Sunday musings

ICE
Now I have of course seen ice before and hell even lived with it but not like the ice thats currently all over the road outside. On Friday the schools were closed in anticipation of another Atlantic storm that was predicted to touch down late morning, the forecast was for 1-5cm of snow, followed by freezing rain and then rain. I wasnt too worried and wondered what all the fuss was about. The snow didnt really start till 2pm and then fell abit, still not worried as it was far less snow than we have had here before. Then the freezing rain started but I was unaware as by then it was dark and I was inside.
Yesterday morning, inspection from through the windows showed a wet looking road so out I stepped with Duke to walk him up the road. Once I was on the road I stopped, as I was on an enormous sheet of ice. The whole road was a sheen of it, like I have never seen before and for one hysterical moment I wasnt sure how to move next without breaking a leg.
Today its still there and the dog is now on day 2 without a walk.

KEYS NEWS
One of my Sunday pleasures, apart from speaking to Ange on skype, is to read the online column by Mandy Bolen Miles on the Keys News website whilst consuming my breakfast. I so enjoy this time and little snippet of life there that I need complete tranquility to get into the "zone". Therefore I always feed the others first and once they have departed from the table, I settle down with my coffee and pancake or muffin and get my weekly Keys fix.
We have a large upcoming vacation there within the next 12 months and quite frankly the trip starts here, each Sunday morning at breakfast.

BABIES
Quite a few of my "friends" in blogland have recently had babies and I so love reading about their lives with their newborns and remembering how it felt for us to to be in babyland. It also brings it to my attention how far out of the trenches we now are and how easy life is now when I hear my two playing in front of the fire while I consider my next life move. Its once again, a bit more about me again, with a slight twist of course.

THE BIG PICTURE
Sometimes when I am fretting about something inane like jobs or money I have to remind myself of the big picture. We are of course, better off than many. We live here for a start in a lovely 2500 square feet of house with a pool on a large plot in a great subdivision of NS, Canada! We are not fretting about the immigration process from a three bedroom semi in the South of England, where my neighbour can hear if I drop my book - "are you ok I heard a bang?" "Yes thanks, all is well, I dropped my book" - OMG!
And we are well on our way in our "big plan" as Paul likes to call it. Yes theres more, my plan is to live here happily and when our children leave school and maybe home downsize this house to a bungalow in Chester and then become snowbirds,driving to the Keys each NY day until the middle of April to a rented apartment or little conch house. Bring it on!

the sleepless nights of indecision

For a short/long while over Christmas I delved into the world of maybe working for myself. There were others that I know that are doing it and I was being told how lovely it is to be your own boss and how much money they were making. (And they aren’t qualified accountants – GGGR and double GGGGRR)

As I am still in my first Canadian company, my salary is low for my qualification and the role I am doing. I accept(ed) this and just got on with it, knowing that every minute that ticked by was another minute on my Resume. I also know that without this job we would not have got our TWP’s and therefore would have been paying healthcare etc etc and been unable to get our mortgage at a decent rate as we were effectively without status here in NS.

Now though we have PR so the work permits no longer apply and my itchy feet were kicking in. I am a little tired of struggling financially when I know I am being paid less than I should. It doesn’t help of course that Pauls own foray into the working world here is a tough one.

So anyhow, I started to research the wonderful world of working for myself and got far enough down the road of meetings to gain information and sleepless nights – lots of them. And then it was casually mentioned by another accountant in BC that I should check with my designation that I don’t need a public practise licence. And hence I realise that that’s a toughie. I am currently transferring from CIMA to CMA. Therefore I can’t ask CIMA as they have no authority (I don’t think) here and I can’t ask CMA as as yet I don’t belong to them. Therefore its easier to work for oneself as a non qualified accountant as you are not breaking any rules.

So, I decided to shelve this whole idea and get a decent nights sleep, and that I did. Thankfully, as insomnia was becoming my friend (or enemy)

Now, weeks down the line, I have shelved the whole idea indefinitely as I am just too young to be working for myself and potentially going from small company to small company doing small company stuff. This just isn’t me, bring on the big guns I still say!

So now, who knows, minutes are still ticking by on my Resume and I must find out from CMA whats the latest with my transfer.

Pauls on his way home!

So Paul is on his way home, I am tracking his flight online and hes nearly over Newfoundland! Yay!
This week has gone by reasonably quickly. I had Chloes friend over for the sleepover from hell on Friday night, big mistake. I could have cheerfully strung up those two seven year olds!
We had some reasonable snow and some decent minus temps, today is minus 16 with a feels like of minus 25. I thought it was a bit brisk when I took the dog out for a pee in my PJs this morning!

I have been reading that winter has hit the UK as temperatures drop to zero. I had to laugh at this. I guess my tolerance for zero temps has changed. Now zero feels absolutely fine to me, almost dont need a jacket weather!

Yesterday I decided to vacuum the house as it was a bit hairy - thanks Duke - its been all of 5 days since my last vaccum up and I managed to fill up the whole cylinder with his hair, I cant believe how hairy that dog is. Its lucky hes so sweet!

I think the girls have missed Paul big time. Lily has been sleeping with either Chloe or me, she seems very unhappy to be in her own bed. I think we need to stick a door on her closet sooner rather than later, it seems to freak her out at night.
Today I managed to not want a McDonalds but had last nights leftover shepherds pie for lunch and a satsuma.

Right, back to work.- after I check the flight status again of course!

snow and sniffles

OK, so I am missing Paul LOTS. I have realised that it’s the first time that we have been apart for this long.

I am lucky though that we have skype and we chat at least twice a day, in the morning and at night and Don is wonderful to have around and I am so damn grateful that he lives with us, he puts out the garbage,gives the girls drinks and supper, gets the wood in, tops up the fire and shovels snow.

Talking of shoveling snow, we are currently waiting to see what this afternoons forecast storm brings. Apparently 10 cms is on its way with gusting winds so therefore whiteouts. Last time 10cm was predicted it was more like 30, and when 30 was predicted it was more like 50.

Let it snow let it snow let it snow.

I have just thrown down a quick lunch – a McDonalds Mango McMini (mmmmmmmmmm) and small fries. I am craving this right now and have one a week, at 500 calories a go I should really knock this little addiction on the head.

I have just said goodbye to my new good friend here, she is going back to England and I will miss her a lot. I remember when we used to chat on Facebook before she moved here and I was also still in the UK and then she flew to NS and I waited to see how they got on. And then we moved here and now they are returning. They are a lovely family and I am so glad I know them, and so sad already that they are going.

Paul in England

Its been a few days of alone time, well not exactly alone, I have the girls and Don but I dropped Paul off on Monday  evening so that he coud catch the 11.30pm AC flight back to LHR
Yes, hes gone back to England, some say gone back home, but its not home, here is home. One of his friends is sick and I mean ill, she has cancer just about everywhere and he needed to see her. So we made a decision and with the help of the oh so wonderful Destiny Travel we secured a cheaper flight than I could find online and off he went. The silver lining to this is that he was able to turn up unexpectedly at his dads birthday bash at the Chinese, and have crispy duck (I SO miss crispy duck)

His dad was blown away by his presence there – ah so lovely.

He was picked up by Angie at LHR in our old car (weird) and hes staying round the corner from our old house. Hes been for a couple of walks and his instant feeling (he says) is that he wouldn’t move back.
So, I am still walking and running with the doofus dog and getting  the girls off to school and daycare and me into work as usual and I miss him loads.

Today is cold too, -10 outside with a windchill of -18 and we have a storm front moving in tomorrow  so that should be fun!

Here are some pics I took the other morning with my phone, the sky was pink, so pretty

snow and traffic

Yesterday it was snowing pretty much all day, lots of it but laid quite slowly, the plows werent out until about 4pm. So I checked the highway cams and all was ok and left work and gaily went straight down the on ramp to the 102. It was a little strange to see two cars reversing back up but I put it down to the way Nova Scotians drive. Weeelll, I soon saw what had caused it as I went straight into the back of an almighty traffic jam.
Now this really was a traffic jam that wasnt moving, after 10 mins of being there I turned off the engine and slowly got cold and a little narked. I am no longer used to having to be stationary on any road against my will.

I decided to call my handy friend at a towing company to get the low down and she was busy sending her tow trucks to the next exit to drive back down the wrong way to clear it, her prognosis was a long wait.
So, where I was at was next to a reasonable shallow dip in the median and I watched a truck slowly edge over the side into the dip and scramble up the other side and drive off. I figured I was in a good spot for some entertainment and watched with some fear each time someone followed that they would get stuck whilst also thinking "ok for you in your 4 wheel drive". Then I saw a car do it and another and then a queue (or line as we say here) formed and then the cars right next to me left.
I thought and thought and then thought "F&&k it and with me heart in my mouth pointed our Pontiac G6 (nice and low) at it and went for it.
Well the car was outstanding, we got through it, up the other side, slid abit on the slush that was now there and we were up and away - free!
When I got home that highway was still closed with poor souls sat there - probably just the 18 wheelers and old ladies. I love my winter tires!