A feature of being in the temperate zones is that you actually have changing seasons, as opposed to merely rainy and not-so-rainy in the tropical zones. With the arrival of spring came an event I have not observed in more than a decade and a half - the moving of the clocks forward for daylight saving time (DST).
I actually love DST, when I am somewhere it makes sense. I remember as a very young child when Jamaica still observed it, that I would be awoken at an unconscionably dark hour of morning, assured it was 6:00 a.m. and told I needed to get ready for school. Where the diurnal difference in sunrise and sunset varies only about 1.5 - 2 hours at most during the year, DST was doing no-one in Jamaica any favours. As it is, we did away with it sometime during my primary school years, and I was none the poorer for it.
Here in the northern climes, though, DST makes all the sense in the world. The diurnal difference in sunrise and sunset can get up to as much as 22 hours (in the extreme north, or Arctic regions), but here in northern ON it is about 5 hours (by my inexpert reckoning). And it is wonderful! I wake at 5:30 a.m. most days, and don't go to bed until say 11:00 p.m. usually, and here in Canada, that means it's only been dark for about an hour by the time I am crawling between the sheets.
Of course, all this daylight has caused a shift in my sleep rhythms. My mother has often referred to me as her "chicken" child, because with the coming of sunset I am ready to find a nest and roost. At this time of year, with sunset in Jamaica sometime around 7:00 p.m., I am yawning my head off by 8:00 p.m. and ready to settle in by 9:00 p.m. at the latest. It makes it hard to stay current with any TV programmes that come on at primetime, because by then I am falling asleep. If I force myself to stay awake, I usually crash by the end of the show and miss the best part, when all is revealed in the last ten minutes.
On the contrary, here in Canada I find myself staying up as late as midnight before I feel sufficiently sleepy enough to get into bed. This is brought on by the fact that the days seem to go by quickly, and it is still light out at "late" times of night, so much so that I feel little to no tiredness, and feel distinctly odd to think of going to bed before it is dark out.
This change in my sleep rhythms has me quite interested to see what it will be like in the wintertime. I recall that in NY I suffered perhaps a mild form of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and hated being indoors during the winter. This time around I am preparing myself to be more outgoing, to enjoy winter rather than endure it, to revel as much in the early sunsets as I do now in the late ones.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Let's talk about...the weather
No discussion about moving to Canada from Jamaica would be complete without questions on the weather. Of all the contrasts between the two countries, perhaps that would be the most immediate and uppermost in minds. I have been here just under a week now, so it's about time to have that discussion.
Officially, it is spring, and the northern hemisphere's summer starts in just 9 days. From Canadians, including G, I keep hearing how "hot" it is, and inwardly I smile. Yes, I suppose for people used to temperatures in the minus twenties (degrees Celsius), it may seem hot now, with the sun shining and the humidity hovering around 50%. For someone used to temperatures hovering near 34 degrees with 80% or more humidity, the weather now is simply pleasantly warm.
On my first day, it was windy and cool, say around 22 degrees, so I wore a long-sleeved workout top and yoga pants and was comfortable. I plan to acquire some more long-sleeved shirts, knit or jersey, as I was very happy to have that single shirt (the only long-sleeved shirt I own) on Thursday. Saturday morning was another morning to be happy for long-sleeved shirts, as it dawned cool, foggy and wet, and stayed that way until late afternoon. On Saturday, with my long-sleeved shirt in the wash, I had to resort to a hooded sweatshirt over my t-shirt to remain appropriately warm. Surprisingly enough, the temperature rose, the rain and fog cleared off and the evening was very fine.
People you meet in stores and on the street will comment on how "hot" it is, and try to forecast the summer's heat. Having experienced a northern summer before, I know something of what is to come, and I am interested to see if this time it is the same or worse. I cannot expect it to be better, although perhaps the fact that I am in the rural part of the province, as opposed to being in a city, as I was then, will make a difference. It remains to be seen.
Today it is windy, and somewhat cloudy, which over-shadows the warmth and heat that arose earlier in the day. It is cool, in the mid-twenties, low humidity, altogether an agreeable and tolerable temperate day. As time goes on, of course there will be more to say on the weather, but for now? It's quite nice.
Officially, it is spring, and the northern hemisphere's summer starts in just 9 days. From Canadians, including G, I keep hearing how "hot" it is, and inwardly I smile. Yes, I suppose for people used to temperatures in the minus twenties (degrees Celsius), it may seem hot now, with the sun shining and the humidity hovering around 50%. For someone used to temperatures hovering near 34 degrees with 80% or more humidity, the weather now is simply pleasantly warm.
On my first day, it was windy and cool, say around 22 degrees, so I wore a long-sleeved workout top and yoga pants and was comfortable. I plan to acquire some more long-sleeved shirts, knit or jersey, as I was very happy to have that single shirt (the only long-sleeved shirt I own) on Thursday. Saturday morning was another morning to be happy for long-sleeved shirts, as it dawned cool, foggy and wet, and stayed that way until late afternoon. On Saturday, with my long-sleeved shirt in the wash, I had to resort to a hooded sweatshirt over my t-shirt to remain appropriately warm. Surprisingly enough, the temperature rose, the rain and fog cleared off and the evening was very fine.
People you meet in stores and on the street will comment on how "hot" it is, and try to forecast the summer's heat. Having experienced a northern summer before, I know something of what is to come, and I am interested to see if this time it is the same or worse. I cannot expect it to be better, although perhaps the fact that I am in the rural part of the province, as opposed to being in a city, as I was then, will make a difference. It remains to be seen.
Today it is windy, and somewhat cloudy, which over-shadows the warmth and heat that arose earlier in the day. It is cool, in the mid-twenties, low humidity, altogether an agreeable and tolerable temperate day. As time goes on, of course there will be more to say on the weather, but for now? It's quite nice.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Landed!
I spent a very hectic week and a half in Westmoreland with my mother and was able to see my brothers and Grandmother as well. It was worth all the running about just to say I was there and able to see them.
Yesterday was the all-important day, the day I landed in Canada as a permanent resident. After a harrowing landing from what had started as a routine international flight, followed by an involuntary 2-hour confinement on the tarmac in the plane while the airport recovered from the thunderstorms that so terrified me during the landing, I was finally able to enter the airport and process through the various final steps to becoming a permanent resident (PR).
First, the Canadian Border Services Agency examined my declaration card that I was required to fill out on the flight, and directed me to Immigration. Immigration went as expected, and perhaps even more smoothly than it would normally, as I was already so familiar with the requirements of the Act that the officer was relieved of the need to make any explanations, needing only to certify my various documents and then send me on to the next stage.
Stage 3 was declaring my accompanying and to-follow goods and property, and again, preparation made that a smooth process. I had already prepared the necessary forms, so all the Customs officer needed to do was certify them after double-checking they were correctly and completely prepared.
Stage 4 was running to catch my next flight, which was delayed and delayed again until the two hours spent sitting on the tarmac were fully lost and never made up. I arrived in Sudbury at 2:30 a.m. when it should have been midnight, and we were home in Elliot Lake two hours later.
Today has been about settling into the house, getting used to the location of things and re-establishing routines we used to have, such as my doing the dishes after meals because G is the cook. The comfort of these routines will ease me into accepting my new surroundings, and I look forward to each as they come back to us.
Yesterday was the all-important day, the day I landed in Canada as a permanent resident. After a harrowing landing from what had started as a routine international flight, followed by an involuntary 2-hour confinement on the tarmac in the plane while the airport recovered from the thunderstorms that so terrified me during the landing, I was finally able to enter the airport and process through the various final steps to becoming a permanent resident (PR).
First, the Canadian Border Services Agency examined my declaration card that I was required to fill out on the flight, and directed me to Immigration. Immigration went as expected, and perhaps even more smoothly than it would normally, as I was already so familiar with the requirements of the Act that the officer was relieved of the need to make any explanations, needing only to certify my various documents and then send me on to the next stage.
Stage 3 was declaring my accompanying and to-follow goods and property, and again, preparation made that a smooth process. I had already prepared the necessary forms, so all the Customs officer needed to do was certify them after double-checking they were correctly and completely prepared.
Stage 4 was running to catch my next flight, which was delayed and delayed again until the two hours spent sitting on the tarmac were fully lost and never made up. I arrived in Sudbury at 2:30 a.m. when it should have been midnight, and we were home in Elliot Lake two hours later.
Today has been about settling into the house, getting used to the location of things and re-establishing routines we used to have, such as my doing the dishes after meals because G is the cook. The comfort of these routines will ease me into accepting my new surroundings, and I look forward to each as they come back to us.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
G minus 13
What a hectic few days this has been!
I expected packing up and closing off my private clients to be not quite as hectic as they turned out to be, and can only breathe a sigh of relief that the clients are over with except to be paid for my efforts, and the packing up is more or less completed for the major items.
To officially mark the end of my sojourn in Kingston, I went out to dinner with my closest female friends in Kingston. There are only two of them, as such it was a small but enjoyable dinner that was had. Of course, in keeping with the tradition G and I established, we went to have sushi, because that is what we do when he is leaving for Canada. Now that I am the one doing the leaving, my friends and I did the same.
Along with dinner, I left my friends with small tokens to keep as reminders of me. For one, a small book of practical advice for every woman; for the other, a book journal to record all the books she is reading, from one reader to another. I will be able to look back and say, how cool was it that we could do that? Very cool.
Tonight is my last night in this apartment, tomorrow night I fall asleep in my mother's house. I have lived here for 19 months, and of all the addresses I had in Kingston, it will remain my favourite. No, it wasn't the best apartment, but it certainly was the most conveniently located, and the one I felt safest going to and from. I had the least issues here, and really few things annoyed me, and now they are of no consequence. I am looking forward to my new address, but will remember this one fondly.
I am moving again. In the eighteen years since I became an adult (legally, anyhow), I have had twice as many addresses as I did in the previous eighteen years. I am obviously something of a rolling stone. I have always been willing to pull up stakes and move to the next place in the hope that I will find something better than obtained in the last place. In some cases, it was work, in other cases it was quality of life.
One more appointment and some bill paying tomorrow, then off to the West!
I expected packing up and closing off my private clients to be not quite as hectic as they turned out to be, and can only breathe a sigh of relief that the clients are over with except to be paid for my efforts, and the packing up is more or less completed for the major items.
To officially mark the end of my sojourn in Kingston, I went out to dinner with my closest female friends in Kingston. There are only two of them, as such it was a small but enjoyable dinner that was had. Of course, in keeping with the tradition G and I established, we went to have sushi, because that is what we do when he is leaving for Canada. Now that I am the one doing the leaving, my friends and I did the same.
Along with dinner, I left my friends with small tokens to keep as reminders of me. For one, a small book of practical advice for every woman; for the other, a book journal to record all the books she is reading, from one reader to another. I will be able to look back and say, how cool was it that we could do that? Very cool.
Tonight is my last night in this apartment, tomorrow night I fall asleep in my mother's house. I have lived here for 19 months, and of all the addresses I had in Kingston, it will remain my favourite. No, it wasn't the best apartment, but it certainly was the most conveniently located, and the one I felt safest going to and from. I had the least issues here, and really few things annoyed me, and now they are of no consequence. I am looking forward to my new address, but will remember this one fondly.
I am moving again. In the eighteen years since I became an adult (legally, anyhow), I have had twice as many addresses as I did in the previous eighteen years. I am obviously something of a rolling stone. I have always been willing to pull up stakes and move to the next place in the hope that I will find something better than obtained in the last place. In some cases, it was work, in other cases it was quality of life.
One more appointment and some bill paying tomorrow, then off to the West!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
G minus 17
My colleagues gave me a send-off party yesterday. It was so unexpected, it came as a complete surprise. By dint of some slick manoeuvres, they got me out of the office so they could get the decorations and cake into the meeting room, which is located directly behind my cubicle. I even walked past the team members who chose the card they all signed while they paid for it and was not one bit the wiser.
I was astonished, and honestly have never had a nicer send-off. Considering that I have worked with them for the shortest period I have ever been employed full-time, it speaks to the quality of the team spirit at this particular place that they felt it was necessary to do this for me. I was not the least bit reluctant to give the expected "speech" and spent it praising them individually and collectively for the welcome, the training, the encouragement and the camaraderie I was so fortunate to experience.
So, now we're at G minus 17, as a clever friend of ours described it, a description I was pleased to adopt. I am going fully into moving mode now. I hope to get a few boxes to start packing away my books, and I will pack away all the clothes I won't wear in the following week and those I don't plan to take with me. I need to have my spaces clear so I can begin cleaning them down. I intend for cleaning to be a multi-day project rather than a one or two day event, as I will be scattering some appointments through the various days.
One such appointment is to see a dermatologist. While I am fortunate enough to be married to a man who literally loves me "warts and all", I have long wrestled with self-consciousness over those on my face and neck and have decided to have them dealt with. I think it's appropriate that I start my new phase in life with a fresh look, and not carry some of the image issues I have had here with me. This treatment is unlikely to rid me of all of them, but at the least the most obvious ones will go. There are some that look like freckles, I find those unremarkable and do not care if they remain.
Another appointment is to see to my bank account, as I have some monthly commitments attached to it that I need to sign paperwork for it to cease. Not looking forward to that, getting service at my branch involves waiting for an hour to be seen for 10 minutes. I will be staying with the same bank in Canada, and plan to keep this account open to do any business necessary in Jamaica.
So, on with the show!
I was astonished, and honestly have never had a nicer send-off. Considering that I have worked with them for the shortest period I have ever been employed full-time, it speaks to the quality of the team spirit at this particular place that they felt it was necessary to do this for me. I was not the least bit reluctant to give the expected "speech" and spent it praising them individually and collectively for the welcome, the training, the encouragement and the camaraderie I was so fortunate to experience.
So, now we're at G minus 17, as a clever friend of ours described it, a description I was pleased to adopt. I am going fully into moving mode now. I hope to get a few boxes to start packing away my books, and I will pack away all the clothes I won't wear in the following week and those I don't plan to take with me. I need to have my spaces clear so I can begin cleaning them down. I intend for cleaning to be a multi-day project rather than a one or two day event, as I will be scattering some appointments through the various days.
One such appointment is to see a dermatologist. While I am fortunate enough to be married to a man who literally loves me "warts and all", I have long wrestled with self-consciousness over those on my face and neck and have decided to have them dealt with. I think it's appropriate that I start my new phase in life with a fresh look, and not carry some of the image issues I have had here with me. This treatment is unlikely to rid me of all of them, but at the least the most obvious ones will go. There are some that look like freckles, I find those unremarkable and do not care if they remain.
Another appointment is to see to my bank account, as I have some monthly commitments attached to it that I need to sign paperwork for it to cease. Not looking forward to that, getting service at my branch involves waiting for an hour to be seen for 10 minutes. I will be staying with the same bank in Canada, and plan to keep this account open to do any business necessary in Jamaica.
So, on with the show!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Immersion and Miss Marple
I have been on my "immersion" therapy for my transition to Canada for a couple of weeks now. I read the news every day on CBC's website, I also catch the odd article or editorial from other newspapers online when they catch my eye on the news stream on our website's Home page or Social Lounge page.
The sheer size of the country guarantees something is going on somewhere, so it's impossible to keep track of all that is happening. I find myself sticking with news from around Ontario, and trying to get a hang of the various levels of government and how they interact and function. I have a ways to go, getting to actually having the hang of that, I think.
One thing that is at least looking familiar, though. Some weeks ago my eye caught on an article reporting on meetings of the Public Accounts Committee. Since what I do now has direct relation to that, I read the article, and since then have become hooked on following this story. I have come to an inescapable conclusion now, since following these articles, that there is at least one thing I will have no trouble recognising: government operations!
Yup, doesn't matter where you are in the world, there is nothing like an Auditor General's report for embarrassing non-compliant government ministers and their ministries, and no excuses so lame as the ones propounded for these failures, and no employees so apologetic as the low-level staffers about to be thrown under the bus for carrying out the orders of higher-ups. I could have been reading a report from the PAC here in Jamaica, all I had to do was substitute names.
I read a lot of Dame Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries, and one of the constants of Miss Marple is her firm conviction that people are the same no matter where you are. She believed that experience in one place can hold you steady somewhere else, as long as you let yourself see the patterns in human behaviour. The names will change, but the actions and reactions are the same. I am seeing how right she is, and now I feel one step closer to confidence and a step further away from worry that I will not acquit myself well in EL. People really are the same, no matter where you meet them.
The sheer size of the country guarantees something is going on somewhere, so it's impossible to keep track of all that is happening. I find myself sticking with news from around Ontario, and trying to get a hang of the various levels of government and how they interact and function. I have a ways to go, getting to actually having the hang of that, I think.
One thing that is at least looking familiar, though. Some weeks ago my eye caught on an article reporting on meetings of the Public Accounts Committee. Since what I do now has direct relation to that, I read the article, and since then have become hooked on following this story. I have come to an inescapable conclusion now, since following these articles, that there is at least one thing I will have no trouble recognising: government operations!
Yup, doesn't matter where you are in the world, there is nothing like an Auditor General's report for embarrassing non-compliant government ministers and their ministries, and no excuses so lame as the ones propounded for these failures, and no employees so apologetic as the low-level staffers about to be thrown under the bus for carrying out the orders of higher-ups. I could have been reading a report from the PAC here in Jamaica, all I had to do was substitute names.
I read a lot of Dame Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries, and one of the constants of Miss Marple is her firm conviction that people are the same no matter where you are. She believed that experience in one place can hold you steady somewhere else, as long as you let yourself see the patterns in human behaviour. The names will change, but the actions and reactions are the same. I am seeing how right she is, and now I feel one step closer to confidence and a step further away from worry that I will not acquit myself well in EL. People really are the same, no matter where you meet them.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
I will be honest, it feels like time has got roller-skates on after crawling along for months! I have a long list of things to sort out to be ready to leave and at first it seemed like the time we allowed ourselves was more than enough. But since last week the days have been speeding along, and as I tick things off the list one by one, I feel the time looming ahead. Not looming in an ominous sense, but as if I should have allowed myself more and this is not enough and everything that needs to won't get done! Meh, I am sure it will be all done.
I am just feeling weird, I guess. I cancelled my utilities yesterday, and today I give my landlord notice. I feel like I am chopping loose all my "mooring lines", all the things that keep me anchored to my life as I know it, and that I will float far away to a place I don't know and a life I don't know and it's all very scary for someone who has tried to maintain a lot of control over her life.
I know I made these choices, but somehow that is not comforting all of my fear away. I am trying to take things one step at a time, so I don't feel like I am losing control, but it is harder than I thought not to be scared. I'm not afraid of what life will be like with G in Canada, I suspect it won't be all that different from what life is like with G in Jamaica, in terms of our routines and the things we do. While the general outline will be the same, all the details will be different, and that I suppose is what is causing my fears.
It won't be doing groceries at Michi's, or Brooklyn Supermarket..it will be groceries at...hmm, I don't know the name of the supermarket. I don't know the name of the pharmacy where I will get my supplies. I know our house, and where it is and what inside looks like, it's everything around it that I know very little about.
I have decided to start watching a lot of Canadian TV, because I do get some channels here. I need to immerse myself in Canadian things as much as I can, so I will be used to it already to some extent, so when I flip the TV on, the shows and the news anchors I see will not be utterly unfamiliar. I'm also getting in the frame of mind of living with my husband again, so it will be natural to have others in the house after almost a year of living alone again. I'm sure I'll think of more things I can do to mitigate these feelings as the day goes on.
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