Episode 4 : Hello Canada! We finally arrived at Montreal Airport and headed towards the immigration office. And very nice they were too!
Our visas were handed over, our bags and boys man-handled (by us) through customs and our Canadian adventure had begun!
Our visas were handed over, our bags and boys man-handled (by us) through customs and our Canadian adventure had begun!
I remember our arrival through a haze of weariness and excitement... in pretty even measure.
The first few weeks were a mad rush of visiting, searching and spending...(stop me if you've heard this before) and we finally laid our weary bones and bruised limbs to rest (I kid you not, moving all those bags created havoc with my shins) in a rather nice street in central Montreal.
Now, street living was a new concept to us...Of course we'd lived on a street before, but we'd been protected from the hussle and bussle by a walled garden and large gates. We'd never really “watched the world go by” just outside our window. And you know what? it's a nice concept!
We'd downsized big time, on both sides of the Atlantic, but try as I might I just couldn't find too much to complain about (see my “compact living” article elsewhere in our blog).
Renting somewhere non-furnished was never the plan, but as we'd lost the option on the place we really wanted (SO nice, and SO fully furnished) we had to pass to Plan B. We'd decided to take something that would work for us the day we were geographically re-united, so when we finally managed to find a place with enough bathrooms to service the comings and goings of a family of five, (the only non-negotiable point we all agreed upon) we jumped on it...even though it was COMPLETELY empty!
So, off I went shopping in the new car...(by the way, have you ever noticed that in Europe you drive right UP to the lights before stopping?...just a small point) and started sourcing...stuff.
Now remembering that I'd just emptied one home, you can imagine that I was not really too energized by the though of re-stocking another one so soon. But being a logical, practical Northerner, I decided to keep it simple. Multifunctional furniture that could be moved, (re-moved) and swapped around easily was top of my list, but I had to find it first.
I visited The Brick, Leon's and similar North American “big box” stores. But coming from Danish contemporary design I had trouble visualizing this style in our new (smaller) home...so I finally found our furnishings between a mix of Montreal Downtown independent design stores and good old Ikea!
Building it...well they do say that you can't have the best of all worlds. Ikea is great when you're shopping on a budget, but it still needs built before you can use it. And strangely enough this episode led us to our 2nd encounter with the inside of a Canadian hospital. (Ok, so I missed telling you about the first encounter...I managed to trap our oldest sons hand in my new cars electric window). Anyway(s...the added “s” is VERY Canadian) let's move on...
One of our other sons was holding a particularly wayward bed frame at the right height for me to screw the bolt into place when all of sudden his back gave way!
Which just goes to prove that it IS worth paying the extra to get your Ikea purchases built by a pro, no matter how tight the budget...and that holidays are better spent playing outdoors...than helping Mum build furniture!
Anyway(s) all's well that ends well, and after a second “quick” (8 hour) hospital visit, he was back on his feet with no lasting effects.
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