Since last week we have been in move mode, receiving deliveries of personal effects in long term storage and then other boxes from the Sea shipment. One thing is certain we will have to get rid of a lot of stuff, from porcelain to silverware, damask tablecloths, all kinds of things which have been accumulated through the years. Even some art work and maybe even oriental carpets I collected in my travels in the Middle East.
Its a painful process, many memories in each objects, however it must be done as we try to downsize and rationalize how we live. Apartments in Canada are small, in fact very small, most people live in one large room which is usually a kitchen, eat in area and living room, office combined with a separate bedroom and bath. Because we live in a throw away society, the only real item of furniture is the giant television set, apparently the standard size now is about 1.70 meter in size, it is difficult to find smaller sets, says a lot about Canadian society. We must be marginal people as we do not have a television set. Luckily for us our apartment is larger since our building was built in 1976 at a time when people were not forced to live in cramp quarters. A funny thing today, I was reading the Ottawa Citizen, the local newspaper, they have on weekends 2 sections in the papers devoted entirely to housing trends and house sales and new developments, what this is actually is free publicity for big developers, the reader is lead to believe that this is general information when in fact it is cleverly arranged promotional material for housing projects, with interviews of real estate agents and developers, telling the readers that this is what the public wants.
It seems that the Rupert Murdock school of journalism is alive and well in Ottawa.
Unpacking is going well, now it is a question of organizing and arranging our things. We will probably have to move in the future and at least with what we are now getting rid of, it will be less to worry about.
Though the whole process is exhausting.
Tomorrow its back to the Service Ontario Office to get temporary licence plates for the car. They are so concern about stolen cars, it is apparently an epidemic in Ontario, that you almost have to give blood to get a temporary licence plate. The entire attitude of the staff at the so called ''service centre'' is to treat every taxpayer as if he or she was a known criminal. I have to wonder who trained them to behave in this manner. Also wish government would stop using the word service, they are not providing a service, its a State Monopoly you have no choice.
Luckily so far the weather has cooperated and that is important when you move. Hopefully by next weekend most of this will be behind us.
Its a painful process, many memories in each objects, however it must be done as we try to downsize and rationalize how we live. Apartments in Canada are small, in fact very small, most people live in one large room which is usually a kitchen, eat in area and living room, office combined with a separate bedroom and bath. Because we live in a throw away society, the only real item of furniture is the giant television set, apparently the standard size now is about 1.70 meter in size, it is difficult to find smaller sets, says a lot about Canadian society. We must be marginal people as we do not have a television set. Luckily for us our apartment is larger since our building was built in 1976 at a time when people were not forced to live in cramp quarters. A funny thing today, I was reading the Ottawa Citizen, the local newspaper, they have on weekends 2 sections in the papers devoted entirely to housing trends and house sales and new developments, what this is actually is free publicity for big developers, the reader is lead to believe that this is general information when in fact it is cleverly arranged promotional material for housing projects, with interviews of real estate agents and developers, telling the readers that this is what the public wants.
It seems that the Rupert Murdock school of journalism is alive and well in Ottawa.
Unpacking is going well, now it is a question of organizing and arranging our things. We will probably have to move in the future and at least with what we are now getting rid of, it will be less to worry about.
Though the whole process is exhausting.
Tomorrow its back to the Service Ontario Office to get temporary licence plates for the car. They are so concern about stolen cars, it is apparently an epidemic in Ontario, that you almost have to give blood to get a temporary licence plate. The entire attitude of the staff at the so called ''service centre'' is to treat every taxpayer as if he or she was a known criminal. I have to wonder who trained them to behave in this manner. Also wish government would stop using the word service, they are not providing a service, its a State Monopoly you have no choice.
Luckily so far the weather has cooperated and that is important when you move. Hopefully by next weekend most of this will be behind us.
I am intrigued to hear about car theft in Canada; they like to toot how less violent Canada is compared to the States. Robertson Davies thought Canada had two great Myths ; the Myth of Difference and the Myth of Innocence.
ReplyDeleteWell today I did get my plates, the problem, no one appears to know how to operate the new system to issue licence plates, it took 5 people around one computer to figure it out. Much apologies about this is our first time you know, we never did this before. As for Myths yes our great Dominion is full of them, like any other country.
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