Ottawa- first Canadian home invitation and two new friends

The Wednesday of my week at Ottawa and my trip to the National Gallery is covered in a previous post "Snow angel..." so I'll move right on to Thursday.

I had been put into contact with Phil and Triscilla, a couple in Ottawa who invited me to join their household for dinner and their small group from their church for ice skating on the Rideau canal that evening. I had bought secondhand figureskates in Montreal but was yet to try them out. In fact, whilst I had good balance from a lifetime of dance training, I had only been ice skating about once or twice a winter for the past 11 years and had only done so in hard plastic rental boots.

I was about to make a complete fool of myself.

Canadians love to skate. They are good at it. In Quebec city I saw limber-limbed gerriatrics doing twirls and curls with Bonhomme and kids looking lethal with hockey sticks. Not all of them, of course, just like not all Australians are good at a summer sport, whether it be cricket, tennis, surfing, swimming etc. But I am convinced that they probably make ice skates in toddler sizes here. I was fighting well above my weight if I thought I could skate with the locals. Outside. On a frozen lake with variable conditions. At night. It sounded wonderful. It sounded romantic. It could turn out to be a shocker.

I had directions to meet Triscilla at her work in the business district area. It was down the canal from the shopping centres by a couple of kilometres. I had thought I would walk, then bus and then it hit me- I could skate down and get some practice ! Brilliant ! I might be able to save some national pride by nightfall. Hope springs eternal. I wanted to take a bottle of wine with me to dinner. No problem. I managed to find a nice bottle of Oyster Bay Sav Blanc (NZ) 2006, listed in the "vintage" section which amused me no end. I wrapped it up well in some spare clothes in my daypack and tied my hiking boots to the outside of my pack. I set off down the canal. Slowly. It was about minus 18 degrees.

I would like to say that I showed up at the bridge closest to Tris' work in a triumphant flourish and a shower of shaved ice from a spectacular stop, after an Olympic blur of speed and a couple of turns for good measure. I can't. What I can say is that I made it down the canal without breaking my head or the bottle of wine. And it was fun. I also challenge anyone to think of a more inventive way to cool a bottle of Antipodean white wine.

Triscilla works in a beautifully restored historical house that had employed the same Swedish carvers who worked the legislative library at the Houses of Parliament. So one of my prayers was answered. I was able to look more closely and touch the same design beautiful carvings that I had admired two days beforehand. Tris, Phil and I went back to their apartment with their friend Kate and whilst Phil was out sharpening the skates, us girls prepared dinner. Another first, in that I had never helped make brownies before, though I had previously eaten them.

The small group rendevous' at the flat and we headed off to one of the lakes on the canal for our skating. I was much better this time- the key is ankle control and posture, particularly in leather boots where the tendancy is to wobble if you're knees aren't bent. I managed to keep up and it was more than minus 25 with the windchill, but the distant lights were lovely on the lake and the ice was smoother than the choppy part of the canal I had tackled that afternoon. I had acquitted my country ok.

Back to Phil and Tris' for hot apple cider and dessert with the group, which included 3 Britons from Leistershire, so it was a bit of a gathering of accents. To my surprise, being the night after Valentine's day, Tris had elected to cut my tough looking brownies into love hearts. I don't think the concept of "brownies with love" improved my culinary efforts, but it was absolutely on theme.

It was a great evening, my first invitation into a Canadian home, with some new friends. It was encouraging to see that apart from a love of chocolate and sugar and a good joke, that Christ's friendship and generosity is well in place at each end of the world.