A Whirlwind Week
By now it was mid-July in Canada and surprisingly it was revealing just how hot and sultry its summers could be. For some reason we expected Canada to be a little colder than other countries, I mean we know they get freezing temperatures, snow, and ice rain in the winter, but we anticipated the summers being a bit cooler too.
Waking up to balmy temperatures like those we experienced in the Southern hemisphere and a cloudless cerulean sky so bright it gave us a raging attack of the squints as soon as we opened our eyes was a pleasant bonus to living in Canada. As the locals would keep telling us, we had to take full advantage of the sunny season because when the winter arrived, we would be wishing and longing for those warm hazy days of summer to return.
Today however we did wish we could turn the thermostat on the sun, down a couple of notches because this was the day when our shipping was scheduled to arrive and jeepers it was already turning out to be a scorcher, it was only 8.30am and we were already breaking into a sweat just pouring our Shreddies. As much as we wanted to throw all the windows and doors open and let some fresh air flow through the house, we also did not want to be devoured by the army of winged bitey things waiting for an opportunity to devour us and pick at our bones. The AC and ceiling fan would have to do.
Not long after finishing our breakfast we got a call from the moving truck to say that they were leaving Halifax Port giving us just over an hour to get prepared for their arrival. The preparation consisted of us getting geared up for a day spent outside in the heat and amidst the flesh devouring winged piranhas.
Of course our little pooch would be coming out to help, she was recovering nicely and would benefit from a day spent playing and relaxing in the garden so with her snoot and any other vulnerable bits smoothed with a layer sunscreen and a liberal head to toe spritzing with a homemade mix of water, Eucalyptus, Lemon Grass and Citronella oil Lola was ready to float around the garden smelling like a bowl of pot pourri.
Martin and I on the other hand had far less fragrant options! Smothered with copious amounts of sunscreen and a bucket load of insecticide containing Deet and packing an odor strong enough to repel all living creatures and humans in a 50 foot radius (we hoped) we were finally ready to step outside, only we were so slick and slippery from the lotions and sprays that it took us ten minutes to fumble and slide our way out of the door.
Seeing the moving truck pull up into the driveway was such a satisfying moment, we were finally going to see our things. And when I say see our things, I mean they are going to stay in their boxes until such a time as we have completed the renovations on the house and barn, is this sounding familiar? But nonetheless we were going to treat these boxes as the precious cargo that they were, having spent a small fortune trying to get them shipped over from NZ.
We directed the truck to the barn so that the tools and workshop equipment could be off loaded first and then spent a good moment laughing our backsides off at the unfortunate name of the moving company delivering our shipping. Now I don’t know about other countries but back in NZ, STI refers to ailments that I am reliably informed you can get creams for!
Thankfully the team unpacking the truck did not live up to the company name and were in no way as irritating as an STI, they worked hard. Not ones to just sit there and watch the team struggle in the heat we jumped in and assisted, many hands make light work as the saying goes even if they are slippery hands and besides, we had downsized before we moved so it shouldn’t take too long, should it?
Yep, we were wrong on that one because although the truck did not seem to be full to the rafters the boxes just kept coming and coming, every time we glanced into the back of the truck the sea of boxes did not recede! Was it the heat that was sapping our energy and making us delirious? I mean where the heck did all this stuff come from?
For years Martin had multiple boxes stacked in our garage in NZ containing what seemed like hundreds of Royal Marine keyrings, badges, pins, uniform items, mess tins and other military paraphernalia. At the time that we were moving Martin had declared that he had way too much stuff and needed to downsize so would rehome many of these items.
Afterall did we need it all? Unless Martin was planning to parade around Canada in full military regalia at every given opportunity (which would result in him getting arrested and the both of us kicked out of Canada for being odd balls) most of these things would continue to live in boxes. My heat addled brain now had me suspecting that Martin had covertly stashed the boxes at the time that we were moving and then stowed them onto the container when my back was turned!
After what felt like an eternity, we could finally see the back of the inside truck, by then we were dropping boxes left and right due to the sheer amount of sweaty residue on our hands, the team handled our property so carefully in comparison to us fumbling, and clumsy eejits. All that was left to unload were the larger items of Martins equipment and machinery, we chuckled when the biggest and strongest member of the moving team let out a string of expletives as he tried and failed to pick up a small item in the back of the truck. He had found Martin’s surface plate, a small package in comparison to the rest of the equipment but weighing in at a hefty 70kgs if not more.
With the last box of tools deposited into the barn, and the boxes of our household belongings safely stored in the basement of the house we all found a shady spot in the garden to sit down, sip a cold beverage, snack on a Snickers bar, and compare our insect bites which were multiple and various. The Deet had done absolutely nothing having poured off our bodies along with all the sweat, and like an all you can eat buffet the bugs had made a meal of us. We were covered in red, angry looking bites and knew that just like an STI those buggers were going to be itchy as hell later.
Lola on the other hand had spent the day either getting cuddles and pats o the head from the moving team or prancing around in the nearby woods chasing the cats, chipmunks, squirrels, and any other small furry animal she spotted. When she grew weary of that she snoozed to her hearts content on top of the moving blankets beneath the shade of the trees.
We finally stepped indoors weary but with a sense of accomplishment, and now had to get ourselves ready for an important phone call. With Lola checked over for bites and ticks and finding none we headed off for a shower scratching like a pair of flea ridden racoons. Freshly showered, covered head to toe with Calamine lotion and dosed up on Antihistamine we were finally ready for the scheduled phone call with our vet Alyssa. What with the drama of the roof, our shipping arriving and Lola being full of beans we had not had time to dwell on what the results could be.
According to Alyssa Lola’s blood work had come back clear, as had her lung X-rays, the cancer had not spread! The feeling of relief was immense, the tremendous weight that had been pressing on us all week making it hard to breath at times had been lifted. Alyssa also stated that the specialist had been confident in the margins excised around the tumor and felt that any other treatment such as full mammary gland removal or chemo would be unnecessary at this stage.
For now, Lola was to be prescribed with strong anti-inflammatory medication and we were to monitor Lola’s wound and the rest of her mammary glands very closely, any hint of a swelling or a lump and we were to contact the vet straight away. This was the best news we could have wished for! Despite the stressful start to the week we were going to be finishing it on a high.
As if we hadn’t packed enough into this week, I had an important appointment to keep the following day, I was going to a job interview. Martin and I had discussed that the renovations were costing far more than we had anticipated and that if we were going to be able to finish the workshop so that it could start generating an income for us, we would have to consider part time employment to boost our savings.
Fortuitously, the previous week I had to go to the Cumings Fire & Safety store to get measured for my wildland fire coveralls (they don’t make them in toddler sizes). Whilst there I recognised a couple of familiar faces like my Fire Chief and one of the lieutenants called Daniel, during a conversation with Daniel I mentioned just how expensive the renovations were, that we were fast running out of savings and that I needed to find a job soon.
It was then that Daniel mentioned that a position in the store was becoming vacant at the end of summer and if I were interested, I could send him my CV which he would pass on to the company owner Ian Kimball. The position sounded perfect, it was only a twenty-minute commute, and it wouldn’t start until the end of summer which still gave Martin and I time to work on the renovations.
As soon as I arrived home, I emailed my CV to Daniel and would now have to wait and see what would happen. By the following day I had received a reply from Ian inviting me for an interview, holy moly that was quick!
On the day of the interview, I pulled up outside the store and took a few moments to gather my wits, not only did every muscle in my body protest whenever I moved due to the exertion of unloading the truck the previous day, but I was feeling exhausted and ill prepared for an interview. Moving to NZ had made me accustomed to the interview process, in those early years I had been to more interviews than I have had hot dinners and no longer suffered with the nerves that interviews elicit.
Today however my palms were sweaty with nerves, and butterflies danced around in my tummy. Somehow this felt like a big moment for me. So much had happened over the past few months, in fact it only seemed like yesterday that we were getting on a plane to leave NZ and now here I was in Canada, with a home, a car and fingers crossed a job. This was another crucial step in us settling into a new country, we were doing the whole adulting thing in Canada and in that moment, it was a little overwhelming.
I need not have been nervous because the interview (imagine me using air quotes when I say this) was so informal, it was a chat with Ian and his second in command Kyle. The conversation flowed easily, the guys were down to earth, friendly, and had a wicked sense of humour and I got the feeling that working there would be stress free and fun. I found myself really wanting the job.
The only downside was the fact that it was full time and included working the occasional Saturday, it wasn’t ideal, but we really needed the money at that point so if I were successful, I would worry about the hours later.
I felt like the interview went well and as it ended Ian and Kyle informed me that they had other people to interview over the next few weeks and would get back to me once a decision had been made. I had barely made it home and taken my first sip of tea before my phone rang with a call from Ian offering me the position! I had to laugh, so much for interviewing other candidates.
I was happy and pleased with myself for getting the position whilst simultaneously kicking myself up the butt! I had been a little too successful in my job-hunting endeavours, having gone out looking for a part time job which started at the end of the summer I had walked into a full-time job which started in a weeks’ time … bugger!
It had been a doozy of a week, and our heads were spinning as we tried to process everything that the week had entailed, we really needed to rest and decompress so took the time on Sunday morning to relax, drink copious amounts of tea and just generally fluff around in our pjs, so you can imagine our surprise when a car pulled onto our driveway and two random men got out of the vehicle. Scrabbling around to put clothes on and make ourselves decent we got out onto the driveway in time to see these men pull paint pots and brushes out of the back of the truck.
Giles (call me Gil) had sent them to patch up the paint on the roofs. We were absolutely astounded! What fecking planet was Giles on? The roofs needed to be stripped back, cleaned, and painted all over again. A couple of dabs of paint on a brush were not going to patch up the damage that had been caused, it would not even come close! Not only that, but it also really stuck in our craw that Gil would send two strangers to our house, on a Sunday without even bothering to notify us. What if we had been out? The battle to get the bodged paint job on our roofs had begun!
