Happy New Year - Bring on 2013!

Happy New Year to one and all - we hope you had a fantastic festive time over Christmas and New Year in 2012.  Our time together as a family went very quickly due to work commitments, but good times were had when we were all together.  Enclosed are a few photos of us and Sam over the last week, including a Christmas Eve visit to Butchart Gardens carousel, Sam present opening on Christmas Day and a New Years Day walk in Sidney with Sam's woolly hat from Granny.  There is even a photo of us watching the Queen's Speech, before gifts were allowed to be opened on Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas from Scott, Nancy and Sam

A Merry Christmas from Scott, Nancy and Sam.  We hope you and your family have a fantastic festive time this year and we wish you health, comfort, and prosperity this holiday season.  Season's Greetings from Vancouver Island.

Last Adventure to New York

I'm back on the blog.... it has been too long and there is no excuse, just the pressures of work.  One of the happenings since I last updated the blog is my trip to New York to stay with Neil and have Ross join for a visit.  Neil has been living in New York for the last couple of years thanks to a role with Citigroup - yes, he is one of those evil bankers that brought the world to its knees in 2008.  However, at the end of December he returns to the UK to be reunited with his family and a job in London; so this was the last adventure for the three of us to be together in New York.

As you can imagine fun times were had by all.  I arrived a couple of days earlier than Ross and had the opportunity to experience the city at its best with a pre-Christmas feel.  I walked the city and saw all the major sights, including Time Square, Wall Street, the United Nations building, Madison Square Garden, the NBC television studios, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge and even managed to find time to pop into Mercedes-Benz Manhattan.  One disappointment was not being able to take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty, as the recent super storm Sandy had meant it was closed to tourists.

The evenings were spent with Neil looking for places to dine and chat - some of the topics of discussion being how to fix American politics, which including gun control (how apt following recently incidents).  On the Friday, Ross took the bus up from Washington DC to join us and Neil recommended a great Italian place for pizza and drinks.  Saturday was a day of walking and touring the west side of New York including the Highline and a wharf of shops.  The time together was spent chatting and making jokes at each others expense, the main focus being Neil's obsession with pink trousers (as you can see from the photos).  The final day was spent walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in the rain - great cityscape views but the weather got in the way.  The trip highlighted the fact that as always life is improved by sharing it with great friends, but New York certainly provided an amazing backdrop.

Nancy and Sam Maui Beach Holiday

As mentioned previously, Nancy and Sam flew out to Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands for a two week holiday.  They joined up with Wendy, Scott M and Laura-Dawn for an enjoyable time in the sunshine.  I have been receiving regular updates of their activities and fun, including a variety of photos - which I have included in this blog post.  Everyone is having a great time and Sam is loving the beach.

Sam and his Lego

Sam and Nancy are in Maui for two weeks and arrived safely last night for their holiday on the beach.  Sam continues his global trotting travels with this trip, especially as this is his second holiday to the Hawaiian Isles.  In their absence I have a peaceful and restful time at home to catch up with work and errands, including the blog.  So I thought I would share a recent photo of Sam enjoying his lego, he has shown a real joy in lego construction.  Look out for Maui photos soon.

First Haircut

Sam's curly hair has the been the source of much debate, as it has never been cut and Nancy has stopped me from having his curls cut.  For some reason, the ladies in Sam's life believe that the curls are very cute and cannot be removed as they may never come back.  However, whenever his hair gets wet especially at swimming classes it turns into "rat tails" and Nancy admitted that going to Maui on holiday she didn't want to be embarrassed by the rat tails.  So yesterday saw Sam shears get sheared!  As the photos showed the best method to cut his hair was following him around with a pair of scissors, while he is distracted by toys.  Job done and Sam even received a certificate.

Pumpkin Patch

The end of October in North America is dominant by the holiday of Halloween, which means that many of the houses are decorated with ghoulish and spooky items.  One of the mainstays is pumpkins that are then carved with faces.  Nancy led the charge and showed us the best place to go for fresh pumpkins.  The local farm, Mitchells, had a pumpkin patch with a large selection of the orange fruit and we let Sam loose to go and choose the one for our doorstep.  As you can see from the photos, Sam thought this was immense fun and made his selection from kissing the pumpkin.  We also discovered that a pumpkin is not a vegetable; it's a fruit! In fact, it's a berry.  Pumpkins belong to the family Cucurbitaceae, which includes cucumbers, melons, squash, and gourds.  We took our pumpkin home and Nancy's Uncle Peter came round the very next day to deliver a carved pumpkin as a gift for Sam.  It was an impressive effort and many thanks to Uncle Peter.

7.7 Earthquake Rattles BC Coast Last Night

This morning Nancy woke me to inform that there was a violent earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale.  The quake jolted British Columbia's north-central coast Saturday night, frightening residents and forcing many to temporarily leave their homes for higher ground ahead of a possible tsunami.  Tsunami warnings were issued for the North Coast, the Haida Gwaii islands, parts of the central B.C. coast, the coast of Alaska and as far away as Hawaii.  However, early Sunday morning the warnings were downgraded to advisory status, meaning evacuations were no longer necessary, and they were cancelled altogether a few hours later.  Residents near the centre of the quake said the violent jolting lasted for up to a minute, but no injuries or major damage had been reported.

UK Flying Visit

On Monday, we stepped off the plane from London Heathrow after a 10 hour flight - this was the conclusion of our week's trip to the homeland.  It was fun packed, friends and family filled week.  The holiday started with the flight from Vancouver which should have been relatively easy, as Sam is now a seasoned traveler having flown to a number of places already. However, this did not turn out to be the case as he screamed for the majority of the flight - which probably made us the most hated passengers on the flight!  However, once we were off the airplane we enjoyed our trip.

During the holiday with our rental car we visited Odiham, Milton Keynes, Lavendon, Finmere, Crondall and Hartwell.  It was great for Sam to visit the UK for the first time and see close family and friends in person, as opposed to being on skype video.  We visited a number of local parks, playgounds, walking routes and of course bought a few home comforts at the shops to bring back to Canada.  Good old Marks and Spencers provided a need for additional luggage for the return flight.  We want to thank everyone that we met up with, who provided all the warm hospitality and welcomes.  It is the little details that you remember, such as Sam and his cousin Annabel hugging each other goodbye on the last day, all our friend's children sitting around the table for lunch or meeting a dog called Sam that became Sam's friend very quickly.  We had a great time visiting and the trip was only possible because of the people.  Enjoy some of the photos and thank you.

Parksville - The Return Visit

For the second weekend in September with Autumn rushing towards we took the last opportunity of this year to head to the beach.  As per one of my earlier blog posts we visited Parksville in August and had a relaxing, enjoyable visit, so this time with Wendy we thought we would have three days of relaxation.  The last days of Summer didn't disappoint us, as we managed to get to the beach in great weather. Sam loved the water pools and the wet sand - totally enthralled by the sea shells and beach life.  We even managed to keep his sun hat on for a while.  One of the afternoons included a dip in the nearby swimming pool and Sam just wanted to play with the inflatable beach balls.  Good relaxing weekend and now for the Autumn.

Saanich Fair in the Sunshine

I know, I know.... it has been a few weeks since my last blog post.  No excuses except for being busy at work and so I am playing catch up. 

At the beginning of September, our little family headed to the local Saanich Fair.  It turns out that this fair is one of the oldest in Canada and this year it was celebrating its 145th year.  The Saanich Fair included a number of farmyard animals, agriculture equipment, musicians, entertainers and even pie-eating contests.  Our visit coincided with beautiful sunshine and Sam was fascinated by the various animals - horses, chickens, ducks and cows, as you can see by the photos.  However, the key highlight for Sam was the orange coloured tractor - he didn't want to leave the drivers seat!

Parksville Mini-Holiday

We took advantage of a long weekend, last week, to experience nature at its best and visit friends who were camping in Parksville.  Parksville is a definitive British Columbia summer town, which is about an hour and half drive north of Victoria. The beaches on the south-central coast of eastern Vancouver Island are the stuff of a California dream vacation.  However, there is a difference, Parksville's postcard crescents of golden, hard-packed sand beaches are smoother, broader and caressed by gentle Pacific rollers.  Sam loved the long stretch of beach with all the wonders of sea shells, water pools, seagulls and crabs.  The evening entertainment was a camp fire, singing camp songs, eating smores and knocking back frozen drinks.  On the final day, we went to the Parksville sandcastle venue - where international artists had built magnificent sandcastles for the viewing public.

London 2012 Olympic Torch (in Victoria)

I took the opportunity from one of our suppliers to bring into the dealership a London 2012 Olympic Torch.  A local businessman had purchased one of the torches to import it to Victoria and allowed us to share it with the staff.  Everyone got a chance to hold it, pretend to be a torch bearer and get their photo taken. 

Also it was a prime opportunity for me to mention to my Canadian colleagues how well the GB Olympic team has been performing in London.  Nearly 60 medals in total and 26 golds - what an amazing result, especially when Canada has only won one gold medal!  Just a shame I've had to watch the NBC American TV coverage - as there is serious bias towards the American athletes and not enough of the GB team success.

Victoria Petting Zoo - Goats Galore!

On a recent trip into Victoria we took Sam to visit the local Petting Zoo, when there is a variety of different animals and birds on display.  The goat pen is the highlight of the facility, with all the goats and billy-kids running around where the children can touch and feed them.  Sam was straight in there with the goats - no fear, despite a few of the older goats being larger than him.  The Zoo also had a number of roaming peacocks, which were magnificent in their display of colourful feathers.  A number of piglets were born shortly before our visit and so Sam was up close and personal with the baby pigs.  He didn't quite understand the joke about bacon!

Simon Whitfield Olympic Send Off

Three Point Motors, Mercedes-Benz Canada and Victoria's enthusiastic triathlon and cycling community sent Simon Whitfield off to the London 2012 Olympic Games last Monday evening in appropriate style: with a bike ride along Victoria's scenic waterfront.

More than a hundred local cyclists had a chance to socialize and ride with the world's most decorated Olympic triathlete who will be representing Canada at his 4th Olympic Games in London on August 7th.  The event started and finished at Three Point Motors in Victoria, and the Mercedes-Benz dealership, where I work, pulled out all the stops to make the occasion memorable.  After the event, my staff and I had the chance to personally chat with Simon and hold his medals. 

It was also announced the next day that Simon would be the flag bearer for Canada at the Olympic opening ceremony.  Good luck to Simon, but he is up against two British brothers who are the favorites for the triathlon.

Congratulations to Scott and Laura-Dawn

On Saturday 7th July Nancy, Sam and myself were in Vancouver to attend and celebrate the marriage of Scott M and Laura-Dawn.  It was an intimate affair with close family and friends with standing room only for many of the guests during the ceremony.  It was great to share it with some many close people of Scott and Laura-Dawn and this was followed by photos in Stanley Park.  Then an enjoyable dinner lead into a night of drinking, chatting and dancing - good times had by all.  Many congratulations to Scott and LD and to all their future happiness!