45 Days in Canada

Today's post is: Timber  .. Pitbull

We are 45 days into Canada and things are going quite well. Everyone is happy and I tend to think the internet plays a huge part in that. As I type this entry in my blog, Thavorn is on her phone talking to her mom on LINE and has been for the past 30 minutes. She also talks with friends and other members of her family, most importantly her children.

Thavorn chatting with her mom

I suspect she talks more to her family and friends than I do to my family and friends who are here in Ottawa with me. Go figure. When I am in Thailand, many of my expat friends ask if I miss my friends back home. Truth be told, back home, you are lucky to see your friends once a month, whereas in Thailand it would be once a week for a night out. Just more fun in Thailand.

Today, my sister Elaine will drop by for lunch (that Thavorn is cooking up Thai style) and also to drop off my OHIP card and Thavorn's PR (Permanent Resident) card that was so difficult to obtain. Now that she has it, she can come and go as she pleases as long as she spends 2 of the next 5 years in Canada. After that she can apply for a new card which is a rubber stamp if she has done her 2 years.

However, the plan is to apply for Canadian Citizenship once she has accumulated 3 years in Canada and then she has identical rights to Jaidan and myself.

As I have mentioned before, the big decision is how much time to spend in Canada vs Thailand.  Our options are:

1. Full time in Canada
2. 6 months in Canada and 6 in Thailand.
3. 9 months in Canada and 3 months in Thailand.

Option #2 requires home schooling for Jaidan. Options #1 and 3 will mean that Jaidan attends school in Canada and we buy a car and put more roots into Canada.  All 3 options satisfy OHIP and Permanent Residency for Life insurance requirements.

Of course, Thavorn can travel to Thailand a bit earlier than Jaidan and I if she so desires, as long as she spends 6 months plus a day in Canada.

I have yet to meet with many of my friends and I plan to do so over the next month.

TTYL

Amazon

Today's song is: See You Again  ..Furious

Amazon is number 1 in online sales and number 1 in cloud computing. I am not sure who is number 1 in online assistants. Google has Google Assistant (Google Home?), Apple has Siri, and Amazon has Alexa.

Google has Google Music and Google Play for Movies. Amazon has Amazon Prime for Music and Movies. Apple has the infamous Apple Store for everything Apple.

It is starting to make sense to stay in your ecosystem when deciding on certain technologies.

I recently purchase Amazon's Fire TV Stick for the above reasons. I have a subscription to Amazon Prime for music and videos and the fact that the stick hooks into Bell Fibe (if you subscribe) was a bonus. The fact that the stick's remote has Alexa cooked into it was the overriding factor in the picture.

Alexa and the fire stick can even work with my Google calendar. I think it may be time to get a Amazon Dot to make full use of Alex, like setting an alarm for waking up in the morning.

The only downside to all this is that these companies know everything about you.  These devices are always listening, but then again, I have nothing to hide  :-)

TTYL

Meals

Today's song is: Poker Face .. Gaga on Ellen

It is a quiet day today  .. a walk to the beer store for a few pints, dollar store for some cheesies and teach Jaidan how to pay for them and get change, Circle-K for a 649 lottery ticket, and simply walking about to burn some calories. We walk and Jaidan runs everywhere.

For lunch today I cooked chicken strips and french fries from m&M and Thavorn cooked chicken feet from TnT.

Jaidan and I ate from M&M

Cooked chicken feet

Raw chicken feet  .. ready for cooking  .. yummy  .. to Thais

On Sunday we visited my sister Elaine's house. Jaidan wanted to see her cats and Smokey and Jaidan hit it off.

TTYL

Driving Done

Today's song is: These Days  .. Jesse Glynne ..

I haven't driven for a couple of years but I managed to return the rental unscathed. Total cost for a weekend rental was $87 for 3 days from Friday at 9 am to Monday at 9 am. Enterprise is a good deal.  I will be renting at least once a month if not twice a month.

Yesterday it was about 8 degrees but this morning when I returned the car it was -8 degrees. Still unseasonably code for this time of year. Despite the cold, the snow is disappearing and I suspect a week of normal temperature will be its demise.

I have rediscovered M&M frozen food shops.  Jaidan loves nuggets but at $8 for 10 nuggets, they are expensive. I can buy about 35 nuggets for $11 at m&M and their chicken strips just went on sale at $7 off at $14.95.  Add wrinkle cut french fries and Jaidan is a happy camper (as long as he has yummy ketchup).

I have been enjoying march madness, NCAA basketball, despite watching Duke win.  Anybody but Duke and Kentucky and I am happy. UNC is always a favorite.

My friends Mike and Ashley should be back in Canada soon and it will be fun to get together to discuss how our past years evolved.

My business partner Brent and myself are starting to book appointments with the 5 local school boards that we do business with.  We will probably devote one day a week to our business over the next 5 months while I am in Canada. That does not count the time I spend coding the changes that the visits generate.

That's about it for now. Jaidan is quite happy and Thavorn seems content and I anticipate the contentment will turn to happiness as the weather warms up.

TTYL

A Good Day in Canada

Today's song is: Solo .. Clean bandit

Today was a good day. I was up at 6:30 am and left home at 7:45 to walk 5 kms to get a rental car at Enterprise. Along the way, I stopped at Shopper's Drug Mart to buy a pair of readers as I broke a pair last night.  The Enterprise folks were as friendly as always and I was a bit apprehensive jumping in a car after having had a 3 year break from driving.  Turns out, not to worry, as I readily dropped into my usual driving habits and all was good.

I drove back home to pick up Jaidan and Thavorn and we headed off to visit my business partner Brent and his wife Jeannine to talk about what needed doing with respect to our business. We finished off with a lunch and headed off to TnT Grocery store for Thavorn to explore. Along the way I remembered we needed to go to Service Ontarion to apply for OHIP for Thavorn.  Turns out that the Merivale office was the closest, and as usual, was quite busy. An hour later, mission accomplished and off to TnT we went. Thavorn enjoyed TnT immensely and an hour later I had to drag her out of the store.  Next month we really have to stick to our $400 a month food budget.

We arrived home to find our bidet had been installed at no charge by our BnB host and Thavorn and Jaidan were happy to see it.  I am watching March Madness BBall as I type this and I am looking forward to watching the next game with UNC facing Iona.

Tomorrow, Saturday morning we visit my daughter Jaime's new house and visit Costco. Later in the afternoon we will swing by and say hello to Larry and Lorraine.

Sunday is a some site seeing and a visit to my sister Elaine. Jaidan is looking forward to seeing her cats.

Thavorn seems to be enjoying driving for a change and seems pleased with my driving skills.

A good day indeed  ;-)

TTYL

Friends

Today's song is: I'm a Mess  .. Sheeran

So far I have met with 2 friends, Julian and Billy. Tomorrow I meet my good friend Larry Brown. My friends have been good enough to join me close to wear I live, typically at Timmy's. This weekend I plan to rent a car and get out and about and perhaps visit Big Rig for my favorite pizza, the Buffalo Chicken, which is spicy hot. I think Thavorn will love it and I am sure Jaidan will like their fries.

My initial impression of Canada after having been gone for years is that it has truly become multicultural. It also appears, the new comers to Canada have adopted Canadian attitudes for the most part.  A second impression is that Canada has aged as most of the folks I see are well into old age.  Perhaps, that is the Timmy's crowd and I can understand why the younger people are frequenting Starbucks or Starbuck clones such as Bridgehead.

The grocery stores are pushing 'organic' whatever that means. I don't think there is any standard for organic. Thai produce is full of chemicals and antibiotics and I trust that Canada does a better job on controlling additives, but I am not sure.

It is still colder than normal for this time of year despite the imminent arrival of the spring equinox.

This weekend I am renting a car for the weekend (Friday morning to Monday morning) for $100 which is pretty good. I have some business work to attend to on Friday but look forward to touring around with Thavorn and Jaidan on Saturday and Sunday.  Thavorn wants to visit TnT grocery store  and look for some fresh fish and Thai vegetables.

Thavorn likes Timmy's dark roast, double double.  :-) and their breakfast sausage sandwich on a biscuit.  Same as me.

Maybe time for a meatball sandwich at the Prescott.

TTYL

Today's song is: Thunder  .. Imagine Dragons

We had a wonderful snowfall yesterday. No wind and big fluffy snowflakes for about 5 hours. This is what we end up with:

We have been guilty of cocooning lately but we should get out today. The temperature today will be about 3 degrees and there is no wind, but we will have to wear our boots.

Thavorn has discovered Lotto649 and bought one ticket and won $10 and bought 3 more tickets with her winnings but did not win anything last night. Thais love to gamble and Lotto649 has draws on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Thailand only has one lottery that I am aware of and Canada has many. Thavorn is eyeing Lotto Max with its 25 million payout as of today.

You sometimes don't realize the effect that Thailand's pollution and climate takes on your body. As I have begun to re-acclimatize to Canada I am starting to feel better than I have in years. As Sveta used to say, 'Air is very tasty in Canada'.

TTYL