The turn of the day: Fall

With summer officially over, the arrival of fall has also signified a turning point for us: we no longer feel like we’re just on an extended holiday in Canada (the way it’s seemed with all the glorious weather and beach trips), we finally feel so much more settled, we actually LIVE here now. There are still days when I would love my mum and dad to walk through the door, shouting “THE CAVALRY’S HERE!”, and then other days when I feel like we’ve lived here forever – I don’t even need the satnav for some car journeys! A true local now, surely?!


Missing home

I can’t pretend that there haven’t been lonely moments, okay, lonely DAYS, through the excitement of moving. Ironic really, with three small children to keep me entertained! I’ve had numerous people telling me there’s a huge Irish community here, which has had me literally shout in their faces “WHERE?! Tell me where they are! I haven’t met one Irish person!”. Recently, I suggested to Paul that making new friends here could probably be compared to dating in some ways – don’t want to come on too strong, but they’ve got your number and you’re just waiting for that text! Don’t think we’ve scared anyone off just yet, although reading this may change their minds…

We never realised the true value of video calling until we got out here: bitter sweet moments of grandparents seeing the baby crawl for the first time, calls with friends excited to ‘see’ us, wanting to hear how it’s all going. The video calls have been there to share in the most euphoric of moments and first experiences of Canada, and also provided comfort when we’re just simply missing home. 
And still the question “what time is it with you?”. “It’s always the same Mum, five hours of a difference…”. But don’t stop asking. It makes my day when you ask.


The kindness of strangers

In the words of a very famous soap opera ‘Everybody Needs Good Neighbours’; we’re quickly discovering that we have exactly that. From our beautiful, green fingered neighbour across the street who has welcomed us into her garden to pick fresh veggies, to our grandmother type a few doors up, who is always looking out for us on our walks. Each week we’re bumping into a new, friendly neighbour who is only too happy to take us under their wing, or offer some interesting information about the area. And I certainly can’t forget the kindness of a sourdough loaf dropped at our door, a ‘welcome to London loaf’, that made me shed a tear.


Early life experiences

We’ve been trying to immerse the kids in as many experiences as physically and logistically possible at their age: they’ve been happy to hike through beautiful trails, wade in warm, shallow water on the lake beaches, and enjoy the buzz of going to a new café or take a walk downtown. I know they probably won’t remember a lot of what we’re seeing and doing here, but I hope that this amazing experience abroad plays a part in shaping the people they will become. I can already hear changes in the way they talk, their accents lilting slightly towards Canadian, or hearing them exclaim “THAT’S AWESOME!”. Just the other day, Grace turned to me and said “Mummy, do you know they call crisps here ‘chips?!’". 




The initiation into school life for Grace did not go as smoothly as I’d hoped: we had the crying and leg clinging, refusal to go into the classroom that I’d so dreaded - only natural in an unknown, overwhelming schoolyard of multiple kids and parents. I wouldn’t change her gentle, unassuming soul for the world, but for the love of God, Grace, please give mummy one easy morning and just skip into school! That said, at pick up I’m greeted with a happy face exclaiming “mummy that was the most brilliant, fabulous day today!”, despite the lack of additional information she’s willing to give me, even when gently interrogated for more! 

I wonder how the mighty Aoife will fare when I attempt pre-school with her in a couple of weeks…


Grocery shopping

Food shopping is still an enigma. We now have membership to Costco - the Ireland version of Makro but supersized, where you can buy bags of crisps the size of Aoife in her entirety; and Instacart – a Deliveroo type service that lets you order from a number of large supermarkets and get food delivered to your door, sometimes within an hour! We’re finding that prices of certain things still vary widely, and we can’t work out why. A couple of recent trips to the local markets have convinced me to buy my fresh veggies there, although there is a lot of shopping around to be done. Who knew the local Spar would be missed so much, eh?


An exciting fall season

With Paul starting to provide weekend medical cover to some of the local sports games, we haven’t ventured too far from home lately. It’s exciting that he’ll get to be on hand for sports that aren’t really big back home but are huge in Canada (especially London), like ice hockey, and I’m hoping to get to a game or two with the girls. Although the fear in his voice was real when he said to me “do you think I’ll have to skate onto the ice?!”. Thankfully, he does not! 
The number of conservation areas around the city are endless, so we’ve taken the time to explore a couple more. People keep telling us that fall is the best time to visit Provincial parks and trails, so we’re planning on getting out over the next couple of weeks, in between apple and pumpkin picking of course!


Recently, the weather has taken a turn for the cooler, and we’ve had two days of solid rainfall which then set off state of emergency declarations. In all honesty, I was ecstatic to see the rain, which reminded me of home. One interesting thing though: I noticed that a lot of people say “STAY DRY!” as a goodbye on a rainy day…ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE in the rainfall that we had this week!