Happy Canada Day!!

Canada Day

This is my first ever Canada Day outside of Canada. In honour of the day I figured I would do up a little list of some of things I miss about Canada. (For those of you who follow both of our blogs I 100% acknowledge that I am totally stealing this idea from Katrina as she did something similar to this when she first moved to Taiwan!!)

Obviously what I miss most about Canada are my wonderful family and friends - this goes without saying and so I did not put it on my list because it clearly over-rides everything else. Ok, here we go - and these are in no particular order.

The cottage

Because it is Canada Day which I would typically spend up at the cottage (both Jack Lake and Wollaston) I am very much missing not being there this year. I miss watching the early morning mist rise of the lake.; The call of the Loon; waterskiing and boat rides; campfires and spider dogs; and spending time with family and friends.

Autumn

We got here right at the end of "fall" beginning of winter and although there were some trees with coloured leaves it is not the same as the brilliant oranges, reds and yellows that we get with a Canadian fall. Autumn used to be one of my favourite seasons for this reason and I do miss that I am not going to get to see that for a few years.

Coffee - specifically being able to go through a Tim Horton's drive-thru, ordering my standard medium regular and needing no more than a loonie and perhaps a quarter or two. Let me break this one down for you as there are several parts to it.

First - the drive thru part. There are a handful of drive-thru coffee places here but they are few and far between. It just isn't the same type of coffee culture here that you have in Canada where you basically can't go more than 10 minutes without finding a Tim Horton's. Not to mention you have to wait a long time to get your coffee if you do find a drive thru because it takes so long to make - none of this waiting freshly brewed pot stuff (see number two)

Second - Medium regular - coffee with one cream and one sugar. They do not have regular drip coffee down here - all coffee is made with those fancy coffee machines they have at starbucks with the steamers etc. Your basic coffee options are a long black or a flat white (coffee with steamed milk). We do have a drip coffee machine at home but both of us enjoy our coffee with cream and you cannot buy coffee cream down here. It has been suggested that I try buying whipping cream, and skim milk and mix then together to make my own half and half but that seems like a lot of effort for a cup of coffee. And so I have gotten used to drinking flat whites when out, and coffee with milk at home but it just isn't the same as my Timmys!!!

Third - a normal size coffee down here will run you somewhere between $3.50 and $4.50. Often this depends on whether you want it to stay or take away. I don't know about you, but if I am spending $4.00 on a coffee it better be a Grande Vanilla Latte not a regular coffee with steamed milk.

Familiarity of restaurant chains

I am going to qualify this one because you all know that I love trying out new foods and new restaurants and I enjoy encouraging my children to do the same. However, it is tough when you are in a new city, and do not know where the family friendly restaurants are. It takes a while to search them out and while we have found a few that are amazing (sandboxes, play structures or toy boxes in the restaurant) we have also had nights where we had to drive to several places to find one that fit our needs. On these nights it would have been very comforting to see the familiar sign for Swiss Chalet, Boston Pizza, Red Lobster etc, where you know the environment and food is going to be the same no matter what franchise you are in. That being said, the exploring aspect is also fun and on nights where the kids are game to try something new, we have enjoyed some great different foods and found some wonderful new places.

Costco - We do have Kmart, the Big W (basically a regular walmart) and Target. But I do miss being able to go to one store and get groceries and household items, and clothing, and my contacts etc. There isn't really any bulk shopping down here that I have found. I quite enjoyed my former stash of non-perishables and my meat in the deep freeze. It kept me from having to go grocery shopping every week which when you have small children can be an entire event.

Triscuits, Goldfish, Red Rose Tea and Activia Yogurt - There are alternatives to most things, but none that I have found to the list above. Of course there are other brands of yogurt and tea but sometimes you just want to be a creature of habit and enjoy your favourite brand.

So those are just a few little things that I miss about Canada. There are many differences down here but also many similarities and on the whole, if I had to be living anywhere other then Canada I am glad that I am here. The people are friendly, the weather is amazing and the lifestyle is relaxed and family focused.

So on that note Happy Canada Day everyone!! Brayden was very excited to bring his Canadian flag to school today for "news" and tell his mates all about Canada. We are spending the evening with another Canadian family who has just arrived in Perth so it will be a nice evening.

We found a house!

Well we finally found a house and we are moving in 3.5 weeks. Our furniture has arrived in Perth and has cleared customs and quarantine so we are good to go. It has been a bit of a humbling experience the last few months living with the bare minimum. It made me realize that what we need, and what we want/enjoy having are very different things. It really has made me appreciate how blessed we are with the things that we have.

The house is in Floreat which is a suburb of Perth. It is about a 10 minute drive from where we are now, a 5 min drive from the beach (no more ocean sunsets out our dining room window though - that is the one thing I am going to miss about this apartment) and a 10 min drive to Brayden's school. Initially I wanted a house within walking distance of the school but we were not able to find anything nice in our price range with the features that we were looking for (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage etc).

When we first drove up to our house I knew right away it was meant to be - there is a big maple tree in the front yard (or the Australian equivalent of it.) I personally cannot see the difference between these leaves and the maple leaf - it is in the same tree family for sure!! It has a garage with a built in wine cellar, 3 bedrooms (with a 4th bedroom/huge walk in closet off the master), 2 bathrooms, decent size back yard, playground down the street and lots of kids around. The only thing I wasn't wild about was the kitchen. It is big enough but it is dated - brown cupboards and yellow counters - yuck!! But i figure I can cover the cabinets with the kids art work and my counters are always covered in stuff anyway. And it has a dishwasher which was on my list of things I wanted. Plus the house came with a fridge, washer and dryer which most of them don't. So all and all it fit the bill for what we wanted. And really, we are renting it, not buying it!!

Unfortunately we had to take a lease on our current apartment until the end of August so please pray that we are able to re-lease or sublet it so we are not stuck paying double rent for a month. Not the end of the world but just a waste of money. Of course they decided this week to start fixing some things around the apartment so now there is scaffolding and dust everywhere. Not great for any potential newcomers. Ahh well, what will be will be. Our stuff arrived safely, we have a house we like and we are enjoying ourselves so far in our new city. That is all that really matters.

I don't have any pictures of the house yet but I will post some once we move in. In the meantime here is a couple pictures of Brayden at his school assembly. Not sure if you can tell but the auditorium is actually outdoors! They were allowed to wear whatever they wanted that day - no uniforms. So Brayden and a couple of his "mates" wore their West Coast Eagles jerseys (Australian Football League - Footy). They were showing off their art work. Their teacher is an amazing artist and does the most wonderful art projects with them. Brayden's has a fantastic portfolio of artwork. This art work was inspired by the style of Eric Carle's illustrations (The very hungry caterpillar). Brayden's is a Koala. I love it an can't wait to bring it home, frame it and put it on the wall next to our pictures of Bryan and I holding Koala's.

The house hunt continues

So our house hunt continues. We have looked at probably 50 or so houses and still haven't found one that feels like home. I know we will find it, but in the meantime we are continuing to look at everything and anything in search of "the one". It isn't all bad though, we have gotten a good idea of where we want to live and what we want. And today, our house hunting ventures led us to another Canadian family!! While looking at an open house this afternoon there was a man, talking to the real estate agent and did not have an accent!! So he and Bryan started talking and turns out he is from Alberta, and here in Perth on a house hunting mission before his wife and two sons move down here with him at the end of July. Ok, now here is where it gets really cool...he and his wife are BOTH working for Curtin University - same Uni Bryan is teaching at...AND they have enrolled their two boys in East Claremont Primary school - Brayden's school. How is that for a crazy twist??!! So we exchanged numbers and they are going to give us a call when they get to town and settled. So we can never forget our dear Country as we seem to find little glimpses of home everywhere - including the kids stores. Check out these rugby shirts I found for the boys last week!!

Other then that things are going well here. We have been keeping busy doing various things. The boys and I went to the Dora the Explorer stage show and they LOVED it. It was actually a lot of fun and seeing their faces light up when the show started was well worth the price of admission.


Bry is getting ready for his first teaching block next week. Brayden is still enjoying school and is no longer the new guy as a new little boy started today!! Dylan and I are enjoying various playgroups, music classes and trips to the park (many, many trips to the park). But we have met lots of new friends and I am loving being home with him.