Coldonion

Well it is fast approaching, or for some, already been celebrated....
Reading the news on Yahoo, reminded me of the 2000 celebrations, when they televised it all through the day from different countries. I remember way back when, I, and two other F/F's pulled the night shift for New Year's Eve. Kinda sucked, since we had to test equipment for the dreaded Y2K bug, a neat thing we got to see were two firework shows going off at different parts of the island, with another one going off behind us in the towne of St. Georges. I remember thinking it would probably be pretty cool to get an arial shot of the island with firework displays going off at the center, the east and west end of the island.
Well this year comes to a close, looking forward to 2006 and the probably supprises it has in store for me.
On a global scale, hopefully natural disasters will be down, and the manmade problems dip to an all time low.......

Happy New Year everybody!
Keep it safe and best wishes in 2006!

Well Christmas was quiet...
We had a nice roast beef, yorkshire pudding, gravy, and leftover veggies from Christmas Eve dinner.
Then went for a walk, a pretty quiet and uneventful day considering it was Christmas Day.

Today is Boxing day....
I always thought that Boxing day was an annual boxing match, when I was a kid, and I kinda looked forward to the day when I was old enough and could attend these matches.

Then I found out what it was really for......

Now again I have found out what it IS REALLY FOR....
Mad mad mad sales
prices so low that it would be a sin not to buy
lotsa fliers in the newspapers
and braving malls for a parking space
lastly, Boxing Day is pretty much for bulk cheesy programs on cable stations.....

Anyhoo, take care everyone....

Close up of handmade gift, a duck taking flight. 

Roanna with our gift, hand made by Granddad 

Mom opens here gifts (not from us, from her Mom) 

That's a quick pic from our balcony.... sorry about the sun, but there ain't much else to see the other way.

Anywho, a quick post to wish everyone

A Merry Christmas!!!!

Enjoy the day, we know we are, and for all those people who have to work today, I hope your days goes well and uneventful. Enjoy those friends and family you will see afterwards....

Well we are up and gonna tidy the house, we leave for Christmas Dinner in a few hours, at the parents house. The full dinner with all the family, and will do the gift exchange afterwards as well.
Tomorrow, we will have a roast and some yummy yorkshire pudding, and I figure the left over veggies from tonight for a late lunch earlier dinner. Since everyone will probably be stuffed full of turkey.

I hope everyone has a great Holiday.

Oh, as I went to the Co-Op to shop today I happened to look at the notice board and what do I see????

A notice that read....

Are you looking for an XBox 360 for Christmas?
I have one, a full system still in the box unopened.
Asking price $1000. (this is canadian $)

I love the Christmas spirit, it does not say if this is the basic system (which went for$399 a system) or the upgraded system (which sold for $499). So nothing like a 200% to 250% profit to make ones Christmas spirits rise.......

Well maybe they should have this day as a holiday as well......
Due to illness, I was able to get one gift, a Christmas card for my wife....
not to sure if I want to brave the traffic tomorrow for last minute gifts...
It will be a pretty lean Christmas anyway...
It is the holidays though, so hopefully I will be able to enjoy it, so far I can move about for 1/2 hour now with out breaking out in a sweat. Today I was able to load the washer with out breaking into a sweat, so I think I may have this beat a bit.
I was reading on my Uncle's blog, he had a bit of a relapse with what he has caught... this years flu seems not as bad as last years thankfully.
I remember a few years back I caught the Asian flu that was going around the UK. Man was that an illness.
Come on you brainy scientists!!!! Where is our anti-flu pills!!!!!!!!!
Anyhoo, tomorrow we are off to Christmas Eve Dinner at the parents house, I will take the camera, but promise nothing......
I hope that everyone else has a great Christmas as well.

Jenny fell asleep in this postition last night. 

Here is the spread from Roanna's parents Christmas party... 

Well, thought I would have had this bug licked by Thursday, but unfortunately it still has me licked. May go to the clinic tonight, but I do feel slightly better now. You know how it goes you feel pretty good until you do something (like make tea) then you sit around and sweat for 20 minutes.
I took the sheets off of the bed and washed them, they and the room are a bit smelly with all the sweating I did over the last few days.
On another note, it seems that Calgary will be having a wet Christmas this year, rain is apparently in the forecast for the holiday. Ah well, at least a bit of water may keep tempers down on Boxing day, with all the sales going on. Roanna and her Mum are gonna brave the masses, more power to them, think I'm gonna stay home and watch some hockey....

Well feeling a bit better, yesterday afternoon I was at 101.1 F on the thermometer, lots of rest and juice and soup.
Hopefully I should be over this by Thursday, but at least I don't HAVE to be out anywhere for the next couple of days.
Anyhoo just letting everyone know I'm feeling better and still kicking around.

On the meds now, feeling a bit better, yesterday we were at our inlaws home by 1130, to help with the last minute details for thier Christmas party.
Took the camera, and again took about 3 photo's...... you get so busy. Unfortunately I started to slide downhill in the afternoon, so a couple of hours were just spent in the basement on a couch. straight home and into bed. Right now I am taking Cold FX, all the ladies at the party swear by it.
I don't seem to have a temperature, so I think I just have caught a bad cold, I think it is time to retire the light jacket and pull out the heavy one. The next few days will be spent in bed resting. Then hopefully I will be feeling better, and I can jump out to get a few last minute gifts.

Take care all

Last nights party was great!
We got to meet our neighbours (on our floor anyway) and thier friends, meet thier cats, and get up on the latest gossip in the apt. building.
Unfortunately I have caught something, probably those walks to the trash bit with cat poop in shorts and a T-shirt on. Or maybe I caught Triangles flu.....
Which is strange cause I was pretty sick last Christmas time having to miss parties.... but then I was sick from eating expired cream cheese. No fun I can tell you that.
So apprently my body has decided to bring in the Christmas tradition with the annual, "I'll be in bed for a week!"

Ah, well, and with all my ranting about christmas party pictures on Friday, the camera stayed indoors.

Well we should be moving some time soon, so time to sign off.

Though looking out the window, it seems like Saturday evening.
Things are ready for the parties, I am hard boiling the other 12 eggs, to make deviled eggs tomorrow morning, made the Satay Meatballs, quite nice, need a bit more work next time, since I made up the recipe. Beef & pork (mixed) meatballs seasoned with a Satay marinade, then after they were cooked I glazed them in (just read dumped on top) a Satay / coconut / beef broth / crushed honey roasted peanuts, sauce. We had one, not to bad.
We drove down to the old landlords house to drop some stuff off, then stopped at the BLACK SWAN a pub just near us. Had a couple of drinks while watching the Patriots kick Tampa Bays butts!!!! Quite an exciting game, and I guess if you live anywhere in Massachusetts it must be some exciting prospects of a future three time superbowl back to back champions!!!

Then we came home to finish up cooking the nibbles for todays & tomorrow's parties. Tidied up the house a bit and cleaned out the litter bin, fresh litter for the cats to poop in. HORAY!!!

I live such an exciting life......

Well, we are down to 1 week from Christmas Eve, not that anyone needed me to tell you that. Last night we were at friends house for thier Christmas party, we arrived a bit early to help them with some last minute details, April always makes the most delicious and interesting nibbles for her parties.
Lots of kids there this year, last year there were about 3 maximum, this year there were a few more, the youngest being over a month, the oldest 10. Spent time catching up and chatting with people that I haven't seen since last years party. Such a change! At least for the hosts, anyway, since they had thier first child there, Conor. Roanna spent a bit of time feeding him and holding him.


This morning was spent boiling eggs, for the deviled eggs, and making a sauce for the meatballs for tonight and tommorrow, plus mixing the meat with secret spices! Roanna has gone out to do some shopping, and hopefully later this afternoon we will make the deviled eggs, and cook the meatballs. Some for the party across the hall tonight, and the rest for the party tomorrow and the Mum-in-laws house. We will be there early to help with the final prepping, so more than likely I won't be posting anything tomorrow. We will take the camera but I promise nothing, since we took the camera last night and ended up with 3 pictures taken. All of Conor. No other shots at the party.
For my Grandma, I have been reading your blog which is very nice, and informative, lots of Bermuda that I never new, or was around for.....
I was VERY excited to find out the your dad (my Great-Granddad) worked for Dr. Beebe during his research off of Bermuda. That was pretty cool to learn, looking at the old pictures was interesting to, since you could see later decendents in those faces...

If anyone hasn't seen it yet (she is one blogger), here is a link for you.

http://bermudagranny.blogspot.com/

Bye all and have a great weekend.

Here is our Christmas tree, a gift from Roanna's Mom and Dad. Roanna did the decorating, and as long as you don't touch it TO much the sparkles stay on the tree. We also put some lights into the fire place, set on a timer, so that is pretty cool to look at, there are a few gifts under the tree, they are from my Mom (thanks Mom). 

There is a little light behind, so it glows a bit when the light is right! 

For some strange reason I am thinking I am one day ahead...
Hi to all, as usually not much happining over and up here. The weather is still pretty good, and the decorations have been up for over a couple of weeks. With no cat/christmas decorations accidental pull downs/breakages/or tears.
Belive it or not we are still finding things that we were given over the years from our families (and we still gots lots of stuff at the in-laws basement). We found the other day, a nice glass gift from Roanna's Granddad, I will post a pic a bit later to show everyone.
Walked over to the store today to get some dinner fixens, a simple Beef Goulash, with buttered egg noodles. I got a package of steak last night, cooked one on the BBQ (really should have marinaded it for a few hours) it was a bit tough! Nothing like 1 1/2 bubling away in a pot to soften it up.
One more dinner tomorrow night, then it will be the annual party and finger food diet for the weekend.
Hope everyone's holidays are going well.

Well it's is another quiet day, especially for the Christmas season. Since I haven't gone into the malls for any gift shopping, I have no wild tales about long lines, fights over the last item, etc. etc.
Though I think Maxine has caught a cold, she has been sneezing like crazy all day, though it could be the dry dust up here. It was nice to live in a home where there was a humidifier, I hadn't realized how dusty it gets, new thought. Dust is just dried mold......
I think everyone in Bermuda will get that joke.
Good news for Roanna, she got a raise, bad news she gives the good old government 30% of it off the bat. Not counting the "extra" she has to give in a few months time.........
Now with lots of foresight I realise I should have tried to come here via a different method......ah well.
Everyone have a great what every the rest of the day you have left.

Holy cow, (this comment is neither meant to offend Christians, nor those who worship cows, cow gods, cow deities or any other powerful cow spirit). December 25th is less than two weeks away today. Which goes to show if you don't pay attention, time slips by very fast, or unless you happen to be on the event horizon of a black hole, very very slowly.
Anywho, finally got my stuff mailed into the immigration today, so I'm sure that it will arrive just in time to be put in the "we are away on holiday will open later box."
Though it is done, the last of the ice is melting, just in time for the new dump later this week. Hopefully it will be a White Christmas this year, last year, if I remember correctly, we did not have snow until the late afternoon of Dec. 25th, and it was a pretty big dump of snow!!!
This year plans are to celebrate on Christmas Eve, so Christmas day will have to be decided what to do for lunch or dinner, at this point in time, i'm drawing a blank.... But being stuffed with turkey from the night before it probably won't be any more turkey.
Maybe roast beef and yorkshire pudding, that may be the way to go, it will be for only four of us, Roanna, I and Roanna's parents.
Anyway, been an exciting week for the news, 150 tons of fuel on fire in England, which I am sure will in some way shape or form make the oil company big wigs jack up prices again!! One plane crash and one runway overrun, it just has been an interesting year for aviation. Kinda makes me worksick right now............
For some strange reason I want to make some deviled eggs for the parties this weekend, I never have made these though they seem pretty straight forward, and pretty darned tasty. Plus (to me anyway) these things seem to be very 1950's, the heady days of pipes, smoking jackets and martini's at the door. Which goes lead me on to another quick story, I buy the ULTRA LOUNGE CD's, lots of 1950's and 1960's music, in each disk they usually list about three cocktails that you can make, which generally go like this, 1 ice cube, 95% alcohol + 5% juice or mixer, shake / stir, garnish, taste add more alcohol if necessary. After reading these, I always wondered how the 1950's made it into the 1960's with 85% of the population being half in the bag all the time.
Anyhoo, everyone enjoy the season, in which ever way you celebrate it.

Maxine 

Well it's been like a cool summer day today, we had Roanna's cousins over for lunch today and threw some hambergers on the BBQ, some coleslaw and beer, and it was like we were somewhere in August.
Roanna was also able to sell some jewelry today as well, so who can't complain about that....
This week will be a bit busy, since we gotta get prepped up for the christmas parties, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Saturday's in our opposite neighbour in our apt complex, so that will probably be quite the piss up, might have to have some rum and eggnog, it usually goes down well. Sunday is in the afternoon, so we get to sleep in just a bit. I am gonna make some party food for the parties, so far I have a request for Humus, for Friday, probably do some meatballs (thinking curried meatballs in a curried coconut glaze), still a bit unsure about Sunday, maybe more meatballs......
Tonight is the Survivor night, for some reason I got sucked back into the show this season.... so it will be fun to watch the finale.
Had to go back to the shop this afternoon to pick up things that we did not get in this morning....I'm getting forgetful!!!
Well hope everyone else had a good weekend.

Well I am up now with a cup of chai tea in my hand. The past few days Maxine has decided to pee by the litter box, which is very, very bothersome. So a quick blot, some "spot remover" and glaring at her for at least an hour, to let her know I am not pleased with her.
There was a space around the litter box, but now i have moved or blocked it with something, so hopefully she won't do it again. The strange thing is, she seems it is an everyday occurance to her, it happens right after morning breakfast, so at least for the rest of the week I will be sitting in the room after I feed them both. I guess this is getting us ready for kids one day.......
I mean off a side note, on Thursday when she peed, I cleaned up the mess, sprayed down the spot remover, and gave he a verbal scolding (which I am sure she took to heart...)
Half an hour later I go to the door to look for the newspaper, and see something black and oval shaped on the floor next to our shoes. Absolutely furious now, (and quite concerned why she is doing this) I am cursing Maxine's name as I grab a paper towel and go to pick up this poop! I grab it and notice it is a bit soft and realise that it is a piece that has broken off of my sneakers!!!
Okay now I feel guilty about thinking all those bad things... hopefully we can find what the problem is, cats are pretty fickle, and we talked to a vet about it, of course drugs were the last resort, which we do not want to do. Both of us feel that if we can just keep Maxine only, her attitude will change, and hopefully her peeing will stop.

Well yesterday, we went to see Harry Potter at the theater, so we caught the bus to Chinook Mall, the traffic was crazy there, and the malls were pretty packed. They had Santa at the mall, and the line up was pretty long (been there and done that on both sides of the line). One of the old St. George's Fire Brigade's job was to provide transportation and security for Jolly ol' St. Nick, belive me, he needed protection.

So the movie was pretty good, though anybody who read the book knows how much they cut out. Maybe the next one will be broken up. The books get bigger and bigger, so who knows?

Saw the trailor for Superman, that my be the hit of summer 2006, for those who followed the series, it took such a long time to finally decide to actually do it. It looks like it may be worth the wait, personally I can't wait for Halo which isn't supposed to be out until summer of 2007, so one year at a time...

Anyhoo, I'm off to have breakfast.... we are having some cousins over for lunch so since it is warm I might fire up the BBQ and do some hambergers. Gotta get over to the store for the supplies.

Now we got a bit two much.
Now the house is a little crowded with furniture. We got some nice bits from friends and family, and today we finally got a loveseat, so we can watch TV together.

Let's see not much else to say, had a great laugh with this article from the Royal Gazette back home. Enjoy.

A couple who forced a plane to land in Bermuda after they attacked cabin crew who stopped them having sex are facing a $34,000 bill for their pleasure.And they run the risk of national shame back in England after UK tabloid The Sun ran the story with an appeal for the public to name and shame them.It said stunned passengers watched in horror as the randy couple attacked cabin crew after being told to return to their seats. They shouted abuse and spat as they grappled with the British Airways staff who forced them back into their business class seats. And despite being restrained with plastic handcuffs, the pilot decided he had no choice but to divert the 777 jet to Bermuda. The "sex rage" incident, as The Sun described it, began when they started drinking heavily on the ten-hour flight from Gatwick to Kingston, Jamaica on Monday.They joined the "mile-high club" in one of the loos. But after their noisy passion was overheard by flight staff they were ordered out – and went berserk.A passenger said: "They were asked politely to return to their seats but went ballistic. They were shouting vile abuse and spitting at staff." Another said: "The captain tried to calm them down but they were just as abusive to him." The couple, who were booked on a two-week holiday, were held by Police in Bermuda and on Wednesday put on a flight back to Gatwick – where they were arrested. Now the pair from Luton, England face being charged with air rage – and the £34,000 cost of diverting the plane. Bermuda Airport manager Jim Howes said: "It's always the joke among us pilots, and I am a pilot, about have you joined the mile high club?"When asked if he had Mr. Howes said: "I can't comment – and you can quote me on that." Although he did say that on that long haul flight the couple had probably joined the seven-mile high club.Asked if he had ever come across the phrase "sex rage" Mr. Howe said: "I can't say I have but I guess if they were caught by flight attendants in the flagrante delecto they would be a little perturbed by that."Asked about the $34,000 cost of the tryst Mr. Howes said: "I just hope it was worth it."
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The luck of this couple, they are probalby not even married to each other, if you now what I mean.....

You have heard of 15 minutes of fame?
Well I got my 15 minutes of happiness yesterday.
Got my passport (Yay), now back to the putrid muck of immigration processing.
Just got off the phone, more fees, a fee cause they had to put my processing on hold, $200 bucks so they can kick someone in the ass to get them to look at my paperwork. $150 bucks to change my status from visitor to first time work permit. Needless to say this is AFTER the fact that they were processing my last visitor visa (for me to stay for another 6 months), which they put on hold due to the fact that the passport was gonna expire. Needless to say, there was an $85 buck processing fee to do that, so now that I am changing my status (visitor to worker, which could have been done earlier if I had a current passport *admit* that is ALL MY FAULT) .
So since I am on a new status, maybe I should get my money back for the visitor visa I do not need now??? Nope, they processed so they keep the $85 bucks, I guess this is symantics, cause I have not got a finalized visitor visa extension form (they send you one) so technically they have not processed it.
Ah well, some where in the dark recesses of my mind I plan to get all this money back from the Canadian Government in one way shape or form.

Well, back into a bad mood, just in time for the weekend to!!!!

For good news, we get a couch tomorrow, well a loveseat actually. One more thing for the cats to fight over......

I'll try to leave on a cheerfull note.

One of my favs, this was taken in Bermuda.

Well after a few months delay, we should be back on track with the immigration paperwork. (Hopefully I have not jinxed it by saying so).
New news, I have now become an official British Citizen, so as I said in my other blog, I believe I have become a British Citizen in about 1/12 th the time it has taken me to still NOT get ANY Canadian rights/landed papers / etc. It must have been the poke at the Canadian Safety Beaver on my web site news......
Let that be a lesson to you folks, never piss off a crappy Government they do to you what they do best.......ABSOLUTELY NOTHIN'!
Well now that's off my chest.

More news.....I will be back to blogging at this blog. Since the family have moved over to here now.

Things are warming up in Calgary after about a week of minus double digits, and thankfully no one we know has lost any digits either.

Hi to everyone, now that I have a bit of good news, well I will probably be posting more, and popping in a few more photos.

For example:


Not a great shot of a sunset, and those signs you see are the show area of a new condo unit going up, so in about 2 years that view will not be there anymore. For those of you who dont know the skyline of Calgary, Yes those are Banff mountains in the outline inbetween the trees.

Ah well, I hope that everyone has a great Christmas season, we watch A Charlie Brown Christmas on Tuesday, nothing like kicking off the season with an old classic. (Though for some strange reason one of the canadian channels showed How the Grinch Stole Christmas, about 3 weeks ago!!!)

Everyone here is fine, so I'll blog later.

Ian