Winterlude

After all my bitter blogging on the Canadian weather, I went to enjoy the festivities of Winterlude last weekend. Winterlude as the name suggests, is a celebration of Winter (yay… *rolls eyes*) in the nation's capital of Ottawa.

The neat thing about Winterlude is NOT the cold (we'll get back to the cold later), but the fact that the Rideau Canal is frozen over, creating the worlds longest skating rink of over 7.8kms! As the University of Ottawa is situated on the canal, students can literally skate to school in winter. My plan was to skate the canal, but when I saw the masses of people on it, I chickened out. I've only ever skated in a indoor ice rink where there is smooth ice and walls for me to slam-stop. No one was offering to be my wall.

So whilst G skated down the canal, I plodded along by foot which was just as acceptable. To be fair, the weather was actually behaving very well, definitely more tolerable than I had imagined. By the time we finished walking the canal though, it was painful to move my poor little toes. Still not a complaint out of me (much to G's surprise). I only had one thing in mind and that was Beavertails!!! There is something irresistible with fried dough sprinkled with cinnimon and sugar, and drenched in lemon juice. It was sooo good no one heard a peep out of me until I had finished stuffing my face with it. Not sure whether the cold had anything to do with it, but the hot chocolate I had with my Beavertail… it was the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted, and it was only off the back of a truck. Who says I lack passion??

Anyways, pictures are up, you can click on the Ottawa link to check out the frozen canal and ice sculptures that were part of the festivities.

Apple juice no ice please

I'm told this winter has been the worse winter since anyone can remember. Great.
Last big snow storm, we only had 20cm of snow. 30cm topped it yesterday.

5pm - G gets home early to shovel before going to volleyball.
6.30pm - I get home. Shoveled areas are already covered in a deep blanket of snow.
9pm - I come out of hiding and shovel driveway i the dark so G's car can get in.
11pm - G comes home, driveway is covered in snow AGAIN. Car gets stuck in the shared driveway. I get out of PJs. Both shoveling.
11.30pm - Car won't budge. We give up, G finally has dinner.

6.30am next morning - Surprise. More snow. Barely awake. We're shoveling.
Neighbour helped push car out.

The whole city of Toronto is like a gigantic Cola slushie.
For those that know me, I hate slushies. I order drinks with no ice. I hate slushies.

My first shovel

My stance was, if I was to move countries and live in snowy Canada, I refuse to shovel snow. I'm not a princess, I can manage household chores, but I don't do garden... until today.

A day after the snow storm, the snow was so deep I didn't have the heart to refuse. It actually wasn't too bad. It's true, there is always a calm before the storm, and once the storm has passed the weather becomes much more tolerable too.

So this is what happens, I move country for a boy and he puts me to work in the yard.



And the first shovel comes with my first snow angel...


For the record, this was just an exception, I'm not backing down on the deal.