In Transit


Our time was killed easily enough in Pearson, with a little napping, a little reading, and a little playing on the moving sidewalks - I'm from the Prairies, I have an excuse.

Aside from a lack of hydration and sleep, and no-good movies to distract us from this, the flight was without drama and even got us there a little early. The sunrise above the clouds was gorgeous, and we had arrived.

We were only two, and our luggage was five (plus backpacks). Two of these were bike boxes. We managed to get it all to the train, load it with some assistance, and were given more assistance stowing it all in the car from a friendly old man sitting in front of us. Unloading at the train station in Reading required more strategy, but we eventually got to where the taxis queued. So far, we had managed ok.

We had imagined that we could find or ring for a taxi large enough to accommodate our load. Two hours later, none had materialized and we seemed to be out of options, and getting low on patience, what with not having adequate sleep in quite some time. Previously I had talked to a couple of cabbies about trying to fit our stuff into the cars, but none were interested. By this, I mean that I actually didn't get a real response from them, which was hugely frustrating. Some just said it wouldn'’t fit and turned away, but most just said no, and others said things like, “I'm going to go do some things and then I'll come back". Right. When our options were exhausted, we came back to the taxis again and got a really helpful guy who even suggested that we could make it all fit in one load to save us money when I suggested two.

All this and we were only about four minutes from our place.

It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day, and our arrival at our new home was equally as warm and sunny. Virginia, our landlady, is fabulous, and she made us feel quite at home. Our place is bigger than I had thought (Myra had it about right), and furnished with the basics. There really isn't much room for anything else, furniture-wise, so what it came with is pretty much what we'll be living in for the next while. So far we haven't been up to much aside from just getting settled and set up with the bank, phones, internet, etc. We did manage to get out for a cycle though.



There are a few cycle clubs in Reading, and we started with the Reading Cycle Touring Club. This is a more informal group with participants at all levels (skill, fitness, equipment). We found the meeting point and met the four others who showed up that day.

Everyone there was collecting a pension, except one French woman who just started cycling. This was definitely a different group from the one we had rode with in Edmonton, many of whom were training for the next race.

It turned out to be loads of fun. Steve was the leader of the day, and took us through the countryside north of Reading. Coming from Canada, it was strange to leave the "city" and yet never be more than thirty seconds from the next clump of houses or the next town. We rode about fifty km's and almost never left the quiet, paved, side roads that run through the whole country. I don't know how people keep all these roads strait in their heads. Steve, and Dave (who was a professor at Reading University), who has kept in touch and been very kind to us since, gave us a personal tour, telling us all about the history of the buildings, the land, landmarks, and all sorts of other things. It's crazy to be in a place where 1500 year-old Roman amphitheaters where gladiators actually fought are just casually sitting at the side of the road, and some roads from the same period are still in use. We never actually worked up a sweat, but I'm glad we went. We also participated in Elevenses for the first time - not quite breakfast, not quite brunch, and definitely not lunch. It's sort of like the mid-morning tea. Next time we'll try the Reading Cycling Club and hope we can keep up.

(Elevenses)

That about sums up our first couple of weeks here, aside from telling you how we went grocery shopping...… then again, maybe I will...…