Our brand new adventure - here we move again!

It’s been quite some time since our last entry. The Bryan family great adventure took us back to Canada in 2015 to live in Toronto, Ontario.

Reluctant at first to come to the ‘big city’, we settled quite nicely into the beautiful community of The Beaches. We were so lucky to find a nice house, in a nice neighbourhood where the girls could go to a great school. We have met so many wonderful families and made many special friends.

When the opportunity came up for Doug to transfer to Vancouver we decided to go for it to be closer to our families and to be back in ‘Beautiful British Columbia’.

So here we are about to embark on our next great adventure...ROAD TRIP! The movers are loading the truck today for the move and we are setting off on our drive across Canada. 

Plan for point A to point B on day one - Toronto to Subury. Big nickel here we come!

Pumpkin Time Again

I spotted one tiny pumpkin in the grocery store the other day, only one I saw and about the size of a softball. Yours for only the equivilant of $12cdn! 

This picture was taken as I stood in a ginormous line to get my vegetables weighed - they don't do it at the cash register here.

This weekend we made a family trip to the 'pumpkin patch' as Maëlle called it! Really the outdoor veggie market. Last year we found round 'pumpkins' here no problem but this year they only seemed to be tall squash shaped ones. Oh well, time to get creative I guess. We pictured the perfect Olaf for the tall one ;)

The girls loved picking their own tiny small ones. 

Our 'helper' to carry our purchases!

Neko hugging her baby pumpkin.

Happy Halloween carving here we come.

Dodgy Business in Doha

So just had another random business transaction...'only in Doha'!

Unfortunately Neko broke the glass on my iPad mini this morning before our trip to London tomorrow. Looked up replacement places on my trusty Doha Mums forum and called up some random guy offering to replace today. Given directions on where to meet him, I pull up outside a money exchange building, meet some random other guy (who tells me he doesn't speak english), pass over my iPad on the sidewalk and cross my fingers as he walks away with it. No receipt, no record he has it.

Call in the evening to check on it, tells me he needs another half hour. 30 minutes pass and he needs another hour...hmmmm. So 9:30pm he calls to meet him again at the designated spot. We make the exchange on the sidewalk, although he almost leaves without me paying him. In the end new screen and no need to worry, typical Doha dodginess!

May 30th...9pm...

...and still 40 degrees outside!

Canadian Accredited Hospital

It's a good thing the hospital close to our house has an accreditation from Canada...whatever that means! Perhaps they should consult a Canadian for proper English grammar ;)

Feeling sorry...

...for people having to travel like this. 5 grown men squished into a very small truck, sitting in 45 degree traffic with the windows down - so I'm guessing no air conditioning. I don't even want to imagine the smell inside that truck ;)

I hate seeing the big (school type) buses transporting workers with no air conditioning. Just cruel in this heat.

Hello Camels

We traded driving past cows everyday back in Lake Country to seeing camels! Very close to Maelle's school is a camel market. Often when I pick her up the girls ask to drive by the camels to say hi! Amazing to live where we can actually do that everyday.

Mango Mania!

The current promotion at the Lulu Hypermarket is Mango Mania. I had no idea there were so many different types of mangos. Imagine a full length grocery isle in say Safeway with both sides filled with different types of mangos...plus one additional half isle! 

Life in Doha

In sorting through my photos I realized that I've taken quite a few photos of things that reflect life in Doha, or perhaps how life here is actually quite different than that in Canada. Here are a few to share.

Sitting in traffic the other day, I looked beside me to see this car...although it already doesn't look out of place to me i realized it was just something you would rarely ever see back home.

A hired car service, with a hired maid inside, paid to pick up a child from school...with a child in no seatbelt. 

Pricey Kids!

For the most part things are comparable in price here. The one thing I find frustrating that is not is children's items and toys. Often toys are about 3 times more here. For example our Elefun game was maybe $15-20 at home, here I saw it for $60!

Saw this back pack at the Wal-Mart type equivilant and couldn't believe the price. Pretty sure this wouldn't cost $50 back home.

So needless to say Grandma and Grandpa have been given a shopping list to bring us some things next week. So excited for their visit!

"Mommy I want to see a Goat"!

On the road today we stopped behind a truck with a very hairy goat. Neko was very excited to see him. This is a common sight here. Still yet to see a camel in the back of a pick-up tho.

The next time we got in the car to drive all Neko could say was "Mommy I want to see a goat. I want to see a goat"! Heehee.

Do you notice something different about these Princesses?

A Disney Live show is coming to Doha this month and I just noticed these modest Princesses on the advertisement!