I’ve been enjoying the skiing lately when we finally manage to mobilise the four kids and actually get to the local ski hill (not to mention my not working being a factor in achieving the feat) but one of the things that I am learning about myself is a seeming inability to not test my limits. Part of the reason for that at the moment is it doesn’t take much for me to actually reach my limits.
Added to that is the fact that the kids are skiing with us and despite possibly have limits that they should reach before I reach mine (very debatable) the reality is that they don’t have one limit that I reach well ahead of them ... fear. The other seems to be the ability to fall down and not care (though admittedly they aren’t doing much of that of late.
And its not just the skiing.I
It’s a simple fact these days that I have two dodgy shoulders (which is actually important to this story). One stems from a touch football incident that I incurred what is probably over 6 years ago now and the other, from a more recent incident. this well documented case. Now last week, on Christmas day in fact , I decided to take the boys and their new sled things to the sledding hill to try them out. The first thing that happened was that I slipped going down the steps by the bbq and jarred both shoulders. Ouch. The second thing that happed was that I took a fine running approach in order to execute a beautiful and fast sledding run.
In reality however, as I sought to gracefully propel myself forward through the air and onto the sled for a wondrous and awe-inspiring sled run I stood on the trailing edge of the sled. Which meant that whilst I was in fact propelled through the air, it was with no grace and indeed with no sled. Instead I landed ungracefully on the far side of the sled in a rather unfortunate mess in the snow. Splat.
Now I didn’t pull up too badly from that encounter, the right shoulder wasn’t good, but I wasn’t crippled either.
So it was that I was skiing with Emily and Thomas on the weekend, following Emily down the hill with Thomas trailing behind. Now most of the time I get down the hill comfortably without even going close to falling over (exceptions occur when one is looking wildly around to find out where the small one went). And of course that’s where testing one’s limits come in.
Michael Sam and Thomas have already progressed to small (foot high) jumps and of course if they can do it, I can too right? Well the first time I could and even the second time i landed without major incident, it was just that one ski popped off when I landed ... but I stayed upright! So that was fine.
But on the occasion that I have been distracted from (kind of like skiing with small children) we were on a different run and it wasn’t a jump that was my undoing. There is a small slippery table-top halfway down the hill that one can choose to go over (note I said choose, the wise and sensible amongst us choose not to). I’d seen Thomas go over it and I had nearly gone over it myself earlier in the day. But I decided that I needed to work this one out. So Emily went over ... and stopped right near the end, which caused me some consternation as I was rapidly approaching. Now I can’t say for sure that that was my demise, but regardless of whether it was that distraction or merely the exceedingly early limit of my skill, when I went up onto it, I lost control. It seemed like my left ski was left behind and so I tried to lift my foot and bring it forward.
After that it was all rather amusing. I know that it was amusing because the four or five pimply faced, snot-nosed good for nothing layabout snowboarders who happened to be seated nearby collapsed in paroxysms of laughter as I once again propelled myself ungracefully through the air. This time I again landed face first sans skis. Ouch.
Of course at that point, Thomas, who was trailing me and doesn’t understand the concept of NOT going over the feature skied into me from behind.
Fortunately he didn’t manage to hurt me further. Of course I was less than pleased when he indignantly had a go at me for getting in his way and ruining his run!
And so now, although not terribly seriously injured, I sit here with rather sore shoulders from recurring wounds, wishing I had a younger man’s arms.
Dec 31, 2007
Dec 27, 2007
Suckered
Last week we were leaving the house to go skiing when a guy came to the front door trying to get us to have a carpet cleaning demonstration. Now I wasn’t the one that answered the door or this wouldn’t have happened. But as it was, Caroline was the one that answered the door and by coincidence, about 2 days earlier, Emily had decided to do some painting in her room … and of course got some paint on the carpet.
Caroline, seeing an opportunity arranged for them to come in and do a demonstration (they were only in the area for the weekend) when we got back from skiing.
So upon our return from skiing, these two guys came in, along with their spiffy looking vacuum cleaner to start giving us a demonstration of their product. It turned out to be a very impressive product (Can’t remember the name of it, but that’s really not the point).
But I of course was wary because they were door to door salesmen, I don’t own the house and really couldn’t be bothered listening to a sales pitch at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon. Besides, I’d been scarred once before by having to sit through 45 minutes of a cooking system demonstration that Caroline had organized (and then not got home in time for) so that we could get the 4 free steak knives they promised … but that’s another story.
Of course being Sunday night and being the time that it was, when they hadn’t finished the demonstration in the first hour and before they got to the real hard sell, Caroline had to go and start prepping dinner … leaving me to bear the brunt of the assault. Yay me. I listened and watched and let them run their spiel, agreeing that their product was impressive and that if I was in the market for a vacuum cleaner that I would indeed think there’s was worth buying.
They tried hard. They asked if we ever traveled or if we liked the idea of traveling. I pointed out to them that we’d only traveled half way around the world to be there for them to even speak to us, to which the guy replied, “Man you keep shooting me down!” And by golly I enjoyed it.
They kept trying to build an economic justification for the purchase of their product, asking how many times we thought we’d have to pay someone to clean the carpet, how much wear and tear it might save … blah blah blah, to which my response was,
“We don’t own the house and we’re only here for another 12 months (yeah, I lied) so I really don’t give a toss about the carpet.”
“Oh but what about your bond, surely you don’t want to lose that?”
“Actually the company owns the house and there is no bond.” Another shot for me.
Then he started going into the health aspects and kindly vacuumed Michael’s bed, just to show me all the dust mite carcasses and feces and stuff that my child was sleeping in, trying to show me that we were putting our lives at risk.
“One in six people get a respiratory problem from these things and there’s six of you in the house …”
“Yes, but none of us have and if you extend out our families and there’s still no problem, that one in six doesn’t quite hold up to well …” Bang.
I tried to cut him short to say that given we’d be leaving the country in 12 months, I wasn’t interested because the power is different and so it would be useless to me. He stated that they would happily record the machine for us, went through the life time warranty and of course threw in the free trip to Mexico.
I pointed out that when you have four kids, a free trip for 2 to Mexico is far from a free trip. Got him again.
The whole time that we’re doing this, his mate is down on his arse in Emily’s room applying spot remover to the carpet for us. Poor bastard.
I decided that things had gone far enough, I could smell dinner and I really just wanted them out of there. So I gave him a home truth. “The only reason that you’re in this house is because you happened to come here on a day when we had paint on the carpet and you said you’d get it out. I don’t want your vacuum cleaner.”
That of course launched the questions about why I wouldn’t buy a product that I had clearly agreed had benefits for us and was a quality product … did I really want those dust mite feces on the beds?
I told him I didn’t want to the vacuum cleaner. He rang the office and I overheard him at a complete loss as to why he couldn’t sell me this vacuum cleaner when I had agreed with him that it was a great product that I should probably have in my home. I took great delight from there in getting them out as quickly as I could, mystified as to why the couldn’t have my money.
Caroline, seeing an opportunity arranged for them to come in and do a demonstration (they were only in the area for the weekend) when we got back from skiing.
So upon our return from skiing, these two guys came in, along with their spiffy looking vacuum cleaner to start giving us a demonstration of their product. It turned out to be a very impressive product (Can’t remember the name of it, but that’s really not the point).
But I of course was wary because they were door to door salesmen, I don’t own the house and really couldn’t be bothered listening to a sales pitch at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon. Besides, I’d been scarred once before by having to sit through 45 minutes of a cooking system demonstration that Caroline had organized (and then not got home in time for) so that we could get the 4 free steak knives they promised … but that’s another story.
Of course being Sunday night and being the time that it was, when they hadn’t finished the demonstration in the first hour and before they got to the real hard sell, Caroline had to go and start prepping dinner … leaving me to bear the brunt of the assault. Yay me. I listened and watched and let them run their spiel, agreeing that their product was impressive and that if I was in the market for a vacuum cleaner that I would indeed think there’s was worth buying.
They tried hard. They asked if we ever traveled or if we liked the idea of traveling. I pointed out to them that we’d only traveled half way around the world to be there for them to even speak to us, to which the guy replied, “Man you keep shooting me down!” And by golly I enjoyed it.
They kept trying to build an economic justification for the purchase of their product, asking how many times we thought we’d have to pay someone to clean the carpet, how much wear and tear it might save … blah blah blah, to which my response was,
“We don’t own the house and we’re only here for another 12 months (yeah, I lied) so I really don’t give a toss about the carpet.”
“Oh but what about your bond, surely you don’t want to lose that?”
“Actually the company owns the house and there is no bond.” Another shot for me.
Then he started going into the health aspects and kindly vacuumed Michael’s bed, just to show me all the dust mite carcasses and feces and stuff that my child was sleeping in, trying to show me that we were putting our lives at risk.
“One in six people get a respiratory problem from these things and there’s six of you in the house …”
“Yes, but none of us have and if you extend out our families and there’s still no problem, that one in six doesn’t quite hold up to well …” Bang.
I tried to cut him short to say that given we’d be leaving the country in 12 months, I wasn’t interested because the power is different and so it would be useless to me. He stated that they would happily record the machine for us, went through the life time warranty and of course threw in the free trip to Mexico.
I pointed out that when you have four kids, a free trip for 2 to Mexico is far from a free trip. Got him again.
The whole time that we’re doing this, his mate is down on his arse in Emily’s room applying spot remover to the carpet for us. Poor bastard.
I decided that things had gone far enough, I could smell dinner and I really just wanted them out of there. So I gave him a home truth. “The only reason that you’re in this house is because you happened to come here on a day when we had paint on the carpet and you said you’d get it out. I don’t want your vacuum cleaner.”
That of course launched the questions about why I wouldn’t buy a product that I had clearly agreed had benefits for us and was a quality product … did I really want those dust mite feces on the beds?
I told him I didn’t want to the vacuum cleaner. He rang the office and I overheard him at a complete loss as to why he couldn’t sell me this vacuum cleaner when I had agreed with him that it was a great product that I should probably have in my home. I took great delight from there in getting them out as quickly as I could, mystified as to why the couldn’t have my money.
Dec 23, 2007
Merry Christmas
For the last I don’t know how many years, about 2 or 3 weeks prior to this, I finally get around to putting together a Christmas letter that we stick in all the cards that we send out to our family and friends.
Well this year is different. This year, I missed that date and so there is no letter. This will have to be the substitute, given that we only realized when it was too late that we’d missed the deadline for sending cards back to Oz. No cards, meant no letter either. The other change is that in having moved over here to Canada, there’s a lot more people aware of and reading drift, so much of what would normally go in the letter is already covered and known amongst our family and friends. But I couldn’t help myself and had to put some sort of quick summary of our year together just to post it at drift as a way of wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and to let you all know that we are indeed very much thinking of you at this time of year.
If you’re reading this for a while then you’ll probably be well aware that the year has been full of adventure for us. It started way back prior to Christmas last year with me leaving my Rail contract home of 6 years to go and head up our contract with Santos as an interim measure until they were ready for the Temby’s to descend upon Canada. Of course having made the big step out of the rail contract, it then became a waiting game as to just how long it was going to be until they actually wanted us over here. Uncertainty certainly wasn’t an overly pleasant companion to have during that period, though it was great for me to get to work with a group of people that I’d worked with previously.
Of course in the end we finally got a date for the big move and shifted into the ‘oh my freaking god, what are we doing’ mode of operation that seems to go hand in hand with a decision to move to the other side of the world.
The kids held up remarkably well during the process and I was so busy working that I had little time to think about it. As is probably commonly the case, Caroline was the one that was most heavily burdened with the effort and I don’t think I could ever publicly thank her enough for the effort and stress that she went through in order for this to actually happen for us.
But move we did and in the process, managed to spend 3 days at Disneyland in LA. Its one of those magical dreams that I had as a kid, that one day I’d get to go to Disneyland and its still a little hard to believe that it actually happened. I don’t think our kids quite appreciate just how much of a dream it was for their parents to get to go there. Spoilt little buggers. But it was a great three days and if anything says just how magical that place is, it is the look on your little girl’s face when after standing in line for half an hour, she get’s to meet some Disney Princesses and have her photo taken.
For the boys it was more about getting to go on a buzz light year ride where you get to shoot at targets and keep score through the whole ride. I just know that our Godson Cameron would be in his element on that one!
Of course, LA was just a stop over and so we then made the extra two flights that were required to get us up to Fort McMurray, Canada. Before I left, I said to a number of people, “the hardest thing about agreeing to go to Fort McMurray for a stint will be making sure that we get out of there.”
And I still vividly (maybe because I’ve been reminded once or twice) remember Caroline saying when we arrived, “I’m glad that we’re getting to see Fort McMurray, but I’m even gladder that we won’t be staying here.
So one statement was a prophecy and the other a statement inducing doom. Or maybe they both induced the doom, who knows? But sure enough after coming into work without being really sure exactly why I was here for a space of time, I was given a temporary position, which has since of course been made permanent.
We’re getting used to Fort McMurray and we’ll survive (though will probably still push for something different if the chance comes up) and we’ll probably even look back with fond memories … eventually. The biggest issue was that we were emotionally invested in being elsewhere and it took (is taking?) some time to redirect that bond. If nothing else, we’ve met some great people up here that will surely be friends for a long time to come.
Anyway, enough of that, it’s probably time to mention the kids.
Michael started this year in year 5 back at St Thomas and was doing well, enjoying his cricket and soccer and doing well at school. He played c-grade cricket this year which meant that for the first time he got to wear all the protective equipment for the first time and they played in whites with a ball that had a firmness somewhere between a real ball and the rubber kanga cricket ball. He continued to do well at soccer, especially as a goal sneak. He seemed to have that instinct to get himself into the right place to finish off the goal even if he wasn’t necessarily the one to carry it 20 yards to get to a shot. (Sounds somewhat like my own goal scoring habits … just get on the end of someone else’s work and make it all look good!)
Coming to Canada, he pushed forward 6 months and started the year (in September, start of the school year here) in year 6 having only completed half of year 5 back home. Despite the trauma that the first week induced (for him and subsequently us) due to a lack of time spent outside during the day, he has settled in well to school and is continuing to do well, especially with his math and seems to be surviving being very much at the youngest end of the spectrum. We’ve even asked for him to be extended with his math as it appears he needs to be more challenged in this area.
Sam continues to be Sam (yeah, I know, who else would he be?) and also appears to have settled well. His report was superb in all areas and we’re very proud of it. He of course did half a year in grade 3 back home and jumped forward to start in year 4 over here in September. Unlike Michael, Sam is the one that is prepared to put effort in in all areas of his school work, not just the bits that he really likes and doesn’t seem to be rushing to get it done as quick as he can regardless of how it looks (Mikey likes to be finished so he can get on with other things). Speaking to Sam’s teacher, he’s a quiet member of the class, but I don’t think that’s really any change from where he’s been in the past.
Thomas continues to be our Trooper. He’s in year 2 this year with only the half year in year 1 back home at the start of the year. He was probably the one that we had the toughest decision with in regard to what year we put him in when he started here in December. With the speech issues, he wasn’t really where he needed to be, but we were very conscious of what happens when we come back home and they’re all likely to drop back 6 months again. We finally decided that we’d push Thomas forward, knowing that if we had to, we could hold him back and give him a chance.
We seem to have been very fortunate with the teacher that we’ve landed with for Thomas. She’s older and seems to have a genuine interest in doing what ever she can to assist him with his speech. His reading continues to improve, though he’s well behind where he should be and of course that affects things like his writing because of the effort that’s required to get all the words down. In isn’t quite as intuitive for him as he’d like it to be and as his teacher said, it’s like he sees what all the other kids are doing and when he’s been working really hard for a long time, he wants to have done as much work as all the other kids have. But he retains his persistence and patience (though by the end of the day is shattered and homework can be a real strain).
Emily has participated in two early entry things this year, one at a normal school and one at a French Immersion. I’m assured that she’s learning some French, but whenever I ask her to say something in French to me, she flatly refuses. I did catch her singing a song in it once, which was very very cute. As it is when she says “Do I have French ‘mersion kindy tomorrow Mummy?”
One of the biggest challenges for her is the fact that she doesn’t actually get to start full time school yet and so will be behind where we would have liked her to be if we were still at home. She misses the cut off by 21 days (its on February 28) and that is extremely frustrating to know that she’s so close. She is definitely ready. It means that she’ll be doing kindy next year which runs from 8am until 11:07am. Don’t even ask me where they come up with the times. She seems to be loving things over here though, as independent as she has ever been, though possibly even more demanding. She has attitude to spare and one can only hope that she’ll be challenged a bit during her time in Kindergarten to try and curb some of the energy! Something tells me that’s a false hope.
Caroline I would have to say has her ups and downs with where we are at the moment. I think her transition has by far been the hardest and she has definitely shouldered more than her fair share of the burden. Between the emotional demands of the move and the disappointment with the location being so far removed from anything we really want to see, it’s been a big stress. Add to that the fact that I am working long hours and the fact that just when she thought she might see the last of any of the kids being at home full time and then got Emily back, it hasn’t made things easy for her.
At least she’s met some nice people and has started playing ringette. There’s no ‘field’ hockey up here in Fort McMurray and I know that it’s an escape that Caroline is really going to miss whilst we’re here. The ringette has enabled her to meet a few people and give her an opportunity to get out of the house, its just unfortunate that the timing of the commitment seems to be a little screwy (8:30 on a Sunday night! – it was even later for some of the season).
I won’t say too much here though, as it’s probably better to let her describe things in her own words.
Sport has certainly been different for us. We left in the middle of our soccer and hockey seasons and so we’ve all had to adjust. I feel like my departure from Flinders was a forced retirement. I’ve managed to play one game since I got over here, filling in for an U18 side and all it proved to me was just how quickly you can get unfit. When you’re working demanding hours and the family is adjusting to a new environment and country, it’s hard to say, I’m going to spend my Saturday afternoon playing football. We’ll see how things pan out next summer.
Winter has been fun for us so far, as we’ve taken up ice skating and skiing. Michael and Thomas have probably taken to it the most. Thomas is a little dynamo. He was the first one ‘skid-stopping’ (my term for it, nothing technical) on the ice and loves getting out there. Sam is cautious but improving. Michael and Thomas have both managed to score their first goals for ringette, within about a week of each other. Michael then went on to get a hat trick 2 weeks later! I think it’s that goal sneak thing coming out.
We’ve all taken to skiing, getting out almost every day that we can to the ski hill that’s about a half hour from the front door (yeah, life can be tough). Sam again is the hesitant one, but I think we’ll turn him around before too long. Half his problem seems to be that he can’t be bothered putting all the gear on to cope with the cold weather. After a few heart-in-mouth moments, Emily has come a long way and we’re now happy to take her down the easiest hill, with her falling over occasionally as she get’s distracted and forgets to pay attention.
I managed quite a spectacular fall last weekend and I know that Caroline has gone down once or twice, but all in all, we’re impressed with how far we’ve come given our lack of a history with the sport.
And again, Thomas is the fearless dynamo. The different runs have progressively opened at the hill and last weekend the third run opened and his set up with various jumps and rails for the more adventurous skiers. That’s not us. But apparently it is Thomas. He and Michael have taken to jumping quite happily and I can only say thank God that at this point, the jump they’re going off is about a foot high! Caroline and I have both tried it, but I struggle with reconciling the fact that in 3 years (or significantly less) our kids might just be those nutters that are getting 6 feet of air!
All in all, we’re getting through this and of course have managed a few travels so far to Banff, Jasper, Edmonton and Calgary and have even booked our flights to come back home for a visit in Feb next year. The rest of the travel calendar still needs to be assembled.
That’s probably more than enough for now as it’s going to go forever on drift, but I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please make it a safe one!
~Dave.
Well this year is different. This year, I missed that date and so there is no letter. This will have to be the substitute, given that we only realized when it was too late that we’d missed the deadline for sending cards back to Oz. No cards, meant no letter either. The other change is that in having moved over here to Canada, there’s a lot more people aware of and reading drift, so much of what would normally go in the letter is already covered and known amongst our family and friends. But I couldn’t help myself and had to put some sort of quick summary of our year together just to post it at drift as a way of wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and to let you all know that we are indeed very much thinking of you at this time of year.
If you’re reading this for a while then you’ll probably be well aware that the year has been full of adventure for us. It started way back prior to Christmas last year with me leaving my Rail contract home of 6 years to go and head up our contract with Santos as an interim measure until they were ready for the Temby’s to descend upon Canada. Of course having made the big step out of the rail contract, it then became a waiting game as to just how long it was going to be until they actually wanted us over here. Uncertainty certainly wasn’t an overly pleasant companion to have during that period, though it was great for me to get to work with a group of people that I’d worked with previously.
Of course in the end we finally got a date for the big move and shifted into the ‘oh my freaking god, what are we doing’ mode of operation that seems to go hand in hand with a decision to move to the other side of the world.
The kids held up remarkably well during the process and I was so busy working that I had little time to think about it. As is probably commonly the case, Caroline was the one that was most heavily burdened with the effort and I don’t think I could ever publicly thank her enough for the effort and stress that she went through in order for this to actually happen for us.
But move we did and in the process, managed to spend 3 days at Disneyland in LA. Its one of those magical dreams that I had as a kid, that one day I’d get to go to Disneyland and its still a little hard to believe that it actually happened. I don’t think our kids quite appreciate just how much of a dream it was for their parents to get to go there. Spoilt little buggers. But it was a great three days and if anything says just how magical that place is, it is the look on your little girl’s face when after standing in line for half an hour, she get’s to meet some Disney Princesses and have her photo taken.
For the boys it was more about getting to go on a buzz light year ride where you get to shoot at targets and keep score through the whole ride. I just know that our Godson Cameron would be in his element on that one!
Of course, LA was just a stop over and so we then made the extra two flights that were required to get us up to Fort McMurray, Canada. Before I left, I said to a number of people, “the hardest thing about agreeing to go to Fort McMurray for a stint will be making sure that we get out of there.”
And I still vividly (maybe because I’ve been reminded once or twice) remember Caroline saying when we arrived, “I’m glad that we’re getting to see Fort McMurray, but I’m even gladder that we won’t be staying here.
So one statement was a prophecy and the other a statement inducing doom. Or maybe they both induced the doom, who knows? But sure enough after coming into work without being really sure exactly why I was here for a space of time, I was given a temporary position, which has since of course been made permanent.
We’re getting used to Fort McMurray and we’ll survive (though will probably still push for something different if the chance comes up) and we’ll probably even look back with fond memories … eventually. The biggest issue was that we were emotionally invested in being elsewhere and it took (is taking?) some time to redirect that bond. If nothing else, we’ve met some great people up here that will surely be friends for a long time to come.
Anyway, enough of that, it’s probably time to mention the kids.
Michael started this year in year 5 back at St Thomas and was doing well, enjoying his cricket and soccer and doing well at school. He played c-grade cricket this year which meant that for the first time he got to wear all the protective equipment for the first time and they played in whites with a ball that had a firmness somewhere between a real ball and the rubber kanga cricket ball. He continued to do well at soccer, especially as a goal sneak. He seemed to have that instinct to get himself into the right place to finish off the goal even if he wasn’t necessarily the one to carry it 20 yards to get to a shot. (Sounds somewhat like my own goal scoring habits … just get on the end of someone else’s work and make it all look good!)
Coming to Canada, he pushed forward 6 months and started the year (in September, start of the school year here) in year 6 having only completed half of year 5 back home. Despite the trauma that the first week induced (for him and subsequently us) due to a lack of time spent outside during the day, he has settled in well to school and is continuing to do well, especially with his math and seems to be surviving being very much at the youngest end of the spectrum. We’ve even asked for him to be extended with his math as it appears he needs to be more challenged in this area.
Sam continues to be Sam (yeah, I know, who else would he be?) and also appears to have settled well. His report was superb in all areas and we’re very proud of it. He of course did half a year in grade 3 back home and jumped forward to start in year 4 over here in September. Unlike Michael, Sam is the one that is prepared to put effort in in all areas of his school work, not just the bits that he really likes and doesn’t seem to be rushing to get it done as quick as he can regardless of how it looks (Mikey likes to be finished so he can get on with other things). Speaking to Sam’s teacher, he’s a quiet member of the class, but I don’t think that’s really any change from where he’s been in the past.
Thomas continues to be our Trooper. He’s in year 2 this year with only the half year in year 1 back home at the start of the year. He was probably the one that we had the toughest decision with in regard to what year we put him in when he started here in December. With the speech issues, he wasn’t really where he needed to be, but we were very conscious of what happens when we come back home and they’re all likely to drop back 6 months again. We finally decided that we’d push Thomas forward, knowing that if we had to, we could hold him back and give him a chance.
We seem to have been very fortunate with the teacher that we’ve landed with for Thomas. She’s older and seems to have a genuine interest in doing what ever she can to assist him with his speech. His reading continues to improve, though he’s well behind where he should be and of course that affects things like his writing because of the effort that’s required to get all the words down. In isn’t quite as intuitive for him as he’d like it to be and as his teacher said, it’s like he sees what all the other kids are doing and when he’s been working really hard for a long time, he wants to have done as much work as all the other kids have. But he retains his persistence and patience (though by the end of the day is shattered and homework can be a real strain).
Emily has participated in two early entry things this year, one at a normal school and one at a French Immersion. I’m assured that she’s learning some French, but whenever I ask her to say something in French to me, she flatly refuses. I did catch her singing a song in it once, which was very very cute. As it is when she says “Do I have French ‘mersion kindy tomorrow Mummy?”
One of the biggest challenges for her is the fact that she doesn’t actually get to start full time school yet and so will be behind where we would have liked her to be if we were still at home. She misses the cut off by 21 days (its on February 28) and that is extremely frustrating to know that she’s so close. She is definitely ready. It means that she’ll be doing kindy next year which runs from 8am until 11:07am. Don’t even ask me where they come up with the times. She seems to be loving things over here though, as independent as she has ever been, though possibly even more demanding. She has attitude to spare and one can only hope that she’ll be challenged a bit during her time in Kindergarten to try and curb some of the energy! Something tells me that’s a false hope.
Caroline I would have to say has her ups and downs with where we are at the moment. I think her transition has by far been the hardest and she has definitely shouldered more than her fair share of the burden. Between the emotional demands of the move and the disappointment with the location being so far removed from anything we really want to see, it’s been a big stress. Add to that the fact that I am working long hours and the fact that just when she thought she might see the last of any of the kids being at home full time and then got Emily back, it hasn’t made things easy for her.
At least she’s met some nice people and has started playing ringette. There’s no ‘field’ hockey up here in Fort McMurray and I know that it’s an escape that Caroline is really going to miss whilst we’re here. The ringette has enabled her to meet a few people and give her an opportunity to get out of the house, its just unfortunate that the timing of the commitment seems to be a little screwy (8:30 on a Sunday night! – it was even later for some of the season).
I won’t say too much here though, as it’s probably better to let her describe things in her own words.
Sport has certainly been different for us. We left in the middle of our soccer and hockey seasons and so we’ve all had to adjust. I feel like my departure from Flinders was a forced retirement. I’ve managed to play one game since I got over here, filling in for an U18 side and all it proved to me was just how quickly you can get unfit. When you’re working demanding hours and the family is adjusting to a new environment and country, it’s hard to say, I’m going to spend my Saturday afternoon playing football. We’ll see how things pan out next summer.
Winter has been fun for us so far, as we’ve taken up ice skating and skiing. Michael and Thomas have probably taken to it the most. Thomas is a little dynamo. He was the first one ‘skid-stopping’ (my term for it, nothing technical) on the ice and loves getting out there. Sam is cautious but improving. Michael and Thomas have both managed to score their first goals for ringette, within about a week of each other. Michael then went on to get a hat trick 2 weeks later! I think it’s that goal sneak thing coming out.
We’ve all taken to skiing, getting out almost every day that we can to the ski hill that’s about a half hour from the front door (yeah, life can be tough). Sam again is the hesitant one, but I think we’ll turn him around before too long. Half his problem seems to be that he can’t be bothered putting all the gear on to cope with the cold weather. After a few heart-in-mouth moments, Emily has come a long way and we’re now happy to take her down the easiest hill, with her falling over occasionally as she get’s distracted and forgets to pay attention.
I managed quite a spectacular fall last weekend and I know that Caroline has gone down once or twice, but all in all, we’re impressed with how far we’ve come given our lack of a history with the sport.
And again, Thomas is the fearless dynamo. The different runs have progressively opened at the hill and last weekend the third run opened and his set up with various jumps and rails for the more adventurous skiers. That’s not us. But apparently it is Thomas. He and Michael have taken to jumping quite happily and I can only say thank God that at this point, the jump they’re going off is about a foot high! Caroline and I have both tried it, but I struggle with reconciling the fact that in 3 years (or significantly less) our kids might just be those nutters that are getting 6 feet of air!
All in all, we’re getting through this and of course have managed a few travels so far to Banff, Jasper, Edmonton and Calgary and have even booked our flights to come back home for a visit in Feb next year. The rest of the travel calendar still needs to be assembled.
That’s probably more than enough for now as it’s going to go forever on drift, but I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please make it a safe one!
~Dave.
Dec 19, 2007
Fantasy Hockey (or Pucked!)
An email went out at work a couple of weeks ago inviting the staff of the Upgrading unit to participate in a fantasy hockey tournament.
Now to put things in perspective, I never entered the footy pool back home because I knew that I wouldn’t care enough to get around to putting my tips in each week. I figured starting the year of without having forked out any money was a win compared with throwing 40 bucks away for everyone else to have fun with.
But this time around, I’m in a new country and I figured that it would be a good opportunity to build some bridges and become a part of the team. I knew that I’d be in a for a shellacking, but that wasn’t the point of my entering.
Now there’s guys from the soccer club back home that used to talk about their fantasy teams, but I’d never paid any attention or been interested in it. So I tell you what, this has been an eye opening experience!
It started on a Saturday morning with an 11am conference call to go through the ‘draft’. Yes, this was a hell of a lot more commitment than I’d anticipated and the bloody thing hadn’t even started yet. I panicked somewhat but Caroline had a stroke of genius and suggested that I call her friend Nancy’s husband Bob, who happens to be something of a hockey nut (yes, I’m a local now, there’s no need for the ice). He was on night shift the night before the draft and went to extraordinary lengths for me, printing out statistical lists of the top players, by position (wings, centres, backs, goalies).
I dialled in to the conference call at 11am with the other 11 participants in the competition, lists of players spread out before me, thinking I was ready. How wrong was I! I had the first draft pick which was about the only thing that really went right for me.
What followed was something of a traumatic hour. We each had to pick 18 players to make up our squad and given the pool I was in contained, Aussies, South Africans and Canadians and many of the actual Hockey player’s names are French and Eastern European, added with the fact that even when I could understand the name that was stated I didn’t know who they played for, by the time we were about three names in, I was lost.
That of course meant I was one of the people at the back end of the draft that every time I named someone heard a resounding chorus down the line of “gone!” I had been expecting an online draft where I could at least see who had disappeared of the selection list! All I can say is thank God Bob was there.
Anyway, I did survive the draft, but it turned out that that was really just the tip of the iceberg. Hockey get’s played 7 days a week here and it was only on about day 2 and three that I came to the double realization that a) you needed to change your team line up to match up with your players that were actually involved in a game on any given day and that b) you didn’t actually have to field a hockey team, just 12 players for your line up (so you don’t have to have a keeper in your line up and they could all be fullbacks).
Having said that, at the end of the first week, I dipped out on knocking off the VP of Upgrading by 3 points, 111 to 108. I was pretty chuffed with that up until I saw a message posted on the league message board that read:
Scrubbers Needs a New Manager (Apply Here)
Sad, could have been a big upset with the upstart from downunder spanking canadian wonderboy....... Nice 43 points sitting on the bench.
That’s great, except I don’t even know how I find out how I left the 43 points on the bench!
2 days in to week two I’m down 41.1 to 22.9. Might have to find out just how I avoid leaving those points on the bench.
Until then, I’ll just have to deal with my trauma and see what I can do.
Now to put things in perspective, I never entered the footy pool back home because I knew that I wouldn’t care enough to get around to putting my tips in each week. I figured starting the year of without having forked out any money was a win compared with throwing 40 bucks away for everyone else to have fun with.
But this time around, I’m in a new country and I figured that it would be a good opportunity to build some bridges and become a part of the team. I knew that I’d be in a for a shellacking, but that wasn’t the point of my entering.
Now there’s guys from the soccer club back home that used to talk about their fantasy teams, but I’d never paid any attention or been interested in it. So I tell you what, this has been an eye opening experience!
It started on a Saturday morning with an 11am conference call to go through the ‘draft’. Yes, this was a hell of a lot more commitment than I’d anticipated and the bloody thing hadn’t even started yet. I panicked somewhat but Caroline had a stroke of genius and suggested that I call her friend Nancy’s husband Bob, who happens to be something of a hockey nut (yes, I’m a local now, there’s no need for the ice). He was on night shift the night before the draft and went to extraordinary lengths for me, printing out statistical lists of the top players, by position (wings, centres, backs, goalies).
I dialled in to the conference call at 11am with the other 11 participants in the competition, lists of players spread out before me, thinking I was ready. How wrong was I! I had the first draft pick which was about the only thing that really went right for me.
What followed was something of a traumatic hour. We each had to pick 18 players to make up our squad and given the pool I was in contained, Aussies, South Africans and Canadians and many of the actual Hockey player’s names are French and Eastern European, added with the fact that even when I could understand the name that was stated I didn’t know who they played for, by the time we were about three names in, I was lost.
That of course meant I was one of the people at the back end of the draft that every time I named someone heard a resounding chorus down the line of “gone!” I had been expecting an online draft where I could at least see who had disappeared of the selection list! All I can say is thank God Bob was there.
Anyway, I did survive the draft, but it turned out that that was really just the tip of the iceberg. Hockey get’s played 7 days a week here and it was only on about day 2 and three that I came to the double realization that a) you needed to change your team line up to match up with your players that were actually involved in a game on any given day and that b) you didn’t actually have to field a hockey team, just 12 players for your line up (so you don’t have to have a keeper in your line up and they could all be fullbacks).
Having said that, at the end of the first week, I dipped out on knocking off the VP of Upgrading by 3 points, 111 to 108. I was pretty chuffed with that up until I saw a message posted on the league message board that read:
Scrubbers Needs a New Manager (Apply Here)
Sad, could have been a big upset with the upstart from downunder spanking canadian wonderboy....... Nice 43 points sitting on the bench.
That’s great, except I don’t even know how I find out how I left the 43 points on the bench!
2 days in to week two I’m down 41.1 to 22.9. Might have to find out just how I avoid leaving those points on the bench.
Until then, I’ll just have to deal with my trauma and see what I can do.
Dec 16, 2007
Dec 12, 2007
'cause Mum said so!
Right, there's a fair chance that you've already seen this because its bloody brilliant and therefore all over the web. But just in case you haven't, check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU
It was an accident ...
So the other day I came home from work and Caroline said that Michael had had a bit of an accident. I asked what had happened, concerned that it might be serious.
It turns out that Michael fell over. But that wasn’t the injury. It turned out that in falling (if we’re to believe the story) that he managed to end up with his tongue against a pole. Now quite some time ago as we headed into winter, i really did intend to say to the kids , “If someone says to you that you should lick a pole during winter, don’t.”
As Michael unfortunately found out, just like in the movies, when you lick a pole and the temperature is somewhere south of -15 degrees Celsius, it sticks, which isn’t really a problem.
It’s a bit like the old adage that falling never hurt anyone. It’s the sudden stop at the end that really does the damage. Similarly, sticking your tongue to a pole is easy. Pulling it off is a bugger. And that’s what Michael found out as he pulled his tongue from the pole and left some skin behind.
He’s adamant that he really did fall. I have my doubts.
It turns out that Michael fell over. But that wasn’t the injury. It turned out that in falling (if we’re to believe the story) that he managed to end up with his tongue against a pole. Now quite some time ago as we headed into winter, i really did intend to say to the kids , “If someone says to you that you should lick a pole during winter, don’t.”
As Michael unfortunately found out, just like in the movies, when you lick a pole and the temperature is somewhere south of -15 degrees Celsius, it sticks, which isn’t really a problem.
It’s a bit like the old adage that falling never hurt anyone. It’s the sudden stop at the end that really does the damage. Similarly, sticking your tongue to a pole is easy. Pulling it off is a bugger. And that’s what Michael found out as he pulled his tongue from the pole and left some skin behind.
He’s adamant that he really did fall. I have my doubts.
Dec 10, 2007
Lighting the way
One of the remarkable phenomena that I’ve noticed over the last week that I will never see at home relates to lights and ice in the air.
As I described in an earlier post, you get the fairy dust effect when its nice and cold and the water in the air is turning to crystal.
Over the weekend I noticed another effect that people had told me about but that I hadn’t seen (well until now obviously). When the air gets this cold and you have crystals in the air, some of the powerful lights that are about the place (like floodlights used to light up parking areas of industrial complexes) end up with a vertical column of light above them.
It’s kind of like a spot light has been directed vertically above the light post. When I was first told about it, I was informed that what it actually is, is a reflection of the light on the snow/ice beneath it that then lights up the crystals in the air. Regardless of how it actually occurs, its amazing to see these spearing columns of light shooting into the night air above the light posts. I doubt I could capture it on camera, but it’s something that I won’t forget.
As I described in an earlier post, you get the fairy dust effect when its nice and cold and the water in the air is turning to crystal.
Over the weekend I noticed another effect that people had told me about but that I hadn’t seen (well until now obviously). When the air gets this cold and you have crystals in the air, some of the powerful lights that are about the place (like floodlights used to light up parking areas of industrial complexes) end up with a vertical column of light above them.
It’s kind of like a spot light has been directed vertically above the light post. When I was first told about it, I was informed that what it actually is, is a reflection of the light on the snow/ice beneath it that then lights up the crystals in the air. Regardless of how it actually occurs, its amazing to see these spearing columns of light shooting into the night air above the light posts. I doubt I could capture it on camera, but it’s something that I won’t forget.
Dec 2, 2007
The video of Emily I've tried so hard to post ...
For some reason, blogger seems to be unusually cooperative today, so i've been able to post this:
c c c cold
Yes, it’s a bit of a recurring theme at the moment, but I promise not to make it the subject of every post from now on (maybe most of them, but certainly not all of them). But I feel that following this morning it’s worth another mention.
I called the previous post on the topic minus 27 and that’s fine, but this morning I got up to go to a breakfast meeting and couldn’t help but notice just how cold it was on the way there. For a start, the bloody air was frozen! Ok, so not literally, but it was cold enough that there were ice crystals forming in the air. As I drove in to town, the headlights of the car lit up thousands of glittering crystals that gave the effect of someone having shaken glitter (or maybe even fairy dust) over the town. It was a remarkably beautiful sight that only went some way to offset the sheer horror of the car’s external temperature reading that sat at a cool -32C!
As the two photos below show .. at least it warmed up as the day went on! (The sun now reaches its peak about 30 degrees above the horizon - these were taken about midday).
The local ski hill opened last weekend and we endeavoured to get there late Sunday to try it out. But of course, us being the Temby’s we stopped in town first to visit the ‘festival of the trees’ (a local pre-christmas thing where pre-decorated trees are auctioned off to support the local hospital) and had to stop to buy ski boots and skis for Caroline and myself. Needless to say by the time that we drove to the ski hill, things were getting a little bit tight time-wise.
After the 47 trips back and forth that are required to get everything ready and then the pain and horror of getting everyone changed and into ski-boots etc, we finally got onto our skis to find an attendant standing at the top of the hill we were about to go down telling us that the run was closed for the day. We’d missed it by 5 minutes! Happy? It takes four letter words to describe how truly happy I was at that point.
So yesterday, being Saturday, we made our way back out to the hill (despite the -22C forecast) to have our first ski. With everyone set to go and without really knowing just how challenging the hill might be (though we’d been assured that it really was mild) we stood at the top and I went through a quick review with Emily ... pizza and french fries (that would be ski tips together to form the snow-plough wedge and parallel to go fast). She knew what was required and so I told her to go with me and we’d ski across the hill (rather than the more direct route the boys like to take).
Caroline and the boys went first and then Emily and I. Well, Emily had her ski tips together and started down the hill after me. I went across the hill and glanced over my shoulder. Rather than a nice controlled snow plough across the hill like I was anticipating to see coming behind me, instead I saw our little pink and purple-suited Emily with her snow plough pointed straight down the hill and as she accelerated rapidly past me, beyond the nice easy start and onto the somewhat steeper section beyond. She squatted down as she picked up speed and stuck her arms out sideways like little wings and shot down the hill. There was just the faintest note of a little terror in the cry that emerged from her as I called out to Caroline (thinking that she was ahead of Emily).
When Caroline responded, it was clear that Emily was all out on her own and so I pointed my own skis down the hill and raced after her. There was a flatter bit after that first more adventurous slope and I thought that she might pull up as I screamed, “Pizza! Pizza!” at her over and over again, but her her momentum carried her over the cusp again and down the next steep part of the run. I caught up with her half way down that bit as she’d fallen over. The rest of the way to the bottom was a test of a parent’s nerves as I tried to get her to follow me and survive at the same time. Given the amount of time I’ve spent skiing, I didn’t exactly feel like the most qualified educator for the subject!
We had some lunch after that to calm everything down and then after much pleading, allowed Emily a second attempt. It was much improved, but not so much that she won herself a third. She’s been booked into lessons instead. The rest of us had a better time of it, though given it was about -25, more than 2 runs at once was more than this man’s toes could bear!
And finally, since starting this earlier today, we’ve had dinner, Caroline has gone out and the kids are in bed. What did we have for dinner? A BBQ. Because i simply had to challenge my BBQ’ing skills and be able to say that I’d cooked steak outside, on the BBQ when it was -25 degrees. And now I can. Though I did find out in the process that the BB! Cover doesn’t like being frozen. It likes being pulled off the BBQ when it’s frozen even less. Which is why, after scraping the snow off, it came off in pieces!
I called the previous post on the topic minus 27 and that’s fine, but this morning I got up to go to a breakfast meeting and couldn’t help but notice just how cold it was on the way there. For a start, the bloody air was frozen! Ok, so not literally, but it was cold enough that there were ice crystals forming in the air. As I drove in to town, the headlights of the car lit up thousands of glittering crystals that gave the effect of someone having shaken glitter (or maybe even fairy dust) over the town. It was a remarkably beautiful sight that only went some way to offset the sheer horror of the car’s external temperature reading that sat at a cool -32C!
As the two photos below show .. at least it warmed up as the day went on! (The sun now reaches its peak about 30 degrees above the horizon - these were taken about midday).
The local ski hill opened last weekend and we endeavoured to get there late Sunday to try it out. But of course, us being the Temby’s we stopped in town first to visit the ‘festival of the trees’ (a local pre-christmas thing where pre-decorated trees are auctioned off to support the local hospital) and had to stop to buy ski boots and skis for Caroline and myself. Needless to say by the time that we drove to the ski hill, things were getting a little bit tight time-wise.
After the 47 trips back and forth that are required to get everything ready and then the pain and horror of getting everyone changed and into ski-boots etc, we finally got onto our skis to find an attendant standing at the top of the hill we were about to go down telling us that the run was closed for the day. We’d missed it by 5 minutes! Happy? It takes four letter words to describe how truly happy I was at that point.
So yesterday, being Saturday, we made our way back out to the hill (despite the -22C forecast) to have our first ski. With everyone set to go and without really knowing just how challenging the hill might be (though we’d been assured that it really was mild) we stood at the top and I went through a quick review with Emily ... pizza and french fries (that would be ski tips together to form the snow-plough wedge and parallel to go fast). She knew what was required and so I told her to go with me and we’d ski across the hill (rather than the more direct route the boys like to take).
Caroline and the boys went first and then Emily and I. Well, Emily had her ski tips together and started down the hill after me. I went across the hill and glanced over my shoulder. Rather than a nice controlled snow plough across the hill like I was anticipating to see coming behind me, instead I saw our little pink and purple-suited Emily with her snow plough pointed straight down the hill and as she accelerated rapidly past me, beyond the nice easy start and onto the somewhat steeper section beyond. She squatted down as she picked up speed and stuck her arms out sideways like little wings and shot down the hill. There was just the faintest note of a little terror in the cry that emerged from her as I called out to Caroline (thinking that she was ahead of Emily).
When Caroline responded, it was clear that Emily was all out on her own and so I pointed my own skis down the hill and raced after her. There was a flatter bit after that first more adventurous slope and I thought that she might pull up as I screamed, “Pizza! Pizza!” at her over and over again, but her her momentum carried her over the cusp again and down the next steep part of the run. I caught up with her half way down that bit as she’d fallen over. The rest of the way to the bottom was a test of a parent’s nerves as I tried to get her to follow me and survive at the same time. Given the amount of time I’ve spent skiing, I didn’t exactly feel like the most qualified educator for the subject!
We had some lunch after that to calm everything down and then after much pleading, allowed Emily a second attempt. It was much improved, but not so much that she won herself a third. She’s been booked into lessons instead. The rest of us had a better time of it, though given it was about -25, more than 2 runs at once was more than this man’s toes could bear!
And finally, since starting this earlier today, we’ve had dinner, Caroline has gone out and the kids are in bed. What did we have for dinner? A BBQ. Because i simply had to challenge my BBQ’ing skills and be able to say that I’d cooked steak outside, on the BBQ when it was -25 degrees. And now I can. Though I did find out in the process that the BB! Cover doesn’t like being frozen. It likes being pulled off the BBQ when it’s frozen even less. Which is why, after scraping the snow off, it came off in pieces!
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