Well there’s one thing I’ve learned since coming out here: don’t believe the local weather forecasts. Local means Ottawa Airport which seems to have its own climate. Consequently here in Kanata it has been a lot milder than expected. So I spent much of Thursday and Friday outside in the sun, apart from the trip to the mall for some shorts. Something else I didn’t bring since I hadn’t expected the weather to be so nice (73-74°F in the shade). I did bring my sunglasses at the last minute so that was okay. The air conditioning is being serviced on Monday.

Our skunk hasn’t come back although there are signs it wandered around next door Friday until it found the mothballs.

One of our neighbours opposite are having their decking extended, including some huge fencing which will go round their hot tub. I have a feeling their next door neighbours might complain that it blocks their sun in the late afternoon.

My cousin and her partner are coming round this afternoon and I think there are some plans for something on Sunday.

We’ve had one try to dig into the basement overnight. He tried next door, and next door to them too. All is well and good for him, until he gets to the concrete. Then he probably bangs his head and tries somewhere else.

Photos once I’ve taken them.

The problem with packing a couple of hours before your flight is that you will forget to pack stuff. I didn’t. I just forgot enough stuff. So Tuesday afternoon we went to Walmart to get more clothes.

We also went to a local Sobeys grocery store to get me some fruit:

1.01kg of bananas for CAD $1.05, and,
3lb (go figure) of McIntosh Apples for CAD $1.99.

Monday: The plan was to spend the 7 hours flying to Ottawa listening to my iPod on-the-go playlist that I put together the night before. As soon as the seatbelt sign turned off I was switched on…

Gosh, my Sennheiser PXC 250 NoiseGard™ headphones were good. Just a tiny bit of rumble during the quieter moments, but pretty oblivious the rest of the time that I was flying at the back of a 767-300. Of course it makes communicating with your neighbour a little more difficult.

Still, she was watching Elektra. As much as I like nice-but-very-dim Jennifer Garner, I didn’t really want to watch a universally panned film which had been mangled for 4:3 viewing on commercial flights. I wondered what the six channels the folks in the big seats had at the front of the plane.

I made it through two albums and my neighbour then turned to me and remarked that it was an awful film. Twice. Because I didn’t hear her the first time

And that was it. I spent the rest of the flight chatting with her. Call me an elitist snob (go on) but it was nice to speak to someone similarly educated to me. So I did the whole last-fifteen-years-in-five-hours thing. Hey, even 37signals got a mention.

My uncle picked me up at Ottawa airport – think Inverness airport times 4. Plus the usual interminable wait and interrogation through customs. Mind you, I liked answering the ‘who do you work for’ question that my customs guy asked me.