Jolly Good

well, i didnt get a white christmas. santa was a little late delivering on that one. it started snowing at around midnight on christmas night, so its been pretty white since christmas.

i stayed with matt and his parents for 4 nights around christmas. on christmas eve we had the traditional quebecois dish tourtiere which is really just a meat pie, but without the gravy us aussies would expect. matts mum made it from scratch and the pastry was heavenly. absolutely melt in your mouth stuff. after which we opened gifts from matts sister who lives in vancouver. what a sweetheart, she got me a little oil burner with oil, from the body shop. a fantastic gift when you live with two smelly boys.

christmas day, matt got me up at 8am (for once it was me pleading for 10 more minutes in bed), only to discover that "christmas wasnt ready yet". so, back to bed for an hour. we opened presents from 9 until about 11. matt kept opening presents of socks and underwear, and getting increasingly disappointed with his christmas haul. finally, when seemingly all presents were finished with, his dad pulled out 2 little parcels for him that made everything ok. a 30gb black ipod. not a bad score. his parents loved my gift and its now hanging in the lounge room, waiting for me to make up its gallery style label so they know where each picture was taken. they got me lots of goodies, including some new pjs and 1/2 a litre of maple syrup. matt was convinced the duvet under the tree was for him, as his mum was very upset when he had found it in their car. so it was quite hilarious when it turned out that matts parents had bought it as a christmas present for themselves!

we sat down to a lovely late breakfast of pancakes cooked by me, made from the wonderful 'food for lovers' recipe where the batter is made the night before. i introduced matts parents to butter, lemon and sugar on your pancakes -previously restricted to beavertails.

matt and i spent the day watching the great escape and starting to load up his ipod. we sat down to dinner at around 7.30 with a starter of beet and tomato soup. followed by our wonderful main course of roast turkey with meat stuffing, mashed potatoes, pan seared asparagus, and a dish of julienned carrots and red onions.

i really didnt have big plate of food, but i was so stuffed. in fact we were all so stuffed we didnt eat the pudding until the next night.


in other news, matt sold his motorbike. it was picked up today. he got 2500 for it, which is probably less than its worth, and he still has to organise some new tyres for it and have them sent to the buyer.

am starting to worry about my lack of funding, and am starting to seriously think about taking matt up on his spur of the moment offer of staying with him..... i dont think its a wise idea. i cant imagine living with parents again. but i've got enough money in the bank to last maybe 2 months -rent, car insurance, phone bill, living expenses etc.

some fun news is that my friend tom, who i met in japan. is home in ottawa for his siters wedding and i will be able to catch up with him over new year! very excited.

my roommate tyler got a didgeridoo and a small djembe for christmas. what fun. can you imagine? living next door to this? mmmmm well, hopefully he improves very quickly....

no big plans for NYE. though on new years day, we are heading to matts grandmas for lunch. apparently i have no say in the matter. hopefully the weather will be nice and theres still some snow on the ground so we can go either x-country skiing, or just for a walk with snowshoes. last time i was there i was told i would have to come back and do this as theres lots of trails in the woods by their property.

Winter Wanderings

well, with matts last exam tomorrow, he has been studying hard this week, so we took the time to spend the day together yesterday and do something nice.

so after he grudgingly dragged his butt out of bed, we geared up and went for a lovely drive about 50 km out of aylmer to gatineau park, where we walked up the luskville falls trail. apparently not all the way to the top, but as far as the 3rd binocular/movie reel logo on the right hand trail on this map.


that is where this panorama was taken. the colour is whack in the middle cos i took a picture of the sun (duh).

it was very pretty out, though im sure it could be a lot prettier in any other season. we just happened to be there when there was not quite enough snow and ice to make it a spectacular winter wonderland, nor was there enough melting snow to make the falls swollen and impressive. in fall the trees would all be lovely and red and orange, and then spring and summer of course are warm and green.



so it was very grey and brown, with patches of ice and sludgy mud. though there were some cool icicles in the river, but i couldnt really get close enough to get good pics. matt was very concerned for my safety with all the icy rocks. however, he didnt have any problems powering off up (or down) the hill, leaving me to find my own way.

wow, i am very out of shape by the way. phew. hard work. feelin it today too. i went down some stairs today in the shopping centre and whoa -hello quads. im not even sure how long it took us to get up to the top. but i had to lose my jacket and sweater by the time we were even halfway.

the descent was, of course, much quicker and easier, and by the time the sun was setting (around 4pm) we were back in aylmer for a cruise by the marina and matts old house.

the marina was pretty desolate. (all the boats were wrapped up on dry land cheekee). the floating docks looked like a creepy little graveyard, and all the big chunks of ice in the water added to the effect. there was however, one lone kite-surfer out on the waves of the ottawa river.

we stopped off at blockbuster on the way home and stocked up on martial arts movies (kill bill 1 and 2, and ong bak-wow: muay thai) and had a generally cosy night in on the couch with some well deserved rest (and ice cream).



p.s. still no snow -looks like we will have a green christmas....

All the Trimmings

well, christmas fast approaches. my brief employment stint is over and i have been chillin with the leclaires.

yesterday matt and i trimmed the christmas tree. an amazing sight to behold. looks more like a christmas bush really. its very rotund and full. a fat little tree. i couldnt believe the amount of decorations we crammed on there. boxes and boxes of them.

i got to see all the homemade decos as well. some very cute ones matt made when he was five, paper reindeer heads with his little hands used to make the shape of the antlers. very cute. also a card to his parents with a picture of a blue beard santa smoking a cigar, with the message in french: so that your heart will flower, i will tell you i love you. the message was typed so we suspect he didnt actually come up with such a poetic piece.

apparently its the first time matts mum has completely relinquished tree decorating. i said it was because she knew i was there, and there would still be a womans touch. i think arlene is starting the christmas baking today. she is making a special batch of shortbread just for me with no almonds. i get a little worried sometimes about how much effort they go to for me. last night at dinner they were checking with me about what to cook for christmas dinner, and can i eat turkey, and do i prefer cranberry jelly or sauce? they are so adorable. last sunday they cooked a roast leg of lamb for me. arlene saved the menu in her cookbook as 'roxanes australian dinner'. (they're not big on lamb over here)

i do feel for matt sometimes though because they always yell at him to do this or that for me, or if he is being a bit of a jerk, but just play fighting, his mum will tell him off for hurting me or something. but really he doesnt need to be spoken to like that. unfortunately its one of those vicious circles where the more they treat him like a child the more he behaves like one, and vice versa.

they bought his sister a $300 digital camera for christmas. matt wont be getting anything like that. not that he deserves it. he owes his parents over $1000, not to mention his school tuition fees, or the fact that he lives with them rent and board free. he didnt take the job at oreganos. he needs to get school finished with, and try to focus on getting things back on track.

he wants to leave for australia as soon as possible. he wanted to go january first. he doesnt even have a passport right now, let alone a visa to get to australia. but it shouldnt take too long to get that sorted out. once he sells his motorbike and pays his parents back the money he owes them, they might think about helping pay to get him to oz.

i have little daydreams about traveling around rural australia fruit picking or something with him. helping him get out of this headspace, find some direction. get healthy. have fun.

only one slip up so far, but its been a week now since that happened, and i'm pretty sure he's doing good.

i love him so much, and every day i'm grateful that he loves me -sometimes i cant believe how much.

Frosty?

friday last week was the coldest day i have had here yet. maximum of minus 5. minimum of minus 16. but factoring in the wind etc, and the "feels like" temperature was minus 22.

my windows are double glazed to keep the heat in, with a gap of about 3 inches between the two layers. the moisture gets in there though and on this particularly cold day the condensation froze on the windows. it looked beautiful. tyler said that when it gets really cold, the whole window will freeze over......

lovely weather we're havin.....
what have i gotten myself in for???

New Hair, New Woman

finally got my hair cut tonight. lovely little self-portrait. looking a lot like my mother dearest.

not too much news, current job very boring.

things going well with matt -all things considered.


christmas coming up fast. where are the things mum sent me for my matty boy??? grrr bloody canada post.

found a frame for the in-laws. (sorry rest of family, no xmas presents for you. shit, i havent even sent cards. im such a bad bad daughter/sister)

what do you all want???? some crappy canadian souvenir? i cant afford to send anything anyways. i went to a lot of effort last year. oh dear.

end of post.