Saturday, September 30, 2006

You are NOT going to believe what we did today......

We jumped out the door of a perfectly good plane at 11,000 feet! Woooooooohoooooooooo!

Yep, that's me in the yellow with a man strapped to my back and plummeting towards the earth at speed!


I've been told I look like a troll with that hair. I think the poor instructor had to eat a hole in it to see.

And here goes Neil with the plane still in view behind him.


Before he loses his goggles.....


And after he loses the goggles...hahahaha!

Golf?!

This is the sky as it looked yesterday morning at about 7.15 on my way to work, it was lucky it was "Golf Day" so I had my camera handy!


I even got to drive the cart during my first ever game of golf!



Yesterday, Friday 30th September, should have been a normal work day BUT , it seems my new employers are quite into "team building" and throughout the year have fun days out for their staff. Yesterday was Golf Tournament Day. So we all got to leave the office at 11am and head off to a local golf course. We played in teams and some took it more seriously than others. We had golf balls and tee's with the company logo printed on them and there was even a "bar cart" that drove around the golf course selling a selection of beers to all the golfers! After golfing we had a bbq and a prize-giving ceremony. Every team won something and I came away with a selection of goodies (although I'm not sure what I did to deserve them!) All in all it was a fun day, despite my lack of any previous golfing experience, and it has left me with a good impression of the company I'm working for.

And this is the sun setting as seen from the parking lot of the golf course as I left for the night. I think thats the North Saskachewan River.....who knows?

Monday, September 25, 2006

Canada...the final frontier: Season 2

Things change suddenly around here. One minute we're sipping on cold beer out in the sun.....the next minute I'm not leaving the house without my coat! Everything has changed! The leaves have all changed colour, its a wee bit chilly in the mornings, I've got a job, the neighbours have had a baby....and I think its only just beginning to set in that we live in a different country. Hmmmm. Also, a bit of a weird thing happened to me today which I found quite unsettling, I went to "Extreme Pita" for lunch and the lady that served me was English. She sounded funny and we both commented on how it felt a bit odd to suddenly and unexpectedly be speaking to someone with the same accent. I can't explain why it was weird, you'd think it might be quite comforting. I think in a way it's easier not to be reminded of home and when you are it suddenly hits you hard. Maybe I'm just feeling odd because this past week I've started work in a new environment with loads of people I don't know and I'm thinking how nice it would feel to be back in the safe and familiar environment of home, or.....maybe I'm just missing everyone. Sheesh I don't know! Anyway, enough of this babble! Here are some snaps from todays Doog walk.



NEW CAR.... Finally!

WE FINALLY GOT A SECOND CAR. This will make getting to work easier. Getting a car here is hard work. In the UK it is easy. Here you have to arrange your insurance over the phone and you have to have an insurance certificate on you when you drive. But before you drive the vehicle you have to take your insurance certificate, and BILL OF SALE to a regitration building where you have to register it. Thats when you get your number plate to put on the vehicle. Very complicated but hey its done now. This is the GT model and I made sure it was a front wheel drive car, the reason behind this is that it should be better in snow than a rear wheel drive car. I will let you know.............


Sunday, September 24, 2006

Day Trip...


Yesterday we decided to go for a little drive. We headed south east and drove for an hour or so. We passed a couple of (really) little towns, some really nice barns, an abandoned haunted house, a tractor and a few Llamas. I took loads of pictures but somehow managed to accidently delete most of them as soon as I got home so this is all we had left....







Thursday, September 21, 2006

Meet Hunter....


Isn't he a cutie! we had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time yesterday and this photo was taken during his breif excursion out of his incubator. He is so tiny and this picture just doesn't do him justice at all!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

News-flash!

Mandy and Kelly (our neighbours) had a baby boy this morning, he weighs a weeny little 4lb, well he was two months early! Congratulations to the three of them and welcome to the world Hunter!

In other news, I HAVE A JOB! Yep, I had an interview on Thursday and was offered the job yesterday. Its with a really nice company who build homes here in Edmonton and in Calgary and I'll be working as a customer service representative taking people through the process of buying and building their new homes. Feeling a bit nervous about starting so wish me luck please!

And now for the weather......unfortunately it has taken a drastic change over the last couple of days. Considering that a few days ago I was sitting outside in beautiful sunshine with temperatures at 29 degrees it's hard to believe that today it's 5 degrees and pouring with cold rain! Doog had to resort to sitting infront of the fireplace while we snuggled up watching Neils new Prison Break dvd.

Boxes arrive...

Our stuff from England has arrived! We got a call from the truck driver at the beginning of the week to say he was in Calgary and on Tuesday we arranged to meet him at the local customs office to sign for our goods, the next thing we knew we were unpacking all our bits and pieces in our suddenly cluttered garage.

It's nice to have all these things that make our house feel more like home, its just a bit weird seeing them all again. Doog had a good sniff in a couple of the boxes, I think he was thinking of Upnor.

The truck pulls up outside the house. It sure was a big'en!


Neil carts it all inside while I take pictures!

Is someone a little too excited?

Neil's been waiting for Gordon Ramsey to arrive. Ahh! Look at that smiley face!

We unpacked some photos and stuff and it suddenly felt a lot more like home. ( Katarina do you like the new sideboard? Oh and notice my blackboard up on the left.... look familiar to you?)

Our photos up on the wall. It's nice to see the good old River Medway again! We've had a few guests who've commented on how pretty it looks there!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Ice Hockey, OiIers Practice.... Sweeet!

Last night, Myself, Sophie, Mandy and Kelly went to the Keg. The Keg is a great steakhouse in Edmonton that has 16 Oz PRIME RIBS!!!!! Oh yeah.
Well I tucked into a nice juicy prime rib and shrimp last night and had a few BOTTLES of wine and had a great time, after that we all made it back to our place where more bottles of wine where consumed
!




Mandy and Kelly are our friends from two doors down, Sophie has probably told you that before. Anyway I got to bed at about 0130 and woke up at about 0330 and could not sleep. Weird. Its nothing to do with the drink, honest. At 0600 the most amazing thunder storm cracked and clapped above our house again, and Sophie wouldn't even let me take Douglas out in the garden incase we got struck! At about 0900 Kelly came along and picked us up and took us to the Oilers practice session of rookies attempting to get into the team. It was great, take a look.









!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Neil's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Neil!

The "Happy Birthday" Balloon Tower.


A pile of gifts and cards from far, far away!

About to blow......


Hip-Hip Hooray!

Neil loved all his pressies, he got clothes (O'Neil of course!) a coffee machine, a pepper grinder, some good dvd's, some tools and he still has more to come from Kate and Paul! We didn't really get to celebrate properly other than munching cake but don't worry, it wasn't just the two of us, we shared Neil's yummy ice cream cake with our very nice neighbours Mandy and Kelly while sitting in the sunshine out on their deck. They bought Neil a crate of Nova Scotian beer and he even got a bottle of special oak aged beer as a birthday gift from the man who owns the liquor store so we're all set to celebrate on the weekend.


Monday, September 04, 2006

A walk in the park

Here are some photos we took the other evening whilst taking a walk in the park near our house.
It really is quite a nice park. It has a little lake that lots of people were fishing in, it has baseball diamonds, a sand volley ball court and a water play park.

Spot the ball.





One of the baseball diamonds.


This is our street. The park is at the end there and runs all along to the left and across to the other side of town.

Neil couldn't resist pressing the buttons in the Water play park and ended up pretty wet!


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