Hurrah, we're good for another two years

Yesterday, we finally received our work permit extensions so we can continue to live and work here until April 2010. However, after reaching +20 degrees C two weekends ago, it has been snowing in Edmonton non stop for the last 4 days, so I'm not sure we want to!

Sheep or goats you decide

On the way back from Jasper we passed a bunch of mountain sheep or goats standing by the side of the road with no traffic sense what so ever so got a couple of pics.

My mum taught me that it was rude to lick the road while other people are using it

The green run of death

A couple of weekends ago we went back to Jasper, this time with Ian and Lorn, to have another go at the bizarre sport of skiing. We spent the morning on the nursery slope, remastering the magic carpet and the snow plough:



Bearded fool and unknown man on the magic carpet




Bearded fool aka 'the milk tray man' takes on the slalom in a straight line


Wife of the bearded fool on the magic carpet...





...and showing him how its done







And after a couple of hours after that, Ian and Lorn decided we were ready for our first green slope. First we had to master the T bar, which was a skill in itself, but we got to the top relatively unscathed.

For the large group of you non-skiiers whose ranks we have only recently left, the green slopes are the easiest, with a gradient similar to the nursery slope, only about 20 times longer. The idea is that instead of going straight down, you zig-zag from side to side so you can control your speed. However, this requires the Skill of Turning, something it was evident that Richard and I hadn't mastered as I saw Richard disappearing into the middle distance, with Ian chasing after him. We both managed to make it down with a several falls and much help from Ian and Lorn. So next season, it's back to those nursery slopes to master turning, but at least we know a green slope is achievable.

Many thanks to Ian and Lorn for their help, patience, and ability to laugh at us.

Domestic God

I would just like to point out to everyone that the bearded fool you knew and tolerated in Norwich is a changed man. As I write this on a Saturday morning, he is - without being asked, nagged, or bribed - doing the hoovering. I supspect this has something to do with the new hoover we bought having 'wind tunnel technology' but whatever, I'll keep the new model (hoover and husband).

The Birds

Well, despite a large dump of snow last weekend, spring finally seems to have sprung again, with temperatures of up to +20 predicted for this weekend. Nature has come out in force and the air is full of bird calls and squirrel sqeaks.
One interesting phenomenan the other day was the yearly visit of the waxwings. We have a couple of mountin ash trees in the garden which have been covered in red berries all through the winter. A couple of weeks ago, a huge flock of waxwings descended on the trees and stripped them bare. Richard managed to get a photo. It's difficult to see at first but if you open it up to full size, you should be able to see about 30 of them - look for the yellow tails.

We also went for a walk by the River Sturgeon in St Albert (BIG mistake as with all the ice melting, its a bit stinky at the moment) but we saw a couple of woodpeckers one of which even obligingly kept still long enough for us to take a photo.

I have in my hand a piece of paper.......

Well I don't actually have it yet but my good lady wife should be bringing it home with her in a bit. And what is this piece of paper? Our labour market opinion that's what, and the LMO is the document saying that they need engineers over here and we should be able to stay for another two years at least. As we've already sent off our applications for the extension to our work permits we'll just need to send that along too.

This makes things all groovy, no need to worry about work permits and this should help our application for residency as well. All in all a great sign for us.

And as for me, well I'm still applying for jobs, really hoping I get a shot at the latest one, it's a network technician job woking for the City of St. Albert government, so fingers crossed.