Reason 1: Work

While we were back in the UK, one of my work projects went south. Items were missed from the Drayton Valley contract which meant that it was going to cost the client more money, and which he was understandably unhappy. This was partly my fault and partly due to a lack of input from others. I therefore spent a long few weeks sorting it all out, appeasing the client and making sure there were no more surprises. Work-wise, the Canadian honeymoon is definitely over! However, it's just about all sorted now and I'm moving on to other projects so I'm starting to enjoy work again.

One of the new projects I'm working on is the North West Anthony Henday Drive which is a section of the northern ring road around Edmonton which goes from the Yellowhead Trail at 9 o'clock to Manning Drive at about 1 o'clock. Unlike the Norwich Northern Distributor Road which is still in the paper stage, this is being built over the next three years. It's a DBFO (Design, build, finance, operate) project which means that the Contractor is designing it as well as building it. ISL is representing the client (Alberta Transportation) and doing all the checking of the designs to make sure they are compatible with its technical standards. This means that we are receiving vast amounts of documentation each week and have to turn it around in three days. M y role is the document controller - I have to log everything in and out and for this I am in the process of building a database.

Not sound very technical and worthy of a PEng? Well I'm also doing some of the reviewing, the cost control and for the last couple of weeks I've been replacing the site inspector who is away on vacation. This means I got to off road! I was given a truck (this is redneck Alberta after all - no landrovers here) and I drove around the site, observing what was going on. As it's all still at the earthworks stage it makes fun driving, although it's quite hairaising as there's a lot of big plant around so you have to keep your eyes open. Unfortunately, Dennis back now from Mexico so I've had to give the truck back. It's back to the office for me.

I'm not dead either

Contrary to rumours about patios and quick lime, I am very much still alive. I've just been very lax about updating the blog recently and for that I apologise but plead two excuses....

Oww Poor Richard

So I've played my first football match of the year, this momentous event happened last week and true to form I proceeded to remove the skin from my elbow and knee and leave it spread liberally across the floor. I was helped by Steve the Irish guy with a judicious shove in the back, or maybe I'm just clumsy and old, who can tell :)

Go Ian!!

As a bloke I would like to congratulate Ian on getting Lorna pregnant, and wish him well with all the complaining and whining he's going to get over the following years. Just remember ladies pregnancy not easy on blokes either.

Cheers

BF

Dirty slacker husband

And the date of the 20th of October was chosen as a feast day and there was much rejoicing and the world was a better place.
BF 1v2-12

Ok so I've been in work for all of 4 months now and now I'm going down to 20 hours per week.So let's try and answer some of the big questions here.
1: What's all that about
1a: How did I wangle that.
2: When's the divorce

1: I've recently come to the end of my probation period with Focus and they have said they're happy with me and want me to stay on. While we were on holiday Jacqui and I talked a lot about what we wanted and what would be good for us. We agreed that it was better for us when I wasn't working and that we would like to go back to that situation where I was doing all the stuff that made our lives better when we were both at home.

So I went to Focus when I got back and said all this to my boss, fully expecting to be leaving work that week or very soon after. Then the buggers go and offer me a part-time role!!! This suits us really well, an ideal situation we think, so we've sorted out the details and we're both really positive about what this means for us.

1a: It's Jacqui who has the work permit and if she leaves work we get deported.

2: Hopefully never he says, shamelessly fishing for brownie points.

So there you have it I am now both working and a slacker and we'll see how it all works out.

Regards

BF

So if we're not dead what have we been doing?

Okay we may have slipped a smidgen in updating the blog but we're both still functioning and we saw a large chunk of you on our fairly recent trip across the pond. And a very nice trip back to blighty it was, very cool seeing friends and family and my dad's 60th birthday was a really nice focal point for the whole thing.

So in summary since the end of August we have:

Finished planning our trip to England
Been to England
Travelled Back to Canada
Recovered from exhausting trip to England.

Since we've been back we've been to our first Canadian Football game (free executive tickets woohoo:), I've been working down in Calgary for a bit and Jacqui's been working her hands raw catching up with the surprise mountain of work at ISL.

Last Friday was a welcome rest for both of us, Jacqui and a dozen or so other harpies went to see Canadians with questionable English accents assault Pride and Prejudice. And she said it was good fun and well worth doing. While I made my excuses and went out with John and Ian for drinks and the most expensive steak meal I've ever had, and it was truly wonderful. The restaurant's in an old bank in downtown Edmonton, we were in the normal seats but we did see a group of people eating in the privacy of the vault, pretty cool!

And that brings us neatly up to Thanksgiving weekend here in Canadia. Jacqui and I have been cleaning the house up as we have friends coming over tomorrow (Monday, it's a Bank Holiday here) for a turkey meal and quite probably one or two drinks, it's the Canadian way we feel obliged :)

Anyway Thanks for reading the fairly long post and we hope you're all lovely.

Cheers

BF&WBF xxxxx

We're not dead yet

This is just a quick post and it's been seperated from the main post to make sure you guys see it.

We had a really nice time back in England and it was really great to see you all again.

Thankyou soo much for those of you we stayed with and special thanks to Jacky and Duncan and Jacqui's parents for ferrying us about, it made it all possible.