Dinners

I'm finding it just a touch chilly in here this evening, so I'm curled up under a blanket. I'm very, very glad I thought to bring all these blankets, every chair/couch has one draped over it! I suppose I could turn up the heat, but I hate to do that right before bed, because I'll be sure to overheat when I'm trying to sleep. There's a few things that could be causing the chill... one being the low temp outside, (-17C) though it's been close to that temp for the last couple of weeks. It could also be the fact that we had no heat for a few hours today and my place is still catching up... That's right, no heat. It would seem we ran out of gas (propane) to heat the boilers that give us hot water and heat in the radiators. We don't have gas lines here, instead, once a year they fill massive holding tanks (in the summer time when the ice is gone and the big ships can come into the bay), and then they use trucks to fill each building's tanks throughout the year. Unfortunately, this being a new building means... oops, they forgot we existed, and didn't fill our tanks! So we ran out today.

A few weeks back, I was in the mood to cook, and bought an extra bit of meat. I then knocked on a couple of neighbor's doors and invited them over for beef stew in two days time. So I had Steve and Gillian and Vida over for supper. It was fun, we visited for a bit afterwards as well. Around the same time, Steve and Gillian managed to find a really good deal on a 14 lb turkey. So they made plans for a big turkey dinner. Today was the day of the turkey dinner. Steve loves to cook, and has even gone to cooking school, so since, as a teacher, he had the day off today, and Gillian (who's a nurse) also had the day off, it was perfect timing. They invited the whole floor (Vida, Tommy and Lindsay) and two of Steve's teaching friends, as well as me. The apartments are pre-furnished, but only come with four kitchen chairs, so we pilfered all of mine to add to theirs to have enough for everyone. A few of us were there before supper, and someone went to talk to Vida briefly. She informed us that there was no hot water, and was in the process of boiling hot water for washing. We checked and sure enough, no hot water, and the heat wasn't working. Thanks to cooking the turkey and all the stuff on the stove, Steve and Gill's place was like a sauna, so we hadn't noticed a lack of heat. Steve's trips back and forth from their place to mine (where he had three dishes in my oven) should have clued him in with the difference in heat though! I think I keep my place a little cooler than they do though. I prefer the need to curl up under a blanket to overheating.
Anyways, we called the emergency after hours number to get someone to fix the heating (after we had sent Steve downstairs to be sure we didn't have water all over the boiler room floor again, which happened a couple weeks after we all moved in here). Within a couple hours they had someone filling the tank. They don't mess with busted heaters here. You can severely damage the whole building if you let the pipes freeze!
Supper was amazing, and just as gut-busting as any holiday meal I've had before (though I do miss having zwiebach with it... turkey doesn't seem right without Oma buns). There was turkey, stuffing (made with wildrice and cranberries instead of bread and celery), sweet potatoe salad, turnip puff, roasted potatoes, boiled carrots, and salad. Plus apple pie for dessert compliments of Lindsay.
As supper wore on though, I realized I was surrounded. By Newfies. Lindsay was the only other non-newfie, as she grew up in Ontario, but she had also lived in Newfoundland. So as her and Tommy got on the topic of buying land/houses in Newfoundland, everyone else followed along. I heard about best restaurants there, the housing market, the highway that's being built... and the more they talked, the less I understood. None of the group has strong accents, but when everyone starts talking stuff you know nothing about, your mind starts to drift, and you completely loose touch with the conversation. Or you follow closely, hoping for a topic you can use to shift things to more general topics that will allow you to join the conversation. But I'm thinking... I've got to get to Newfoundland someday!

High temp today: -15C, Low: -20 Low with windchill: -31C Sunrise: 07:47 (am) Sunset: 14:49 (2:49pm)