Spring has NOT Sprung

I felt I should make an update, but I am finding it somewhat difficult to sit at the keyboard and remain perky about anything right now.

I have been pretty ill for the last 3 weeks. I got very bad bronchitis again, which resulted in a trip to the doctors, a round of antibiotics, and two inhalers. I missed some work because it  and ended up in bed for 5 days. Since then it has abated, but I am still coughing and have found it very difficult to deal with the heavy cold cold like symptoms which followed.

I have only been out of the house once socially since my last update and that was a trip to a local salon with Anne. We treated ourselves to some pampering, a facial, pedicures and a manicure in Anne's case. The particular day in question was a rarity....It didn't snow, the sun was shining and I believe the temperature reached 1 or 2 degrees. Since than it has all gone down hill again. We have had yet another storm, with a huge dumping of snow which effectively put Nova Scotia out of business last Wednesday. The snow banks are so high now everywhere there is really nowhere to put it now. I have never seen so much snow in my life. There are only two good things to come out of this....Number 1, People have almost stopped talking about 'The Great Storm' White Juan. Number 2, I got a day off work on Wednesday! As I sit here typing it is snowing yet again and the wind is howling, it is all due to flash freeze later after we get some rain. My mood is literally at an all time low, I am utterly fed up with the weather and a few other things besides.

For those of you interested, I have given up smoking once more the day the coughing started I knocked it on the head. Of course last time I crept back to it, so this time I am not making promises I cannot keep, just taking it day by day, but it will be a month on Tuesday.

The only thing that is keeping me remotely sane right now is TV. Big Brother Canada starts tomorrow, I have Dancing with the Stars just started again, The Voice USA and Survivor to keep me going in the world of reality TV. I have also been watching The Voice UK...and if you are you have vote for Vikesh to win...An unlikely star perhaps, but what a voice. He tweeted me back the other day, as did Michael Van Schoick, who you might better know as Dave form the Money Supermarket Ad...I so love that ad!!!

I have been following the British politics in the lead up to the Election with much interest. What a am finding particularly hard to tolerate is the slanted media bias that has been heaped on UKIP. Now I am not saying that they don't have some dubious followers, but at every given opportunity the media make the whole party out to racist and homophobic, which I do NOT believe is the case at all.
I can only assume that the powers that be are that afraid of UKIP that they feel the need to constantly bash them and belittle them. I also noted that the Tories are in some do-do thanks to Afzal Amin and his cunning (or as it turned out, not so cunning plan)...And and lets not forget (although we really want to) Clegg and his donation scandal. This could be an interesting Election for sure.

I will leave you with images from the back and the front of the my house, my favourite ad of the moment and a NEW 22 Minutes Halifax Tourism ad/Skit.

Our Driveway

Looking towards the driveway from Front Door

Our Road (worse since this was taken)

View from my front room window of the garden

View from the kitchen of the back garden

Another Storm

Here I am again with nothing much to report except the dreadful weather.

I celebrated my birthday on Feb 10th, I say celebrated in the loosest of terms, it was possibly the most lack lustre birthday to date. I would like to thank all of you that sent cards and gifts, much appreciated. I found birthday wishes from my work colleagues on a big poster they made in the loo....Commonly known now as my second office. A customer bought me in a cake, which was sweet and Rob brought back a Chinese takeaway. My birthday wish was that it didn't snow that day, but sadly that wish didn't come true and it was yet another messy day on the roads, however that was nothing compared to the weather today. We have had more snow, followed by ice pellets and then a load of rain as the temperature rose for about 2 hours, which caused some melting of the massive amounts of snow everywhere, that in turn has and is now flash freezing again as the temperature drop back down to around minus 15.

The last few weeks have been relentless, almost everyday it has been a struggle to go anywhere and try and keep on top of snow clearing. Just leaving the house requires a good extra ten minutes just to get extra layers of clothing on and boots of course. This Winter really has turned into possibly the worst one yet here for me. I hate it! My mood is bleak most of the time, I cannot be bothered with anything. So if I haven't written back to you recently, it's because even the computer holds no interest for me. I am pretty sure I am not alone in feeling this way, most people I know seem to have no energy and sleeping way more than they normally do.

I am hoping upon hoping that this weather ends soon and I can begin to get out of this funk.
One good thing in amongst the weather gloom is that we have a new Stat/Bank holiday tomorrow. Many other parts of Canada already celebrate a day off in Feb as Family Day. Nova Scotia have called it Heritage Day and tomorrow is the first one. I am thrilled to be having a day off as it means I don't have to try and get into work. I find it funny that most other Provinces call their holiday 'Family Day' yet Nova Scotia has to call it something else.

I will leave you with a couple of snowy images - On the left a view of the front garden and driveway, on the left a car buried in snow out the back on of the units next to where I work. The image was taken last week. Good job they left the windscreen wipers up to stop  them getting snow covered!!!! I actually saw the lady owner digging it out Thursday but by Friday it had more snow on it. I am also posting my favourite viral cat video of the week.

Spot the car in the right hand image! Click to view larger!

Still Here

It looks like Winter proper has kicked in now, after a relatively snow free December and half of January, we got a first 'full on' Winter storm last week. It moved up the Eastern Seaboard affecting NY and Boston the worst as no doubt you will have seen in the papers and on the news, it was a pretty messy affair for us and as usual it was a battle to get to work, I luckily grabbed a lift in with a colleague and we were sent packing at noon as the roads were terrible. Since then it has snowed more, thawed, frozen, chucked down some freezing rain which took Rob and I 20 minutes to chip a thick layer of ice of the car, then it snowed some more and has now frozen again and guess what...we are due another winter storm on Tuesday...Yay!...NOT!

In case you haven't spotted it yet I hate the snow and winter in general and it has literally sapped any life out of me, I go to work I come home and I don't do anything. Just getting on the computer is proving an enormous effort as you can see from my lack of updates.

Rob has been pretty busy in and out on call his colourful language appears to be getting worse every time he has to go outside to empty the bins, shovel the driveway, open the shed or go out in general. It's been so cold that the lock keeps freezing on the shed door which maddens him to the point I think his head is going to explode, I watched him earlier doing a Basil Fawlty and kicking it relentlessly.

Although I maybe inside more than out, it has certainly given me plenty of time to watch lots and lots of TV. Something I missed in the UK but have now watched on Netflix is 'Last Tango in Halifax' What a fantastic series that is, I loved it, and it has to be right up there with my all time fave TV series now. I have also finished watching the latest series of Lilyhammer, which is a series that so shouldn't work in theory but just does, it too is one of my favourites. I could list so many more but there are way too many of them. I have been engrossed in Celebrity Big Brother and loving it. I am torn as to who I want to see win it but I think as a beacon of calm in a sea of Chaos, Keith Chegwin should win it. I have been sharing many tweets with the BB fans and Interact quite regularly with Judi James the Body Language expert on Big Brother's bit on the side, I have also been interacting with Chris Wright one the contestants from last Summer's Civilian BB (he was my favourite to win it but sadly evil prevailed over good). I should mention that I have also in the past had Twitter one or two interactions with Keith Chegwin (when he was on Dancing on Ice). I love Twitter and interactions like these make it so much more interesting.

I will leave you with my favourite viral video that never fails to put a smile on my face...I love it even more as he reminds me of Hank from Breaking Bad!

Happy New Year and all that!

A White Christmas

Hey peeps, it's been a while, apologies. I am in such a funk with Winter I have practically lost the will to do anything.

I hope you all had a relaxing Christmas. I was glad to have a few days away from work, I definitely needed the break and slept through most of it. When I wasn't sleeping I was watching mountains of TV. Netflix took a pounding. Rob and I spent our first Christmas in our new home quietly. We had beef instead of Turkey. Big thanks to all of you who sent cards and pressies. Much appreciated.

Anne and Smiffy popped round between Christmas and New Year, other than that we didn't have any visitors.

The snow held off until about a week ago, and we have had a bit on and off then some rain, then ithas frozen again. We have had some pretty cold temperatures too. One day it went from plu 9 right down to minus 28 with the wind chill in the space of 24 hours. I must say though I am not finding Winter as unbearable as last year, as it has come much later which hopefully, in turn should make it a lot shorter.

Pat our Realtor popped round just before Christmas with a really sweet hand painted Christmas tree ornament (as you can see here). Thankfully it made it through the season without Shakespeare breaking it. He didn't do too badly with the tree, but was pretty upset when we took it down and was still clinging on to the bottom branches as we packed up in the box.

Anyhow nothing much else to report. So I will update again when I have something interesting to say!

Merry Christmas!...No snow...Yet!

Art imitating life! The broken ball count continues as
Shakespeare enjoys Christmas and Hamish is just
glad he's deaf!

A Much Needed Update

Sorry I have been AWOL again.
Really not too much occurring apart from the usual doldrums I get at this time of year. Work has been manic and my stress levels have reached sky high. Possibly something I shouldn't mention but (seeing as this is a warts and all blog), I will...I have been prescribed mild anxiety medication to help me stay a little calmer right now. That said I am feeling much better this week that I was last week (before I started taking them).

There are many things compounding my mood and state of mind. Christmas is nearly upon us once more and for me it's a total non-entity. I dislike Winter intensely and not having my family around this time of year really gets me down and then there's work, with a new computer system that is extremely complex and  making my job 3 times more arduous than it was before. Rob and I will be spending our first Christmas in our new home which is the one thing I am looking forward to, that a few days away from work.

The weather forecasters are practically chomping at the bit now when it comes to predicting the weather. They want snow, ice pellets, blizzards, white outs and freezing rain so bad now. They seem pretty disappointed that mother nature has let them down so far. Hard to believe but since my last update and that dusting of snow we had, we have seen NONE...yes NONE of the white stuff yet. What we have had is pounding rain and wind, followed by mild temps and almost t-shirt weather days. It;s certainly been a mixed bag. I know we won't avoid the snow for much longer but I for one have been enjoying the wet days.

What I haven't been enjoying has been driving home in the dark on those aforementioned wet days.
The reason being...Pedestrians on badly lit crossings wearing black clothing. Now I pride myself on having pretty good eyesight, But you cannot see these people who not only dress in the worst possible colour, but step out without looking or warning as they have right of way and don't look first and expect you to stop....Meanwhile us, the car drivers are struggling to make out even the crossing under the dimly lit street lights (that would be equal to the likes of the streets lights in a third world country), whilst battling blindness from oncoming traffic and driving rain. Reflectors should be made compulsory whilst walking at night round these parts and pedestrians should not have right of way unless the crossing is controlled by a 'walk now' button. Even with the new zebra crossing markings it's still almost impossible to see people. Every week I am still hearing of people being knocked down, it is crazy...and it's no wonder.

Okay I am moving on from the ranting.

I did make the effort and go out this weekend. We had a works do, a bunch of us went bowling, we have some food there and more than a few drinks. I must confess I got the most drunk I have been in years. The do was on the same evening as Anne and Smiffy's Christmas bash, so I was pretty miffed about that. Rob went round to theirs and chauffeured me back after the bowling so I could make a late and rather drunken appearance...Sorry about that Anne! I We swapped presents I slurred quit a bit and was probably quite annoying. I then proceeded to get an early hangover. One of the presents they gave us was from their cat Donovan to our boys. Some toys in a small gift bag.When we returned home I put the bag on the kitchen table and quickly made my way to bed. At around 4 am Rob and I were rudely awakened by a crashing sound then a cat running full pelt across both of us whist rustling at the same time, at break neck speed he ran back across us, before we had time to get up and investigate...What did we find...A ripped gift back, part of which (the handles) around Shakespeare's neck, with the rest of the paper attached looking like a cape of sorts and a some smashed Christmas tree balls where he had done a few turns of the tree trying to escape the bag. This I might add did nothing for my now terrible hangover.

I am not sure if I will be updating the blog again this side of Christmas. So until next time, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas. Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2015. We shall be raising a glass and remembering absent friends, sadly lost this year;
Kevin, Gord, Warren & Chris.

Winter at Blue Rocks (From the Archives)

Movie Props and Bad Driving

Apologies for the lack of update last week. I really had nothing to talk about I have literally been nowhere and done nothing.

The weather has turned colder now and although, thankfully we haven't had the weather that Buffalo and other parts of Canada have been enduring, the temperature has dropped somewhat. This week we did actually see a dusting of snow on Wednesday morning. Apparently Nova Scotian's had forgotten that it snows at this time of the year and had also forgotten how to drive. I headed off to work at a snails pace along Main Street wondering what on earth the hold up was, only to come to a complete halt just before joining the Circ (highway). A police car promptly pulled up and the officer got out and started re directing traffic...He ushered me off to another lane, as I crawled past him, reluctant to change my route I wound down the window and politely said 'If you send me off down here, I have no idea how to get to work'...To which he replied...'Where do you work?' I told him and then he said, 'Well you will have to go down Prince Albert and loop round'. I am pretty sure that this last sentence means nothing to you dear readers, as it did to me...I wound up the window and preceded into unknown territory. Thankfully as I started to blindly follow traffic with no clue as to where I was going, Rob sent me a text asking if I had got to work okay...his reply from me was 'Lost - Help' I got him on the phone (speaker) and he had to literally calm me down off the ceiling of the car (as I think I was screaming in a pitch only dogs can hear) and help direct me.
Every which way I went there was traffic everywhere.I eventually got to work, all told the normal 10 minute journey took me an hour. I heard later that in and outside of the city there was a total of 37 accidents...Can you believe it?!

A message to Nova Scotian's...It's Winter...It snows...Get your Winter Tires on and Slow Down!

Yesterday Rachael, Her son Dean, Rob and I went to the Victorian Christmas event at Halifax Citadel.You may remember we went last year. I cannot convey to you (even though it was a sunny day) how cold it was up there. It was actually minus 3 degrees but with the biting wind, it felt like minus stupid! My face was still red raw last night. I would have come away empty handed photographically had it not been for the remains of a movie set in the grounds which we found far more interesting than all the Santa and bagpipes stuff. We to a look round behind one of the buildings and found a veritable feast of movie props handily all gathered in what resembled a back alley. We braved the howling wind that was whistling down there and bagged some photos. Which you can see below. It reminded Rob and I of Dr Who for some reason. I just imagine it's what one of their sets might feel like, although not outdoors and freezing cold.

Movie Set at The Citadel

Back Alley Barrels - Very Dr Who

Barrel Wagon (left) Dried Flowers on Hanger (right)

Old Mangle (Left) Dried Flowers on Crate (Right)

More Wheels and Barrels...Loved it!