Fish and chips and pillows?

Why don’t they have plain white vinegar here….well they have vinegar here, malt vinegar, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar but not plain white vinegar.

I need it for two reasons…

1. It goes in both of my favourite summer salads (pasta and broccoli) and the only reason I haven’t made them in 3.5 years is because I can’t find the right vinegar (and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I haven’t really made anything in the past 3.5 years that wasn’t pre packaged, cooked, seasoned etc)
2. Its good at cleaning and disinfecting stuff and is cheap…I think at home you could get 5 gallons for 25 cents or something like that.  The reason this has come up is because I bought these pillows that you can wash in your washing machine and they suggested putting a bit of vinegar in the wash to kill the dust mites …now I am terrified of dust mites and want them all dead so need vinegar (but am happy to resort to bleach if I have to)

The wrong vinegar...for both my salad and my pillows

I have checked everywhere for my familiar white vinegar….well everywhere being our three major grocery chains and they don’t have it so that leads me to believe that white vinegar is something of a North American phenomenon. I did read that some people use malt vinegar and newspaper to clean their windows in the UK so is malt the equivalent to white vinegar? Could I really wash my pillows in malt vinegar?  I fear the hubby will wake up craving fish and chips if I do that….

Home for a rest…

We are home from another trip to Canada…this time it was for a wedding that the hubby was in and I was the emcee. Being home made me realise a few things:
1) I can’t eat like I used to…the portions seem huge and I have no idea how I ever got through a full Keg steak in the past
2) Canadians don’t use the word redundant like we do here, there it is only used when being repetitive versus here where it is used to mean that you lost your job ie being made redundant
3) I miss ketchup chips (crisps), rye (and coke or ginger ale), Swedish berries and Caesars
4) Driving on a sunny day while cranking up the radio and singing along is fun however traffic jams and trying to find parking is not
5) It is dumb that you can’t buy alcohol in a grocery store in Canada
6) The Go train is huge – this is our equivalent to the overground and has two levels but I forgot how big it was until I stood beside one and it towered over me (to be fair most things tower over me)

7) Everything is big, the mayonnaise containers, washing machines and grocery stores

8.) Being charged for incoming calls on mobile phones is ridiculous and I have no idea why mobile providers in Canada/US have been getting away with it for this long
9) I love that taxes are included in the prices in the UK – less math for me to do
10) Tim Hortons is the Canadian equivalent to the pub, people go there to relax, read the newspaper or meet friends and it makes them happy (although unlike a pub you can grab a drink and take it in the car)

I am sure there are more but that’s all I can think of for now as I am still tired from the wedding and the flight….

A Canadian caffeine kick in jolly old…

For us it was the Canadian version of the Loch Ness monster or bigfoot…someone once told me that there was a Tim Horton’s in London but in 3 years we hadn’t yet run across it. For those of you unfamiliar, Tim Horton’s is a Canadian coffee shop chain (named after a hockey player) that has become a Canadian institution (see my previous post).

A Tim Horton’s coffee is the drink that hockey moms warm their hands around while sitting for hours in the local ice rink, it’s a pick me up for a long drive or help with a hangover. As with the assumption in the US that there is a Starbucks on every corner, in Canada there is a Tim Horton’s on every corner, in every mall and at every rest stop on the highway. So you can see why we were interested to find such a home comfort in London.

After wandering the general vicinity in London we found it. To be fair it is not its own standalone store its merely a section of a SPAR (British equivalent to a 7-11 or Mac’s). Feeling all nostalgic we went in. We were a bit disappointed to see that the coffee came from a vending machine type thing but were happy to see the traditional cups (oooh the little things).  They also had some donut but they just didn’t look the same plus, they didn’t have the walnut crunch that the hubby likes or the one with sprinkles on it that I like.  So we passed on the donut and went straight for coffee – regardless of the fact that it wasn’t being served to us by a friendly person in a tan blouse and a visor.

The coffee looked okay but sadly they only had milk to put in it vs the 18% cream that is in normal Tim Horton’s coffee. Once we were all poured and sugared we took the first official taste test…and sadly it was pretty bad, although it smelled pretty much the same, my coffee was completely watered down and didn’t have that creamy taste, the cappuccino was a surprise hit so the hubby agreed to trade with me as I was clearly not enjoying my coffee water (aawww).

So, we can confirm that Tim Horton’s coffee can be purchased in London. As unimpressed as I was with their actual coffee, you can still buy the grounds there and make your own Tim Horton’s coffee at home which will save us from having to fill our suitcase with tins of it on our next trip to Canada.

I was hoping however, that while walking around London with a Timmie’s cup, we would attract at least one Canadian on holiday or an ex-pat or two but unfortunately no one was ooot and aboot…shame as we could do with a few more friends here as a bunch of ours have repatriated (love that word!).

No wonder our bags felt heavy

Today is one of my favourite days…it’s a Friday before a long weekend…the only better day is the Friday before a holiday…or maybe the Friday you retire but since that day is over 9000 working days for me I will take the two aforementioned Fridays.

 

Anyway I am looking forward to this long weekend as I plan to do nothing…well not really nothing because I have a list of things to do as long as my arm starting at laundry and ending at picking out paint colours and flooring (as we are buying our flat and want to make it look like a proper flat and not somewhere we have just been squatting in for almost 3 years).   In between those chores however I plan to sleep, eat and sit on the couch and catch up on some sleep from our trip. 

 

I am also looking forward to tucking into some of my favourite foods which we smuggled back into the country including:

 

 

Cheeze Whiz- a processed cheese – or cheez rather – that you can put on everything from toast to celery or melted over broccoli…mmm

 

 

 

 

 

  

Kraft Peanut Butter – tastes marginally like peanuts but probably more like sugar. How can you resist, it’s got bears on it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Franks Red Hot- hot sauce like tobasco but thicker…like a ketchup tobasco or kabasco hahaha – that’s for the hubby I don’t like hot stuff, I find pepper spicy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marshmallows- I brought back two bags but already ate one and a half – had a few for breakfast mmmmm.  I bet the second bag will be done by tonight or tomorrow morning

 

 

 

Kraft Dinner  – for the hubbie – basically boxed macaroni and cheese but fake cheese – but they don’t put the z in this cheese

 

 

 

 Creamy Cucumber Salad Dressing – couldn’t find a picture of this stuff…this flavour and Catalina are my favourite dressings, you can’t get the same massive selection of salad dressing here. It’s either a few flavours of Kraft – Italian, thousand island, balsamic or some random Newman’s own flavours…not the shelves and shelves of options we have!

 

Jello pudding- not to be confused with the British notion of pudding which actually means dessert, in Canada pudding is a thick mousse type stuff made with milk…but you technically eat it for dessert so in Britain I could say I am having pudding for pudding hahaha

 

 

Microwave butter popcorn - you can get microwave popcorn here but its not as good…

 

 

 

 

Wow that sounds like a lot of stuff.  Did I mention we brought an entire set of pots and a new set of utensils?  No wonder air lines are cutting back on their baggage allowance…its cause of people like us!!

 

Time to go home now…yay!

As Canadian as…

We are heading back home to Canada at the end of the week and I am quite excited…not only for some new blog material but to see the family and friends…so far we have a birthday, wedding, stag & doe, stagette, parents anniversary, family BBQ and three new babies to meet so needless to say we will be fairly busy.  On top of that we need to go to our favourite restaurants which include a wing restaurant, steak restaurant and rotisserie chicken restaurant and of course stopping by Tim Hortons for a coffee (it’s mandatory or they won’t renew our passport).

For those of you non Canadians reading this blog, Tim Hortons is a coffee chain similar to (but waaaay better than) the American chain called Dunkin Donuts and is known across the country for their filter coffee…to put it in perspective if you were to drive from Toronto to Ottawa (5 hour 55 minute drive) you would encounter 87 Tim Hortons locations (thanks to this handy Tim Hortons finder on their website). 

On a side note I tried to get it to calculate a route entirely across Canada to see how many you could encounter but the stupid mapping software takes you through the USA...there aren’t any Tim Horton’s in the USA, great tool guys, thanks.

 

 

 

Tim Hortons is also synonymous with the Canadian phrase ‘double double’…meaning double cream double sugar (in your coffee) If you ever find yourself in Canada, rock into one of the numerous Tim Hortons locations and order a medium double double and you will have just written your ticket to Canadian-hood, not long after uttering this Canadian phrase your Canadian passport will arrive along with your plaid shirt and keys to your brand new igloo…it doesn’t get much more Canadian than Tim Hortons. 

PS Tim Horton was a hockey player…told ya it didn’t get more Canadian than that.

What are you wearing?

Today is meant to be the hottest day of the summer so far in London.  To celebrate I have dragged out my best Primark dress and my white ‘milk bag’ legs (the term lovingly given to my legs by my hubbie due to their pale colour – not cause they are short stubby and jiggly…I hope).

 

Its days like today that remind me that I do miss the heat of a Toronto summer (yes for those of you who have never been to Canada and are reading this…our igloos don’t’ last all year, they melt in the summer and we get extremely hot and humid summers).   With this heat came a nice summery tanned glow that my friends and I seemed to acquire throughout the summer and by August when you wanted to don a cute dress for the various summer weddings, your winter white legs had a nice roasted marshmallow colour to them (mmm roasted marshmallows).   

 

Now we do get sun here and I have gotten a bit of a tan on my arms but you don’t get the guaranteed sun like we did at home. Once end of July/August rolled around at home pretty much every day was sunny and cloud free…here you get the sun but it is usually accompanied by patchy clouds making it feel slightly cooler (although London would never see temps in the 30’s like in Toronto) making you less likely to lie out in your bathing suit for weekends on end.

 

The one great thing about London however is that literally anything goes…and by anything I include pasty white legs.  As I shuffled to work trying to pull my dress down to show off less of my milk bags I looked around and saw loads of girls strutting confidentially to work in dresses with (almost) whiter legs than mine, not seeming to care at all.  I do love that most Londoners have this air of confidence about them that allows them to wear clothes that certainly would get funny looks in Canada.  The thing is that they don’t seem to care if you think they look funny… white legs, short shorts, high top dock martins, fedoras (seriously saw that this morning) and all.  

 

 

It is tricky as I have spent most of my life thinking that everything in my wardrobe had to match, that leggings would never some back in style and knowing that summer meant an end to my incredibly pasty white-ness.  All of which are untrue in London….that in mind I am doing my best to be adventurous and adopt the ‘I don’t care what you think of my outfit’ attitude while roaming around the city.  The hard part will be when I repatriate to Canada for a week in August to attend a fabulous summer wedding in Toronto with my cute new dress with my pasty white legs. Come to think of it, I seem to recall my ‘don’t care attitude’ has a bit of a fear of flying….might leave her behind to watch Coronation street.  We arrive in Toronto a week before the wedding so I can use that to try and get back to my toasted marshmallow-ie glow…anyone else craving marshmallows?

Happy Canada Day!

Today Canada (see map I made above for those of you needing help geographically locating said country) officially turns 141 which seems young considering most of the buildings on my street in London are just slightly younger than that and that I have drank in pubs that are older than the country in which I was born.

I am not sure how I will mark the occasion as usually I am waking up in my igloo, throwing down a shot of maple syrup, hugging my pet moose and enjoying the day ice fishing with my pet huskies. Lacking most of that I think I will take the maple leaf badge off my backpack (rucksack for you Brits), sew it to my shirt and proudly walk around London (although most people will still think I am American). I might also indulge in a drink or two of Canadian Club rye and Coke from my maple leaf flask. If I am feeling really adventurous, I might head down to The Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden, stand in the queue for 2 hours (I tried to get today off as a holiday so I could get in the queue early but apparently Canadian isn’t a religion so doesn’t qualify as a religious holiday) only to get in and say eh, aboot and talk about last year’s hockey season with my fellow Canadians.

Anyway wherever you are and whatever you are doing today if you see a crazy person proudly sporting a maple leaf badge or other Canadian paraphernalia give them a little smile for me eh?

Got my ’sporin!

Thank you to the lovely Patrick for sending me some Polysporin….look at it in all its medicinal glory.  You can’t read it but that banner on the is drawing attention to it’s Heal Fast technology, great stuff, why let nature take its course when you can take advantage of Heal Fast technology!  I put it on last night and my hand is already much better (it was the polysporin or the fact the ‘accident’ happened over a week ago, my money is on the polysporin)

 

Anyway back to more of my rambles….I saw a sign on my way to work and thought it was kind of funny as it reminded me of something that would be on Jay Leno’s headlines on Tuesday nights.  That was my absolute favourite segment to watch on late night TV. For those of you not familiar Jay Leno is like Johnathan Ross but he has a headlines segment where viewers send in newspaper or magazine clippings that are either wrong, spelled incorrectly or are actually correct but really funny.   Video below shows some good ones…and below that, my kinda funny sign.

 

I don’t know much about law but I do know a little about marketing and if your name is Shaidy and your law firm is looking for a name, yours might not be the one I pick to represent the ‘& Co’.   I might just ask around to see if there were anyone else that was part of the & Co. that would volunteer.   Unless of course their aim is to actually provide Solicitors who don’t exactly work above the line -  in that case their name is brilliant!

I need some ’sporin

Okay so my running injury is looking a bit infected and goopy so I made a trip to Boots this morning to get some polysporin (or neosporin for your US readers or ‘triple antibiotic ointment’ for you store brand shoppers and for you UK readers ointment with antibiotics in it that you put on cuts and scrapes) . I was disappointed to find out however that UK pharmacies don’t carry antibiotic creams – they are only available by prescription….

Sorry? you want me to waste my time sitting in a GP office to show him my scraped hand so he can give me a prescription for something you can buy in thousands of pharmacies across Canada and the US? Forgive me as I am not a doctor but the majority of injuries antibiotic creams are used for would be little cuts and grazes from random MINOR household injuries, falling off a bike or being a sh*t runner. Don’t you think the NHS could benefit from having this cream available at pharmacies and keep the average-Joe-clumbsies our of their waiting rooms??

What I will do without my poly/neo sporin as I am missing out on triple infection protection against bacteria and 4x faster healing (who says marketing doesn’t work)? I did have a search through Boots’ ‘first aid’ aisle and found some super-fancy Elastoplast plasters (band-aids) with SILVER in them! The silver apparently kills harmful germs reducing the risk of infection….its no polysporin but they looked pretty so I bought it and will keep you posted.

If however I do contract some eczema-blue-goofus-of-the-honkus-tonkus infection from the London underground and have to have my hand amputated, I blame the NHS as I am sure a little antibiotic ointment on a plaster would have prevented it…in that case, I would be glad that they will have to pick up my surgery bill, serves them right!

Fine ‘American’ cuisine

I had a nice weekend, nothing particularly exciting but Saturday morning was quite warm so I was able to walk around without a coat on which is always a treat (ignoring the fact it rained from Saturday afternoon on til Sunday evening).  Saturday morning I headed off  to Sloane Square which is a perfect place to shop and people watch (two things I do quite well). 

There is a lovely, and fairly posh grocery store in the area that I like wandering through but this time I happened upon their ‘American’ food section which I hadn’t seen before.  I enjoyed perusing the shelves as I saw some old favourites that I had forgotten about and didn’t actually realise that they don’t sell here.  Things like Kraft salad dressing (they do sell it but only three flavours – Italian, Thousand Island and French, none of which are the same as the versions at home. and the packaging is entirely different), Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Jello etc. 

 

In hindsight, the section did seem mainly filled with sugary cereal, candy and cake mixes which probably doesnt’ give the English a very good perception of American nutrition but I did find myself with strange cravings for Creamy Cucumber salad dressing, York peppermint patties and bread and butter pickles (No, I am not pregnant, I am the queen of strange cravings though!) 

I had to resist though as both the pickles and salad dressing were both £3.50 ($7.00CDN) and my favourite brand of marshmallows were coming in at £2.25 ($4.50 CDN).  As they can be purchased for about half that in Canada, I think I will wait and gorge myself on these in August when I am home and spend my pounds on things I love from here – like curly wurly’s, prawn cocktail crisps, fish and chips and Magners cider!