May 2-4 Weekend

On Monday the 19th of May we had the Victoria Day public holiday, which celebrates Queen Victoria's birthday. Her actual birthday was the 24th of May, so the holiday is often referred to as "May 2-4", which just happens to be Canadian slang for a case of beer (i.e. a 24 pack). The traditional Canadian way to celebrate this holiday to is to go to "the cottage" for the weekend and consume said 2-4 while soaking up some sunshine after the bitterly cold winter.

Having no cottage, we went on an Ontario road trip for the day. We had an impromptu picnic in the sun at Guelph (a university town), walked around Elora gorge and had an ice-cream in a park before driving home again. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is to just Sit. Outside. In. The. Sun. It's amazing to feel warm again after so many months of sub-zero temperatures!

Climbing the CN Tower

This morning I climbed one of the seven modern wonders of the world, the tallest free-standing structure in the western hemisphere and the tallest metal staircase on earth - the CN Tower!

It took me just 20 minutes and 15 seconds to ascend all 1776 steps and 144 floors. The climb gave me a new-found appreciation of just how tall the CN tower really is (plus a free souvenir t-shirt).

The CN Tower was built between 1973 - 1976 by the Canadian National railway company (hence the 'CN' Tower). At the time, it was the world's tallest tower and was designed to transmit communication, radio and TV signals across Toronto. It has become an iconic feature of the city's skyline and a major tourism attraction, hosting over 2 million visitors annually to the glass-floor observation deck and the revolving restaurant (aptly named 360°).

From now on, whenever I gaze upon Toronto's skyline, I'll be proud to think to myself: "I climbed that!".

  

Curling

On Tuesday night we tried curling for the first time. The best description I can give you is 'lawn bowls on ice, plus sweeping up', but that doesn't really do the sport justice. The truth is, curling is surprisingly challenging, somewhat dangerous and a whole lot of fun!

The basic premise of the game is that two teams of four players take turns sliding 20kg granite curling stones down a narrow sheet of ice, aiming to finish with more stones in the centre of a target than the other team. The handle of the stone is turned slightly as it's released, which makes it 'curl' in an arc as it travels down the ice. After you let go of the stone, two of your teammates use special brooms to sweep the ice directly ahead of it, which allows the stone to travel faster.

The surface of the ice has a 'pebbled' texture, so it's not quite as slippery as a skating rink. Nevertheless, our group had some spectacular falls while curling and sweeping, which must have provided great entertainment to the more experienced players nearby.

We were lucky to have a seasoned curler on hand to show us the ropes (rocks?). Parker was very encouraging of our efforts, despite our complete lack of technique. He also hinted at the complex strategic nature of the game, which is nicknamed 'chess on ice'. Unfortunately even our best attempts resulted in little to no control of where the stone actually ended up, so strategy didn't really get a look in.

If you ever find yourself in the unique situation where someone invites you to go curling, I would thoroughly recommend the experience. I think it only appropriate that I end with the curling community's favourite saying, intended to convey a spirit of excellent sportsmanship: Good curling!

 

The Yonge and the Restless

Yonge Street (pronounced 'young') is (debatably) the longest street in the world, running 1896km from Lake Simcoe (about an hour's drive north of Toronto) all the way south to Lake Ontario.

It's considered to be the centre of the city, quite literally, as it divides all the perpendicular streets in downtown Toronto into east and west (e.g. Queen Street West, King Street East etc). Yonge street is also seen as as a major cultural hub, containing famous landmarks such as the Eaton Centre, Yonge-Dundas Square, the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre, the Sony Centre and the Hockey Hall of Fame. Many large festivals and parades are held down Yonge street including Buskerfest, Pride Parade,  Celebrate Yonge, Live Green Toronto, Zombie Walk and the St Patrick's Day Parade. It's also home to the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line, which celebrates it's 60th birthday this year as Canada's first subway.

Yesterday (as well as last year), I had the pleasure of running down this famous street at the Toronto Yonge Street 10km run. It's a great event, as the gentle downhill slope and generally cooler temperatures in April make for a very fast race. I was happy to cross the finish line in 55:37, over a minute faster than last year! There was a fantastic atmosphere in the crowd, partly due to the thrill of running down the middle of what is usually a very busy street, but mainly because it feels so good to get outside again after such a long, cold winter!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

That's an actual saying apparently, I'm not making this up. I think I prefer T.S. Elliot's bleaker reflection that "April is the cruellest month".

Spring officially started over two weeks ago, yet today it's been raining non-stop with a high of 8 (feels like 4) and a low of -4 degrees. This seems like such a let down after surviving the bitterly cold winter. For some reason I feel the need to tell everyone I come across that "this isn't Spring where I come from!".

I so desperately want it to be warm again! I want to see colourful flowers and fresh grass and leafy green trees! I eagerly await the day that I can leave the apartment wearing just a t-shirt and jeans! Or a lovely dress. A DRESS! Imagine!

Sugar Bush

On Sunday we had a very stereotypically Canadian experience. We visited a sugar bush, which is a plantation of maple trees that are harvested for their sap to make maple syrup.

It was very peaceful walking through the field of tall trees, each dotted with a blue bucket to collect sap from the metal spout drilled into its core. It was a very cold day, so the clear sap in the bottom of the buckets was frozen solid. Once enough sap has been collected, it is boiled down to make maple syrup. It can also be turned into maple sugar, taffy or butter.

We were lucky enough to see the very first syrup of the season being produced in the boiler room. The thick scent of maple syrup that hung in the air was intoxicating! We made our way to the pancake hut immediately to enjoy the sticky sweet deliciousness firsthand.

It's All Downhill From Here

Over the past three months we've been lucky enough to go skiing nearly every weekend! We made two days trips to Mont St Anne in Quebec over Christmas, spent a week at Whistler Blackcomb in early March and have made several day trips with the North Toronto Ski Club to Blue Mountain and Mount St Louis - Moonstone.

Sadly, the ski season is all but over now. There has barely been any new snow lately, and yesterday marked the first official day of Spring. I've been reflecting on all my fond ski memories and realising just how much I've learned from the experience:


I learned to embrace fear

Fear was the biggest hurdle to overcome, and I had to face it at the steepest part of my learning curve. When presented with the completely foreign task of sliding down a slippery hill on two long planks attached to your feet, your natural, self-protecting reaction is to lean backwards so that your weight is positioned uphill. You quickly learn that this is the easiest way to fall over and that counter-intuitively, you have much better control when leaning downhill. As a fairly passive, cautious and gentle person, this aggressive approach went against every fiber of my being. Learning to ski has made me more comfortable being out of my comfort zone and has taught me that the best way to overcome fear is often to attack it head-on!

I found confidence in myself

I have never considered myself a 'sporty' kind of person. I didn't play much sport growing up, and my main physical activities in adulthood have consisted of sporadic bursts of running (including a half marathon last year) and some infrequent yoga classes. I feel very out of my depth when faced with physical challenges and this quickly leads to negative thinking, comparing my abilities with others, embarrassment, and generally giving myself a hard time. This was all very apparent in the first few ski lessons we took. This self doubt held me back and made my performance even worse, which only served to reinforced my initial judgements. Over time I realised that I needed to believe in my abilities and spend less time 'in my head', over-analyzing the situation. The more that I was able to let go of the negative thoughts, the more focus I had on the task at hand and I quickly began to see improvements.

I mastered a new skill

It's been very satisfying to master a completely new skill from scratch, and I had so much fun learning to ski with Shane - it's very helpful to have someone to compare notes with and to congratulate/commiserate at the end of a run. I estimate we've had about 90 hours total skiing time over the past 2 years which has taken us to a level of comfortable, confident skiing. Some of my proud accomplishments include skiing the men's olympic downhill run at Whistler (a black run), getting down a double black diamond run at Blue Mountain and graduating to level 5 of the ski school with the North Toronto Ski Club.

I picked up a little physics along the way

The dynamics of 'sliding sports' such as skiing, skating and snowboarding were of course totally new to me. We had a bit of catching up to do on our knowledge of ice and snow! Shane found this really helpful website which tells you all about the science behind skiing. It describes how the skis are designed to turn, and what you need to do to use this to your advantage.

I can talk the talk

Edging, pole-planting, skiing in the back-seat, inside/outside ski, fall line, short turns, carving, off piste, hockey stop, yard sale, snow sandwich, they're all part of my vocabulary now! I've had to stop and pinch myself a couple of times when I realise how 'normal' skiing feels now. The first time I saw snow, I did a little dance in the street, but now I'll be skiing down a mountain and thinking about what to have for lunch and when my tax return is due.

Lastly, here is some video evidence of my new-found skills (spot me in the aqua ski jacket, pink gloves and white helmet):

Tales of Ice and Snow

Toronto woke up to another 5 centimetres of white, fluffy snow on Tuesday morning, bringing the total snowfall for this winter to around 90 centimetres. This is a lot more than last year, which got me thinking about the logistics of it all...

The city spends a whopping $85.7 million on snow ploughing, road salting and sidewalk clearing each winter. It takes a massive team effort by some 600 snowploughs, 300 sidewalk ploughs, 200 salt trucks and a crew of over 1000 people to keep the streets and sidewalks safe for motorists and pedestrians.

The salt statistics alone are mind-boggling, with over 130,000 tonnes of the stuff spread over the roads every year, costing the city a cool $10 million. Unsurprisingly, a 5-year study conducted by Environment Canada has found road salting to have a negative impact on local plants, animals and marine life. One very visible example of this is that pet dogs are often dressed in little balloon shoes to stop the salt irritating their paws on winter walkies.

So what happens to all the snow that gets ploughed? Sadly, it doesn't stay fluffy and white for very long. Usually within a day or so, the remaining snow on the roads and sidewalks turns to brown slush which flicks up onto the backs of your legs as you walk, leaving salt stains on your pants. If the temperature drops rapidly after the snowfall, the slush will start to re-freeze, creating treacherous icy paths for you to slip over on.

Clean, fluffy white snow

Sad, dirty brown snow

Snow ploughs

Ice salt

XC

We decided to try something new last weekend and went cross-country skiing at nearby Albion Hills. It was a beautiful day for it, not too cold and with plenty of fresh snow on the ground.

I was surprised at how aerobic this sport could be, it didn't take long at all to get our heart rates up! The movement was a little strange, sort of like running on polished floorboards in socks. The skis are much longer and narrower than downhill skis, with tips that curve upwards. The ski poles are also a lot longer, and the boots clip into the skis at the toe only, so it was quite a different feel to downhill skiing.

I'm glad we were able to give cross-country skiing a try. When the Sochi Winter Olympics start I'll have a new found appreciation for the incredible endurance of athletes who can race distances of up to 30km (women) or 50km (men)! We only managed 2.5km at a very leisurely pace before it was time to go inside for a hot drink in the chalet.

Snowcabulary

There's an old cliche about there being hundreds of different eskimo words for 'snow', but as we get through our second Canadian winter I'm starting to think that there may be some truth to this saying after all. Here are some snow and ice related words that I've added to my vocabulary:

Flurry - Very light, brief snowfall with little accumulation on the ground. These conditions are the most likely to produce beautiful, symmetrically-formed little snowflakes.

Blowing snow - Light, dry snow that has fallen on the ground, but is being blown around by the wind.

Snow drift - A bank of fallen snow that has been blown into a sand-dune like shape by the wind.

Rain/snow mix - A mix of rain and partially melted snow. Wet, cold and very unpleasant when it hits you in the face.

Slush - Wet snow that has partially melted on the ground. Feels like walking through a frozen coke/slurpee.

Freezing rain - Super-cooled rain that freezes on impact with the ground creating ice.

Ice storm - A storm of freezing rain that results in significant accumulated ice on surfaces.

Glaze ice - Freezing rain that has coated whatever it fell on with a layer of ice (e.g. trees, plants, cars, telegraph poles). Very pretty but can also cause a lot of damage.

Sleet / Ice pellets - Frozen rain that forms tiny solid ice particles. Closely resembles snow cone ice in texture.

Black ice - A thin coating of ice on the ground which is often invisible to the naked eye. Very easy to slip on and fall over!

Hail - Precipitation that falls as lumps of ice, called hailstones.

Snow storm - A large amount of snowfall.

Blizzard - A severe snowstorm with strong winds lasting for several hours.

Snow squall - A sudden, heavy snow fall with strong winds.

Whiteout - A snowstorm that causes severely reduced visibility. Motorists are cautioned to avoid driving in these dangerous conditions.

Lake effect snowfall - Cold air moving across relatively warm lake water, that causes the wind to pick up water vapor, which falls as snow once it reaches the shore.

Snowbelt - areas that experience lake effect snow, particularly those surrounding the great lakes in the US and Canada.

Packing snow - Slightly wet snow that is the perfect consistency for making snowballs and snowmen.

Corduroy - Freshly groomed snow on a ski-field. The small ridges in the snow resemble corduroy.

Powder - Freshly fallen snow, ideal conditions for skiing. Also known as 'pow-pow', 'pow-town' and many other cool words in snowboarder slang.

Christmas In Quebec

Oh that's right, I have a blog! I guess it's time for an update...

This year we spent Christmas in Quebec City. It was interesting to see the place that we first visited in summer covered in a thick layer of snow! The buildings looked so lovely with their festive decorations and lights, it was the perfect white Christmas. We went skiing for a couple of days at nearby Mont St Anne and spent the rest of the time eating delicious things and wandering around the beautiful cobblestoned streets. It's such a pretty place and one of my favourite parts of Canada that we've seen so far.

 

Land Down Under

In November I made the long trip back home to visit family and friends. It was so good to see everyone again and it felt very reassuring to slip back into my 'second life' so easily. I was glad to trade the sub zero temperatures in Toronto for long days of warm sunshine in Perth and I made every effort to consume as many flat whites as humanly possible during my stay.

Reflections on my intercontinental experience:

Five things I didn't realise I missed about Australia:
1. Driving a car along the coastline while listening to Triple J
2. The friendly, easy-going Australian approach to life. Everything is "no worries mate!"
3. Being able to pay with exact change (GST is included in the sale price)
4. Fitting in and not getting curious looks and questions about my accent all the time
5. This sound: http://youtu.be/DJEHmF657uI

Five things I now realise I will miss about Canada:
1. Having four distinct seasons. I'll miss the colour change in Fall and the snow in Winter
2. Living in a big city with a thriving entertainment and cultural scene
3. Being a long-term tourist and exploring new places for the first time
4. Having an abundance of free time in which to do and see new things
5. Shorter flight times to Europe and the US

 

Trick Or Treat!

Happy Halloween!

Ah yes, the time-honoured North-American tradition of buying excessive amounts of fun-sized candy bars, then dressing the kids up in elaborate costumes to go out trick or treating so that they can bring home even more candy from the neighbours. What fun!

Halloween celebrations this year included:

• Carving a pumpkin for our apartment building's Jack o' Lantern competition (second prize, thank you very much!)
  
• Watching some creeeeepy zombies participating in the annual Toronto Zombie Walk. Sadly it rained on their parade, which made for some very soggy undead towards the afternoon.
  
• Going on a haunted walking tour of Toronto. It was interesting to learn a bit more about the history of the area, but all the stories ended in much the same way, e.g. "some say that to this day, you can still hear her footsteps on the staircase.... (long dramatic pause)".
  
• Attending the Church and Wellesley Halloween street party. This is the adult version of Halloween - the costumes are far more outlandish, and trick or treating is replaced by bar-hopping. We saw some truly incredible costumes including my all time favourite, a larger than life cardboard cut-out of Toronto's infamous mayor Rob Ford, complete with human crack pipe and media frenzy. Nothing could be scarier!

Guess who? BOO!

What a night-mayor!

Falling In love With Fall

Ah, Fall. Such a beautiful time of year! Crisp mornings, colourful autumn leaves, cosy knitwear and Pumpkin Spice Lattes - what's not to love?

I was curious about what causes the Fall colour change, so I thought I'd share my internet-based findings with you. As the temperature begins to drop and the days become shorter, chlorophyll production in plants gradually ceases. This means that the green colour usually present in leaves fades away, revealing underlying pigments such as yellow, orange and brown. The red colour that occurs in some trees is caused by a breakdown of sugars.

Fall colours in Ontario are usually at their peak during the first week of October and the best displays occur with a combination of cool nights and sunny days. The Ontario Parks website provides a fantastic colour report of the best times and places for 'Leaf Peeping' (yes, that's a thing).

Well, that's enough education for one day. Here are some pretty pictures!

Nuit Blanche

We stayed up pretty late on Saturday night to explore Nuit Blanche, where the city of Toronto magically transforms into a surreal, all-night, outdoor art exhibition. Several major streets were shut down for the event, making room for scores of people to wander between artworks. Balloons, patchwork quilts, bicycles, plastic bags, socks and chairs were just some of the materials used in the sculptural pieces, which repeatedly brought to mind questions such as "what does it mean?" and "is it art?" We finished the night in the traditional Canadian way by devouring a box of take-away poutine at 2:30am.

 

 

TIFF Time

We saw two movies at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, 'Enemy' starring Jake Gyllenhall and 'Blood Ties' starring Clive Owen, Mila Kunis and Marion Cotillard. Both movies were quite interesting and gave us the opportunity to get a little closer to fame (see below!) Enemy was actually filmed in Toronto so it was cool to recognise some of the scenes and to point out our apartment in the sweeping skyline panorama that played over the closing credits.

TIFF generates a really fun buzz in the city, with red carpets and crowds of excited fans outside every theatre and plenty of rumoured celebrity sightings and A-list after parties. Apparently Jake (we're on a first name basis now) dined at a new restaurant a couple of blocks away from us, and Hugh Jackman had to make a trip to the Australian Consulate to vote in the federal election.