FINALLY leaving Toronto!

July 31

The drive back to Toronto (from Saint John and PEI) was quickened by books on tape and Meg trying to guess the artist on my MP3s.  In Montreal we commiserated with Darrin, Madoka and Zak as they were living in a motel due to their move the next day.  Their new place sounds great (penthouse in NDG) and they were not as put off about moving as we were, having done it every four years or so since they got married.  Practice makes perfect, I guess, but packing and moving are the last things I’d like more practice on, at this point.  A fine meal was had by all at Beni Hana and our table’s chef chimed in with his opinions on our important topic of zombies vs. vampires(who would you stand a better chance in escaping from?).  Everyone wanted to get to bed early, so we did!

                The next day we had lots of time so Meg spent most of it grilling our Algerian B and B owner about politics.  The bed was comfy there but the place was odd, with many basics missing and the owner always appearing at the front door with his arms full of dishes before we could even turn the key.  A nearby park by the St. Lawrence made for a good spot for a run, forcing us to cut through an outdoor church service.

                After showering, we headed to Nat’s mom’s place where Nat’s daughters were visiting (Nat being an old friend who’s known Meg since she was young and reckless).  We had a visit with the adults and then took the girls to the market to get them out of the house and pick up some necessary foodstuffs.  Fresh corn was the big deal, but the Atwater Market is somewhere I haven’t been in years and would be an amazing place to live close to.  Fresh fruit and vegetables, bakers, butchers, cheese shop, flower stalls, and cafes jammed together in excellent busy-ness.  We got some lunch at an Italian Deli before getting the girls’ advice on their mom’s favourite cheese.  Some coffee and croissants for the road and a bottle of wine for later ended our shopping and we deposited the girls back at their grandmother’s to help her renovate her place (horrible child labour, according to them).

                On to Nat’s spouse-free and childless home for an afternoon of catching up, splashing about in the pool and imbibing wine, cheese and new corn into the evening.  We got all the details of the family’s trip to Italy and got to bed with bellies full and heads spinning.

                After breakfast and goodbyes, it was back to Toronto in hideous, end of long weekend congestion.  The traffic was thick almost all of the way from Kemptville to Toronto, and the dangerous idiocy of impatient Torontonians reared its ugly head many times on the road.  Several accidents occurred. We survived, but were justifiably wiped.

                Great thanks to Terry and Margaret for letting us use their house for our last few days in Toronto,   it was truly a godsend.  I’ll spare the reader all of the details of our continuous running around and trying to get everything completed on time.  In the end, almost everything worked out: the car was successfully leased to owners who’ll take care of her; Visas, paperwork and banking were all dealt with, had a few final visits with people and completed our rigorous packing and weighing of bare-bones -11- month luggage.  45 minutes before we left for the airport, we met with Chander (our realtor) to sign papers for renting our house to renters for a year starting August 15.  We were able to leave the car at the airport and thus started our travels.

                We felt like royalty as we boarded the plane with the executive types (ahead of the riff raff) due to my brilliant strategy of pre-booking us in emergency exit seats.  We were so ready for this flight.  We had brought gourmet cheese, olives, crackers and cashews with us to eat instead of paying for cardboard airplane sandwiches.  We bought their wine to accompany our goods and enjoyed the envy of the flight attendants, who weren’t allowed to sample passenger’s food even when offered.  I had picked up some dips and pita, but remembered being told about an airport confiscating peanut butter after a long debate about whether it constituted a gel.  After several calls to the airport to get direction, we put some curried hummus in Meg’s squeezie bottle which looked weird on our bread but tasted fine.  Movies on Westjet are now pay-per-view but TV was free so we wasted our time channel surfing (Fear Factor and Dragon’s Den), occasionally returning to our books.

No great pics this time.  This one's the most representative!