Farewell to the blog; see you on Google+

After a few years of feeling guilty about not posting anything on my blog, I've decided to officially retire it. I started the blog to keep family and friends up-to-date about our year-long stay in France, but then felt obligated to keep up writing when we got back to Canada. However, I didn't feel the same excitement about writing for it as I did when I knew that family and friends were eagerly awaiting our next travel installment!

If you like what I've written on the blog, you can check out my Google+ profile, where I post a few family updates as well as education, mathematics/science, and general interest items.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChristinaTeskey/posts

If you want to read the posts from our year-long stay in France, you can find them in the archives of this blog starting in July 2007, just before we left Canada
.

Thanks for reading this far. I hope to see you on Google+!

Christina
December 2014

Reflections on Bicycle Commuting: Bike to Work Week 2011 in Victoria

During Bike to Work Week 2011 in Victoria, three of the five work days I biked about 12 km from our home in Gordon Head to my office in the Queen’s Printer building just south of the BC Legislature. I did it for the physical challenge rather than out of any “green” motivation. I haven’t really biked since we moved to Victoria, and I just wanted to see if I could do it.

One of the beautiful views off the Galloping Goose Trail in Victoria.

I had to work through a lot of firsts that week: first time on the Galloping Goose Trail, not knowing where I was going; first time cycling in city traffic, trying to judge how aggressively to ride. The first day was exciting and scary; the second day was better in terms of knowing where I was going but hard physically. By the evening of the second day, I had determined that I would work at home the following day so did not bike in. (It was a bit of a relief to make that decision, and I was heartened the next morning to see that it was raining! I had said I wouldn’t ride in the rain.) By the third day of riding, I finally felt comfortable on the trail and in the streets. I took it easier than the first two days even though it meant that more people passed me on the trail. (I have a deeply buried competitive streak that threatens to surface every once in a while.) I was much less sweaty when I got to work that last morning, and I enjoyed the ride a lot more.

I certainly had my share of mini-adventures on the trail. The first day I almost ended up in a four-bike, one-pedestrian pileup due to the aggressive riding of one of the cyclists. As I rode away, I heard the pedestrian cursing at the cyclist -- and no wonder!

That same day I forgot to check over my shoulder before riding around a pedestrian and in doing so almost ran another cyclist off the trail. Oh, boy! The second day I missed a sign that split the pedestrians and cyclists, and I ended up riding on the pedestrian side of the trail to the disgust of both pedestrians and cyclists alike. No wonder the seasoned riders hate Bike to Work Week!

As lovely as they look, I can do without the wooden plank bridges. They're really hard on the butt!

The Galloping Goose Trail, the middle of my ride, is really lovely, with views of lakes and trees, shaded trails, wooden plank bridges and picturesque tunnels. Some areas of the trail really remind me of our experiences in France, especially the tunnels. (Except in France, most of them would stink due to the odd habit of French men peeing in every tunnel they encounter!)

This is such a cool tunnel, with amazing murals all over the walls!

It’s the beginning and end of the ride that are the hardest for me. McKenzie Avenue is very busy, and it has big trucks and some wicked hills! Plus everyone drives like a bat out of hell travelling westward, encouraged by the long sweep of downhill slopes on the road. On the other end of my ride, Government Street isn’t so busy, but on the way home I have to make a left turn in a busy and confusing intersection, and navigating the blue bridge makes my heart pound every time.

I learned a few lessons that week. First of all, I can do it, and it makes me feel good! Biking to work is worth it for the moral superiority you feel as you walk into your office all sweaty, huffing and puffing, bike helmet in hand. On the other hand, biking to work is hard work! I won’t become a cycling convert because I’m just not properly prepared. I don’t have the panniers, the cycling shoes or the toe clips; I don’t have the Gortex jacket and pants or the flashing lights. I miss my early morning workouts at the rec centre too much to give them up. Even though Bike to Work Week didn’t make a hard core bicycle commuter out of me, I’m glad I did it that week, and I’ll probably do it again.

Check out my Bike to Work Week set of photos on Flickr.

Memories of 2010

2010 was a busy year for us in many different ways. Cameron and Meghan settled in very nicely to life in Victoria, and both of them worked hard at school. Mark and I have been very busy at our jobs, for various reasons. In February Mark was asked to take on a new job in Nanaimo and so has a 1.5 hour (each way) commute to work every day. Luckily he enjoys driving! As for me, a project at work, the creation of a new grade 10 math distance education course, became much more work than anyone could imagine! For the last six months I've been immersed in it, working evenings and weekends, but thankfully it's almost at an end.

For 10 months ending in June 2010 we played host to Beri, our exchange student from Stuttgart, Germany. She's the niece of a friend and colleague of my brother (got that?). Beri accompanied us to Seattle for a few days last Christmas and went skiing with Mark and the kids at Mt. Washington in April, where the snow was so high that it covered the windows of the second floor of the condo building that we were staying in (I've never seen so much snow!) I think Beri enjoyed herself, and she was able to graduate with a Canadian high school diploma. Her parents and brother came to visit and were able to see her attend the graduation ceremony at the end of May. Beri's sister also stayed with us for a month, and we often saw Tessa, another German exchange student who became a friend of Beri's. We had quite a full house for the first half of the year!

In August I decided to get serious about losing some of the weight that has been gradually creeping on since our stay in France, and I've been working out almost every day at the recreation centre that is a short walk from our house. I've lost 13 pounds so far, and my back is feeling much better.

Other happenings of note:

• A short holiday to Seattle in July with friends Wendy, Ray, and family
• An equally short trip to Rocky Mountain House in August to visit my mom and other family members, with a lightning-fast side trip to Sherwood Park to see Sheila and family
• The sad passing of Mark's father in September and our quick trip to Manitoba to be with the family
• A 10-day holiday to Florida in November, spurred on by my desire to see the Harry Potter Islands of Adventure installation at Universal Studios while I still have kids to drag along!

I encouraged (read: badgered) everyone to write their own summary of 2010, so here they are:

Meghan

Hey everybody! I can't believe it's already 2011; last year passed so quickly.

School has gone great since we moved here. Grade 7 was lots of fun and grade 8 is also going really well. I joined leadership in grade 7 and I'm in it again this year with lots of my friends. We organize lots of school activities and help out with their operation. I've also joined the volleyball team.

Soccer is going well. Last year I was on the Silver team; this year I've gone to the Gold team. We went up island to Parksville for an overnight trip about a month ago and it was lots of fun. We haven't been winning a lot of games this season since many good players went to Metro, but winning's not everything, right?

So I'm halfway through Grade 8. About 9 more months until high school! I'm excited but also a little nervous. I'll be going to Reynolds, the same school as Cameron. It's about double the size of Cedar Hill (the school I go to now), so that will be a big change.

I had a great Christmas and New Year's, and I hope you did, too. Wishing everyone the best of luck in 2011!

Cameron

So 2010 wasn't that big of a year for me. It was my second year of high school, which I'm enjoying. I'm still in Flex and French Immersion and things are going well. In Grade 10 so far I've had an easy first semester with Science, French and my two electives, Foods and Drama. I'm not looking forward to the next few weeks, as I have just three left before exams (and my first provincial). I don't think it'll be too bad though, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.

I hope everybody has a great 2011!

Mark

On the work front, 2010 was a time of change for me. I changed responsibilities from the forest worker safety program to a program looking after finance and assets/infrastructure in the Coast Region, based out of Nanaimo. More recently, government announced another change for the natural resources sector and so we are going through a merging of sorts with other ministries. Quite exciting times ahead! I do have a commute and I’ve found that radio/audio CDs and just driving fill the time nicely – I actually quite enjoy it!

On the vacation front, we enjoyed a short holiday travelling to Rocky Mountain House over the summer and a relaxing 10 day break to Orlando in November. We had a great time visiting the theme parks and just being in the warm weather of Florida in November. We enjoyed several rounds of “butter beer” at Harry Potter’s at universal studios. I have to say that my favourite activity was a 3 hour kayak trip in a mangrove lagoon where we all had single kayaks, navigated through narrow channels and saw lots of wildlife (including a manatee!)

And finally, on the home front, we were saddened in September when my father passed away. He had been suffering from dementia/Alzheimer’s disease for the last few years. Our family travelled to Winnipeg for the funeral and although the reason for getting together was very sad, it was nice the whole family met.

In the garden, we are busy converting the edging around our house from soil (and weeds) to decorative rock. One thing I’ve found about Victoria is that the plants and lawn just keep on growing and it’s a full time job (well, weekend job, anyway) just keeping up.

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We had a lot of good times in 2010, and we're looking forward to more in 2011. We hope the same for you and your family!

Chris, Mark, Cameron and Meghan

Happy Birthday, Meghan!

My Meghan is 13 today! Happy Birthday, Baby!

Leg warmers are back!

At the Marriott in Seattle

In Starbucks (maybe the original?) in Seattle

Meghan in her soccer uniform with Zoe

Deer stories

Deer abound in Victoria, and we often have them in our backyard. They've decimated one of the little deciduous trees there by eating not only the leaves, but also the newer branches. Because of the deer, we'll never be able to grow much of a backyard garden.

Mark and I witnessed a strange accident on Mackenzie Avenue a few months ago. While driving in Victoria, you always have to keep your eyes peeled for deer on the road, but one afternoon a young buck appeared out of nowhere, heading directly across four lanes of traffic. He hurled himself into the side of a small red car, hitting the back driver's side window with his head. All we saw after that was the deer flipping end over end over the top of the car and coming to a sudden halt on its back on the road. Within seconds, he got up, shook his head, and trotted off the rest of the way across the road to come to a stop on the lawn of a house on the north side of Mackenzie. I was so sure that the little guy was dead, but he was a tough one! The little red car pulled over to the side of the road and the occupants got out gingerly, shaking broken glass from themselves. As human/animal collisions go, I think everyone got off lucky!

One of the deer in our backyard. Notice the tipped-over chair from the latest windstorm.

Yesterday when I got home from work, I saw two little deer (probably last year's babies) bedding in the yard. Cameron said that they had been there for at least a couple of hours. I took some pictures of one of them from inside the house because I didn't want to scare them away. My new camera with its 18x zoom really did a good job -- especially through the window -- but I also caught part of our patio umbrella in the close shot.

This little one kept looking right at me through the window, and not long after I took these pictures, she and her friend (sister?) decided it was time to move on out of the yard.

Backyard surprises

Victoria continues to surprise me.


Like yesterday when I walked into the house. I just happened to glance up at the plant that grows at the front of the overhanging porch roof -- and discovered that purple flowers had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. For the last two months, the plant has been covered with yellow flowers which eventually dried up and faded away into the greenery. But now -- there are purple flowers!


When I looked carefully, I saw that another type of vine had been planted at the base of the first plant, and it was the new vine's turn to flower. Very clever gardening, if you ask me!


Another surprise: about three weeks ago, I took a closer look at the ancient and strange looking bush planted in a square in our patio. It looked familiar... and then I took a sprig and rubbed it between my fingers. It's rosemary! I've never had fresh herbs growing outside. For the last two weeks we've had roast chicken with rosemary for Sunday dinner -- delicious!


The climate here is so different from anywhere I've ever lived. The greenery is lush and extremely varied, and our yard seems to have one of every kind of thing that is able to grow around here. Just when I think that things will stop growing, another kind of flower blooms in our garden.

The people who owned this house in years past went crazy with perennial plants. There must be at least 50 different kinds of flowering plants in our yard, and I can only identify three or four. We have at least two different kinds of poppies in four different colours, three kinds of flowering vines (no idea what types), a large overgrown grape vine and a huge fig tree.


We've never been much for gardening, but we're being forced to pay attention to our yard this summer. It's going to take us a long time to get it all figured out!

Shooting a math video at the beach

Yesterday we shot a video at the beach for the Math 8 course that I am overseeing at work. It was a beautiful morning to be there! The sun was shining and there was a bit of a breeze, so the temperature was just perfect.


The video is about integer multiplication, and I wanted to make it a stop-motion video because I think it will appeal to kids in grade 8. I think it will also be a fun video because it stars kids -- specifically my kids -- Cameron and Meghan.

Sean looks through the camera to see if all of the numbers are visible.

A few weeks ago we scouted out the location by checking out all the sets of stairs that lead to the beach off Dallas Road in Victoria. We thought we needed at least 21 stairs going straight up and down (it turns out that we didn't need that many) that were not shaded by bushes -- and given all the plant growth around here, bushes are hard to avoid!

But we did find a great set just off Douglas St. south of the Terry Fox Mile Zero memorial. So yesterday morning, the kids and I drove down, parked by Beacon Hill Park, and trudged down the stairs to the beach to meet up with my co-workers Sean and Caitlin.

The kids soon found out how boring it can be to film something. It's all in the preparation -- and as soon as we started stapling the numbers to the stairs, we realized that we weren't going to be able to see them all in the camera. After ripping off all the numbers, redoing a few of the equations, and some bleeding on my part after putting a staple through my thumb, we had a new set of numbers in place, and we were ready to shoot.

Redoing the numbers

By this time we'd lost the kids, but luckily they were just sitting over on the next set of rocks waiting patiently for us.

We ended up having an audience while we were shooting the video -- a man who was sitting at the top of the stairs when we first arrived, and who stuck around to watch the fun but moved over to sit on the rocks, and another man who came a bit later with his two grandsons to play at the beach. And how could I forget the minks! During the shooting, two little, thin, black furry creatures appeared from behind a pile of rocks where Cameron was sitting. They were very cute, and not very afraid of people.

Two of our audience members: one doesn't seem to be paying attention; the other one might be Martin; and the minks are nowhere to be seen.

We found out the name of one of the grandsons, because I mistakenly called it a marten (close, same family, but not quite right), and one of the kids yelled, "Hey, my name's Martin!"

Anyway, Cameron, Meghan, Sean and Caitlin all did an awesome job! Once we were set up, it took less than an hour and we were done. Sean had a great idea for the ending -- the kids are going to spin around and disappear! I can hardly wait to see the end product -- I'm so excited about all these videos we've been doing for Math 8. I think we'll try to release some of them on YouTube, so if we do, I'll post a link to them here in my blog.

Making a home in Victoria

I think we're finally getting settled here, although I still have moments of "unreality". I've had several of those over the past 18 months -- times when I could hardly believe what we're doing: selling our house of 17 years and putting our furniture into storage to live like gypsies for a year; moving to France for an extended stay with no other plans than to travel extensively and soak it all in; and then moving to a city with my family, something that we had planned would happen eventually, but is still a shock to us country bumpkins.

Meghan relaxing with the cats. I'm pleased to say that we've finally got the boxes unpacked.

Victoria is still new enough to us that it seems like part of the adventure, yet we all know deep down that this is where we'll be settling for a while. But I still get those moments of unrealness, like when I was walking in the main hallway of our house last week, suddenly wondering, "Where am I? What place is this? What am I doing here?"; and then I give my head a shake and I'm back in the present again. I think I feel sometimes that I'm living a dream, and when I wake up I'll be back in my bed in our old house in Burns Lake again. I guess spending that much time in one place really burns itself into your whole psyche.

We've already had a few visitors - my mom, my sister Pat, and this weekend, Mark's mom and brother Steve. Here my mom and Mark stare out into the stormy-looking clouds.

This is really a post of family news, so I'll update you on each of us:

Mark

Mark's job here is Director of Forest Worker Safety. At this level, he's really close to government, so he deals with Assistant Deputy Ministers, Deputy Ministers and the Chief Forester for the province quite regularly. After just over six months on the job, I think he's getting into the groove, but it's still very different from being in a small community like Burns Lake. Sometimes I think it's a little too close to the action!

Mark's also going to Toast Masters to improve his public speaking skills. His group meets before work on Friday mornings, and Mark is so dedicated that he gets out of bed about 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus and get there on time. The only Fridays that he doesn't make it is when he's off to meetings in Vancouver, which seems to be happening a lot these past few weeks.

Chris

I'm really enjoying my new job as an Education Project Manager at Open School BC. I'm in charge of developing a grade 8 math course for distance education, so I get to do all sorts of things that I love: organize things; do math; talk to people; do research; work on the computer; and keep things on schedule and on budget. I'm very busy right now -- it can be a little overwhelming at times. Currently I'm reviewing several fifty-page documents, editing and suggesting changes before forwarding them on to other people.

I now work for the provincial government like Mark does, so I'm getting used to all of the government lingo and procedures. It's a huge organization -- approximately 30,000 people work for the government of BC, and sometimes you can get so caught up in processes that you hardly have time for your work.

When I'm not working I'm still trying to keep up with my French studies. I've enrolled in a French diploma program at the University of Victoria. When I tested for the program I scored at the "high intermediate" level, so I was pretty proud of myself and thought that the year in France perhaps wasn't a total waste! : ) I go to class two nights a week, but sometimes after a full day at work it's really hard to drag myself there. I always enjoy it, though, and I'm really glad when I made the effort. I'm trying really hard to speak French as much as possible in class, and I think that I'm finally losing my fear of sounding silly.

Mark and Chris

We've really made a commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions this year, and one of the things that we're doing more is riding the bus. We really only use the van one or two days a week to buy groceries and other big stuff. Both Mark and I were able to get a permanent bus pass through our work, and it's great to be able to hop on and off the bus when you want. We have great bus service almost right at our doorstep and it takes us both directly to work. A side benefit of this is that we can now ride the bus together to work in the mornings -- one of those activities in our new life that still feels strange and different to me! : )

In between work and our extracurricular activities, we're trying to get the inside of the house painted and some yard work done. Mark is much better about this than I am -- even though we both have to start working a little harder!

Our fitness routines have been suffering a little as we try to find some balance in our new lives, but both Mark and I have signed up for a 10 km walk (me) or run (Mark) at the end of April. Mark has to train for running, but I just have to train my feet to not get blisters! That's always the worst part about long hikes for me.

Cameron

Cameron is in grade 8 this year and just had his 14th birthday -- there's no going back on that teenager thing now! I mentioned before that he shot past me in height about a year ago, and he's now very tall and lean. He's doing very well at school although his teachers think that he's too quiet -- but that might just be because the rest of his class is very loud! I encouraged him to join the concert band this year in order to keep busy with some extracurricular activities, so he's playing percussion. Cameron went with the band to an overnight camp in the fall, and they're now preparing for a four-day trip to Whistler in May. It should be fun -- by the time they registered, the only choice they had was a four-star hotel. I'm sure all those 14-year-old boys will really make the most of the facilities!

Cameron's heading off to high school next year; he's looking forward to it, and I'm feeling anxious about it! We're quite excited that he applied for and was accepted into one of the school's special programs where he will be challenged academically and provided with opportunities for leadership training and volunteer work. It's the only program in Victoria where students are invited to apply to become pages at the BC Legislature. Cameron will also carry on with French Immersion; I gave him the choice after this year, and I'm very pleased that he's made the decision to continue.

Meghan

Meghan is also getting tall: if I'm slouching, she can stare me straight in the eye. Unfortunately, she's also now graduated to wearing women's sized clothes; clothing four "adults" sometimes puts a strain on the family budget! Meg just turned 12 (in January), is in grade 6 at the same middle school as Cameron, and she's really enjoying school. She plays flute in the concert band, and since they weren't moving fast enough for her, she's also started to play my old clarinet at home. She has several friends whose houses she's already visited and is doing very well academically. She's a natural writer -- and I'm her mother so I can say, "gifted". : ) Sometimes I read something that she's written and it almost makes me cry, it's that good.

Meghan loves to play soccer, and it's very big in Victoria, so she would have been playing throughout the winter if we had known to register her in the fall when we moved here. However, she has lots of options to play in the spring and summer, and we live right across from one of the big soccer parks, so I think she'll be in the thick of it soon.

One thing that makes us all happy is that the kids can walk or bike to school this year, and either way it takes them less than 20 minutes. Since Mark and I have to leave for work earlier than they leave for school, they get ready on their own. I think it's really made them more independent and has been very good for them.

This was a really long update; I hope you lasted 'til the end! Drop us a line and let us know what you're doing:

christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com (take out the spaces when you email).

Merry Christmas!

We're just enjoying our first Christmas in Victoria. In an unlikely series of weather events, it turned out to be a white Christmas, something we didn't have in Strasbourg last year. However, I don't think the snow will last long -- it rained last night, and today the sun is shining brightly.


Last year we had a tight budget, so we set a 10€ limit for each present. This year we thought we would carry on the tradition, so we were to spend a maximum of $15 on each person. Most of us ended up going over the budget by a bit, but on the whole we were good about sticking to the limit.


We also had fun doing our Christmas Eve presentations for each other. Last night we learned about Christmas traditions in Finland, Germany, France, and other countries, listened to streaming Christmas music from the internet (after I finally found the sub-woofer for our computer speakers in the filing cabinet), enjoyed some of Meghan's flute selections, and talked about our best Christmas memories.

This Christmas and last are very different, yet they're also alike in many ways. Last year we spent Christmas in a foreign land; this year, even though we're back in Canada, we're spending Christmas in a new city, still a "foreign land" to us. Last year it was just the four of us in our little apartment in Strasbourg; this year, since we still live a great distance from our extended families, it's just the four of us again, but this time in our new house. But as always when we have a family celebration, we treasure the fact that our little family is a very close-knit one, sharing adventures that will mellow into memories that will last us a lifetime.

Whether you're celebrating alone or with loved ones, in the middle of an adventure or relaxing at home, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and the very best for 2009!

Victoria, the land of ice and snow

The weather has finally prompted me to do what no other experience in the last few months has managed to -- make a blog posting. The normal temperatures for Victoria are 7C for the high and 2C for the low. During the last week we've had temperatures down to about -10C at night and still below freezing during the day. The temperature has felt much colder on some days due to the wind, which blows quite regularly here.

Not only is it cold, but we're in the grip of a major winter event in Victoria: snow and ice that actually stays on the ground. Now don't get me wrong -- we're not surprised, shocked or appalled. Our many winters in Burns Lake, and before that, Yellowknife, have prepared us well for the white stuff that we have been experiencing. But I must admit that we're not driving our van right now, since we only have summer tires on it. This is a direct result of many years in the north which led us to buy separate sets of summer and winter tires -- and who's going to put winter tires on a vehicle in Victoria!

People who were born in Victoria all have a secret gleam in their eye when you ask them about the weather. Snow (that stays) is such an unusual event in Victoria that they all seem to really enjoy it. However, if you speak to anyone who has moved to Victoria from virtually anywhere else in Canada, they're seriously ticked off about the weather! The worst part for them at this time of year is heading back to where they came from (e.g., Edmonton, Saskatoon, etc.) for the annual Christmas visit. Not only are they heading into cold weather, but they're leaving the cold Victoria weather behind! This time they can't even brag about how warm it is here in the winter.

Surprisingly, the cats are really enjoying the snow: they go outside quite regularly during the day and get crazy in it (especially Aurora). Meghan is also thrilled. The one bad thing about Victoria for Meghan was the idea that there might be no snow in the winter. Perhaps in an effort to win her over and make her feel welcome, the city has provided a blanket of white for her to enjoy, and Meghan is making the most of it. She has been going outside at least twice a day to play in the snow and only comes in when her feet start freezing. Considering she only has rubber boots (another sign of our unpreparedness, having discarded the old winter boots when we left Burns Lake) she does quite well.

The Penthouse Suite

We spent the month of September in a condo just north of Beacon Hill Park. It was a nicely kept place, and well-decorated. It also gave us one more life experience -- I think it will be the only time in our lives that we will be able to say that we lived in a penthouse suite!

The best part about living at the condo was being right across from the park, but staying downtown on Douglas Street was a close second. We were just up the street from the Royal BC Museum, so we bought memberships and spent a few Saturday afternoons there, seeing the exhibits and watching IMAX films. Weekend mornings were a lot of fun for Mark and me. We would get up fairly early and go for a walk through Beacon Hill Park and down to the rocks at the ocean.


After checking to see which cruise ships were in, we would circle back through downtown to pick up a coffee for Mark. When we got back to the condo, the kids were sometimes just getting up.

Another advantage to living downtown was being able to walk to work. When I started working at the Queen's Printer building in the middle of September, I only had to walk five minutes to work, which meant that I was also able to come home for lunch if I wanted. Mark's office was a little farther, but he still only had a 15-minute walk. We were able to park the van for long stretches of time (one time nearly two weeks!) and feel good about lessening our "carbon footprint".

For most of the time that we were in the condo, we were waiting to take possession of our new house. That happened on September 27, but since we had paid for the condo for the month of October as well, we took some extra days to make the transition over to the house.

By the time we moved into our house, we had lived in two other areas of Victoria. That, combined with driving all over Victoria in search of a house to buy, meant that we have a good understanding of the geography of the area -- a good introduction to a new city!

Our new (old) house in Victoria

I'm pleased to say that we are well on our way to being homeowners in Victoria. We have purchased a house in the Lambrick Park area (actually in the municipality of Saanich), and we will be able to move in on September 27.

While we looked at many different types of houses, we found that the well-maintained "character" houses appealed to us the most. Some of these houses can be 80 to 100 years old; ours just happens to be a little older than that! It was built in 1900 (making it 108 years old this year), and several people told us that it was probably one of the original farmhouses in the area.



It's set back from the street on a plot of land known as a "panhandle", which is basically the back part of a long lot. One of the homeowners living on this large lot would have subdivided it, making two smaller ones. The records that we have for our lot seem to show that this was done around 1972.

The house looks small from the outside but is quite roomy inside. There are four bedrooms: two up -- the kids' rooms -- and two down, so guests, come on over! and two bathrooms, one of which is an ensuite off the master bedroom (yay!) The house has a fairly large living room/dining room combination, a shaded sun room off the back and a concrete patio. Those are the good things!




Things we have to or want to remedy: some galvanized metal piping downstairs, which must be replaced with copper or plastic; a gigantic fig tree in the back whose fruit must be cleaned off the ground regularly for fear of attracting wasps, and whose roots will eventually crack the concrete pad under the sun room; a minor damp spot in the main bathroom shower; a sagging floor in one of the bedrooms; lilac-coloured paint in the master bedroom (not to our taste); and the little matter of the small/cramped kitchen. (This last one might take a while to fix!)

Future project: kitchen remodel

The sun room is nice, but it's actually quite shaded due to the large fig tree just outside to the right of the picture. I think this picture must have been taken a few years ago!

The lilac-coloured paint has to go!

Our own bathroom!

Disclaimer: The photos of the house are not mine (they are the ones that were available on the realtor's web site).

How are things going for you? Did you or your kids go back to school this week? Drop us a line! christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Buying a house in Victoria

I have been feeling guilty lately due to my lack of blog postings, but my excuse is that we have been heavily involved in the business of getting settled in Victoria. The kids and I have been house-hunting, Mark is adjusting to his new job (and the idea of actually having to go to work each day after having almost a year off!), we have registered the kids for school, and I have also been trying to locate temporary rental accommodation for us for September.

Our biggest chore, of course, has been to find a house to buy. Although we had researched housing over the internet while still in Strasbourg and knew in theory how much houses cost in Victoria, it still makes me a little dizzy to think that we will be spending about a half million dollars -- yes, that's right -- on a house. That is the price of a slightly nicer than average -- not spectacular -- house with four bedrooms and two bathrooms in a decent area of the city.

The houses in Victoria that we've seen come in three flavours: character, 1970s and modern. (Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on houses, so the commentary here is based simply on our very limited exposure to the housing market in the last few weeks.) The character houses were built anywhere from 1900 to the 1950s. Many of the earlier ones do have a lot of character, with bedrooms built into attics, coved ceilings, fireplaces and hardwood floors. A tip-off that you will be walking into a 1970s special lies in the real estate agent's listing advertisement: "House has been lovingly maintained by original owner". Translated into real terms, this means that the house was repainted last month in the original colours in preparation for selling, but no thought has been given in the previous 35 years to any other updating. These houses feature dark imitation wood paneling on the walls, and lots of carpet -- some shag, some with different colours in each room. The few "modern" houses that we have seen have been very ordinary: three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranchers (all on one level) with carpet throughout. One house that we viewed was so uniformly beige that everything blended together. By the end of the viewing, it was hard to tell where the floors ended and the walls began!

When hunting for a house, one's priorities soon become very clear. We had a very short list by the time we had seen our first few houses: a nice yard (for Meghan and the cats); two bathrooms and at least three bedrooms (after sharing a bedroom in France, the kids each want their own); and some separation of private areas in the house between the adults and the children (very important when you have teens or pre-teens!)

Perhaps other people have been luckier in finding their "dream home", but many of the houses that we have seen have some limitations. One house was beautiful but situated on a busy street; the road noise bothered us, and we thought it might be dangerous for the cats, who don't have any "street smarts". Another house had a beautiful yard that backed onto a park, but all of the bedrooms, including a very odd-shaped 6' x 13' room, were upstairs, and one large room downstairs was used as a formal living room; the layout resulted in wasted space and a lack of privacy for us. We got as far as thinking about making an offer on another house, but it would have required extensive renovations to put in a proper bathroom and two bedrooms downstairs.

It seemed like it was going to take some time to find just the right house, but we only have a few days left at the suite that we're currently renting, which turns into a women's residence during the university school year. And so, after seriously misjudging our timing and our ability to find a house, I booked a furnished downtown condo for the months of September and October. Two days later we made an offer to purchase a house, only to find out that the owners want to leave by the end of September! Now we are scrambling to remove the conditions on the offer -- arranging for a house inspection and the mortgage -- and we are crossing our fingers that the nice woman at the condo rental agency will be able to find another renter for October!

If all goes well with our offer to purchase the house, I will be able to share more details about it in the next few days. I'll keep you posted!

Stolen Identity!

Last week while on my daily grocery shopping trip to the mall just across Tillicum Road, I had my credit card refused -- not just once, but twice. Curious, but not really bothered by it, I pulled out my only other credit card and paid for the groceries. (Isn't our society wonderful? We have multiple ways to rack up consumer debt almost instantaneously!)

When I phoned the credit card company the next morning, I was in for a shock. After identifying myself through the answers to several personal questions, I was asked if I had been in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, or India on Thursday. Having traveled a lot in France and Germany as late as the end of June (those might have been harder questions), I could readily and emphatically answer, "No!"

I then had a very interesting chat with the customer service agent who told me that someone had tried to charge $1300 worth of clothing on my credit card in a store in Saudi Arabia. That transaction had been blocked, but then the person tried to charge $800 at the same store (probably thinking that the credit limit had been exceeded). That transaction was blocked, too. Then the next day, someone else tried to use the card somewhere in India for electronic goods.

When I asked how this could have been done, he said the most common way is for thieves to install their own card reader at a store, and then come back later and pick it up -- now with all the digital information about people's credit cards recorded on them. They then produce phony cards and use the internet to sell the cards to willing buyers. I don't know how much a person would pay for a stolen credit card, but in my case, the buyers -- more than one, because I'm assuming that very few people are in Saudi Arabia one day and India the next -- got a really bad deal -- not even a flash pair of new jeans!

Wondering whether this had been done while we were still in Europe or after we had returned to Canada, I asked about the timing. Do these thieves wait for weeks or months before creating the phony cards, or do they do it right away? Unfortunately, my customer service guy was no help with that. Sometimes it happens quickly, but he told me that one thief had waited more than 10 months. So while it could have happened during our stay in Europe, I suspect that it occurred back here in Canada. While in Europe we used our Canadian credit card very rarely, preferring instead to pay out of our French bank account. These French cards are not credit cards; they're more like debit cards, and you need to have a PIN number for them, which makes it more complicated for thieves.

This all leaves me wondering just who these people are who can so brazenly use what they know is a stolen credit card. I might have a bit of sympathy if they tried to use it for groceries or health care, but expensive clothing and electronics -- give me a break!

The upside to this story is that it leaves me with more confidence in the credit card company's ability to recognize when a credit card number has been stolen. Before we left for France last year, I phoned the company to let them know that we would be living there and traveling throughout Europe, and they made a note in our file. In all that time, we never had a transaction refused. The other thing that the customer service guy reminded me is to always verify the transactions that have been posted to your account. That usually isn't an issue for me, because I check my account online at least every few days. He also reminded me that you have 30 days to report a suspicious transaction, or you may be liable for it. Luckily, it didn't even get that far.

In the end, that account was closed, and in four business days I was able to pick up a new card from the bank down the street. My whole identity wasn't stolen -- just a little piece of it, and for a very brief time -- but it feels good to get the whole me back.

Arrival in Victoria!

We've actually been in the Greater Victoria area for a few days, enjoying our temporary rental suite and exploring the city. On Wednesday Mark started his new job as Director of Forest Worker Safety, while the kids and I have been researching available houses on the internet and driving around Saanich to get a feel for the neighbourhoods. Perhaps it was the European experience, but the kids have turned out to be excellent navigators!

Our trip from Strasbourg to Victoria was circuitous but relatively trouble-free, except for the six lost pieces of luggage! (which caused us to almost miss our plane in Toronto and delayed our departure to Manitoba for a day). We stayed in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, with my mom for a few days on each end of our trip and took two days each way to drive to Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, to visit with Mark's parents. On the way to Victoria we stopped in Vernon, BC, to visit with our friends Wendy and Ray, whose kids are attending Family French Camp.


I've always enjoyed the scenery while driving through the Rocky Mountains -- a favourite family winter weekend outing when I was very young was to drive five hours to sit in the hot pool at Radium Hot Springs, so I know the road fairly well.


However, for the last 17 years we have driven north on Highway 93 towards Jasper to go home to Burns Lake. This time, we chose a more southern route, heading west toward Field and Golden.


Although it felt somewhat like the old trip with my mom and dad, this time it had a special significance -- I'm now the mom, and we were heading with our kids toward Victoria and our new life in Canada.


It's amazing how fast one acclimates back to one's home country. I think it had something to do with the fact that we were so busy traveling and visiting when we first got back to Canada -- our usual summer holiday activities. It was almost as if the whole past year had never happened! The change from the cobblestones, French, and Euros to asphalt, English, and Canadian dollars took only a matter of hours. Although I am nostalgic for France and Europe, I can't say that we stayed there long enough for it to permeate into my being. I was getting quite a bit easier with the French language by the time we left, but it was still a relief to come back to an English-speaking world.

Yesterday as the kids and I were getting our new library cards, I reflected back to the same experience in Strasbourg at the beginning of our stay: we all went as a family, and Mark did all the talking because his French is much better than mine (and those of you who know me will understand how difficult it is for me to let Mark do all the talking!) In contrast, yesterday was a breeze. But what a joy it is to have our French experience and be able to share it with other people! Our new librarian was very interested to hear how the library system worked at the Bibliotheque Municipale de Strasbourg, like the fact that we were charged different rates for a library card depending on how many and what type of items we wanted to borrow.


From library cards to looking at schools and going to (and looking for) work, we are now settling down to real life in Victoria. It's a small but beautiful city, and there will be many opportunities for us and the kids to pursue over the next few years. We're looking forward to it!

How's your summer going? Email us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Check out our photos on flickr

Eating out (or not)

We haven't been out to very many restaurants in Strasbourg or on our trips throughout Europe this year. Eating out in Europe is generally very expensive, but our eating at home is not really a backlash against the high prices. Even in Canada, we don't go out to restaurants very much, for a few reasons. First, and probably most importantly, both Mark and I really like to cook, so we share the cooking duties almost equally.


We have our family favourites from what I like to call "international fusion cuisine", and we also like to try out new recipes. The other reason for not going out is that it is difficult to find a restaurant that all of us (read: the children) like. When we're away from home and forced to eat in a restaurant, we finally found that the best strategy is to order a selection of dishes that we think everyone will like, and then share them around.


The challenge has often been to decipher the menu. I do fairly well with menus in French, but I have to really work with the German (luckily there's always Mark -- don't go to Germany without him!) He's very good with both languages, but even he can be fooled, like the time he ended up with veal kidneys in a nice mustard sauce!

Although we haven't dined out in the evening much, we have gone out for a few lunches, which has usually been a result of our time management (or lack thereof!) When we've had visitors, our days have gone something like this:

• Plan to wake up and get going early for a day trip
• Get up relatively late (just the rest of us -- Mark always gets up early!)
• Have breakfast between 10 and 11 a.m.
• Take a long time to get everyone out the door (sometimes due to eight or ten people trying to use the toilet one last time!)
• Debate about postponing the departure because it's almost lunch time
• Leave anyway
• Have everyone get hungry almost right away

At this point, there's two options -- find a boulangerie (bakery), patisserie (pastry store) or épicerie (small grocery store), grab some pastries or other snacks and carry on, or find a café. Most of the time we like to grab something and carry on, but sometimes -- when it's too cold, too hot, or day five of non-stop sightseeing -- it's better to sit and relax in a café.


It's coming to an end...

This will be my last blog posting from France. I'm sad because I feel that I have many stories still left to tell, ones that are better told "on location". I may still write about France, but to me it won't have the same authentic feel as it does when I sip on a glass of Alsatian Riesling and listen to the sound of the cathedral bells tolling outside the balcony window.

But all good things must come to an end, and we're heeding my mother's advice by leaving the party while we're still having fun. Thanks to you all for sharing this great adventure with us! However sad we feel about our adventure coming to an end, it is balanced against our excitement about moving back to BC and the opportunities this will provide for us and the kids. (Stay tuned -- more on this later).

What are your summer plans? Email us at christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

See our pictures on flickr