Chilly Canada

We seem to do a really great job of travelling back to Canada when it’s cold! The view that greeted us when we landed in Toronto made us want to head straight back for home!

Instead, we bundled up and settled in (with some whinging of course!) to a busy few weeks of visiting with friends and family. It was a crazy few weeks but so wonderful to see everyone. I was even reunited with my winning euchre partner.   

We truly have such amazing people in our lives and are so appreciative to everyone who took time to meet up with us. We had so many fabulous catch ups, many of which lasted whole afternoons and evenings without us even realising how much time had gone by. It’s always a struggle to organise the logistics of seeing so many different people in such a short period of time and we inevitably end up not seeing some people as much as we’d like or even at all, so we value the effort people make to help us make it work the best we can!

We are incredibly grateful to my cousin Cory who opens his home to us so willingly. I can’t even imagine how disruptive it must be to not only have two extra people in your space when you’re used to living on your own, but also to having us come and go at all hours of the day and night. We both so loved having the extra downtime with you though, especially those late night drinks after getting home from other events. We truly can’t thank you enough for all you did for us while we there, right down to a perfect winter bonfire. 

Given the conditions here in Australia, we are both a bit nervous about having a fire of any kind in our yard, so this was the one thing Rob was really looking forward to.

I had to steal some warm clothes from Cory (sorry about all those ash holes in your pants!) but once we were all bundled up, it was a perfect day. 

We even got to enjoy some fun with sweet little Landon.

After two weeks of visiting, we headed for Toronto so I could attend the International Brain Injury Association conference. It was another 5 hectic days but an amazing opportunity for me to catch up with colleagues, including a fabulous group of speech pathologists all doing work similar to mine. Not surprisingly, Rob decided to opt out of that dinner and attended a Toronto Maple Leafs game instead.

The conference was well worth the trip, with so many amazing presentations from researchers all across the world. I took home a lot of valuable information that will guide both my teaching and research moving forward. I was truly honoured to present the final keynote of the conference. My talk focused on how we can help people with traumatic brain injury build meaningful connections with others by targeting the skills they need to understand emotion in themselves and others. It was exciting to see so many people interested in social cognition, the area of research I’ve been exploring since I started my PhD. It was a great way to end an exhilarating few days. 

And the fun didn’t end there. No trip to Toronto is complete without taking in some live music so we spent our last evening enjoying a great band at the Cameron House.

Unlike our previous visits to Canada, we don’t have a future visit planned. I will admit it felt a bit strange leaving without knowing when we might back! After three trips to Canada in just over 18 months, it will be a little while I think! And we definitely plan to aim for a warmer season!