Immigration JournalThe story of two people who emigrated from the UK to Ontario, Canada July 2006.Home | Profile | Archives | Friends
 Snow flurries they said. Snow flurries my @?$%Yesterday we started the day off by getting a few bits of shopping for when the girls get here.We got back and hubby started to take the kitchen apart ready for the granite man coming tomorrow. Some of the wall units had to come down due to the fact they sit on top of the current worktop so needed to be removed in order to fit the new. It took quite a long time and lots of huffing a puffing to get them down. Trouble was some of the other wall units had to come down too so I was left with half a kitchen. At 4.30pm we set off for Toronto to pick up the girls. Their flight was due in at 7.30, but we wanted to start out early in case we hit any traffic. As it was we had a good, uneventful run into the city and arrived at the car park at 6.35pm. We then sat in the café drinking tea and coffee for a while, wandered around arrivals and departures and then went back down to wait for their flight. Trouble was their flight was delayed and the screen as now saying due in 7.45 which wasn’t too bad. When 7.45 came the time changed to 8.00pm and eventually it showed they had landed at 8.03. We then had to wait for them to come through immigration and baggage etc which eventually happened at 8.30, so not too bad. After hugs and welcomes we made our way to the car, packed all their stuff in the back and off we went. Although they were very excited, they were also very tired, so we told them to sleep in the car as we should be home in a couple of hours. Trouble was the weather was not on our side. It started off as light snow flurries, which the girls thought, was good as they had arrived in Canada to snow. However, by the time we had got a few miles from the airport it had started to snow quite heavily. As the weatherman had only mentioned light flurries we didn’t think it would amount to much – we were wrong! Soon we could barely see where we were going it was coming down so fast. The roads were getting covered and the traffic was slowing right down. By the time we hit Oshawa it was gushing and several inches were on the ground and we were hardly moving. For the next 150 km we crawled along, with hardly any visibility and watched several lorries jack-knife and skid in the road. We saw several cars facing the wrong way and generally had a horrendous journey back. Lanes disappeared under the snow and cars and lorries made up their own lanes as they went along. Even in these terrible conditions, lorries were thundering past us! If we had know this was going to happen we would have checked the girls into an airport hotel overnight and ventured out there the following day. In total it took us over four hours to get back eventually arriving home at nearly 1am. By this time we were all shattered, especially hubby who had had to concentrate so hard driving. So off to bed we all went. Today we woke at our usual time, but the girls didn’t stir until after 10am, although we were expecting it to be later than this. We had a lovely Christmas card view of our garden, which was lovely, now we weren’t driving in it! We also had lots of strange animal tracks in the snow – not sure what all of them are. Hubby removed the sink from the kitchen ready for the granite man (coming at 1pm) and also loosened all the worktops. At about 12.30, I drove the girls round Belleville to show them the sights! By now the roads were clear of snow. We drove over the bridge to The County (Prince Edward County) and then drove the coastal route over the island to the other bridge, which we crossed to get back on the mainland. Took highway 2 to Belleville and then went to the mall. Quinte Mall is ok, but it isn’t the Eaton Centre in Toronto, so I suggested that they wander round on their own and meet up with them in a hour – more than enough time, but God knows what I was going to do with myself! About ten minutes later hubby phoned to say the granite man was not coming as they had broken the slab and would have to order a new one and we were back to the original fitting date of Dec 20th. To say we were annoyed is an understatement. After a search of the mall I caught up with the girls and told them we would go back for Dad and pick him up and then all go out for a meal. They wanted more time at the mall (why????) so I left them there and headed home to pick up a rather annoyed husband. We the drove back for the girls and collected them from outside the mall – they had managed to entertain themselves there for an hour and a half and still liked it – amazing! At this rate we could loose them for days in Toronto and New York! We then went to Swiss Chalet for a meal and came back home. Hubby then had to refit the sink so we can use it, but the cabinets will stay down until the new worktop is fitted. What an eventful couple of days!
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