Photos and CN Tower Visit

I am posting some photos of the visitors first few days.  I didn't realise Erin had posted Bob's blog yet.  Erin wanted to post photos on kodak gallery instead and then post the link, but that hasn't happened yet.

 I put the men to work, you got to get the full experience!!

 Video games rot your brain!!

They didn't do so good, as Jack was quick to point out.



Another trip we did within the first week was a trip up the CN Tower.  There is an observation deck at 346 metres and there is also a glass floor in one area.  The girls wouldn't stand on it!!

the total height of the tower is 553 metres and it stands smack bang in the middle of downtown Toronto.

 This is a model of the CN Tower

Looking North from the Tower

Looking West

 South, there is an island with an airport on it, with no road going to it. Only a ferry

 The Glass Floor

Lunch with a view

More coming.....

From our friend, Bob

Hi everyone! It's Bob here, helping Erin and Troy to move forward with the daunting task of updating their blog. If you've been a regular follower, you'll know who I am since Troy has been helping me with the even more daunting task of finishing my nine-year house restoration. I can relate to T & E's year-long exchange since I did a 14 month stint of backpacking through Western Europe, some of the communist East, Israel and then Scandinavia many years ago and I remember very well how difficult it was to update a simple log book. (I still haven't finished my photo album, twenty five years later!) Sometimes we need a push, or a different perspective, so here's mine...




As most of you know, Yvonne & Graeme, Margaret & Roger arrived in Toronto back on February 24th. Their flight was on time, however, I've been told that Troy was not and they had to wait about ten minutes for him to show up in his board shorts and thongs. Chances are that he spent the extra time looking for his summer gear since late February here is usually about -5 degrees, although it was warmer that day. (For your information, although "thongs" used to mean footwear many years ago, the term now is only used to describe women's' skimpy 'dental floss' underwear...) As you can imagine, they were pretty tired after the very long trip so they spent the first few days relaxing and wondering how Graeme had managed to leave their suitcase with his cell phone and all of their borrowed winter clothes at the airport in Townsville!  Most of the guys at the station were a bit apprehensive about the timing of the visit but Troy assured us that the 'Townsville Four' wanted to experience winter, so March it was. The risky part is that March can be a rather depressing month (just ask Erin) with little snow, especially with the effects of global warming, so we all held our breaths and kept our mouths shut for a change. :)



The first time we met the 'four' was on Saturday February 26th when they came to fire station 421 for dinner. They arrived around five o'clock and while Troy gave them the royal tour, we continued to make my 'Pasta Surprise' dinner for fifteen people. (It's called pasta "Surprise" since it doesn't have sauce and the first time I offered to make it, Gus was in a panic all day asking how it could be served with out sauce, and I just kept saying, "don't worry - it's a surprise!") During dinner I sat beside Yvonne and she quickly pointed out that tomato (toe-MAY-toe) should be pronounced toe-MAH-toe and I quickly realized that this was going to be a no-holds-barred vacation! (Troy pointed out, from down the table, that "you're the minority here Mum, so it's toe-MAY-toe." Thanks Troy!)



Everyone had a good time at dinner and we pointed out to the family that even though Troy has been here for 7 months and is usually on the busy truck which runs medical calls, he still hasn't had a VSA, or "Vital Signs Absent" call, nor many fires. Typical of the way it seems to work out, we wound up going to a bad apartment fire around midnight, and arriving as part of the 'second alarm response', we proceeded to the lobby with our medical equipment. Upon entering the lobby we came across a crew who had dragged a woman from the burning apartment and were attempting CPR on her, even in their exhausted state. We Quickly shed our SCBA (breathing apparatus) and other gear and proceeded to take over CPR until the ambulance crew were able to intervene. I've done CPR many times in my 22 years on the job but this situation was very graphic and one of the most disturbing I've seen, however Troy handled it well and we did our best. Unfortunately she did not survive her injuries and we spent the last few hours at the fire scene ventilating the building and then sealing up the windows as best as we could to try to protect the scene for the fire Marshall. (It's hard to attach plastic sheeting to the window when the aluminum frames have completely melted away...)



Despite our concerns about the lack of snow in March, that night it started to snow and since the temperature was right around the freezing mark, the snow stuck to all the tree branches and overhead wires. It was quite surreal driving the truck back to the station with such beautiful scenery, especially after the sad situation we had just left. I dropped Troy off at the house that morning and I went in to order everyone out of bed and to get out to see the snow. Those sort of perfect conditions rarely occur, and as Graeme said, you can tell it's special when even the locals are out taking pictures! Later that day we met up at Candace's house, had an impromptu snowball fight since it was 'packing snow' and then went down to the antique 'flea market' at St. Lawrence Market where both Margaret and Yvonne quickly found things to buy. We introduced them to the Canadian addiction called Tim Horton's (coffee shop) and then had a brisk walk around the downtown core in the whipping winds. On the way back to the car we walked through BCE place and stopped for a few minutes at an indoor fountain while Graeme and Yvonne got stuck in an elevator on the way to the washroom. (Seriously!) I still regret not taking a picture of Troy standing between two adjacent stores: The 'Hockey Hall of Fame' store and 'Roots'. "Ah, decisions, decisions, my two favourite sports!" (For all of you Aussies with your minds in the gutter, the term Roots refers to a line of clothing and nothing else!!! I swear that when I come to visit in a few years I'm going to wear my 'Roots' T-shirt proudly - if I can summon the courage!) After we returned home we went to Candace's house for a wonderful day and a great dinner - with lots of wine, of course!

Stay tuned for another update soon.......

Ice Fishing

Mum and Dad have been here for close to 5 weeks now. Since arriving with Marg and Roger we have done alot of kilometers accross Canada.  But just before they arrived I was invited to go out Ice fishing with Barry and Lloyd, they are our adopted/temporary brothers in law.  I didn't have to take anything, "just wear warm clothes" they told me.  Ok just before I go on, I am pretty sure what I wore that day would have been considered warm!!!! So anyway, as I had finished work that morning I rushed home to get ready and then hit the road for the day of fishing. Unfortunately I was running a little behind time so I missed setting up the shack for the days fishing.  I am now thankful for this, for I would now be missing limbs due to frostbite. What they should have told me is "wear 2 of EVERYTHING"  Thats right!!! put 2 socks on then put your boots on, and then fit those boots inside another pair of boots!! wear a pair of jeans over the first pair and put 2 jackets on.  When I arrived Barry was out on the lake already putting the final touches on the shack. It was probably about 100 or so meters off the shore. The wind was cutting through me, by the time I got out to the tent I couldn't speak properly as my face was frozen. Lloyd was coming down later as he was still a little under the weather from the night before. Barry had a suit on that resembled something like what they wear at the Antarctica, but we were only half hour out of Toronto!! I soon realized I was going to freeze if we didn't get inside the shack directly.  We cut three holes through the ice by hand, that took less that a minute each one, then we scooped out the ice until there was just water in each hole, then we were ready to go!

 I am holding on to the auger that cuts the holes in the ice

By this stage I am thinking "How big are the fish in here?"

After we had settled down Barry pulled out a heater.....FUCK YEH!! get that thing going.  "Oh shit" I hear him say "Lloyd told me not to forget to fill it up"...........Are you fff....No....Surely not......Haha......Really? Turns out there was enough fuel to get it going but It took 3 goes and nearly an hour until it sustained combustion. After a while Barry commented that the heater was doing a good job, Lloyd was here by then, "We can't see our breath anymore".  Seriously I could sit on that heater and it wouldn't even make my bum red, let alone burn me! Not that it mattered anymore, I was numb from the cold by now, later stages of hypothermia had kicked in!

 The heater in question

I tried to put this one back but I don't think he faired to well from his ordeal

We caught heaps of little fish the size of whiting, I think he said they were perch, the keepers just get laid out on the ice to freeze, I took a handful of fish home to try but had to fillet them first.  That night I started to fillet them when two fish decided they would come back to life and start flipping around on the table.  These things had been frozen and had been out of water for over 7 hours???? Erin and Candice had to leave the room hahaha.

More adventures coming soon!!!

Blue Mountain and Ottawa Winterlude

Unfortunately, our planned weekend at Wasaga Beach was 'whited out' which is kind of like rained out but only with snow.  We had been invited to Wasaga Beach to spend the weekend with Big Jack's two sisters and their families and we were really excited.  However, this is the life in Canada.....plans get shelved at the last minute due to the snow.   Instead, we spent a very relaxing and low-key weekend at home.   However, all is not bad....Troy got to go ice-fishing today with Big Jack's two brothers-in-law.    He can tell you all about it in our next blog.

On Tuesday, we went to Blue Mountain (about 2-3hrs from Toronto) for a day of skiing.  The weather was glorious - not a cloud in the sky and sun sun sun sun sun.   *sigh* how I love the warm sun. 

 Jack waiting patiently to begin

 Yep, love beanie hair!

 Am I going to break my neck??

 I still don't know how I managed to go first!

 Jack zoomed through like he had been doing it for years!

 Bob went ahead of us to take some photos of the view!

 Troy, Jack & Bob

On Friday, it was uncharacteristly warm here in Toronto.  The temperature got up to about eight degrees during the day!!  I wanted to go outside, skip, dance and run wild!  It was sooooo lovely.  I can't wait for spring to arrive.  I have since found out that this weather is just a 'teaser' and sure enough....the following day, the temperature fell back down to minus 5 (it went down to minus 16 in Ottawa, WITHOUT the wind chill).  Yep......winter is still here.  Oh and to top it off, we had more snow fall on Sunday night.

We travelled to Ottawa on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with Pat and Melissa and Pat's parents.  We were able to take part in the Ottawa 'Winterlude' celebrations.   One of the big Canadian traditions is to skate on the Rideau Canal - the canal freezes solid in winter and you can skate the entire length of the canal (7.8kms).   Unfortunately for us, the Canal was closed on Saturday, probably due to the warm weather on Friday.   Instead, we spent the day doing a little sightseeing and shopping.   It was soooooo bitterly cold that day.  The wind was gusty and any part of exposed skin was numb in a matter of minutes.  It was so so so so so cold.  I can not even express just how cold it was.  My eyeballs were stinging, my forehead was aching and my nose - well I couldn't even feel that. 

Of course, we had to have a beavertail and it was worth the frost-bitten hand you got after eating it. 

 Mrs Hayter, Pat & Melissa

 The frozen locks - you might remember the photo we took in Summer of these locks.

 Troy carrying Jack - Parliament House in the background.  I heard about a stray cat colony at the back of Parliament House and decided it would be worthwhile to see.  Troy was so excited, you can nearly see him skipping in this photo! ha ha.
I figured that if I saw the famous Cat Colony in the ruins in Rome, then it's only fitting that I see the famous Cat Colony in Ottawa!  Right?  Yeah.

 View from the pathway.  This colony overlooks the river - they have the best view in the whole of Ottawa!

 I have now decided what I want to do when I retire....officially become a crazy cat lady.

 Pre-frostbite....waiting in the hotel lobby.

 Ice Sculptures at Winterlude.

 Entering the Canal to skate

 The ice was quite bumpy.

A long two days - Jack fell asleep for three hours on our way home to Toronto. 

Busy week planned for us.  Troy is playing in a Hockey Competition and I have to get things organised for Yvonne, Graeme, Margaret & Roger who arrive on Thursday!!  Yay.  Three more sleeps! xxx