I'm in Ottawa and jeepers is it hot. They should call it Hottawa. The reason they don't is that it's too hot to do things like change names. Of course it's not the heat so much (34 degrees) as the humidity that brings on the torpor. They have invented a thing called the Humidex here, which tells you what the temperature feels like(!?) and that was nearing 40 today. It's made effective sightseeing quite a task but I've been very brave and struggled on.

Today I visited the house where it all began. It being my obsession with Canada and all things Canadian (not the Humidex). I had written to the current residents of the place where we had lived back in the 1970s and they had very kindly invited me in and allowed me to wander round the house and garden at will. I had been back once before in 1989 but then there were major refurbishments going on, the floorboards had been taken up, the walls were bare and I couldn't see very much. This time I could go everywhere, even up to the top floor and find my old bedroom.

Sitting in there I wondered at the passage of time. I had walked out of that room as a 7 year old and walked back in nearly 30 years later! I thought of how much we change (for one thing I had a LOT of hair in 1978) whilst remaining the same people. When I was 7 I couldn't imagine being 37. Now I'm 37 I don't remember much of what being 7 was like (and I still can't believe I _am_ 37!). I wonder if I will make it to 67? I ought to, but who knows?

It was all pretty emotional but not nearly has bad as I thought it might be. I couldn't help think how lucky I was to have lived in that amazing house (pics to follow), with my amazing parents and have the good fortune and opportunities that have followed on in the subsequent 30 years.