The beginning of November saw lovely sunshine and clear skies so we decided to take a trip back to Port Credit for lunch at Snug Harbour. We really like the restaurant there since it had nice views of boats on the water and people doing lots of interesting activities.
To build up an appetite, we went for a walk along the break water and for the first time noticed to lovely views across the lake to Toronto. You start to realise how crowded it is hear when there are 2.5 million in Toronto and 750000 here in Mississuaga and they are right next to each other.
You can see from the picture above, that it was still very cold. It is funny that we now consider a sunny day as warm and pleasant. It was most probably about 5°C at the time, but everyone was out walking and enjoying what we thought could be the last sunshine for a few months.
The restaurant still had it’s Halloween decorations out, but they will all come down now and people will start to put up their Christmas decorations (so early, but I think they are trying to beat the snow).
November is a strange month in Canada. Usually, Bruce would have just come back from a holiday and would be starting to reduce his teaching load as Upper School students finished their courses and left to do exams. In Canada we have just taught for 8 weeks and still have 7 more to go before a decent break. All the students will still be here at the very end so there is no gradual run down to Christmas, they will even come back after Christmas. The weather is getting damp and overcast and in general everyone is tired and run down.
Like a lot of Canadians, Bruce was feeling very run down and went to see his doctor about it. This was a bad move since naturally she started to find things wrong with him. She felt that he was suffering from severe depression and recommended he take at least a week off work and seek further (physcological) help. She also sent him off for blood tests and an EKG.
The good part about this diagnosis was the week off, especially when it was suggested that it wouldn’t be good to stay around home and mope, since this wouldn’t change any of the circumstances that brought about the depression.
We decided to take a trip down to Florida and get a bit of sunshine and a complete break from school and Mississauga. What a great idea this turned out to be. We got our flights using frequent flyers and got a last minute bargain of accommodation at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort with all meals included. The deal also included 8 days entry into the parks (only one each day, couldn’t use two in the same day unfortunately).
We flew down to Miami on American Airlines (using Qantas FF) and then back upto Orlando. It was the long way around, with a couple of long waits at Toronto airport and Miami airport, but theoretically it was for free. We still had to pay over $100 in taxes and then $30 for luggage, what a ripoff.
The first morning we were at the resort we went down to the swimming pool to take in a bit of sunshine and relax. We spent a lovely 2 hours at the pool reading and swimming in a pleasant 28°C. Liam really enjoyed the waterslide and made a couple of friends that he played with solidly for the whole time we were there.
After a very relaxing morning we set off on the Disney Transport system for the Magic Kingdom. Busses came past every ten to fifteen minutes to take us to all the different parks. It took about 20 minutes to get there and then we were dropped off at the front gate, all very easy. On entering the park, it was all very reminiscent of Disneyland in California, all the streets were the same and the attractions were the same.
One of the rides we had to do this time was “It’s a Small World”. To Bruce, it was a bit like the Railway Children of his childhood, his mother loved this ride, so Bruce went on it a few years ago and didn’t quite see the attraction of these hundreds of dolls all singing “It’s a Small World”. He made Rosie and Liam experience it this time so that they too could appreciate Grandma’s joy. I must admit, that now that I am 20 years older, it is slightly more appealing. Rosie and Bruce realised that they were now at the age that Peg and Blue most probably were when they first saw it (how scary is that).
much more relaxed and was happy to experience all the different rides, not just the fast ones. We casually strolled around looking at things and in most cases the queues were quite reasonable.
Our dining plan included snacks (which read like it was just a pack of chips, or a piece of fruit), but we promised Liam an icecream, so we went to one of the icecream parlours for a huge chocolate sundae. Bruce tentatively asked whether this counted as a snack and was amazed to find this $5 icecream counted. It was so large that we shared it between the three of us. That night we had booked into a restaurant at the Magic Kingdom, which turned out to be just a glorified hamburger place. The meal wasn’t great, but we didn’t pay so who cared.
We watched the fireworks over the castle, and then stayed on for an extra couple of hours since resort guests had extra time on this particular night. This was great since the queues were even shorter and we were able to get on a couple of rides that we missed earlier.
The next day was pretty much the same. A nice long walk in the morning around the resort. A couple of hours in the pool, reading and playing.
We then went off to Hollywood Studios for the day. Unfortunately Bruce was forced to go on the high speed Rock and Roll rollercoaster when we first arrived, it took him the rest of the day to recover. He really can’t handle any form of fast motion these days.
We were lucky to go on this day since it was the first day of the Osborne’s Light Show, and this was a spectacular display with all the building fully lit up and lots of great music.
Rosie and Liam loved the Tower of Terror and the Star Wars Tour. We all enjoyed the Indiana Jones production. It was a relatively relaxing day, most of the rides were aimed at the younger crowd and similar to Universal Studios.
We booked ourselves into “The Brown Derby” for dinner, which turned out to be a real surprise. This was an extremely classy restaurant with excellent food. It was themed up for the 1950’s Hollywood era and the contrast between this experience and the dining experience the previous night was unbelievable.
Liam ate at Pizza Planet (from Toy Story) before the restaurant since there was nothing that he would eat at the Brown Derby (his loss).
The next day started pretty much the same as the others. A nice walk and then a swim in the pool. We went back to the room and read our books while Liam played on the computer.
We went to Epcot Centre (Experminental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) in the late afternoon to get our bearings and to see what this was about. We didn’t know a lot about this park, Bruce could remember that it was a science based theme park, didn’t remember anything about the “World Showcase” section.
This was very interesting, with little communities set up next to each other representing several different countries. Each served their own beer and wine and had a themed restaurant. We booked into the Chinese restaurant and then looked around.
Epcot clearly had a lot of potential, which we only touched on this day. We had a great meal and saw the fireworks. Liam and Rosie took a couple of rides and we vowed to return.
Our fourth day and our fourth theme park, off to the Animal Kingdom today. No idea what this was going to be like. We thought it was going to be a bit like the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and to an extent it was. We started out on the “Kilimanjaro Safari” ride in one of their trucks, and it was typically kitch, but the tour was much better than San Diego in that you got much closer to the animals and they had made it look like you were in there with them, though they had motes and other hidden structures to keep the animals away.
We then went to the education centre, where Liam started his kids trek around the park. At different locations they set up little learning tasks that Liam visited and as he completed each task he was given a stamp. It kept him moving from one section to the next and helped everyone to get to see the whole park. Initially we thought it was just like a zoo, but as you went to each section there was always an interesting ride to go on, some were for everyone and others were only for the adventurous.
Liam and Rosie loved the Himilayan Yeti ride and went on it a couple of times. We all enjoyed the Kali River Rapids ride and the Dinosaur ride.
There was a good selection of animals and as is usual these days, the breeding programs are very effective.
We had dinner that night at the resorts restaurant, which was good, but not anything special.
We had a day off the next day where we went to play minigolf at Fantasia gardens, which is situated next the Dolphin and Swan lodge. This was a bit of fun before we took a boat over to Hollywood Studios and then a bus back home.
We spent the next few days going to Epcot and having meals there. The food options were too good to miss and the park had several features we hadn’t seen anywhere else.
We had a really nice Italian meal one day and Liam started the Kim Possible adventure, which was similar to Animal Kingdom. It was a set of adventures going around the World Showcase area. Again this was a great idea since Liam was busy following clues in each section while the parents had the chance to see most of the attractions there. Liam got all his instructions from a mobile phone that they lent him. You could see kids all over the area following the directions. The funniest part of it was that at certain points Liam would set off a little attraction that only worked when his phone was near it. In the German section they had a nice selection of beer stiens that adults looked at and thought were mildly interesting. When Liam went there, all the stiens starting singing beer songs. You only got to see this if a child happened to come past.
On our last day there we celebrated Rosies’ birthday, again, by first going to mini golf and then returning to the Epcot centre for Lunch at the Mexican restaurant. Rosie was wearing her “It’s My Birthday” badge with her name on and every where you go people kept saying Happy Birthday to her. She found it disconcerting initially, but then she got used to it and thoroughly enjoyed it. At the restaurant they came up in a large group to sing her Happy Birthday in spanish (or it could have “You Silly Old Fool” for all we know)
We also took a good look around Epcot over the last couple of days and enjoyed all the different experiences that they offered. We all enjoyed the Soaring over California ride and the ride through the the future food production.
All up we had a very relaxing week and by the time we flew home, Bruce was much more relaxed and ready to complete the final stretch through till Christmas and then January and home.
When we got home Liam had a bit of a cold (spent too long in the pool on a cool day) so we kept him home from school for a day. He had to go back on Tuesday so that he knew what was happening for the School Camp that started Wednesday.
All the grade 6’s went away for a three day camp to Mansfield education centre where they did lots of activities relating to the land and the environment.
Liam ended up having a very pleasant two week period, which was like his normal holiday break at this time of the year. He also now has five weeks till Christmas and then three weeks after Christmas. It is going to be strange for us to be still at school during January but we are looking forward to all the new experiences that are coming in the next couple of months.
You may ask why I called this a Unique Month and the main reason is that it is the first November in recorded history where they have had no snow in November. Last year they had the largest snow fall in decades and the school closed for a Snow Day.
People are taking advantage of the nice weather and going for walks and bike rides while they still can. The main thing we are also noticing is that people are now starting to get really organised with their Christmas decorations. After each Sunday, more and more houses are getting all lit up. We took a drive around the other night to take a look and were very impressed. We then went out for dinner at “East Side Mario’s” which is one the few chains that we really enjoy.
Most of the street leading up to our house is now decorated and it is very enjoyable to look out over it.
There is always a downside to going to see a doctor and in Bruce’s case it was that she found a couple of things in the tests that were done that she didn’t like. His blood pressure was a little high again and his cholesterol was high. These two were expected but strangely the EKG gave a heart rate reading of 47 beats/minute and when you combine the three, she wasn’t happy so she sent him off to get a Heart Rate monitor attached for 48hrs to see what happens. He looked like the bionic man with all these wires hanging off him. We will get these results just before Christmas (unless something is really wrong). When he got his blood pressure checked again a few days after doubling his medication, the readings were normal, but the heart rate was 48 this time, which is a bit low.
Will be interested to see what the 48 hr monitoring comes up with.
A very sad event happened in November. Mike Elrick, after being diagnosed in August, with lung cancer, Michael’s journey ended when he died of complications from his illness on November 23, 2009.
In Bruce’s first semester in Canada, Mike went our of his way to make him feel at home, helping to organise a night at the Woolidge Arms for a beer tasting with the staff. Mike also was part of Bruce’s golf team at the end of the semester school social golf event. Unfortunately, this was the last time Bruce got to see Mike since he was diagnosed over the holidays and never returned to school.
It was devastatingly fast and a sad reminder of Gratten and his fight with cancer. Mike was a fit and healthy young man, who left behind a wife and two lovely children.
