Dragon Boat Race

It’s 5.30pm and we haven’t even left the flat yet. It’s been one of those pants days where you try and sort things out and tidy up. I hate these days as my anal wife has a list of things that we have to get through. It’s like a race you can never win.

We did well yesterday. We got out of the house for a start. Although, it was an early start. We went up to see the Changing of the Guard outside Parliament. We got there just after 9.30am and there was already quite a crowd. We saw a few men all dressed up standing around having a chat and then the pomp and ceremony began. Sarah felt very sorry for them having to wear their heavy uniforms, boots and bearskin hats in the intense heat. She was moaning in her t-shirt and cotton trousers. They matched onto the grass area in front of Parliament, all varying heights, and then the Governor-General of Canada (Lizzie’s representative over here) went and inspected them. Then they marched off and we did too. We’re not in synch with our marching so we need to practice that.

We had a stop-off at Tim Horton’s and had a nice bagel and muffin and then got a free shuttle service to Mooney’s Bay to see the Ottawa Dragon Boat Race. All the way there Sarah was saying how these races are really good in Asia so we were quite excited. There were lots of people on the beach and in the water and playing volleyball so we felt very out of place as we weren’t doing anything sporty or active. There were lots of stalls around and we did see one race but were disappointed because the boats weren’t very decorative and the race wasn’t close to the shore to shout encouragement. Or abuse. On the way back Sarah then compared the race we had just seen to the ones she’d seen in Asia. I learnt a lot about Dragonboat racing on the bus yesterday. We had a minor problem on the way back into town as we were chucked off the bus. We weren’t being naughty but had managed to get on the wrong bus. We then had to wander through a field to get to civilisation (and another bus stop) but had a nice time admiring the pretty flowers and getting close to a groundhog.

Finally back in town we found our favourite coffee shop, Second Cup, and watched the storm from inside whilst enjoying our drinks, marshmallow square and the paper. We left after an hour or so and headed down to listen to some Jazz. This week in Ottawa there is a Jazz Festival so there are hundreds of concerts of varying price. We saw Ed Thigpen and his band. They were really cool cats. We headed home around 7ish and ordered Greek takeaway as we couldn’t be bothered to cook. We watched the Manchurian Candidate on DVD but wouldn’t recommend it.

Sarah has managed to get a job. At the moment it is only temporary as she needs to get her TEFL certificate recognised here in Canada before she can get permanent employment with any language school. She found it very difficult trying to find work in a secondary school so hopefully this will work out. We’ll keep you posted.

Jump, Jump for Their Lives

We went for a walk this evening. We walked through the Glebe to a little lake on Holmwood Avenue. It had been raining heavily that afternoon. As we got nearer to the lake we noticed that there were hundreds of tiny frogs on the pavement. They must have been only a centimetre square. Hundreds of baby frogs trying to quickly jump away from our huge feet as we pounded along the pavement. It must have taken us 15 minutes to walk 100 metres as we didn’t want to squash them. It was quite cute to see them but it was a bit frustrating walking that slowly.

Lazy Days

Roger and Joan left on Monday and as Sarah was sad I took Friday off work so I could spoil the missus and cheer her up. We wandered into town for lunch to this little café that Sarah keeps raving about as they do fantastic potato salad. Apparently. They’d run out by the time we got there much to Sarah’s amusement. We then watched a film in the afternoon – Mr&Mrs Smith. I wanted to see what the fuss was about with this Angelina Jolie. I can see why Brad’s missus wasn’t happy. Mine wasn’t either with all my drooling at the screen. We walked back and stopped off and had a pint of shandy. The Canadians don’t seem to have grasped the concept of a cool, refreshing shandy as on the very few occasions we’ve had one it seems to be made out of traditional flat lemonade. Not nice.

We had a cultural day on Saturday, after our obligatory lie-in. There is a Renaissance exhibition on at the Art Gallery so we wandered round looking at male nudes. It was Sarah’s turn to drool. Being the old couple that we now are we were quite tired from walking so found the nearest café and sat with a hot chocolate and cookie whilst reading the paper. We then felt bad for having the cookie so walked home along the canal.

Sunday was a day of rest. Another lie-in. I made Sarah film me. At the driving range. I wanted to see what my swing looks like. Then we went to see another film, the Cinderella Man, which was very good. All in all it was a good weekend. I wish every weekend was 3 days long.

What’s the French for Va-va-voom?

On Friday Sarah and her mum and dad went on a boat trip on the Ottawa river. It took them up to the Rideau falls (nothing like Niagara) and past Parliament and the locks up to the Rideau canal. Sarah would recommend it as it points out a lot of the cities buildings and is a good starting point for a tour.

On Friday evening we all got our glad-rags on and went to see the ABBA tribute band, Bjorn Again at the casino. It was a really fun evening and we all danced in the aisles. I didn’t realise ABBA had had so many hits.

We had planned to take Roger and Joan to Montreal whilst they were here as they have been to Ottawa several times, but had not been to Montreal. We had phoned lots of hotels and checked on the internet weeks ago but all the hotels were booked up or required more than three nights per booking. We knew something must be going on in town but we didn’t realise what it was until Roger said it could be the Canadian Grand Prix. We checked on the internet and found that there were still tickets available for the race and as Roger loves cars we all decided we’d try again to find a hotel. Eventually we found a hotel on the outskirts of Montreal, which we snatched up. We got up early on Saturday morning for the 2 hour drive to Montreal. After picking up the Grand Prix tickets and getting lost driving around Montreal we eventually found the hotel/motel. It was a bit of a dump, stank of smoke and was a way out from the city centre but at least we had somewhere to rest our heads that night. We then got a bus and the tube into Montreal. First stop was the old part of the city and near the port.

We weren’t allowed into Notre Dame cathedral at first as there was a wedding on. Instead we had a walk down to the port and the square where they got us in the mood for the Grand Prix with car displays and radio controlled car racing. At the end of the square a dance school were trying to kill themselves by jumping around maniacally in the heat. We almost passed out just watching them.

Next door to the dance school kids we noticed a wedding party. We love watching weddings so we went to get a closer look and saw that there were five weddings all having pictures taken at the same time. After our fill of brides and grooms we headed back to the cathedral so Roger and Joan could see the inside. Afterwards Roger and Joan treated us to dinner at Rosalie’s, a restaurant we’d been to before and really enjoyed.

We woke early on Sunday so we could drive into town, drop the girls off to go shopping and we headed to the race track. There was a huge crowd and it was difficult to find a good view of the track. Roger and I had a walk round the stalls as there are lots of other things going on (see photos). There were other races before the formula one race, they were fun, especially when there was a crash right in front of us, but the first time I heard the roar of a formula one car accelerating round a corner and racing passed us it was exciting, hair on the back of your neck stuff. It was difficult to keep track of who was winning the race and the cars screamed passed so quickly that you don’t see much, but it was still great fun. Oh, the girls had fun shopping too.

Best Restaurant So Far

Sarah and I have walked past the Social restaurant lots of times and rather fancied having a meal there but it’s a little pricier than our usual eateries (i.e. Subway!) so we dropped lots of unsubtle hints and Roger and Joan kindly took us out for a meal!! It is located in town and has a nice décor with a good ambience and polished waiter service. They had a great range of cocktails and the food was wonderful. The cheese and port was good too. The restaurant has live Jazz on Wednesdays, which was enjoyable and not overpowering, and added to the great atmosphere. We sat inside but you could sit out in the courtyard. So we’d really recommend this more exclusive downtown restaurant. Thanks Mum and Dad!

Cowboy Cooling

I admit that I’ve had a stereotyped view of Canada as being under mountains of snow all year round. Sadly it isn’t like that as the last week has been baking hot. Over 30C everyday. With humidity it feels more like 40C. Time to get air conditioning in the flat. We picked a company and I should have seen the warning signs when they answered the phone just with ‘hello’. They didn’t show up the first time and were an hour late at the second attempt. Worse than not showing up was that the air conditioning didn’t really cool the flat down. Instead it tripped the electrics out during the night and we woke up all sweaty. But not in a nice way. We got another unit fitted in our bedroom and if we keep the bedroom door shut it does get cold in there. The rest of the flat still stays hot so we’ll have to spend the summer in the bedroom.

Duckati Racing

Sarah’s parents arrived in Montreal on Wednesday afternoon. It was a bugger to find the airport so we’ll really have to like you if you want picking up from there! There’s a regular train link to Ottawa just so you know! We’ve been showing them around, although they’ve been to Ottawa a couple of times before. We wowed them with the Ottawa Lynx baseball team and Sarah’s dad, Roger, seemed quite keen to join the team. He had the potential (see photo). A highlight of their first weekend with us was the annual Ottawa Duck Race on the canal. It’s done to raise money for the Children’s Hospital and the prizes were fabulous – a boat, trip to Cuba and a car. Unfortunately we didn’t get any raffle tickets but I did get myself a duck for the bathtub. By the way, it was a rubber duck race. Today we went down to the Byward market as there was a Classic Car Show so we left Roger to happily wander round the cars whilst Joan, Sarah and I went into various shops and sat in a café. We found a really nice art gallery featuring Canadian art so when we’ve saved up a few thousand dollars we’ll go back and get a piece for our wall. We ended the day by taking the in-laws out for dinner. It’s such a rare occurrence that we actually treat our parents and in time honoured tradition they had to write the review. Here it is!

Feleena’s is a Mexican restaurant situated in the heart of the Glebe. It was really nice to sit outside and watch the world go by. The owner/manager, Les, is a really friendly guy. The margaritas are excellent and the food is good and reasonably priced (is that why Sarah and Ian took us there?!)Joan particularly liked the stuffed chicken and the fajitas were fabulous. At the end of the meal we were given free shots of Pernod. Would go there again.

Guest Restaurant Review II

We had our second guest to stay in May and part of the deal for free accommodation is that guests do a restaurant review when we take them out for dinner. Over to Mark...

Location - The restaurant was situated near to Bywater market, very close to the heartof downtown Ottawa. Very close to many bars, and easy to walk to from thenearest bus stop.

Cleanliness - The restaurant had a decent standard of hygeiene. The tablecloth was cleanand the decor was tasteful. There were plenty of pictures of the ownerwith famous people. Something for Sarah and Ian to aspire to!! Waiters also had clean outfits on, didn't smell and unlike in France the femaleones had no armpit hair on display.

Service - Good. Food appeared quickly, which was nice for those of us who were absolutely starving. Only slight disappointment was that not all food wasbought out together. Being the perfect gentlemen myself and Ian started towolf our's down whilst Sarah had to sit and wait.

Food - A good standard and plenty of it. More than enough to fufil my appetite.Ordersing a variety of main dishes was a winner as it let us all try asample of the delights on offer. No prawn crackers though and thecanadians do not seem to understand the concept of crispy duck.

Drink - Variety of Lager so I was very happy!!!

Overall - A good choice. A very nice meal in a good restaurant. Would definately go again.