A 'ickle Christmas Tree

Last weekend, we put up and decorated our Christmas tree, which is displayed in all its glory in the photo.

Let's just say that its not all about size! Small and beautiful.

First NFL Game in Seattle

I have been a bit slack when it comes to updating the blog recently as I was away in the UK having a great time and then a busy November month end with work, followed by preparations for Christmas and the baby training in early December. Anyway, no excuses I am back writing for the blog and just for Kris I thought I would write about my first experience of a live NFL game.

On Sunday 4th December, Scott Marks and I were up early and met at 7am to race across the border to get down to Seattle. The Seattle Seahawks were playing the Caroline Panthers and the Seahawks are having quite a good season with their new head coach - Pete Carroll. I am a big sports fan, but I've never really got into NFL football despite its huge popularity in North America and I was highly disappointed by CFL (the Canadian version), when we went to a BC Lions game last year. Back to the story, we crossed the border in good time and found a bar near the stadium, for a early beer and brunch. Half way through our meal the whole place was interrupted by the Seahawks own drum band, called the Blue Thunder. This was a fantastic noise that got all the fans and locals up for the game - great atmosphere. We then wandered down to the Stadium and tried to locate our seats, which turned out to be up with the pigeons in the rafters. I don't think we could have been any higher without requiring oxygen, despite this we did have a decent view of the pitch.

In terms of the game itself, I didn't fully understand everything that was going on but enough to know that Seahawks were rubbish in the first two quarters. The score at half time was 14 - 3 to the Panthers, then the third quarter happened and the Seahawks came out showing some fight. The turn around starting with an interception touch down and the points just kept coming with the final score being 31 - 14 to the Seahawks. The result was certainly what the fans wanted and it was first rate experience for myself.

Who Says Parenting is difficult?

I arrived safely in the UK on Friday afternoon, despite my flight being a hour delayed from Vancouver. On arrival I headed to Neil's house and was thrown in at the deep end as a make-shift babysitter, as Neil had to go to the airport with Lotta.

As you can see from the photo, everyone survived and nothing was broken. Who says that parenting is difficult?

The next couple of days have been great catching up with a variety of family members. More fun to follow....

England Home Coming. Wheels Up!

My trip to the UK is almost upon us..... my flight leaves Vancouver at 8.3opm and lands at 1.40pm on Friday. Currently I am sitting at the airport in anticipation.

Look out Friday Night Club, we are overdue a reunion!

See you all on the other side

Portland Road Trip

Over the past few days we completed a road trip to Portland, Oregon on the west coast of the USA. Nancy, Wendy, Scott M and myself crossed the USA border last Wednesday evening, after work and due to my British passport we had a forty minute wait to get my entry visa. We made our way down to a hotel Olympia for our first night. Next morning was when the real excitement started as we crossed into Oregon State and drove along the historic highway 30. The route took us along the Columbia gorge, river and we saw a number of waterfalls and view points. Lunch in a nearby town was followed by a drive on the mountain road of Mt. Hood, where we came into contact with snow.

One of the trip's highlights for me was a visit to the Nike Employee Store as the Nike HQ is based in the area. Huge discounts and great deals had by all, especially as there is zero sales discount in Oregon. After all the shopping we had a couple of enjoyable days in the city of Portland, seeing the sights, shops, riding the free tram system and visiting Powell's Books, which is the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world. This was my first visit to Oregon and proved to be a top trip with cheap shopping.

Portland, Oregon Road Trip Coming Up

On Thursday, 11 November is a public holiday for Remembrance Day in B.C. and so we are taking the opportunity to complete a four day road trip down the west coast to Portland, Oregon. This will be the first time that I have visited this part of the world and one of the trip highlights for me is the planned visit to the Nike Global Headquarters.

We leave on Wednesday evening to cross the USA border and so look out for a blog post and photos later in the week.

Canucks Hockey Games Galore

This week saw Nancy and myself both watch a Vancouver Canucks hockey game, but not the same one.... two different games on two different nights. Nancy saw her game in Vancouver with the Canucks playing against the Devils in a VIP box suite on Monday night. Whilst on Tuesday night, I saw the Canucks play the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton with seats right next to the ice. I was sat right next to the away team's box (i.e. Vancouver Canucks) and so close to all their subs.

Credit to the Canucks for playing two games in consecutive nights in two different towns and two different time zones. Furthermore, they were playing on Thursday evening as well. As the Canadians keep telling me hockey is a tough man's game - I suppose you don't get the English footy teams playing back to back games.

Also, as a side note today in Calgary I met Stephen Ames who is currently the highest ranked professional golfer in Canada and plays on the PGA Tour. He was the at the dealership arranging his new car, my boss was star struck to say the least.

First Snow of The Season

A heavy Pacific storm dumped 30 centimetres of snow on the top of the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort in the last few days, raising the hopes of local skiers that weather climate patterns will bring plenty of snow this coming winter. The freezing level is expected to remain steady with more periods of snow forecast for this week on that mountain.

On Monday morning Environment Canada issued a weather warning for Vancouver, forecasting 50 millimetres of rain by Tuesday, this week. The heavy rain has already forced officials to close the popular Grouse Grind hiking trail on Vancouver's North Shore.

For me, I returned from Kelowna yesterday over the mountain pass and experienced my first snow of the season, which you can see in the photo.

English Bread & Butter Pudding - NO Tiramislop, thanks!

Today was cultural pot luck day at the office.... Yes, I hear you cry "what is cultural pot luck?". Well, it is where a bunch of people at work were invited to cook or bake a homemade dish from their cultural background (or a signature dish of their choice). The idea being that everyone could taste different foods from a variety of nationalities, especially as the office has people from at least ten different countries.

This presented me with a major dilemma due to my limited culinary skills, so I ended up resorting to the classic English desert of Bread and Butter pudding. One of two dishes that I learned on a cooking course two years ago with Nancy, Emily and Mr P. Apart from initially putting the pudding in the wrong glass bowl for the oven which would have created a disaster, all went well with the cooking part (as the photo proves). I was slightly worried how it was going to taste, but it seemed to be a big hit with everyone in the office and most of it was eaten with a number of compliments from the team. No reports of food poisoning yet, so an overall success.

Canadian Thanksgiving

This weekend is my second Canadian Thanksgiving in Canada, which is due to be spent enjoying the company of Wendy and Scott Marks on Vancouver Island. The plan is for turkey dinner on Saturday evening.

However, what are Canadians thankful for???? The American thanksgiving holiday is famous for the celebration of the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower ship landing on the East coast of the USA. This was the much discussed question at the dinner table from the only Brit and the less than convincing answer seemed to be linked to harvest festival. On further research, i.e. a search on Wikipedia, I discovered that The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving was not for harvest but homecoming. He had safely returned from a search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin who died.

Hey, whatever.... the important thing to me was that I get an extra day-off work! Here's to Canada Thanksgiving.

In concert with Jack Johnson

Last night was a night with Jack Johnson at the Rogers Arena and we (Nancy, myself and Wendy) sat back in our seats and bobbed our heads to the beat, while a giant screen projected images of churning water and waves. For those audience members who weren’t hard-core fans, the show was a nice change of pace but nothing special. They mouthed along to the tunes heard on the radio, but otherwise many just kind of stared and hoped he’d do a jig or something.

The marijuana cloud hovering above Rogers Arena was big and fluffy by the time Jack pulled out onto the stage. If the haze didn’t make you yawn, Johnson’s lack of interaction did. He zipped through his repertoire with little banter in between songs. There were a couple of songs that took Nancy and I back to memories of Manchester, especially banana pancakes and better together. Upside Down was a cheery number that made us smile with his relaxing voice. Still, I wanted more than what I could hear on my ipod.

Light the Night 5km Charity Walk: Oct 2nd Victoria

Well it's that time of year again! Nancy and I are asking friends and family to join the We're with Bob! Team for a 5km walk the evening of October 2nd to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.

If you are unable to join us and would like to support our efforts by a donation, we would be greatly thankful for your support in the memory of Bob.

For those of you already signed up, see you next Saturday and if you've already donated and/or are fundraising, thank you so very much. So far the team has raised over $4000.

For event details and to donate: http://www.werewithbob.com
Your support is greatly appreciated.

I feel like Marlon Brando as the Godfather!

After much deliberation, I went under the knife to have my four wisdom teeth removed on Friday morning.

I am still of the belief that Canadian dentists use the extraction of wisdom teeth as a money earner. There never seemed to be a convincing reason to have healthy teeth removed, except that they MIGHT be a problem in the future.

However, as I managed to get the procedure covered by insurance and as such it didn't cost me a penny I had all the teeth removed. I'm hoping that this doesn't mean that I have lost any of my wisdom, similar to Samson losing his strength post a haircut. The painkillers are working a treat right now, but the discomfort is intense.

Dukes of Hazzard for Real

On returning from Vancouver Island last weekend, awaiting for the ferry we saw the GENERAL LEE from the Dukes of Hazzard.

In the TV shows the car had the doors welded shut, leaving the Dukes to climb in and out through the windows.

My childhood was relived in a moment!

With my continued learning and experiencing of Canadian culture, Wendy thought it would be an idea to invite us to the Sannich Peninsula Harvest Feast. This was the second annual feast, held at the Sannich fairground and turned into a fun Saturday night with the locals.

I discovered that the Sannich area is a traditional bread basket of the Greater Victoria area as it has the greatest concentration of active farms in British Columbia. At a time, when interest in "buy local" is growing and there's talk about a "100-mile diet", the event was able to celebrate food and agricultural heritage with a 10-mile harvest dinner (with the exception of dairy, coffee and tea). The dinner was a turkey and beef roast dinner, with all the trimmings and desert was a huge selection of fruit pies with ice cream.

Nancy also won a huge bag of local produce on the ticket lottery and so we got take home carrots, potatoes, leaks pumpkins, corn, etc. Although, I would have much preferred to have won the delicious lemon meringue pie!

Washington DC Holiday Highlights

It has now been nearly two weeks since leaving Washington DC behind from our very enjoyable holiday. I thought I would do a blog post with some of the highlights and photos. Nancy and I had a great time with everyone and the best times were had just chatting and catching up with the gang. So in no particular order, some of the events and fun times are below:

- Night time, Segway tour of Washington DC. Seeing all the monuments, museums, White House, Capital Building and the Mall in 2 hours was amazing. Easy on the feet, no other tourists getting in our way, plus we visited a couple of places that I had not seen in all my previous visits to the capital, including the Roosevelt monument.

- Driving range and batting cages. We have done this a few times, but the highlight here was seeing Anthony hitting a whole bunch of extreme, 90+ mph fast balls in the batting cages. All credit to him as the rest of us were unwilling to step up and face the machine.

- Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. Having visited the Air and Space Museum in DC on a number of previous occasions with the all important moon rock at its front door, I never knew there was a second museum. There was a range of planes, aircraft, machines and space equipment and a viewing deck to see the nearby airport. We enjoyed an afternoon with Beth, Ryan and Kris there and saw the first Space Shuttle, the Enola Gay (the plane that delivered the first atomic bomb in WW2), Concorde (although it was a French one!) and a F14 Tomcat (the type of aircraft featured in the film Top Gun).

- Hanging out at the Swimming Pool. With the hot and humid weather it was a joy just to simply hang out at the local pool with the kids, especially in our matching t-shirts (see photo). Anthony developed a number of dangerous games as well, including Bravery Ball, to keep everyone entertained at the same time.

- Tennis after breakfast. On three mornings, post breakfast, a group of us would head to the nearby tennis courts for a couple of hours of hitting. Top fun had chasing tennis balls around and also seeing everyone's game improve. BSH - Big Sexy Hitting was certainly on display when Laura was on court.

- Sports and board games with the kids. Getting my arse kicked by Ryan over the board game of Trans America was humilating but good fun. Kicking a football around outside with random star appearances from Abi was fun to watch, despite the many bug bites. Then of course there was the 10KM run challenge (see the previous blog post) and seeing the ultra-competitive spirit of all the guys.