Day 4 and I had a minor wobble and 'greet'

Day 4
3 Girls and 4 suitcases
So, as the title tells you, my day got off to a bit of a stressful beginning. Actually, it got off to it's start at 6am (a long lie, these days) with my jumping straight onto the laptop to look at more apartments. That was definitely mistake number 1. Days 1-3 began with my coffee and looking out at the skyline followed by meditation.........and then the madness that followed. Days 1-3 did not feel stressful. Mmm? So, as if to remind me of how important the start of my day is to my wellbeing, I fell apart this morning as soon as Bill typed in 'Morning Dearie'. My eyes filled up and I had to go have a wee 'bubble' whilst trying not to sob which would have given the game away.
It didn't help that I had been online for around 3 hrs and had not eaten anything. This laptop-time just runs away from you when you are searching, doesn't it or is that just me?
So, after a glug of remedies and you can all shout 'NO', in disbelief when I tell you that I still haven't opened the box of Bach remedies to take some Olive (for being knackered) and Walnut (to help me cope/adapt to the changes) I hopped over to Tim Hortons for a muffin and coffee and felt much better for the fresh air and food.
Finally left hotel room at 2ish after deciding to drop the girls at a mall en route to see another hotel which is only 15 mins bus ride from Alis school. Sunday service buses meant that we spent a whole bunch of time baking in the sun (don't be jealous, now) and the West mall that we were aiming for turned out to be the name of an area and NOT a shopping mall. It's just as well that I got up and asked the driver otherwise the girls would have had to sit at the bus-stop till I came back to retrieve them at the arranged 2 hours later because there was not a shop in sight-lol. So we decided that they would simply chum me to see next residence but hey presto-10 minutes later, there appeared the very large mall that we had been looking for. So, after shoving them off the bus, with the promise of my return to meet them, I carried on in the bus...........to the next stop. Double lol. I thought I had another half hour to ride but I could have got off the bus with them and walked to the Inn like I walked back to the Mall.
The Inn was 'scruffy' on the outside and inside but the rooms were very clean, not scruffy and well equipped if a little cramped. A full kitchenette will allow me to cook at least some pasta over the next few days and I just discovered, after booking, that there is laundry on site-yippee. I have been very sparing in changing my knickers and the set of clothes I'm wearing may just get off me and walk to the washer by themselves-seriously. The joys of not unpacking and being too busy to care.
So, yet again, the Scottish day is done and mine is coming to a close, also.
I have arranged to go see a beautiful (from the outside) house at 9am. It's a 10 min bus ride from the school but out of our budget. However, I'm hoping that they'll love me enough to bring the rental price down to a manageable level. Ever the optimist, right? (except for when I've missed meditation and food and sleep.........oh and Bill)
So, folks. How does 921 Royal York Road sound for my new home? We'll see.
Much love to all. Off to meditate before bed.
Lxxxx

Day 3-Primrose didn't smell sweet enough-lol.

3 Girls and 4 Suitcases
Day 3.
Okay, so most of you will be in bed already but it's still Day 3 for me.
The house-visit didn't turn into our new home on Primrose Ave, today but that's okay. It was a nice enough place but no wifi didn't suit Ali and no laundry didn't suit me. The house had no A/c which today made it seem very warm inside. We probably could have coped with that but all in all the vote was no.........and I'm such a Yes-voter :-)
We have now seen a great deal of the area surrounding Alisons school and the route from our hotel down to it is well grooved into my brain. Etobicoke has some beautiful homes and we saw huge fantastic ones down by the lakeshore. There was even one for rent but I reckon it was probably a large amount beyond our budget. It was next door to the Polish Consulate, which wasn't half bad itself.
 So it looks like another early start will transpire for me tomorrow. This morning saw me leaving the duvet behind before 5am. Coffee and meditation were done before 6 and I caught up on some emailing. I didn't look for houses because I was confident that I would love the Primrose palace. After 5 hrs out and about, we came home to let me get started on house-hunting again. I have sent a few more emails including one to the owner of the non-starter, today which declined his apartment but offered the girls as potential babysitters for his 3 kids.
I also signed up for a couple of facebook pages for 'stuff' for sale in Etobicoke which will come in handy once we get a place to furnish. They don't have as good ones as in Porty so I may have to start up my own page of Etobicoke for sale, free or wanted. Watch this space.
Did I already mention that our hotel suite is fab? We have this wee living area and also a bedroom with 2 double beds. It's just a shame that it's so far from the school or we could just stay here-lol. Actually, they don't have laundry so that'd never do.
We have one more night booked in here to find that perfect next place. I'm beginning to look at laces that are furnished for short-medium term rental. So far, no luck with the ones I have enquired about but hey ho, they mustn't have been right.
If you can be bothered, send a wee prayer out to the Universe for us and it may add just enough clout to mine, to receive gratefully my wonderful new home.
This one's a wee bit shorter but that's 'cause it's nearly 9.30 and I want to browse for homes a little bit more.
Sending lots of love outwards to all of you and hope this finds you in a happy space......and if not, remember to breathe :-)
Lxxx

3 girls and 4 Suitcases. Day 2.

Day 2 followed Day 1 in the amount of sleep that I didn't have. I stayed up till 10pm Toronto time which translated to 3am Edinburgh time and then slept more off than on till 5.50am when I decided that the new home was still looking for me and I had to get up to see if I couldn't help it find me.
1 cup of coffee (real stuff from a cute wee coffee perc' in our room) and 1 meditation later and I was ready to begin the online search again. 3 hrs later (which included a trip to Tim Hortons to get more coffee and a bagel) and cross-eyed from all the searching and comparing, I had a quick shower to wake up and then Jen and I headed out for the afternoon, to see what we could see around Etobicoke School of the Arts. Now don't be jealous Edinburgh but the sun is shining very brightly and warmly here and Jen and I soaked it up as we wandered down and along various streets in search of our perfect home. We didn't write down as many phone-numbers as yesterdays searching but we did get a good feel for the area that we were perusing.
We found a Costco and a Cineplex and a No Frills supermarket and a few Tim Hortons (I had to have an Iced Capp' and a grilled cheese en route) Also a Shoppers Drug Mart and a flower shop.
I had gone out in my toe-post sandals and Jen had gone out in her converse. By the time we were ready to head home (to out airport hotel suite) we had swapped footwear 'cause she had beginnings of a blister on her heal and I had beginnings of one on the sole of my foot. The change of pressure points worked a treat. Fantastic when your daughter wears the same size shoe.
So, heading back we nipped into No Frills and picked up some Club Soda, Apple juice and 4 frozen dinners-we have a microwave. Jen has just had the Fettucine Alfredo which was nae bad and I will have one after I finish writing this. Smells good and it's making my tummy rumble so I may have to get a move on.
Good news is that I got a reply from someone who I sent a request to regarding their hoose fir rent and I'm going to see it tomorrow. Location is perfect and it looks beautiful on the virtual tour link they sent me. 49 Primrose Avenue sounds like a great place to me but I'm snookered when it comes to remembering where I found it to find out details and cost-jetlag sigh. I sent an email to ask them to remind me of the address and send me a link to the info and have just realised that I know the address 'cause I just wrote it on here-yikes, I really ought to make myself some remedies to combat this tiredness-right?
So, tonights plans? I am going to eat my frozen dinner (if it's horrible, we had great chicken in Swiss Chalet last night which may have to be repeated) and then we are going to snuggle up around Jens laptop and watch the 2nd half of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
We haven't seen the Big Boy today-his best pal from home was arriving for a visit this afternoon so he's got permission to be MIA. I had to giggle last night because And' was trying to get his work-shift changed for today and I said to him 'you don't have to take time off to see us 'cause it's not like we're on holiday' and he just looked at me and replied simply 'I'm not taking it off to see you, I want to see Fraser'-Oh, right then! Snigger at the thought.
Right, got to go eat. Wish me luck with both the frozen dinner and 49 Primrose Avenue, Folks and I'll let you know how it all goes, tomorrow.
Lxxx

Day 1. The Big Move.

3 Girls and 4 Suitcases.

Day 1.

The title of this daily blog was going to be '3 Girls and 3 Suitcases' but, a last minute decision to bring an extra suitcase has prompted me to rename it. In the early hours of this morning, when it was discovered that my suitcase was well over it's weight limit, Bill suggested that we maybe ought to bring an extra case and so at 4am, after a couple of hours kip, we filled a smaller case with bits and bobs we thought we were having to leave behind. The bonus is that we managed to fit the 4 of us and the 4 suitcases into our car. Now I have never liked our car except on long drives (smooth and effortless) and when it comes time to go on holiday because it has a huge trunk and lots of seating. I feel like I should show some gratitude for the car today so Thank you Universe, for giving us the perfect car to fit all our suitcases and us in which enabled us to get this adventure off to a good start.

Have you ever tried to decide what you want to stuff into a suitcase, that will suffice for the rest of your life?

Actually, that's a bit dramatic for what's actually happening for us. Bill is coming to visit us  in 3 weeks and then again in Feb, so we will be able to get hime to bring more stuff across with him. Plus we will be home next summer to pack up the house in some shape or form. We are very lucky to be having all this freedom of time to move our lives across thousands of miles. Others are not so lucky. We haven't had to uproot from our homes and leave most of our lives behind, like the current Syrian and Ukranian refugees. Those poor people have very literally had to put their lives quickly into a suitcase and run for safety whereas my girls and I have had months to plan our adventure and to think about what to put into our suitcases.

The fact that we chose to pack those suitcases last night was not our wisest decision for in so doing, we were forced to have to make decisions quickly about what we were taking  with us. I am pretty sure that once we eventually unpack, we will be wondering why on earth we have certain things, like 40 vest tops between us and why we didn't bring a sweater. Now I don't know how many vest tops we actually have in those 4 cases but I do know that I didn't pack a single sweater. Here's hoping that Toronto is warmer than this plane I am currently wrapped-up-in-a-fluffy-blanket on.

Great decision of Jens, to bring the huge fluffy thing that's presently covering the 3 of us. I didn't think so, when I was lugging it around the airport and sweating like a non-lady though.

It's a funny old plane, this. It doesn't have any tv screens on the seatbacks-in fact, it doesn't have a tv screen anywhere on it. What it does have is access to much entertainment via your own 'device' or you can rent an ipad from them to watch something on. We've decided not to buy into the system which is $5 each and currently (after napping on and off for 4 hours) I am typing this and the girls are watching Ella Enchanted on Jens laptop. I have a rucksack full of 'stuff' to do because I can never decide what I'll want to be doing on a plane so I don't anticipate being bored for the next couple of hours. And the girls have a wee bundle of movies to watch on dvd, so we're all happy in our camp.

Alison had a very decent nap of around 3 hours, pretty much as soon as we took-off from Edinburgh. She didn't make it to bed till after midnight and was up at 4am. Jen did a bit better, disappearing to bed around 11pm and she reminds me of how I used to be, before I got 'old'. She doesn't really nap on flights-even overnight ones......nurse material? Mmm?

I managed to get to bed for only a couple of hours so was glad to shut my eyes and doze. Alison laid down with her head on my lap-much comfier than the 'bouncing-head'  deal that I had.

So, the adventure has begun.

Andrew will be waiting for us at Toronto Pearson and we'll head to our hotel, hoping that we'll manage an early check-in but if not, we can dump the bags and head into Toronto for a while. One of the great things about Toronto is their Transit system, the TTC. One little token takes you anywhere across the city on buses, trams and the subway system. You get 1.5 hrs of travel for your token which costs (from memory) $3.

We're thinking of getting transit passes which will alow us to freely travel and explore the city. I think it'll be great to hop on the subway and get off at a different stop each weekend, till we have seen all the areas. We'll see how long it is before I'm doing it by myself because Jen and Ali will be up to more 'exciting' things-lol.

It will be a very different living, here. No male energy in the house will be interesting. I  love to set up home and I will be looking for our perfect home over the next 4 days. I have always found wonderful apartments here and anticipate the same success this time. I have always had a spare room so will perhaps look at 4 bed places and see what appears. It would be great for Andrew to have some space, if he wants to stay over and, of course, there may be visitors from home.........and away.

My friend Lorraine asked me whether I had written down the details of the perfect home and I haven't.......so I am going to share them with you now and count them as being 'ordered'.

4 bedrooms (or 3 large ones)

2 washrooms

Decent sized kitchen with lovely appliences including dishwasher, fridge, stove and microwave.

Washer and dryer in house.

Balcony or some outdoor space so that I can have some plants and take my first coffee outside.

A/C and C/H

Cable and Wifi included.......in case we get a tv.

Utilities included in rental.

Quiet, safe area.

Within a 30 min walk to Alisons school. 15 mins or less by bus.

Lovely landlords.

I think that about covers it although fully furnished with really nice stuff would probably be perfect initially but I am willing to accept unfurnished and go searching for 2nd hand furniture.......except the beds. They have to be new.

So, this hasn't been a very profound blog-just information, really but who knows what it will evolve into. I am tempted to go back to the topic of refugees and write my views on that subject but, for now, I think I'll just close and wish everyone who's taken the time to read this, a very happy rest of your day. Thank you for joining me on Day 1 of this new adventure for the Mountcastle Denham Girls.

Lxxx