Winter Wonderland

Hi everyone – Happy Sevens week for those of you in Wellington!

I have been quite busy since I last updated you all so I thought it was time for another post. As I mentioned briefly we had an Australia Day bbq last Thursday that was a lot of fun in spite of the temperature! I lasted just over an hour outside in the -18 snow and then decided I had had enough of my drink freezing before I could finish it and my meat cooling down as soon as it come off the barbie! After we moved indoors we were all treated to a shockingly bad version of Advance Australia Fare as sung by all resident Australians, although to be honest the two Irish boys in their midst singing the Irish national anthem may have not helped with the tunefulness! Anyway, suffice to say good time had by all and Friday was a very long day at work for those of us that made it in.

Friday night is our normal pool competition night but after my startling performance to reach the third round the week before I didn’t want to play in case I reverted back to my losing in the first round average. I watched for a bit instead and then had an early night because I had to get up early to catch my train to London (Ontario – that one is confusing for folk!) to see Meggin. Meggin and her roommate Amanda picked me up from the train station and we immediately stopped for a Tim Hortons caffeine boost before taking a wander around down-town London. London has a little version of Hyde Park and the Thames River and it was really quite funny to see all the street names so closely mimicking that other London!

After taking a wander and enjoying some of the shops we decided we had done enough for a beer so we stopped off for some lunch at one of the local spots. I got to meet Meggin’s sister and brother in law, who are just as fantastic and friendly as Meggin and Amanda, and we had a really nice afternoon chatting away before hitting a local club/pub/bowling alley combo later that night.

Sunday we started the day with more Tim Hortons and a little bird-watching in Meggin’s backyard. Turns out that Amanda is quite the ornithologist (is that the right word?) and pointed out the woodpeckers, blue-jays, cardinals and mocking birds for me. We visited the Children’s Museum after that, which is where Meggin and Amanda both work, and had some great fun visting their Egypt exhibition and reminiscing about our trip there (that is where I met Meggin – can’t remember if I mentioned that)! They also had a very excellent space exhibit that I liked a lot! After the museum we headed out for some fantastic Mexican before heading back to the train station to come back to good ol’ T-dot. It was really great having a weekend out of the city and just relaxing and hanging out with the girls. It felt almost like home (well apart from the snow!).

Anyway, Monday night I went out to the pub with Angela for a catch up on her weekend and to meet another new girl at the hostel called Hannah. We had a really fun night catching up and still managed to get home to bed at a respectable 10.30 (that’s right – respectable, not Nana like)! Last night was the JT and Pink concert at the Air Canada Centre, which was huge. Pink was absolutely fantastic and really funny. I don’t really know as much of JT’s stuff but the stage show and dancing and all the rest of it meant that that really didn’t matter! Highlights have to be the dancer’s costumes from Pink’s Stupid Girls song (picture balloon boobs and dogs in handbags), the dance lesson from the lady herself, and the crowd reaction when Justin finally decided to bring SexyBack!

Well now I am going to have to have a pretty quiet week to make up for the fun of last week – although it is Angela’s last weekend in Toronto so we shall wait and see!

Have a good one all, and good luck Ms Whelan for the start of birthday week celebrations!
C