Briefly back in old Blighty

Yet another excuse for a late blog (this one better than being eaten by dinosaurs!); Charlie & I have briefly been back to the UK this week for a 6 day round trip. Quite alot of travelling for such a short trip, but it was needed to see the family and it was a marvellous excuse to catch up with some friends too!

We started off with a couple of days in Plymouth, seeing my Mum & brother and lots of other family, staying with my sister (thanks Nick!). Managed to squeeze in a trip down memory lane and spent a morning on the Barbican which was where I lived when I met Leigh... the sun was shining and it really looked lovely. Then we went off to Bristol to see Ros for the night at her new abode. Had a great night catching up with her and trying to keep track of what she's been up to! The next day we moved on to Bath and I had a chance to pop into our house, just to check it was still there - it was and pretty much looked like it did when we last saw it a couple of years ago (with the addition of a traffic bollard in the back garden! - those pesky students!) From Bath we went up to see Ed, Abi & Issy for the night in North London and were again well looked after - thank you! By this time Charlie was very happy to be in a house with a playmate and toys and utterly bewildered as to what was going on! After a morning there we moved on to see Mike, Lou, Ben & Olivia in Uxbridge before finally going on to Heathrow the next day. It's always a danger staying with Mike & Lou the night before catching a plane given our mutual appreciation of wine, however, unlike my husband who only narrowly made his flight, we were there in plenty of time and not too worse for wear - thanks guys!
So a real whirlwind week. Leigh turned into a domestic God juggling the children/work load with ease! (Perhaps I should do it more often!). The children looked well fed and nourished; in fact the only complaint was from Olivia who said that Daddy couldn't quite do her hair bobbles right!

Summer has returned

No late blog excuses of being eaten by dinosaurs, having broken laptops or issues with Microsoft - it's just been a pretty ordinary week and I've hardly taken any new photos!

Though the weather has warmed up here again the ice rink has recently reopened reminding us all that winter isn't far away. Leigh and I have decided not to play ice hockey again this year; it was good fun last year, but it soon began to take over our lives and it seemed like there wasn't a day in the week that one of us wasn't at the arena training or playing, which after this years hectic summer of 6 MEDMANs is not too appealing! (I also remember trudging down to the arena for 9pm training sessions when it was -20 and snowing!) Call us spoil sports, but we can well and truly tick the ice hockey box and leave it there! Ben will be playing again though and Olivia is keen to give it a go too. So to quote Sarah Palin, I'll be just a regular 'Hockey Mom' (no comparisons to the pit bull & lipstick bit though please!)

This weekend, the Medicine Hat Tigers (ice hockey team) were playing here at the Ralston arena showing off their skills which was fun to watch. And on Saturday evening there was an outdoor concert, `Larks in the park` played by the band of the REME, which was another good night - almost like Glastonbury, less the rain and ... alcohol! (NO outdoor drinking alowed in Canada!)

By the way, who is teasing me with fame in my hometown local rag? (see preivous blog comment) - Can't be one of my friends; it's too well written!!! Very funny though!

Brrr!

Another overdue blog and another week of being without a laptop for 5 days due to yet another unfortunate accident! Lets hope this is not going to become a weekly event!

Otherwise its been a pretty chilled week. We all enjoyed Leighs time off the Prairie; most of which was hot and sunny. We spent quite alot of time at the outdoor pool in Medicine Hat and at Echodale with bucket & spades (not sure what the children were playing with!) and made the most of the last week of the school summer holidays.


Then towards the end of last week the weather changed.... it went from a pleasant sunny 28 degrees to a cold and wet 5 degrees. The rain has now stopped but it is still chilly and there has even been snow in Canmore - news enough to wipe the smiles off our faces and send us all running indoors searching for our long forgotten winter gear! Indeed having learnt lessons from last winter, I have already ordered a Russian style fur trapper hat, complete with ear flaps! Nice! All I need to do now is to try not think about the rabbit I will be wearing on my head - especially as I pass the very cute family of rabbits that live under our shed all year round! I will get the same for all of us and in a couple of months time we shall look like some bizarre family out of Dr Zhivago!

Ben & Olivia are back at school now and Charlie starts at Little Gophers (pre-school) next week. After such a long summer break the children were surprisingly keen to go back to school yesterday - needless to say, for Ben, the novelty has already worn off!