Goodbye January!

'I hate winter'

Hello and a belated Happy New Year! Having had such a lovely time at home for 6 weeks it's been a bit of a struggle to settle back in Toronto. At home I could pick up the phone whenever I wanted and I buzzed around enjoying - yes enjoying - London Transport. I had so missed the smaller scale of things at home and pretty front gardens and the milkman! (For the convenience, you understand!) I went to some great productions: Juno and the Paycock - Sinead Cusack was very moving, the Lion in Winter - Robert Lindsay wished us a happy 1184 as it was New Year's Eve! - and Slava's SnowShow - extraordinary! Plus visiting John Lewis, M&S and Waitrose - aah! And of course it was so lovely seeing YOU. And apologies to Gemma for throwing the Christmas tree into the garden and then forgetting all about it!

Skiing in the park near us

Lakeshore ice

The trip back was very stressful: first, I wasn't very well, nursing that cold bug so many people had at home; second: an hour's delay sitting on a packed plane because so many airlines were using the southerly route to avoid those awful winds in the North Atlantic at the time; third, huge queues in the arrivals hall. We snaked our way to the Passport desk walking about 600m in total (we paced it out: 12 lengths of about 50m, 1 and a half times around the Olympic Stadium track!). We thought it would be sensible to get my work permit altered at Immigration as well following the medical I had last summer so we joined the queue there. The cheerful young chap told us we should have jumped the queue as we weren't immigrating but of course we were being polite in our British way. He also said that we could have sorted this months ago just by ringing the number on the back of the permit - grrr! We've had such bad information from Eamonn's company all the way through this process. He sensed our (MY) frustration and decided he could help us out on his system which confirmed me as a healthy specimen, although I felt like death at the time. So another $150 handed over and new permit, hooray. Four: staring at the sea of orphaned cases in the baggage hall. The Heathrow flight had long gone through so we raced around checking all the piles of abandoned luggage. Where were these owners? Relief when we found Eamonn's case but mine was nowhere to be seen - more running around to check and double check. More queuing to report it missing. Probably on the next flight we were told - so why couldn't we have been told - more grrr! Our young friend Orfhlaith had been waiting all this time on the slip road outside - at least 2 hours by my reckoning. There's friendship for you. And another small plus was the warm Canadian pilot's accent from the cockpit - mmm.

Northern pintail

I have joined a women's choir in town which I discovered is much more my thing so I have given up the other choir which I found too difficult. This new choir sings 'world' music and very often the songs have a history to them connected to human rights, spirituality, etc. They also take time to teach the songs and don't assume too much ability in sight reading. A lovely expat there suggested I volunteer at the hospital in town and explained how I should go about it. I was vey keen and thought that at last I'd sorted something useful to do. I went and had a chat with a very nice woman, brought the paperwork home and - bang - I can't even apply until I've been here a year and then it can take up to 8 weeks to process! I was so disappointed and felt like coming home but then I remembered we have visitors coming so I couldn't do that! To cheer myself up I decided to do something that I knew I'd enjoy and I've enrolled on a 6 week drawing course at the Art Gallery of Ontario in town - pretty much my favourite place here. I've had my first session which I thoroughly enjoyed - sketching in the Henry Moore and African galleries. I can tell you more about this next time.

Toronto Newcomers activities have started up again and I've had a couple of very interesting outings. The first was to a charity which provides good quality clothing for immigrant / low income families. You can imagine arriving here from warmer climes would be a shock and these families would have no way to afford the winter clothes necessary. So it was a small thing to spend a morning there but I found out that I'm very good at steaming! Other people were sorting or tagging clothes to be given away. I've thought about committing half a day a week there but it's perhaps just as well I haven't as I can see there would be many times when I wouldn't be able to go for one reason or another. In fact, that's going to be the problem with any volunteering.

Holocaust Memorial Earl Bales Park

The second trip was to a talk given to celebrate International Women's Day. Raheel Raza, a woman of Pakistani origin came here many years ago with her young family and found Canada a welcoming place where she was free to develop in all aspects of her life. She is a documentary film maker, freelance journalist and founder of SAMA (Sacred Arts and Music Alliance). She campaigns for women's rights and greater understanding between faiths. She especially wants people to understand what it means to be a Muslim, particularly a Muslim woman in modern society. She was explaining how 9/11 changed everyone's perceptions of Islam so that Muslim women were no longer seen first as mothers, wives, workers,etc., but as Muslims first, and how that has created so many problems since. When she and her husband came 25 years ago as graduates with good experience she described having to continually overcome the barrier of needing to show 'Canadian experience', which of course they didn't have. I was tempted to say that it's pretty much still the same!

I've also joined a new Newcomers group for photography which was very enjoyable, about 12 women who all enjoy snapping away. It was good to hear what interests the others had so hopefully we'll be going to exhibitions together on occasion. I am hoping to get some knitting done too, especially as I paid rather a lot at the 'Knit Cafe' for some 'ecological' wool - hence the price, but wool's expensive at home too I think. Maybe it'll be finished before we leave here. At last I've got into a book, 'Her Fearful Symmetry' - I started it last November but didn't get far and as it happened we had a lovely walk on Boxing Day around Highgate where it's set so the images are fresh in my mind. And I've even spent an afternoon making soup, that's how desperate I was for something to do! But things have picked up, thank goodness.

This memorial is to Raoul Wallenberg, part of the Holocaust Memorial in Earl Bales Park near us. He was a Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust by providing protective passports and shelter in buildings designated as Swedish territory. He was arrested and tortured by Lenin's troops. No one knows where or when he died.

Many parks have skating circuits like this

There was a very interesting political event in Ottawa last week: a summit between 400 of the First Nations' representatives and the Government took place.This is a pretty rare event, which surprised me, considering the problems that exist here for many of these people. Many First Nations people have been campaigning for a long time for improved conditions as there are
serious problems of poor housing, lower education standards and poverty in their communities. The summit began with a 'smudging' ceremony, rather like an incensing of the main dignitaries, including the Prime Minister and then there were the opening speeches. I was particularly struck by the speech of the National Chief of the First Nations. The issue of land rights is still a large area of conflict. They feel that their generosity in sharing their land with the white settlers has not benefitted them in terms of the valuable resources contained there. Canada is self-sufficient in oil and has huge mineral wealth and most of this is found on First Nations' land. There is great disparity between the educational achievements of white Canadian children compared with those of First Nations children.

The Chief said that many problems stem from the Indian Act of 1876 which they feel aimed to destroy their identitiy and this Act is still in place today. There have been many other treaties and alliances made which have not lived up to their promise either so there is a clear lack of trust on both sides. The summit was aiming to restore some of this trust and some effort was made to plan a way forward. I gathered that many Canadians feel that the First Nations have not been efficient enough in using the government funds they are given. A few areas have been very successful in providing employment and creating wealth for their people but they are very much the minority and in some areas the funds are capped despite the growing population which is increasing their poverty. I also came across 'redneck' comments about the use of costumes and ceremonies, etc, showing a lack of respect for their ancient traditions. Some Canadians feel they should live less in the past and work harder for their futures. A very interesting subject with a huge history involving of course the French and British settlers. I hope to follow up on this.

Eamonn and I have been on a couple of snowy walks. We joined a free photography walk in High Park where a professional photographer showed us how to take pictures in snowy conditions - so he led us to the little zoo there! I'd expected to be taking frozen landscape shots but he'd organised for us to get close to the llamas and reindeer for photos. I'm pretty lazy with the camera, I let it do the work for me but he did encourage me to make more use of the manual settings.

Our second walk was with the Toronto Ornithologists' Club. Both of the these walks were in minus temperatures but we've learned how to dress appropriately and I just have to wear a hat and get on with it! My new Canadian boots are fab too, toasty.

We have a long list of good films to see. So far we've seen 'The Artist', so witty and refreshing and 'Hugo', another feelgood film, but you must see it in 3D in the cinema to get the best effect.

For those, like me, exasperated by the changes in the Mass, the priest here said, after making quite a few slips one day, "I find this new mass impossible!" Aah.

I decided that I've been too kind to Toronto in my choice of photos so I will slip in more 'honest' ones occasionally to show the unattractive side of North American sprawl.

I hope you can just make this out - our Valentine to you all! Some nice person must have scrambled on to the ice to do it!

Now we're sweltering in positive temperatures so if you have some to spare, please send snow!

With love

from

Mary and Eamonn