"Doors Open" in Toronto

This weekend was the Annual "Doors Open" in Toronto - where 175 buildings that are not normally open to the public, open their doors for the general public to view. Some of the buildings open were; The National Ballet of Canada, Theaters, Churchs and Synagogues. So, off we went to Toronto to peek our noses in on some of these buildings. I love the Indian culture (although not crazy about the food) so one of the places I really wanted to vist was the Swaminarayan Mandir -(Hindu Temple) in North Toronto, built in 2007. It is the only one built in North America. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the Mandir, nor are short sleeves, clothing above the knees etc. The photographs do not do it justice - it is absolutely breathtaking! The inside of the Mandir is equally impressive - with opulent Hindu deities in royal attire inside their breathtaking thrones. The details etched into the pillars and walls are everywhere to be seen. As we walked up the ethereal marble staircases, we were greeted by a Swami with hands together and bowing to everyone that reached the top of the staircase. (The calming atmosphere reminded me of the Mormon Temple in Brampton I had visited years ago before it was consecrated.)The Mandir was built according to the principles of anciet Indian Shilpshastras; no structural steel was used in the construction. It was made with thousands of tonnes of hand carved marble, limestone and sandstone. The pictures above are of the Mandir and the one below is of the Haveli (meeting area)- which I believe is made of Teak - it is attached to the Shrine.

I was surprised to find this photo in our batch - Trinity took this of Avalon being naughty!

Douglas' Open House @ Salon

For all of Douglas' Canadian clients who phone me and ask me for updates on him (thanks for phoning!) - I thought I would post these recent snaps from the 14th of May (last Thursday). They had an "Open House Wine & Cheese" at the Salon in order to welcome and promote Douglas in Escalon. It went very well, with the photographer from the local paper "La Prensa" and some other magazine giving it coverage. He did "makeovers" on many women and they had a lot of traffic through the salon. It was a resounding success with many accolades!

So, if you are ever in the San Benito area of San Salvador - he is leasing space at "Jewels International Stylist" in Basilea.

One Month Ago Today...

Last pics taken of us with Daddy - oh the drama! Look how small my eyes are (from all the crying!)

I was just speaking with Douglas and reminded him that today was his One Month Anniversary of arriving in El Salvador. He had forgotton. I think he was a little surprised! Time flies so quickly in some instances. The loneliness he experiences has certainly been a challenge and he is so anxious for us to get down there and be together once more. A simple thing like going out for dinner with his family, or hitting the beach is what he craves right now. I almost feel guilty when I call him from the beach on the weekend to say the girls are having a fun time in the freezing cold lake!

The girls wore their Daddy's clothing for days on end when he first left - they still wear his jackets and shirts to bed. Even the shirts they were wearing at the beach are Daddys'. When I first told Douglas this in the early days apart, he would burst into tears. The girls would just laugh at me when I got off the phone with him and make fun of me crying! Rotten kids!

Mummy's Day

Well, my kidlets certainly had a (gastro) fantastic Mother's Day! They banished me to watching tv in my room early the night before so they could decorate the living/dining rooms with streamers, balloons and signs all over. In the morning, they ran ahead of me to be positioned downstairs so they could ambush me with "fireworks poppers" filled with confetti and streamers. The girls lavished me with "bling" of the fashion jewellery kind. It was a fun day with a party later on in the evening at my Mum and Dad's house.

You will pick up the confetti and streamers, right Avalon?

We drove to Niagara Falls for the day and had to be rolled home afterwards. You will see what I mean when you see the gluttony that ensued. I have never seen strawberries this size in the grocery stores - I wonder what they are injected with? - they are the size of the palm of your hand.

Avalon had a difficult time choosing.

She eventually decided on a candy apple and a chocolate covered strawberry.

Trinity doesn't really like chocolate - so she donated the chocolate bits to me!

This chocolate bar could feed a village!

Have to get a pic taken with the Mountie!

"Old School" Haunted houses and Amusement rides on Clifton Hill.

The expanse of whiteness in the distance is the mist from "The Falls".

In Honour of Spring...

We have finally shed our winter coats, stored the winter boots and, since the last drizzle of snow was in April, at last have stored the snow shovels.
Art crawls and gallery openings are in full swing. We are fortunate that we live in a city that has a vibrant arts community. The girls and I attended an Art opening today in our neighbourhood.
In honour of welcoming the month of May, some pics of Fleurs that grace us with their presence for such a short time. The beautiful white tree in my backyard will soon turn to a dull green!

Cautiously Optimistic

Yes, I am cautiously optimistic...Shortly after Douglas' arrival to El Salvador, I had received "out of the blue" an email from the owner of an "Exclusive High End Salon" in the San Benito area who wanted to connect with Douglas regarding the prospect of him leasing space at the salon. This email came about through my networking relationships developed with the friendly women of Escalon/San Benito for the past nine months. How did we ever live without the Internet? When my parents first immigrated to Canada from England, they did so essentially blind with dreams of seeing Niagara Falls from photos they had seen in books. (Now they see "The Falls" every week when crossing the border into the U.S. - I don't think they even look at them anymore!) I digress...

He was to start this Thursday, but ended up starting today! He had been to a photo shoot last week for the advertisement spot promoting his skills and clients were lined up for him today. He had a great first day! I knew he would. Douglas is not very handy at car mechanics or home repair, but one thing he is absolutely awesome with is Hair Artistry. One of the clients (a millionare) that he transformed, usually went to New York City to get her hair done. After her transformation, she said that Douglas "would be her New York City". She was ecstatic with the results! Good start I would say!

This evening I received a bulk email from the Ex-Pat mailing list that I receive every week - it was a very enthusiastic praising reference of my husband's skills and his "infectious laugh" as she had just got her hair done by him! I was ecstatic! Doesn't take much to get me happy!

In terms of the differences between Canadian and El Salvadoran salons - it seems the product range is a bit limited in El Salvador, (perhaps due to Import taxes?), so I am sending packages down to him of products from here. I would think the clients would have an interest in foreign products - I know I do! The price of services in his new salon are pretty comparable to the Canadian prices we charged, as he is in a high end salon.

For now, I am counting our blessings and angels around us.

"Crinolines" Photoshoot

It has been two weeks now since Douglas landed in El Salvador. He is quite settled now; with a nice house, car and starts leasing space in an exclusive salon in Escalon this week. Things are coming together quite nicely for him - now he just needs to network and establish his clientele again.

One thing with being apart from Douglas: I miss (or maybe not) him calling to me in the evening from the living room "Jane, come here, you have to see this". No, not that (get your heads out of the gutter! Well okay, maybe sometimes.) It's usually some gruesome TV program like "1000 Ways to Die". Now I have uninterrupted photo time on the computer.

I had a beautiful day outside for the latest photoshoot. Trinity and Avalon were my beautiful models for the day!

Adios Canada! Hola El Salvador!

Douglas left on April 13th - Easter Monday. On the Saturday before Douglas was "removed" from Canada, we ran from Mall to Mall from morning 'til night to acquire all the things needed for the move.

The kids and I dropped him off at the airport in Toronto on Monday morning. We arrived there bright and early (6:15am) for the flight. Douglas and I were a mess in the car - it was filled with sobs, the girls were pretty strong.

We arrived at the Immigration office, as instructed. He was handed some information and then off we went to check in like all the other passengers. We had a great breakfast at the Airport - surprisingly inside a "Swiss Chalet" - I didn't know they did breakfast. It was pricey of course, beings that it was at the airport.

(Pic of Trinity and Avalon watching their Daddy in line to go through security.)

The goodbye was, of course, teary, with promises of being together again as a family in a few short months. Our departure date is all tied into the sale of our house, which has not even happened yet. My sister keeps telling me to go and buy a "St. Joseph" statue and bury it in our back garden upside down, facing the house. Apparently, he will make our house sell! I know it sounds crazy, but I think I just might do that!

His flight left at 9:25am on time.

The girls and I waited near the windows and jumped around like mad idiots, waving in the hopes that he would see us waving to him! It turns out, he didn't even see us! As I was jumping around, I reached into my pocket to discover that I had his luggage keys in there! Yikes! We went running back to the agent to have her deliver them to him.

The whole day we were reciting where we thought he was and what he was doing. I imagined that his family had met him at the airport and after 23 years it was a big happy reunion. I pictured them taking him back to their home and having a joyous celebration with lots of food and drink. Not too much to ask for. The reality was absolutely nothing like this. His brother Rudolfo & sister-in-law were unfortunately delayed in leaving La Union, so his brother William arrived at the airport to pick him up. Apparently he arrived in a vehicle that was literally falling apart. In Canada, we do not see vehicles like this. If a vehicle has even a tail light out, it would need to be fixed before being on the road or the police would pull you over. I understand this is not the case in El Salvador. The windows did not roll down, so in the stifling heat that it was on that day, Douglas was literally going out of his mind with heat frustration. They had to keep stopping to get water to try to cool themselves down. He couldn't remember it being that hot there when he was a child; apparently he arrived just before the rainy season on one of the hottest days of the year!

On the second day in El Salvador, Douglas secured a beautiful 3 bedroom house in Alta de Escalon, San Salvador, and moved in!! He is very happy with it. Escalon is a beautiful, modern part of San Salvador. It even comes with maid/laundry service!! From the pics, it looks like California. Very gorgeous and modern. This area is very different from where his brother lives. His brother lives in Atlactl, about 45 minutes to the south of Escalon. I won't go into all the gory details, so as not to get my "butt bit", but Douglas stayed at his brothers' house the very first night, and hightailed it out of there the next morning.

















(Pics of Escalon) His first week has been pretty good. It definately started out with a huge bump and has got progressively better as the days go by. He faces transportation challenges, as he is relying on cabs and his brother Rudolfo (who returned from La Union) to drive him around. He is very close to purchasing a vehicle. Apparently, you CANNOT live in this city WITHOUT a vehicle, even the poorest of the poor own a vehicle. The bus systems are not safe, most would rather walk than get on a bus. After much looking around, he has found a great vehicle and purchases his "ride" tomorrow! He has spent the week getting acclimatized to the city, getting his DUI card (National Identity Card), trying to locate a Beauty Supply Store etc. He reports that some things are the same as Canadian prices and others are very cheap. He had left his blowdryers here due to space limitations, so had to buy a new one. These are quite expensive over there - the cheapest professional one was $100.00 U.S., whereas in Canada a professional one could be found for about $70.00. He says this is strange, some things are "expensive" and other things are cheap. He is having difficulty wrapping his head around the price differences.


(Pic of the inside of Galerias Mall - close to where he is living.) There have been some difficult moments in the first week. The first few days were tearful for us all, but things are progressively getting organized and on track over there. Now he just needs to network and meet people, so he doesn't feel so isolated.

Purchased THE TICKET.

It seems every week we have had an appointment at the Immigration office in Malton (near Toronto). Many things to sign, many arrangements to be made for Douglas' forced removal. Canadian Immigration purchased a ticket for Douglas to leave on the 13th of April - Easter Monday. The cost to us was going to be $1500.00. After I phoned the airline and discovered the ticket for that flight to be $570.00, I phoned the Immigration officer to request that we be allowed to purchase our own ticket. The first response was an unequivocal "no". I then tried to request that we be charged a lesser amount than $1500.00, as I really did not understand how they could justify charging an additional $930.00 for making an online ticket reservation! I escalated my request up to the Supervisor and managed to reason with her after some discussion. She eventually relented and allowed us to purchase our own ticket. So now the date of departure is solidified for Douglas. We have been "sitting on the edge of our seats" since the summer thinking any day now he would go, and here we are nine months later actually purchasing the departure ticket. It is a bit of a relief to be getting on with this process of transition.

Douglas is consumed with worry; about leaving us behind, setting up a new life in El Salvador, many, many things are consuming him. He cannot sleep - he tosses and turns and is absolutely exhausted. It is not in my nature to be a worrier, so I am doing my best to stear him toward focusing on the positive. My philosophy is that as long as we have our health, we have everything we need. Of course, I am going to be very sad to be apart from him and will be concerned about him while he is apart from us. I am hoping that the "apart" will not be too long.

I just need to stay behind because we still have not sold our house! If it does not sell soon, I might have to rent it out until the market turns up a bit. Most people in my neighbourhood have taken their homes off the market and are waiting for that market to increase before attempting to sell again. There is much uncertainty with job losses and the recession, but if you have a relatively secure job, the interest rates and house prices are more than attractive!

"Wordless Wednesday"

*All images captured at Valley Inn Road, Hamilton - where the Pirates used to smuggle "booze" in from the lake undetected during Prohibition. (The Canada Geese were so hungry!)