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Published: April 23rd 2015
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It's 23.01 on the 22nd of April. So, now we're in Ottawa. This won't be a long entry as I'm ready for sleep now.
We left the hostel in the rain on Monday, and headed to the bus station in downtown Montreal to catch our 1pm bus - finding a cafe in the station for a coffee and a pastry before the bus was due to depart.
The bus journey took pretty much it's scheduled 2 and a half hours, and I didn't see much of the scenery as I was writing my last blog. We arrived at the small Ottawa station and waiting slightly nervously for Tim, Laura Fletcher's husband to arrive and pick us up. Before long we saw the guy we'd picked out in Laura's profile pictures, a tall, well built bald guy of around 40, and went over to meet him. Almost immediately we could tell he was really friendly; and this set the tone for meeting the whole family.
On the way back Tim told us (casually) that he was the Prime Minister's chef, while Laura manages their on site catering business - the both of them managing 3 young kids as well, Cole (3), Bennett
(8) and Ashley (12). He also explained that there was 4 more WorkAwayers staying with them at that time, an English couple of around 30 (Amy and Paul) and two German girls in their early 20s (Frankie and Anna), as well as their chef Jonathan.
We arrived to a full household and over dinner we met everyone and tried to remember names as best we could. Before we knew it we were recruited to play capture the flag after dinner, a game that involves dividing into teams and trying to find and retrieve the enemies flag while protecting your own and not getting caught out. Once we had got a handle on the rules the game got pretty competitive, with everyone joining in - even Cole who we convinced to show us his teams flag's location with promises of treats (a little manipulative perhaps but it works). Before long we all crashed in the living room with the hockey on (ended Penguins 0 - 1 Rangers) and made our way off to bed.
We woke and had breakfast the next day at 9, then Frankie and Anna showed us around the barn, and how to set it for events. Before
long Laura was out to give us our list of jobs for the day that we could choose from - and Matt and I decided to give putting up the new kids plat house a go.
Almost immediately we began to think we'd bitten off more than we could chew, with countless screws, bolts, washers, nuts and tools falling in cascades from within the 3 huge boxes of wood, and mention of drills and stepladders being quoted worryingly early on in the instruction manual of no less than 40 steps - most with part A,B,C and D. But, we cracked on, and with the help of the girls managed to get the sides of the house up in one day, and get pretty handy with drills, tape measures, levels and set squares in the mean time. I don't think I've ever used the word flush so much in my life.
We ate dinner together and told stories of our days - Paul works in a milking farm down the road and Amy helps Jonathan in the kitchen - then watched a little TV before bed.
Today has taken much the same form. The girls (German) have been cropping trees all
day, and Matt burning the branches in the fire pit while I, with Rosie in the morning and Kate in the afternoon have put joists, a floor, a door, window ledges and tables into the playhouse, and begun constructing the swing set.
As there was an event on tonight, we got the food than wasn't eaten - so had a veritable feast of Mexican chicken and pulled pork. Of course, it was also the 4th game in the Stanley cup playoff tonight between the Sens (Ottawa), and Habs (Montreal) which Ottawa unfortunately won 1-0, so games stand 1-3 Habs currently. One more win and we're through to the next round though.
So I'll leave in there for tonight - I'll post in more detail probably Friday.
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Dr John HW
John Hyder-Wilson
The Winchelsea
A very reassuring English sounding name - I wonder what the connection is the the old Cinque port? Was interested in the pictures of the farm - countryside looks rather flat. Reminds me of Norfolk or somewhere like that with the big sky and great rolling vistas. Is it better for stargazing? If so, the guide attached to my comment of about 3 weeks ago is still just about current for late April at about 22.00hrs. It certainly sounds like putting up the Kid's house was a challenge, but that bit by bit you won through. The election here drags on wearily towards its climax in 10 days time and feels as if has been going on forever. There are very small signs that the Conservatives relentlessly negative approach might be starting to have an impact, which would be very depressing. They have run a horrible, negative campaign based on attacking Ed Miliband (which hasn't really worked) and playing the English nationalist card (as the SNP are riding high in Scotland). It is the latter tactic which might just be starting to pay dividends. If it does, and they win the election on that basis I would truly feel like emigrating. Still too close to call though. Looking forward to continuing to read your blogs as you get closer to really starting to track across the country.