I need to pee

So it's been a while since I've posted about something that I love about Newfoundland, but while we've been in Australia I've realised that there's something about NL that I really really miss.

Toilets.

If you go shopping or eating pretty much anywhere in NL, you are guaranteed that there will be a toilet for customers to use.

Not so in Australia.  There may be a shared toilet that the customers of 20 different shops/cafe's can use, or there might be a public toilet within a 10 minute walk of the shop you're in, but it doesn't seem to be that common to have toilets in the shop/cafe!

So there you go, another thing that I like about Newfoundland.

(Whew, the pressures off having to think of anything else for at least another month or 2).

Wheee

I've been trying really hard to find things to write about in my Things I Love About Newfoundland series, and I'm happy to report that eventually I've found something! :)

A few nights ago we had a big dump of snow, and we finally made it to the closest hill to go sliding.

If you're not from a cold snowy place, the basic concept is this ...

1. Put on a LOT of warm clothes.

2. Go to the top of a hill.

3. Sit on sliding thing.

4. Go down hill.

Pretty simple but lots of fun.

We all went down the hill together.  Then Kalani was more interested in the swings and slide in the playground than in having another go.

So I went down by myself.

Steering was a slight issue (I'm facing backwards down the hill).

Then, just before we were about to leave, Kalani decided that he did in fact want another go.  So down he and Dan went, again and again and again.

Fun!

So I'm not saying that I want winter to stick around (spring starts on the 20th of this month Mother Nature, so you'd better warm up!), but I am saying that I quite like sliding, and if we do get more snow then perhaps I might enjoy going again.

PS - If anyone finds a black winter glove on the Pippy Park sliding hill, please let me know.  My hand misses it.

Stop!

Rightio, here's my first positive observation about Newfoundland.

In every other place I've lived in or visited (and there's been a few), when you stand at the side of the street with the intention of crossing the road, you wait until there are no cars around.  Or you go to a pedestrian crossing so that the cars will stop for you (though this doesn't work in Rome - your best bet when crossing the road there is to just run like a mad thing and hope you make it to the other side of the road alive).

Not in Newfoundland.

Nuh-uh.  Here, you can stand at the side of a busy 4 lane highway, and the cars will stop, that's right, totally stop, and then wait for you to cross the road.  In town, you probably only need to wait for about 3 or 4 cars to go past before they stop and let you walk across in front of them.  I still run, it's just part of my scaredy, I-can't-quite-believe-these-cars-are-stopping-for-me nature.

The first couple of times this happened it totally freaked me out.  I even experienced stage fright at having to cross the road in front of people.  This has long since passed, and I now get annoyed when the cars don't stop straight away.

That's nice, and it definitely doesn't happen anywhere else that I've been to.

So that's my first 'Thing I love about Newfoundland'.  Hopefully it won't be too long until I share my next 'thing' with you.

Learning to love it here

It's no secret that I don't particularly like it here.  I don't like the cold, the location, the opening times of the pubs, the fact that my family is just so far away, and that's just the beginning of a long long list.

Before you start sending me rude messages, don't bother.  I'm about to try and remedy this myself so keep reading.

Someone once told me, or perhaps I read somewhere, that your beliefs are self-prophesising.  For example: If you believe that you are a confident person then you will be a confident person.  It might take some time of saying to yourself "I am confident, I am confident", but apparently if you do this enough, and you pretend to the world that you are confident, then one day you will be confident, even if you didn't start that way.

Anyway, the other day I was out walking the dog and I was thinking lots of negative thoughts about Newfoundland - along the lines of "Stupid place - why is it so cold and snowy?  Look, I keep falling over because it's so icy.  Argh, I just got wet snow down my sleeve" etc. etc.  And as I was walking I was becoming angrier and angrier, and more and more down in the dumps until I stopped and realised that I'm making it worse.

Sure, there are some things that I can't change, like the weather and the location, but there are a lot of good things going on in Newfoundland, and if I focus on all the positive aspects of this place then perhaps I'll start to enjoy living here.

So this is my plan.  I'm going to start documenting all the good things about Newfoundland. As I do this I'll share these observations/experiences with you.  I'm not sure how often I'll post about this, I guess it depends on how often I find something good to share with you.  But I promise you this - I will try to find the positives and I'm going to stop dwelling on the negatives, and perhaps this will work, and in a few weeks/months I'll love it here as much as everyone else here loves it.

Weirdo's!

Just kidding ;)

Yup - that's me.  You may just have to trust me on this one! :)