The White Stuff Is Back!!!!!!

People,

IT'S COLD!!!!!

We woke up this morning to a bit of the cold, white snow outside.BBBRRRR!!!! Summer is officially over. Now long think coats and woolly hats are in order.

Apparently, it has not snowed in the province on Ontario for the last 7 years in October. There seems to be a trend here.....

We had the worst winter here in several years when we landed here in January...now it has snowed in October.....have Elaine and I brought bad weather with us or something???

Hope everyone is well and look after yourselves and each other.

Until the next time.......

PS.....The day after we posted this....the snow melted!

On The Trail....

Everyone,

Today (Monday 13th October) as our last update stated that this is Thanksgiving day, it is a public holiday here....the last one before Christmas.

Elaine and I spent the day just chilling out...we went to watch the Kitchener Rangers (again!!!) play the Guelph Storm. The Rangers won 3-2 by the way (GO RANGERS GO!!!!)

We then decided to go for a walk for about 1 hour, as the weather recently has been fantastic. Today in Kitchener, the temperature reached 25c!!!! In the middle of October!!!!

The trail we did was a part of the Grand Valley Trail (see a previous update about this, trails, etc.) which is not far away from our new home, about a 10-15 minute walk.

Check out some of the pictures below that we took on our walk:

Brian enjoying the view......

Elaine taking a well earned rest, with a beautiful view behind her....

And last but not least, a shot of the 'fall' (autumn) colours along the Grand River.

Thanksgiving Day

Well,

Hello again, folks! Hope you are all well.

Today (Monday 13th October) is Thanksgiving day. A day to give thanks to what you have. Which is usually family and friends, and anything else in between, such as wealth, a roof over your head, etc.

Thanksgiving in Canada started with an explorer called Martin Frosiber (who was English, by the way.) who held a celebration of thanks in 1578. It was held in the area, which is now called Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada.

We were invited to Bob and Lorie's place yesterday for a Thanksgiving feast.
We had soooo much food. Some of the traditional foods prepared are sweet potato with brown sugar and pecan nuts, a small turkey (well, Elaine and I saw this 'small turkey' and it was enough to feed a small army...only joking Bob and Lorie!), salads, desserts....we could go on.....

Bob and Lorie have become really good friends to us, and although we have only known them for about 6 months, we feel that we have known them a lifetime. Their kindness to us know no bounds, and we are very lucky to have them as friends.

Thank you for everything that you are and everything that you do, Bob & Lorie!

But wait......no pictures??? Yep....guess what, we forgot our camera!!! Lucky for anyone reading this blog (no...no....no more pictures!!!)

Anyway, until the next time........

Drop The Puck!

Sports Fans,

Elaine and I were invited to our first hockey game on Friday (10th October) night. We went to see the Kitchener Rangers, are are in the OHL (Ontario Hockey League). The Kitchener Rangers won their league last season, so there are high expectations sitting upon the shoulders of this very young team.

For those of you who are back in England reading, winning the OHL in hockey here is like winning the Championship league in soccer over there (football...round object, people kicking it about, score goals....you know what we mean?)

A good friend of ours, Rick, got us some tickets. So in attendance are Elaine, Brian, Bob and Rick...and about 5,000 other screaming fans cheering on the Rangers...

Again, like the other update regarding baseball on our site, going to a sporting event is really a family affair here for young and old. There is no trouble and even fans from opposing teams are well behaved and enjoy the event as well. It is so refreshing to see! We even saw babies being brought along, dressed in the Rangers colours! (They start 'em off early here!!)

Check out some of the action below:

The calm before the storm......

GO RANGERS GO!!!!

Bob, Elaine and Brian enjoying the game:

Well.....even though the fans are well behaved....we wish we could same the same for some of the hockey players themselves. The referees let them FIGHT if a one player badly tackles another and then a boxing match starts.....being a couple of English people watching this...we laughed out loud, but something to think about especially when youngsters are watching this in the crowd.....

Anyway, more photos below:

RANGERS SCORE!!! GGGGGGOOOOOOOAAAAALLLL!!!!!

The Rangers were playing Owen Sound. Owen Sound did not fair too well last season, and everyone though that the Rangers would whoop the Sound in submission....well.....13 goals later! Yes....13!!! Kitchener Rangers won 7-6!!! Close call and many of the Rangers fans were shocked at the score, but a win is a win!!!

Below the Rangers celebrate the win!

Elaine and I really enjoyed this...and all for free as well!!!! Kitchener Rangers are about 10-15 minutes away from where we live, so we return for some more games, I'm sure!!!

Goodbye, sports fans!!!!

House Update 4 & 5

Viewers,

Hope you are ok and well. Elaine and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Monday (October 13th) here, which is a public holiday, so we are sure that we will have photos for that.

We thought we would combine several house photos in one update here so......we have more....yes....more photos of the house build below:


Back of the house with the second level finished:






We have STAIRS now!!! YIPPEE!!!






Basement level:





The happy couple without windows in the house:







The house with windows and doors, without the happy couple:







And finally....no house shot in this picture, just a picture of trees at the back of our new home...just look at those colours!

House Update....No 3...And New Neighbours.....

Well,

It is about that time again to update you all with the next instalment (yawn!) of our house build with more pictures....the second level of our new home is now being installed so check out.....well...see for yourself below:









We have met in the last couple of months most of our new neighbours...Heather and Malvin, Kevin and Margaret, Diane and Tom, Darren and Collen, Harry and Jen...wow, can't believe we can remember all these names!!!


Anyway, our immediate neighbours are Jen and Jeff, a couple in our age group with two kids...they are a really nice family....picture below of Elaine and Jen outside Jen and Jeff's home...



Stay tuned for more updates (please no more house build pictures, we hear you cry!!)

Just A Friendly Game Of Baseball And Other Things....

People,

Hope you are all ok and keeping out of trouble. Brian went to his first baseball game yesterday (Saturday 20th September 2008) at the Toronto Blue Jays Stadium, the Rogers Centre, AKA the Skydome. It was a really good day out and the crowd was fantastic.
Sporting events here in Canada are a family affair and everyone in the family goes to watch them, babies included!

Brian went with his close friend Bob, and they made a day out of it. First, they went to some of the shops in the Eaton Centre. The Eaton Centre is an underground shopping centre, so that even if it snows 'up top', you won't get cold!

From there, they walked around the streets of Toronto, taking in the sights like Younge St, the longest street in the world.

Then, it was on to the Rogers Centre. The Toronto Blue Jays were playing the Boston Red Sox.

Pictures are below:

Brian waiting for the game to begin!

Bob is also waiting....

Let the game commence!!

They show you on an electronic board the scores and and that sort of stuff....check out the speed of a pitcher from the Boston Red Sox displayed on the board below:

The Blue Jays won 6-3, and the crowd went mad!!! Boston Red Sox is a very good team, so well done to the Jays!!

Off on a quick tour of Toronto and surrounding streets via an old London bus. And lastly, via boat Bob and Brian went around Toronto Island, which is off of Toronto Harbour...check out this picture below of the CN Tower and Rogers Centre from the boat.....lovely!!!

A great day out! Thank you Bob!!!