Sunday December 21, 2015 to Saturday December 26, 2015

After two years of being away at Christmas time and enjoying a very simple ‘holiday’ time while we were on the road, Ralf and I decided we would make it our new holiday tradition. No gift exchanges just the enjoyment of spending time with each other and having a good meal together.

However, because the condo was still in a mess I hadn’t decorated at all. I decided that I would move stuff into the spare room so that the living and dining area were tidy for Christmas.  (I closed the spare room door – couldn\’t see the mess).  I found my collection of Father Christmas’s and set the dining area. It looked very nice and festive for Christmas Day.

I had initially planned to cook Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve and relax on Christmas day, but we were out all day Christmas Eve day and had a meal of hors’douvres, salad and veges and dips.

Christmas Day Ralf’s father woke us up with a phone call of Christmas wishes. We called my family in England and we relaxed the rest of the day until I cooked dinner.  No brussel sprouts for dinner – they were all sold out in the three grocery stores we went to!  We had to make do with green beans, carrots and broccoli, and turkey of course.

Ralf prepared dessert – chocolate éclairs, ice-cream and baileys.

Ralf was working on Boxing Day and had to be at work at 7:00 a.m. I had noticed in the Boxing Day flyers that the Dyson vacuum cleaner we wanted was on sale ($150.00 off the mfr). I chose to get up with Ralf at the ungodly hour of 6:00 a.m. and go to the ‘door crasher’ sale. After dropping Ralf at work, I headed to the store. I could not believe how many people were in the store at 6:45 a.m.  There were hundreds of people most of them buying the big screen televisions.  I saw over a dozen people carry these monsters out of the store.  Not one of the T.V.s were under 50\”.   I fortunately did not see anyone in there pjs! all were dressed and some of the women had make-up on!

I managed to get the Dyson and headed home back to bed!

The Dyson is also a flighty red number and works very well, a tiny vacuum for a tiny condo.

To all our family, friends new and old we wish you all the very best for Christmas and hope the New Year brings you health, happiness and prosperity.

Sunday December 13, 2015 to Saturday December 20, 2015

Are we really only a week away from Christmas. OMG I think we will still be in chaos. Slow but sure we are getting organized.

I am really enjoying the kitchen and using my new stove. I might even venture into making some cookies or muffins this week-end. OMG I am becoming domesticated. One thing I did this week that I haven’t done in two years, is ironing. It was pure heaven for me, no more wrinkled clothes. Some of you may or may not know, but I enjoy ironing.

Along those same lines, here are a few other things I am enjoying now that we are no longer living in a tent:

• Butter on my toast, actually having toast
• Milk in my tea and coffee
• Salad dressing and even better a choice of salad dressings
• Sitting in front of my dining room window having a leisurely breakfast with a nice cup of tea made in a teapot.
• Having a stove with more than one burner
• Having an oven
• Sleeping in my own bed with a big feather pillow – Life is Good.

Of course I cannot forget about the things I complained about on the road – I now have a big fluffy towel every day and a hot shower that pours water over you, no buttons to press to keep the water flowing.

I enjoyed working for Chris, it was nice to get my brain working again. I have decided to create my own business – Quality Administrative Services. Supporting small businesses in Barrie that may need assistance with secretarial, administrative work occasionally or on a regular weekly basis. The official launch will be on January 2, 2016.

Sunday December 6, 2015 to Saturday December 12, 2015

Are we any further with the unpacking? I think so, although it seems as if I unpack and get one area organized, only to have to move stuff into that area to unpack more stuff.

Just to add to the chaos, we have decided to renovate the kitchen. We have unpacked our kitchen stuff (temporarily), as we know the renovation will not be happening until the New Year. One area of the tiny condo is organized. The adjacent dining area is not, we can get to the table and have our meals at the table.

The bathroom is the only area which I can say is unpacked and nothing else has to go in that room.

The living room is semi-organized, we can get to the sofa and watch TV. Ralf had wanted me to get rid of my little school desk as he thought there would be no room to put it. I love my little school desk, so I cleared an area in the living room and now I have an office! Temporary, but an office!

Amidst all the chaos, I have been working for Chris, I usually get the work done in the morning and then unpack more stuff in the afternoon. When Ralf gets up, he then goes to Sally Ann or Habitat for Humanity with stuff – team work.

We bought a car! On Saturday, after checking out the Nissan, we visited a few other car dealerships. They are all in the same area in Barrie. We have to buy a manual transmission car (I have never driven an automatic). Unfortunately, they are few and far between. However, Mazda had a few on the lot and arranged for us to test drive them on Monday. We met Steve, a really nice car sales man, honestly he was really nice.

Steve showed us a couple of cars, a Toyota that had big miles, but only a couple of years old and then a Mazda 2, low miles and 4 years old. We took the Mazda for a test drive and decided it was perfect for us.

Then we had to arrange insurance and pick-up dates. On Wednesday we became the proud owners of Maisie Mazda, a flighty little red number and a joy to drive.  We were going to call her Millie, but wasn\’t sure if my niece would object.

On Saturday we were able to organize the spare room a little!! We now have the things that should get stored in the spare room in the spare room and other boxes moved to their new homes.

Surprisingly we need to buy some furniture to be able to organize the stuff that we are keeping. Organizers for the walk-in closet and a buffet for the dining room. We realize that even with the renovated kitchen we will need to store some of our kitchen things in the dining area – glasses etc and items that are not used that often but we still want to keep.

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sunday November 29, 2015 to Saturday December 5, 2015

Sunday, November 29, 2015

How did we get to have so much stuff at Melinda’s? We were only there for two months and instead of just leaving with our bikes and panniers, we had four suitcases, a briefcase, a box of mail, two bikes, four panniers, and a box-full of groceries. We packed our stuff ready for our move to the tiny condo. We have rented a van for the week. This will enable us to take some of our unwanted stuff straight to Sally Ann, Habitat for Humanity and/or the dump.

Melinda has been really good, but I know she is glad to see the back of us. It is always nice to have your own space.

Monday November 30, 2015

Today we waited for the key and waited and waited. We were hoping to get the key early afternoon, but we didn’t get it until 4:30! I thought we were going to have to sleep in the van.

We arrived at the condo at 5:00 p.m. and waited for our new bed. Our own bed to sleep in for the first time in 22 months, bliss.

Welcome to our tiny condo.

Of course there is also a ‘fly’ in the ointment. Chris (who I used to work with) had asked a couple of weeks ago, if I was available to do some work for him. I had said yes, not thinking it would be the week we would be moving into the new condo. Well, wouldn’t you know it Chris gets in touch today and asks me to do some research for him. It is interesting stuff, but we don’t have internet until Friday. No problem, deadline is two weeks on Friday. Plenty of time to get the work done next week.

That also gives me time to unpack and settle into the condo.

Tuesday – December 1, 2015

Today we have the movers delivering our stuff from the storage unit. OMG we have boxes everywhere. The spare room is full to the rafters, we have boxes next to the kitchen, we have boxes in the bedroom, in the bathroom and outside and two road bikes in the dining room! What on earth did we put in storage?

Some of the stuff – gardening related has already gone to Sally Ann, off the moving truck, straight in the rental van and gone.

As the movers delivered my wonderful chair and a half, we realized it was too big and a mouse had been at one of the corners. One of the movers commented that he liked it – gone its yours! He was very happy as he is moving into a new apartment today.

Ralf had to remove one set of kitchen cabinets to allow room for the fridge which is being delivered tomorrow.

I managed to get some of the kitchen unpacked. Discovered a problem. Anything that said basement or office on the box went straight into the spare room. Unfortunately, I had been using boxes from where I used to work, and a lot of them had labels that said basement on them. I had written on the top of the boxes where they were supposed to go. The movers were looking at the printed label until I realized what was happening. Ah well, we will find stuff as we start to unpack the spare room.

Wednesday – December 2, 2015

My birthday. We went out for a nice breakfast at Herb and Sage, it was lovely.  Then back to the chaos of the condo.

Today we had to clear a space so that the appliances could be delivered. They look really nice, although I am a little scared of the stove – it has an induction top, and I have never used one before. The movers are not allowed to stack the washer and dryer. Ralf had time to prepare the stacking kit to put the dryer on top. Then we had a problem, there is limited amount of space in the utility room. We couldn’t get the dryer on top of the washing machine.

Fortunately, when the new sofa arrived, I asked the delivery men if they could help us out. I explained that I didn’t have the strength to lift the dryer onto the washer. No problem two nice delivery men picked it up and popped it on the washer – perfect.

First trip to Sally Ann, thank goodness for the van.

Thursday – December 3, 2015

We have everything in the kitchen in place, not connected, but in place! Although I am missing some stuff, maybe it is in the spare room.

The living room is organized – for now – more stuff to Sally Ann.

We bought a TV, so that we can get it hooked up at the same time as the cable/internet guy comes tomorrow.

Friday – December 4, 2015

The electrician came today to move the dryer plug, nice guy. We asked him about adding other ceiling lights, but he is not sure which way the beams go.  As we don’t have access to the ceiling, it could be a problem.

The internet and cable are connected. I will be able to start the work Chris has asked me to do, in between unpacking boxes, going shopping and trying not to go insane with all the mess.

Sally Ann not accepting any more stuff today – Goodwill is !

Saturday –December 5, 2015

The van goes back today and we realized that we do need a car. Although in the past I had gone without a car, and I didn’t think we would need one.  However, we always had one car that I also drove, when Ralf was home. Also Ralf has to leave almost 45 minutes before his shift starts to get to work that is only 5 kms away. Not that the bus takes that long to get there, it is just the schedule.

We looked at a used Nissan and choose not to buy it. The vehicle was too old, noisy engine and the paintwork had been keyed with the word f#&k. The dealership said they may be able to buff it out, but would not move on the price.

Ralf had to work OT today from – 4:30 pm to 12:30pm. What an exhausting week for both of us. But we have this wonderful comfy bed which takes away all the aches and pains of the day.

I am not sure when we will actually have everything unpacked and the place in any sort of order, a little bit at a time.

Sunday November 22, 2015 to Saturday November 28, 2015

Sunday

We woke up to snow today. The forecast was for 12 to 20 cms, fortunately we only got a fraction of that.

The snow looked very pretty on the trees. One of the things I enjoy about winters in Canada, yes I do enjoy winters in Canada, are the blue skies. It snows, but then the sky is blue and the sun is out, it makes every thing look so pretty.

We thought a disaster had struck today with the photo library. It kept crashing every time we tried to open it – 30,000 photos of the Grand Adventure gone. Fortunately I was able to buy a back-up drive from Best Buy, back up the library and then rebuild the data base of photos and it worked. We didn’t lose any photos and we can access them again and we have a secondary back-up. All the photos are still on their original SD camera cards, but it would have been a real pain to reload them all and put them in albums again.

Ralf left for work at 6:45 and I will be sleeping on my own for the first time in years. The last two years we have been together 24/7, I am really going to miss having him next to me tonight and for the next six weeks. When he was driving, I would often go to bed before he came home and I never really slept well until I heard the garage door open and knew he was home safe. I know he isn’t driving and I know where he is, I hope I can sleep. More to the point I hope Ralf can adjust his sleep pattern so that he can sleep when he gets home.

I hope he enjoys the job he is doing.

Monday

Ralf arrived home safe and sound and enjoyed the job. He said they are a nice bunch of people he is working with. He got a lift to Park Place where he can get the bus home in the morning.

I met my friend Shelley, we had a lovely time wandering around Bradford Greenhouses which is all decked out with decorated Christmas trees and ornaments galore. When we move I might buy a planter, see if I can keep it alive. Shelley is really artistic and enjoys working with all different mediums. She showed me some of the work she has been doing, I wished I had half her talent. She is really good at painting glass-ware and in the past has given me some of her glasses for my birthday presents. This time she came with a lovely red wine glass painted with English roses and lavender, it is really nice. It’s a keeper.

When I was talking to her she told me to write a book on our travels. Shelley said I was a really good writer, and the photos Ralf took were awesome. She said she felt as if she was on the back of the bike with me coming along for the ride. Lots of people have told me to do the same. Especially people we met on the road who wanted to know how we planned the trip and the logistics behind a trip like we have done. I have started writing the book, I have the time and I am going to try and write a little bit every day. I may just Epublish it and we will see if people are interested enough to buy the Grand Adventure.

Tuesday to Thursday

Ralf is sleeping during the day. I am writing a few chapters of the book every day and researching Part Two of the Grand Adventure.

• Amsterdam to Wesel and Volklingen (visit Ralf’s family), down the Rhine to Freiburg. Visit some of our old stomping grounds in and around Lahr, where we used to live. Try to ride our bikes again after eating at all the places we loved to eat at in and around Lahr – Schutterzel Muhl – pfan kuchen, Florellen Farm – Trout, Riminihof – Venison, and of course all the great Imbiss – fast food trucks.

• Freiburg to Vienna and then a train to Prague.

• Prague to Patras Greece via Slovenia, Croatia, Albania and Greece. Take a ferry to Italy.

• Italy visiting Pompeii, Rome, Pisa and Florence.

• Cycle as far north as we can get before we need to get on a train to get back to Amsterdam.

I would like to be in Holland for the Tulip Parade at the end of April. That might be a bit early for warm weather, but the weather changes so much we might have a beautiful spring and great summer. If we go through Slovenia etc we will be able to extend our time in Europe Schengen until the end of August.

Sounds like a great plan to me, now I have to run it by Ralf.

Friday Met with the lawyer to go over the paperwork and pay for the condo. Alexa Wilson is really nice. We went through all the paperwork, signed everything and paid the money. We will get the key on Monday. Finally, we can move into our tiny condo.

Saturday We had a final walk-through of the condo. This final review is to make sure the current owners haven’t taken anything that they shouldn’t have and that the condo looks as it did when we put in the offer. It did, although it is full of boxes, ready for their move.

It is a tiny condo. OMG where is all our stuff going to go! We have rented a van for the week. It will be put to good use, taking our “to be donated stuff” to Salvation Army and Goodwill. Ralf is working Sunday and Monday nights, he will take Tuesday off and work Wednesday and Thursday nights. He will be off Friday and Saturday, then back to work on Sunday night.  It is going to be a tough week for him.

Sunday November 15, 2015 to Saturday November 21, 2015

Ralf’s interview went well, he had an orientation to attend on Friday. The orientation was all day Friday and he starts his new job as material handler on Sunday. It is only a temporary job (six weeks) but it will keep him out of trouble. We were only supposed to be looking for part-time work. Ralf will be working 40 hours a week plus some overtime. As Ralf says “this is part-time considering I used to work 60 hours a week at Gibsons”. The pay is good, he will be working from Sunday to Thursday. The only disadvantage is that it is the night shift – 8:30 p.m. until 5 a.m. At least we will be able to have dinner together before he leaves. He has already told them he will need a day off to move. Ralf doesn’t work the day we meet with the lawyer and the bank to transfer funds for the house which is good.

Of course that will leave me to do the bulk of the unpacking and sorting stuff! Not that I am not used to doing that. I have often had to do the majority of the unpacking when we move because of Ralf’s work.  This time, because there is so much we will need to get rid of, I will have four sorting areas – Keep, Sell, Donate, Trash, the keep will be unpacked and put away. The other stuff we will have to decide which pile it goes in and then deal with it a little bit at a time.

Ralf also found out how to get his DZ on his license. All he has to do is take a written test and have a medical. This means he can drive everything except tractor-trailers (air-brake vehicles), which he doesn’t want to do anyway.

I have taken up walking everywhere and then catching the bus back. On Sunday I walked 4.25 kms to the liquor store, then I had to walk back because I forgot to check on the bus timetable (8.5 ks just for a bottle of wine). Tuesday I walked 5 k walk to the grocery store for mushrooms – Ralf is making wild mushroom risotto, he is wonderful, he knows it is one of my favorites. Everything is a little closer from the condo.

Our friend (Melinda) who we are staying with was away in Bermuda from Tuesday to Sunday. We got a taste of being on our own, it will be so nice to be in our own place – only one week to go. Melinda has been awesome allowing us to stay two months with her, but I know she will be glad when she has all of her own space back. Thanks Melinda.

Sunday November 8, 2015 to Saturday November 14, 2015

Another busy week planning and organizing the move into our tiny condo. The lawyer contacted us, and we signed the paperwork to finalize the sale of the condo. Now we have to arrange to move our stuff out of the storage unit and all the other fun stuff that goes with moving.

We have a new sofa, new bed and new appliances, all arriving on my birthday (December 2, 2015) – I have informed Ralf that these are not my birthday presents. We have arranged for a plumber and a mover (December 1, 2015). All the utility companies have been contacted. I think we are ready to move in – two more weeks and we will be in our tiny condo. It is going to be a really chaotic week and probably the whole month of December trying to decide what to keep, what to donate and what to sell.

New Business

I went to a seminar on Monday morning on how to start your own business and found it really interesting. I think I am going to start my new business in the new year. I will spend the month of December creating a Business Plan and setting up advertising, networking etc and will launch it in January – New Year, New Company.

I am still thinking of a good name for the company. I will be providing secretarial, administrative support to companies in Barrie that may need assistance for one day a week or for special projects. I thought about Administrative Support Services, but the acronym would be ASS, maybe Barrie Office Support Services (BOSS), yeah that’s sounds better. The person who led the seminar suggested accounting companies to be added to my list of possible businesses to contact. They are usually really busy January to April and might need help keeping up with the demand.

New Job

Ralf has been busy sending out resumes and attending courses. While we were in Ikea on Thursday (shopping for a new bed) one of the companies contacted him to attend an interview. Ralf has an interview on Monday morning.

Kindness of Strangers

We are still experiencing the kindness of strangers even though we are not on our bikes. On Thursday we were waiting for the bus in the cold and rain, we were actually taking shelter in the small strip mall. An older gentleman arrived in his car and went into the pub to take something out of it. Ralf helped him and we got chatting. His daughter owned one of the businesses in the area. He asked where we were going and we told him to pick up the rental car. He offered to take us and proceeded to drive us to the car rental place.  What a nice man, thank-you John.

Texting on a virgin

On Saturday we went to Georgian Mall to check out cell phones and plans. Ralf needs a bigger phone and I will take his little Samsung that we bought in Australia. We were discussing our needs with a very nice shop associate and Ralf was asking whether his old phone (Motorola) would be compatible for talk and text. I said that my Dad could text on the phone he used when he was last over from England. Ralf’s comment “If my father-in-law could text on the little virgin I should be able to on the motorola”. We all started to laugh with visions of my old Dad texting on a virgin.

We had a good productive week.

November 1 to November 7, 2015

Sunday, I hate time-change week-ends, it will take me a week to get my body back into sync. Even though we could have had an extra hour in bed I was wide awake early. We spent the day shopping for appliances. The new condo doesn’t come with appliances other than a dishwasher. I think this is the first house that we have bought where we buy all new appliances to suit what we want. A fridge with water/ice dispenser, a new oven and front-loading washing machine and dryer, it will be nice to have all new appliances that match.

I was ready for bed at 9:00 pm, stupid time-change!

Monday, a relaxing day today, I finally posted Thoughts on Canada and looked back over our ride, we had a really good time and I miss riding every day.

We went back into the condo to do some measurements for the appliances. I think we can get some nice appliances that will fit. Although we cannot get a gas stove, because of where the gas pipeline is located. That’s o.k. I have got used to working with an electric stove over the past month and a half at Melinda’s and we can get a nice modern range.

Tuesday, what a wonderful day. Ralf was taking another course and I had some running around to do today – library, bank etc and I did it all on my bike, the weather was great. I thought I had a follow-up meeting at the employment office but that isn’t until tomorrow.

As I was about to leave on my bicycle the little girl across the street asked me where I was going. I told her I was going to the library. “Why are you riding your bicycle?”, “Because I don’t have a car”. “We have a car, we don’t ride our bicycle to the library”. Five years old and already pre-programmed to drive everywhere.

It was a great ride, the sun was out, the wind was in my face (at my back on the way home) and I loved being out on my bike on November 3, 2015. Long may it last.

I popped into the BikeZone and had a sort of interview with Ben (Aynsley’s friend). He is going to talk to the owner and see if there is a position for me. Yeah I might be able to work in a bike shop.

Wednesday, another lovely day for riding a bike. I cycled to the employment office and had an interesting chat with the “counseller”. While we were on the road I had an idea for starting my own company. I figured that there maybe companies who might need secretarial help for only one day a week, but really do not want the expense of hiring a person for one day a week. That is where I would come in, I would work at 3 or 4 different companies for one day a week and invoice them as a “consultant”. I would enjoy the variety of work and working for different companies. The counselor thought it was a great idea and told me about the City of Barrie offering seminars on how to start your own business. I have signed up for the first seminar on Monday morning.

Ralf went for a long bike ride on his own. He came back and was complaining about almost bonking. Did he have electrolytes – no, did he take granola bars – no, did he take trail mix – yes, did he cycle 100 kms without electrolytes or granola bars or stop for something to eat anywhere – yes! I tell you it is a good job I was with him on this world trip – I did look after him.

Thursday, Researching appliances is a real pain in the @r$3. I have checked Consumer Reports, website reviews and chatted to sales associates. We still don’t know what to buy!

Friday, we decided not to buy a sofa bed, they are generally much firmer than regular sofas and not as comfortable as other sofas. We can set up the spare room in the spring, once we have got rid of some more “stuff”.

We discussed what we would like in the living room and more to the point what room we have available. We went back to the furniture stores with measurements and a room plan. After we purchased a very nice loveseat recliner I asked Ralf if we had sold our black leather recliner that we had in the old house. He couldn’t remember and neither could I, maybe we will have two leather recliners in our new condo! Fortunately, I still have the file that the moving company sent us with what was going into storage – no leather recliner, just my favorite chair and a half, which should fit in the living room with the new recliner.

Saturday, more comparison shopping for appliances. We have finally decided on the appliances and the store where we are going to buy them. We have to wait for the confirmation from the lawyer that the condo is ours then we can place the order for new appliances. We also decided that we would redo the kitchen sooner rather than later. We saw some great ideas for kitchens and additional storage ideas, which will optimize the space of the small kitchen and the tiny condo.

I am getting really excited about moving into our tiny condo, although we are both still a little concerned about how much “stuff” we have to get rid of to really make our tiny condo comfortable.

Sunday October 25, 2015

Sunday, We spent the morning house hunting. This is not a good time to buy. Barrie’s house prices have gone up and the mortgage rates are at an all time low. It appears to be a sellers market.

There was one house that was a possibility. The house is a two-bedroom house with a finished basement, but when I think of the amount of stuff we have I am not sure where it will all fit.

Of course, we really need to downsize and get rid of a lot of the stuff. I had thought we had done that before we left on the Grand Adventure, but apparently didn’t get rid of enough stuff.

Monday, Today was job search day. I sent my resume to a couple of secretarial positions and also to MEC. MEC is where I really want to work. It is a retail position which I haven’t done in years, but it is an outdoor store with lots of neat stuff. I can sell bikes and clothes and camping stuff, I hope they give me an interview. There are some part-time casual positions available.

Ralf also applied for a back-stock room position at the same place, fingers crossed for both of us. Ralf has also applied for some additional training certificates. The government will pay for one-day training courses that cost less than $500.00. He is taking a Forklift Training course, Handling Gas and Propane, Health and Safety Course and a First Aid Course. That will give him the “little pieces of paper” that a lot of employers are asking for.

We met Bob and Gail for lunch. We stayed with them in Florida when we arrived in the US. They will be heading down to their winter home in Florida the middle of November.

Ralf and I also discussed the possibility of going to Thailand sooner rather than later.

Tuesday, More houses to look at and a serious chat about going to Thailand. If we don’t find a house by the middle of November, Thailand here we come. It will cost us the same amount of money going to Thailand as it will if we stay here for the winter and we will be cycling and it will be warmer.

Looked at the house that we saw on Sunday again. We have decided to put an offer in on this one. Time to downsize again and clear out stuff, do we really need dozens of beer glasses? It is not the perfect house, but it doesn’t need anything major doing to it and it will be a very nice house to rent out on short-term rentals. It is in a good location for the rental market, and in a nice location for when we want to settle down. It is close to stores, the library and not too far from the lake, I am still trying to convince myself that it is the right house for us.

Wednesday, a very cold, wet, windy day. A day to snuggle under a blanket and watch movies or read a book. I don’t have a book, my e.reader is in storage. Ralf is working on the computer. I will have to go to the library again and pick up a few books. I watched Still Alice, it was a great book and not a bad movie. I always find it difficult to watch a movie when I have read the book. Often you wonder if the movie maker actually read the book. In this instance, they did manage to follow the essence of the book.

An offer has been submitted on the house, and we are having it inspected by a home-inspector tomorrow, fingers-crossed there will be no surprises.

Thursday, Here we go again – a slight problem with the house. There is a tenant in the house who has not yet given his notice, we might not get the November closing we want or possibly a December closing! Maybe this is a sign. After more discussions about the pros and cons of this house and the fact that the owner did not want to negotiate at all we opted to take our offer of the table. I feel so relieved, I wasn’t sure this was the right place for us.

Ralf and I are both feeling really stressed about the whole house hunting/condo/rental situation. We are going to view one last condo and if this doesn’t work we will think about Thailand and/or renting for the winter, clear out what we don’t need and then search again in the spring.

Friday, What a difference a day makes!!

We have found a condo, put in an offer, it has been accepted and we will be moving into our “tiny” condo at the end of November. What an interesting week. Condo to house to condo. This condo is in the same block that we had previously put an offer on – the three bedroom condo that was over two storeys. After discussing the pros and cons of condo/house, we both realized that we didn’t want the house option. On the road we had been talking about down-sizing, not needing much, living small and simple. Within a week of coming back we were looking at three-bedroom townhouses with gardens to maintain, why?

The “tiny” condo  (722 sq ft), is two-bedroom, it is ground-floor which will be ideal for when we get older and cannot manage two flights of stairs! It has a lovely little patio area where we can sit outside in the summer and enough space that we can put a storage unit for two of the bikes, in the winter – the other two will be in the spare room which we will be using as our work-out room.

The amazing thing is that the front walk-way which has a little border garden has lavender already planted in it. Lavender is one of our favorite plants and to see it already flourishing in this little garden area told me this was the right place for us. I felt as if my Mum was looking down at me and saying this is what you need – small and simple with a little tiny garden that you can grow your herbs and tomato plants in the summer in planters. Thanks Mum for watching out for us.

The down-side of this is that we will not be able to do short-term rentals, but that is fine the condo was a lot less expensive than the houses and other condos we have viewed. We now have to clear out BIG time, it is liberating and I feel less stressed today than I have for a week or more.

We celebrated with a bottle of pretend champagne. Melinda said you have been really stressed not having a plan, not being able to get organized! Yep, although I had been living on a day to day basis on the road, I still had a plan. I knew where we were supposed to be in the next couple of days and how we needed to get there. Not having that structure in my life was driving me crazy.

Friday, Ralf went to take his Forklift Course. He knows how to drive a forklift, but everyone needs a certificate. The government paid for the course. Ralf went to catch the bus and half an hour later came flying back into the house – the bus didn’t show up. “Quick get my bike helmet, shoes etc” he shouts up the stairs and of he flew on his bike to where the course was being held.

I stayed at the house and did the washing, cleaning etc. a nice relaxing day for me.

Saturday, A relaxing start to the day and then off to do the shopping. Ralf wanted to buy a new granny cart and persuaded me to buy the Cadillac of granny carts! It has a capacity of 250 lbs, – 4 cases of beer and a small person!

I think it looks like a homeless persons cart, well if he doesn’t get a job at least he can go around the neighbourhood on recycle day and see what he can collect.

We watched the Rugby World Cup (Ralf had recorded it on PVR) – way to go All Blacks.

Sunday October 18, 2015

Sunday, it snowed last night and part of today!! What a shock to the system. We have not experienced snow since 2013, we are back in the snow belt and better get used to it. Most people are saying it will be a milder winter than the previous two winters – let’s hope so. The forecast for the week is cold – only one day to be over 10 degrees centigrade.

Sojourn our favorite outdoor store had their fall tent sale. This is not a sale for tents, but an end of season sale in a very large tent set up in the parking lot. We replaced our merino wool t.shirts – 50% off. We are already planning for the next trip.

Monday, we met our HVAC guy at the condo and he told us the air-conditioning unit was kaput. We sent the report to the current owner and asked for a further reduction on the price.

After checking out the condo again, we headed down to vote in the Federal Election. As we cycled across the country we were amazed at what people thought about the current prime minister, most of it was not positive. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of the election is tomorrow.

Tuesday, The current condo owner accepted our new offer, now we are waiting to see what our lawyer says about the Status Certificate. This tells us how well the property is managed as well as what we can and cannot do in the condo.

We met my old boss and friend (Bob Lehman) for lunch. He has retired and is looking really well. It was nice to catch up with him. He is very pleased about the new Liberal prime minister. Justin Trudeau is the new prime minister of Canada.

Wednesday, today we started our job search. Barrie has a couple of offices that assist people with their job searches. We have both updated our resumes, although I am not that interested in finding a job until after have we moved into our new home. However, we are supposed to be actively looking for work. I want to work in a bike shop! My friend Celeste has suggested we start the first Bike Courier business in Barrie. Fat tire Bike Courier, it might be too cold for us in the winter and of course, we will be away next summer.

Friday, we chatted to the lawyer about the Status Certificate for the condo. This is a report about the finances of the condominium corporation and the rules and regulations of the condo. Bad news, we cannot rent the condo for less than one year. We were hoping that we could rent it out while we were travelling next summer – about 5 months! We had already looked into using a rental management agency. Back to the drawing board. After chatting to the lawyer we have decided not to buy a condo, as the regulation of annual rental seems to be the rule for all condo corporations! A house or townhouse it is, we have some viewings set up for Sunday. If we do not find anything by the middle of November we will rent until the market picks up again in the spring.

I am ready to pack up my panniers and go somewhere warm, I am really missing cycling every day. I am getting really bored here, I know I should really get into looking for a job, next week.

We bought a granny cart today! A little cart that will transport our groceries from the store to home.  On the very first shopping trip it broke. Back it goes tomorrow.

Saturday, another dreary wet windy day in Barrie. We spent the morning cleaning the house, Melinda is away for the week-end. I spent some time checking the areas of the two houses we are viewing tomorrow. Google maps is amazing, also Barrie police has a crime map that you can check what incidents have happened in the area that you are looking to live. Pretty good resource for anyone wanting to move to Barrie and find out about crime stats.

I spent the afternoon reading blogs about cycling the Nullabor, cycling from Brisbane to Darwin and Darwin to Adelaide – apart from the Nullabor the other two blogs were from supported riders, a van taking their gear and most of the riders riding skinny tired bikes. We would do it self-supported with our wonderful touring bikes. Much harder to do, but what an experience.