I said to myself I would never look at garlic in the supermarket the same again… but I do.

At first we were sleeping in this caravan (said “Trailer”) that belongs to grandma (ill get to her soon….shes great!) but it was so uncomfortable for two and it was damp…in this little shaded ditch that had ponds full of mossies all around it…poor Sam. so we moved out and into the barn. I can now officially say that i have lived in a big red barn. I almost wish that we had slept on hay bales in the loft, rather than the fold out bed that we had, but it was lovely and the view was splendid. If only we had had more time to enjoy it.

The best bit about the whole farm experience was definitely grandma. Her real name is Babara but she insisted we call her grandma… i think that’s the safest thing for her, to keep all her relatives happy because she is suffering from Alzheimer’s, or something similar. Shes so kind though and so funny and extroverted.

She makes me smile big time. We got introduced to her and within maybe 5 minutes she had forgotten our names and who we were. This is all made harder for her and everyone around her because shes almost stone
deaf… so conversations go something like this:

“who are you”
“we are friends of Julie and Ian”
“oh how lovely, whats your names”
“I’m Sam,”
“Kevin?”
“No, Sam”
“Bam, that’s a strange name, Bam”
“no,” writing letters in the air, “S-A-M Sam”
“oh Sam, Like ‘Sam, Sam play it again’”
“yeah! And this is Tess”
“Claire?”
“Tess”
“Nas?”
“Tess”
“Ted?”
“Tess, Like Tessa”
“Sarah”
spelling in the air again “T-E-S-S, Tess”
“Ohhhh, Tess!!! And where are you from?”
“New Zealand”

“New Zealand!!! isn’t that lovely, well welcome to Canada, if you get in any sort of trouble you just ask grandma, I’ll give you some money… and I have a trailer you can stay in”
“Thank You, That’s where we are staying for now”
“Oh, and whats your names?”
“Sam.”
“Dan?”
“Sam”
“Quillum?”
“no. Sam, like Sam, Sam, play it again”
“Daniel?”
“S-A-M Sam”
“oh SAM!! and where are you from?”
“New Zealand”
“New Zealand, New Zealand!!! Just wait till I tell Julie….Julie Julie, They are from NEW ZEALAND!!!”
Julie – “i know Babara”
“oh you know… She knows…everybody knows”
Then she starts talking in French and has to be reminded about 10
times that we cant speak French only to exclaim “OH MY FRENCH IS JUST SOOOO GOOD!”

She was lovely
And made me laugh and laugh. She told us this story once of how she used to work at the bank when she was young and she got held up in an armed robbery. I wish that i could have had more time just chatting with her, She was such an amazing woman.

The other person who we met through the farm was Marcel, He was SUPER nice and generous to us, and gave us a tour of the city on our fist day off. We even stayed with his parents at there house in the city one night. (they were lovely too, you could see where he gets it from) He was just so so nice and i think we owe him alot. When we finally get jobs we will ring him up and take him out for a drink.

Marcel, Half a beer, and the man is out cold.

I said I wouldn’t write much. And then I wrote an essay. oops. Here are some more Pictures