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We were exhausted after walking back to the Bluecrest and slept soundly. When I awoke, I spent some time acquainting myself with our host’s 70+ cable channels, which included, apparently, multiple comedy and sci-fi channels, and of course MuchMusic and its sister channel MuchMoreMusic. I miss having Much at home; it was quite a loss when Cablevision decided they had to emasculate it (after briefly becoming a semi-“independent” MuchUSA, it was subsequently turned into Fuse, a channel considerably worse than MTV, and that’s saying something). I always marvel at Canadian television news coverage, which is presented as though their country is a part of the entire world.
Before I got ready for breakfast, I watched some of an episode of SCTV from the second year of the NBC run, when the cast was running out of steam. I had wondered how well SCTV would translate to Caroline since the subject matter was always so specific, but she did laugh out loud at the opening to ‘The Days of the Week’.
Most of the day was spent at Niagara-on-the-Lake, walking up and down Queen Street to places like the Scottish Loft, a shop that carries almost everything an expatriate could want (although the George Formby CD playing while we were there made us both want to kill somebody). The food selection at The Scottish Loft is vast: mushy peas, Twiglets (Marmite-covered crunchy wheat twigs), treacle, biscuits, crisps, soft drinks (I was finally able to taste Dandelion and Burdock and it was great), and of course, chocolates and sweets.
Many of our favourite chocolates are not exclusive to speciality shops, however. They seem to be everywhere in Canada. I think we were originally tipped off because a local candy store, BA Sweetie, carried (at the time) Canadian versions of Aero and Crunchie bars that were identical to the British originals (Cadbury and Nestle have a strong presence in Canada). So Canada has since been the Land of Chocolate for us. Being part of the Commonwealth has its considerable benefits. I’ll never forget the look on Caroline’s face when she first looked at the Canadian currency bearing the Queen’s likeness. (This would be a good place to mention that Canadians were smart enough to replace paper dollars with coins almost twenty years ago. They also have a version of the two pound coin. All of their currency is very attractively designed.)
The local LCBO had Strongbow (in bottles!), and we toured two wineries: Caroline Cellars (which caught my wife’s eye for obvious reasons) and Pillitteri Estates, who run an exceptionally thorough (and generous) tour. More British/Canadian groceries were acquired, and our evening dinner at The Guru was extraordinary. (The hostess was surprised that we were both vegetarian, because apparently they don’t get any Caucasian tourist vegetarians.)
