Sunday, October 19, 2008

Jolly Hockey Sticks

Thanksgiving is behind us and, be assured, we did take a moment (between roast potatoes) to have an in-depth 'reasons to be thankful' discussion around the dinner table . . . Hannah is thankful for Halloween, her birthday and Christmas (not quite in the spirit of things, but honest!) and Katie for her laptop, ipod and bed (obviously a normal, well-adjusted teen).

At least I have a more altruistic son who is thankful for homes and food (as long as it doesn't involve any kind of meat or veg). El's were probably equally worthy but I was side-tracked by her announcement that the dog gets really scared when you creep downstairs wearing a snorkle mask . . . like that's a normal thing to do!!! Must be the high altitude.


Ahead of us is Halloween - some porches are already groaning under the strain of ghosts, ghouls and pumpkins - and the hockey season. Hannah has started playing so protective gear had to be bought - heaven forbid she should leave an inch of body exposed to the risk of laceration! She now has enough padding to survive a major earthquake and has to trundle her 'kit' around in an enormous wheely bag.

Anyway, over to Bert - finally!!! . . . . . .

Nothing really major to report since last time, life is just so normal out here now.

Florida was good, although the elusive Col remains at large. I did hook into him, but he snapped my line and rod. I can't see us going back there again as it's far too hectic, so unfortunately he's the winner. How people can go there every year is beyond me ..... holidays are meant to be restful aren't they? The new waterpark (Aquatica) was a joke! They shut the car park at 9.30am daily as it was already full. If you were lucky enough to get in you were treated to 1 hr queues for each slide. We got wise to it and went down at 7.00pm the next few times and slid for England without queuing. Far more sensible.

You'll all be pleased to know that Nicki has discovered Facebook and is now stalking people on the internet! If you're on there she'll no doubt track you down! Be warned.
She's quite proud that she now has 9 friends ...... however, she fails to mention that 3 of them happen to live in the same house as her!!Hockey season is now in full flow (hurrah), so I spend most evenings watching that. I managed to blag a freebie in one of the corporate boxes for the Flames pre-season game against Florida. Free ticket, free food and free beer is definately the way to watch Hockey. Next time will be a real anti-climax when I have to pay to mix with the riff-raff.

Go Flames Go. Did anyone else notice our complete lack of urgency in the footage of Cathy rafting/drowning? I'm telling Hannah to 'get out the way' while Nicki sails off into the sunset. That's friends for you! It was funny though.

The drumming's going well! Hannah has been telling us for weeks that she is good, but we took that with a pinch of salt. We finally had chance to see it for ourselves when they had their first concert/caterwaul at the school (first instruments/first month of lessons . . . gulp!)

Early on Mr Froese announced to the audience that later we'd be treated to a 'special guest' - Hannah on drums. Uh Oh!

When she finally got there we were stunned; she was awesome!

We filmed a bit (link below) - not sure who was strangling the cat in the background.

Music purists look away now:

We're looking forward to the Christmas concert!

I'll write up my Toronto jaunt next week.
Love to all
Bert xx

P.S - Good luck to Kev Sampson with the first showing of his film in London today.
Link: http://www.awaydaysthemovie.com/ Look out for Neil in clip 3.