I forgot something in that last post, not really surprising when I need a reminding service or something.

• Despite what the jar says, do not in any circumstances add 4 tablespoons of Pataks Mild Curry paste to the pan because when you do, it’s really not mild anymore.

Thank you, I just needed to remember that.

Anyway, let’s not speak of houses anymore.

The job interview went pretty well, I did not disgrace myself by using baby talk or arriving covered in pasta or similar. In fact, it was probably one of my best interviews ever as I was really well prepared for the questions and did lots of research on their work, but I am really not counting on it as there is likely some lovely person who has worked their way up internally who would be convenient to hire. But at least I got some interview experience in. Won’t hear the results for a couple of weeks they said.

Tonight for the first time in years (literally), I made a good old fashioned North American stylee lasagna (read: no crazy bechamel sauce on top, I really don’t like it that way England). And it was good and comforting and everyone liked it, especially Oliver. These days of turbulence unfortunately require comfort food – more and more crap seems to be making its’ way to my shopping basket.

At least we are managing to hit the leisure centre once in a while. I even used the gym machines once. ONCE. Pathetic. If we weren’t spending almost every day out in the car house hunting, I’d be there more. No, seriously. And it’s looking like we are going to still be in Oshawa in January so if I am unemployed I’ll sign me and Oliver up for some classes.

This is my neglected blog about my neglected son Oliver. He’s enjoying things, however, as he’s being left to his own devices while the adults stew and stress about houses and jobs. He’s in a completely un-childproofed house with lots of things to eat that should not be injested, nooks and crannies to discover, and different floor surfaces to crack his head on. Yes, there are bruises, but he’s having a good time.



(at least he’s dressed in these!!)

Mark and I can barely manage to keep things together right now, and we’re both unemployed and are meant to have all the time in the world on our hands. And we only have one kid. (Okay, the dog and the cat are also there to be taken care of).

Today my dear friends Sandy and Richie produced child number FOUR, a daughter named Savannah. They are completely insane to be having so many children, but you know what, they are damn good at being parents and running family home on one income. Also, they have a dog and TWO cats so Mark and I have no excuse whatsoever to be so useless. I think they are fantastic. Of course, any more children and my head would explode, so let’s please not start discussing when the next one is coming along.

All you pregnant friends out there, and there are so many (Samantha, Jamie, Grace, Maria…hmm, that can’t be it – oh yeah Sandy up until 9am this morning), I love you but I also think you are a little mental, whether it’s number one, two or three on the way.

I think I need to hire a personal assistant. I need someone to remind me of a few things:

• to not bother saving money when buying chicken breasts with the bone-in because it’s just really annoying to remove them from the bone, forget the pennies saved and just get them boneless for christs’ sake
• to not blog about houses that I get emotionally attached to and then aren’t ours
• to get Oliver out and about with other kids and in activities as opposed to having him spend his days in cars and strange houses while the adults stress about everything and pretty much just ignore him while he flirts with estate agents as I am quite sure that he is developmentally lagging and it’s my fault
• to find adults for me to talk to so that my vocabulary might return to its previous state and something vaguely intelligible, more than ‘Is that funny, Oliver? Are you funny? Are you eating your shoes?’, might come out of my mouth tomorrow in my scary job interview and at any following job interviews or professional situations

Or I should just read what I write.

So we’ve entered into price negotiations about this house that we like. We visited it again yesterday and compared to everything else we’ve seen, it is the one we want. However, we aren’t counting on getting it. The good thing is that there are several other houses for sale in the same area, also walking distance to the train, and I think we are going to end up around there – but just possibly not in that particular house.

Despite the fact that it should be fate! It’s a British expat family who owns it with a son named Oliver!! Come on, give it to us! Okay, stop the insanity. I don’t even believe in fate.

Anyway, I think there is comfort in knowing there is a location that we both like, and that there are a few houses for sale in that area that meet the criteria and price. Mark requires grandness in space and land as he rebels against his UK lifestyle. And I require not living completely rurally again, and this place meets our needs we think.

So I am not going to worry about it. I have a job interview to completely freak out about anyway. Nothing to wear! They are going to think I am an amateur! I have baby brain that doesn’t work anymore!

Help.

We found a house we both love and I have a job interview on Monday. For like a real grown up full time serious commute into Toronto and manage a whole bunch of people and programs professional job. Things feel like they are looking up.

(even if someone else buys the house and I don’t get the job)

(okay, I’ll probably be a little upset if both of those things happen)

I survived the 401 driving. But, especially the way there, it was scary. I think I was in the groove again on the way home, except for the excessive amount of people who pass on the inside (not that I was holding them up, going 125-135km). Have I forgotten how many people pass on the inside lane or do they actually do it more than they used to, as it seems to me?

Randomness post

• I want to move to a city and have that buzz back in our lives. It doesn’t have to be as big a city as London (well, it can’t be, we live in population-deprived Canada now) but it does need to be a city and not a two-street hamlet or something. Mark’s Canadian dream involves a really big house with a large plot of land (like half an acre) and a ride-on lawn mower. And ne’er the two shall meet. Or will they… – we are going to look at houses with an estate agent in Richmond Hill tomorrow. Some place I never considered I would end up – but also not in the middle of nowhere. On the middle of nowhere list is looking at houses in Stouffville the next day. Ha ha ha – Jamie, Jean, Michelle, are you reading this?! Good ol’ Stouffville, home of the summer camp I used to work at. Baaaaad place last time I looked. But it does have a GO station and big houses on big plots for not the biggest amount of money. We’ve looked at new builds around here (Oshawa), like on an old thoroughbred farm today – nice finishes in models homes, but they really stack them on top of each other.

• We are having a peeing on a carpet situation with the dog which we haven’t had since she was a wee little new puppy. It’s got to be the stress of the plane ride and the move. Piper’s feeling guilty and we are annoyed but thankfully the stains are coming out of the carpet. I just wish she would settle down, particularly as we are spending a lot of time with her and normally take her out with us when we go anywhere. And she’s getting so many walks.

• I am starting to enjoy driving again. I had to pick up Mark from the train station last night and I cranked up the new Sloan album on the stereo (so many songs on it, like 30 or something, overwhelming and I think it’s going to take me a while to get in to), and just calmly drove. Have lost the constant feeling of panic that driving in Buckinghamshire induced. The Volvo is so quiet and smooth. I don’t care about vehicles – just get me from A to B in one piece, please – but I think I like it. And I like the heated seats and decent speakers and all the little gadgets included.

• We joined the leisure centre and all I’ve done is played in the water with Oliver. You know, fun, but not worth the price of admission. So Mark and I are trying to work out some sort of schedule where he goes swimming early in the morning and I use the gym equipment later in the morning when Oliver is asleep. However, I have not used gym equipment in like 4 years and I am in literally the worst of the worst shape of my life so I may have a heart attack and die so I’ll get Mark to let you all know if I do.

• I’ve applied for 5 jobs in the past few days. Even writing a cover letter and pressing send on the email seems scary – putting myself out there again, someone please like me!! We think that it’s more likely that I am going to get a job first – so I am trying hard so that we have some kind of income even if it’s piddly.

• Finally managed to actually hang out with a friend (yay Tami) which makes this move feel more real and not like I am here on vacation. Tami re-introduced me to dollar stores. Oh, yes, they are a good thing. And remind us all that things really are cheaper here. Not just houses but also wine glasses and window cleaner and xmas decorations and everything you could ever ask for.

• This upcoming weekend I am driving myself alone down to Kitchener to hang out with the girls for the weekend with no husband, baby, dog, or cat. Excellent. However, driving on the 401 for the first time in years may also induce a heart attack; as I said, Mark will update you if necessary!

We’ve discovered something new and not fun in the last few days – the emotion of anger! With real extra added GRRRRR! He really growls and screws up his face, and kind of acts like he’s straining a lot when he is exceptionally not happy. It’s happened mostly to do with teething (still that stupid top front tooth has not come through the gum despite threatening to for a month) and with hunger (he’s got his father’s appetite).

When not angry, with me chasing him around the room:

Oh yes, I will remember those days of immobility with fondness. Now he’s hell on wheels. Always into something he shouldn’t be, about to crack his head open on something or other.

I’d post some photos but this kid won’t stand still long enough for them to expose. Since we’ve been here at my parents’ house, 2.5 weeks, Oliver’s gotten so much more able to move around. When we arrived, I could leave him sitting on the floor and trust he’d play with his toys or pull himself to standing and move slowly. Now, toys are for chumps, he won’t sit at all, and he’s moving so fast around the furniture that he’s up to no good before I know it.

He’s also able to judge when it’s safe to let go, and stand on his own for a few seconds. Like on a soft mattress or when there is someone to catch him (it’s all a hilarious game to him). And I really thought he was going to skip crawling altogether, but just in the last few days he’s started doing something resembling in, in order to move his butt closer to things that he can then pull himself up on. And he can bend down while standing up, and hanging on with one hand, to pick things up. Usually bits of animal hair or rubbish, straight in the mouth. Lovely.

He did a lot better with the time change compared to July and quickly settled into an 8pm to 8am sleep pattern, which is nice. Especially as he’s sleeping in a travel cot – oh sorry, they aren’t called that here, they are called pack n’ plays and according to Babies R Us staff it’s highly illegal for children to sleep in them (at least that’s what we were told when we tried to get a better mattress for him). Why then do they make them with sleep-time features like lullaby players and mobiles? Anyway.

He’s babbling pretty well, all kinds of sound combinations now, but he’s not anywhere near saying a proper word and having it mean something. I think he’s beginning to understand NO (which is getting used with more and more frequency as he gets into more stuff) but I don’t think there’s anything else registering with him (like his name).

He’s also suddenly decided that he likes water at mealtimes. After weeks of putting a cup to his mouth, and having him blow bubbles in it, or decide it’s time for water play, he can actually gulp a bunch of it down now. I wonder if I should start trying a sippy cup lid again – he never got the hang of them.

The adults are pretty wound up in sorting out the beginnings of a life here, but Oliver is ticking along nicely, thankfully.

So we started off looking at Volvos (the XC 90 SUV) as Mark was convinced that they were safe and reliable and that’s what we want in a car and plus we have a family and a dog and we are in North America so it better be big. But big without TOO much guilt as it’s a Volvo so they make sure that if an XC 90 hits a smaller car, there’s something about the way it’s built that reduces damage (apparently) and it doesn’t have horrible fuel consumption.

But then there was the issue of price, despite the fact we were looking at used vehicles (we’re not rich enough for a new one, people). So we started looking elsewhere – BMW X5 too much money here, even used; Suzuki Grand Vitara we both liked; Toyota RAV 4 made me sing the ‘I see you baby shakin’ that ass’ song as it looks a lot like a Renault Megane in the new model and I don’t like it; Mazda something or other I never got a close look at as I was in the rental car with the baby and the dog; and there was probably more than this we looked at (oh yeah, a Kia!) but I can’t remember, it’s all blurred, and it all took too long.

Mark was originally negotiating with a Volvo dealer that was fairly local. Neither of us liked how it was going for a 2003 model when I found loads of 2004′s for a similar price. Today we drove out north of Toronto and bought this from there instead:

I think Mark didn’t even negotiate as hard this time as we are just tired of looking and it was raining and come on people and it was what he thought he wanted, even with questions about service history items on the 2003 model (what happened to Volvo’s reliability?). So he’s not that happy with what he walked out paying for this 2004 Volvo XC 90 with seven (SEVEN!) seats – but I am happier with this one than the 2003 at the other place. And I am saying to him, what the hell, big item 1 is now off the checklist – now we can sort out some employment. I’ve actually got a couple of jobs I’d like to apply for if I can find some time to sort out my CV/ resume.

Let’s hope something happens on the job front soon. I feel like we are haemorrhaging money. Start up costs have included new toiletries all around, weekly groceries (at least it’s cheaper than Tesco), a new mattress as I couldn’t sleep on my old futon without waking up in pain all night and walking around like an old woman the next day, and some stupidly frequent eating out due to all this car test driving and such. At least we have actually gone to the leisure centre once after paying for a 3 month membership. Once. Oliver had a great time in the pool. Must go at least 3 or 4 times a week now to justify the price.