EVERY DAY LIFE IN LONDON, ONTARIO

London, Ontario
London is in the province of Ontario, Canada.  It is half-way around the world from Adelaide, so it is a very long way from home.  Here is a picture of London (not London, England!!!)  I think London looks a lot like Adelaide, what do you think, Mrs Cosh and year 2s?  The summer is warm and humid, and in the winter it snows!




An aerial view of London, Ontario

Our house
We lived on the grounds of Western University where my Dad worked.  The place is called Platt's Lane Estate.  We lived in a townhouse which was quite small.  It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and a living room and kitchen downstairs. The best part of our house was that we had a basement which had a lot of room for storing stuff. Platt's Lane is very big and has beautiful gardens and two playgrounds.  

Dad, James and Alex out the front of our townhouse - 416 Platt's Lane!!

 A view of the living room from the kitchen.

The stairs down to the basement or "Bat Cave"

 Dancing in the "Bat Cave"

BBQ on our back patio.

The view from our back patio.

 

The combined "backyard" of our block of 10 townhouses

The playground at Platt's Lane Estate

Our Friends
We made friends with the Ebel family.  Susan and Murray are the Mum and Dad and their kids are Ben (5) and Matheson (7).  We did lots of fun things with the Ebels.   We had BBQs and played together a lot.  Susan works at University with my Dad.

Ben and Alex hanging out.

Susan and Murray

Dad and Murray cooking Australian BBQ on Canada Day!

Ben, Alex, Matheson and James enjoying BBQ.



 

Susan and Mum

Alex and Matheson swimming in Ben and Matheson's indoor pool!

Base Ball (T-ball)

I played on a T-ball team with Matheson.  Matheson's dad Murray is the coach.  Murray is a very encouraging coach!  T-ball is a kid's version of baseball.  Instead of someone pitching the ball to you, you hit the ball from a tee.  Then, you run around the bases and field exactly the same as baseball.  We played every Monday and Wednesday night. At the end of the season we all received trophies.

My T-ball team (Matheson and I are in the back row)

A silly shot!

 

James on deck!

Fielding

Here I am playing "back-catcher" and being coached by Murray

As "back-catcher" setting up the ball on the tee.

James, Matheson and Alex

The Food

The national dish of Canada is called Poutine.  Poutine originally comes from Quebec, where everyone speaks French.  I think this is why the dish has a French-sounding name.  Poutine is a plate of fries covered in gravy and cheese.  Even though it sounds yucky, it tastes delicious. 

S'mores is a fun treat from Canada and the United States.  You usually cook it when you have a BBQ or a campfire.  You start with Graham crackers (pronounced Gram crackers) and add chocolate, then you roast marshmallows and add these on top. Next you put another Graham cracker on top and squish everything together.  The marshmallows melt the chocolate!!  Finally, you eat it like a sandwich, it tastes very yummy!

Eating Poutine!

Cooking S'mores  on the BBQ after dinner

Alex eating S'mores


Daddy at Work
Daddy enjoyed his work at the University of Western Ontario.  He worked very hard.  He did a lot of research and gave presentations.  He did a lecture to the whole University.  I think that would be a very scary thing to do!

Daddy giving his public lecture!

Forthcoming trips
I will write again about our trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto!