So to counter the querulousness of yesterday's post, I'll identify some of the things about Ottawa that really impress me. First, there's all the green space. It struck me again this afternoon as I drove down Greenbank how much area is devoted to forest and farmland. I mean, I'm at Strandherd & Greenbank, and there's the Chapman Mills Marketplace (box stores beyond belief), and then a few minutes later I hit Greenbank & Fallowfield, and there's Ag Canada's Animal Research Centre off to the left and the glorious greenbelt stretching right up to West Hunt Club.
Public transit is also topnotch. A quick aside: one of the cleverest billboard ads I've ever seen encapsulated images of two red and white OC Transpo buses along with the caption "take two daily to relieve congestion." Portions of the main routes are designated transitways, meaning no traffic except buses, so that bus drivers can hurtle down them at 80 km/hr only to brake to a screeching halt. I remember my first few rides during morning rush hour, loving the unfamiliarity of the station names, testing them out on my tongue--but silently, in my head: Lincoln Fields, Carlingwood, Holland Cross, Westboro, Tunney's Pasture, Lebreton. The city had just established Fallowfield Station in Barrhaven shortly before we left in 2002. They've now extended the bike paths along Woodroffe, too. If I ever find my bike helmet--and I despair that I actually will, since the number of likely boxes in which I'll find it are slowly shrinking--I'd like to test the new trail.
Although I could go on, we're getting company tomorrow, and I have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do before they arrive, so I'll cut it short. A third thing I appreciate about Ottawa is its population's commitment to going green. Recycling is a big deal here. That trip of mine through the greenbelt today, for example, was to deliver some styrofoam sheeting to the UPS store for reuse as packing material. I'm trying to reform my (borderline) pack rat ways, but I don't like to throw things out if I know someone else can make use of them. Now if only I could find someone who might have use for a few non-blue box recyclables. Styrofoam trays or plastic strawberry cartons, anyone?
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The Art of Returning: Milk in Bags and More
So I've been a little preoccupied since my last post--you know, packing, resigning from my position, accompanying the cats on their flight out to their new home, training someone to take over at work, living in a nearly-empty apartment (the carpet cleaning guy asked me if we were minimalists), finally getting here myself a month later, unpacking, job-hunting, and of course, purchasing essential "new home" items such as curtains.
A number of people have asked how I feel about being back in Ottawa. In some respects, it's as though we never left; that is, James works with a group of the same people he worked with previously, we hang out with many of the same folks, we live in the same area as before. Mind you, the development we're in now was a great big empty field when we last lived here. We might be convinced that our four years back in Winnipeg might have been a dream, except that we have our diploma to show for it. (I say "our" because I'm taking partial credit for that degree.)
Admittedly, returning does have its challenges. For instance, one of my biggest pet peeves is that the only place I know of that sells milk in 4L jugs is the local Quickie-mart (the proper name of the chain is Quickie Convenience Stores, but we've always referred to it fondly as our very own Kwik-E-Mart). Now 2L cartons of milk abound in the neighborhood grocery stores--they currently cost $4.09 at Loeb!--but for greater quantities of milk, most stores sell milk in bags. I'm sorry, but this is the equivalent of an unpardonable sin in my estimation. I remember bags of milk growing up: there was a risk of cutting off the corner too small or too large--either one would incur the wrath of Mom--and the chances were great that somewhere in transit from the dairy to the store, the bag(s) had sprung a leak. I think Manitoba introduced cartons and jugs in the mid-1970s; do Ontarioans not realize that milk in bags signifies a serious regression, a devolution, in human development?! I actually felt betrayed when I found out that James had bought a milk pitcher and those detested bags during my absence; needless to say, I do the grocery shopping now...
At least this time I knew better what to expect from an interprovincial move. For example, I knew that one can't transfer Manitoba prescriptions to Ontario, although the inverse poses no problems. I also knew that Ottawans are acquainted with neither farmer sausage nor New Bothwell cheese; fortunately, my parents obligingly bring some of each with them when they visit. Oh, and strike Winnipeg rye bread off the list of foods you can find in Ottawa. Loeb has been known to pass off an inferior imitation labelled "Winnepeg rye bread" (note spelling), but heed my advice: buy the marble or the dark rye, steer clear of the other ryes (unless you can appreciate a chewy-cardboard texture). As for iced tea mix, I can find Nestea, Lipton, and just about every other generic (Equality, Our Compliments) brand here, but not Good Host; my solution was to lug two 2.35 kg containers with me in the move. Those should get me through this summer. By that time maybe someone else from out West will come for a visit and I can put in my order. (You've been forewarned!) To be perfectly fair, I did--once--find Good Host iced tea mix in Ottawa: it was in the summer of 2000, at the Lincoln Fields Wal-Mart. Yet never since then has my quest for it in the Nation's Capital met with success.
However, despite these (some would argue petty) challenges, there are many things to appreciate about my new-old home, not the least of which is that mosquitoes are virtually non-existent here, and the air is rife with the scent of pine trees and other greenspace growth. More on this another time, because it's getting late...
A number of people have asked how I feel about being back in Ottawa. In some respects, it's as though we never left; that is, James works with a group of the same people he worked with previously, we hang out with many of the same folks, we live in the same area as before. Mind you, the development we're in now was a great big empty field when we last lived here. We might be convinced that our four years back in Winnipeg might have been a dream, except that we have our diploma to show for it. (I say "our" because I'm taking partial credit for that degree.)
Admittedly, returning does have its challenges. For instance, one of my biggest pet peeves is that the only place I know of that sells milk in 4L jugs is the local Quickie-mart (the proper name of the chain is Quickie Convenience Stores, but we've always referred to it fondly as our very own Kwik-E-Mart). Now 2L cartons of milk abound in the neighborhood grocery stores--they currently cost $4.09 at Loeb!--but for greater quantities of milk, most stores sell milk in bags. I'm sorry, but this is the equivalent of an unpardonable sin in my estimation. I remember bags of milk growing up: there was a risk of cutting off the corner too small or too large--either one would incur the wrath of Mom--and the chances were great that somewhere in transit from the dairy to the store, the bag(s) had sprung a leak. I think Manitoba introduced cartons and jugs in the mid-1970s; do Ontarioans not realize that milk in bags signifies a serious regression, a devolution, in human development?! I actually felt betrayed when I found out that James had bought a milk pitcher and those detested bags during my absence; needless to say, I do the grocery shopping now...
At least this time I knew better what to expect from an interprovincial move. For example, I knew that one can't transfer Manitoba prescriptions to Ontario, although the inverse poses no problems. I also knew that Ottawans are acquainted with neither farmer sausage nor New Bothwell cheese; fortunately, my parents obligingly bring some of each with them when they visit. Oh, and strike Winnipeg rye bread off the list of foods you can find in Ottawa. Loeb has been known to pass off an inferior imitation labelled "Winnepeg rye bread" (note spelling), but heed my advice: buy the marble or the dark rye, steer clear of the other ryes (unless you can appreciate a chewy-cardboard texture). As for iced tea mix, I can find Nestea, Lipton, and just about every other generic (Equality, Our Compliments) brand here, but not Good Host; my solution was to lug two 2.35 kg containers with me in the move. Those should get me through this summer. By that time maybe someone else from out West will come for a visit and I can put in my order. (You've been forewarned!) To be perfectly fair, I did--once--find Good Host iced tea mix in Ottawa: it was in the summer of 2000, at the Lincoln Fields Wal-Mart. Yet never since then has my quest for it in the Nation's Capital met with success.
However, despite these (some would argue petty) challenges, there are many things to appreciate about my new-old home, not the least of which is that mosquitoes are virtually non-existent here, and the air is rife with the scent of pine trees and other greenspace growth. More on this another time, because it's getting late...
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