A pair of ice skates to call my own

I can’t believe it’s Friday again. Where do the days go? Well…

Me trying on skates, different size on each foot.

My days have generally been a mix of going to the gym, writing a new book, revising my freelance writer website and doing general house things. The evenings have been pretty busy though. Despite being a million miles from home, we’ve managed to get swept up in the social side of pre-Christmas.

Wednesday night we had our neighbours, Pete and Royden, over for dinner. They’ve made brunch and dinner for us a couple of times now so, as Glen put it, it was well past our turn to return the favour. I roasted chicken breasts, pumpkin (called squash here) and sweet potato, and served it with some steamed broccoli. Came out nice.

Pete brought dessert which were these amazing hazelnut chocolate tart things from a shop on Church St that Glen and I have never seen but is apparently next to the butcher’s. I’ve seen the butcher’s, just, so I don’t know how I could have overlooked a shop that sells such amazing sweet things. Maybe it’s selective blindness to save my waistline.

We downloaded and watched Muriel’s Wedding. Royden had seen it but Pete hadn’t. We enjoyed watching something that’s so typically Australian. Being here really shines a light on what makes Australia the way it is. Some good, a lot bad, but still home.

Thursday evening we went to Amy and Alon’s for dumplings and quinoa salad before playing Cards Against Humanity. Amy is a resident radiologist who Glen’s worked with and her husband is a doctor too, doing internal medicine. When we saw them at the Christmas party we said we needn’t to meet up and play board games.

Glen and I carried our box of games (we don’t have many but there are about six and they fit into an IKEA lamp box) across town but in the end only played Cards Against Humanity.

For those of you who don’t know, it’s a card game where you draw a question or phrase card that you either have to answer or fill in a blank (e.g. BLANK: the Musical, or Who let the dogs outs?). Everyone has ten cards in their hand that have things like “children with ass cancer” or “Michele Obama’s arms”. You then match your card to the question/phrase and the person who drew that card chooses which answer they like the best. The person who’s response is picked, gets a point. Fun game, mostly because the responses are so crass.

Amy and Alon also have a gorgeous cat with really soft fur and a brilliant ruff around his neck. He looks like a lion (except for the colour and size and other physiology). Made me miss Smudge.

I think Glen’s wearing them wrong.

When we got back to our condo, we stopped by Pete and Royden’s for a quick visit. They’ve gone back to Halifax for two weeks and so offered us the perishables from the fridge. We came away with some good supplies. They also gave us a Christmas present with home-made cookies and a travel guide to Nova Scotia and a card. We were really touched.

Tonight we didn’t plan to do anything so we went up the road to Canadian Tire to buy ice skates as we’re going ice skating with some of the fellows tomorrow morning (if it doesn’t rain). Glen found a pair that he was comfortable with straight up, while I tried on two pairs, switching back and forth between them. Not having ever bought skates, I don’t really know what I’m meant to be looking for and how snug they should be.

I eventually got some advice from a thoroughly bored (and probably over-worked) sales assistant and made a choice. Will find out tomorrow if it was the right one. We got them sharpened there too which was an interesting new thing to watch.

The temperature hasn’t been too bad the past few days and today the snow has really melted away. Now the path behind our condo is icy and we nearly slipped over going out and coming home tonight. Snow is much more enjoyable.

Only three more sleeps until Iceland!