ok - week one in Kingston

Arrived at Greenacres Motel and checked into "self contained 2 bed apartment" which sounds good, but turned out to be Fritzel style basement, dark with low ceilings, claustrophobic and one bathroom with no window. Entrance was via a hidden door where two buildings connected and when you opened the door, there was a flight of steps down to the basement - get the picture?? It was ok for a few days but luckily we were able to move then into two inter-connecting rooms upstairs which also gave us two bathrooms, more space and it was much brighter with nice high ceilings, more space etc - so much better all round.

First tasks were to sort out banking and communications (our Irish mobiles not suitable). The banking was straight forward enough but the phones were another story!! They were very reluctant to give more than one phone to us (eventually got two) apparently living in a motel on the outskirts of town is not good for your credit rating!! Anyway, got that sorted and with the addition of a ready to go phone, we are all back in the land of telecommunications.

The search for housing has proved somewhat of a challenge. The fantastic house that we were so excited about fell through.......... having contacted us and said that their deal wasn't going ahead and agreed we could have the place (we viewed it twice on Friday) and having gone to Chez Piggy (yes Aedeen, it is a really nice place - one to bring all our visitors to!) when we got home they phoned to say that original deal was going ahead after all so no house - sorry!!! Needless to say we were all gutted, mainly cos we thought we had a home from next Monday but also cos it was such a nice one in perfect location etc. We had also gone ahead on Friday afternoon and enrolled Patrick in the local school 5 mins walk from house due to start on Monday. We had the school tour and met the teachers and everything. Now we're in the position that we may have to take him out as we are not in that area at all and they are quite strict about all that. We'll have a chat with them on Monday morning and see if they will let him stay at least until we get somewhere defo to live. BUMMER!!!

So its back to the drawing board - we have a couple of places that are of interest but its very hard to get a place that ticks all the boxes...... anyway, we've no choice but to keep looking, can't live in a motel forever - we may have to become trailer park trash after all!!! Meanwhile Paddy starts work on Tuesday and i will have to continue the search with Laura - and i will have to start driving from today - YIKES!!! look out Kingston!

Meanwhile Ellie started school yesterday! we had an appointment set up before we left with the school principal for 10 o'clock on Thursday and i'm not joking you by 11.30 am we'd had the meeting, Ellie was kitted out with her full uniform, had all her books, met the guidance counsellor to work out her personal timetable and was all set to rock and roll on Friday morning!! Now that's what i call efficient!!

Yesterday we took a drive (as part of our house search) to a place called Ganonoque on the St. Lawrence River, in the Thousand Island district - here's a bit of trivia for you - it's where thousand island dressing comes from! It's a beautiful place and we all enjoyed lunch by the waterside and a walk, ice cream included of course - not quite Teddy's but very good all the same. It was nice to relax for a bit and did us all good.

Laura met up with a friend of her cousin's last night, a girl who is on a year's erasmus in Kingston so it was great for her to get an introduction to the student social scene, particularly with this week being freshers week (or frosh week as its called here).

Today we go up to Ottawa to return our first rental and replace it with a smaller one so I'll let you know how that goes.