mega mega busy

Its been a hugely busy couple of weeks in every way. I am currently enjoying my first audit in the picturesque Mahone Bay at one of our hotels.
I am however now sick of the lunch menu and in fact sick of the dining room. Its not the hotels fault as the dining room is exquisite and the view to die for. I am now very much looking forward to being back at home within 45 mins of leaving work rather than 1.5 hours if I am lucky.

Last night I decided to stay at the hotel as I am so tired of the long drive at both ends of the day. It was a lovely room with a scrumptious soft and white and gorgeous bed and I slept wonderfully. I am though SO glad to be home this eve and even more glad that I have just two days left until the long weekend.

I was watching "Undercover Boss" last night in my hotel robe and there was a woman on there talking about how one of her children had died 9 years previously which of course made me cry, so I was pleased to set eyes on my two this evening.

I am also nearing the end of the now infamous "50 Shades of Grey" and whilst the sex scenes are great and well written, I am way more interested in these two characters and really pleased this is in fact the first book in a trilogy.

Anyways, here are some photos of where I have been spending my time lately

I am really enjoying this audit, theres something rather awesome about getting into the guts of a company.

mystified

Some things mystify me here in Nova Scotia heres a list of my top 5:

Cheez Whiz – how on earth do people a) buy that stuff in the first place b) spread its mustard yellow/orange processed gunk on their bagel, toast , bread etc and c) actually eat it?

Its disgusting. It epitomises processed crap, whats the attraction?

Peanut Butter – on crackers, in chocolate, in most peoples daily diet, in cookies, in cakes – oozing out the centre.  Whats the big deal? I mean I like it, its nice stuff on toast. Not sure I could lick it off of a knife though and I draw the line at peanut butter in cakes.

Kraft Dinner – another yellow/orange processed food item. Its cheap and its meant to (I think) be an attempt to be macaroni cheese and my kids love it. I have to restrict them to one a week and although I make it I cant bear to try it, I mean its cheese in a powder form that then turns into a runny form - yuck!

Running lights on cars  - here it’s the law to have your front lights on ALL THE TIME. Now that’s great if you don’t wish to be run over by a silent car on a dark day BUT it means that drivers lose the ability to turn on their lights in bad weather such as fog or driving rain and so you cant see them when you come up behind them. Now this is interesting (lets use that word) when they fly down a slip road and cut you up in the fog. All of a sudden they are there in front of your nose, you can see an outline of a car but you are not sure until you are nearly in an accident. They can see you as you have your lights on but they have cut you up anyways and they have just their running lights on (their front lights to us Brits) And lets remember here this is on a Highway where you are going at lets say 100km/hr

Maybe they are never taught in driving lessons to turn on lights perhaps they don’t know how to locate the switch in their car to do so. Every day there is bad weather its on the radio, that cheery reminder to turn your lights on. Given that those drivers are on the road and cant see a damn thing you would think they need no such reminder – TURN YOUR LIGHTS ON PEOPLE!

Enjoy the Present

Sometimes I look back at that time leading up to our emigration and honestly from February 2009 to when we left London Heathrow in March 2011 it was a weird time.

From the whole decision made to the sleepless nights and constant questioning and stomach churning freaked out “what are we even thinking” to the shock of Alex’s passing and the pain that followed, to going back to wanting to move, to the leadup, the house sale, the nowhere to live, the selling of cars and buying of tickets, the leaving dinners and the final goodbye at LHR – it was at the very least weird!

I realise how I never lived in the moment, I never lived at that time, I always looked ahead, to the next bit of paperwork, the next exam to complete my accounting designation, the next hurdle, the next fee.

The next step towards gaining our visa, towards living that dream, to being in Canada.

The only time I lived in the present was when Alex left us – that moment hit us smack in the face. That raw shock and horror and sadness was all very present.

Sure, I lived, I went to work and went swimming and took the girls out but my mind was often elsewhere whimsical, in the far away of the future.

So now we are here, 15 months into the future, that whimsical future. At last I am living in the present.

Every day when I wake and hear whatever is outside the window – birds, pool pump, rain –normal or freezing. Every morning I see the light in a room in our house and how the dog sleeps upside down when I creep downstairs for my oh so precious 45 mins of silence in our home, I am very much in the present.

I say good morning to Miller Lake on the 102 and good morning to the Bay as I come up on exit 1d and can see into the ocean where the little islands are. I plan for the next weekend and vaguely into the future for good stuff like days out and vacations but I live each day. I even like cleaning my house now, theres a peace in cleaning and taking care of your own things.

The sky is so blue, the sun so bright, the air so fresh and clean, the beauty so lucid all around me.

My children play outside or inside, Paul mows the lawn or stacks the wood or tinkers with the pool and I walk around and am so very in the present of this life.

sick as a sick thing with the word sick written on it!

OMG I was so sick last week.  Lily picked up a bug last Sunday that made her sick all Sunday and not too great on Monday. Thankfully Monday was a rainy day so Paul was home and therefore able to care for her and I came to work, well at 3pm I decided to pay attention to the fact that I felt not so great too. I have a 40 mins drive home over 50km so decided to bail from work at that point.

It was a great idea as by 4.30pm I was throwing up like no tomorrow. And there was no respite from the nausea, it was just constant all night. Tuesday was a day of weakness and headache and Wednesday I just felt awful.

Thursday saw me back at work but still feeling wiped out. This continued until Sunday midday, this feeling of utter awfulness. I felt like I was pregnant again, it was awful. No energy, constant nausea, I had to breathe through the wish to just lie down constantly.

BUT now I am fine and the sun is shining. I am going to get out there at lunchtime and walk around the million dollar homes in the Northwest Arm area that are right on my work doorstep and feel the heat. It says its 16C out there currently with blue skies and sunshine but the heat is growing by the minute, its set to be 22C today.

I am really glad I am not in England right now (aren’t I always though!) as its raining raining raining relentlessly there and it’s a whopping 12C

This week we have plans to go out to sushi with my now ex-colleague (sob) and his wife and we are really looking forward to that one.  Madagascar 3 is now out in the theatres too so we need to take the girls to see that tout suite!

We had our wood delivered last week for next winters heat. This is all down to Pauls excellent planning, so that’s being stacked (without my help) in the wood pile so that’s the winter heat bill taken care of. We had to get a new filter for the pool too as it was leaking and too small for the size of the pool, good bye $300! (on a deal too, can you imagine how we would have felt if it hadn’t been!)

New car is still going well, I LOVE it. I think I love its fuel efficiency and savings to my pocket the most but it’s a cute car. I also just got my first ever android phone and feeling the love of being on the same planet as the rest of the world technology phone wise.

Hope everyone has a great day and those in the UK – stay dry!

Monday mis-mogs

Its been a period of time of cool weather merging back to warm weather and back to cool. Last week was horrible, damp, grey and overcast. The weekend was lovely and warm, today its miserable but that’s ok as it suits my mood.

I actually went out out on Friday night, a meal with work at the Keg and then a bit of a boogie at the Ale House. I was majorly impressed once again with The Keg and the Ale House was good fun. I managed to drink 4 glass of Beringer, 2 cocktails and some kind of shot. But once in the Ale House was back on the water which was good, I think there may have been a coffee in there at some point too.

Got into bed at 3.45am and then couldn’t sleep at all. I think I managed a whole 45 mins before we were awoken by children.

It was then a pants Saturday as I was SO tired. I am glad the house was relatively clean as I was NOT cleaning it at all this past weekend.

Then Sunday was another quiet one, I was still feeling wiped out by the Friday night fun and Lily was sick too so we just chilled really.

Well chilled until Paul killed my clematis with his over-zealous strimmer which broke my heart, I think I have been feeling over-sensitive anyway, so the peace gave way to tears and some rage (from me, I am SUCH a grownup)

I also managed to see a bit of the Queens Jubilee celebrations on Sunday which was very nice, I feel very patriotic now I don’t live in England anymore, I wonder why that is.

Anyway, today I am back at work and sad, I have no colleague anymore and had to sort my first alone lunchtime walk out for a while. He, I am sure is having a great day – first days in new jobs should be great days afterall.

I need a holiday, a trip to Key West, that should do it.