Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Happy Birthday to Me! (Thanks for the Taytos!)
Well, it's over... another birthday has passed and now I'm the big 3-6! Sigh. For a few weeks there I was Paula's 'younger man' but now we're back to the same age again! Boo!
Anyway, I've had a nice couple of days and have managed to stretch my birthday out so it occupied parts of three days. As you know, we spent the weekend in Banff and up in the Rockies (photos and blog to follows very shortly) and then came home on Sunday night to have dinner at Rich & Em's. Then we spent most of Monday at home, apart from a quick visit to the humungous Canadian Superstore, which is an enormous warehouse which sells everything cheap! The weather wasn't great, and the day was quite gloomy, so it was a good day to be at home. We marinated some ribs for the barbecue - they were pretty tasty!
As we had to be up at 05:30 (our usual alarm clock time here) on Tuesday (the birthday morning), we decided to do the opening of presents on UK time, so about 9pm (after tea) P produced her gifts for me which were just lovely. Lots of games, DVDs, CDs, sweets and books, and also a very odd soft toy (see below). Just the thing to brighten up a gloomy evening!
Real Cool Stuff
And Also Some Real Weird Stuff (Ugly Doll)
The birthday itself rolled around at 05:30, and we were both in work by 07:00 after a 20-minute drive in the dark and rain. It was also the first day back for all the schools and the university. The summer really is over here! Tuesday was spent mostly at my desk, working on a rectal cancer database which I'm presenting at a meeting in Edmonton next week (we're spending the weekend there too, just to make the 6-hour round trip drive worthwhile!) Then it was home for 6 o'clock to find some more presents from home - some great books and a CD from Anna and Johannes (thanks) and an absolutely WONDERFUL box of goodies from my FANTASTIC sister Melissa who thinks of everything! There were 4 packets of Tayto crisps, 4 Clangers badges and a huge selection of proper chocolate (none of this Canadian rubbish!). How did she and Stephen manage to get so much good stuff in one small box? I opened a packet of Tayto and took a few crisps in my hand. I waited until Paula had some too and then, on the count of three, we had our first Tayto since June! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....!
Tayto Paradise
We had a Chinese takeaway for our birthday tea and discovered that 'Green Onion Pancakes' are the same as Tatie Bread, and that 'War Wonton Soup' is very nice indeed. Could take or leave the Shanghai noodles, but the Mu Shu was very good indeed! (The Chinkers here have menus the same as at home, but all the stuff is different - Sui My, anyone?)
Then I took our damaged car to work early today for 'Rounds' at 07:00. I left home at 06:20 and found that it was pitch dark to the west, over the Rockies but that the sun was already coming up in the east - weird. P drove down to work at a more civilised time (08:00) and then came with me to the garage to have the damage to the car estimated for repairs. It turns out there's over 4,000 (FOUR THOUSAND!) dollars worth of damage - WOW! It'll take a week to repair and we have to 'take it to the shop' next Monday and pick it up Friday. When I got home, I discovered that my next present from Mum and Dad (Thanks!) had arrived: Airport Express from Apple.
This will let me extend the wireless network at home so I can blog in bed (!) and also allow wireless printing and wireless streaming of iTunes throughout the house!
I spent the rest of the day at home waiting for the Bedroom Outfitters man to come with our new 'sleigh bed' which replaces our temporary cheapie metal frame bed. It's lovely:
The Sleigh Bed
And we walked up to Rich & Em's to give them their post before teatime (tea tonight was Swedish meatballs! Yum!) And that's it for the last few days. So we had my birthday dinner in Bannf at Le Beaujoulais, and my birthday ran from Monday 6th (presents) to Tuesday 7th (more presents) and into today Wednesday 8th (day at home). I should be 36 more often! And because Amazon.ca are so slow and Post Canada are so sluggish, I have more presents to look forward to in the next few days!
Here's some more photos for your pleasure:
Cool Baby!
So Cool!
Father and Son
Mother and Child
Denise Robson's super cake (as promised)
Rhanbuoy Close Bouncy Castle
Flower Show Dad
Anyway, it's almost bedtime and the weather has closed in again - it's dark, windy and raining heavily (although you can't actually hear the rain when you're in the house). It snowed 6 inches in northern Alberta today (Grande Plains)...
See you soon
Your 36-yr old J
Anyway, I've had a nice couple of days and have managed to stretch my birthday out so it occupied parts of three days. As you know, we spent the weekend in Banff and up in the Rockies (photos and blog to follows very shortly) and then came home on Sunday night to have dinner at Rich & Em's. Then we spent most of Monday at home, apart from a quick visit to the humungous Canadian Superstore, which is an enormous warehouse which sells everything cheap! The weather wasn't great, and the day was quite gloomy, so it was a good day to be at home. We marinated some ribs for the barbecue - they were pretty tasty!
As we had to be up at 05:30 (our usual alarm clock time here) on Tuesday (the birthday morning), we decided to do the opening of presents on UK time, so about 9pm (after tea) P produced her gifts for me which were just lovely. Lots of games, DVDs, CDs, sweets and books, and also a very odd soft toy (see below). Just the thing to brighten up a gloomy evening!
Real Cool Stuff
And Also Some Real Weird Stuff (Ugly Doll)
The birthday itself rolled around at 05:30, and we were both in work by 07:00 after a 20-minute drive in the dark and rain. It was also the first day back for all the schools and the university. The summer really is over here! Tuesday was spent mostly at my desk, working on a rectal cancer database which I'm presenting at a meeting in Edmonton next week (we're spending the weekend there too, just to make the 6-hour round trip drive worthwhile!) Then it was home for 6 o'clock to find some more presents from home - some great books and a CD from Anna and Johannes (thanks) and an absolutely WONDERFUL box of goodies from my FANTASTIC sister Melissa who thinks of everything! There were 4 packets of Tayto crisps, 4 Clangers badges and a huge selection of proper chocolate (none of this Canadian rubbish!). How did she and Stephen manage to get so much good stuff in one small box? I opened a packet of Tayto and took a few crisps in my hand. I waited until Paula had some too and then, on the count of three, we had our first Tayto since June! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....!
Tayto Paradise
We had a Chinese takeaway for our birthday tea and discovered that 'Green Onion Pancakes' are the same as Tatie Bread, and that 'War Wonton Soup' is very nice indeed. Could take or leave the Shanghai noodles, but the Mu Shu was very good indeed! (The Chinkers here have menus the same as at home, but all the stuff is different - Sui My, anyone?)
Then I took our damaged car to work early today for 'Rounds' at 07:00. I left home at 06:20 and found that it was pitch dark to the west, over the Rockies but that the sun was already coming up in the east - weird. P drove down to work at a more civilised time (08:00) and then came with me to the garage to have the damage to the car estimated for repairs. It turns out there's over 4,000 (FOUR THOUSAND!) dollars worth of damage - WOW! It'll take a week to repair and we have to 'take it to the shop' next Monday and pick it up Friday. When I got home, I discovered that my next present from Mum and Dad (Thanks!) had arrived: Airport Express from Apple.
This will let me extend the wireless network at home so I can blog in bed (!) and also allow wireless printing and wireless streaming of iTunes throughout the house!
I spent the rest of the day at home waiting for the Bedroom Outfitters man to come with our new 'sleigh bed' which replaces our temporary cheapie metal frame bed. It's lovely:
The Sleigh Bed
And we walked up to Rich & Em's to give them their post before teatime (tea tonight was Swedish meatballs! Yum!) And that's it for the last few days. So we had my birthday dinner in Bannf at Le Beaujoulais, and my birthday ran from Monday 6th (presents) to Tuesday 7th (more presents) and into today Wednesday 8th (day at home). I should be 36 more often! And because Amazon.ca are so slow and Post Canada are so sluggish, I have more presents to look forward to in the next few days!
Here's some more photos for your pleasure:
Cool Baby!
So Cool!
Father and Son
Mother and Child
Denise Robson's super cake (as promised)
Rhanbuoy Close Bouncy Castle
Flower Show Dad
Anyway, it's almost bedtime and the weather has closed in again - it's dark, windy and raining heavily (although you can't actually hear the rain when you're in the house). It snowed 6 inches in northern Alberta today (Grande Plains)...
See you soon
Your 36-yr old J
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