Worth getting out of bed for

After spending all day in bed yesterday, (not to mention most of the week) I decided that I probably felt well enough to attend a dinner party at my friend Carol-Anne's. I knew that her house would be comfortably cozy, the meal would be a scrummy buffet and even if we stayed only an hour, it was better to go than not. Besides, my coughing had finally moved from its constant barking hack down to intermittent 15 minute segments.

The food did turn out to be fantastic as usual and I had a hearty helping of CA's homemade baked beans, using the excuse that I haven't felt much like eating during the past week as well as the fact that they are loaded with fibre. The food and company alone made going over there worth it, especially when CA and I got to reminiscing about things Canadian as she pulled out her Blue Rodeo and Gordon Lightfoot CD's. But what really made putting some clothes on and bothering to brush my hair worth it, was hearing CA's seven year old daughter Madeline, aka Madge, say to me in a quiet moment together 'You are my most favourite grown-up ever.'

More Canadian than she knows

CA has mentioned to me recently that although she has tried to instil strong, Canadian roots in Madge, she feared that Madeline considers herself more British than Canadian, and that she doesn't look at Canada as home, like CA still does. We talked about how this would only be natural. Madge was born here, all her friends are here and she has lot of her daddy's family around her on a regular basis, especially her beloved Granny. Canada is somewhere she goes to visit and she won't look at it as her home until they move there in a few years time. I can understand though how important it is to CA that her daughter have a special place in her heart for her 2nd country.

Still, it is very obvious that Madeline is the daughter of a Canadian, and has strong ties to it. Andy clarified this last night, during playful banter with her. He was asking Madeline to ring the police if she looked out the window and noticed our truck wasn't there. She piped up with 'Shall I ring 911?' In this country the emergency code is 999. Although she had to be corrected, it was still very cute to hear.