some photos for Stepmummy Jo

This post is for my wicked stepmummy Jo! Look at these young ladies!

Arent they totally adorable!
I am so incredibly blessed to have these two wonderful children, so very different and so very lovable.

And us, the night we went out for dinner with our pals at Stayners Wharf

Cant wait to see you again! Love you

Bucket list items

So I am always making lists of resolutions and things to spend money on in the house each year. I wonder if that budgeting side of me is a side effect of my job but nonetheless it helps but...

Those lists aside I still have items on the bucket list that resides in my head and many of those items have been on that list for donkey's years now.... The main reason for not managing to tick off some of the those that have been on that list since I was 17 is forging a career, buying homes, getting married and of course having children. There is nothing quite like small children to put a halt on big trips and most of my bucket list items that I am talking about here are big trips.


I had a dream at 18 and after watching City Slickers one rainy Saturday afternoon to go on a ranch holiday on Montana. I wanted to ride all day in wrangler jeans and a white cotton shirt and then be able to lay on my back and look at all that big sky.

Another biggie on that list is to sit on the edge (not a dangerous edge may I add) of the Grand Canyon with a coffee and watch the sunrise.

And I really want to go to see Amity, you know the fictional Jaws town, that's actually a real place in Cape Cod. I want to stand on that beach and stare out to sea in a Brody fashion.

I haven't done any of those at all, but they are still there. Instead I have indulged in child friendly Disney ( which rocks may I add)

and actually ticked one thing of my bucket list and that involved a sunrise and a dock and a cup of coffee in the Florida Keys, so that's a big old tick.

And we did a rather large bucket list item, we emigrated to Canada.

Sometimes when I am all involved in some daily drama at work I forget that we are actually here, we made it! That was a big, no a huge bucket list item that stretched right back to my first ET movie experience when I was 5 years old.

So now, to make sure that we stop, sit still, enjoy what we have and stop looking to make it better, those days are done. We are here, no need to move yet again, let's do some of those bucket list items.

a night at Stayners

We went out on Friday night in downtown Halifax. It was superb. We had a table booked at Stayners Wharf and because January doesn't as a whole support wandering about outside, that was all we had had planned.

They have a wonderful ambience of bar meets restaurant with live music and excellent food and because we don't eat out  much enough, its always a great pleasure to eat there. It would be a pleasure anyway but its even more so when its not often enough.

They even made us a cocktail that they no longer serve because we requested it. They dug out the recipe and threw it together, talk about service. We had a number of cocktails actually, they went well with the food. Too well.

They also make the best panfried haddock in Nova Scotia so that went down well too.

To be fair to the weather over the last week or so it wasn't too cold so it was an agreeable walk between Stayners and the car and Saturday saw me walking the dogs without a coat where I saw a woodpecker in a tree (the hammering was a dead giveway of course). This vexed me because this weather wasn't due to last but I figured that animals are smarter than us lot so hopefully he hadn't been tricked into thinking that Spring had sprung.

And winter came back with a clout on Saturday night with thick snowflakes that bent the trees over double and turned everything back into a winter wonderland again.

aircraft disaster movies

Last night I saw the most stressful plane crash I have ever seen on a movie. I dont make a habit of seeking out plane crash scenes on movies but out of all I have seen: Castaway, Madagascar 2, Flight 93, Airport 75,79, 80 the concorde...... Denzel Washingtons Flight was the most gripping, on the edge of your seat crash scene I have ever seen in a movie...(it was right up there with Tom Cruises War of the Worlds for tension but I digress....)

Other than that its kind of weird. We watched it all but I wouldnt rush to watch is again after the first 30 mins.
This got me to thinking about how many of these movies I have seen... I recall the old Airport 75, Airport 80 movies, where Robert Wagner or Charleton Heston always saved the day (when he wasnt in burning skyscrapers) and you always saw George Kennedy shouting at someone dramatically from a control tower or accompanying aircraft somewhere....

And how about Airport 1975 where a plane sits on the ocean floor, these aircraft always looked enormous on these movies, like you could live in them. You could always find some nun playing a guitar next to a tragically sick teenager and a super glamorous and yet incredibly calm flight attendant who was always romantically involved with the captain. And despite the unlikelihood of the crash it always comes good with minimal loss of life .. Good old Charleton Heston saved the day in this flick....again alongside a dramatic George Kennedy... oh how I loved the days of these movies....

And then there was that intense scene in Castaway where Tom Hanks nearly lost his head when an engine on fire came perilously close when he popped up in the sea next to it. That scene was my most stressful prior to last nights viewing, although I never could get a handle on how you could go to the WC on an aircraft and not notice it was in a steep dive until you were done and had opened the door.

Now Madagascar 2 was the only time I watched a movie showing a plane crash when I was on a flight, I think between London and Halifax, oh the irony...

I laughed until I thought I would pee my pants....

I watched Flight 93 because of the whole 911 situation and it was horrible, I cant add anymore except that we owe those passengers a massive debt in the way they selflessly behaved. I found myself in tears over that one.

So what is it with drama and movies especially back in the 70's and 80's. Out of interest I googled George Kennedy to see exactly how many air disaster movies he starred in, as he seemed to be in them all to me and he was in all four of the 1970's airport disaster movies as the airline trouble shooter. So he is THE main man.

cold

So, whats with the weather then???!!!
Today, I saw someone fall in front of me whilst crossing the road (thank goodness other pedestrians were there to offer assistance) and this was whilst I was sitting in some insane traffic going into Halifax and listening to the radios repeatedly warn of the rapidly increasing black ice everywhere.

So, lets backtrack a bit here......
So, after the blizzard  it was then incredibly warm - like 40 degrees warmer on Sunday which was blissful, felt like no jacket required weather and the sun shone and I felt like skipping everywhere in joy.

Then Monday, still warm but litres of rain fell which washed away all the snow on the road, and a fair amount on the grass, and that created its own misery at the Starbucks drivethrough... why cant they put a shelter up over these things, the rain lashes in as I shout my order into the little box thing.

Today, this evening, I stepped back out at 5.45pm into swirling snow and warnings of whiteouts.... yeah yeah... and that was exactly it. Driving into blindness, just swirling white in the darkness on the highway, on all that ice....

All the cars, there were a few, slowed right down and put their flashers on, we crawled at 40km/hr (that is like mega slow on a highway, for all my British friends its like rush hour speed on the M25) and felt fear.

I am not usually afraid of anything, I simply "dont do" fear. But tonight I did. Theres nothing like crawling in the dark, unable to decipher actual lanes, and following the car in front when you know you shouldnt do that, hell they may be driving into the lake. And you think all that, as you go along.

I got home ok, to write this, albeit late. I am now sitting here feeling cool in front of the fire, its minus 20 outside.... It feels like its been cold forever....

Blizzard 2014

We had a blizzard:

 our house number almost buried

 nice little snow bank growing there

 this guy nearly slid off the road and into the ditch that you cant see but thats right next to him, he was trying to turn left at the time

 Alpine was in his element

Little path that our neighbour cut for the girls to walk in

The morning after and cleaning up after the snow plow

BBQ anyone?

Duke was not so sure.....

Paul had to work:

This was Paul and Deans drive from Truro to Halifax, you would think that the truck driver would be more considerate or at least have more common sense, but no.....

Happy New Year

It's almost 8am on the first day of a brand new year. If this were a new exercise book at school this would be a blank page of a new 365 page book.

And if that were really the case it would be a page of my best handwriting ( because that's how I rolled back in that day) with the date neatly written at the top of the page. And if I could, it would be with a brand new pen.

So in the spirit of that, I can happily say that my 2014 New Years resolutions would have been written on that page.
And I would also write that I have made some additions to the list and added -

• No cakes or chocolate for the month of January. I mean how hard can this really be, its only 31 days out of 365. Lets ignore that it directly follows a period of much over-indulgence and a new habit of everyday choccy or cake or something fat and sugar laden.
• To go on more trips, lets make the most of this life. We have decided to go to New York in the Spring, our first across border road trip.

Its now 6.44pm at night and its been a great day, although I think I got close to wind chill damage on my much shortened dog walk today - boy was it cold out there. My face was painful and even though I was only out there for about 15 mins, my face was bright red.

I got to talk to my dad today too, on skype, for the first time in a very long time - 

I told him about my blog, I hope he reads it - Dad I hope you are reading this, I write this for you too!!!

Last night I wrote on my brothers and my mums Facebook walls and on the #1 Father in Laws wall and Dons wall. I got all sappy and emotional and had to keep my messages in check, after all everyone else can see them and who wants to be seen by the FB world as a drip.
And as my grandparents in law do not go on FB, this is a Happy New Year to you both too, we love you.

Weather update:
Its snowing outside- big surprise there!