The story of our house

I know we have put photos up of our new house but I realised I haven't actually told the story of how we came about finding it.

When we first arrived here in Toronto when the ADI conference was on back in June, I got in touch with the local paraplegic association (CPA), and I was directed to a gentleman in the resource centre, Kevin Rogers. The main reason why I was getting in touch with CPA was to find some carers to help me during my stay. He put me onto some wonderful carers who are all working with me at the moment.
Kevin is another quadriplegic and he is the perfect person to be working in the resource centre at CPA. He is the most resourceful person here in Toronto. He knows everything about anything. After we had returned from Montréal and we had moved into the residence at Seneca College, Mel & I set about trying to find more permanent accommodation ie. apartment, condo or house. We tried every kind of real estate listing on the internet and made what seemed like thousands of phone calls, but we couldn't find anything that really suited our needs. I gave Kevin another call at CPA and before I even had a chance to finish my question about accommodation he said "I have just sent you an e-mail with the details of a lovely couple that are looking for renters for their property while they go away for the winter. Give them a call, the house will be perfect for you.

I rang Laurie and Pascal and they were very excited that we had found them as they had had no luck finding anyone to house sit for them. We made a time to meet at the house and discuss all the possibilities.

Before we even got to the house we knew that the location was perfect. All of my carers said that the area that these people live in is a beautiful area, very safe, great for public transport and fantastic for shops and entertainment. Location, tick!

Our visit to the house was great, and we found Laurie and Pascal to be a lovely couple. Pascal is a paraplegic who was injured in a car accident the same year I had my accident in 1999. Obviously from the name you can gather he is French, but Laurie is Canadian. We spent 15 to 20 minutes looking at the house and discussing some of the details about finances and conditions etc etc.

As you can tell from the pictures the house is very nice. And Mel & I could definitely see ourselves living in this house for an extended period. To be honest we were a little bit hesitant about the amount of rent and some of the extras that we were going to have to pay considering we are unemployed at the moment, as well as the fact that we had to sign a 10 month contract as they didn't want to have us leave halfway through their time away and have their house empty, which is fair enough. But we told them that we love the house but needed to discuss some things before we made a decision. So we said goodbye and decided to walk to the shops around the block to have lunch and discuss options.

Opposite the house is a beautiful park where lots of people were walking their dogs and children playing in the playground, but what caught our eye were these three cute kids set up on the sidewalk with a lemonade stand. Not only were they selling lemonade but they also had a table for comic books and another for games and gadgets they obviously no longer needed. As we approached them, in their cute Canadian accents they asked " would you like a drink of lemonade and maybe buy a book or game?" Even if it had not been a 30° day we still would have bought a drink of lemonade because they were just too cute. It was exactly as you see in the movies. How come the kids back home in Australia don't do this, and if they did why not any more? I remember trying to sell frogs and tadpoles to neighbours at Granma & Pops back in Terang with the girl next door, but that was about the extent of my youthful entrepreneurial ventures. Anyway I digress.

I suppose this encounter tipped the scales to the affirmative, as the positives about staying here at this house & at this location were now definitely outweighing the negatives. We had a lovely lunch at McDonald's (which dones a rather spectacular fire place), discussed all the pros and cons and we made a decision.

And here we are.

We arranged another time to visit Laurie & Pascal and they kindly offered to have us over for lunch. This was going to be an interesting experience because Pascal was the owner and chef of a restaurant. Yes that's right, a chef in a wheelchair! Pascal is very well-known here in Toronto because of his restaurant as well as the fact that he is a very talented chef who happens to be in a wheelchair. He has modified an electric wheelchair that stands him up right and is compact enough to move around the tiny confines of a restaurant kitchen. He is an extremely clever person, a man of passion and determination to achieve his dreams. Just the kind of person I love to be connected with.

Laurie and Pascal had set up the backyard with a wonderful outdoor setting, umbrella, chairs, BBQ, it was a sight. We were very excited about the possibility of spending time ourselves in this nice setting. Pascal had made a squash gnocchi (although squash here is pretty much pumpkin), but it was beautiful, complete with salad, beer and wine, and sun!

We spent three or four hours talking the afternoon away telling each other's stories. It was so nice to spend quality time with people who we were starting to consider friends, not landlords.

The house itself is perfect for us. It is fully accessible, even though there are a couple of ramps that are pretty steep for me to tackle in my manual chair, but once I get my power chair up and running watch out. But apart from that they have modified the house very well to accommodate the wheelchair. The bathroom is probably the piste resistance. An amazing shower and plenty of room to manoeuvre around in. The style of house is what they call a bungalow here. The main floor is at ground level where there is the kitchen, dining room, lounge room, main bedroom, ensuite, office and patio outside the bedroom French doors. Downstairs in what we call the basement is a spare bedroom (hint, hint), lounge room, laundry, store room and access to the garage. There is a lift to take me up or down stairs.

The backyard is small with not a lot of room for Roxy to run around in or even spread out her ablutions. She has a small patch of garden in the corner which she is coping with, and I suppose it's good for cleaning purposes. But the decking & courtyard are fantastic for entertaining & enjoying this beautiful summer weather.

One of the things that I may have mentioned to people was that Pascal has exactly the same car as me, a Chrysler Voyager, except the steering wheel is obviously on the other side and here they call it a Dodge Caravan. This was a spooky coincidence and one that we were very excited about as it meant that Mel wouldn't have to get used to driving a different car and we wouldn't have to worry about hiring or renting a new one. Unfortunately though the insurance companies work very differently over here and in the few weeks that we had before Laurie and Pascal left we were unable to find any insurance company that would allow Mel to be included in the policy. We even tried looking at buying the car and creating our own insurance policy, but here they have what's called a pink ticket policy where you can only sell a car at a minimum price which is 15% of the car's value. Basically it was all looking like too much of a hassle both financially and timewise. So the car has been put away in storage and we have an empty garage. But we can always hire a car if we need to, but the public transport system and taxi network is so good that at this stage we don't need one, it just seemed like it could have been a good deal.

All in all, this transaction has turned out perfectly for both of us. Laurie and Pascal feel very comfortable about leaving their house in the hands of two people who can not only use and the benefit from the accessibility but we feel very blessed to be able to look after it for them and have a place for us to hibernate over winter.

We have been in the house for just over a week now and already we have enjoyed barbecues out on the patio, dinners out on a bedroom balcony, Raccoon spotting, squirrel chasing, playtime over in the park with Roxy, nice strolls up the street to do the shopping or have a bite for lunch, but most importantly a place to lay our heads down at night and feel safe and secure in a place that feels more like home than a hotel.

Just last night, Mel was invited to join the WOW (Women of Walder) for a walk. Every month many of the women who live on our street get-together and go for a walk which actually happened to end up at an Italian Gelato shop a few blocks away, which I thought was a bit redundant, but it was more about the social activity. We certainly feel we have come to a warm and welcoming neighbourhood.

For those of you who would like a holiday and want to come and visit we definitely have a room for you ready. Our address is 27 Walder Avenue Toronto, Ontario. M4P 2R4. If you can't visit, send us some mail, there is nothing like receiving mail from home!

Home and what has hit Home

Today I received some sad news from my work colleagues back home. A boy I worked with was in a car accident and died. I had a very special relationship with this boy...I was able to establish contact between him and his mother after 9 years. I watched as his Foster Care placement disintegrated and the heartbreak this caused himself and his carer. Tim and I seriously talked about fostering this boy, but the timing was all wrong. I found a new placement for him and watched him grow in this placement only to find out that the placement was not appropriate for him in the end. I remember him sitting in the car sharing his most deepest thoughts and dreams for his life. He appreciated my life just I did his, he had Tim and my wedding photo hanging up on his wall. This kid had everything against him yet he was determined to prove to the world that two wrongs, or in his case 20 wrongs, don't make a right. He was the epiphany of resilience...and now he is gone.

This has really brought up some issues of distance with us. I am aware that there will be a memorial service at my work and a funeral which I will be not be able to attend. There will be debriefing for those who were involved which I will not be privy to. It is hard to describe the attachment you make to children who really only have two people in life to count on, their foster carer and their case worker.

For Tim especially this has brought up the inevitable death of his first love Buster. If Busty dies before we come back then Tim will have to grieve at a distance. This is both a blessing and a curse.

Tim and I have talked about the many blessings we have in our life and it has sparked the memories we miss. For example a niece that just has to dress the same as you or needs to have their hair braided only by you. Or cousins that just love to ride on the back of Tim's electric chair. Aunties that pop in unexpected and sisters that arrive on your doorstep with care packages. Friends who always have time for you no matter what your issue is as they completely understand you and how this issue may affect you.

All of this we miss and have reflected on while we have been away but felt it poignant to say out loud given the recent circumstance I find myself in.

So along with Vegemite, Turkish Delight and Cordial, you are missed!

Pictures of our house in Toronto

OUR NEW HOUSE .... well, until next June anyway.

Dr Fleas - Flea Market

One Saturday Tim said to me, "Mel today is your day, what would you like to do?" Since I love Markets so much I knew of a Flea market that is meant to be the biggest in Toronto, so that is what I wanted to do. I looked on the net for directions there, it seemed pretty straight forward. Tim was just as eager to go so off we went. We estimated it would probably take us under an hour to get there via bus so we made sure we left with plenty of time of shopping before it closed.

So we are on the bus, waiting for our stop to come. Here the buses have that automated voice and those LED screens that tell you which stop is coming up next. The other thing to note about the buses here, is that the drivers think they are competing in some formula one for buses and if you don't hit that button quickly once your stop has been mentioned you are sure to miss it. I might just add it is hard to press the button when your holding on so tight due to the speed of the bus. I do love it being a speedway girl myself, Tim on the other hand finds it somewhat troubling, being the grandpa he is, shaking his head & tisk tisking the driver as he fly's round a corner.

Getting back to the point...our stop was not coming up when we were expecting it to. Tim asked the bus driver if he was going past our stop just in case we got on the wrong bus, he said he was so we waited patiently for it expecting it to come up any minute with our fingers poised to press the button. Well we completely misjudged the distance. An hour and a half later our stop was called. We were hopeful that this market was worth the long trip.

We walked into the market and it was like this huge shed with loads of people talking to stall assistants about their items they were interested in. In a loud booming voice obviously over a PA was a man who named himself Dr Flea. He was obviously the owner, spruking like he was Con the fruiterer. He was giving away prizes for things and Tim was eager to find this man and win something, where I was more eager to shop. We ended up deciding to start at the front of the market which was set up like the Queen Vic markets but indoor. As we reached the beginning there was a man standing in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck...Dr Flea!

Tim quickly wheeled over to him and told him we deserved a prize because we had come all the way from Australia. This man did not believe us at first so we showed him Roxy's coat which has Assistance Dog Australia on it. Dr Flea was so excited he wanted to get a photo and he wants to hang it on the wall of the market. He announced to everyone there over the PA who we were and what our names were, and he brought us a couple of drinks. Very nice man, Dr Flea, and Tim was a happy camper now that he had his prize.

I was so excited to get stuck into shopping because we could barter at this market. Now this brought back such fond memories for me when I was 14 years of age and holidayed in Bali with my parents. Once I learned the exchange rate and how to calculate what things cost, I picked up the concept of bartering like a good dutch girl. I was so good at this in Bali that mum and dad would make me close the transactions of every sale made. I haven't had this opportunity again until now and so I was raring to go.

We mainly found things for Tim, super cheap. Ending up buying T shirts for $3, nice dress shorts for $12. Tim was loving having all the purchases about him for the tiny price total of $50.

We also found this little stall that made fresh crisps (chips) while you wait. The astounding thing about this is the flavours, very gourmet. They were so yummy and warm still from just being made that we bought a small bag of Blue Cheese flavoured crisps.

We then decided to go to one of the local shopping malls near our place for dinner. When we arrived we went past this store that had a huge sale on so we decided to have a look. The store was Campus Clothing, a store that stocks all the university campus gear from Universities in the States. Tim spotted a number of items that he liked so we purchased new polos and hoodies to replace the clothes that are gone from the lost suitcase. We both found out most wanted Harvard sweaters, I just hope that it makes us both smarter when ever we wear them!

A very successful day of Shopping and the dutch way!

Grano Italian Restaurant

When we were originally inspecting the house that we are about to move into, the real estate agent John, popped in to say hello and to deliver some contracts and forms. John reminds us of a cross between Keith Roderick & Gerrard Reed. A great character with a wicked sense of humour and sarcasm. He looks very much like a cross between Hale and Pace and it just so happens that he is also a Pom. John has helped us out a lot and is going to be a great landlord for the time that we are here.

When John found out that I was a singer he straightaway said "great I have a birthday party coming up in a couple of weeks and you can be the entertainment". He thinks himself quite the entrepreneur and was pretty excited about the fact that he was hiring me for my first North American performance. Funnily enough though he hadn't actually heard me sing yet, but was more than quite happy to book me anyway.

His birthday party was going to be held at Grano Italian Restaurant, with a couple hours of a cocktail style party and then a more formal dinner to follow. I was to sing some background easy listening music for the first part and then do a set of traditional Italian arias just before dinner.

The day of the party I met one of my carers at a nearby music store to hire some sound equipment. Even though I was getting paid to sing at the party, I knew that hiring the sound equipment would be a cost I would have to bare as I haven't bought any of mine with me. This gig was more about networking and hopefully being able to secure a regular gig at the restaurant. But I could not believe my ears when the sound technician told me that to hire all of the sound equipment I needed, was only $30 for the night. It is incredible the differences between Canada and Australia when it comes to the cost of things.

Anyway we set up the equipment in this beautiful Italian restaurant that is completely decked out like a traditional Italian home. Although having never been to Italy, I am just basing my assumption on the educators of educators, TV.

Roberto was the owner of the restaurant and he and his family live upstairs and have raised three children in the 30 years they have lived there. The staff were lovely and there was very much a sense of homeliness about the place. A lot of the staff had been there for 10 years and obviously love the place as much as Roberto.

As the guests filed in I serenaded them with some Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis and of course the Canadian himself, Michael Buble. While I was singing, Mel spent a lot of the night socialising and getting to know some of the people that are going to be a part of our circle of friends over the next year we are here. A lot of them live not too far away from us and we have already had a lot of invites for dinner, bbq's and gatherings. They are all lovely people and it was finally nice to converse with other people more deeply than just saying hello on a bus or at the supermarket.

The dinner itself was beautiful, as 20 of us sat around a long table sharing salads and antipasto, lots of wine, laughing and cheering as John entertained us all with his renditions of my Italian arias where he changed the words to some traditional Pommy rugby songs that I probably can't repeat on a public blog. Let's just say O Sole Mio will never sounded the same in my head now.

One of the gentlemen that was sitting next to Mel and opposite me was another Englishman. He was also a musician in a past life and was a very philosophical guy. The longer the night when on the deeper the conversations got, until he accidentally let out that he actually went to school with Sting! Yes that's right, we were now 1 degree of separation from one of our favourite artists, especially as we had just seen him two weeks earlier. Much to Mel's disappointment, he said that if we had met him two weeks ago he would have been able to get us backstage and meet the man himself. He told us all about the boy he knew as Gordon Sumner and actually played in the band with him where he earned the nickname Sting. We got on really well with Michael and his wife and we are going to catch up with them again soon, not necessarily to try and get closer to Sting, but will keep it in the back of our minds in case.

John was thrilled with how the evening went and is now thinking about changing his career from real estate agent to my personal manager. He is already planning a Christmas function for me to sing at which will be an interesting experience singing out in the snow. Glad I packed the thermals.

I hope it's not the last time I sing at Grano. It is a beautiful place and we hope you enjoy the photos below.

Rogers Cup Tennis - Canadan Open

On the many trips in the subways here, just as you are pulling into a station, there are all these advertisement signs on the walls, ranging from upcoming movies, fashion lines, TV shows and sporting events. The one that has been very prominent at nearly every station was the poster for the Rogers Cup tennis tournament. once again my sporting fascination tempted me to want to go and as Mel had never been to a live tennis match before I thought it would be a great opportunity. Before I even had an opportunity to look at tickets, one of my carers told me that she was working with a client who was actually a volunteer at the tournament and was able to get tickets to anyone who wanted them. She made me "an offer too good to refuse".

I have been to the Australian Open every year for as long as I can remember, and a highlight was going to see Roger Federer play in the men's singles final with John Shawcross a few years ago. But I always loved summer and being able to go to the open, either inside Rob Laver or out.

It was going to be a very hot day the day we were going, and unfortunately due to the lost bag of luggage (which included all my clothes) I didn't have any shorts or T-shirts to wear, so I was hoping we had some shade where we were sitting as I knew we were in for a long day. Mel packed her book just in case the days play got a touch on the boring side.

The tournament is played at York University, and when we arrived off the bus we have to weave our way through the entire grounds to get to be tennis arena. It was actually hard to believe that a university had the facilities to cope with the Canadian Open, but yes here it was. A 5000 seat stadium with scattered outside courts surrounding it. It was set up exactly like the Open with merchandise tents, food stalls, games and fun attractions all open for the public to enjoy.

We had a great day's play ahead of us with a schedule that included Nalbandian, Soderling, Murray, Monfrils & of course the showpiece Federer.

The tennis was fantastic as Nalbandian, Murray and Federer all advanced through to the next round with good wins.

We had great seats, which unfortunately were in the sun, but we were able to move into the shade halfway through the day when we found some vacant seats on the other side of the stadium. It made it much more bearable to sit and watch.

We also met another lovely couple that were from out of town. The gentleman was a C6 quadriplegic and he was there with his wife also. During the day we would both move into the hallway to get some shade and relief from the sun and we would go in to the obligatory chat about our abilities and non-abilities and compare stories. It was interesting to hear of the different types of rehabilitation techniques and health standards over here compared to Australia.

All in all it was a great day and Mel loved her first experience at the tennis. The book didn't even come out of the back of my bag!

Singing, Saigon & Stallone...

All the posts to date have been about sightseeing, tourist destinations, events experienced and general comments about the environment we are living in at the moment. With the exception of the Assistance Dogs conference and the Cirque du Soleil audition there hasn't been many performing arts experiences in the last nine weeks. This is made me very ancy, and I have found myself craving the opportunity to perform or at least see someone else do it! So over the last few weeks we have been able to squeeze in a few artistic adventures and this blog explains the connections of the title above.

Singing. I had always thought if ever we were unable to find jobs and were running tight on money that I could always resort to setting myself up on a corner, throwing my hat out and belting out a few tunes to scrounge up some cash. Well I thought I would give it a bash before we got to the point where we needed to do the before mentioned 'last resort'. One Saturday afternoon I felt very motivated to have a sing and thought I would incorporate it into a busking session. We went down to the local gadget store and bought a small battery operated speaker system that we could plug my iPod into and we headed down to the harbour front of Lake Ontario. I knew that at the time there was a classical Festival being held that weekend down near the shopping complex on the harbour (a centre very similar to our Southbank in Melbourne).

Now the last time I busked was with a friend, Alan Davies, when we were 14. I think we sang ' Throw your arms around me' over and over again as it was the only song we knew and we hoped that the audience would just keep moving on and not realise we were singing the same song. Now though 16 years later I have all the artillery, complete with booming voice and a much more extensive repertoire.

I set up in what I thought was a reasonable busking spot as there was a steady flow of people coming and going in and out of the harbour front centre as well as boarding on an off the ferries that were docking nearby. I sang for exactly one hour as I watched my hat fill up with coins and even notes with every song. I concentrated more on the classical songs as I knew that the festival was on and that most of the patrons that were around at the time were possibly attending it. Plus it's not every day you hear a guy on the street singing arias at the top of his voice. And okay the wheelchair and the dog I'm sure drew a few more onlookers than the normal busker, but as they say in the industry "you got a have a gimmick"!

The throat started to feel a bit tired as I was singing into the wind and felt like I needed to project more, so as the set went on I started to push a bit harder. I became tired more sooner than I expected, seeing as I'm able to sing the three hours at Rimini back in Geelong. But by the looks of the collection I had made in my hat I was pretty keen to stop and have a look at how much I had made.

Mel & I went off to get a hot chocolate and a bite to eat and count the spoils of my previous hours work. Let's just say that I had made the equivalent of working 15 hours on a minimum wage here in Canada, by performing my favourite songs out on the street to complete strangers walking by. Suffice to say that this will not be the last time I will be hitting the streets and belting out some tunes, in fact in two weeks I'm about to go and audition for a licence to be able to busk in the subways during the winter time where there'll be passabyes by the thousands. It would be great if I need to buy a bigger hat!

Saigon. There are many theatre companies here in Toronto and it seems like a very active arts scene. Fringe, comedy and busker festivals, summer theatre seasons, operas, exhibitions, galleries, you name it you can go and see it. The shows that are on here at the moment are Jersey Boys, Rock Of Ages and Miss Saigon. The only one that really interested me and the one that I thought Mel might enjoy because of the historical relevance and modern retelling of Madame Butterfly was Miss Saigon. I was able to score great tickets for the second last night where it was showing at the Four Seasons Centre of Performing Arts. It is a beautiful new concert hall but I'm not sure whether it was the right venue for this musical theatre piece. Unless you knew the words to the show (like I do back to front) you would have no idea what they were singing, which made it very difficult for Mel. The rock band and the amplified singing were too much for the polished floorboards, wooden seats and timber surrounds of the auditorium. The sets were very minimal probably because they spent the entire set budget on the helicopter scene, which was very impressive but out of place compared to the other simplified settings. The performances were on the whole very credible, but the show entertainment wise was just average. Mel and I had an hour and a half on public transport on the way home to review the show and compare notes.

Stallone. If anyone knows Mel & I well, they would know that we love going to the movies, and I think on one of our previous blogs Mel even mentioned a really quaint cinema were we went to to see Inception, which we both thought was incredible. Some other movies that we have seen while we have been here have been Ramona & Beezus (Georgie, I'm positive they based this Ramona character on you), The Karate Kid & just last night we went to see The Expendables. I was so excited about seeing this as it had every action hero I could possibly imagine in one film. The biggest shoot em up, blow em up, masculine displaying, testerone filled, chest pumping movie ever. Let's just say it lived up to the height of being all muscle and no brain. Good old Stallone he's done it again. Thanks Mel for sitting through it with me.

Kensington Markets

We were told that Kensington Markets were a must see, not for any typical tourist spot reason, more of a left of centre comunity experience, but were warned of the alternative sights we may come across. Now having worked and lived in Fremantle, WA I was well prepared for any little surprises coming our way.

We decided to go down there before the Sting concert. We underestimated the weather for the day as we got all dressed up for the concert which was later that night. For the past 4 weeks we have had an average of 32 degrees with high humidity but this day it was predicted to be 28 degrees which may not be so different in number but it seemed to be looking out the window. The only problem was we dressed according to what was showing out our window instead of what it felt like. It is safe to say although it was 28 degrees with the humidity it felt like 45 degrees and we overdressed for this climate.

So by the time we reached downtown I had sweated off all of my make up and my clothes were soaked. Poor Tim had jeans on and a long sleeve top which roasted him through and through. What made it worse was that we were given the wrong directions so we walked or rather I pushed Tim about 2 kms in the wrong direction. We finally realized this and found the right way to the market. Not a minute too soon either as I was so hot by this stage I felt like I was going to collapse. Poor Roxy was breathing so heavy, I'm sure she would have jumped right into a pool if there was one nearby.

We came to the start of the market which just looked like a residential street in a low socio economic area. Except their buildings were not houses but little hippie style shops. It was a very cute area, right up my alley. Loads of Vintage shopping. I found this little store, left Tim and Roxy outside (in the shade) because the issue with the quaint little vintage shops is they are usually held in historic buildings which means stairs, but I walked out in a completely new outfit, one that was much more appropriate for the weather and it's humidity. Feeling much cooler and able to plough on, we set off to discover other areas of this market.

Now this market is not any type of market I have been too. There is a mixture of food, cheap stores that could be described as white elephant stalls as well as stores that you would see in Pako street (your upper class more expensive stores). But it was the feel of this place that was the most interesting. We didn't know whether this area was safe or not. There were people who were really friendly and then there were people who you didn't necessarily want to meet in a dark alley.

There were the dread lock kind sitting on the street strumming their guitar with a like minded crowd around them. There were passionate environmentalists who have made a floral project out of a car as our picture will show. Sports fans paraded down these streets right next to the hippie dressed guy riding his bike with a big fat joint hanging out of his mouth. Police roam the streets but we could not work out whether this was because they were buying food or if they were on duty. Either way this place was very interesting and a nice 'hidden away' surprise of culture & community.

We stopped for a little lunch at this woodfire pizza place and headed off to Sting.

There isn't much I can say about Sting except he is still the exceptional and talented artist he is so well known to be. This concert was his best probably because we were close to him but also he sang all of Tim and my favourite songs and his humble personality shone right through this concert. It was by far the highlight of the day!

General Toronto life

The longer we stay here the more we find out little things about this city which fascinates us. This city is the most multicultural place and seems very accepting of all cultures. Australia could learn a thing or two from Canada. But along with culture comes religion and it absolutely fascinates us that so many different religions exist in one place so tolerably. For example there are churches here for every nationality of every denomination. Then there are churches of one denomination that consist of different nationalities, they call it an intercultural denomination.

The church that we have been attending down the road is a baptist church and the congregation is considered intercultural with a lot of Jamaicans, Chinese and Canadians. The elderly Jamaican ladies come to church in their Melbourne Cup hats and dance to the music just like you see them do in Gospel churches in the movies.

In the middle of Dundas Square is a mixture of Art, Religion and Politics. On a normal Saturday afternoon you are guaranteed to experience a musical delicacy on the centre stage of the square while on the outskirts of the square you will find people attempting to educate pedestrians on black American history, while on the other side you will find different religious groups from Islam, Hindu, Mormon, Arminian and Christian with signs and mega phones all trying to gain new converts. They each are trying to give away free their religious material from bibles, to music cd's to sermons. What fascinates us about this is that it is accepted freely by the people of Canada and each individual religion is or seem to be accepting of the other, to the point of harmoniously residing in their stalls next to each other as if they were apart of a religious market.

A recent conversation Tim and I have been having with our friends here is whether Toronto is a lazy city or a consumerist city. I'll tell you how this conversation came about and perhaps you can decide for yourself. So the basis for the discussion was that in Toronto, everywhere you go there are elevators, stairs and escalators and usually all three next to each other. Whenever Tim and I have had to use the elevator we have had to wait for ages because the elevator is full of people who can walk. This could be at the Subway, shopping mall anywhere you will find an elevator I can guarantee it will be filled with people who have no mobility issues or prams. I have not once seen anyone walk up or down the stairs, they struggle to take the escalators if there is an elevator available. It is crazy. It's not like you have to use much energy to take an escalator.

In the residence where we are staying there was a black out and the elevators were out for about 10 minutes. Most of the people staying here, who on average are aged at 20 years of age, were hanging out in the foyer for the elevators to come back on instead of taking the stairs. I could not understand people waiting around for 10 minutes rather than exercise a little bit by taking the stairs.

The other thing that amuses us greatly is that they have bus stops on one side of the traffic lights and one directly on the other side. It seems if you got off the bus before the traffic light and the bus had a red light you would make it across the road and reach the bus stop after the traffic lights before the bus, yet people will not do this.

Now the consumerist argument comes in when we talked about our amusement and surprise over the things just mentioned and our friend Laurie said that she suggested to a friend who wanted to loose weight that instead of paying for a gym membership just get off the bus 4 stops earlier and walk the rest of the way. Laurie said her friend looked at her in astonishment as if she had asked her to give up her house or something. Our friends Laurie and Pascal think it is all about consumerism and that people will spend their hour in a gym and the rest of the day looking for any reason to not exercise. Some say I am a picture of consumerism, going to the gym in the morning than looking for any excuse to avoid any form of exercise but those who know me well, know it's a miracle that I am even going to the gym and I usually avoid exercise at all costs.

Tim and I have never seen so many people scared of dogs as they are here in Toronto. We have not experienced this anywhere else in Canada and I am not sure if it is an environmental thing or a spiritual thing. Because we take Roxy wherever we go, which means on buses, the subway anywhere and everywhere. There are so many people that don't see her at first they look at Tim and then see Roxy just as they either walk by her or go to sit near her and they jump and let out a squeal and race to get as far away from her as possible. This is so strange to us as Roxy hardly looks scary. If we enter an elevator with Roxy people will leave when we enter whether it is there floor or not just to avoid her.

We caught the bus the other day and this little kid got on and sat as close as he could opposite Roxy as he seemed to be fascinated with her. He kept looking from Roxy to the door of the bus with this big cheeky smirk on his face like he was waiting for a surprise. Tim and I were sitting there wondering what he was waiting for and then we watched it unfold...he was waiting for his mum to come on and sit next to him, close to Roxy, and she was petrified of Roxy. This little kid rolled around in laughter, he thought it was the funniest thing while his mum was shaking in terror and shrieking every time Roxy moved. I felt sorry for her yet both Tim and I fought hard to keep the laughter inside until we got out of the bus and then we just cried with laughter at this little kid setting his mum up. Kids can be so cruel.

On the other hand some Ontarians love their pets. We have seen some pretty weird things. Just to let you know animals are allowed anywhere here. People ride the bus with the dogs, you can stay in any hotel, motel with your pet. Pets are more publicly accepted here than in Australia. The other day I saw a man walk his dog which was a little pug dog, who was dressed in a grid iron shirt which is not so uncommon here, pets being dressed in something, but the weirdest thing was that on it's feet were leather lace up boots. Now these would have had to be made and I would not have thought they would have been so cheap. They looked like they were custom made as they fit it's little paws perfectly.

I've seen a cat with a nappy on, birds on a man's shoulders in the middle of the subway and various other strange animal sightings. But nothing beats what Tim and I witnessed in the subway just two days ago. We saw a man push a pram, a very old and tattered pram, with a sign on the side of it saying 'service animal, please don't touch' and in it (I'm laughing as I type this) was a little rabbit. Just sitting there chewing on his little carrot. Not a pretty white rabbit or a dwarf rabbit but one that we would usually see, hunt, eat back home. Now being experienced in having a service animal, I'm not quite sure what this service rabbit could possibly do for this man, except help him 'hop' onto the train! (Tim's joke, he thought he was hilarious when he thought of that). We were tempted to ask but I don't think Tim and I would have been able to do without laughing. However Tim forced me to take a photo of it which it did not really work out, probably cos I was laughing so much. Tim did email Richard from Assistance Dogs Australia about a new service program they can offer in Rabbit, after all it would be a cheaper breeding program!