London Ontario - A big glitch

Sat. May 23 to Sun. May 24, 2009

Or - How to make yourself unpopular with the relatives

First a big thank you to J and T for taking us in and driving us all over!

After the warplanes museum they drove us to a midway point where we met my sister who already had our luggage in her car. Glenn and I transferred to her car and she then took us to our brother's place in London, another town I'd never seen.

Brother 'M1' and his wife 'M2' have a 2-year-old girl 'M3' and three cats. Their house, which my brother built, has a suite where we would stay. Sis stayed overnight as well in another room and would head home the next morning.

On the bright side, at least I didn't leave my purse, for example, on a train

M1 had interesting plans for our first full day in London. Unfortunately we were about to blow that because of a mistake we made the day before.

When we arrived at the warplanes museum the previous day I had asked if Glenn really wanted to bring the camera bag in with him. He then put it in the trunk. When we switched from one car to another, we first we checked inside the car trunk and didn't see anything.

It wasn't until the next morning that I realized the camera bag was missing. A gut-sinking feeling set in that we'd left it in Tracy's car, which was all the way back in Alliston. It had slid up toward the front and, being black on black, we didn't see it. In the bag were all the rechargers and cords for the cameras and laptop. This was unfortunate because without them we couldn't charge any camera batteries and we couldn't download pictures onto the laptop. We considered trying to buy an extra battery for the camcorder (we only had one extra) but I knew from experience that, because this camera is relatively new, the batteries are hard to find. I located only one store in Victoria that had them in stock, at close to $100 apiece.

We still had some sightseeing to do including Niagara Falls! This was no time to run out batteries or photo space. J and T offered to take it to Toronto where we could pick it up before our train trip home, but we decided that we'd rent a car and drive all the way back to Alliston to get the darned camera bag. M1 wouldn't hear of it though and insisted on driving us there. I think he should have let us rent the car and just had a nice relaxing day at home because by the time we undarkened their doorstep, he was exhausted.

Well, at least I got to ride along with my sister back to Alliston and see one of my nephews one more time (his wife was out). Before picking up the camera bag we stopped for lunch where I tried poutine once more. M1 said it wasn't the way it should be though, so I'll say that I still haven't really had poutine. But, ick, just looking at it makes me think of clogged arteries anyway.

Then we parted company with my sister and drove back west back toward London.

Now, a big thank you to my sister for touring us all around, the care package at the B&B, for dinner out and the wonderful big dinner you put on!

Quebec City - Poutine

Saturday, May 16, 2009

End of tour

Getting dropped off at our hotel would have been a sensible end to our day. But this was our last chance to try poutine in Quebec. Unfortunately we hadn't come across it in nicer restaurants so now we... or I should say "I" because this was all my doing... was going to have to try the fast food version. The postal worker down by our hotel had told us that while some people liked Chez Ashton's poutine, she didn't.

"Don't say 'poo-teen,'" she advised, "or it might sound like you're asking for a prostitute. Just say 'poo-tin' and you'll be fine." Our French Canadian friend says that to make it sound Québécois it would be pronounced with a slight S, as in Pou - tsin. Of course, English speaking people in BC would not know what you were talking about so here you might as well just say poo-teen.

Anyway, near the end of the tour the bus drove by a Chez Ashton in the Upper Town. Unfortunately, by the time we got dropped off, we were well past it and had to find our way back a few blocks. In the dark, in the pouring rain.

A mob of young people got there just before us. Apparently they were English-speaking because they were all asking for poo-teen. What we got tasted like French fries drenched with gravy. The cheese didn't squeak and wasn't even noticeable. By the way, I didn't actually want to eat this stuff, I just wanted to taste it.

Then we had to find our way down to our hotel and when we did we were pretty tired and mostly soaking wet. I went down the lobby and got a nice hot pot of tea to take back to our room - actually two pots of tea because of another language miscommunication.

I can probably say that I still have not had poutine. I completely forgot about trying another Quebec favourite, sugar pie!