From South to the North and back

It was a busy weekend for the ‘old ranger’. I was airborne aboard the Air Canada big bird on Thursday for a four-hour flight to the ‘Wild Rose Country’. It was as if the weather had my name written on it. I stepped out of the airplane and was hit by the cold whiff. The driver of the shuttle van , a recent immigrant from Dubai wondered why I was relocating from the near tropical weather of Oakville to the extreme cold winter of the North. My Siya meanwhile had called to find out how the flight was and soon was welcoming me and introducing me to colleagues at NorQuest College. A quick lunch later at an East Indian restaurant – nice buffet, and it was time to go see all the homes that had been scheduled for my viewing. See I did and Siya’s selection, I ratified. I was also shown the proposed schools for Sampi, Danju and Papa.
The next day I was largely home alone and working the phones negotiating mortgage terms with lenders- do I port my existing mortgage with all the attendant benefits or should we leverage our awesome credit score get a fresh clean mortgage. Meanwhile the weather refused to let up and the sun seemed to be in conspiracy with the cold to do me in. When life gives you lemons, you should not sit and brood, you get up and make lemonade. There is after all an upside to cold weather. Thanks be to God for duvets, comforters, fireplaces and …
Saturday was a nice mix of cold and sunshine. It’s in Canada that the sun can be shinning brightest and yet the cold will be tugging at your every fabric at the same time. You need to experience this to believe it. I did not fly 4 hours from Ontario to come and stay in indoors all through my visit here so I braved it and went with Omodu (an old buddy of mine dating back to when men were boys) and Siya to West Ed. Mall. I will be doing the readers of this Diary a disservice if I fail to mention that the West Edmonton mall is the biggest mall in the whole of North America. It covers 48 city blocks i.e. the size of 115 football fields. Now that is some humongous mall by any stretch of the imagination. It has over 50 entrances.
My flight back on Sunday arrived Toronto at about midnight and my angels were in ‘snooze land’ when I let myself into our home. I kissed each of them ( not that they would know but more for me as I’d missed them since Thursday).
If you remember, I had mentioned that Papa had his track meet scheduled for Monday which was why I had to be back by Sunday. The meet did hold and it was good to see my little guy ( he would kill me if he reads this because he hates to be called little guy) decked in his school track jersey and the lovely spike shoes with the spikes removed. His relay team was a bit weak and they came in third but; when it came to his specialty – 100 meters, he was in his elements. He literally burnt the tracks in the qualifying heats. The city finals was a close race and he was beaten at the tape by Christian -the contestant from St Bernadette.
The Regional Finals is on Thursday and he will race Christian and the other top two sprinters from the other cities. We will continue to ice his ankle which is yet to fully heal from the football game of last week and wish him the best on Thursday. Old ranger will be there and will bring you reports after the race.
Meanwhile, tomorrow is another football practice and his team needs him, so he will be on duty in his other role as a running back.
Stay ‘tuned’ in. Good night.