Loving Halifax

Its a hot August week with cooler nights so it feels a little like Fall in the morning but its unmistakably summer by 10am. I had the chance of a stroll (actaully it was a route march) along the Halifax harbour front this morning in my haste to get to the Virgin Store before an 11am meeting... It was so tranquil and pretty on the harbour front with The Bycicle Thief putting out its tables and decor (MUST check that place out) and very very very very warm indeed.

And I just got my lunch from the Wired Monk which I can see from my office window, a very delicious, much anticipated bowl of Thai chicken curry soup with dipping wholewheat baguet rounds as a nice surprise. It is incredibly good!

I can so recommend this place for lunch, waiting in line I also ordered in a coconut chai tea latte (scrumptious) and rather felt like I was on the coffee shop set of Being Erica.

Loving Halifax!

PEI week

So last week was spent in a cottage shared with a friend and her family in PEI.
It was overcast, although not cold, all week which got my NB born friend down a lot, but being British I am extremely well trained for rubbish summertime weather and so wasnt phased too much by the sky.
Having said all that, we have been here over three years now and I am not so used to it anymore so I was a touch put out.
Still we managed to have a good week. The dogs came and immediately got the vacation groove on by getting on all the beds (they are not allowed at home) and the couch. Smart puppies.... still not a fan of this behaviour though... hairy couches and beds are not on my "must have" list.

We had a trip to the beach where it was evident that TS Arthur had had some imput judging by the shoreline errosion that wasnt there last year.
Having recently read all the reports about the Great White sharks that tend to wander around in these waters, I declined my usual swimming in the sea sport and took to paddling instead which worked well as the water was decidedly cool (must be that grey sky!!) and there were about a million hermit crabs doing their thang everywhere. We are not sure what their thang was but it entailed bigger crabs hanging onto the smaller ones, I am thinking that they were busy getting jiggy with it, but so far Google has failed to confirm this notion.

We went bowling, we ate late breakfasts, we gazed into the distances and I got in two runs, the first of which filled me with joy and motivation, the second did the exact opposite and was really hard work. It was a horrid run of only 2.6km

I managed to get some school supplies and woo Chloe with a new pink leopard print school bag, shes happy so thats good.

But my word was it good to get home. Home to my bed, our life, our pool and hot tub and the new roof that had conveniently been done whilst we were away.

I think we are done with PEI trips now, we have been three times and I am keen to check out someplace else, maybe Maine. Thats reasonably close.

Today I am back in work, near my window and the sun is shining hotly. Loving this NS life.

bleugh!

Today I discovered why the cafe downstairs is so dissed by my colleagues. I have been wondering what the problem was until today when I had the most disgusting tuna melt.
The staff down there are kind of offputting, todays staff more than normal, and then I bit into the said melt.

The tuna is prob the no name brand and with no name brand mayo. It sucked!
I tipped it all in the bin and ate the bread, I wont be going there NO MORE

Its raining buckets today and whilst thats all very pleasant to listen to through the glass (Yes I have a WINDOW again! I am so happy) it doesnt allow for a trip to the Wired Monk to get the Thai chicken soup that I had pencilled in for today. Its coming in at a slant and I have bare legs and flipflops, so I am not just being a complete wimp here.

It also means that I cant go to the Virgin store to get a new phone, which apparently I cant book online either for some reason (what century are we in!???)

Today I also have the pleasure of parting with over $800 to get my car back from the Hyundai dealership now they have replaced the apparently non existent brakes and still continued with the fuel injection system service that I asked them to postpone as I have no brakes.... frig!
Now I am broke, I will be bringing in leftovers to work again, no more Wired Monk anyway!

Happy Friday!

running again

Today has been a turning point.
This morning I got up and took Mr Duke and together we went for a run. It was warm, the crickets were singing and the sun was rising pink and beautiful and I loved it.
I had lost my running mojo, it disappeared all summer and last night I decided to make a real effort to find it again and rebond.
Its not so easy to run before work right now. We have guests in our home and once I take Dukie out without Alpine the nut, he tends to make a racket.
I cant take Alpine as he tends to criss cross in front and trip you up, hes also incredibly strong and a bit of a doofus.
I cant go without Dukie, its our thing together and I couldnt leave him out.
So, I just wasnt going.

So this morning, hubby took the Alpine reins and Dukie and I set out. I was a little apprehensive, pretty sure I would find it just too hard. But it wasnt, it was bliss. Yes it was short, a 2km run so no biggie but there was a time that just running to the top of the road was a major achievement.

So I came home, full of the joys of refound running love and a little cross with myself about effectively wasting two thirds of summer when I could have enjoyed this more.

Now, in work, I have just found myself joining the Halifax team to participate in the 5km Run for the Cure. I am stoked, I am excited, I will be back at running 5km comfortably before October 5th.
I have a goal!

Now I just need to raise my $150!

Monday musing

Its my second week at my new job and so far, I love it.
I have a big window next to me that allows me to look out over Halifax. Its great to have access to so much sunlight again.
I am in downtown Halifax too, so right near the water.... therefore all is right in my world.
Its overcast today, I dont know why, it seems that this August has almost Fall like days and evenings mixed in with the heat. We had a good weekend with much pool time but the evenings are already too cool for my liking.

I bought a beautiful cover for the bed in the Keys last October from the aptly named Island Dreams store in Big Pine Key. Its, of course, white to allow for my indulgence in white and fresh bed linen. Its meant that we have packed away the duvet and slept under a sheet and this light cover and its made the nights more comfortable but right now I am wondering if the getting out of the duvet from its storage is coming sooner than I planned it would. Its chilly at night already.

So hand in hand with this change in weather (TOO Soon) I am already almost anticpating Fall. With this access to a window at work and a view I am looking forward to seeing the leaves change, watching rain fall, almost almost watching the snow fall. That, I know, will become old pretty quickly for me.

I love Halifax, so being down here for work each day is bliss.
Its also nice to live outside of Halifax, in a space where we have trees that sound wonderful in the breeze and enjoy such low key peace in our tranquil spot.

The hot tub arrives

This little goodie arrived 2 days ago

Sadly we can't use it until Monday when the water has been tested so for now it's nice to look at.

So we hung out around the pool all Saturday, it was a great day for chilling out.

I decided to dye my white ikea sofa grey this weekend. It's survived two small children and one dog as a white sofa but two dogs have been it's undoing. So I tested the cushions on the two seater as I have spares and they were a success so armed with new confidence I dyed the lot. It's not looking so good, think tie-dyed 1970s chambray colour and you are near. Today I am going to try to dye it all a little darker. I am calm currently about the whole thing but frankly I am remarkably close to a complete panic. 

I mean really, this is not who I am! I don't dye fabric, I buy it already done by someone who knows what they are doing!

July, where it went.....

Where did July go? Its been a busy, hot month.
First of all we lost both of our trees outside in Arthur. That was pretty depressing but I know that unlike many other people, two trees and a power outage that only lasted for the day was lucky.
Half of one came down by 8am and had to have the remained taken down by our neighbour and his chainsaw. The other had a slow split down the middle but was too tall for us to remove as it would have taken out the power lines, so we bandaged it up for two days until someone could deal with it for us.

We have had many pool days:

and a beach day (just one, I cant believe I have only had one)

We went to a wedding in the Valley:

 and Chloe got her hair cut, shes donating her hair to locks of love, so that children that dont have hair due to illness can have hers:

Right now its Natal Day weekend so we have three days off which is great as we have lots planned, mostly including doing very little.
On Tuesday I start a new job, I am tres happy!