Ontario

Vote, Please!

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Hello,

The Ontario Election is on Thursday the 27th. If you haven’t gone to vote in the early polls, please go vote on election day.

If you don’t vote, you’re letting others decide for you, and that didn’t work out too well the past few provincial elections or down south.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Please, sir, I want some vaccine

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

The Ontario government said that this week (Week of May 17) the over 30 year olds would be able to book their vaccine.

Unlike most responsible people, I tried first thing at 7am after rolling out of bed. No coffee, no breakfast, not even my morning washroom usage.

Things went fantastically well. (I should have known it was too easy.) I booked an appointment for me and then I tried to book for my wife. She’s only 1.5 years younger so it should have been just as easy… right?

Nope.

She wasn’t eligible. So I tried my info again and I wasn’t eligible.

So now I had an appointment when I wasn’t supposed to and couldn’t get one for my wife.

What do I do? I called the provincial hotline. They were closed. I waited until they were supposed to be open. Sat through 5 minutes of information, pressed the buttons, was put on hold and the system hung up on me. It happened twice more and then I got to talk to a person.

The nice man at the call centre didn’t know how I got an appointment; we think I clicked something that I shouldn’t have. So he cancelled my appointment. I asked when I’d be eligible and he said he didn’t know.

Now I have no appointment and spent a stressful morning.

I’m sure this isn’t an indication of how the rest of the week will go. (Why do I hear boss music?)

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Winnie the Pooh exhibit

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If you love Winnie the Pooh, you’re going to want to visit Toronto this spring or summer.

From March 7 to August 3, 2020, the Royal Ontario Museum is going to be hosting Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic, with immersive and interactive activities for all ages.

Toronto is the only Canadian city that the exhibit will be visiting, so make your plans to visit now!

Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.

Dr Seuss Experience

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If you find yourself in Toronto between now and January 5th, and love Dr Seuss, I hope you’ve bought tickets to the Dr Seuss Experience at Square One!

There are many beautiful and interactive exhibits, as well as plenty of opportunities for selfies amongst the scenes and with characters.

Image of the Truffula trees. Picture from blogto.com

Check it out here and here and buy your tickets before they sell out!

Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.

Solo Car Trip with an Infant

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We’re going to depart from the standard “fandom” article today because I’m tired and this is relevant to my life.

Last week, I drove with Pegasus to Kitchener from Ottawa. Granted, there was another adult (my dad) with me on the way to Toronto, but we were by ourselves for the entire return trip.

Recommendations for travelling with a four month old:

  • hope that the infant sleeps well for long periods of time in a moving vehicle
  • feed baby and change baby right before you leave (in our case, Pegasus usually has 2-3 giant poops right after waking up in the morning. I didn’t leave the house until after these were done)
  • wait until baby is drowsy before leaving
  • bring more diapers than you think you’ll need
  • wipes, too
  • ask in advance if you have access to a washer and dryer at the other end of your trip; if not, bring 2x as many clothes for both of you than you think you’ll need (I did have access, thankfully!)
  • bring a change mat that wipes clean, not a cloth one

Things that I did that worked when driving solo:

  • got gas when arriving at the onroutes – baby was still sleeping and didn’t get upset at the prolonged wait for food/change/removal from car seat (if he’d been awake, I would have gotten it afterwards)
  • changed baby immediately after arriving – and used the toilet myself because I knew I’d forget otherwise
  • got food for myself right after that – meant that I didn’t have to spread stuff out to feed him, pack it all up to get food for myself, and then spread it all out again
  • found a comfy chair (thank you Port Hope onroute for having comfy chairs!!) and spread my stuff out, fed baby right away
  • changed baby on my lap because packing up stuff seemed like way too much work
  • fed myself while baby played with a toy (chairs are big enough to squeeze baby beside myself!)
  • fed baby again
  • changed baby again
  • baby was getting drowsy so I left right away
  • plan for multiple stops every 2/2.5 hours and hope you don’t need stops in between (I had to make an extra stop at the Mallorytown onroute because Pegasus had a nightmare and woke up – thankfully it was before the onroute; there is nowhere to stop after that other than on the side of the road, and I didn’t want to do that in the dark)
  • do not stop for yourself unless you absolutely have to – taking the baby out of the car means that you have to feed and change them and let them play for a bit before getting back in the car – it extends any trip by at least an hour for every stop you make

Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.

The Toronto Umbrella Academy

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Fans of The Umbrella Academy (viewable on Netflix) can visit several of the sets in Toronto.

Image from Netflix

As I’m not familiar with this show, I’m going to link you to an article that has more information than I know what to do with. You can find the Narcity article here.

Interested in doing an Umbrella Academy tour while visiting Toronto?

Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.

Ontario Ice Cream Trail

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Looking for a cool way to spend the last half of August? Don’t want to leave Ontario? Look no further than a road trip to taste Canadian dairy ice creams.

While you could easily take day trips if you like in the southwest or central parts of Ontario, or the GTA, the rest of Ontario could have a great road trip.

Ontario Ice Cream Trail map

Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.

Blush: Ontario Curriculum Survey

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If you live in Ontario, the Ministry of Education’s online survey on education reform is available ONLY until December 15th!

Image from the completely random www.pae-eu.eu. I just liked the picture.

I mean, you can fill it out even if you don’t live in Ontario. But it asks for your postal code, so your answers might not be counted.

You also don’t have to be a parent of a school-aged child (or any child). But it does ask you how many you have and in what school. I’m hoping that they still count our answers, even if we don’t have a child in school.

In any case, please complete the registration (emails could take up to 48 hours to arrive in your inbox) and then complete the 15 minute survey. Everyone in Ontario is affected by this, whether you have children or not, because the children being taught right now will go out into the world and will interact with us.

Let’s make sure that they’re taught respect, consent, and open-mindedness.

Because let’s face it; not every parent is going to buy Blush and play it with their children. 😛

If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.

Dear Ottawa Smokers…

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Dear Ottawa Smokers,

Marijuana is legal in Canada as of yesterday. That means there’s about to be a new thing that is legal to smoke.

As someone who has health issues with cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, vape, and marijuana smoke, I thought I’d take this time to remind Ottawa smokers of the laws, since some cigarette and vape smokers don’t seem to remember them.

Laws

  1. You can’t smoke in public places including parks, play structures, bars, restaurants, and patios. This includes Concert halls and festival grounds.
  2. You can’t smoke within 9 metres of province or city owned building entrance.
  3. You can’t smoke on public transit, transit property, or transit stops.
  4. You can’t smoke near or in schools. This includes post-secondary.
  5. You can’t smoke in hospitals and on hospital grounds.

Okay now that we’ve gone over the laws, I hope everyone will follow them and of course medical marijuana will have different rules and regulations.

Rules and laws are great, but as a person with severe allergies and scent sensitivities can I also ask that you do some of the following?

Courtesy

  1. Please smoke so the wind doesn’t blow it back on you. The smell is worse than body odour and shit combined, and will make me start coughing. No one wants to smell old Tobacco, pot, etc in the workplace or bus.
  2. Don’t smoke outside of restaurants or businesses. I want to get some groceries not cough up a lung.
  3. Go to a smoking area and smoke there. Don’t walk and smoke.
  4. If you HAVE to smoke and walk, please pay attention to the people around you. If there’s a parent and child around, or someone coughing, or on oxygen… make sure you’re not sending your smoke towards them.

 

Thank you to all the smokers that follow the laws and are courteous. I realize it’s a small minority that gives you all a bad name.

Éric

Blush: Sex Ed Consultation in Ontario

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Hello parents and educators!

Protest sign from a rally in Toronto July 19, 2018. Image from toronto.ctvnews.ca

Were you aware that Ontario has started their consultation of parents? I wasn’t. The first part (the open consultation) closes on December 15, 2018. Here is information from their website:

We’re consulting with parents across the province to address concerns and get feedback in several areas of the education system.
Feedback from these consultations will help shape decisions in the following areas:

  1. Improving student performance in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
  2. Preparing students with needed job skills, such as skilled trades and coding
  3. Improving provincial standardized testing
  4. Ensuring students graduate with important life skills, including financial literacy
  5. Managing the use of technology in classrooms, such as cell phones
  6. Building a new age-appropriate Health and Physical Education curriculum that includes subjects like mental health, sexual health education and the legalization of cannabis
  7. Developing the first-ever Parents’ Bill of Rights

The online survey will be “coming soon”. I’ll be sure to write another post about that when it happens.

The third part is the telephone town hall. Dates and registration details TBA.

As my daughter is not yet school-age, I’m worried that they won’t take my feedback seriously. I don’t like that they asked the question about the age of the child at all. The sex ed curriculum affects us all.

We’re relying on you, parents of school-age children. Help shape our future!

If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.