Monday, September 1, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Morning After....
December 16th
The morning after the storm/party was amazing! It had dumped over 30 centimeters of snow that night and everything was covered in it. Apparently the party went on until 7am in the morning!
I was reminded of the days when I was in university at Bishops because the winters there has sooo much snow every year. There were mornings where we had to dig out the front door so we could get out and go to class LOL.
We planned to leave and drive home tomorrow once the trucks had time to hit the highways with salt so in the meantime we had an extra day in snowy Montreal to go meet Pat & Caroline for brunch, get some shoes and see Evelyn, Pat & Mike's store, "Bark & Fritz" on Sherbrooke St. If we can dig out the car that is...
The morning after the storm/party was amazing! It had dumped over 30 centimeters of snow that night and everything was covered in it. Apparently the party went on until 7am in the morning!
I was reminded of the days when I was in university at Bishops because the winters there has sooo much snow every year. There were mornings where we had to dig out the front door so we could get out and go to class LOL.
We planned to leave and drive home tomorrow once the trucks had time to hit the highways with salt so in the meantime we had an extra day in snowy Montreal to go meet Pat & Caroline for brunch, get some shoes and see Evelyn, Pat & Mike's store, "Bark & Fritz" on Sherbrooke St. If we can dig out the car that is...
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ottawa visit...The party in Montreal
December 15Th
We hit the road not long after leaving Jan and Sizwe so we could squeeze in a very short visit to see my cousin Kate and her daughter Alexianne aka "Lexi". We had to go so soon in order to get the best light and try to beat the worst of the storm on the way to Montreal.
(photo of Towa, Lexi, Kate)
Lexi is nearly the same age as Tavaris and is so adorable with her bilingual chatter to Mummy and the cutest eyes ever. Kate is pregnant too and is nearly a month ahead of me but it doesn't show at all. Her husband Eric is in Bali or Fiji with the Governor General attending the environmental conference and Lexi and Kate miss him lots.
Oh, so Kate sent a note by email that morning telling us that Lexi has come down with Scarlet Fever! Can you believe in the 21st century that kids are still getting Scarlet Fever???? She was on antibiotics and not contagious in any way, but she wanted me to know in case I still wanted to pass on the visit, being six months preggers n' all! Needless to say, we went anyways....had to see my cuz and it had been ages since I'd seen my niece.
Funny, they also live in the bottom of their duplex. We both have tenants above and are pregnant in the suite below LOL! We just barely manage to fit our family in ours with Tavaris, Donna and visiting guest on a regular rotation but they are a lot tighter due to the layout of the house. So they are looking to buy in another area of Ottawa and rent the bottom suite. Just like I've been planning for a year. So cool.
Had to hit the road way too soon, not even enough to brew a "cuppa" but we had to come by and say hi.
THE SURPRISE PARTY!
We had been secretly planning this leg of the journey with my good friend Evelyn Couture (red headed, Irish/French Canadian) who went to Bishop's with me. We were a tight crew and a lot of us were going to be gathering at Pat's house to surprise him for his birthday.
Photo: Evelyn, Towa, Mike
His girlfriend, Caroline, had set up a whole Casino theme and ordered poker tables with Croupiers to man the tables, real Karaoke from the 80's to sing along to and a gorgeous million dollar home to play in!
Greg played my chips for me, together with his own, and had a ball. My school mates got to meet him and everyone thought he was one of the gang (yippee for me). Isn't he handsome?
Mike and Pat (BFF's 4ever) had a blast on the song machine. Here is Mike belting out, was it the Beastie Boys, "Tricky"...the hip, hop golden oldie LOL.
The upstairs poker table was a hot one...Pam's husband took the pot for largest take of the night off this table.
Another one of the "Girls" from Bishop's, Patty was there holding down the poker tables with her happy man Chris..it was sooo good to see her smiling and happy. What a pair!
My boys took a second out of the festivities to toast "Junior" in my belly! They can't wait to have someone to spoil but I have to admit it was strange to have the party queen sipping Perrier and holding her tummy all night. The party hard chick was gone and the "NUN" was in effect. Didn't stop the party from going until 7am though!!!
We hit the road not long after leaving Jan and Sizwe so we could squeeze in a very short visit to see my cousin Kate and her daughter Alexianne aka "Lexi". We had to go so soon in order to get the best light and try to beat the worst of the storm on the way to Montreal.
(photo of Towa, Lexi, Kate)
Lexi is nearly the same age as Tavaris and is so adorable with her bilingual chatter to Mummy and the cutest eyes ever. Kate is pregnant too and is nearly a month ahead of me but it doesn't show at all. Her husband Eric is in Bali or Fiji with the Governor General attending the environmental conference and Lexi and Kate miss him lots.
Oh, so Kate sent a note by email that morning telling us that Lexi has come down with Scarlet Fever! Can you believe in the 21st century that kids are still getting Scarlet Fever???? She was on antibiotics and not contagious in any way, but she wanted me to know in case I still wanted to pass on the visit, being six months preggers n' all! Needless to say, we went anyways....had to see my cuz and it had been ages since I'd seen my niece.
Funny, they also live in the bottom of their duplex. We both have tenants above and are pregnant in the suite below LOL! We just barely manage to fit our family in ours with Tavaris, Donna and visiting guest on a regular rotation but they are a lot tighter due to the layout of the house. So they are looking to buy in another area of Ottawa and rent the bottom suite. Just like I've been planning for a year. So cool.
Had to hit the road way too soon, not even enough to brew a "cuppa" but we had to come by and say hi.
THE SURPRISE PARTY!
We had been secretly planning this leg of the journey with my good friend Evelyn Couture (red headed, Irish/French Canadian) who went to Bishop's with me. We were a tight crew and a lot of us were going to be gathering at Pat's house to surprise him for his birthday.
Photo: Evelyn, Towa, Mike
His girlfriend, Caroline, had set up a whole Casino theme and ordered poker tables with Croupiers to man the tables, real Karaoke from the 80's to sing along to and a gorgeous million dollar home to play in!
Greg played my chips for me, together with his own, and had a ball. My school mates got to meet him and everyone thought he was one of the gang (yippee for me). Isn't he handsome?
Mike and Pat (BFF's 4ever) had a blast on the song machine. Here is Mike belting out, was it the Beastie Boys, "Tricky"...the hip, hop golden oldie LOL.
The upstairs poker table was a hot one...Pam's husband took the pot for largest take of the night off this table.
Another one of the "Girls" from Bishop's, Patty was there holding down the poker tables with her happy man Chris..it was sooo good to see her smiling and happy. What a pair!
My boys took a second out of the festivities to toast "Junior" in my belly! They can't wait to have someone to spoil but I have to admit it was strange to have the party queen sipping Perrier and holding her tummy all night. The party hard chick was gone and the "NUN" was in effect. Didn't stop the party from going until 7am though!!!
Visiting Ottawa friends
It was great to go to Ottawa and see, just around the corner from where I had my first lifeguarding job, Jan & Sizwe's house!
Seriously...I used to spend all summer watching the boys play basketball and playing with kids as a City Camp leader and life guard at this park. My best buddy, Peter Murray lived up the street on Gladstone and my house was just down the street on O'Connor.
Sizwe has grown into a strapping, confident young man who is really talented on the piano and vocally. His father is an accomplished Jazz musician in South Africa but Jan has done lots to keep his mind fed with musical notes and possibilities!
Seriously...I used to spend all summer watching the boys play basketball and playing with kids as a City Camp leader and life guard at this park. My best buddy, Peter Murray lived up the street on Gladstone and my house was just down the street on O'Connor.
Sizwe has grown into a strapping, confident young man who is really talented on the piano and vocally. His father is an accomplished Jazz musician in South Africa but Jan has done lots to keep his mind fed with musical notes and possibilities!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Headed to Downtown Ottawa
December 15 2007
The plan is to drive to see my Dad's old girlfriend JoanAnn Nolan who lives downtown Ottawa to see her and her son Sizwe. I haven't seen him since he was about 7 years old when they used to live in South Africa around the time I lived there with Dad.
Sizwe is now an accomplished musician who excels in piano and voice. Funny enough, he is going to the same Junior High that I went to when I lived in Ottawa - Glashan! He even has the same Gym teach (Mr. Desclouds) who remembers both Andrew and myself. What a small world. Anyhow, Sizwe it turns out has inherited his musical skills from his father, Jabulani, who is a world class Trombone player in South Africa!
The plan is to drive to see my Dad's old girlfriend JoanAnn Nolan who lives downtown Ottawa to see her and her son Sizwe. I haven't seen him since he was about 7 years old when they used to live in South Africa around the time I lived there with Dad.
Sizwe is now an accomplished musician who excels in piano and voice. Funny enough, he is going to the same Junior High that I went to when I lived in Ottawa - Glashan! He even has the same Gym teach (Mr. Desclouds) who remembers both Andrew and myself. What a small world. Anyhow, Sizwe it turns out has inherited his musical skills from his father, Jabulani, who is a world class Trombone player in South Africa!
Ottawa reunited
December 14th 2007
The snow is on our heels all the way from Toronto. Greg is an outstanding driver in both snow and rain (ask me about driving "Fern Gully" in Jamaica one day) so I'm 100% confident in our arriving safely.
We headed out to my best girlfriend Andrea's as she lives about 20 mins outside of Ottawa in a lovely yellow farmhouse in North Gower. It will be an awesome visit as I missed her wedding to Paul in September while I was in Jamaica.
Andrea and I lived together at 654 Queen Street for nearly 5 years when we were having our wild party days LOL. Now I'm nearly 6 months pregnant, she's happily married and we both have TYPE II Diabetes...what a change a gwaan.
Photo: Andrea & Paul Winter's gorgeous yellow farmhouse, North Gower the morning after the storm hit Ottawa
We timed it perfectly so that the big storm hit during the night while we were at Andrea's so we woke up to some gorgeous scenery.
Photo: Greg all relaxed at Andrea's house after the long drive from Toronto.
The snow is on our heels all the way from Toronto. Greg is an outstanding driver in both snow and rain (ask me about driving "Fern Gully" in Jamaica one day) so I'm 100% confident in our arriving safely.
We headed out to my best girlfriend Andrea's as she lives about 20 mins outside of Ottawa in a lovely yellow farmhouse in North Gower. It will be an awesome visit as I missed her wedding to Paul in September while I was in Jamaica.
Andrea and I lived together at 654 Queen Street for nearly 5 years when we were having our wild party days LOL. Now I'm nearly 6 months pregnant, she's happily married and we both have TYPE II Diabetes...what a change a gwaan.
Photo: Andrea & Paul Winter's gorgeous yellow farmhouse, North Gower the morning after the storm hit Ottawa
We timed it perfectly so that the big storm hit during the night while we were at Andrea's so we woke up to some gorgeous scenery.
Photo: Greg all relaxed at Andrea's house after the long drive from Toronto.
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