Almost 2013

Blimey it seems more like 3 weeks than under seven days since I last updated the blog.

I hope all my readers had a wonderful Christmas. I must say ours did not disappoint. Christmas morning we slept in a bit and opened up some pressies, watched a some TV and then headed out to Anne's parent's cottage on the Eastern Shore. The weather on Christmas Day was stunning, beautifully sunny so it made for a lovely drive out there.

Once there we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Anne, Smiffy, Pat and Roy (her parents) and Mike her brother. I have to say that our Christmas dinner was quite possibly one of the best I have ever had. A wonderful meal beautifully cooked and presented. We chatted late into the evening and left around Midnight...All over too soon. Pat Gave us some toys for Shakespeare and he was more than happy to try them out when we got back...I didn't realise at first glance that they were catnip filled....at 3 am Boxing Day morning he was still bouncing round the house on a catnip high...The tree took yet another pounding!

Boxing Day we spent the whole day doing nothing apart from eating rubbish and watching films and Christmas specials. Definitely my kind of day! Thursday it was back to work for Rob and I. The forecast said rain, what we actually got was around 4 -5 cm of blizzard snow, followed by rain, which was a joy to drive and walk in...NOT.  Most of Thursday at work I had time on my hands to mull over my Getty money and whether or not to spend it in the sales, By 5 pm I had reached a decision, so as soon as Rob got back from work we headed to the mall to buy my new camera. I have upgraded now to the Canon 60D, in the kit I also got the 18-200 mm lens. I love it. It's heavier than my other camera, and is taking me a bit of time to get used to holding it, but the great thing is I now only need the one lens for pretty much everything. I just cannot wait now to get outside and shoot some landscape shots with it.

Friday we worked again, the day dragged as there was really nothing to do. So I left early and headed home to watch more TV. On Saturday I decided it was time to sell off some of my older camera gear, so I bundled up My old 350D body a 55-200 mm lens and some other accessories, photographed it and bunged an advert up on Kijiji (local classified ads online). I didn't hold out much hope in truth, as the last item I tried to sell on there didn't even get a look in. But amazingly within 30 minutes of placing the ad I had a chap contact me via e-mail. He came round within the hour and took the lot for $200.00 I was thrilled.

Saturday evening Nancy invited us round for dinner. It's the first time I have seen her place all decked out for Christmas and how pretty it looked. She has an amazing, realistic artificial tree that is so beautifully decorated (image at top)...Nothing like mine! We headed back around 9 pm to avoid the forecasted snow. As I am typing this is is 1.39 am on Sunday morning, the snow is supposed to arrive over night...Nothing yet but if the prediction is right we will have around a foot of snow by the afternoon...I will keep you posted on that!

Until then Happy New Year!!! And here is yet another photo of Shakespeare, this time in a bag!

The first shot with my new camera!

 

Merry Christmas!

Just a brief update today as I really don't have much to say.
A surprising busy work week for the run up to Christmas. I thought that is would be pretty quiet but in fact it has been the opposite, which is great as I hate not being busy at work as it makes the days so long when there isn't much to do.

I seem to have spent most of the week recovering from that party last weekend. I think I suffered the effects of an extended hangover on Monday morning. I was so stiff all over from those dance moves I was walking around like a 90 year old....Still am in truth!

Saturday night Rob and I attended Anne's Open House party. Great company as always and the food was excellent! By popular demand...me asking...Anne's mum brought some of her bean dip along which I had tried back in the Summer and loved!  We left there at around 1.30 am and seeing as the cold drive back woke us up we stayed up for at least another hour or so at home watching 'The Toys that made Christmas' Quite cool taking a walk down memory lane with some much loved toys throughout the decades.

Today I am of course knackered. It's mid afternoon now and I have only been up for a couple of hours. Nancy is popping round later, it will be the first time she has met Shakespeare, so lets hope he is on his best behaviour!

As this is my last post before Christmas, let me take this opportunity to wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas! See you on the other side!

Hangover

I think the title of this post will tell you how I am feeling today! Aside from encountering computer issues this week I don't have a whole heck of news apart from the staff Christmas party last night.

I am pretty sure I am not the only person nursing a serious hangover this morning. What a good night it was. The company hosted a dinner and dance at a local club. I don't think anyone was much interested in the turkey dinner...Which was okay...It was more about socialising and drinking of course. Poor Robert drove, so he was pretty reserved and promptly forgot the names of everyone I introduced him to. I think all my work colleagues were interested in finally meeting the mysterious husband they have never seen. It was great getting to meet a lot of the 'other halves' as well.

As soon as the dinner was over the dancing commenced, I was pretty plastered by the time I hit the dance floor and threw some interesting shapes! Gangnam Style was entertaining as was Smooth Criminal I do believe I attempted some moon walking and a crutch grab...I dread to think how many beers a glugged, (possibly in the region of abut 15), but this morning, my head was pretty muzzy and my body ached in parts I never knew could ache! One of my co workers Sean brought a case of beer to the party and aside from the free drink we got, he kept supplying me with extra beer from his truck, if I thought I was hammered you should have seen the state of him at the end of the evening.
Even our VP of Eastern Canada was up kicking it on the floor. I am sure there will be some recounting of the evenings events, come Monday morning....Oh dear!

Shakespeare has continued his reign of terror on the Christmas tree this week, and has broken several more ornaments as he scrabbles his way inside it. Below is a very poor quality phone image taken of him in the tree last night.

It's not a real tree....But he doesn't care :o)

Santa's Little Destroyer

A bit of a quiet week this week although somewhat productive on my part as I managed to get some much need cleaning done. I skipped Camera Club on Wednesday as it was raining and miserable outside and the prospect of diving there and back on our dimly lit roads wasn't very appealing. That is one of my niggles about living here, the roads in the main are poorly lit and don't even get me started on pedestrian crossings! Nearly every week it seems recently, someone has been knocked down on them. Some of it is of course due to careless driving and lack of attention, but I believe it is also due in part to the fact that crossings are badly marked and not lit up, plus there are so many of them that people become oblivious to them. I think PEI have the right idea, as does the UK with zebra crossings, you notice them straight away, but here all you have are two white lines across the road which can be very worn and hard to see. Okay, whinge over!

Friday night Rob and I bit the bullet and pulled out the Christmas decorations and put the tree...Not without reservations on my part as to how it would fair with Shakespeare the destroyer in residence.
At around 1.30 am he jumped on the bed with a little Green Santa Clause that had been hanging on the banister downstairs, I have to say I was impressed he had found it and managed get it off with all the blue tack it had on it. On Saturday morning I made an inspection of the tree to find, 6 bows and 2 candy canes missing, plus one of my favourite purple balls shattered on the floor.

Saturday evening Anne and Smiffy came round to watch a movie (Crazy, Stupid, Love). I think I should mention at this juncture, that it is no coincidence that Anne and Smiffy's names keep cropping up together. They are indeed a couple now. I am proud to say I played a small part in this, as before Smiffy landed I told Anne about him and said that I thought they might possibly be a good match...I instigated Anne coming along to dinner at Wharf wraps to meet him the week of his arrival...And it looks like I was right :o) I am thrilled...As I am not generally a matchmaker, but in this case, things couldn't have worked out better. I genuinely love them both to pieces, and consider them both two of my closest friends and Rob and I really enjoy spending time with them.

After an enjoyable evening of film and snacking, they went on. Rob went to bed and I stayed up watching another movie, I headed to bed in the wee small hours and eventually nodded off only to be rudely awakened at around 7.30 am on Sunday morning by a god almighty crashing sound. Rob and I ventured downstairs to investigate only to find our tree tipped over...Yes the destroyer had been at it again!! It looks a bit of shambles now to say the least...But I couldn't stay mad at him for long as he is just so damn cute!

Finally, a couple of random images from the archives for you as I haven't done any photography for a few weeks now.

Fall in Mahone Bay

Blue Boat at Blue Rocks

Ho Ho Holy Crap...It's December

So here we go, head first into dreaded December. I cannot believe that people already have their outdoor Christmas lights and decorations up.

For Christmas Day this year, Robert and I have been invited to Anne's parents place and I am really looking forward to it, from my past visit there back in the Summer I know that Anne's mum is an excellent cook, which will knock spots off any feeble attempt we make at a Christmas dinner at home!

Last night Rob and I went over for dinner and a movie at Anne's which was lovely, and we got to meet her friend Kat, who I liked very much.

This week the weather has turned somewhat chilly as I believe it has in the UK too. On Thursday temperatures with the wind chill were down to minus 10....Brrrrr. That said I think it is due to warm right up again tomorrow.

Everyone seems to be debating what kind of a Winter we will have this year, as the last two have been pretty kind in terms of snow fall. According the the Farmers Almanac, we are in for a bad one, and apparently this is a reliable source. I personally hope the prediction is wrong!

Shakespeare continues to amuse us on a daily basis with his antics. His latest thing is getting in the bathroom sink. He loves it for some reason. I know many cats like sinks, but Shakes takes it one step further, not deterred by the tap running he sits in there getting his bum, tail and feet wet and doesn't seem to mind one bit...Very strange.

He other slightly annoying habit is shredding up the toilet roll. We have to make sure the bathroom door is shut all the time otherwise we find an unholy mess in there!

Nothing much else to report, the weekend has flown by as I have spent most of it on the PC putting together a new website for my brother.

Socially in the next few weeks we have a couple of parties to go to, My works dinner and dance is on Dec 15 and Anne is having an open house on Dec 22....Not sure how I will cope with all this eating and drinking...lol!

Some random images until next week. I thought you might like to see some of the faces I work with and of course Shakespeare in the Sink.

Finally borthday wishes go out this week to my friend Paula and my Godson Joshua! Hope you both have a wonderful day!!!


The front desk girls Left to right: Sarah, Kristen and Tanya

Sink boy!