Four no more

It's all over, our Super Champ is not going to be four ever again. He went from half Abbie's age to half Jasmine's age overnight, that wont ever happen again either :-). Just a very low key family night tonight, Jo and I haven't finished organising his party yet (I know, we're bad), but the preparations for a Pirate Party are well underway, Jo is being mega-creative on this one. The big fella scored a new bike and helmet from us (his old 2nd hand bike was pinched from the park when he left it there overnight a while ago) and a 'Luke blue' light sabre from his sisters. Of course he prefers the $7 light sabre to the $100 bike, I'm sure he'll be sleeping with it tonight. Thanks to all of you who sent Cam best wishes, frankly I think he's a little chuffed.Not much else to report, still not sure how long we're going to be over here, a decision has been delayed due to some negotiations that impact the project (not negotiations with me). Had a great night last night, our IBM PM, Srini, arranged to get the project team into IBM's Platinum suite at the SkyDome to watch the Toronto Blue Jays play the Boston Red Sox (baseball, in case those team names aren't ringing any bells). The suite was sweet, and a few of us continued after the Jays victory (5 to nothing), getting home around 2:30am this morning... I was a little delicate at work this morning, but I just had a long run and am firing on all cylinders now [grin].

Andy, out.

Soaked at Niagara

Got three tired and grumpy kids, that's what a day down at Niagara Falls gets you. We've been waiting for some decent weather to go back to the falls and ride the Maid of the Mist boat and today was 26 and mostly sunny. Niagara is about an hour down the Queen Elizabeth Expressway (or QEW to the locals) and we arrived around 11. The kids were up fairly early this morning and so were after some food as soon as we arrived so we dove into Burger King and had a pretty average fast food stop. The main drag at the falls is called Clifton Hill and unlike it's Melbourne name-sake it's crammed with tourist traps, mostly in the haunted-house, wax museum and Ripleys Believe-it-or-Not variety. The kids loved all the haunted houses but we went directly to the Maid of the Mist promising to come back later.We got onto the boat pretty quickly and the cost was pretty resonable at around $44 for the family. We slipped on our blue souvenier water-proof ponchos and the boat left the dock. The seem to be about 3 boats operating at a time doing a loop from the dock, passed the American Falls up to the main Canadian/Horseshoe Falls and then back. After we passed the American Falls we hit a wall of rain from the main falls, they call it mist to be cute, it was wet! The view from below the Canadian Falls is awesome! We must have been only 30-40 meters from where the water was hitting and the view looking up is even more impressive than from the top looking down. Cam said 'This is the best day of my life!' so it must have been good. We got soaked and so did our cameras but we managed to get them back alive and have some video and decent shots of the trip.On the way back up Clifton Hill Jo and I tossed up going in one of the haunted houses, especially as they stay open through winter and the day was so nice that we didn't feel like spending it inside. In the end we said 'No' and Ab's was pretty dissapointed. But then at one of the houses the woman said $5 each discount rate so we went in. I'm glad that the lady gave us a little torch, the idea is that you really can't see where you're going and stuff is hung in your way, brushes your face, the floor is wobbly in places etc. Then there's the blasts of compressed air, the howls, screams, bodies popping up etc. Jo and I were mildly amused, the kids were terrified! We had a crying Cam and a freaked out Jazz and Abs, luckily we had chosen the mildest house on the street. We beat a hasty retreat and jumped back in the car once the kids had calmed down a little.On the way back home we took the turn off to Niagara-On-The-Lake, a very picturesque little town on Lake Ontario in the wine growing reqion. Lots of vineyards made us feel like we were driving through the Yarra Valley and the main drag of the town was more like a slice of Toorak if it was placed in the Dandenongs Ranges back home. Really nice town, great shops ans the kids had huge ice creams from the 52-Flavours store, scary house now completely forgotten. Had a great day, might be about beer-o'clock...

Andy, out.

Fore!

Thanks to our excellent client, Bell Canada, quite a number of us spent yesterday afternoon hitting little white balls around. The venue was Brae Ben golf course in Mississauga, once the site of a dump, now the highest point in the greate Toronto Area and a truely nice golf course. The very hilly course tested our skills, or in my case tested my lack of skill. If you miss the fairway on this puppy you should just dive into your bag for another ball, the long-stuff eats them alive. We played 3 groups and the idea was to combine the lowest scores for our best holes as a team, the lowest combined total would win the day.We were promised good weather and although the clouds stayed grey and pretty solid all afternoon (the sun peeked through a few times) the temp was excellent for golf, nice and cool. I started off in style with two drives sliced straight into the rough stuff, didn't even hit past the laides tee (I had to buy the first round). But my game improved from there and I ended up with a few pars for the round although my game wasn't nearly as good as a round last week where I hit 8 over for 9 holes. Still, everyone had a good time and had their own share of sensational shots. My group with Shyam and Joe ended up taking out the prizes at the end of the day, no doubt solely due to Joe's fantastic short game and Shyams crushing driving on the back nine, I came along for the ride. Many thanks to Paul for the bar tab at the 19th hole, Phil for the prizes and Shyam for organising the day, outstanding gents.Today I'm a bit sore, 3 rounds of golf this week (36 holes) and two runs totalling about 14k's and the bod is complaining a little. I can see a lazy day ahead... I'm sure there's a game on TV.

Andy, out.

Skippy Parcel Post Delivers

Got a call last night 'Hi this is Skippy Parcel Post, we have a delivery for you, wanting to make sure that someone will be home tonight...' what the? My good mate Anth's mum, Pat, is in downtown Mississauga (next town over from Oakville where we live) and wants to drop by. Awesome, great to see Pat as it's been a while since we last saw each other, and of course she arrived bearing gifts from below the equator. Thanks to Anth and Shane (and I think the Bastard and Lisa might have had something to do with this too), the kids will love the Twisties, Jo and I the Tim Tams and we'll all love the Vegemite and best of all the Monbulk Raspberry Jam! Nice touch guys, the jam here just isn't quite the same and we've been missing it.Anywho it was really nice to catch up with Pat, we yakked until after midnight, hope she enjoys the rest of her trip, greets to the wider Reeve clan.

Andy, out.

Say Goodbye

What is it with you guys? We leave the country for a few months and you let some stellar people slip through your fingers. While I wasn't a fan of his TV show, and I can tell you I'm in the minority over here in North America, Steve Irwin was as far as I can tell a pretty decent bloke and dedicated environmentalist (despite what that nut-bag Germaine Greer and her jaw that flaps in the wind might say). You have to feel for his wife and kids... Then Brocky totals himself in the Targa in WA, com'on ppl what are you doing all day? Take better care of our tall poppies will you please? Cheers Brocky, you were an ornament to your sport. At least both those boys went out doing what they loved, if only a little earlier than we'd all have liked, cheers fellas.

On a different note another Aussie has been making the Canadian news, Toby Rand pub singer from Melbourne, contender for the lead singer of SuperNova. Jo and I didn't watch the series from the start and got into it very late. But thanks to Bit Torrent we've caught up and are now eagerly awaiting the final shows this coming week. Everyone is tipping Toby to take it from the media-un-savvy Dilana, dark and brooding Lukas and cool but boring chrome dome Magni. You've just gotta love this version of Rebel Yell, check it out on YouTube below.



Andy, out.

Abbie Knieval

Poor Ab's, she was playing hide-and-seek and was standing up in the box that my golf clubs came in (tall, thin box). It was a complete accident but the box fell over and of course her arms couldn't move so when she hit the floor her head hit the carpet (without underlay on a concrete slab). She ended up with a decent concussion and was off to the hospital in an ambulance after Jo called 911. Luckily after a CAT scan all is okay, just a really nasty headache and some vomitting. Little chic really gave us a scare but today, as if to prove that it's all forgotten, she bounced off the school (complete with a note pardoning her from contact play for a few weeks).

And summers over

There was a TV ad playing in early spring, it showed an winter outdoor scene with falling snow etc for about 15 seconds, then flashed to about 1 second of a summer scene then back to winter again... the message? 'Summer goes by quickly so make the most of it and buy this'. Well there was truth in advertising there, summer is over and it wasn't around for long. To make the weather more miserable we were hit with the remnants of hurricaine Ernesto, a storm that had worked it's way up from the carribean, toyed with Florida and then blown itself out while moving up the US east coast. By the time Ernesto made it to Canada it was just a pile of rain, but the timing sucks as it's hit right in the middle of the last long weekend of the season. So we didn't make it to the airshow or a drive-in movie due to the weather, but hopefully we're not headed directly back into winter and autumn stays with us for a while before the temp drops.Our friends from Pennsylvania, the Ballesty's, made a surprise, flying visit to see us last weekend. Jo got the call and kept mum about it so none of us knew they were coming which was really nice. On Saturday we headed down to Toronto to see the buskers festival and spent a great day in the streets near the St Lawrence Market, eating (mmm steak sandwich was awesome), drinking (coffee of course), walking and watching some decent street performances. The kids have a ball together, Erin, Elise, Liam and Declan are great kids and ours love them to death. We are hoping to head back down to PA in November for US Thanksgiving, looking forward to it already.I spent four days last week in Montreal again and I think I'll be back up there again in late September to run a couple of days of intensive training for the Bell folks before we go live in October with our biggest release. We should hear in the next week or so how long we'll be staying on for. Could be just until Jan or might be extended into Spring next year, as soon as we know you will too.

Just posted a heap of new photos including some from a great walk we had yesterday along 16 Mile Creek, just a stones throw from our house.

So that's about it, the kids are having a mellow day today, back to school tomorrow (was that Jo I heard going 'Wooohooo!'?). They wont be back for too long though, as we have a trip to Boston, New England and Atlantic Canada planned for the second week of October and will be taking them out of school for that.

Andy, out.