So it would be wrong of me to let such an occasion pass unmentioned, even if I do happened to be five days late or so. Yes, on the 2nd of October, Thomas turned 8. And, although at risk of saying this upon the occasion of every birthday from this point on … “I can’t believe my little man is 8!:”
So how is Thomas at 8? He’s still a delight. He still struggles with his speech at times, but it doesn’t seem to be holding him back too much. Its mainly when he decides to go off on a whine that he tends to become les decipherable.
There were moments late in the last school year where we thought that the school was going to recommend that he stay back a year to ensure that his reading and hence his writing was up to scratch. We resisted on the basis that he’ll be spending 18 months in what ever school year he ends up returning to school in.
He’s reading has certainly come a long way … I don’t get the opportunity to compare him to his peers, but within himself he’s improved a long long way. His writing I can’t say quite the same for, but we’ll persevere and I’m sure that with effort he’ll get there. He is certainly showing an aptitude for math similar to his older brothers.
He retains his wicked sense of humour and is often smiling, wanting to keep up with the two older boys and at his most frustrated when he finds himself excluded.
He has an Aussie friend Harry over here that he has a lot of fun with, they’re both into starwars in a big way and share other interests as well. He’s playing ringette again this year, in Emily’s team, but sadly not Harry’s. That was almost enough for the commitment to the team to be over before the season began, but I think after scoring a couple of goals and realizing that he’ll be one of the power players on the team that he might start to change his mind.
One of the nicest things that can be said about Thomas at the point in his life is the bond he seems to have formed with Harry’s youngest sister, Bridget; who’s all of 2 and a half years old. If we happen to be sitting down and having a couple of drinks, Bridget is quite happy to go and plonk herself in his lap and he’s quite happy to have her there. It’s very cute.
Oct 7, 2008
Sep 27, 2008
Fall is here again
I had to travel down to Edmonton and Calgary during the week and flew back into Fort McMurray as the sun was headed towards the other side of the world and I happened to glance out the window the plane.
It was a spectacular sight as the leaves have begun to turn and so instead of the varying hues of green that are usually visible out of the window, it was a much prettier view with the sun catching and reflecting off the golds and yellows and oranges of the birch leaves.
It was truly a reminder that fall is here again. That and the fact that once again, we’re seeing single digit high temperatures and in the mornings, temperatures that struggle to get positive.
It was a spectacular sight as the leaves have begun to turn and so instead of the varying hues of green that are usually visible out of the window, it was a much prettier view with the sun catching and reflecting off the golds and yellows and oranges of the birch leaves.
It was truly a reminder that fall is here again. That and the fact that once again, we’re seeing single digit high temperatures and in the mornings, temperatures that struggle to get positive.
Sep 17, 2008
Broken Rule
I went to work yesterday ready to prepare for a workshop that I was running in the afternoon. About 10am things started to deteriorate when it seemed like my digestive system was about to rebel and object to the food that I’d put in there for breakfast.
I soldieredon, swallowed a couple of tylenol and things seemed to improve somewhat through the rest of the day, though not quite to the point that I would have liked. My phone was happily vibrating away throughout the day as people tried to call me. The third time that it came up as ‘home’ I decided that I really should answer it and find out what was going on.
It was of course Caroline. She had rung me to let me know that she wasn’t feeling well and so would I be able cook dinner for the kids. By this time it was about 4pm and my health was taking a decided turn for the worse and so I knew that things weren’t going to be pretty by the time that I made it home.
Indeed, by the time that I did get home, I was aching, nauseous and less than happy. The difference between Caroline and I at that point was that Caroline had managed to make it to bed. I found at least 3 visiting children in the house so I quickly sent them off packing and then cooked dinner for the kids (if you can call pulling out some pre-cooked chicken out and boiling some 2 minute noodles cooking).
Then I clambered into bed.
I set the alarm so that I’d remember to put the kids to bed and when it went off, basically arranged for Michael to play Daddy and get everyone into bed.
Fortunately it worked. I can’t help but think though that one of the golden rules has been broken ... we’re not both supposed to be sick at the same time! Its supposed to be that one parent gets sick, the other works their arse off keeping everything afloat, then they get sick and the first one has the pleasure of picking up all that slack whilst they’re still trying to improve.
Both sick at once ... complete bloody rip off.
I soldieredon, swallowed a couple of tylenol and things seemed to improve somewhat through the rest of the day, though not quite to the point that I would have liked. My phone was happily vibrating away throughout the day as people tried to call me. The third time that it came up as ‘home’ I decided that I really should answer it and find out what was going on.
It was of course Caroline. She had rung me to let me know that she wasn’t feeling well and so would I be able cook dinner for the kids. By this time it was about 4pm and my health was taking a decided turn for the worse and so I knew that things weren’t going to be pretty by the time that I made it home.
Indeed, by the time that I did get home, I was aching, nauseous and less than happy. The difference between Caroline and I at that point was that Caroline had managed to make it to bed. I found at least 3 visiting children in the house so I quickly sent them off packing and then cooked dinner for the kids (if you can call pulling out some pre-cooked chicken out and boiling some 2 minute noodles cooking).
Then I clambered into bed.
I set the alarm so that I’d remember to put the kids to bed and when it went off, basically arranged for Michael to play Daddy and get everyone into bed.
Fortunately it worked. I can’t help but think though that one of the golden rules has been broken ... we’re not both supposed to be sick at the same time! Its supposed to be that one parent gets sick, the other works their arse off keeping everything afloat, then they get sick and the first one has the pleasure of picking up all that slack whilst they’re still trying to improve.
Both sick at once ... complete bloody rip off.
Sep 4, 2008
Nick of Time
The other night as I went upstairs to go to sleep, I was surprised to find that Thomas had decided to sleep outside of his room on the landing. I was just in the process of starting to move him when Emily came stumbling, sleep-eyed out of her own bedroom. I assumed that she was just going to go to the toilet, but she got as far as Thomas and then turned, headed back into her room. Just as she started to turn away though, I noticed a touch of ‘spittle’ between her lips as her cheeks puffed out just a little.
With no time to really think about it, I grabbed her arm and steered her into the nearest bathroom and managed to get her close enough to the toilet that at the point of expulsion, the vomit that I’d forseen predominantly went straight into the bowl. Talk about intervening in the nick of time! The Thought of what we’d have been dealing with had she managed to eject the contents of her stomach over her carpet and toys in her room really is just too much to think about.
She spent the rest of the night asleep on the floor of our ensuite bathroom, which she wasn’t overly happy with, but it also proved to be a prudent move later in the evening when she wasn’t quite aware of where the bucket was. Fortunately by that time we weren’t talking large volumes of vomit.
And of course, the real tragedy was that the following day was to be her first ever night of Gymnastics, which she was oh so excited about, to the point that about the first thing that she said to me as I cleaned up the bathroom was, “Daddy, do I still get to go to Gymnastics?”
I’m sure she’ll make up for that disappointment when she get’s there this week.
With no time to really think about it, I grabbed her arm and steered her into the nearest bathroom and managed to get her close enough to the toilet that at the point of expulsion, the vomit that I’d forseen predominantly went straight into the bowl. Talk about intervening in the nick of time! The Thought of what we’d have been dealing with had she managed to eject the contents of her stomach over her carpet and toys in her room really is just too much to think about.
She spent the rest of the night asleep on the floor of our ensuite bathroom, which she wasn’t overly happy with, but it also proved to be a prudent move later in the evening when she wasn’t quite aware of where the bucket was. Fortunately by that time we weren’t talking large volumes of vomit.
And of course, the real tragedy was that the following day was to be her first ever night of Gymnastics, which she was oh so excited about, to the point that about the first thing that she said to me as I cleaned up the bathroom was, “Daddy, do I still get to go to Gymnastics?”
I’m sure she’ll make up for that disappointment when she get’s there this week.
Sep 2, 2008
Sproing
The weekend just passed was a long weekend (Labour Day) and so we decided that whilst the weather was still somewhat passable, we’d take the opportunity to snap the camper on the back of the car and take off for a couple of nights.
We opted for Jasper because although it’s a long drive (let’s face it, everything worthwhile is from here) it’s in the Rockies and worth visiting every now and then. Friday night, I rushed home from work ready to put the camper down and get underway. In the process of putting the camper down, I thought to myself, “don’t forget the little safety lock that you put on to show Dad when he was here.”
Of course, I promptly forgot. That wasn’t a big drama, it just involved winding it back up to undo it. That’s where things didn’t quite go according to plan. You see the place where this lock was is on the opposite side of the camper and so as I wound it up, I was unable to see that part of the safety lock managed to hook one of the pulleys for the lifting mechanism. It wasn’t until I went back around there to release it that I found this out of course. And by that time, it had not only caught, but bent the lifting arm. It didn’t look good, but I did manage to get the camper back down again.
Then we took off on holidays, and found the rain. We had planned to stop the night in Athabasca, but when we got there, there was sufficient rain that the prospect of standing in it and trying to get the camper up without all the bedding becoming sodden was a little more than we cared for. So we drove on, hoping to find the other side of the storm, watching as lightning lit the sky all around us.
The rain stopped and it seemed that things were taking a turn for the better when we found a lovely little camp site to stop at. We detached the camper from the car, put all the jacks down so that it was close to level and then started to wind the camper up.
Somewhere in this process was where I heard it, “Sproing” and at that point noted that not all of the camper was winding up. At that point, just a little despair set in as I figured that I had managed to snap one of the lifting mechanism’s cables. At 11pm on the Friday night of a long weekend, several hundred kilometers from anywhere likely to be able to help us.
I swore a bit. Caroline was a trooper. I swore some more.
We hitched the camper back on and started driving on towards Edmonton where we were likely to be able to get help.
As we drove through Morrinson, we saw a sign – RV CITY – BODY SHOP. We checked the door. It appeared that they’d be open in the morning. One could only hope that they’d be able to help with the cable.
We drove on to St Albert and found some room in a motel before driving back to Morrison in the morning. At the first mention of ‘Tent Trailer’ and ‘Cable’ I believe the response was, “oh, that’s gonna be ugly.” Fantastic, what a perfect start to a conversation.
The first impression I got was that we were about to run into some ‘typical’ Albertan customer service when the woman basically responded that there was no way that they’d be able to help (though I think she was really referring to their ability to fix it on that day). Being somewhat desperate though, we hung around and suggested that maybe we should be heading further into Edmonton to their competition. About that point we started to talk to one of their technicians who turned out to be about as helpful as someone could be under the circumstances.
It took about 4 blokes to assist in lifting the roof to a point where it could be propped up sufficiently so that we could get in and retrieve our stuff and also at that point to see the damage that had actually been done. Turns out that there was no snapped cable .. just a pulley wheel that had come off where it was supposed to be and some significant damage to the lifting arm. Nothing that I was happy to see.
The end result of our inspection was that we needed to leave the camper behind so that they could repair it for us. That meant that we had to cram everything that we’d taken with us in the camper had to be crammed into the car and go with us (and we didn’t even have the luggage pod on top of the car). Not so squeezy? Considering that one of the greatest joys I’d had from our first trip was finally having somewhere to put all of our stuff and being able to remove the pod from the roof of the car, this was just a little disappointing.
So packed to the rafters, squashed back into something a travel mode that though accustomed to, we thought we’d left behind, we were left to travel on and attempt to find some accommodation in Jasper. On that last, good weather long weekend of the year. It turns out that we were unable to find any for the Saturday night and so stopped just outside of the national park in Hinton. We had been hoping to catch up with the McColls around the campfire Saturday night, but with those plans dashed were pleased that we managed to get a room in the same hotel for the Sunday night.
Turns out that the hotel that I’d booked over the phone for Saturday in Hinton had a swimming pool … and a waterslide. That meant for happy happy kids and an enjoyable stay. We went for a drive to some hotsprings (can’t remember the name just now) and although we didn’t partake in the overcrowded bathing, we went for a walk to the source of the springs where Caroline and the kids dipped their feet. I predicted that with kids crossing the creek someone was bound to get wet and was almost proven wrong. Almost, because both Sam and Thomas managed to get one foot dunked in the water on their way back.!
The following day we took off for Maligne Lake and Canyon and met up with Jim, Annie and their kids Emily and Angus for lunch at the Lake. We did the Maligne lake boat tour to the ‘famous’ spirit Island which was fabulous. The weather wasn’t quite postcard perfect, having snowed on us as we got out of the car in the carpark. Yes, that’s right, it snowed on us … in August! But the place was so beautiful that even without the sun’s warming touch, it was a magnificent sight.
Following our visit to the lake and a walk down to the canyon (well worth seeing) we headed back to the hotel where we dined with the McColl and then set about working out how we could manage to have a drink with our kids in separate rooms some 20 metres apart and around a corner.
We settled for sitting in the corridor whilst we had a couple of quick drinks but ran into something of a problem when we exhausted the limited supply that we’d brought with us. A trip to the bar downstairs addressed the immediate shortage and enlightened us to something that we simply wouldn’t have suspected. Hotel deliveries. A quick phone call to one of the local bottle shops and a little later … alcohol delivered to us sitting in the hall. Not a bad night at all in the end.
Monday was just a simply 9 hour drive back to Fort Mac. Oh and we’re still waiting to hear about the bloody camper repairs … one feels that it could be staying South for the winter. I might have to call it The Goose from now on.
We opted for Jasper because although it’s a long drive (let’s face it, everything worthwhile is from here) it’s in the Rockies and worth visiting every now and then. Friday night, I rushed home from work ready to put the camper down and get underway. In the process of putting the camper down, I thought to myself, “don’t forget the little safety lock that you put on to show Dad when he was here.”
Of course, I promptly forgot. That wasn’t a big drama, it just involved winding it back up to undo it. That’s where things didn’t quite go according to plan. You see the place where this lock was is on the opposite side of the camper and so as I wound it up, I was unable to see that part of the safety lock managed to hook one of the pulleys for the lifting mechanism. It wasn’t until I went back around there to release it that I found this out of course. And by that time, it had not only caught, but bent the lifting arm. It didn’t look good, but I did manage to get the camper back down again.
Then we took off on holidays, and found the rain. We had planned to stop the night in Athabasca, but when we got there, there was sufficient rain that the prospect of standing in it and trying to get the camper up without all the bedding becoming sodden was a little more than we cared for. So we drove on, hoping to find the other side of the storm, watching as lightning lit the sky all around us.
The rain stopped and it seemed that things were taking a turn for the better when we found a lovely little camp site to stop at. We detached the camper from the car, put all the jacks down so that it was close to level and then started to wind the camper up.
Somewhere in this process was where I heard it, “Sproing” and at that point noted that not all of the camper was winding up. At that point, just a little despair set in as I figured that I had managed to snap one of the lifting mechanism’s cables. At 11pm on the Friday night of a long weekend, several hundred kilometers from anywhere likely to be able to help us.
I swore a bit. Caroline was a trooper. I swore some more.
We hitched the camper back on and started driving on towards Edmonton where we were likely to be able to get help.
As we drove through Morrinson, we saw a sign – RV CITY – BODY SHOP. We checked the door. It appeared that they’d be open in the morning. One could only hope that they’d be able to help with the cable.
We drove on to St Albert and found some room in a motel before driving back to Morrison in the morning. At the first mention of ‘Tent Trailer’ and ‘Cable’ I believe the response was, “oh, that’s gonna be ugly.” Fantastic, what a perfect start to a conversation.
The first impression I got was that we were about to run into some ‘typical’ Albertan customer service when the woman basically responded that there was no way that they’d be able to help (though I think she was really referring to their ability to fix it on that day). Being somewhat desperate though, we hung around and suggested that maybe we should be heading further into Edmonton to their competition. About that point we started to talk to one of their technicians who turned out to be about as helpful as someone could be under the circumstances.
It took about 4 blokes to assist in lifting the roof to a point where it could be propped up sufficiently so that we could get in and retrieve our stuff and also at that point to see the damage that had actually been done. Turns out that there was no snapped cable .. just a pulley wheel that had come off where it was supposed to be and some significant damage to the lifting arm. Nothing that I was happy to see.
The end result of our inspection was that we needed to leave the camper behind so that they could repair it for us. That meant that we had to cram everything that we’d taken with us in the camper had to be crammed into the car and go with us (and we didn’t even have the luggage pod on top of the car). Not so squeezy? Considering that one of the greatest joys I’d had from our first trip was finally having somewhere to put all of our stuff and being able to remove the pod from the roof of the car, this was just a little disappointing.
So packed to the rafters, squashed back into something a travel mode that though accustomed to, we thought we’d left behind, we were left to travel on and attempt to find some accommodation in Jasper. On that last, good weather long weekend of the year. It turns out that we were unable to find any for the Saturday night and so stopped just outside of the national park in Hinton. We had been hoping to catch up with the McColls around the campfire Saturday night, but with those plans dashed were pleased that we managed to get a room in the same hotel for the Sunday night.
Turns out that the hotel that I’d booked over the phone for Saturday in Hinton had a swimming pool … and a waterslide. That meant for happy happy kids and an enjoyable stay. We went for a drive to some hotsprings (can’t remember the name just now) and although we didn’t partake in the overcrowded bathing, we went for a walk to the source of the springs where Caroline and the kids dipped their feet. I predicted that with kids crossing the creek someone was bound to get wet and was almost proven wrong. Almost, because both Sam and Thomas managed to get one foot dunked in the water on their way back.!
The following day we took off for Maligne Lake and Canyon and met up with Jim, Annie and their kids Emily and Angus for lunch at the Lake. We did the Maligne lake boat tour to the ‘famous’ spirit Island which was fabulous. The weather wasn’t quite postcard perfect, having snowed on us as we got out of the car in the carpark. Yes, that’s right, it snowed on us … in August! But the place was so beautiful that even without the sun’s warming touch, it was a magnificent sight.
Following our visit to the lake and a walk down to the canyon (well worth seeing) we headed back to the hotel where we dined with the McColl and then set about working out how we could manage to have a drink with our kids in separate rooms some 20 metres apart and around a corner.
We settled for sitting in the corridor whilst we had a couple of quick drinks but ran into something of a problem when we exhausted the limited supply that we’d brought with us. A trip to the bar downstairs addressed the immediate shortage and enlightened us to something that we simply wouldn’t have suspected. Hotel deliveries. A quick phone call to one of the local bottle shops and a little later … alcohol delivered to us sitting in the hall. Not a bad night at all in the end.
Monday was just a simply 9 hour drive back to Fort Mac. Oh and we’re still waiting to hear about the bloody camper repairs … one feels that it could be staying South for the winter. I might have to call it The Goose from now on.
Aug 28, 2008
And then they were gone
We have been very spoilt for the last 3 weeks or so in having my parents visiting from back home. (I started this at least a week ago ... but have taken a long time to get around to finishing it).
If there's one thing you learn from such a visit, it is of course the old adage that you don't know just how much you miss something until it is gone. Having Mum and Dad here in our home for a week was too short, but additionally wonderful. It was great for the kids to have the chance to spend some time with Nanny and Poppa.
It all fitted in very well and it was incredibly nice to have some help with some of those little jobs that I haven't seemed to find the time to get to, not to mention the fact that they were here every night when I got home from work.
Of course it was always going to be a short term thing and the Sunday upon which they left came around way too quickly. There were a couple of stand out moments on that final day for me that cause a welling of tears, threatening the barriers that held them back.
We went to church in the morning and as always, seating is something of an issue. We don't exactly get there early enough to have a pick of seats and with 6 of us we often struggle to all sit together so with 8 there was no hope. We found 5 seats with 4 in front and so Caroline and I sat down and were promptly joined by all of the kids. Thomas was sitting next to me but of course Emily was most indignant that she wasn't next to Daddy.
I suggested to Thomas that he might like to move but he wasn't going to until I pointed out that it would be his last chance to sit with Nanny and Poppa at church. he was off like a shot and i don't think i'll ever forget the look on his face as he stood quietly by his Poppa's side, gazing up and waiting for Poppa to notice that he was there. The exchanged look when Dad did notice won't be leaving my memoray any time soon either.
Later in the day we were back at home and Sam had taken out his home made kite to see if he could fly it. I, being the doubter than I am, didn't think that it would ever fly and was inside busy loading photos onto a digital photo frame for Caroline's Mum and Dad. Well the kite must have flown a bit because later on Dad came in asking if I had a ladder other than that which was my grandfather's. The kite was stuck up a tree, beyond reach and unlikely to come down any time soon with it's tail wrapped around several branches.
We investigated various ways of reaching it, but it looked like a lost cause to me. I had written the kite off. But Dad had managed to understand Sam much better than I had and had picked up on the fact that the kite was one that Sam had made at school in Australia (where as I thought he'd made it locally). Dad persevered and the kite was salvaged, with Sam showing due pleasure. It was a lovely moment to have had Poppa do that for him.
The final moment that sticks with me was at the airport where we finally had to say goodbye. Thomas came up to me and said with glistening eyes, "I'm going to miss Nanny and Poppa." As I relayed this to Mum, we both fought back tears.
The drive home was hard, something to do with unseasonal levels of moisture under the eyelids and that night was strangely quiet.
Now we're left counting the days until our next visitors get here (105 as of this moment)
If there's one thing you learn from such a visit, it is of course the old adage that you don't know just how much you miss something until it is gone. Having Mum and Dad here in our home for a week was too short, but additionally wonderful. It was great for the kids to have the chance to spend some time with Nanny and Poppa.
It all fitted in very well and it was incredibly nice to have some help with some of those little jobs that I haven't seemed to find the time to get to, not to mention the fact that they were here every night when I got home from work.
Of course it was always going to be a short term thing and the Sunday upon which they left came around way too quickly. There were a couple of stand out moments on that final day for me that cause a welling of tears, threatening the barriers that held them back.
We went to church in the morning and as always, seating is something of an issue. We don't exactly get there early enough to have a pick of seats and with 6 of us we often struggle to all sit together so with 8 there was no hope. We found 5 seats with 4 in front and so Caroline and I sat down and were promptly joined by all of the kids. Thomas was sitting next to me but of course Emily was most indignant that she wasn't next to Daddy.
I suggested to Thomas that he might like to move but he wasn't going to until I pointed out that it would be his last chance to sit with Nanny and Poppa at church. he was off like a shot and i don't think i'll ever forget the look on his face as he stood quietly by his Poppa's side, gazing up and waiting for Poppa to notice that he was there. The exchanged look when Dad did notice won't be leaving my memoray any time soon either.
Later in the day we were back at home and Sam had taken out his home made kite to see if he could fly it. I, being the doubter than I am, didn't think that it would ever fly and was inside busy loading photos onto a digital photo frame for Caroline's Mum and Dad. Well the kite must have flown a bit because later on Dad came in asking if I had a ladder other than that which was my grandfather's. The kite was stuck up a tree, beyond reach and unlikely to come down any time soon with it's tail wrapped around several branches.
We investigated various ways of reaching it, but it looked like a lost cause to me. I had written the kite off. But Dad had managed to understand Sam much better than I had and had picked up on the fact that the kite was one that Sam had made at school in Australia (where as I thought he'd made it locally). Dad persevered and the kite was salvaged, with Sam showing due pleasure. It was a lovely moment to have had Poppa do that for him.
The final moment that sticks with me was at the airport where we finally had to say goodbye. Thomas came up to me and said with glistening eyes, "I'm going to miss Nanny and Poppa." As I relayed this to Mum, we both fought back tears.
The drive home was hard, something to do with unseasonal levels of moisture under the eyelids and that night was strangely quiet.
Now we're left counting the days until our next visitors get here (105 as of this moment)
Aug 21, 2008
Turn that way ... no, the OTHER WAY!
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve managed to drive from Toronto to Montreal, to Quebec City, to Lake Placid, to Rochester and finally to Niagara Falls. One of the things that I’ve been meaning to buy whilst we’re away is a GPS unit. Until I actually manage to do so however, we have been reliant on maps and the good old combination of Caroline navigating and me following the instructions.
Now at this point, you’re probably expecting that there’s likely to be some criticism of the navigational portion of that equation, but the reality is that Caroline is actually a great navigator. Its my inner sense of doubt and apprehension that probably gets us into more trouble, because I hate nothing more than the feeling that I don’ t know that I am headed in the wrong direction. And so I would have to say that as many of the u-turns that we’ve enjoyed were my fault as opposed to navigational error and the navigational errors tended more to be the result of a lack of a map of appropriate detail or scale than directional misfortune.
It all came to something of a head last night after a couple of hours of hurried outlet shopping in the US as we tried to find the right bridge to get us across to the Canadian side of the falls whilst paying the least amount of toll possible.
It was about the point that we were trying to head the right way onto the 104 that things went wrong. The main reason they went’ wrong was because again, there wasn’t enough detail on the map and I made an assumption that we needed to go one way and Caroline only looked up to tell me that I should have gone the other way at the point that we were committed to going where we shouldn’t.
Not to worry, you simply take the next exit, get off and then turn around and come back the way that you came. Unless you’re me. Then you get off, get back on and find yourself back on the road that you wanted to be on, but still going in the wrong direction. Another exit fixed that and we eventually found our way back to the point of the first error.
But by this time, Caroline was seeing the funny side of a situation to which I was far from amused, resulting in her being in a fit of giggles and me being, well ‘a grumpy bastard’ probably understates it.
All things come out ok in the wash though and we managed to take a slow, scenic route, run a red light and finally make our way onto the bridge that brought us back to Canada. We even found the hotel.
I still intend to buy the GPS unit though, even if I do get it at a point where I really only have one option to travel by on the way back to Fort McMurray!
Now at this point, you’re probably expecting that there’s likely to be some criticism of the navigational portion of that equation, but the reality is that Caroline is actually a great navigator. Its my inner sense of doubt and apprehension that probably gets us into more trouble, because I hate nothing more than the feeling that I don’ t know that I am headed in the wrong direction. And so I would have to say that as many of the u-turns that we’ve enjoyed were my fault as opposed to navigational error and the navigational errors tended more to be the result of a lack of a map of appropriate detail or scale than directional misfortune.
It all came to something of a head last night after a couple of hours of hurried outlet shopping in the US as we tried to find the right bridge to get us across to the Canadian side of the falls whilst paying the least amount of toll possible.
It was about the point that we were trying to head the right way onto the 104 that things went wrong. The main reason they went’ wrong was because again, there wasn’t enough detail on the map and I made an assumption that we needed to go one way and Caroline only looked up to tell me that I should have gone the other way at the point that we were committed to going where we shouldn’t.
Not to worry, you simply take the next exit, get off and then turn around and come back the way that you came. Unless you’re me. Then you get off, get back on and find yourself back on the road that you wanted to be on, but still going in the wrong direction. Another exit fixed that and we eventually found our way back to the point of the first error.
But by this time, Caroline was seeing the funny side of a situation to which I was far from amused, resulting in her being in a fit of giggles and me being, well ‘a grumpy bastard’ probably understates it.
All things come out ok in the wash though and we managed to take a slow, scenic route, run a red light and finally make our way onto the bridge that brought us back to Canada. We even found the hotel.
I still intend to buy the GPS unit though, even if I do get it at a point where I really only have one option to travel by on the way back to Fort McMurray!
The Falls
We find ourselves tonight at Niagara Falls. Wow. It’s hard to describe the beauty of this place and the wonder that it inspires. Despite the hordes of tourists around the place and the gaudy Vegas-like entertainment strip, the falls themselves are worthy of the visit. I don’ think verbal or written description can truly do the falls justice, they are simply amazing.
We went for a ride on the Maid of the Mist this afternoon, the boat that takes you right up to the horseshoe falls (there’s actually two major components to the falls) and the sheer volume of water that pours over the cliff every second is mind blowing. I simply can’t imagine what inspired some bloke to go over the falls in a barrel. In about 1901 none-the-less. And he survived. Some kid actually survived falling over the falls in nothing more than a life vest at some point early in the same century and if it was your kid that you saw going over, you’d have to think that it was the last time that you were ever going to see them. Its just a monstrous amount of water.
Its 9pm at the moment and apparently they light up the falls at night. Hopefully once Mum and Dad come back from their walk, Caroline and I will get a chance to go out there and have a look ourselves and see it.
We went for a ride on the Maid of the Mist this afternoon, the boat that takes you right up to the horseshoe falls (there’s actually two major components to the falls) and the sheer volume of water that pours over the cliff every second is mind blowing. I simply can’t imagine what inspired some bloke to go over the falls in a barrel. In about 1901 none-the-less. And he survived. Some kid actually survived falling over the falls in nothing more than a life vest at some point early in the same century and if it was your kid that you saw going over, you’d have to think that it was the last time that you were ever going to see them. Its just a monstrous amount of water.
Its 9pm at the moment and apparently they light up the falls at night. Hopefully once Mum and Dad come back from their walk, Caroline and I will get a chance to go out there and have a look ourselves and see it.
Aug 11, 2008
Go ... Australia?
So here we are in the middle of the olympics and we're touring all around North America. It's made for an interesting and different experience of the olympics from what I am accustomed to.
For the first couple of days we were in Eastern Canada and so watching Canadian broadcasts of the event. Right now though, we're in Lake Placid, home of the 1980 (and 1932) winter games in the good ol' US of A.
THe canadian broadcasts I've found in the main to be quite watchable. One of those things about Canada, is they don't have quite as many athletes featuring in medal winning events. That means that although they focus on the Canadian atheletes when ever they can, they tend to show a wide variety of other teams as well. And their commentary doesn't appear to be too biased.
But now, in the US, my god, what a difference. Its all america all the time. Australia might rate a mention if we happen to win a medal, but its a big chest thumping, self congratulating style of presentation. It may be the same back home when someone from outside of Australia is subjected to our TV coverage (hell, even I've complained about the sort of coverage we get at home .. swimming swimming and more swimming ... but this has sure rammed it home!
For the first couple of days we were in Eastern Canada and so watching Canadian broadcasts of the event. Right now though, we're in Lake Placid, home of the 1980 (and 1932) winter games in the good ol' US of A.
THe canadian broadcasts I've found in the main to be quite watchable. One of those things about Canada, is they don't have quite as many athletes featuring in medal winning events. That means that although they focus on the Canadian atheletes when ever they can, they tend to show a wide variety of other teams as well. And their commentary doesn't appear to be too biased.
But now, in the US, my god, what a difference. Its all america all the time. Australia might rate a mention if we happen to win a medal, but its a big chest thumping, self congratulating style of presentation. It may be the same back home when someone from outside of Australia is subjected to our TV coverage (hell, even I've complained about the sort of coverage we get at home .. swimming swimming and more swimming ... but this has sure rammed it home!
Aug 6, 2008
The Bastard Tour of Canada
Caroline’s cousin Klemens came to stay with us for a couple of weeks last month and it was great to have him out. There were moments though, when reflecting upon his time with us, that I had to rate it as something of a bastard’s tour of Canada.
It wasn’t all bad, it was probably just a piece of it that really doesn’t sound all that good upon reflection.
Klemens landed in Calgary and Caroline and the kids picked him up from the airport. One of the first experiences that he was treated to was the Calgary Stampede. Sounds great. But then one has to consider that he was attending this wondrous event with Caroline and the four kids in tow! I believe his comment was something along the lines of ‘its very busy, isn’t it?” in reference to the efforts associated with successfully negotiating such an event with the four children (he is one of four himself, so by the time he left I think that he had a new-found respect for what his own parents had been through when he was growing up).
He was left to spend the latter part of the evening by himself when Caroline brought the kids back to our accommodations and from a couple of conversations we had, I’m sure he appreciated some of the finer points of the cow’girl’ population.
After that, the next thing that we decided to do to him was sit him in the back of the car with the smalls and casually take off for Montana. Then, the following day, show him all the lovely scenery from a bus, make him sit and mind the pizza with us while some people went horse-riding (admittedly it was by his choice that he wasn’t part of the equestrian activities) and then bus it back down the mountain.
Then, there was another long drive in the car, a stop at a decaying and no-longer used aqueduct (the risk of travelling with engineers) and then even more driving until we stayed at Dinosaur Provincial Park. Even there we gave him a chance to have some time alone and sent him off to climb to the top of the formations and capture the sunset (only to find out the next day that he hadn’t actually made it all the way tot the top as he’d stopped halfway up!)
Of course, with the dawn came another day and another car ride in the back of the car with the kids. This time we had to get all the way back to Fort McMurray, but we decided that we should be make a stop at the actual Dinosaur museum that lives just outside of Drumheller. It was an impressive looking building that held great promise. But because this was the bastard tour of Canada, all we did was look at the outside, glance at the café and tell Klemens that it was time to get back in the car, visit the supermarket in town for some food and off we went again, driving solidly until about 10:30pm that night when we finally arrived back in Fort McMurray.
We said goodbye to Klemens a week after that and I think that I can say that he actually had a good time and we did manage to send him out drinking with a couple of girls from work, so he wasn’t caged for the entire time1
It wasn’t all bad, it was probably just a piece of it that really doesn’t sound all that good upon reflection.
Klemens landed in Calgary and Caroline and the kids picked him up from the airport. One of the first experiences that he was treated to was the Calgary Stampede. Sounds great. But then one has to consider that he was attending this wondrous event with Caroline and the four kids in tow! I believe his comment was something along the lines of ‘its very busy, isn’t it?” in reference to the efforts associated with successfully negotiating such an event with the four children (he is one of four himself, so by the time he left I think that he had a new-found respect for what his own parents had been through when he was growing up).
He was left to spend the latter part of the evening by himself when Caroline brought the kids back to our accommodations and from a couple of conversations we had, I’m sure he appreciated some of the finer points of the cow’girl’ population.
After that, the next thing that we decided to do to him was sit him in the back of the car with the smalls and casually take off for Montana. Then, the following day, show him all the lovely scenery from a bus, make him sit and mind the pizza with us while some people went horse-riding (admittedly it was by his choice that he wasn’t part of the equestrian activities) and then bus it back down the mountain.
Then, there was another long drive in the car, a stop at a decaying and no-longer used aqueduct (the risk of travelling with engineers) and then even more driving until we stayed at Dinosaur Provincial Park. Even there we gave him a chance to have some time alone and sent him off to climb to the top of the formations and capture the sunset (only to find out the next day that he hadn’t actually made it all the way tot the top as he’d stopped halfway up!)
Of course, with the dawn came another day and another car ride in the back of the car with the kids. This time we had to get all the way back to Fort McMurray, but we decided that we should be make a stop at the actual Dinosaur museum that lives just outside of Drumheller. It was an impressive looking building that held great promise. But because this was the bastard tour of Canada, all we did was look at the outside, glance at the café and tell Klemens that it was time to get back in the car, visit the supermarket in town for some food and off we went again, driving solidly until about 10:30pm that night when we finally arrived back in Fort McMurray.
We said goodbye to Klemens a week after that and I think that I can say that he actually had a good time and we did manage to send him out drinking with a couple of girls from work, so he wasn’t caged for the entire time1
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