Christmas

It was just Richard and I for Christmas last year - the first time we've been on our own for Christmas day in the 12 years we've been together. It was a little bit sad being away from family, but we had a really enjoyable, relaxing day, starting with playing RockBand in our jimjams at 8 o'clock in the morning and culminating in watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on BluRay in the evening.

As mentioned a while back in the blog, our oven broke just before Christams, so our friends John and Sonja kindly lent us theirs as they were having dinner with John's family. So we had one trip over the road at lunchtime to put the turkey in and to have a couple of drinks and then several trips later on the adjust the oven and then add the potatoes, stuffing, and other trimmings. Luckily managed to bring everything back safely in one piece ready to eat once it was cooked, so we had a lovely meal in the evening and leftovers the next day, and the next, and the next, and...
We were both able to take two weeks off over the Christmas period, so we just had a lovely time reading, watching television and enjoying not being at work. We also had a slight rearrange of some of our furniture in the dining room and kitchen, so we've opened up a bit more space.

And now, time for the weather

The weather this winter has been a bit different to last year. Last year, it got cold in November and stayed around -18 degrees C during the whole winter with one foray into the -30s.

It also started snowing in November last year and kept snowing all the way through to April. This year it didn't get cold or start snowing until mid December when it stayed at around -25 for 6 weeks. At the end of January it warmed up getting above zero for a few days. This caused much of the snow to melt and then form a hard, slidey layer of ice when it got cold again this month. It also caused many curses as Richard used salt, a hoe and brute force to remove all the ice from our sidewalk. This has finally been achieved, although some of the ice was over 2 inches thick in places. Currently the temperature is a temperate -7, but anything could happen over the next couple of months before spring arrives.



Photos of the front and back garden which look unsurprisingly like the ones we took last year.

Pre-Christmas

It's a while back now, but just before Christmas, my orchestra was played carols one Saturday evening and the Legislature Building in Edmonton. It was the first day of a really cold snap (-30 ish) which lasted through Christmas for about 6 weeks, but despite that, about a hundred or so people came through the doors to hear us play, or at least to get the free hot chocolate. It was a great evening for gettig in the Chistmas Spirit. Here are some (slightly blurred) pictures of the lights and ice sculptures outside the Leg.

Once again, sorry

How fast time passes when you're having fun, or when you're incredibly busy and stressed at work. Sorry it's been a while and here's a little of what we've been up to...

The Appliance of Science

Ok, ok the appliance of money purchased an appliance, but that does not really rhyme. As you may have noticed my slacker wife has been too busy playing WoW to update you all on our stuff so I shall put in this little filler to get you by.

We're both good, looks like we'll be over in the UK for a couple of days in October some time, this is for Jacqui's sister Liz' wedding and that'll be nice as we were not expecting to be back there this year.

We're both exercising more now, Jacqui's even got us up on Saturdays for a trip to the gym. Today we went and got a new cooker to replace the broken one and a nice table and chairs. And as we have a wait for the cooker we're making use of our various small appliances (small roaster, Foreman grill) to cook things in new and interesting ways.

Coming up we have skiing in two weeks, couple of social thingies and then I get to play with MY shiny new cooker.

To sum things up in a truly English way, the weather's improved lately and we've even had a couple of days above freezing, normal service resumes this week with -10 later in the week.

Forms Copies and Notaries

We have the dubious pleasure of going through the permanent residency process at present and now it's getting to the pointy end. We (Jacqui) have filled in the forms as required, we (Jacqui) have also got copies of all of the documents that say we are who we say we are and that we (Jacqui) are not very bad people.

Next we (Me huzzah!) will be taking copies and originals to a local lawyer to get them stamped all official like and send them off to the man. After these tasks and three months we should be permanent residents of this green and native land.

Happy New Year Guys

From the Canadian expedition. More stuff incoming when the camera is discovered.