Okidoki, have to confess that I have been so excited to write about my time in Ontario cottage country that just as I have made it to the computer my mind is drawing a complete blank. Wonder why.
Anyways I hope alls well on your side of the fence as it is ...............wait a second. Talking about fences. Mine just got painted the other day. The outside of my home did too! Well, what do you know. I made the most unexpected announcement to my children that I had decided to sell and move, at the very first opportunity I had to tell them, on my return from Ontario!!
Lets just talk about it for two seconds and then we will head back to Highway 401 North. For many years I had contemplated moving away from the city. The City of Richmond more specifically. Nothing wrong with that wonderful place. I think that would have also meant moving away from too many people and moving closer to cows and horses. I know that together with dogs, these farm animals will always give you love unconditionally. Enough said. Hopefully I list my home soon after catching up on the landscaping and working on the curb appeal. Think Langley/Aldergrove would be nice but then who knows where Destiny will take me. I am not worried as She has done a very commendable job so far.
OK, so now we are on Highway 401 and are cruising at a little over the legal speed limit which is fine by me. Aggie says we will be at our destination at 10:15 p.m. She has a nice silky voice but her tone is another matter. She is now saying that we should turn on to Highway 400 after 2.8 kilometres. Quite impressive but a little too 'structured' for my taste. I cannot see her though and speculate that she is in her mid-50s and probably experiencing 'hot flashes' as it is getting quite warm in the car. Aggie could be generating heat. There's another heat source without the carbon footprint! We are making good progress though and by the next couple hours are heading North on Highway 11. It is getting dark and I do a quick calculation of the hours I have been 'on the road' and almost spontaneously ask if anyone would like to stop for dinner. I was more than ready for a meal as it was coming up to 12 hours since I had anything to eat. There was a unanimous 'yes' response. Mercifully, the town of Orillia was minutes away. After everyone in the car felt confident that I meant what I said when I said that 'Swiss Chalet is perfect' we made a beeline for the restaurant and had a hearty chicken meal with that oohh la la dipping sauce. Why this restaurant never made it in BC is still something of an amazement. It maybe the size of their menu. Limited by BC standards. Or the decor. Vancouverites like to go for a dining experience with colour-coded walls, millwork and furniture. Ontarians don't care about the ambience. They are in a rush most of the time anyways. I say do what you are best at doing. Swiss Chalet definitely does chicken best.
By this time my cousin's wife had had enough of driving and I was kind of happy that Rishma, her Nike (just do it) kind daughter, took over the controls. Yeah, quite seriously the controls. She owns this one and half year old Suzuki something and the driver's seat is like a cockpit. Buttons here and there and brightly lit knobs of all sizes all over the dash. Nice. Wonder if you need to get a pilot's licence to operate these beauties.
When you have just gotten used to travelling at 110 kph for the last couple hours, 80 kph seems like you are crawling! I just thought that like the airplane pilot this 'pilot' would pick up the pace once she had gone over her flight path with Aggie. Lo and behold that just wasn't going to happen. Her mum explained that she has always trusted her daughter to get her wherever she is going quite safely. Aggie has re-calculated our arrival time at Cosy Cove to 11:30 p.m. I decided I wasn't going to get stressed out about it and the female duo in the front started belting out some Hindi favourites. When you combine fatigue with crawling over and above out-of-tune ra-ra-ra the nett result can be quite traumatic to say the least. Nothing, but nothing, was going to make me unravel. I reminded myself what the purpose of this cross-country trip was and joined the hoopla and decided that I will make the most of it. Sound advice no matter what. Around 11 p.m. we turned onto Highway 654 and I knew that we could not be far away. The highway is much narrower by Ontario standards and it was pitch dark. No worries, I thought, Aggie is here. 20 minutes later Aggie tells Rishma that we have reached our destination. Rishma stops promptly and with a 'does anyone even live in this part of the world' declares that she actually cannot see a thing out there. Which is immensely surprising to all of us as the Suzuki has a pair of pretty good halogens. Against all suggestions to drive a few metres forward, Rishma decides to head into someone's driveway and suggests that maybe that's Cosy Cove! What with no sign? Finally we are back on the road again but facing the way we had come from and Rishma gets Aggie to re-calulate. For some unknown reason Aggie figures out the direction we are facing and promptly suggests to 'drive 3.4 kilometres and make a right' on some very narrow country road. I was just thinking 'Ah finally we are in the country' when Aggie directs us to 'make a right on Watonian Road'. Rishma is now freaking out completely and swears that she cannot see a thing. My poor cousin. He is from Kenya, remember, is sitting erect on his seat and worried sick. Keeps reminding us that if you get lost in Kenya in the country side, well, you may never see the light of day again. As soon as Rishma turned onto Waltonian she suddenly screamed "there's @#*^#@ deer by the road". I was pleased I had picked the right place to go for a holiday! Share the space with deer and bears and wolves I thought. Anyways we headed forward slowly and my cousin's wife goes 'isn't this where we had been before'. Sure enough this was exactly the same place we had decided we were lost and what Aggie had done is make us go round a country block. I noticed the Cosy Cove Cottages sign on my side of the street and asked Rishma if she could see the sign and the driveway. "What sign, what driveway. I cannot see a thing!". Then everybody else saw it and Rishma proceeded to veer left and we were home.
Bud led us to our cottage called "Back of the Moon" (thanks, Bud, for staying up late) and I went to bed with total satisfaction and faith that the Genie was out there somewhere in the complete darkness. Also knew with utter confidence that Rishma needed to see an optometrist, and my cousin Alnoor (all 240 pounds of him) was scared to death. His wife, Minaz, actually stepped out into the darkness for a few minutes and came back in with a huge grin and said "the lake is a just few feet away from the cottage!". Aggie, our trusted GPS, stayed in the car. I knew that I would be up early walking on the beach trying to locate the Genie in the bottle. Before you could say 'boo' I was in my cosy bed at Cosy Cove and, unlike the past few months, was in no man's land in a flash. Tomorrow's another day, I had figured, but for now I had to rejuvenate, re-energize, retire.
That's it for now. Will try and capture as much as I can of the most wonderful 6 nights of my life when I talk to you again.
As usual Taslim and Hasan were kind of with me throughout the day, courtesy of their Blackberrys. Have I told you lately guys that I love you? Could I tell you once again somehow?
Looking forward to tomorrow. I babysit Inaya every Tuesday. Always keep Tuesdays free for that and it is so worth it. The hugs and kisses that Inaya generously smothers me with! Happiness is being a grandparent, most definitely.
Goodnight.
Abdul
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