Things I'll miss about New Zealand, Volume 4

17- Walking around barefoot: especially now that the weather is warming up and people are starting to do it around town.
18- Slices: One thing kiwis don't eat much (at least not as much as we Tim Horton's-dependant Canadians) is donuts.  They prefer their baked goods sans hole and pressed into a pan in the form of slices.  Basically, these generally consist of a biscuit base with either one or two layers of sugary topping.  In North America, I guess these would be our "squares" or "bars".  It's not that they're revolutionary over here, it's just that they're ubiquitous. Enter any bakery, café, or even petrol station and you'll find a slice or five just waiting to be eaten. I've even forayed into slice-making myself, trying my hand at (and succeeding quite well, I must say) making a nice ginger slice and an even better chocolate caramel one.  My next venture is likely to be a mocha concoction.  Stay tuned.

19-The flowery trees: Again, with spring here, it's especially difficult to think of leaving.  The buds are out, the willows down at the waterfront are already "en feuille" as we say in French, and a remarkable amount of trees are in bloom.  I remember being impressed in 2009 when I arrived to see how many trees here boast flowers.  I'm still impressed today.

Here's one now!

20-The rugby: rugby is awesome.  Canada should watch and play more of it.  It's as exciting and even more physical than hockey, and the dudes are tough.  And hot.  Here, rugby is undeniably, and rightly, king.

Winter wonderland

Thursday morning I awoke to the cacophony of Australian birds like the ones below. 

These are the kinds of birds that visit C's balcony.  How cool are they?  Answer: very.

After two flights, a four hour stopover in LAX (quite possibly the worst airport I’ve had the misfortune of visiting, and I’ve been to airports in Kenya, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic), and more than 17 hours in the air, I emerged in Toronto.  The sun had set.  It wasn’t 6:00 yet.

This morning, I awoke to the kind of silence only heavy snowfall can bring. It’s a calm, insulated silence. One that is only broken by the whoosh of wind rustling the bare tree limbs, and the rumble of snowplows.

A tug of the blinds revealed a scene straight off of a Hallmark card, or an ad for snow tires.

This shot isn't the best -- It lacks some perspective, no?

Thanks to global warming, white Christmases are no longer a given, even in Canada. But this year, old man winter is certainly delivering stuff.

There have already been a few “snow days” – mornings where the weather is deemed too dangerous for school buses to venture out. There is a good three feet of snow on my mother’s front porch, and an astounding five or so in the back yard.

Ahhhh...there's some much-needed perspective. Now do you see what I'm talking about? 
That there is my sister, Val and Chevy.  They are both awesome.

The dog’s house is under a foot of snow.  My mom dropped her GPS somewhere between the car and the house and hasn't see it since.  It'll likely make an appearance some time in April. The other day, they had to send in a helicopter to rescue some people stranded in their cars during a blizzard on a highway not too far from here.

They don’t call this neck of the woods the snow belt for nothing.

If I knew I had another four or five months of this to go, I’d likely be gnashing my teeth, moaning, you know: lamenting bible-style.  But with only four weeks here, I’m saying “bring it on.”

What we had to drive through to get to town this afternoon.

Macro Chevy!

These are a few of my favourite things that I can't have here.

In a very short week, I'll be home and I must say, I'm excited.

Of course I miss the people most of all -- family, friends and, it goes without saying, Chevy the dog.  That's a given.

But loved ones aside, I miss a few other things quite a bit, and I plan on indulging in them at least a few times over the month I will be at home:

• Baths  Showers are good and all, but there's nothing like soaking in warm water and reading a book or even having a glass of wine.
• Sleeping on a real bed    Two words:  Bunk beds.  One number: 31 (years). The two should not mix.
• Tim Horton's hot chocolate and coffee  I will very very likely be scratching this itch within an hour of landing in our fair country.  Sweet.
• marshmallows  It's not that I'm a huge fan or anything, but the marshmallows here are just odd and fake tasting. 
• Poutine  It is a crime that this has not caught on elsewhere, but to be fair, no one makes cheese curds like Quebec (actually, does anyone even try?)
• Air popped popcorn and Kernels  I don't think my love of puffy deliciousness is a secret. It was generally the main component of one meal a week back in Canada. I think I'm suffering from withdrawal.
• Butter tarts  yet another delicacy that hasn't gone global for some unknown reason. Shame.
• Maple Syrup  self explanatory.
• Chips of the all dressed and cheddar variety  They have lots of very good chips here (or crisps as they say in NZ) and in flavuors we don't have in Canada -- Lamb and mint, chicken, balsamic vinegar and onion, sweet and tangy, etc.  But no all dressed or plain cheddar (or dill pickle for that matter, but I don't like them anyway, so I'm OK with that)
• Sandwhiches from La Botegga in Ottawa  Take the best sandwhich you have ever had and throw it to the ground, stomp on it, spit on it, and turn your back on it and walk away to La Botegga and get yourself the most mouth-watering square of cheese, meat and bread you will ever have.  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
• Pizza from either Picollo's in Lafontaine, or Lorenzo's or Collonade in Ottawa  This part of the world has tons of great Thai, Indian, Japanese, Turkish and Cantonese food.  But for some reason, pizza eludes them.  The crust is dry and bland.  the sause uninspired.  Cheese is woefully scant. Oh, the humanity.  I want a slice (or 5) of pizza dripping with greese and tastiness. 
• President's Choice fizzy water  It's so good, so healthy, and so cheap!
• My mom's granola and soup
  (not together, obviously).  My mom may not know how to glaze a ham to perfection, or how to braise a lamb shank (she's a vegetarian), but the woman makes the best granola and soup.  Bar none.
• Christmas cookies, both the baking and consuming of them  Sugar cookies, shortbread, ginger bread, and -- a personal favourite -- peanut butter balls.  You will be mine.  Oh yes, you will be mine. 

Feel free to enable me in this endeavour.  As you can imagine, I will very likely be putting on 10 pounds or so over the month.  Be warned.