A New Home
Starting fresh is nothing new to me. When I moved to Australia in 2008 I sold my home, my car, and most of my things. I brought only two suitcases with me to Sydney. When I moved back to Canada eight and a half years later I did pretty much the same. Brought back my personal possessions but sold everything else. But moving out of our home in 2021, a home that I loved, leaving the person that I loved, well that was considerably harder. I suppose the other times the choice had been mine, and this time I was walking away from much more than just a home and material possessions.
My family helped me move out and I am fortunate that my folks live close and I was able to move in with them while I looked for a new place. I was advised not to make any big purchases for a while, being in a less than ideal mental state. But I knew what I wanted and when I found it just over 3 months later I thought, fuck it.
As soon as my girlfriend Justine and I walked into the place we just looked at each other knowingly and then looked at my realtor. The view was amazing and it had a really great energy.
I looked up the owners, and found out a little about the lady that had called this place home. She had passed just before her 95th birthday. Born in Israel, Hannah was an 8th generation Israeli. She had immigrated to Edmonton and married David Pollack, a Pharmacist. The two of them worked together for many years at his Drug Store on Whyte Avenue. Marrying later in life, they had no children and were together for 15 years prior to his passing.
Hanna was involved with many charitable organizations, her favourite being the Jewish Drop-in Centre, where she continued to volunteer a minimum of 4 days a week up until about 6 months before she passed. She knitted constantly, making hats, scarves and booties for little ones at the Stollery Children’s Hospital and for children in Israel. She was always cooking and baking for others. She sounded like an amazing woman, and knowing these things about her made me love the place even more.
Their name plate was still on the door when I moved in, and it took me a few years to take it down. I still have it. I also kept the cabinet handles to her old vanity and used them for my new one when I did the renovation. I like having some things that belonged to this woman I never got to meet.
Renovation
I’m shocked that when you look up synonyms for renovation, that “Hellish Nightmare” is not listed. I never expected it to be a good time, I’m not an idiot, but I definitely did not expect the level of “What kind of fresh hell is this?” that I would be dealing with every day for months on end. I already have the mouth of a sailor. When I was in university my mother used to ask me if I was majoring in trucking. This renovation did not improve my vocabulary.
To be fair, I might consider doing it again. I learned a lot. It was also just a terrible time to do a reno. My headspace was not great, and because of Covid there were supply chain issues, materials were delayed, trades were backed up and rushing the work when they were available… all the things.
I also had no furniture. I had only really taken my personal possessions, so I was trying to furnish an entire home from scratch. It’s easy enough to pick out a new chair to go with your existing items but when your purchasing every single piece without even having a finished space, well, it was challenging. I tried to visualize how it would all look together and hoped it would work.
In the end it worked brilliantly. After it was all said and done I have to say I love it. It is my happy place. As much as I love to travel, I always look forward to coming back home.
Tiny Trips
In the nearly 4 years since returning home early from our planned year of travel (March 2020), the sudden end of our relationship (Feb 2021), starting a new career (Feb 2021), and purchasing and renovating my home (May 2021), I had not taken any big trips. Just getting through life was enough of an adventure.
That first summer was rough. I am very fortunate to have some unreal friends though, and one of them insisted I come out to Toronto to celebrate my birthday. Bryan and I have been buds for around 25 years. He is a fantastic human, has way more energy than me, and has the best attitude! I could tell Bryan stories for days, but he would kill me if I did. He is one of the few friends that made it all the way to Australia to visit me when I was living there.
Toronto June 2021
Australia 2010 – Practicing our dance moves?
The good old days (end of the 90’s – early 2000’s)
I also took a quick trip to Montreal with a group of friends in August of 2022. It was an absolute blast. I loved Montreal. There were so many interesting little places, and the food, the food was very moreish!
The trip had originally been planned because a group of friends wanted to go see Rammstein. They all had their tickets except my girlfriend Cherly, who had less than zero interest in going, and I was happy to skip the show and have a date night with her while her husband went with the rest of the group.
Our date night was unreal! We did a food crawl. We walked from restaurant to restaurant enjoying all the food and drinks. We had the best carpaccio I have ever eaten, and some of the best scallops too. We also enjoyed the scenery. Montreal has some very handsome men.
It was a short 6 day trip but we maxed it out. We hit Bar George one evening for several cocktails, hung out at the Vandal Speakeasy, danced at some tiny basement hole in the wall place that had stunning decor and killer music. I can’t for the life of me recall the name. The highlight though was Jatoba. The food was on another level. I have dreams of the dishes we ate that night.
Oh! I can’t forget Bota Bota Spa. Our friend Miranda had heard about this place and it was always booked out well in advance. We decided we should put this on the list.
I will begin by saying I knew nothing about the spa and did not bother to look it up beforehand. It was interesting. We got there 15 minutes prior as instructed and by the time we reached the counter it was already time for our massages to begin. They then had trouble verifying our booking which took forever. It was a gong show. We basically lost 20 minutes of our hour long massages.
Then we hit the deck for the water circuit. What we did not realize was that on the main area of the boat there is absolutely no talking or technology. They have staff that just walk around telling people to zip it. Everyone there was either a twosome or a group, and as soon as the talking police walked away everyone would start whispering. They were crazy though. It’s like they were lurking around every corner just waiting for the slightest sound. Then they would pounce with their scowling faces, finger to their mouths and pointing at the silence signs. It was actually comical. There were “no speaking” signs all over but I didn’t see anything about phones. I was lounging in the sun checking my messages and surprise, surprise, out of nowhere the spa police. I was told that no phones were allowed on the deck. I replied that my phone was on silent and I was checking my messages. Nope. No tech. Straight to jail. It was like we had checked ourselves into rehab.
Apparently we could speak if we went to the mainland area where their were other pools. A hot pool, a regular pool, and an ice cold pool. We promptly headed there. Now we could relax and chat, and grab some drinks. Two drinks to be exact. That is the limit at Bota Bota. Yep, rehab indeed. I wasn’t looking to get day drunk but this place was not my idea of a good time. I don’t do well with rules, especially on my holiday, especially when I am paying a lot of money. Let’s just say I would not return to Boda Boda. I’m sure plenty of people out there love this type of thing, but not me.
Aside from the prison spa, the trip was fabulous.
Returning To Sydney
I had been back living in Canada for almost 9 years. Just about as long as I had lived in Sydney. It was way past time to go back. I had booked the trip nearly 8 months in advance and had been counting down the days. Six weeks off work, sunshine, beaches, and catch ups.
Next stop, Sydney, Australia.