A little more “ours”

The big day started at Jack Johnston’s (not to be confused with Jack Johnson: the surfer/ singer songwriter who, by the way, we hope to invite to our wedding along with Mr Paul Simon!). We rented a van from Johnston’s garage and had a detailed plan drawn up for the day. I was pleased to see that this garage was seriously certified. The owner’s name seemed to be differently spelled on every certificate but they were all neatly framed and hung for all to see and admire. As the day wore on we noticed certificates all over the place. This is a country where it helps to be certified.

The (certified) local shipping agent in Toronto gave us two copies of a form and a map which showed us how to get to the next stop. In return we had to give him a check. Why exactly did we pay him? As far as I could tell this man had never seen our shipment and apart from moving some papers from his in- to his outbox, I don’t think he had very much to do with it at all! But never mind. We were grateful for his directions as we found ourselves driving around looking for Customs. The offices seemed to be located on the airport runway. Are you sure we’re allowed to be driving here?!

At customs we were assisted by a man with lots of labels on his dark blue uniform. We both went looking for his name tag but only found a number: 271993. He was calm, collected, and was sure to inform us of all the latest developments as he was processing our papers. There were questions, prepared and unprepared answers, suspense and relief. He found our story convincing, stamped stamps in the designated areas on the necessary forms and eventually we left the building as proud owners of the form we needed. Do you think it’s possible to send flowers to a number? By this time our tummies were grumbling but we felt the need to press onwards. Here’s some water and a granola bar… persevere! It was a lot like a treasure hunt really.

From customs to warehouse was another 20min drive, a wrong door, a short wait. Ah, the chests: one big one, two small ones and a number of boxes. We were reunited again!

Our adventure continued as we drove across the province to pick up a table and chairs, inherited from Stephe’s grandpa. We passed through beautiful, wintery countryside and explored a wide range of radio stations. Carrying everything up the stairs and fitting it all into the apartment was the last major challenge of the day. How blessed we are with all these things! How nice it is to be “mixing belongings”.

And so everyday becomes a little less “yours and mine” and a little more “ours”.

brr

Someone has just headed off on a 45min bike ride, someone else is happy to stay within the walls of our warm home for now... brr.
A serious form of winter seems to have arrived in Ontario. It scares Pleuntje a little now again ('when do numb, cold toes turn into frostbitten or frostnipped?') but the cold brings with it many beautiful sights. Frozen rain on trees in the sunlight makes it look like they're wearing diamonds! Walking on the snowy frozen golfcourse brought an entirely new experience with it... Creaking and crunching I wasn't sure what I was walking on. Snow? Ice? Is this ground beneath my feet?
Stay warm, stay well.

A+

Beste Vrienden,
De cijfer voor mijn Nederlands les is A+!!!
Dank u wel Pien.
Ik wil meer Nederlands leren.
Stephen

Copyshop country

We’re thinking about the invitation. We’ve spent an evening on the design bringing our ideas together and the topic of conversation whilst washing the dishes this morning was what the text is going to be. We started looking through fonts but we have such a huge collection that we didn’t get much further than the “f”…. A luxury problem! Finding a suitable printer, the lowest price and the friendliest copyshop gives Pleuntje something more to do, people to call and places to go whilst exploring the Hamilton surroundings.

Copyshop country is a scene she loves and of course it turns out that the one that the guy at the art shop advised us to check out turns out to be owned by the guy who is living under the same roof as the daughter of the son of the sister of Pleuntje’s grandmother who she met up with last week and who turns out to be working right round the corner here in Dundas. It sure is a small world!

This invitation “project” is also an ideal opportunity to become acquainted with inches and North American paper formats, something she was dreading but it can no longer be avoided and thankfully the software can do a lot of the metric – imperial translation. One thing I would like to say to everybody on the otherside of the Atlantic: if you’re taking A4s for granted… Don’t! I think 21cm x 29,7cm will forever make more sense than 8,5”x11”. Everything’s in dollars and cents too and what on earth is a dime?!

The bilingual-ness is also a bit of a challenge. Come up with a beautiful sentence in one language… the chances are minimal that when translated it’s going to sound as poetic.
De twee-taligheid is ook een aardige uitdaging. Bedenk je in de ene taal een prachtige zin… dan is de kans toch heel klein dat het wanneer het vertaald wordt even poetisch klinkt. How does that sound? Hoe klinkt dat? The whole project will probably be quite a Dutch lesson for Stephe. Especially seeing as the designing software being used is a Dutch version! So don’t be surprised when his Dutch conversations are interspersed with words like invoegen, bewerken, & dupliceren. …?Inserting, editing, duplicating…

Alongside that Pleun has been conquering territory in the lanes of the (salt water) community swimming pool in Dundas, had the first local pint at the local pub and had 2 Canadians and a Scotsgirl teaching her “O, Canada”. The drummer at the jam session at the gallery yesterday loved her photo’s, and the Dutch artist and gallery owner was eager to offer her the opportunity to exhibit… Many, many exciting developments and we haven’t even started to tell you about the house hunt!

Until the next time.