A weekend of Canadian firsts

First Pumpkin lamp made for Halloween - as you can see above. And believe it or not, you can actually go out and buy halloween tool kits especially for this purpose - I was using a small orange coloured saw with the name 'make a face' on it, and a little pumpkin face on the logo.

First Canadian winter coat bought. Not before time, as the last 2 weeks have been freezing. Temperature yesterday. 16 degrees and sunny. The weather here is nearly as schizophrenic as the gas prices, which also appear to change daily. Time taken? About half an hour. Which will impress Sara and my mum. Both of those know how bad I am at making shopping decisions..

First pumpkin seeds ever eaten. Mmmm. And first perogie. Its like a mini cheese and potato pastie. Pretty good. My next culinary challenge may well be a Kraft dinner (sounds like Canada's answer to a pot noodle - watch this space).

First Canadian bacon eaten. Went to a place called Giggling Tomatoes for a post party breakfast on Sunday morning, and ate Canadian back bacon, with eggs and toast and a cup of English tea. Chose not to combine on this occasion with pancakes and maple syrup on the same plate, another Canadian favourite! Why would you mix pancake, maple syrup, bacon and eggs on one plate? I'm sure we can find a Canadian willing to answer that! Or to put it another way, I'm yet to meet one that finds that in any way odd.

First Halloween party too. There may be pictures. Am thinking about this. Whether i want to show pictures of me wearing a blonde wig in public... (did i actually type that out? oh dear..).

First blonde wig worn in public. That WAS a first too. Just to clear that up!

A completely different first. The Toronto City council on Friday approved the construction of Toronto's first ever purpose built soccer stadium - thats 'football' to you Europeans. The 20,000 seater place will cost $53.6m (25 million British pounds) and will host a Major League Soccer expansion team in 2007. For those of you unfamiliar with North American sport, they dont go in for promotion and relegation. Far too complicated for most Americans no doubt. So if any city, company or Abramovich like benefactor wants to put the money up for a new team, they 'expand' the league. How often does this happen? Fairly infrequently is the truth, but look at it this way. There are currently 30 teams in the NHL (top level ice hockey). There is no promotion or relegation. Toronto Maple Leafs are our own proud representatives. They havent won the NHL since 1967. When they did last win it, there were only 6 teams competing! If the NHL keeps growing at that rate, Lindros, Sundin and friends had better pull their fingers, skates and pucks out sooner rather than later if the Leafs are to end the longest Stanley cup drought of all currently active teams.