The Move is Over

This was our eleventh move since marrying forty nine years ago. Some were instigated by career changes, some by traffic congestion, some by curiosity - wanting to discover parts of Canada only seen in mags. 


Building a home on Vancouver Island was the most ambitious. In a walled retirement community of 500 plus the view overlooking Satellite Channel with a background of the southern hump of Saltspring Island was spectacular. On a cliff 80 feet above water our home was under a sparsely limbed Heritage fir where nesting Eagles launched themselves in an hourly hunt for prey. One afternoon we were startled with a dull thud as the fir, rotted with age, laid in pieces parallel to our property. Our home was spared by  strong Channel winds that felled the giant while convincing it to fall away from us.

The city of Victoria was our next haunt… within walking distance of the BC Parliament buildings and occupying half of a comfortable two level renovated duplex on Toronto Street. 

Then on to Burlington for ten years where ravine wild life kept our landscaped flower beds trimmed. Each year the varmints and the clay claimed what little I could grow each year - and so the cycle continued.

This recent move was motivated not by growing pains but by ageing pains needful of a significant change in life patterns. We were sold on the idea of an indoor exercise pool, sauna, a modest home theatre and party room, all the entrapments of condo living. 

Our easterly view is of the Toronto skyline; the northerly, of the Mississauga city centre. I like to think of this as my period of enlightenment. We’ve ’been there, done that’ in most normal life situations. Certainly we wouldn’t do ’it’ again given the chance. Not that we regretted anything but society and living patterns have altered considerably during our decades of family life. Not wanting change in a new world would be impossible. But now it was time to relax, to enjoy the spontaneity of conversations with strangers, to stop at a Starbucks for a coffee without a Blackberry stuck to our fingers, to take life less seriously.  

Buying into a new condominium building was enlightening. A 2008 occupancy was delayed two years and still there’s grout compound, cement dust and sealant on every surface. Thirty discrepancies need attention and elevators are slowed to a trickle by tradesmen and the activity from moving vans of residents anxious to set up house. Enlightenment continues... Let’s forget the turmoil and look on the bright side. I now have a room with a view and a wine chiller.  Now I can get back to StrictlyTasting.

Cheers, Ww