and i quote 4

"Ok, so you're from the middle east?" - Random traveller who was trying to understand where in Canada I'm from, after I explained that Toronto is not on either coast as they'd guessed, but east of the centre of the country, close to the US border.

"You want fresh water?" - A puzzled convenience store clerk to me, while glancing at the display of bottled water in the refrigerator, after I asked him if he knew where the nearby address of 1 Freshwater Place was located.

"It depends on which instructor we have!" - Me, laughing, to Simon, our bartending course instructor, after he asked the class which end of the American-style Boston shaker should be used to gather ingredients for a cocktail.  Simon was standing right next to one of our other instructors, Jim, and the two of them had given us conflicting instructions!


And now, for a bit of a series...

"You can go visit Arch and Gaylene!" - My dad's excited first reaction to my travel plans back in March.  Arch used to work with my father years ago, when he and his wife Gaylene temporarily relocated from Australia to Toronto.

"Eww!!  You eat sponge?!?" - My sister Kersti-Li in 1989, in response to Gaylene's explanation of the ingredients in lamingtons - an Australian dessert that includes sponge (cake) - as re-told to me by both Gaylene and her sister Dianne independently.  Kersti and I were both apparently squirming a bit at the thought!

"Actually, it's my birthday today as well." - Gaylene's sister Dianne as she was driving Priscilla and I to Philip Island to see the penguin parade, after I told her that day was my mom's birthday so I was going to call her later to wish her well.

"No, not with me around!" - Me to Gaylene, in response to her question about whether or not the peanut butter cookies I was baking would last.  It took a few seconds for me to realize she meant as in 'not go bad'...  I never get to that point at home and didn't here either - I ended up making a second batch a couple of days later :)

"OMG, that's crazy!!  That means it's been... almost 20 years!" - Me to Gaylene, after establishing that the last time I'd seen her and Arch was in the early 90s.  She has just informed me that they moved back to Australia in 1991 and last visited Canada in 1993.

"How do you think we feel?" - Gaylene to me, in response to my shock and disbelief above.