Back in the Old Country

I'm sitting here in an internet store in downtown Cobourg (pop. 12,000), trying to update you all in less than 15 minutes, so here goes.

The girls and I arrived in Canada July 1st, and all the flight over, we listened to England get clobbered in the World Cup by pilot updates. It was a bit unnerving to know that the pilot was passing this information to us. "Shouldn't he be flying this plane, or something equally important?", I thought to myself.

The morning after we arrived, the older two were off on the camp bus for two weeks of mosquitoes, dirt and sunburn. They weren't completely on their own however, as Adriana and I joined them up at our cottage, which is next door to the camp.

This was the first time I had to 'open' the cottage on my own, as my in-laws had normally taken care of that before we arrived. What an eye-opener! The mouse droppings were prolific, and the pile of mouse fur and skeleton in the doorway of one of the bedrooms a clear indication that someone, had a great time over the winter and expired after gorging themselves on Saltines (which were hidden in the stove) and sesame snacks (left in the open fridge). Adriana and I were so grossed out by the party left-overs that we huddled together on the only clean sofa in the place and fell into fitful sleep, interrupted only by the racoons coming to the back screen door to see if we had left anything delicious for them.

By Friday, we were ready to pick up Orest from the airport for his whirlwind weekend with us. I'll have to tell you more later as my 15 minutes is up.