. The closest thing I am likely to find is the bar at Global Village; I know the staff, I know the regulars, I get good prices on the beer. If I could get Totally Wired over to play there, it would actually be perfect.....

Moral of the Story - Moving to a new place is exciting....but sometimes it's just fun to make a pros and cons list!
 

The Irish Visit & Twin Birthday Bonanza

Once again, I question the sensibility of starting this blog. It was fine when I was between routines and had plenty of time to keep it updated but the last thing that I want to happen is for it to fall by the wayside (how tragic). This one will be a quick and quirky update and I hope to return to proper form after Christmas! A lot of what's been going on lately has been me settling into work and my new apartment but here's some of the other exciting things that happened when Tracy and Mike arrived in Toronto;

• Trip to the chalet. When Gillian pointed out that we were nearly there, I asked why we hadn't seen the lake yet. 'No, no, Helena. That's the cottage at Lake Muskoka. We're going to the chalet at Collingwood.' Thanks for clearing that up Gill!! Either way, the house was fabulous and the only worry was how many people we would fit in the hot tub and how to make sure that the good scotch was kept hidden. We managed to celebrate the Plummer twins birthday in style even without the good Scotch!!
• Party Play-Off. The game of the weekend. Basically, the aim of the game is to argue 2 topics against each other and hope that the topic you picked wins in the end. You start out with 32 topics and whittle it down until there is a winner declared. For example; one of the debates was whether it would be more surprising to find a wonderbra or a kitchen sink on Mars. You can see where hilarity would ensure with topics such as this. 
• Blue Mountain. I had heard a lot about this place. Not being a fan of skiing or snow in general, I was delighted to see that there was not a scrap of the white stuff anywhere to be seen! We had a stroll around, I got a delicious savoury beavertail and a pint in Windy O Neills. Yes, Canada is another country where you cannot spit without it landing within 20 feet of an Irish bar. 
• Footloose rave. This was a very random party that occurred out on the decking once I figured out the hot tub is not a good place for super super drunk people. I brought my teeny tiny MP3 player out and played Footloose at full blast (which wasn't very loud AT ALL). I'm still surprised that no one fell off the side of the decking in their crazy dancing.
• The Burl. I did figure that any place someone as cool as Claire Petch was from was bound to be pretty special. I was wrong. It's very ordinary although we did have a lovely breakfast at Cora's Restaurant which was absolutely delicious. It was my first skillet in nearly 3 years. Happy out.

• Niagara Falls. Obviously, the Falls is a must see for anyone heading to this part of the world. I get that. At first, I was a bit underwhelmed but after a while, it becomes quite mesmerising. I was disappointed that the Maid of the Mist wasn't running though. We did the 'Journey Behind the Falls' instead which is quite the waste of money - remember that if you ever find yourself there. We did go to visit Niagara on the Lake, which is the most quaint little place I have ever seen! Looking forward to heading back there in the summer. 
• Steam Whistle Brewery. Yes, I went again. And it was SOOOOOO much better than the first time! We had the most amazing guide called Francis who was too much fun. There was only 6 of us on the tour and Francis was obviously trying to get us shit-faced. Which we didn't have a problem with at all. 
• The Keg. What better way to celebrate an evening spent at a brewery than going to an almost swanky restaurant (it's in the very well to do financial district, there were tablecloths and everything!). I enjoyed a beautiful sirloin, medium rare with scallops. shrimp and a bearnaise sauce. It might well be the happiest I've been in Canada so far. 

Then it was time to say goodbye to my friends again and get myself ready to move into a new apartment and start my new job. They are whole blog posts of their own, believe me!

Moral of the Story - It's great having friends who will travel so far to see you. I can't wait for more people to come so that I can show them around my new home!!

My Birthday in Toronto

I wake up, yawn and stretch and realise 3 things in quick succession.

1. It's my birthday! I'm 26 now, better get my shit together and become a responsible adult.
2. My arm is asleep. I reach up to scratch my face and poke myself in the eye. Not nice.
3. Where the f#@k am I?

I was confused for about 12 solid minutes. I looked around and I spotted my suitcase on the floor and pictures of Gillian's twin on the walls. Oh right, I'm in Toronto in the Plummer family home with my one year working holiday visa to live and work in Canada for the year. But all of that serious stuff later. Let's get on with the birthday first! I had one card already from dear Helena and Brian (the new Mr & Mrs Byrne!) who had given me a card when I met them in New York. How sweet; on their honeymoon, they remembered to get ME a frickin birthday card. Super special people (in a good way, obviously).

I made my way to downtown Toronto to meet Gillian from her office before we headed off to St. Lawrence Market for lunch. There is so much there, my head was practically spinning. Gillian kept asking me what I wanted; I'm terribly indecisive when it comes to food choices, especially when there were so many delicious things to choose from! I ended up getting a veal sandwich (I think, I just ordered the same thing as Gillian). Looking forward to going back again and spending some time there and maybe actually buying some stuff for home cooking next time!

After that, we took a stroll through Union Station and over to the Steam Whistle Brewery to take a tour. Can you think of many things that I would enjoy more than going to a brewery for my birthday? The tour was great, short enough so you don't get bored and the story of how the brewery started is really interesting. The brewery was started by 3 guys who were fired from their jobs working at another microbrewery in Ontario. They were initially going to call the company '3 Fired Guys' but later decided that this was not an ideal marketing tool. They went with the name 'Steam Whistle' as an homage to the 1950's when the blowing of a steamwhistle at 5pm signalled the end of the work day and meant that it was time for a nice cold beer. They still have the logo '3FG' on all of their bottles though! I could go on and on about the virtues of this amazing beer and the company's innovative green initiatives but you should check out the website for yourselves. Or better yet, just fly on over here and visit - I'd have no problem going again!
Because it was my birthday, they gave me a free bottle of delicious Steam Whistle beer (not that I needed it with the copious amounts of free samples that we were getting!) Invited the nice Scottish guy that we met and his Brazilian girlfriend along for dinner. He was all for it, she didn't seem so eager though. He argued with her about the fact that she wanted to go home and get changed first and said that they would meet us later. They seemed like good fun - unfortunately, the Brazilian chick must have won the argument as they never made an appearance :(

We went for dinner in Earls Restaurant with Gillian's twin Kate and a friend of theirs Amy (another Irish girl, surprise surprise). There was obviously only one thing that I was going to order - fillet steak with pepper sauce. Mmmmm. Cooked to perfection, served with crispy shoestring fries. I was happy. Henry was particularly happy when the sticky toffee pudding came out and Kate let him have some of it!

Moral of the Story - birthdays are fun in an international setting, especially when they're not fake birthdays (only had one or two of them in my life). Also, Steam Whistle beer = delicious!