Pura Vida! Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017!

We're back! Just in time for one last blog post of 2016.

In my last post I mentioned we'd be travelling. Glosette Girl, Margot and I were, in fact, enjoying an eco-adventure in beautiful Costa Rica.

This was our first trip to Central America so we originally thought about going on an organized tour to simplify things. However, after doing some research we realized that most North American and European tour companies don't actually run the "experience" portions of their trip (e.g. like zip-lining or horseback riding). Instead, they hire local companies to do it for them. Once we figured this out we decided to book all the hotels ourselves and contact a Costa-Rican company, Anywhere Costa Rica, to book the adventures. They are also a middle-man but because they're a local company  the prices are much better.

We focused on two areas: Monteverde and Manual Antonio. Both are hot-spots for eco-tourism but they couldn't be more different.

Monteverde

Monteverde is in the cloud forest. It's at a higher elevation and so is quite cool. I'd guess it was maybe 17-18 degrees while we were there, although it felt cooler because of the constant rain. And when I say "constant rain" I mean "constant rain". It was actually sunny when we first got to our hotel in Monteverde. However, that turned out to be a clever ruse as it started to rain only a few hours after we arrived. I asked one of the attendants how long it would last. He said "between 10 minutes and 2 days".

He wasn't joking.

The rain is why this part of Costa Rica is so lush so I can't complain too much. We also didn't feel it too much while traipsing through the cloud forest on our guided walks. 

We did, on the other hand, feel it while taking an open-air gondola up a mountain in gale force winds.

I am very curious to find out at what point this ride is considered too dangerous?!

...and when zip-lining through the forest at break neck speeds!

One of us got stuck on the zip-lines. Hint: not Margot.

It's hard to believe but Margot did all of these adventures and with a smile! My tough little cookie.

Manuel Antonio

After 3-nights in the forest we booked a shuttle and headed to the Pacific Coast village of Manuel Antonio. The temperature there was probably 25 Celsius or so. In a word: perfect!

Our hotel: the Falls Resort

We swam. We read. We visited the nearby rainforest national park of Manual Antonio, which is what the area is famous for. We swam some more.

Actually, we had just as many adventures in this area as Monteverde. Margot didn't skimp out on these adventures either, no sir!

Margot the Cowgirl had her own horse

I'm still absorbing the experience. It wasn't all roses of course. We saw a lot of garbage on the side of the road. That surprised me given the importance of tourism to the Costa Rican economy. Also, the "typical" Costa Rican towns and villages we passed through were poorer than I was expecting. But overall I found the trip interesting, fun and enlightening.  It reminded us that Canada is just one small part of the world and how lucky were are to live here (even with the snow).

Sigh... 2017, we're ready for you!

Sunset over Monteverde

Anticipation

It's the calm before our latest adventure: a trip to Costa Rica!

After a year of craziness and stress due to our move to Hintonburg Glosette Girl, Margot and I are off to spend a few nights tramping through the rain forest looking for monkeys, zip lining above the cloud forest in Monteverde and strolling the beaches of Manuel Antonio. We booked all the hotels ourselves and the various day trips through Anywhere Costa Rica. We just need to show up!

OK, let's go over the list of things to bring:

• "Guilty pleasure" book full of swashbuckling and sensationalism. Check.
• Bird-watching book to help identify all the cool birds I'm going to see. Check.
• GPS transponder so Santa can locate us even though we're at home. Check.

Things not to bring:

•  Winter clothes, even though we're not in Costa Rica just yet (OK...maybe I'll bring the sexy snowpants).
• Laptop or cellphone or anything else electronic (OK, I'm not a total Luddite, I'll bring a cell for emergencies).
• Spanish-English dictionary (because Jen is fluent in Spanish - ask her about it sometime if ever you meet her). :)

Mother nature isn't quite done with us yet though. Eastern Ontario is being walloped with 15-20 cm of snow today. We saw the writing on the wall (er, forecast) a few days ago and so got ahead of the storm by driving up to my parents' house (which is closer to the airport we're flying out of) on Friday night. I'm not a fan of driving at night but, to be fair, it was smooth sailing last nigh. We took Highway 7, my drive of choice between Ottawa and Newmarket, which was actually quite pretty due to all the houses lit up with Christmas lights. We arrived just before the snow. This morning our car was covered with a light dusting of the white stuff.

So that's it for me for a week or so! Have a Merry Christmas, a happy stress-free holiday, and talk to you when we return!

Snow Storm Walk

A couple of nights ago there was a snow storm. Big fat flakes filled the air and obscured everything more than 50 feet away.

So that meant it was the perfect night for a walk!

Our street when the storm hits

Glosette Girl, Margot, and I put on our sexiest snowpants and wandered down to Fairmont park, which is the second closest park to our house. It is a nice park in a slightly more gentrified neighbourhood - about 5-10 minutes away.

Tennis, anyone?

Fairmont is definitely a great park to wander through in the winter as the trees give it a magical aura. I think elves live in some of them.

Although it was only 6:30 pm or so, we were almost the only people walking around. I liked that. It felt like the storm, as fierce as it was, was a present just for us.

Oh that Christmas Season!

I love the build up to Christmas! There is a tangible joy in the air. I love all the traditions, from putting up Christmas lights....

Margot and Simon Christmas Light Installers, Inc.

...to watching for (putting up with?) the first snow of the season...

Only 4 months of winter to go

...to the folksy, quirky, small town Christmas parades.

"What the #$! is that?!" you're probably thinking. I have no clue...but I want one!

Actually, this year Glosette Girl, Margot and I are taking an eco/sun holiday over Christmas. I'm looking forward to it, but one of the downsides is that it distracts a bit from all the fun Christmas stuff. The timing of our holiday also forced us to get a bit creative in order to let Margot feel the full Christmas experience. For example we started eating our advent calendar 7 days early (not a single advent calendar chocolate will go to waste on my watch, damnit!)

We debated on whether we should get a Christmas tree but ultimately decided that you gotta have a tree. So we picked up a super small one (by Canadian standards) in Ottawa's Byward Market.  It's less upkeep than a big tree and should be OK if we have to leave it for a few days.

By the power of GRAYSKULL...!

Now that it's decorated it adds a nice a friendly glow to the house.

A joyful tree for the season!

Living in a Neighbourhood

"Hi Simon!" - a friendly greeting that I sometimes get while walking to work from my friend R's daughter, E, who lives just a few blocks away from me. It always brings a smile to my face even when I'm half-asleep at 8 am in the morning.

It's nice living in an area where I am within walking distance of friends. It really adds to the sense of community. Since graduating University, I don't think I've lived anywhere where I have known anyone other than my immediate neighbours. 

Mostly I have Margot to thank for this. As she gets older and gets to know more local kids, I imagine I'll get to know more and more local-area parents.

Who knows? Maybe one day some local-area Kimmy Gibbler will start barging in uninvited. Ahhh... that's when I know we' really belong in Hintonburg.

Anyways, for now I'll just appreciate what I have. This past Saturday Margot went to R's house for a playdate with E and her brother A. It was just for an hour and a half but from her smile she had a world of fun.

A, E and Margot

Small beginnings!

Their street

Resto Cookies: 10 Fourteen Bar

This is the first post of Resto Cookies, a special category of blog posts on Tough Cookies: Hintonburg Style. As you can probably guess, the focus of Resto Cookies is... restaurants!

Glosette Girl and I try and eat take-out or go to a resturant once a week. It makes things easier in terms of cooking (one less meal to plan) and it gives us something to look forward to every week. If possible, we try something new but we do have a few old favourites.

To-date we've logged all our experiences by hand in notebooks, meaning our comments are just for us. We've probably reviewed a couple of hundred places.

On Resto Cookies I'll share some of our thoughts on local-area (the neighbourhoods of Westboro, Wellington-West, Hintonburg, Chinatown and Little Italy) places, as we try them.

First up: 10 Fourteen Bar.

The context: post-show (Fractus V) drinks.

The good: the ambient level of noise in the bar was great. You can have a conversation and not shout, which wasn't the case with two other places we scoped out before settling on 10 Fourteen. The service was decent and the atmosphere lively and a nice mix of young and old (I'm on the "old" side of that equation these days *sniff*, *sniff*).

The not-so-good: the layout of the bar is odd. I get that's its not a traditional restaurant but it just seems that there isn't enough seating for the space. There are odd gaps. There are also booths, which I find out-of-place in a wine bar.

If it looks cold and miserable its because the first real snow is about to hit

The kicker: living 5 minutes from a bunch of restaurants puts a new perspective on things. You can walk to everything, which is great...except that you know you can walk back just as easily. This raises dilemmas such as, is it really worth it to pay $28 for two glasses of wine when you can have a decent bottle for that price at home? hmmmm. That's not the fault of 10Fourteen, but in this case, we decided to enjoy the comforts of home after a round of drinks. Damn you common sense!

Family Rhythms

From world-changing milestones to the little events that make up my daily life, it's all here on Tough Cookies: Hintonburg Style. You never know what you're going to get on this blog.

Anyways, what I was going to talk about last week, before I was rudely interrupted by Mr. T. Rumpis, was family - specifically, how daily interactions of my life with my in-laws has changed since moving to Hintonburg.

Previously, I lived about 10 minutes away from the in-laws. I'm now maybe 15-20 minutes away. It doesn't seem much but it has actually completely changed how often I see them. Jen's parents used to pick up and drop our daughter, Margot, off almost every day. So I saw them a fair bit, even if only fleetingly.  However, now that I walk to school with Margot and Glosette Girl picks her up most days, I rarely see Glosette Girl's parents or the other members of Glosette Girl's family. There usually has to be a special reason.

Hangin' with the cousins is always a good excuse

I actually like my in-laws so this has been quite a change. Fortunately, Glosette Girl's mother and aunt each helpfully pick up Margot from school one day per week (thank god for that because, honestly, school ends super early at 2:30 pm. What's the deal with that? Who is at home at 2:30 pm?!), which is nice as they get to stay a part of Margot's life. We are also trying to see the rest of the family for dinner occasionally or if there is something to celebrate.

We bring the jazz

Interestingly, nothing has really changed with my side of the family. They live 5 hours away near or in Toronto (I suppose that's down to 4 hours 50 minutes) so my move to downtown Ottawa hasn't impacted them. I see some part of my gang every month or two and I anticipate that will stay the same.

It may seem obvious but I guess it all comes down to making sure that you make an effort to see the people who matter to you in your life.

Simon's side of the force

Game Changer

I was trying to figure out about what to blog about this week when history happened and made the decision for me.

I don't recall too many moments that I can honestly say are world game-changers (9/11, the election of Obama, and the fall of the Berlin Wall [although I was too young to remember it]) but last night is definitely a new one to add to the list.

Who would have thought that Donald Trump would become President of the United States? I certainty didn't have sufficient Simpsonesque-foresight to predict that! But it happened and it feels like the rules are about to shift.

I don't really want to go into why he won or whether its going to be good or bad for America, Canada or the world. Reams of ink has been and will be spilled on those topics by people much smarter than myself.

But I would like to pause for a moment and relate yesterday's events with my own personal experiences.  When the Federal Conservatives won majority power in Canada in 2011 I was a civil servant in a temporary job I liked. When I saw the results come in my heart dropped into my stomach. The Conservatives had campaigned on cutting back and sure enough, within the year, I was gone (I'm simplifying things a bit but you get the picture). The feeling on that election night was visceral.

Interestingly, despite the obviously world-changing events of yesterday the feeling for me, personally, more abstract. I wouldn't have voted but Trump but then, he's not my President. I also know things are going to change, and many people will be affected (most obviously illegal immigrants and federal civil servants in the U.S.) but I doubt I will be directly impacted no matter what happens. That's probably true for most people around the world.

I hope that for people who disagree with the election outcome don't give up on democracy. There is always a next time and there are always opportunities to build for the future, even if only locally.

All this may be small comfort for many, especially those who view the rise of Donald Trump as representing a setback for universal progressive liberalism. There's probably nothing that will make them feel better....but I'm going to give it a shot with this short video of Margot and Jen running away from some fierce geese.

Run guys, run!

C'est L'Halloween ...HEY!

Ahh Halloween. It gives Christmas a run for the money for best holiday. Just think of all the great things about it:

• Stay up late - check.
• Carve a round orange vegetable and place it outside - check.
• Dress up and let your inner self shine - check.
• Light small fires - check.
• Get free candy (if you're a kid) - check.
• Eat free candy (no age limit) - check.
• Give away some of that free candy to local urchins but make sure you have a net gain of free candy overall when you factor in the haul your children bring in - check.

We actually threw a Halloween party on the weekend - our first party of our new house! There were kids and adults running rampant all over the place and it was quite fun.

We had to do lots of pre-party prep

Getting into the spirit

But yesterday was the real thing. Hintonburg being a downtown neighbourhood, I was curious to see how many children would be out and about. The answer? LOTS. There were heaps of kids running around here.

Jen and Margot headed out around 6:10 pm

The action really depended on the particular street. Some streets, like Melrose, were booming. Others, like ours, were quieter. My non-scientific analysis is that the number of kids was proportional to the number of houses with kooky halloween decorations and on that basis Melrose got a gold star.

This is what you need to reel the kids in (on Rosemont street)

In the end we got 20* kids. Why the asterisk? Good question. Well, Jen and I were supposed to take turns walking Margot around the neighbourhood trick-or-treating. But after a few minutes during her turn, Jen missed us and decided to track us down leaving a bowl of candy in front of house.

Many people actually do this all the time. For me, that's sacrilegious! You HAVE to count the number of kids that come to your house. Why?

Well...um....

That's a good question.

You just DO.

Anyways, it was spooktactular evening overall even if it will forever be marked with an asterisk!

A Walk in 6 Snapshots

What does a 30 minute morning walking commute look like? I can't tell you...but I can SHOW you!!!

BAM! ZAM! (Imagine smoke and fireworks).

5 minutes: at about the five minute mark from my house (or Margot's school if I drop Margot off) I'm on the edge of my neighborhood. Walk around this corner and you're essentially out of Hintonburg.*

Leaving the Shire

*Wikipedia lists Hintonburg's borders as slightly larger. I'm sure that's correct but the "feel" of Hintonburg changes in this direction (west) once you past a street called Bayswater.

10 minutes: the 10-minute mark is kindof in a no-man's land between Hintonburg and another neighborhood, little Italy. It's around this point that I go up a small hill and I get the only "view" on my trip - a glimpse of downtown Ottawa. It's not much but the morning light hits the buildings at the right spots so I like it.

The Big City

15 minutes: well that was a bit of a jip! In between the 10 and 15 minute mark was littly Italy, which I was hoping to talk about. But I'm  not going to because by 15 minutes I've passed that 'hood....

...well almost. Continuing my westward journey I run smack into St. Anthony of Padua Church, which played an important part of the local Italian community in Ottawa...or so Wikipedia tells me. Personal tidbit: I have a friend who got married here.

20 minutes: ah now we're hitting the action -  the intersection of Bronson and Gladstone. At 7:50 am it's still relatively quiet but give in another 30 minutes and it's jammed packed.

Instant cure for the blues if you're a walker : walk by a gridlocked intersection.

25 minutes: just past Bronson is the neighborhood of Centretown. When I was a student a lot of my friends live here but it's more diverse than I remember. I see lots of families and retirees as well as students in the morning.

A quiet oasis

A quirky thing about this neighbourhood is that its actually very hard to get to by car. Most of the roads are one way pointing out of the neighbourhood. As a walker, I like that because it means there's very little traffic on the streets and it's very calm.

30 minutes: the 30-minute mark is almost the end of the journey. I'm at the border of Centretown at this point and only a few minutes to my office. It's not a particularly nice area (there's a bus station nearby, which doesn't exactly add a cosmopolitan flair) but hey that's the route.

So there you go! Now you know what its like to walk to work in Ottawa.

Magic :)

Parkdale Pumpkins

One of the great things about living in this area is that we're a short walk away from the Parkdale farmers' market. Unlike other farmers' markets in Ottawa, the Parkdale market is devoted almost exclusively to fruits and veggies. The exceptions are in spring, when its mostly flowers, and around Christmas time when its, surprise surprise, Christmas trees.

I like the focus on food because it means the market serves a practical purpose and helps make this area more livable. Although there are some re-sellers (vendors who buy stuff from other people but don't grow it themselves) there are a lot of actual farmers selling their products there, which is nice.

It would be pretty hard  to live off solely off the stuff sold at the Parkdale farmers' market (until they invent a Sour-cream-and-Onion-potato-chip-tree) but its definitely become part of our routine to check out the market for anything in season.

Last Saturday was gorgeously sunny and Margot and I headed over to the market to buy our Halloween pumpkins.

It was tough deciding which one to buy.

Buy 1...or 20?

But eventually we settled on two round fatties. Margot was super tough and carried hers all by herself...

 ...with only a few sketchy moments where she thought she might drop the pumpkin along the way.

Eventually we made it home.

Job done right? WRONG. There are 3 people in our family. So back we walked to the market to buy one last pumpkin. Luckily, the best thing about the Parkdale market (from Margot's perspective) is that that there's a playground behind it.

Grocery shopping can be such a slog!

Past the Invisible Wall

My new home in Ottawa, Ontario, is just 5 km from the Quebec provincial border but for some people it could be 1000 km away. For many, there is an invisible wall running through the middle of the Ottawa river that prevents them from imagining a life on the other side.

Yes, people are willing to work wherever their job takes them. But when it comes to living (buying a house, going to school, raising kids, even going out) doing so in the "other" province is a challenge that many people in this area struggle with.

I have first hand knowledge of this because I used to think like that! When I first moved to Ottawa I couldn't fathom living in Quebec (I'm from small-ish town Newmarket, Ontario). However, cheap rent and housing prices eventually had me take a good look at Quebec (having a cute Quebec wife doesn't hurt either). I ended up living in Quebec for 9 years.

Language was a bit part of why I was so reluctant. I didn't like the idea of living as a minority language speaker within my own country. Plus there was the whole Quebec separatist political scene, which annoyed me (and still does).

Eventually though, with Glosette Girl's help, I got over my jitters. And I'm glad I did. Although I love urban Ottawa living, geographically and culturally, Quebec is just a beautiful province. You are on the doorstep of nature.

This past weekend, with my sister and her family in tow, we re-visited the Mont-Ste Marie festival of colours. Glosette Girl, Margot and I discovered this a few years ago and we loved sharing the experience with my sister's gang. It was a colour explosion!

This place is only about an hour from my home in rural Quebec.  We started the morning with coffee shops and sidewalks and in the time it takes to watch one Broadchurch episode we were amongst the trees.

A very relaxing way to spend Thanksgiving. I really enjoy discovering these places - wherever they may be.

p.s there was Poutine at the bottom of the hill waiting for us as a reward. That didn't hurt either!

Blessing of the Animals

Yesterday was October 4th. That makes it a special day. Do you know why?

No, it's not because it's the date when Sweden beat Ferdinand III at the Battle at Wittstock. No, it's not because on this date in 1873 Toronto Argonaut Football Club formed. Those are important milestones of course but what I want to talk about is the fact that October 4th is the feast of St Francis of Assisi, which means it's a time of year when many churches invite people's pets to come to mass for special "blessing of the animals" celebrations. 

Funnily enough, I first heard about this event on a British TV comedy called the Vicar of Dibley (yay British comedies!) I thought the whole thing was made up for TV until I realized that my church, All Saints Westboro, holds an annual blessing of the animal celebration. This is the same church that I discussed years ago on my old blog. I still take Margot once a month and the same jolly old priest is still in charge.

The blessing of the animals ceremony

Margot was super excited to go to this year's blessing of the animals because we have a new cat, Marshmallow, whose birthday is on October 2nd - the same day our church was celebrating the blessing of the animals. Margot goes to church school and brought Marshmallow with her. Most of the other kids in church school left their pets with their parents in church so Marshmallow really stood out. That meant Margot got to be the centre of attention and tell the other kids all the interesting facts about him. Many of the kids mentioned how soft and cute Marshmallow was. Margot was literally BEAMING with pride.

Later, after Margot told some random woman that it was Marshmallow's birthday, the entire church sang happy birthday to him (I kid you not!). 

Singing Happy Birthday

The birthday crew

These sorts of celebrations are really memorable and fun. There are a couple of closer churches to our new home in Hintonburg than All Saints Westboro but I'm inclined to stay put for now. Going to this church has been part of the routine of our lives for the last six years and I'm not ready to change it just yet.

It was all worth it

Especially when one of those things involves over a hundred people singing to your pet!

Gentle Mornings

One of the nicest things about our new home is how close it is to Margot's school, Ecole St-Francois D'Assise. It literally is two blocks away, which is 3 minutes at a regular-people walking pace or 6 minutes at a Margot-people walking pace.

Because of the way Glosette Girl and my schedules have worked out this semester, I walk Margot to school three days a week and Jen walks Margot the other two days.

I really like it when it's my turn to walk her to school.

Its getting chillier in the mornings

On my days, Margot and I hold hands and she tells me about whatever random thoughts pop into her mind. Sometimes she describes what's going on in her class. More often than not she'll tell me about what she'll do if she's the first one in class (she organizes her stuff in her desk - FIRST!), her latest favourite toy (currently "Big Eye" stuffed animals), or whether my French is improving ("it's not but you have other qualities"). Once in awhile she throws in a "You're the best Dada", which I won't deny is pretty sweet to hear. 

It may not be as fun when it's 20 below and I'm fighting with Margot to put on an uncool hat and mittens rather than her cool but impractical earmuffs and gloves, but I'll enjoy it as long as I can. It's such a calm start to the day and worlds away from the rest of my day's oftentimes hectic experience.

We cross a few roads, past a few gardens and enter the school through the back, which is a slight detour but allows us to spy on the kids getting dropped off by bus. Before I know it Margot gives me a hug and walks confidently past two no-nonsense hall monitors (door attendants?) in bright yellow vests.

The long way to school

 I can't help but smile and feel a little bemused by the whole experience.