january, 2004

happy new year
happy birthday di
happy 17th dani! - they grow up so fast ;-p

january 29

ok, ok, i'm receiving complaints [mentioning no names - MARGARET] about my lack of blogging, so here I am. for reference, i aim for at least once a week, so it does appear that i'm a little overdue. i'd like to blame it on the fact that sascha's been away but since lara is managing to update her blog from the outback somewhere, i guess it's a bit of a weak excuse.

i'm enjoying the beginning of this year much more than the end of last. we've settled in, made lots of friends within walking distant, joined a new, local playgroup [which is a very friendly one], there's a nice community feel to the village we've moved to, and our social calendar has filled up, so i'm feeling loved again!

my bus expeditions went a little better than expected. it's only a 35 min. ride and the buses are 4 per hour. the biggest problem was the 15-20 minute walk either end of the journey [in the pouring rain, incidentally] which meant the kids were a little tired before we even got anywhere.

toby now has his first 'proper' golf club which he's very excited about. his backswing is coming along a treat. i can't wait until he's old enough for sascha to take to the driving range [it means i'll get some peace - he still talks/shouts non-stop].

aly's latest trick is [very successfully] imitating an echo. the first time she did it we were outside and i thought for a minute that it was a real echo [which brought no end of entertainment to her].

i've added some new photos to the scrapbook section of the site, including those from:

• dance night with aly and toby!
• aly in her new princess costume

but not including:

toby saluting his audience [he doesn't look at his MOST intelligent]:

and the avocado picture which kellie asked me to take?!:

chris carline's blog tells me that jamie oliver now has his own blog, so i've checked it out and i'm impressed at how personal it is - photos from a friend's birthday party [at a london restaurant I'VE been to incidentally ;-) ] etc.

finally: sascha and i were watching tv the other night and did a double-take at a commercial advertising a website to unite people who are already in a relationship who want 'someone more' [ie. someone on the side]. can you advertise this sort of thing on tv? what is the world coming to?! maybe i'm getting prudish in my old age. i still can't get over the fact that there are hydroponic grow stores on every other block here.

january 19

i've just had my first 'parent connections' session at the family place today. it's a 6 week course which trains you to be a facilitator for parent or child groups in the community. it's a bit of a juggling act since it's on a monday morning and clashes with aly going to school. i have to take both children with me [there's childcare on site], run aly across the field to school during the break and then run back out for her an hour from the end and deposit her back in the childcare. i'm sure all that running with her on my back will do me some good. today was orientation and then a session about cultural awareness.

richmond is one of the most culturally diverse places on the planet [something like 47% of the population are asian for example] and the best integrated i've ever had the pleasure to see. this was a really interesting insight into different cultural traditions, faux pas etc. which i'd touched on briefly at university in psychology courses, but had forgotten how interesting it was. anyway, i'm looking forward to next week's course already..

i've also had my first website meeting with the family place and am about to embark on producing a lovely site for them. watch this space :-)

sascha's on his way to california any second so i'm trying to plan my car-less days while he's gone. i've found out that a couple of people i know actually live only 5-10 minutes walk away in the same village [i call it a village anyway] so we've exchanged numbers. there's also a community centre fairly close which runs a couple of children's groups which we'll try out.

i'm still in immigration hell - the forms seem to grow before my eyes [both in number and complexity]. i'm trying to get them mailed off before sascha leaves, but we'll see how it goes!

while i've been busy trying to teach the children some vague reading and writing skills, sascha decided to teach them the value of money over the weekend. toby's a big money fan already ['muby muby'], but it was definitely aly who was starting to grasp the concept. he gave them a few dollars each to spend at the toy store [in addition to gift certificates from grammy and grandad] and then went to play golf while i wrestled toys out of their hands! it actually went very well and both are very happy with their purchases [a hamtaro house for aly and hockey sticks/puck for toby. toby's biggest problem now is that he's completely torn about whether to play hockey or golf. decisions decisions!]

january 13

ok, a bit more of an effort made on the photo-front - check out the 2006

january 11

a few photos at last [more to follow shortly]...

santa had apparently heard that toby likes cars (and not princess playdoh contrary to what he'd been told by toby's thoughtful sister) so there were a LOT of cars in toby's christmas sack. he was a very happy boy.

mommy enjoying the snow. aly and toby wishing they were watching tv!

tonya and dani on their way to walk nikki down to the barn where she had to sleep for a couple of nights due to a family overcrowding issue. the first night she had to scrap the snow off her bed! mad woman.

p.s. for anyone who is interested, aly has announced that her favourite colours are yellow and pink - a delightful combination :-)

january 10

well, i've just managed to make the 10 second journey to our [free [hooray!]] gym. had the place to myself until the wrestling-watching guys arrived to interrupt my reading and tread milling. fortunately exercise didn't really seem to be their thing and they retired to play pool downstairs. sasch and i are aiming for 2-3 times a week at the gym and really we have no excuses, so we'll see how it goes.

i went to the opticians to get a repeat prescription of my acuvue toric contacts [which correct for astigmatisms] but i asked for a sample of something else while i was waiting for them to arrive. the optician gave me a sample of 'night and day's - you put them in and then 30 days later take them out. i've been wearing contacts for about 12 yrs and this is VERY weird. shame i can't really see to drive because of the astigmatisms. i won't feel compelled to get lasered if they let me sleep in my torics for 30 days at a time. this is good because i had been feeling pressured. i blame kellie. she did have the eye sight of a really short sighted bat though so i suppose i'll let her off.

january 7 [a little late i know] [no photos yet but i PROMISE them in time for the next update]

ok ok, so that was a pathetically slow update but we didn't have any connectivity in our new townhouse until monday afternoon and the last of the [brief] visitors didn't leave until this morning. we're the stepping stone between victoria and vancouver airport - off the ferry, drop in to see us, stay the night and off to the airport the next morning to see how many flights have been cancelled [pete checked-in to 4 different flights trying to return to japan]. tonya and the girls left us this morning - aly was devastated: 'brittiny and cydney are my best friends (and my cousins)' and apparently toby had helped them pack - tonya found all his play tools into her bag as she checked in at the airport!

it was nice to see them all again even though it had only been a day. it's difficult to catch up properly with everyone when there are 12 people and 3 large dogs packed into a small house. the children all played really well together - in fact sascha, tonya and i all managed to watch a movie - being john malkovich - while they played. [what a very weird film].

new year's eve was surprisingly eventful considering we didn't really go out. we tried very hard to go out, but what with victoria being the retirement capital of the world and dani not being allowed in any pubs, our options were apparently limited. our first choice - the pool hall - was shut. we thought we had it sorted when we bought a game at starbucks and sat down to play [a little sad, but just the ticket i thought]. however, around 10 o'clock, minutes after we'd managed to buy batteries to run the game, and seconds after we finished absorbing the rules, we were fairly violently kicked out by a vicious starbucks employee whom, we concluded, had somewhere better to be that evening. doh. we then tried a local restaurant rumoured to be loud enough to drown out the sounds from our game. it was indeed loud - what with all the new year's live music. we weren't sure the people in their cocktail dresses and suits would approve so, back to the car, and we finally gave up. we went home to play the game and saw the new year in with the entire family. i had a hangover by 1 o'clock from my half glass of champagne. maybe this year's resolution should be to: 'drink more alcohol' instead of 'not move for a year'.

the biggest news is that we [or more specifically i] have been having a great time playing in the snow - much more of a snowfall than normal for this part of canada. the first night it snowed [january 1st] i couldn't sleep because i was so excited! i'm such a big kid when it comes to snow [conflicts with my hate of all things cold, i know]. aly and toby had seen the odd bit of snow here and there before but nothing so major [and neither had been very impressed in the past]. this time both enjoyed it a lot for about 10 minutes until they suddenly realised it was really bloody cold and they'd much rather be inside watching spongebob under a blanket!

today, just as the snow was melting in richmond, we dashed out to build a [very impressive, if a little ape-like] snowman. both kids were much happier because it was a lot warmer and we stayed out for a good half hour. aly is now having a bit of a trauma about the whole snowman melting thing. after she had given him a last hug, made him a small snow cat friend, and we were walking back in the house she whispered 'i really wish he was frosty the snowman mommy'.

anyway, yes, we're properly in the new townhouse, still in richmond, but the other side of the city. we LOVE it. it's very shiny and brand new. we're trying to talk aly out of referring to it as our 'new new new house' or by the year 2010 it's going to be taking her 5 minutes just to calculate the number of 'new's required. we have a wonderful gas fire which you just turn on with a light switch that i've been making full use of, much to sascha's chagrin. we actually look fairly moved in as long as you avoid glancing in either the garage or den downstairs - both of which are full of unopened boxes. oh well, we'll get around to unpacking one day..

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