House Ploughed
Hi y'all ,
Well we've had more snow on Friday, then a bit more on Saturday and then a grand finale on Sunday. Great. As soon as it stopped Nicki was out there with her shovel; I think she's found her destiny in life. She loves it.
We did attempt to take the kids sledging, but being -19 degrees soon put paid to that! Having frozen nostrils isn't much fun I can assure you. It's not like snow as we know it either, it's very powdery. Snowballs and snowmen are just not happening. Shame.
The pic below is of Dana's rink taken from our deck. What a difference a week makes!
I've been meaning to write for ages but have struggled for enthusiasm due to lack of comments left by readers. I feel like a real lonely saddo telling the world about my life and then getting no feedback (well apart from Julie and Vic). My vision for the blog was for everyone to comment, chat and have a laugh. It hasn't happened. Until now. Big Robbo has inspired me.'Inspiration' by Christian Roberts. Sounds like an expensive perfume don't you think?
Manila was interesting to say the least. There were 3 typhoons off shore all week, hitting land every now and then causing numerous deaths! Thankfully not Manila. I had a paper left outside my hotel door and every morning I read horror stories about people getting drowned, crushed to death, etc. On the Sunday we went on a boat trip across a lake to a volcano. On the Tuesday 30 of these boats were blown over and a massive rescue operation was needed. Three people died. We just left our hotel every day and just got on with things as if nothing was going on. Surreal.
The drive to the office was a 45 minute white-knuckle ride! I loved it. It really is 'every man for himself' on the roads. There is no way on this earth that I'd attempt to drive in Manila.
Some of the sights were shocking. People live in tin shacks and do just about anything to earn a (very poor) living. I was interviewing people who were paid the equivalent of $1.00 an hour! The jobs we were offering in Canada pay $16.45 an hour. The smiles on the faces of the successful candidates will stay with me forever. It all felt very worthwhile and being able to make such a huge difference to peoples lives really does give you satisfaction. If only every day at work was so rewarding.
I was quite adventurous on the food front with eel, squid, octopus and sushi all venturing down my alimentary canal (that stone I lost in summer returned quickly once I moved to an office). I backed out when it came to Balut though. Basically it's a fertilized hen egg that's boiled once the chicks developed! Lovely. There's a pic of one of my colleagues having a go in the photo album below. That's Canadians for you!
Click Link for Manila Pics:
http://www.photobox.co.uk/slideshow?album_id=28134085
The day we left there was an attempted coup by ex military personnel who'd escaped from custody; they got free on the way to court to face charges arising for a previous coup attempt. The army soon put paid to that by driving a tank into a hotel lobby and then storming the building to arrest the rather stupid individuals who had the misguided vision of overthrowing the government. There was a curfew and general mayhem in the city that night. Bonkers. Quite a lucky escape.
The day we left there was an attempted coup by ex military personnel who'd escaped from custody; they got free on the way to court to face charges arising for a previous coup attempt. The army soon put paid to that by driving a tank into a hotel lobby and then storming the building to arrest the rather stupid individuals who had the misguided vision of overthrowing the government. There was a curfew and general mayhem in the city that night. Bonkers. Quite a lucky escape.
BBC write up of coup thingy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7118456.stm
I also smoked my last cigarette at Manila airport 53 days ago! I'm driving Nicki up the wall.
Meanwhile, driving me up the wall is the way Canadians abreviate everything.
We watch some cookery programme where the girl is forever using EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), the football I watch is the EPL (English Premier League) or the BPL (Barclays Premier League) and Breakfast television is BT. They do it to just about everything. In work I deal with PNP, SRM, the CFIA and loads more that I won't bore you with. I attended a career fair at RDC (Red Deer College) last week and had a table next to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). I've got another to go to in February at the U of C. It's got to the stage now that every time I see it I think OMG. It really winds me up.
Rant over.
TTFN
Bert xx
Found this on someone else's blog. Not for the faint hearted:
Balut is actually a duck egg. Wouldn't have made a difference. No chance!
