Happy Birthday!

Well they made it to 9. The attitude hasn't changed but Matthew & Emma are actually nine years old. Obviously they had their present at the beginning of the summer (the trampoline) so it was supposed to be a subdued weekend. It kicked off on Friday with a trip to Montana's (and Costco) as they had a postcard from Montana's saying to come on down on your birthday and they'll treat them. Well we thought it was the cheering and clapping waitresses complete with a session wearing the moose antler hat. However, this was not to be and I think they were a little disappointed. They did get their meals free though, but that's more of a treat for the parents!
Saturday was a busy day. Matthew had a football tournament between 9 and 2.30. However, as his team lost both their matches (surprise surprise) they were actually finished by 11, so they decided to give them their medals there and then so they could go home. All the participants got a medal which was nice.
Then they were invited to a birthday party at 4.30. I think they were only invited to stop the parties clashing. Emma and the birthday girl share a lot of friends and there was the danger that they would choose Emma's - who knows. Anyway, it meant that we had to postpone their party until today. After they had been to the party it was a trip to Walmart for them to spend some of their birthday money - Matthew bought a T-shirt, a digital watch (waterproof) and a Remote Control car, Emma bought some make-up (!!!), a top and some craft stuff.
Today was the day that Nick the lodger moved out as we have visitors arriving tomorrow. He's moved into the Holiday Inn downtown and will be commuting in his new gargantuan motor vehicle. He bought a Lincoln Continental Towncar. As you can see from the photo it's Massive...but it does have a degree of charm! I'm hoping to scrounge a lift into Halifax sometime this week, so that will be an experience. His family are flying out on Thursday and by the sounds of it are getting really excited at the prospect. He'll then hopefully move into his house next week.
The big birthday party was this afternoon. Next door had offered us the use of the pool, but the temperature of it had dropped to 68 so it was looking doubtful. Anyway, we left it up to the kids. If they wanted to go in, then so be it. After they had run around the garden playing a very spread out musical chairs, they were all hot and welcomed the chance to cool off, so into the pool they all went! They look like they are having fun in the photo don't they? After they had all turned blue, it was back home to get dressed and have a treasure hunt, then a barbecue followed by a bit of face painting, birthday cake and home. All went quite smoothly really. The birthday cake was a blizzard cake from Dairy Queen. A 10" round Ice Cream cake made with crushed oreos and 'Happy Birthday Emma & Matthew' piped on the top. It didn't look great it has to be said, but it tasted delicious, and the kids loved it. They are both now badgering me to make up all the toys they got as presents. Oh joy... Incidentally the picture of Bella is her having great fun popping all the balloons after the party. The white thing is in fact a balloon!
So that was the weekend.
It has to be said it was better than the week that went before it. As expected, I didn't get the supervisor post. I was however, extremely p****d off at the way the whole thing was handled. Rather than calling me in to the office to say I didn't get the post, he called Cesar (the guy that did get it) in to say he had, then came into the office and announced it. Man management is not their strong point and I can't see it improving. I should've brushed up on my spanish....Anyway, as I said it was expected, and Cesar is well deserving of the post, I just hope the director doesn't try and water it down and put some of the responsibility on me without any extra money. If he does he can shove it where the sun doesn't shine....
So I was a little disappointed, but it's early days and it would've been promotion after only 6 months which is something that the company would frown upon....Co-incidentally the union is having a ballot on Tuesday to vote on strike action. It will be interesting to see the outcome of that. (I'm not in the union incidentally....)
Last Friday also saw the end of Matthew & Emma's swimming lessons at Oakfield Provincial Park (in the lake). They have passed their Level 2 and the whole two week course was very successful and they thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact they stayed there on Friday afterwards and had a picnic lunch. Very civilised.
The front garden is coming along too. The removed area of the front bed has been seeded and if we can stop Bella rampaging over it there is a chance it will take....Just need to remove some turf and it will be complete.
Our friends from the UK arrive tomorrow evening on a Canjet flight from Ottawa. Very excited about that. They are here until the 7th, which is the same day that Mum & Dad arrive. So an exciting 3 weeks ahead!
Well that's about all for this installment. Hope you are enjoying it - thanks to all those that leave comments - it is appreciated!! I'm actually going to download it all and make it into a book I think. Sound good?

Buskers, Snakes & Gardening

Well what an eventful week we had. The weather also behaved this week . The worst day of the week weatherwise (the only day we had rain anyway) was on Tuesday which was of course our Wedding Anniversary. As well as the Pear trees mentioned in the blog last week, we also went out to Ryan Duffy's Steak & Seafood Emporium...It's always a treat going there and as usual I had the Ceaser Salad (made at the table of course...) and New York Strip to follow. Delicious. Deborah had the giant shrimp and scallops to start followed by the New York Strip. They wheel a trolley to your table and you choose the size of steak which they then cut off right in front of you, trimming it to your satisfaction. They then weigh it on the trolley and you pay by the ounce. They were delicious steaks! No dessert as that would be greed not need. It was nice to leave comfortably full rather than with that 'over-indulged' feeling....So despite the rain we had a lovely day/evening. In fact the rain was a bit of a blessing. I'd arranged a friend to take Matthew & Emma to Soccer, so we could go out that bit earlier.(I find eating too late makes us suffer somewhat - must be an age thing!) However she wasn't needed as the soccer was cancelled. Nick, the lodger, babysat and as usual they were little angels. Why they can't be like that for us I have no idea....
Thursday was soccer again, and this time we both went along to it as it was the last game - or so we thought. Turns out there is a final tournament on Saturday - nice to get plenty of notice. I just hope Matthew (and in fact the team) plays better than they did on Thursday. They were walking around like farts in a trance half the time - soooo frustrating! They lost about 6-1 which seems to be pretty par for the course.
It's the 20th Anniversary of the Halifax Buskers Festival, and I'd heard a lot about it , so we were determined to spend some time down there at the waterfront seeing what was happening. Deborah took the children down at lunchtime on Friday and then I joined them when I finished work. It was truly excellent. With about 8 stages set up along the waterfront and different acts appearing every hour between noon and about 10 or 11pm. We stayed until 10pm and the atmosphere down there was superb! I saw Bike Boy, All-star skateboarder and Oz Star Airlines with a little bit of Squid. Deborah, Matthew & Emma saw a lot more in the afternoon. They also ate Beavertails (pastries shaped like Beavertails) and had a bit of facepainting done (see photo). They saw the whole Squid show as well as another couple of shows. The photo at the top is of Bike Boy (who said he was from Australia, but I suspect is a Brit who had moved to Oz). Squid is a local band who play percussion instruments mainly and are really good (see link to the right) . They certainly went down well. I also heard another band from Australia called Oka, who again were really good (you can listen to some of their music via the link on the right - click 'music' at the top of their website). By the time we left at 10pm it was really busy down at the waterfront and as I said the atmosphere was great. Matthew and Emma behaved impeccably and had a good night's sleep!
Saturday dawned bright and sunny and we managed to get a bit done in the garden. While digging out weeds, there was a shriek from Emma - as she does- there was a snake on the front lawn. It was only a garter snake, non-poisonous, but could give you a bite! Matthew & Spencer were all for picking it up, but were quickly dissuaded by getting a shouting at!! We managed to get a photo though!! Then at 1pm friends from the UK arrived for a BBQ. They were originally hoping to go to Calgary, but sadly their application was rejected by CHC London. It's a huge shame and I really feel for them. They desperately want to move to Canada, and you know they will settle and make it work. They are looking at another way of getting in, by using the Provincial Nominee Program which is a province based scheme as opposed to the main federal based one. Nova Scotia is now in their sights as prices in Alberta have sky rocketed and it's become unaffordable.They are in Nova Scotia for a fortnight on a fact finding trip. Anyway, we had a very pleasant afternoon and I really hope they manage to succeed in obtaining a visa. I will certainly do everything I can to assist them! There was a family that arrived at the same time as us (last December), looked at 70+ houses because they had no idea as to the style of house or indeed area they wanted to live in and had a job lined up (actually the company had held the job for 6 months for him). We found out a couple of weeks ago that they have returned to the UK, a couple of months after finally moving into a house. What a waste of a Visa. All that time and money - just makes me angry when there are families getting turned down who you know would be a real asset to the country. Isn't life unfair?
Anyway, rant over, I shall let you know how our friends get on!!
Sunday started off a bit grey and we had planned to go to the Sandcastle competition down at Clam Beach. However, Matthew & Emma didn't appear to be falling over themselves with enthusiasm, so we decided to spend the day gardening instead. We got a lot done, we are making the big flower bed at the front of the house, smaller and more manageable, and one of the beds in the lawn bigger to accept more plants. We'd like to split up the huge mass of day Lilies! Just about finished the bed in front of the house. It would be nice to get it completed early this week so I can sow the grass seed. Just need to keep Bella off the newly sown bed....
Talking of Bella, I came down this morning to go to work and found she'd obviously been a little ill overnight....and we're not talking sick here...thank goodness it was all contained within her cage. Dog and cage were all put out on the deck, I let Deborah know what had happened and beat a hasty retreat to work....
So here we are, Monday morning once again and a new week. Matthew and Emma are still doing the swimming lessons up at Oakfield Park in the lake. I have a Toastmasters Committee meeting on Thursday evening, but apart from that, hopefully a quiet week. We'll see.

A Weekend in the Garden...

This is a great time of year - not too hot (low 20's) not many bugs, and all the local fruit and veg abundant in the shops. We took advantage of the weather to do a bit in the garden this weekend. Saturday was spent staining the deck. Deborah had been hoping to do it for the last week, but you are supposed to ensure you don't get rain for 48 hours. Difficult when the forecast is so unreliable! However we did have a fairly severe thunderstorm on Friday morning, so she was wise to hold off. However, Saturday dawned bright and dry, so we decided to go for it. We'd finished by 2pm, so it was then a case of waiting with crossed fingers...I think as it was so nice, it speeded up the drying process, so when we did get a light shower early evening it didn't really affect it too much!
We managed to put the furniture and pots back on it this evening, and it's looking really good. It was a special tinted water sealer we used which is supposed to last for 3 years. It's obviously the first time its been done since it was fitted, and the water beads nicely on it!
Today was another glorious day and it was spent starting to clear the front bed. Probably got about a third of it done, and it looks better already. We then drove up to Withrow's - a farm market near Elmsdale to buy an apple tree for our anniversary (Tuesday). The last time we were there they had a special tree with 4 different varieties on one tree (probably genetically modified...). However they'd sold out, but they did have a sale on, so we bought 4 Pear trees instead. We also got 25% off, so that was a result. We then got home and planted them at the front of the house. Lets hope they get well established before the winter.
And that about covers the weekend. Last week was the usual stuff...football (Matthew saved a couple of goals!) trip to the cinema to see Barnyard, and the buying of school supplies. Oh the expense..
Matthew and Emma are off to a local lake every morning for the next two weeks for swimming lessons. Should be fun - lets hope the weather is kind. Of course next year they'll be able to swim in our pool.....
Hope you like the pictures of the newly stained deck!! I felt you were spoiled by the ones of the hummingbird...so back to the mundane this week!!

Amazing

So there we were in the kitchen this morning and another hummingbird appears. Just hovers and feeds - no matter how many times you see them, you can't help but be spellbound by them. Amazing indeed.....

Natal Day Weekend

It's Holiday Weekend!! But not for me - I have to work Monday - we got Easter Monday off instead. Yes it's Natal Day - a birthday celebration for the communities of Halifax and Dartmouth. Loads of festivities going on over the weekend, concerts, parades and last night (Saturday) a Firework Display. But more of that later, I'm getting ahead of myself. It was the usual week with Deborah ferrying Matthew to football skills or matches, or playing at a friends house! Emma just goes off to friends houses and then usually calls us to ask if she can stay there for supper. Only problem with that is we have to reciprocate and usually end up with some kid with decidedly fussy eating habits....However, they both spent another week making full use of next doors pool - we're going to miss them!!
Work continues apace, but this week I actually had a job interview. No, I'm not leaving IMP, or even the ILS department. They advertised for a supervisor, and as I have a bit of experience, I applied and was interviewed on Wednesday. Apparently it's between two of us, and the decision can't be made until the VP gets back off vacation on the 14th. Fingers crossed! We had a works lunch out on Friday to Curly's in Enfield. Most enjoyable - I had ribs and skins. Very tasty and washed down with a Molson's Canadian.
And then it was the weekend and time for fireworks! They actually shut the MacDonald Bridge as the fireworks were being launched from the bridge itself. We decided to go downtown for the display, primarily because I haven't actually been down to the waterfront when its been busy and everything has been open! It was a great atmosphere. Music in a marquee, all the bars and restaurants full to overflowing, tables outside and so on. We even stopped and got a 'Cows' Ice Cream - delicious! We didn't have the best view of the fireworks, we'd have been better over in Dartmouth, but it was still impressive. They went for the short display with maximum effect! We finally got home around 11.15pm and fell into bed.
Then today, Sunday, we went down to Lunenburg as it was a special painting weekend with lots of artists around the town painting various scenes. All the paintings are then auctioned off at the end of the day. We actually didn't get there until nearly 2pm (we went via Bridgewater to view some plots of land) and most had finished, so we had a spot of lunch (Subway sandwiches eaten by the bandstand where a young lady was singing), and then I took Matthew and Emma into the Fisheries Museum while Deborah stayed out with Bella (who is still throwing up in the car...). Deborah had been a couple of times, the most recent with her Dad last month. So we spent a good couple of hours in there and I have to say, it is a very impressive museum. We then drove home via Mahone Bay (and another Ice Cream) to another late night! However, when we got home, Nick (the lodger) told us he'd taken some photos of the resident hummingbirds. And what great photos they are! He basically stood by the kitchen window for over an hour waiting for them to appear! Hope you like the pictures, he also took one of a BlueJay, which are very common here and a bit of a nuisance. Beautiful plumage though despite this one being a bit scruffy! Only three weeks till our next visitors....doesn't time fly?