Cold, yes I would say very cold

We went out yesterday to see some new friends and it wa a chilly -33 degrees. Brr we thought, until on the way home it hit -39, that is officially the lowest non-windchill temperature we have had out here. And I hear from dad that it's a balmy +9 in the land of wet and wind, you guys don't know you're born. Mumble grumble etc etc :)

Wishing a very early great Christmas to everyone, no doubt I'll do that again before the 25th.

After the wedding

Liz and Paul were spending their wedding night at Combe Abbey just outside Coventry, so invited everyone to come along for a walk the next morning in the adjacent country park. It was a beautiful morning and my parents brought along pink fizz and the left over wedding cup cakes to really help it swing.

So many thanks Liz and Paul for a fantastic couple of days, and we wish them a long and wonderful marriage.

Here comes the bride

So Friday October 9 was the day that my little sister Liz married her long time boyfriend Paul, and was the main reason for our trip to England. The wedding was held in the Guildhall in Coventry (one of the few old buildings the Germans missed), with the ceremony being held in the Crypt which was a wonderful room with vaulted ceilings.








Paul, awaiting the arrival of Liz.












Mr and Mrs Taylor signing the register













Liz, looking stunning. Shame the same couldn't be said about the weather.





My other sister Carolyn and I were bridesmaids, together with Liz's best friend Jo who she's known since they were both 3. And very lovely we looked in our hot pink dresses.















The meal and evening do in the Great Hall, also part of the Guildhall, and it was a fantastic venue with oak panelling, stained glass windows and high ceilings. In the evening a 7 piece 'Commitments' style band played loads of soul and 60s music which was fantastic to dance to.

The eyes have it

And here is the un-bearded fool complete with new eyes...

...doesn't he look young?

Fool with frikkin' laser beams .....

So the good news alluded to in a recent post, what was that all about? Well I have had a bad man slicing my eye up with lasers and sharp knives.
In a nutshell I had contact lenses inserted INTO my eyes in front of the natural lense.

You can see all about the exact process here:
http://www.gimbeleyecentre.com/visioncorrectionoptions/implantablelenses.html

Jacqui was brave and watched him slice and dice the second eye, she described it as the wife in her was horrified but the engineer was fascinated :)

The itineray for the process was fairly epic.

September
8th pre op stuff
9th iridotomy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucoma_surgery#Iridotomy
This was pretty uncomfortable, bascially it's a laser drilling through part of your eye to help ensure even pressure post-op. It feels like some flicking your eye many many times, they do this twice in each eye.
15th Right eye get's done. Many, many drops then an intravenous injectiont to relax me and the fun begins. The doctor makes an incision into the side of the eye and injects the lense which unfurls. He then makes another couple of small cuts to enable him to get at the lense and position it correctly. The operation bit takes about 20 mins and job done. Come out of surgery, recover a bit and get driven home by wife.
15th - 21st Recovering, my eyes are sensitive to the drops which dilate the pupils so I have scary eyes until the weekend. Very uncomfortable week with headaches eyeaches and just general fun trying to focus on anything. Lots of wearing sunglasses indoors, I'm cool.
22nd Right eye checkup, left eye mutilated while the wife watches.
23rd Left eye checkup.
29th Left eye checkup.2
And aside from literally hundreds of eye drops I'm done!

And this all means:

After 33 years of needing them I no longer need glasses, full stop, underlined. I can also see better than I could before while wearing glasses. To give you an idea I had roughly 20-50 vision before, possibly 20-40 with the best prescription possible. The optician was aiming for 20-40 with my new eyes and achieved around 20-30. For everyone like me who does not really understand 20-40 20-20 etc this means an extra line and a half on the magic chart.
This also means I feel a lot more comfortable driving = more driving for me yayyy!

One negative point I was not expecting is a reduction in my close range vision, I need pretty good lighting to read books, computers are fine they light themselves.

But weighing it all up it's a huge plus for me.

Been There Done That....

We have sucessfully been over to Ing-er-land and returned safely to Canada. Whilst over there we saw friends and family, went on a boat and 'did' a wedding, all of which was very nice. I'll let the Wife fill you in on the wedding details, I'll just say it was groovy and we both enjoyed ourselves immensely.

It was cool to see everyone and we really had a good time doing things and eating stuff. We had a particularly cool time on the Norfolk Broads slowly driving our electric boat around, Now we have moderate-high jet lag and a loooong week of work ahead for me.......meh.

Canadians have landed

Hi guys, we've made it across to the UK and if any of you guys are about we'll be at the Trafford Arms on Tuesday 13th October around 4pm until about 6pm. Feel free to wander down and say hello!
I reckon we'll either be the couple looking lonely in the corner :)

Ok that's over with, we're okay !

Hello again everyone, just a quick follow-on we're both fine and very much looking forward to our trip to the UK. We're also both looking forward to trying again to create mini-Millers, just to stick that picture in your minds :)

More updates during and after our UK trip in October, and I have a major announcement for then too.....drama!

Deep breath, we've had some bad news.

First of all let me say Jacqui and I have talked about whether or not to post this on the blog and we've come to the conclusion that it happened and we need to keep you guys up to date with what happens to us good and bad.

Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago Jacqui miscarried, she had been pregnant for about 11 weeks and we were very hopeful but it was not meant to be. For those of you that understand these things she was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy, which means that the baby was growing somewhere outside the womb. These things can be very dangerous and cannot be allowed to continue to term. Jacqui's body obviously reallised this hence the miscarriage. She's had a number of blood tests and she seems healthy just one more scan and a visit to the doctor and we should be clear.

We have both had a chance to grieve and we're both back at work but thanks to the people who knew what we were going through and helped us through it. Especially to Elaine and Jamie who made the beginners mistake of coming over to see us before and during this whole thing. They weren't to know and they both helped us in a number of ways and we were glad to have them over at that time. We really hope they managed to have a good holiday too.

We love you guys, take care.

We are nearly, nearly Canadian

Last week we received a letter from those lovely people at the Candian Consulate in LA to say that our application for permanent residency in Canada has been approved.

Things we can now do -
- live in Canada indefinitely without having to renew work permits every 2 years.
- work for any company, although I'm happy where I am. My work permit tied me to ISL.
- live anywhere in Canada, although ditto. My work permit tied me to Edmonton.
- apply for citizenship.

Things we can't do -
- vote.
- stand for political office.
- have a Canadian passport.
- live outside Canada for more than three years in every five.
- remain in Canada if we are convicted of a serious criminal offence.

So we've couriered our passports down to LA to get them stamped, and then when we get them back, we have to leave Canada and enter again to get landed immigrant status which is what permanent residency is known as. Some people do this just by driving down to the US border and back again. However, it should fit in well with our trip back to the UK in October.

Shrink the Fool

Yes it's finally happened I am now making a concerted effort to lose some weight. This includes such fun items as smaller portions, more exercise and eating better. I don't have the confidence at the moment to post my actual weight online but I do aim to tell you how it's going.
Jacqui and I will be supporting each other through this gruelling event and I know you all wish me well.

Getting Older

Had the plumber out form the coucil today to replace the water meter, and wow did he look young, either I have no idea (bingo!) or he was about 12! Hopefully the thing doesn't leak or I fear he may cry if I complain......

Vegas in Summer Part 2: The Other stuff

Friday the wedding party left so Jacqui and I went for a wander in 40+ degree heat up and down the strip. We saw such hotels as the Bellagio (nice) Excalibur (soo tacky) and the Paris (Jacqui's favourite) in a wander that took around 3 hours. We also explored the rest of Caesar's which was MASSIVE. We did not realise what a monster hotel we were staying in for the first two days :)



Then we had a nice meal at an Italian place in Caesar's and then we had the icecream. It was incredibly rich, expensive and tasty in equal amounts and Jacqui had too much. We're walking along the promenade and Jacqui is slowly getting greener and greener and looking more and more pained. So we start heading backing and she's less and less talkative and her breathing is getting heavier and heavier. We just get into the room and she dashes into the bathroom and removes the icecream from her vicinity well and truly. No pictures of that thankfully.

So the rest of the evening was spent chilling and not doing anything that required Jacqui getting up.

Saturday we did some more of the hotels and saw the fountains again and had a quite impressive buffet lunch in Planet Hollywood and before you knew it we were back at the airport. Arrived at 6 in preparation for our 8pm flight check in no probs, told that the flight was delayed a short time in Edmonton, not particularly worried. Turns out the plane was stuck in Edmonton for over 2 hours, yawn! I probably spent more money gambling in the airport than in the rest of the time we were in Vegas. But eventually the flight came and we got home around 3am.
Our thoughts on Vegas.

Too noisy too hot and pretty expensive. I would go again, Jacqui would rather visit Luton.

Ok Ok Monster Vegas Post with Shiny Pictures Part1: The Wedding

Apparently I was supposed to say more about Sin City, well I suppose I should. We went down to Vegas for Jon Kirk's wedding to Victoria Slight for those of you that know them:) We would have probably got round to visiting the place some time in our lives but the wedding brought those plans wayyyy forward.

So we arrived on the Wednesday night after leaving work at lunchtime and a 3 hour flight, not too bad. Turned up at Vegas, walked out of the airport into a hot air blower, like you get from the vents outside shops but only this was just a fairly cool intro to LV.

A simple minibus ride later and we're at the hotel Caesar's Palace, well swanky, and in total touchdown to room was less than an hour, a nice result all round. We also got upgraded without asking and the room we got was really nice, there will be a pic or two of that.

Wednesday night we had a meal with the wedding party from about 10-12, which was nice but quite expensive, it was in Nero's though a really nice restaurant.

Jon just before the ceremony.
And the next morning was the wedding, and blinking flip it was hot, around 45 degrees I think. It was held at the little chapel of flowers which was a nice little place and the service was tasteful not what we expected from Vegas. However the chapel was located across form a BK and next door (although luckily protected from) an adult cinema :)

After that:- wedding breakfast / lunch and then a tour round the multi-thousand dollar wedding suite that Jon had wangled for a fraction of that. And a perfect view of the Bellagio fountain display that goes off every 30 mins.

Evening was a bit of gambling and socialising then we headed for bed.

Fool in Vegas Shocker

Went to Vegas, it was okay, Jacqui had too much icecream...the end!

And last, but not least, football

In mid July, we went back to the Commonwealth Stadium to watch Everton, yes Everton, take on River Plate from Argentina in a friendly. Even better, was that one of my colleagues had got his hands on an executive box courtesy of one of his clients, so there was room for everyone, including my friends Ann and Gordon who were visiting from the UK.

Richard can write his own damn blog if he wants give a blow by blow account of the match, but in case you are wondering, River Plate won 1-0.

Horse Racing...

A couple of weeks ago, our neighbours John and Sonja took us out for an evening at the races. Edmonton has a dirt racetrack fairly near the city centre, and you can have a nice meal in the restaurant while watching the racing.

There were eight races and for each race we used a highly scientific method of choosing our preferred name of horse or name of trainer or name of rider or colour of silks or colour of horse or preferred odds to place a $3-5 bet for a horse to be placed (come first or second). Richard won a couple of the races and so made a bit of money. I won none of the races, but I came second in four of them and so finished the evening with $46 having bet $24. Obviously reading all those Dick Francis novels has finally paid off. It was great fun, and many thanks to John and Sonja for taking us along.

Rugby,

A few weekends back we went to watch the Canada v USA Rugby World Cup Qualifier which for some reason was being held in Edmonton. The first match of the qualifier had been held down in South Carolina and the USA had beaten Canada by a few points, so it was important that Canada won this match by a few more points

It was such good fun. The weather was reasonable and a couple of thousand people turned out to support Canada (rugby isn't one of the leading sports out here), most swathed in red (except me!). there was a real carnival feeling.

The match didn't get off to the greatest of starts. As the two teams lined up to sing the national anthems, a big fanfarey piece of music started playing over the tanoy. I thought it was a special introduction to one of them, but after about 30 seconds people started looking puzzled. After 60 seconds the music stopped and a rather sheepish voice said 'Sorry folks, wrong CD'. However, the right CD obviously couldn't be produced, so after a while, the Canadians on one side got into a huddle and sang their anthem with the crowd near them, and the Americans on our side got in another huddle and sung their anthem with the crowd near them joining in.

The Canadians dominated the first half, especially after one of theose nasty Americans got sent off for punching somebody, and the score at half time was something like 23-0. The Americans fought back in the second half and the final score was 41-13. Victory - the Canadians are off to New Zealand next year.

To add meaning to the game, we got chatting to the couple sitting next to us who had come out from Vancouver Island to watch because their son was one of the Canadian players. And he scored a try so it was all the more exciting for that.

Coming Soon!

Vegas!
Football!!
Rugby!!!
Shocking news involving monkeys!!!!

Stay tooned!

Avalanche!

In the afternoon that lightweight Richard Miller and that other lightweigh Alun Jones declined another walk (there was rugby on tv), but us Brabys and ex-Brabys are made of sterner stuff. So Carolyn and I drove up a very winding road to the foot of the Angel Glacier and did a walk around there. It was spectacular, but unfortunately quite busy.

While we were there, there were several small avalanches of snow off the glacier and the mountain. They made a huge noise though, even from some distance, which makes you realise how terrifying it must be to get caught in one.

We had a slap up meal in Andy's Bistro in Jasper in the evening (highly recommended) and then Richard and I departed Sunday morning to head back to everyday life in Edmonton, and Carolyn and Alun headed off for the rest of their holiday in Golden, Vancouver and Seattle.

However, I'm back in Jasper this Friday as my friend Ann and her boyfriend are over for a vacation and I'm meeting them in the mountains and bringing them back to Edmonton. It's all go, go, go.

Lots of Lovely Mountains

On the Friday of Carolyn's stay, we spent the morning packing and then picked up Richard from his work and then drove to Jasper for the weekend. We saw and adult male elk within about five minutes of entering the national park which was a first for me. I had found a B&B which had a suite of two bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen/living room/dining room to rent which was perfect. Alun was there already when we arrived, so we went out for a meal and a couple of beers. As we walked back to our B&B, we passed three elk grazing by the side of the road. Amazing.

The next day, we wandered into town for a proper canadian breakfast and then spent the morning doing a circular walk to the Old Fort, just on the south west side of Jasper. Spectacular views from the top as always.


















We had a picnic by the river for lunch before going back to the B&B.

Botanical Gardens

It's a well known fact that when you live somewhere you see less of the place than a tourist would. I've been here two years and I had not yet visited the Botanical Gardens at Devon, a town half an hour's drive south west of Edmonton. So I took Carolyn there on her last day in Edmonton. It was a beautiful sunny day and the gardens were spectacular, despite the recent drought we've been having.

We particularly liked the Japanese Garden and the tropical green house which had butterflies in it. Enjoy the pics.

Still No Will

Just as a side note, I rearranged with Helen and Marlis that we would try again for the Shakespeare last Monday night, this time with Marlis' sister Miriam. However, we got there to find the car park empty and no show. Duh, I should have read the website more carefully. There's no performance on Monday nights. Apparently the actors want a night off. So we rearranged again for Wednesday, and finally got to see it. It was a slightly too farcical and slapstick for my taste, but was nevertheless good fun and a great night out. Finally.

Canada Day, or Where's Willie?

Oh, the best laid plans. On July 1 it was Canada Day so in the evening I'd arranged to go with Carolyn and two friends to see the first night of the annual Free Will Shakespeare Festival which runs through July. They were doing an open air performance of a Comedy of Errors in Hawrelak Park, which started at 8pm. We were then going on to see the Canada Day Fireworks which started about 11pm in downtown Edmonton.

We were queueing to get into the amphitheatre at Hawrelak Park when we were told that the show had been cancelled that night as one of the actors had inconsiderately broken his hand earlier that day. That was disappointing in itself as there was no other opportunity for Carolyn to see it, However, it also meant we had three hours to kill before the fireworks. A walk around the lake at Hawrelak Park took care of about half an hour, and then a cup of tea in Starbucks another half hour. Then we wandered to the Legislature grounds where we could watch the fireworks and killed the last couple of hours chatting and people watching. The fireworks were excellent and worth the wait. However, it then took us an hour to get out of the car park to get home.

Richard in the meantime, wandered down all by himself to see the St Albert fireworks and said they were very good, so we'll probably stay closer to home next year.

Shoes

Monday was a little bit wet, so Carolyn and I hit the Mall. And not just any old mall. This was West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in North America/the northen hemisphere/the world. It boasts a hotel, a pirate ship, submarines, a theatre, a skating rink, a hotel, a cinema, a go karting track, crazy golf, a theme park, a water park, a sea life cente, a sea lion display and a few shops.

Our mission was to find me some cream shoes to go with my bridesmaids dress for Elisabeth's wedding. Piece of cake - there are around 30 shoe shops in the mall so one of them must have some suitable shoes. Oh no. After a couple of hours of fruitless searching, we found one or maybe two pairs which were just about met the criteria, except with a price tag over $150, they were decidedly unsuitable.

So on the Tuesday we hit the thrift (charity) stores in Edmonton. Now if you're thinking of your usual high street Oxfam or Cancer Research shop think again. This is Canada, baby, where everything is BIG. Our thrift stores are probably the size of your average Sainsburys with racks and racks of clothes, books, brick-a-brack, electrical goods, furniture and...shoes. The first store I didn't find any suitable ones (but came out with a rather fetching cherry raincoat instead) but in the second one and there were about twenty odd pairs of cream shoes, several of which were in my size and two of which fitted well and were ideal. So I bought them both at the extortionate sums of $4.99 and $5.99. Bargain.

Tea for two

You'll notice that most of these posts will involve mention of food or eating. This always happens where two or more Brabys and former Brabys are gathered.

I took Carolyn for afternoon tea on the Sunday to afternoon tea at the Fairmont MacDonald Hotel in Edmonton. Nice.

No breakfast, Markets and Jazz

Carolyn's first day here was a Saturday, so in time honoured tradition, we decided to take her for a slap up Canadian breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes at Socrates, our local diner. There's always a bit of a queue, but we were finally next in line to sit down, when the lights all went out. Huge power cut, also taking out some of the traffic lights on the adjacent road. So we got seated, and had a cup of coffee, but electricity was not forthcoming. So we decided to save it for another day and instead were forced to have large danish pastries from our local bakery instead.

We spent the morning wandering round St Albert Farmer's Market, buying up lots of goodies there, and then had a relaxing afternoon at home. In the evening, we went to a jazz concert in Edmonton. It was the start of the anual Jazz Festival and for the first time this year, they put on a free open air concert in one of the parks. We got there in time for the last set which was a guy called Alfie Zapacosta and the Edmonton Jazz Orchestra. They were excellent, playing big band type stuff, and we had a wonderful time sitting in our deck chairs, eating smoked salmon sandwiches and raspberries, listening to the great music. I hope they do it again next year.

















After all that we had drinks over the road with John and Sonja. A great day.