Feels Like, Starting Over

Well, not really. But up till six weeks ago, I thought today I would be sitting in a (probably empty) apartment in Vancouver, catching up with old friends, looking for something constructive to do till September, keeping the kids busy, and - in my husband's words - hemorrhaging money.

In the intervening six weeks, we've travelled back to Canada, spent a beautiful vacation over Christmas with our families, and made the trip back here. We're more or less getting settled back in.

I found it easier, obviously, to move back here this time than to make the move for the first time. in the first place, I wasn't deathly ill. In the second place, our house and all that goes with it was not only ready and waiting, but spotless thanks to the ministrations of our lovely housekeeper and nanny. We weren't moving at all, really, just going home after a vacation. Of course, because things can never be simple, the travel agent underestimated how much time we would need in Toronto between flights, and when our first flight from Saskatoon to Toronto was delayed, we missed the connecting flight from Toronto to Lima. As a consequence of this, we had to spend the night in Toronto, fly to Miami the next morning, and then spend a purgatorial five hours in the Miami airport before flying to Lima. The Miami airport is not a pleasant place. I asked the AA agent if we could rent a stroller somewhere (we'd forgotten ours in Manitoba), or if there was a play area in the airport, and she just laughed bitterly and said, "this is not a good airport." It says a lot that the fanciest, most technologically advanced of our four flights in three days was the one on Air Canada "Jazz" (read, "low budget"), out of Saskatoon.

As a result of being rerouted, though, we did get into Lima earlier than expected, which was nice. And, unlike in the USA, families with small kids get fasttracked through customs and immigration, which is nice. And then we stayed at Los Delfines.

Spoiled Brat
Me, not the kids. Thinking of the hotel in Lima makes me realize how utterly spoiled I am. I like fancy hotels - heck, who doesn't? And I have now flown business class a number of times and it has made me kinda down on flying economy, especially with the little monkeys in tow. I like fancy restaurants - although as long as the food is good, I like basic cheap ones too - and have generally cultivated snobby tastes. This is going to suck in Vancouver, where one can go broke quite quickly if one prefers the finer things in life, even if one chooses not to sell one's soul for a few square feet of prime realty.

So, I'm making plans, plans involving dutch ovens, slow cookers, freezers, and general ingenuity to ensure that while we don't eat poorly in Vancouver, we don't eat expensively either. Keep checking for more food posts, coming soon!