Red shoes

every girl should own a pair.  and to stop Sofia trying to walk in mine, I got her her very own first pair.  And the bonus is, that Tom's will donate a pair to a child in need in the third world.  Bonus.

Flashback: Kung Hay Fat Choy!

Our newly created family tradition of going to Chinatown in London to eat at Mr Kong's for Chinese New Year could obviously no longer be honoured.  We were in need of a new, Toronto based, version.  And despite there being a very large Chinese community around Spadina, with a very vibrant Chinatown (complete with street and shop signs in Chinese), we were very disappointed to learn that there is no real centralised celebration of the New Year here in Toronto.  Specifically, we were not going to be able to watch the dragon dance (our favourite part....well, almost, food always comes first!)

House of Gourmet - our new tradition?

crispy duck....mmmm...

So, I got on to Google and Yelp and Chowhound and all the other online review sites I could find, and managed to finally decide on a place right off Spadina.  And we loved it.  It was loud, it was packed, there were items on the extensive menus that scared the wits out of us and the service was as fast and furious as can be expected in any Chinese restaurant (though surprisingly, it was also quite friendly).  We feasted on Peking duck done two ways, spicy aubergine (I will not call it eggplant) with shrimp, steak in 'chef's special sauce', the best special fried rice I've had in a long time and chow mein.  And the bill did not relieve us of as much of our hard earned cash as you might have thought.  On the way home I bought what I thought were sparklers, thinking that they could somehow compensate for the lack of entertainment.  The stall holder nodded enthusiastically and repeated 'sparklers' back at me when I asked, so you can imagine my shame our disappointment when I lit them back at home and got a nose-full of incense.  Yes, they were joss sticks.  I haven't liked joss sticks since I went through my phase of wearing tie-dye and purple hair.  When I was 14.  Nick actually really likes them and proceeded to burn a few around the apartment. He claims that Joss sticks are another thing I've stripped him of since we've been together (mwaa ha ha haaaa!) They now live in the back of my junk drawer in the kitchen.  And as before, Nick has forgotten all about them.

OHIP vs NHS

And the NHS wins hands down.  I wish I had realised how great it was when I could actually use it.  The things we take for granted!

Let me provide you with a little background..... Back in February I got sick.  It was just a bad cold, but inevitably Sofia caught it just as I was improving.  Unfortunately for her, she got it bad and I decided that, after 2 nights of fever and a very listless baby, that I had to take her to see someone.  Now, we don't have a family doctor yet, so it had to be the nearest walk-in clinic.  Luckily we had gotten the kids' and Nick's OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) just the day before or it would have cost us $275 + doctor's fee just to even be seen.  Anyway, once she was seen by the doctor, it quickly became clear that she was a lot more sick than I had anticipated, and we were sent down to the Emergency room to have her put on a nebuliser.  By this point she was so hysterical at the sight of anyone in a blue uniform (after being subjected to two nasal swabs which go far further up the nose than you can imagine possible without encountering brain, and lots of ear and throat checking) to cut a very long story short, after a chest x-ray and two sessions on the oxygen, we were told that she had an infection in her left lung and an ear infection.  Armed with a prescription for antibiotics, an inhaler and an aero chamber, we left the hospital a little after 6 - after having been there since just after 10:30am.  I was exhausted and quite drained, and if it weren't for my new (canadian) BFF Namugenyi, I think I would have collapsed in a puddle.  Allow me to digress from the OHIP saga a moment,  you see, Nam saved the day in so many ways.  First off, she was the one who whisked me and Sofia off in a cab to the Kids clinic at St Joseph's Hospital, she then bought me some food whilst I went down to Emergency.  My phone died and I was unable to contact anyone - or even Nick to let him know what was happening and that he needed to pick the kids up from school.  Nam went all PI and googled Nick's work and eventually got through to him for me.  She then came through to Emergency and sat with me and refused to leave us until Nick arrived.  And all the time she had her little baby Eli with her too.

Jasmine comforts a poorly Sofia

a much better Sofia sharing her antibiotics with Baby - so kind

Her friend Eli

Back to OHIP.  It does not cover prescriptions - even for children.  Neither does it subsidise them.  So you pay full whack - cost of meds, dispensing fee, mark up and tax.  We are lucky in that we are covered on an extended insurance plan through Nick's job, that pays 100% of prescription charges (though you pay a flat fee of $5 per item).  If we didn't have this, the bill for the 3 items would have been approx $90.  All the same meds that I have had before for Ben and Jasmine and have never given a second thought to cost because they were FREE.  I could have flown home cheaper and had the treatment for free if we didn't have our coverage.  I still am uncovered, but will be sorting that out asap, lest I fall ill/get run over/have a nervous breakdown.....

Oh, and OHIP doesn't cover any dental (not even for minors), nor Optical (yup you guessed it, not even for kids).  it doesn't cover birth control (and again, you pay full whack), Ambulance Services. Yup, you must pay $45 for the ambulance that takes you to hospital. There are other things not covered too.  So people of the UK, never again complain about the health care system.  You are privileged!  And in that vein, I will leave you with a link to sign a petition to SAVE THE NHS.  Do not stand by and let it become like OHIP or even worse, like the USA

Flashback: Leaving England

This photo was taken just a couple of weeks before we left England for Canada

My little comedienne

This girl is just too funny.....

not. amused.

not a fan of the zoo smells...

she has a shoe habit. already

I love this selection of pictures because they really showcase her character.  She is a ball of energy this one.  And it never ceases to amaze me how much she understands, mimics and interacts with us all.

Another year, another decade

So, I'm 30.  Somehow it went and crept up on me.  One minute I am 21 and looking forward to birth of my first child, then BAM! I'm 30.  With said child now a lanky boy who walks to school by himself, a  girl of 7 (going 17) and an 18 month old who has discovered the art of the tantrum.  Where did this last decade go?

All that being said, I am really excited about what the next ten years will bring.  They sure have a lot of living up to do, because when I look back over the last decade (with its ups and downs), I know that I would do it all again with pleasure.

So, how did I celebrate?  We went as a family to stay in the most beautiful, luxurious log cabin ever, up in the Laurentian Mountains of southern Quebec.  On my actual birthday I was surprised in bed with a breakfast of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, fresh bread and fresh coffee mmm, mmm,  mmmmmm.  Well, I say surprised, but I did put my order in.  The surprise was that it was ready before I even woke up (as opposed to me hanging on in bed until I get up out of sheer hunger and frustration to find out what's going on and where the hell my breakfast is).  After breakfast I got to stay in the huge four poster bed all by myself and read with not an ounce of guilt.  Or thoughts of washing up, cleaning, sorting out the kids infiltrating my mind and ruining the peace.  Then we went to some stables nearby, and me and the kids went on a horse ride through the hills.  Lucky me, I got the horse that decided to bolt just minutes after I mounted it.  I spent the first 20 minutes of the ride with a rising sense of panic I as kept having to slow my horse down and prevent it from headbutting Ben's horse just in front.  Just as my horse calmed down, and me too with it, the horse behind (ridden by one of the stable hands) starts acting up.  It was like having a bucking bronco behind me.  So I spent the rest of the ride looking nervously over my shoulder in case the horse scared my horse or charged us all.  Somehow despite all this, I managed to take in the breathtaking scenery all around.  It really was idyllic.  I got a little chuckle at Ben riding his horse like a sack of potatoes - a horse which kept stopping to munch on the vegetation all around.

The next day I visited a nordic spa where I got to lounge outside in the forest in hot pools, followed by taking plunges in ice-water pools, sit in an aromatherapy steam room, relax near the waterfalls around a fire on a lounger, under the trees in a hammock.  Zzzzzzz, I feel sleepy just remembering it all.  I then had a wonderful aromatherapy massage followed by more steam room and relaxing.  Bliss.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to welcome in my 30's.