Coffee Shop's

In Canada coffee shops are ten a penny in every town and city.  Whether it's a large chain shop or a small independent coffee shop.  A lot of Canadians cannot function in a morning without their coffee shop coffee.  One of the best known and very popular coffee shops is Tim Horton's.

So when there was a survey asking Canadians to vote for their favourite brand of coffee, you would think that the number one spot would go to Tim Horton's?  It turns out the number one brand is McDonald's, McCafe. and I for one am in agreement.  I find Timmies (as that is what we locals call Tim Horton's) is much too strong for me and has a bitter after taste.  I will drink it in a push.  I cannot stand Starbucks at all, that is way, way too strong.

We occasionally go to Coffee Culture, but more times than enough I end up having a tea there.  McDonald's has come a long way in the past few years with their brand.  I will say I did not like the McDonald's coffee in the States, they use a different brand.  Here is a link to show you want we can get at McDonald's McCafe.

If you want to see what position your favourite coffee shop brand coffee came in at, click on this link.  

I did enjoy the milky coffee's that you get in Britain, they are the best too my mind.  In the States I liked Dunkin Donuts the best.  I take my coffee with just 2 milk.  How do you take your coffee?

I got lost on the way home yesterday?????

I mean really.........it was a bloody comedy of errors I swear.

I had been out and decided to take a "short cut" up a road I had never traveled before.  I am going to assume in all of Canada, but don't know for a fact, in the countryside we have side roads and concessions.  The side roads go west to east and the concessions go north to south.  To separate counties they call that concession "so and so" town line road.  Are you following???

So being a "clever clogs" I decide to scoot up one of those town line roads, as I knew where I was stopping at next was on the east side of this road.  Great plan, until the road went around a corner and I was supposed to "turn off" instead of following the road.

No problem I thought I would just scoot up another concession.  Yes the road was paved, but then it turned into a gravel road, which of course had just been recently graveled.  Believe me when I say you HAVE to slow down as if you do decide to try and go faster it feels as though you are skating on ice.

I was cringing the whole time as despite going slow I could hear all the stones pinging against the underneath of my car.  It was like a dust storm behind me, so all I could think of my black car will now be brown.

Then to add insult to everything I was eating my lunch as I was driving; one of those new lunch wrap's from Tim Hortons (got a coupon for a free one) and I took it out of the packaging and melted cheese sauce went right down the front of me...............

Luckily at my next stop I was able to wipe myself down and look sort of presentable.  I am staying in today it's safer!!

Are you ready for Halloween yet?

I know it's only July, but saw this in Canadian Tire today:

 Even I did a double take to make sure I saw what I thought I saw.........

Anyone else loving the Strawberry Shortcake muffins?  They are so good, but more like a cake than a muffin if you ask me.  I had on with a medium coffee, one cream and one milk please!!

Picked up a bird feeder pole system from Wild Birds Unlimited.  It clamps onto the deck and you can have multiple configurations.

 It took the birds no time at all to find it.  You can see more about them here.  They are not cheap, but once you have got it, it should last for years.

As you can see from the photo above, some of our neighbours have grass......we don't.

Finally here is a photo of our little Munchkin in her swing.  She was more interested in chewing the ties than the swing.

She can now pull herself up to standing when she is sat on the sofa........now the fun begins!!

Happy Birthday dd

It's her birthday today, and between me and you she is closer to 30 than she is too 20!!!  They are coming up to our house and we are taking her, son-in-law and son out for lunch, as this will be the last time without there being a baby present we are guessing.  Just over three weeks to go now.  This is her last week at work also.  She is taking two weeks vacation and then starts her maternity leave of one year.

Went to see Our Little Princess on Saturday.  They came back from India on Wednesday and Our Little Princess had been ill had caught some sort of bug so she had lost a couple of pounds in weight.  Plus she has a little bit of a cough.

She is now crawling and can pull herself up to standing.  I think she'll be walking in no time as she was at the end of the sofa and headed towards me.  Wasn't sure about me when I first walked in, but soon warmed up to me after a while.  I think her head has grown as has her hair.  Her mom says she is a lot darker, but I didn't really think so?  She has one of those funny bandana bibs on. 

And yes their family room is yellow and orange in colour and it does look really good.  I would never have dreamed of putting those two colours together but it really works.

Dh and I were in Tim Hortons later on and I see the Christmas cups are out now.  Notice how I take the top off the Raspberry Muffin and eat the bottom first!!!

Couple of funny things that happened on Tuesday...........

We were stopped at a police check point, as they were trying to catch people drinking and driving......not a problem........though it was only 10:30 am!  The expressions on our face I bet said it all: "Who the heck will be drunk at that time of the morning?"

Went into the Mall and they have moved everything around again........either that or I am getting even more senile!!  Am I the only one that can go to the mall or shopping centre and never find the stores in the same place as you can remember?

 Bloody Hockey season has started, or at least the friendly games.  Baseball season hasn't even ended yet?  Can't stand either sport.  However I wanted to show you how far I will go to support the Toronto Maple Leafs...............I will buy and eat their donut at Tim Horton's along with the $1 Latte, no sugar please!!

Away on Friday to Niagara on the Lake.........

We were given a gift card for a nights accommodation and a meal to one of the Vintages hotels in Niagara on the Lake by the kids for our wedding anniversary.

Dh took Friday off work as we had some jobs to be done that could only be done through regular working/opening hours.  So we were on our way to Niagara on the Lake before 10am and were there before 12 noon.

We were staying the night at The Prince of Wales hotel and having dinner at the Pillar and Post Inn. Our room was not in the main hotel but in the building next door.  We were on the ground floor next to the main door in and out of the building.  As hotel rooms go it was nice; but have been in hotel rooms just as nice.  The shower in the bathroom was my favourite thing and I had two long and luxurious showers while there.  We had a King Bed room and it wasn't that big, but adequate.  There was only one "comfy" chair and there wasn't room to move it so you could watch TV.  There were two bottles of water and three oranges in your room as a gift.  Plus Keurig coffee and tea making facilities.  I went back to the front desk and got tea and a jug of milk for our room.

When we got back in from dinner we discovered dh must have a girlfriend as there was this on his pillow!!

Personally I would have preferred chocolates, but that's just me!!

The dinner at The Pillar and Post was gorgeous.  The meal itself was perfect and here is the menu we got to choose from.  We had an amuse-bouche of watermelon and grapefruit drink.  If you like pulp in your juice then you would have loved this.  Dh does not so I got to drink his also!!!  Dh had the romaine salad to start, and I had the The Seafood Sampler Platter, of a crab cake, a white cheddar and lobster souffle and two lemon and garlic jumbo shrimp.

Dh then had bacon wrapped Beef Tenderloin with mushrooms, beets and baked potato.  I had White Crab Cannelloni: Hand Rolled Ricotta Cannelloni with White Crab and Sweet Corn Sherry Cream, Rocket Spinach and Crisp Fennel.  That was so good and dh really enjoyed his. This was the only good photo I took of our meal.

For dessert I had creme brulee with cherries and dh had amaretto cheesecake with warm strawberry sauce.  I also had an Irish Coffee and dh had wine.

We ended up having our dessert in the bar, as it was hot in the restaurant and a large investment company was having a family getaway weekend for it's employees and 150 of them including their children (lots of young babies) were having a buffet in the other end of the restaurant, so it was also noisy.

The meal though was just perfect.  However between me and you when we walked back to the hotel, someone had made the foot path windy while we were in there having our meal.  As I know it wasn't windy on the way there.  All I had was the Irish Coffee to drink, but again between me and you, I think they poured the whole whiskey bottle in my glass!!  It doesn't help that I rarely drink alcohol.

When we got back to our hotel we sat outside of the hotel having a cup of tea and a cup of coffee and here are some photos I took:

 This was in the main foyer of the Pillar and Post hotel, lovely painting.

You could have a ride in a carriage around town, we saw a party of four give her $70 and they were only gone half an hour.

 This was in front of The Prince of Wales hotel.

 This was one the way to the building where we were staying, that fountain is to the side of the main hotel building.

This was in the main foyer of the Prince of Wales hotel and was stunning, my photo does not do it justice at all.

Although we had a lovely time, I honestly think the hotel is over rated and very pricey.  The service was impeccable and its those little extra touches that you pay for.  I have stayed in "regular" hotels where the rooms were as nice for a fraction of the price.  However, we are so grateful to the kids for giving us this experience as it's somewhere we would never have gone if we had, had to pay for it ourselves and they knew that. 

We looked around Niagara on the Lake on Friday afternoon but it got hot and humid.  On Saturday we decided against paying $14 each for two fried eggs, a sausage, bacon and potato pancake at the hotel, plus $3.50 for a cup of tea and headed to Tim Hortons for breakfast............I know how could we eat anything after having that huge meal.  For me all I wanted was a decent cup of tea!!!  We headed home and were home before lunch time, as again Saturday was hot and humid and I do not like that type of weather.

Got more to share with you, but this is enough for one day I think.

Gangnam Style?

I have just got on the Gangnam Style bandwagon after watching him on Ellen the other week.  I wish I could remember the exact conversation I had with dd about it.

It sort of went:

Me: it's called what?

DD: Psy Gangnam Style

Me: gang what

DD: Gangnam

Me: gang who?

It went on for another couple of minutes before I actually got it, then I was saying GANG- NAM too slowly.  Poor dd I think she is finally realizing her mother is getting old and senile!!!!

I read Daily Mail Uk every day online and there was a story about Lisa Marie Presley and how she helped out in a local chip van.  What cracked me up was the comment from the woman who owned the chip van, who was asked if she would employ Lisa Marie:

Asked if she would employ Lisa Marie, Mrs Scales joked to MailOnline: 'No way! She got the fish all upside down and was totally cack-handed.'

It's been years since I have heard that expression "cack handed."  It means she was all thumbs, or very un-coordinated.

I finally gave in on Saturday and spent $3.49 on this:

Money well spent in my humble opinion!!!

Photo of Molly and the kitchen.........

I was taking photos of the kitchen (more about that later) and Molly wandered into the kitchen to see if I was cooking and I snapped her in one of the photos.

I would dearly love a new kitchen as ours has seen better days, but we just don't have the money to pull it all out and re-do it how I would really like, so we are planning on doing a "mini" renovation after we finish the basement.

We are going to replace the sink, taps and counter tops and the hardware.  Also fully replace the under sink cupboard and put the old doors back on.  In the scheme of things not a big deal, but I do hope it freshens it up and makes it look a lot tidier.

It poured down on Tuesday, so it was a good day to run some errands to get those silly jobs that have been wanting done for a long time done.  We also headed to Cookstown Outlet Mall but once again didn't buy anything.  As outlet malls go, its not the greatest; although I could have spent a small fortune in the Villeroy and Boch store and would love to have this pattern for my dinnerware.

I have also discovered a new to me drink at Tim Hortons which I adore, Blueberry White Tea, which I have with two milks.  It is like having a sweet treat without all the extra calories.

Top or bottom first?

Saturday morning, we decided to go to The Garden Gallery in Barrie, as they were having a home show and it was free admission!!!

We stopped on the way there for a Timmies..........you know you're a fully fledged Canadian when you can't go anywhere without popping to Tim Hortons for a coffee and a donut or muffin.

I had a medium coffee with one cream and two milk and a raspberry muffin:

Just out of curiosity, do you eat the top or the bottom of your muffin first?  I eat the bottom first and leave the top for last, as that's the best bit in my opinion.

As we were wandering through the garden centre, we stumbled upon this Christmas tree all decked out for Halloween. Never seen anything like it before?

Then there was this Christmas tree all decked out in fall flowers:

At this rate we'll be keeping our Christmas trees up year round!!!!

Really ingenius........

Over here in Canada and I know in Britain, we celebrate Remembrance Day on November 11th.  Between now and then veterans sell Poppies that we pin onto our lapels.  On Saturday dh and I went into town and called into Tim Hortons for a coffee and donut.  Standing just after the speaker in the drive through was a veteran selling his poppies.  He was doing a roaring trade and I thought he was very ingenious; as that drive through is very busy and basically he had a captive audience!!!

I spent part of Saturday outside doing some tidying up.  I noticed our neighbour out back was also busy.  He is busy planting another "forest!!"  He planted the one on the right last year, and is putting the one on the left now.

No idea where he is getting all the trees from.  He has all the correct equipment to dig the holes and plant the trees....

Our company arrives today, so I will probably not be visiting many blogs over the next three weeks, but will try and post every day.  Oh and only 6 more sleeps to the wedding day.......

Interesting day on Tuesday............

I had the doctors appointment on Tuesday morning and a dentist appointment. What was interesting is that the dental hygienist's sister is a visual effects person in LA. She was telling me that she was working on promotional material, i.e. promotional video's for Michael Jackson's upcoming tour when he died.

When he died all production shut down, and what was done has been made into the movie "This Is It." She met Michael Jackson and although he looked very sickly and thin, he was very friendly and very, very creative.

I met a friend for lunch and she works as a buyer for a large grocery chain, that sells the PC brand.......

Anyhow, we had lunch in their head office (where she is based) cafeteria. What a lovely place it is, and so bright and modern. You can only eat there if you are with an employee. They had a super selection of items to choose from and of course they are all PC items. They were all well priced and everything looked so good. We had a BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato) sandwiches, with veggies and chips (crisps), and I had a bottle of water and paid under $12. It was so good also to see "R" and catch up. I really miss her, and we don't see one another often enough. By the way there are 2,500 employees working in this location.

On the way home I called into Tim Hortons, and picked up half a dozen donuts. Anyone else loving the pumpkin spice donuts? They are so yummy I could eat them morning, noon and night.

I had some phone calls to make when I got home. I ordered oil for the heating. We have half a tank still, but I figured we may as well get it in now and then its done with hopefully until after Christmas.

The gasket has started to come off the wood burning stove door. I called in at the store last week, and they gave me some glue, but that didn't do the trick. So now I have to take the door into the store and they will replace the whole of the gasket. Fingers crossed it works then.

Finally, I got a referral to go and see an allergist. The date of my appointment, November 30th.....I think it's a long wait as he only works certain days every week.

Molly's allergies are still as bad. So I need to call the vet to see what she has to say, as I gave her an allergy pill on Tuesday night, to see if she would stop chewing.

So all in all a pretty interesting day. Oh and we had an envelope in the mail box from the local fire department, with their 2010 calendar and a letter and envelope looking for a donation. I am not sure how I feel about donating, or why I should donate.........any thoughts? By the way I donate on a monthly basis to the Canadian Cancer Society, so I am not against donating, I am just not sure WHY I should donate to the fire department?