Grand Central and some toys...

After the Intrepid, we made a quick visit to Grand Central, very impressive train station and completed the day in FAO Schwartz before eating at Bubba Gump's Shrimp company.
Then it was off to FAO Schwartz, the (very) exclusive toy shop. Insanely expensive toys for the child who needs to be seriously spoiled. Here's Ellie with the Lego Hagrid.
Lego Chewie...
Lego Vader.
The flight simulator "toy". That small rectangular sign in the bottom left hand corner of the picture is the price tag... $330,000. We're getting two.
Then a play on the ($250,000) revamped "BIG" piano. We'll take two of those also.

Back to NYC... Day #1: Saturday

...not physically, way too tired for that. Here are a few snaps from our trip in August. We started off on the USS Intrepid, the air and space museum which is located on an aircraft carrier and was conveniently at the end of 42nd Street where our hotel was...
Thomas had a go in a fighter plane cockpit.
So did Ellie!
Thomas with Kevin Costner...

Wet night out...

After weeks of anticipation and lovely sunny weather, we went to see the Rolling Stones last night on Halifax Commons (or Mud Bath as it has now become). We arrived at about 3pm in spitting rain and 'enjoyed' 8 hours of progressively wetter weather. It's fortunate that MC and I bought rain coats this week otherwise I suspect it would have been a extra miserable affair.
Support started at 4pm with Sloan followed by Alice Copper and then Kanye West before the main event at 8:30pm, they were excellent if a little slower about the stage, Ronnie Wood didn't think much of the rain, Keith Richard seemed barely able to stand for most of the show, Charlie sat and smiled under his dry drumming canope and Mick charged about in a variety peculiar sequinned outfits performing the sort of dance that would get him laughed out of "So you think you can dance?"
Highlights for me were Paint it Black, Sympathy for the Devil and Satisfaction, oh Alice Cooper and his snake. We got back to the car at about 11pm, scoffed a MacDonald's and came home to investigate if there was any part of us that wasn't wet... As it turned out the new coats had done their job pretty well, pity we didn't invested in rain trousers too!
Next time maybe - oh, no, there isn't going to be a next time unless it's REM... I'm too old to stand in mud for 8 hours.

One year on...

So we landed one year ago yesterday so I'm a day late writing my yearly review (or maybe three weeks early if we take into account the trip to the UK last November). Anyway we were talking about all that has happened in the last twelve months and it's been a busy year...
Moved house twice, first to the rental in Beechville then to Mineville... Finally sold the place in Brighton too, so that's a weight off...
Ellie started school today, after a brief stint at Pre-School before christmas. She had a great time all in all, her new teacher is known by all the area and is rated as brilliant by everyone so I'm happy she's going to have a great year.
Start out with three vehicles, a green one, a red one and a silver one. Finished with three, a green one, a red one and silver one... The green one (came in a container from England), the red one is different (Jeep TJ replaced derelict Clio), as is the silver one (Dodge Caravan replaced Renault Laguna). All in all an improvement...
We've travelled; back to the UK last November, Quebec for Christmas, down to Florida in May and down to New York...
A busy year, I hope we never have another on like it, but it's certainly been worth it...
Back to the New York pics next post.
BTW we're watching the Soprano's at the moment, Series 3, Episode 11: Pine Barrens, it's genius, exceptionally funny. Big thumbs up!

Lost in Maine....

The last road trip of the year... MC and I both concluded that after Disney and camping in Pictou and finally selling the house in England it was time to go on holiday for us. So we settled on to a road trip to New York.
Easy you would think, we did it on the way to Florida three months ago, I-95 from Bangor in Maine... My problem was getting to the I-95, within 10 miles of the the border I was lost, not only was I lost, everyone else in the car was asleep and, more importantly, I didn't know I was lost. So on we went and the road got narrower and narrower and bumpier and bumpier until all we got were signs saying 169... It was 2am, not that it mattered, there were no houses, no people, no nothing, who would we ask anyway?
So I read a lot of Stephen King and John Connolly, both of whom have all the freaks in the world living in the vicinity - good job it's all rubbish!
So eventually, we arrive in Springfield (every cloud etc, didn't see Homer though), so I cost us an hour on the journey and we sill made NYC at 8:30...
Oh - weather was rubbish, thus so were the pictures...

Camping

We bit the bullet and took them camping this weekend - in a tent. All in all it went pretty well.
We stayed in Pictou on the Sunrise trail, a nice camp site. Plenty of swimming in the sea - "warmest waters north of the Carolinas" it said in the pamphlet and I guess they were right, but it was still nothing to write home about.
The wind got up during the second night so we decided the visit New Glasgow, now there's a saying that goes "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything..." so... We visited New Glasgow and that's it really! Then it was off to the NS musuem of industry, a great place with lots of buttons to press and levers to pull, what made it extra great was that there were more staff than visitors so you could play with all the exhibits without queuing. A great exhibit about coal mining in NS, unfortunately it seems that all the mines here blew up - several times each.
So then back to Pictou which, unlike New Glasgow (oops), is absolutely great. We visited the Hector, the rebuild of the ship which brought the some of the first Scottish settlers to to "New Scotland", an excellent exposition on the journey and the harsh realities of living in NS in the 18th centuries with no money, home or food... Similarly more staff than visitors again.
The only downer of the trip was Thomas' walking on a ember and burning the sole of his foot. Hasn't slowed him down any...

Canadian fun...

I'm quite pleased with myself this evening - I have chopped down a tree with an axe (albeit a small one) and then, the icing on the cake, I tied a rope to the stump and pulled the root out with my jeep. YYYEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Anyone seen...

"a five year old girl wearing a blue dress with flowers, 43" tall, dark pink framed glasses, blonde hair". (me)
"Eyes?" (policeman)
"Yes, two." (joke, easy now)
"Same as mine really" (me, taking off my glasses)
"Oh, well, blue... err.. hazel... err... I'll put blue" (policeman)
I think I even forgot to tell my parents about this episode...
She wandered off with her little cousin who was being a little difficult and his dad at the mall, then decided she'd come back to MC and I, unfortunately for Ellie we'd moved on... Then ensued ten minutes of absolute fear when MC and I ran like mad around the Halifax mall. I made it to all car parks and round both levels before realising that more or less everyone in the place was looking for her. By the time I started the police description, I'm sure the lovely lady at Centry 21 real estate had already escorted her to the security office. Anyway we got paged quick enough and what seemed like about 10 hours was surely only 10 minutes and everything turned out okay but my heart did beat a bit quicker than I would have liked...

The perfect afternoon for us men...

Well, Saturday takes some beating for us men. Housewarming at friend's Penny and Steve's house. A few beers, followed by some good food, then "us men" left to play frisbee with varying degrees of success. When tired we returned to the house to fire guns at a line of bottles from a variety of positions - free standing (which yielded very poor results - apart from our gun toting host), leaning on a car bonnet (I managed to KILL two bottle from this position and hence felt very manly for the remainder of the day) and leaning on a wall (see free standing for the results). Then more frisbee made more entertaining by using Thomas as a sort of "irate piggy in the middle". Then a little cake and home for a snooze... Perfect day... for us men.

Another piece of the Canadian dream in the garage!

Crikey... Two weeks since my last wittering about the doomed Lobsters... In my defence it has been a very frantic time with MC's sister and offspring (3 of them under the age of 2) visiting! So what's been going on over here?
Firstly I have wasted an in ordinate amount of time on Google News with the following search terms: "ASTON VILLA RANDY LERNER", "ASTON VILLA TAKEOVER", "ASTON VILLA MARTIN O'NEILL", closely followed by repeatedly hitting F5 to refresh my searches... Anyway they've disappointed me so many times who knows if we'll ever get our multi-millionaire (or preferably billionaire) owner ready to squander obscene (preferably profanely obscene) quantities of money on a squad of international superstars. Only one man stands in the way - our octogenarian (mad) chairman, Herbert Douglas Ellis...
After this pastime became boring, I turned my attention to the other thing which had been bothering me for a while, I still didn't own a 4x4, anyway in 6 mad hours I resolve this issue in a positive manner.
I must take some pictures of it in the day light - I've now removed the roof completely and it's rather good fun. For anyone who is interested here's a brief review.
It's a Jeep TJ Unlimited, 4 litre V6. Selective 4-wheel drive. We test drove a regular TJ a while back, I think there was a picture of an orange one on the blog a few months ago... Problem with that was it had approximately 2 cubic feet of luggage space and certainly not enough room for a stroller (pram). So, outside it's big and bulky, as aerodynamic as a house brick with an x-rated mpg to go with it, cerainly nowhere near the current U.S. industry target of 20mpg! Inside it's surprising small (!) it's has four seat belts for a reason, no way to fit in a fifth person... The ride is rough and possibly even amplifies imperfections in the road surface, and there are plenty of those in Nova Scotia! So those are the things I turned a blind eye to, on the other hand, it looks brilliant, will drive through anything the weather will throw at us in the winter and is convertible which is sooo cool for jeep! We take it to the beach a lot where it looks so much better than the caravan!

Big Day!

Wow, what a day, I'm typing in the dark, I guess it's me (but not you whether I can touch type or not - more or less I can otherwise I wouldn't bother with something so banale would I?)
What an exciting and expensive day it's been in domestic servitude land... Plumber arrived at 8am to sort out varies problems and to connect my fridge to the "mains", I say "mains" advisedly as we don't have "mains" but a well. Then the septic pumping man arrived... I need to elaborate here a little at least. I've harped on for ages about how I can't type because of Carpal Tunnel and all that, not true this time, for the last couple of weeks my dear son has decided the best way to get off to sleep is to scream for two hours each night leaving us exhausted, then to lessen my attempted blogging efforts I decided to find my septic tank in order that it be emptied before winter arrives again.
Anyway I dug a good two and a half feet down in the designated location (according to the roughly drawn map in the garage) without reaching fruition and, given the amount of rock I encountered) gave up. I looked up the previous owner and gave him a call... incidentally he installed septic systems for a living (and told me so)... He didn't even get the right side of the building... anyway shortly after the plumber arrived the septic bloke turned up leading the neighbours to think we had a major septic incident, fortunately for us it was merely co-incident! Thomas enjoyed the digger that churned up my garden.
Then Jeep I was test driving wouldn't start, so all fun and games, I ended up racing it back to the dealership just before closing. No elaboration, going to bed!

Canada Day...

Canada Day!
And that means tattooed children for the day...
Thomas has been learning poses from Ellie unfortunately...

A good day, a tour around a frigate then I left MC and the kids to dash to the pub for another demo in how not to take penalties. There we go again, at least England played well... 44 years of hurt and all that.

Spiders...

Seen on our decking, about 3 inches from the dining room window...I've got nothing against spiders in general... but this many, that close to my house? Put the kettle on...

One out of two

Got one out of two from my selection of today's games. On reflection I would have gone for Germany simply for Jurgen Klinsmann who I developed a soft spot for when he came to England to play for Tottenham (although I am a Villa fan!). Added to that are his wonderful touchline theatrics, on the other hand I will have to watch Ballack at least once more.

Who to support...

...when two of my least favourite teams (apart from Australia - what a delight their game against Italy was) are playing each other? Argentina or Germany? May the best team win? Certainly not. May the team England will have the least poor prospects against in the unlikely even that they need a hotel in Munich next weekend? Certainly, and that's Germany, although it will be a pleasure to see Ballack's smug face leaving the field for the last time.
I've been hoping for semi finals of:
Ukraine vs Germany
and
England (obviously) vs France
What's the betting I've named the four sides to be eliminated over the next two days!
Ooh, Argie keeper injured and being replaced, Ballack claiming the game should continue with the goalie on the floor...
Do you get the impression not a lot is happening over at the moment? You'd be right. We seem to be in monsoon season (not well known in NS), but there seems to be so much water in the sky, it's surprising there's any left in the ocean!
Tomorrow is Canada Day, clashes very badly with England - Portugal and has caused minor tension in the household until it became clear I would not buckle and go and join the masses in town, instead, the pub with other men of a similar disposition.
Argentines dropping like flies, time wasting. Germans throwing in a dive or two of their own. Hilarious. Hopefully Ellie and Thomas will continue to amuse each other for another 15 minutes.

The limit...

We might not have played so well... But I do take exception at being ridiculed by the Rogers Sportsnet summarisers. A country ranked 83 in the world, a good 30 places below Trinidad and Tobago rubbing shoulders with the likes of Oman and Wales (and we all know how bad they are) isn't really best placed to pass judgement is it? Results are always "one to nothing", err, "one nil" please or a "2-2 tie", DRAW! ;-)

Scans - is the most exciting bit of the World Up over?

What a day, the excitement here in Mineville has been palpable, right from the minute dear Wayne got aboard the plane in Germany. Many thanks to bbc.co.uk for updating us every five minutes on his arrival at the hospital, his departure, his return for the results, what would happen in the event of an argument between the ManU doctor and the England physio, the news that he'd left the hospital again (*** importantly with a smiley David Davies from the FA ***) and ultimately the wonderful sighting of the man himself on the 9:45 flight back to Germany hence the conclusion that he would be playing some part in yet another under achieving bid for glory or did he just forget his shower bag? We must wait until tomorrow for the official word.
I think I need to have a little lie down now to recover.

Messed up...

My domain has been messed up for the last ten days or so hence no blog... or email for that matter.
Since getting back Thomas has enjoyed much throwing, kicking and stamping of feet followed by plenty of time for reflection on the naughty step and latterly in the pen, not "state", but "play" - without the benefit of toys.
It's bug season here - black flies have been feasting on Ellie, Thomas and MC, they don't seem so interested in me, maybe I'm not tender enough. The June bugs have arrived early (again), not supposed to get here until June, big stupid things always arrive in May apparently. Still we await the mosquitos. I have a "Mosquito Magnet" down by the pond in the hope of catching some of them before they can lay their eggs. Then of course there are the frogs! Lots and lots of frogs in the pond. I go to visit them everyday... Sad?
We also have rabbits, ducks, bluejays and grey jays around most of the time, kinda nicer than starlings and sparrows, there were even a couple of visiting eagles at the weekend. There are some other things out in the woods somewhere, I hear them, but haven't seen them yet!

Long way to go...

Booked tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers tonight, not quite like going to see them in London though - we have a 1000km drive to Quebec! Are we mad? Almost certainly, especially as we bought Ellie a ticket too - she'll be needing earmuffs I think!

Some Disney Pics...

Here are a few Disney pics (we came back with well over 1000!), more tomorrow maybe... It's TV finale fortnight over here so there are plenty of cliffhangers to enjoy (although Desperate Housewives was pretty disappointing this evening - I expect better from Jack Bauer tomorrow!) - every night in fact so sorting out the pics has been pushed back a bit - oh and the garden we returned to decided to grow into a jungle as soon as we went away...

The mouse himself

Thomas with his new hero - maybe he likes orange, he certainly loved Tigger...

James P. Sullivan

Stitch...

Chip or maybe Dale?

Chicken Little... and Abby Malard

Birthday girl meets her favourite..

Buzz with one of his greatest fans... And Thomas...

Vacation

Eight weeks ago, 5th May seems an eternity away, the date of our departure for Florida and Disneyworld... Now, 77030 km later we are back in Halifax! I'm too tired to think straight to night, but will get some pics online as soon as I can! Suffice it to say it's an AWESOME place as the locals would say!!

The map...

Here's our route for tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday (!) - it should be fun, as should seeing the temperature increase from about 14 degrees to 30 as we drive! Ellie's new friend here, Cole, is going to Disneyland at the end of the month - it's funny to hear them talk...
Ellie: I'm going to Florida tomorrow.
Cole: I'm going to Disneyland.
Ellie: I'm going to Florida.
Cole: Disneyland is in Florida.
Ellie: ...silence... Well, I'm going to Florida...
Cole: But Disneyland is in Florida...

and so it goes on, fortunately so far she hasn't twigged I don't think!

On you marks...

Blogging has been a bit stilted recently due to the preparations for our visit to Disneyworld! Still we are almost ready now and maybe I can do another Indiana Jones map if I have time. We're almost packed, we have over two hundred snack (for the journey and the days at disney), more than one hundred drinks, a new two seater buggy for Ellie and Thomas to be chaufeured around the parks in... There is also 7 gigabytes of music and comedy and fifteen DVDs to help the journey go as smoothly as possible! Hopefully the villa will have internet - if so, I will be sticking pictures on whenever I get a chance...

Wildlife

I was wandering around the pond at the weekend and we have an otter-like thing living in it - it's fantastic although proving rather illusive to photograph. We also have rabbits living in the garden, it's very exciting for the kids especially Thomas. Like have pets we don't have to look after!

Cheerio Steve...

A great day for soccer, byeeeeee.... The old adage is truer than ever - if they finish 18th, as long as we finish 17th, everything will be fine...

Fight, Fight......Fight, Fight, Fight...

Ellie and Thomas had their first "proper" fight today... After four days of simmering tension between them, things finally boiled over this morning.
It was quite an evenly fought contest, Thomas' determination to be nasty and pull hair versus the more defensive strategies of Ellie, still battling her big sisterly instincts to be nice to her brother. Ellie's long hair prove an early disadvantage and weakness as Thomas went for the early victory. However, by using the "I've got longer arms than you" strategy Ellie was able to keep him at bay for quite a while and a brief period of greco roman wrestling style shoulder grappling ensued, Thomas persevered and managed to get a good tug at one point.
Ellie was stirred into action by this and having waited until Thomas was off his guard, employed a new technique - using her extra agility, she was able to run around Thomas and attack from the rear - she managed to get a good two handed grip on his scalp from behind and yanked it. This proved to be the winning move. Thomas broke and ran to me which I took to be a concession of defeat.
So, the score stands at 1-0 and I look forward to the next encounter. To be fair, Thomas had been asking for it all week and was lucky I wasn't his opponent....
Wish I'd have got some pictures!

Whoooarrrrrr!

Should I or shouldn't I? Currntly on extended test drive, the Jeep TJ.
Cons: Less luggage space than a mini, not the best fuel economy, poor leg room, somewhere between reasonably and completely impractical.
Pros: Look at it! It's ORANGE, it's beautiful, hard top or soft top and it's going to be great fun!
MC wasn't too sure until she crashed it through a couple of long, wide and deep puddles. After Florida I think...

Square Eyes 2

Having realised I watch more TV here than I ever did in the UK it's onto Thursday for my review of the week. Without a Trace kicks off the evening at 8pm with Anthony La Paglia, C4 in the UK, very watchable.
I'd just written about the rest of the week and I've somehow lost it all... So abridged version here we go...
Thu: American Inventor, spectactularly entertaining, the geek version of Pop Idol with "inventors" trying to win the $1,000,000 dollar prize to market their "inventions" we are down to the last 12 now, most of whom have sensible product, but we have seen the "human tail" and the "pac-a-mac" portable plastic coat/toilet eliminated along the way. Several inventors have sold everything they own for their "products" and are living in the their cars. Rather misquided in most cases.
Fri: In Justice, Kyle MacLachlan from Twin Peaks with daft hair in a courtroom drama right wrongs of the past.
Sat: Sportsnet East covers three live premiership games, the 12:45, 3:00 and 5:15 kickoffs perming three out of ManUre, Chelski, Arsenal and Liverpool each week. Us also rans get a look in if the "Fantastic Four" are playing on Sunday. This has allowed me to endure Everton's 4-0 thrashing of Villa.
Sun: More football, no complaints this time though following the screen (TWICE in five hours) of Villa beating Small Heath 3-1.
Sun: Desperate Housewives, more for MC than me but still okay if I can't summon the energy to get upstairs to bed.
Sun: The Soprano's, simply the BEST show in America.
So that's the week on TV and we are right back to the start with episode 18 of 24 of "24" if you see what I mean...

American TV

So it's back to the purile ramblings on life in North America. We have slipped easily into American TV since Christmas and have a busy daily schedule! Yes, forty minutes of action crammed into every hour... I may sound a little derisory as I prattle on, but I really do like all of these shows...
Monday is obviously still 24 night, Jack Bauer takes on the whole of America this time round, how are they going to better this in the next three seasons? Every week he screams into the camera "This is bigger than anything we imagined" and "We're running out of time!" This is followed by Prison Break - totally addictive, totally ridiculous.
Tuesday it's The Unit, fearful pap, truly horrendously scripted macho rubbish about "The Unit", a crack army team lead by Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer no less from 24) who do dirty jobs to protect the American way of life and all that. It's not just about shooting gun though, for the ladies, we get a look and the "life of the wife", the spouses of the Unitees - lead by the "Godmother" - wife of Unit leader and twice as scary. Don't think this one will be back for a second season. This is followed by the awesome House with Hugh Laurie in an American accent, he's brilliant, obnoxious and can cure anything!
Wednesday, recently move from Tuesday is The Amazing Race - a race around the world for a million dollars, BJ and Tyler are my team, the Hippies. They were almost eliminated in Greece this week when they drove for over an hour in completely the wrong direction. I thought it would mentally challenging as well as physically. Apart from assembling a motorbike though it's really just been a lot of running and carrying coupled with some shouting and crying (crying is compulsory on TV here). Then we have Heist with Dougray Scott of MI2 fame doing the second fake American accent of the week. This is brilliant too, the makers have obviously been watching too many Kudos productions as it resembles Hustle right down to the camera work. Finally we come to Lost on a Wednesday, a load of plane crash survivors try to get by on a mysterious island which, whilst I love the show, is turning some people a bit obsessive... Take a look at some of the posts and conjecture on the Lost Forum to see what I mean, in particular posts like these.
So that's Monday to Wednesday, Thursday to Sunday will follow tomorrow... That will be American Inventor, Without a Trace, ER, In Justice, Desperate Housewives and The Soprano's.
It's good to be back even if no one reads...

Spring time...

...is arriving with a rush!
I bought a BBQ yesterday as spring's endlessly painful spending continues, still to come are lawnmower, strimmer, mosquito magnet, patio furniture...
At least it's warm enough to get down to the beach these days, I was thinking about the promenade in Hove and what I left behind so last night we took a walk on Conrad Beach...
...and then I wasn't so bothered...

Back again...

Hurray - without wishing be pre-empt my recovery I'm feeling very positive at the moment. After a particularly unusual "tailbone" adjustment this week, I have very little pain in my wrist.
I have seen two doctors recently, one when I joined a new practice who was keen to get me some nerve tests followed by massage and physio which I liked the sound of and another who wanted to get me on the CT release surgery waiting list which is was less enthused about! Both were very good, but thankfully it seems my alternative treatment is actually proving very effective. Things are moving so quickly that I am considering resuming my early morning swimming sessions next week. Hopefully I'll be blogging back at my old rate from now on and not talking about CT anymore!

Sporadic

Not that I mean to keep harping on about Carpal Tunnel and all that, but whenever I think I'm on top of it, it comes back and whenever I decide to permanently end the blog it goes away... So here we are again after a two week break.
Obviously the highlight of the week is Birmingham 0 (or none or zero) - Liverpool 7 (or a lot or magnificent ..... or number of dwarves or numer of times Villa won the FA Cup or number of wonders of the world...) nuff said.
It's been an exciting week really, hopefully our house in the UK is sold, we finally sorted out our visit to the "Magic Kingdom" which is going to be awesome - 2000 miles in a car, Brighton to Edinburgh and back to Brigthon TWICE or there abouts through two canadian provinces and ten US states in a day and a bit. Brilliant or foolhardy? That will depend on Thomas I suspect! We'll have the DVD player although I may stick my fist through after the twentieth airing of Baby Eintstein.
Lastly and most importantly, Ellie disappeared for five hours today into the street, the woods, the gardens, with the neighbours kids, unsupervised apart from the occasion "Are you still there (somewhere)?" Armed only with bikes, helmets and their wits. It's a very unnatural feeling for a British parent to say to his 4 year old "It's okay take your bike, you'll be fine. Come back when you get hungry." ...and she wasn't even the youngest! There was a three year old in tow for the day and Thomas too at times... Of course that's what children should have the right to do...
Anyhow, life in Nova Scotia proceeds just fine... took these pics last week to show what a tough time we're having...

un-wow, circumspection and no punctuation

so a week on and my wrist has been through several mills hence the above title

i type now with one or two fingers and in moments of extreme excitement a thumb but no punctuation - i know this is difficult to read but i like my blog and will continue to churn it out even without readers other than the future me or the me of the future i should say

i'm tired of carpal tunnel now it is stopping mw doing lots of things with the children

that said it has moved on this week with a moment of astonishing pain on friday followed by numbness and then amazing improvement throughout the day

my bowen therapist says its all progress which i tend to agree with given the change in feelings and movement

so we'll sww this week how it goes and maybe will become the moving to canada with punctuation blog again instead of the having carpal tunnel blog without

...and Ellie...

...is now full of beans having suffered a little from lack of attention when we moved in and spent three straight weeks slapping paint everywhere. She is doing remarkably well at skating, already running rings around me. She has also resumed gym club and now seems to be the trampoline demonstrator.
Obviously her mood has also improved now that she has her pink and purple bedroom back and has the prospect of school around the corner... She has three weeks induction in May which will give her a taste what's to come in September, something she was ready for last year unfortunately...
That's enough for my regenerated wrist I think for the first blogs in an age... Tomorrow, the Mooseheads last Sunday game of the season and the "Teddy Bear Toss", pictures of that to follow.

What's been going on then?

So in the enforced lay off from the blog - what has happened? MC started work, leaving me at home with Ellie and Thomas... We've had our moments, Thomas has been particularly keen to extend as many boundaries as possible, but is making progress in most things, especially climbing, falling, jumping and fire building (since we started lighting the fire, he's taken it upon himself to assemble the firelighters in the ash whenever my back is turned). Still we are making progress, he knows what is right and what he should only do when I'm not looking, being caught in the act means a two minute visit to the naughty step on the stairs to the basement! Against everything I ever said about having toddlers, he forced me to install child locks on the kitchen cupboard doors, the "delux" set I bought took him about four hours to open, now he taunts me with it... Well, next week, I'm installing the Cadillac of child locks which he most certainly won't be able to get around as it requires a removable magnetic handle. The cost? Significant, especially as I have now discovered that I have to buy a drill in order to be able to fit it...
Still he's definitely becoming a lovable rogue, never out of mischief, good job he's got a winning smile and uses it on anyone prepared to look at him...

Wow

So my wrist is making amazing progress now - the massage on the carpal tunnel itself lasted probably no more than five minute and was quite bizarre in its delivery (no much more than a stroking of the inner arm) but the results have been amazing - I had been applying gel to numb the pain, now there is no need. I complete a set of exercises every day and I'm even hoping to resume the decoration of the house next weekend - more green to cover up! By back is still pretty sore and the side effects of the (extremely) gently massages have been extreme. I have a four week break now to do exercises and drink water after which I will return to have my pelvis and kidneys adjusted - they apparently can effect the carpal tunnel too... Might sound like mumbo jumbo, but I'll take it over the medical professions "Here's some anti-inflamatories, rest it completely for two weeks and if necessary, put it in a splint..." - I mean how realistic is that for someone living in the real world? My homeopath was happy for me to continue as normal preferably avoiding pain if possible, slightly more realistic when looking after two small children! Anyway many thanks for the Bowen Technique Massage go to Meryl Cook of the Kachina Health Centre!

Still Tunnelling

Well, my carpal tunnel problem hasn't gone away yet hence the continued stilted blog updates. Looking after two children with one hand is really "interesting" to say the least! My Bowen massages are working slowly I think, but I'm still not typing much, so the blog remains on hiatus for the time being BUT will return, in the next month or so!

Lazyboy (and Girl)

Finally an evening in the Lazyboys for Ellie and Thomas, rewards for being good while mom and dad painted the house!

Still one advantage is that it was finally cold enough to freeze the pond so we could skate (badly) on it.

Lawrencetown beach in the cold

Every picture is worth a thousand words... not including in the thousand about this are "It's actually about -30 including wind chill", we stayed on the beach long enough to take three or four pictures and then scurried off to the safety of the car again!

Lawrencetown beach - unsurprisingly empty in February.

Mail doesn't come to our door, we collect at this communal hut.

Deerwood Drive

We've been here a month today and we finally walked to the end of the road today! Here's Ellie at the end of the road...

Bowen Massage...

So I went for my Bowen Technique massage today - given the time I've been having with Thomas - $70 was worth it just to lie down for an hour in the afternoon. As it turned out, my wrist has already improved a little bit which is nice and I kept falling asleep on the table...

Light...

I've done my first bits of electrics here this week, just changing a few light fittings so far, one minor electrocution and a whole lot of pleasure from what I found when I took down the (hideous) old lights. EVERYTHING is standard, no mucking around - all the bits were there to fit to hole in the ceiling. Nothing like every manufacturer having their own design which doesn't fit into anything!

Child Unfriendly

We've had to collect a set of new kitchen appliances since moving in to our new house - the great thing about that is they all have child locks on them! This was never a requirement with Ellie, but Thomas is a different kettle of fish altogether. It's a real pleasure to see the look, and then frown, on his face when his meddling has no effect... That said, he has started to climb on the coffee table to get to the light switches... What next I wonder...

In!

So we moved again... for the last time for ages! The floors are finished, Ellie's room is outrageously pink. Ten days ago the upstairs looked like this...
Now it looks like this...
Ellie's room has gone from this...To this - now with disney princess borders and furniture! Watching: Chris Rock on stage, he really isn't as good as Richard Prior or even Eddie Murphy for that matter...

Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day...

Wow, there really is a Groundhog day! Punxsutawney Phil actually does predict the weather (just like in the film). Well, Phil talks of imposters and impersonators and we have our own, Shubenacadie Sam... he's predicted an early Spring over here so I guess the snow will be on its way soon...

Eastlink

When we had our cable connected in Beechville I had to call Eastlink 7 times in order to correct my address. This time, we had cable installed last Monday - I finally connected the TV at the weekend to find out that it did not work in the lounge, yet the internet was fine in the bedroom. So I placed a service call and out came an engineer, he scoffed at the fact that the installer did not check the point in the lounge and quickly fixed the problem as the port had not been connected at all... Great. I popped up stairs later to check my email - that connection was now dead. I wasn't especially impressed... Still this time I had a root around in the patch panel myself and worked out enough to be able to fis it myself!

Blizzards

We went to bed in Mineville last night and woke up in Narnia this morning, there is snow EVERYWHERE! Perfect considering we are officially moving house on Friday. We are in the middle of a blizzard that started last night and is still rumbling on eight hours later. I mislaid my camera earlier in the week, but will be get some pics of this as soon as I crawl out of bed.

Doctors vs. Homeopaths round 2

Years ago when I was contracting I got myself a dose of shingles, my doctor told me to take painkillers and lie on the sofa for 4-8 weeks and wait for things to get better. As a contractor, if I didn't work, I didn't get paid, so I took myself off to see a homeopath, £50, a few funny little pills and four days later I was back at work... It's a bit of a difference.
Now Ellie has a very (for her) painful complaint for which the conventional medical treatment is "to wait 18 months to 5 years" and it will "go away by itself". Frankly that's not good enough, every so often she gets an infection and some lovely pink anti-biotics. Well, no more, off to the homeopath we went again. It's too early to say whether it will be 2-0 or 1-1, but my money's on 2-0...

Rear Window...

We're in Beechville tonight; I was looking out of my "rear window". When we came to Canada I thought the view was pretty good, a bit of lake, lots of green stuff and trees. There are also a few houses in view, a school and some other buildings... Now, I need to get back "home" to Mineville where there is just trees, our pond and nothing else apart from the odd roaming neighbourhood dog - a golden retriever visits every day and is still welcome until it leaves a deposit! Our new house is truly why we came here, more land than the entire street we used to live in, woods, water and space.

Hobbit's Terrorist Unit...

There's a hobbit running CTU! Seconded from the FBI, Sam Gamgee has arrived and taken control, wow, I never saw that coming.

This was our garden this afternoon, the trees were full of snow. Alas we were forced to leave to go appliance shopping. We need a fridge, washer and dryer rather urgently!