Pomp and circumstance and exploding ice things

So, its a Wednesday evening so this means Buffy goes to choir, whilst I have a nice soak in the bath and watch various idiot entrepreneurs make fools out of themselves on TV, in front of Lord Alan Sugar as he searches for his next apprentice. Today was especially good as 3 of these idiots got the old 'You're fired!', and Alans middle finger pointed at them as they left the fake boardroom. How could a night get better? I'll tell you how...By sitting in our newly moved about living room and playing 'Elgars Pomp and circumstance' as I write my bloggy blog. One of my favourite pieces of music ever and if I had ever made it as a professional boxer (Very unlikely) the music I would have chosen as my entrance theme.

Whilst I write about it I may as well show you the living room. We haven't done anything drastic, but just moved the sofa, chairs and stereo to make a little more room and a calmer feel - apart from the bowler hat wearing dinosaur attacking the miniature village anyway....

From the formal dining area

Looking into the lounging and rest department

Arrrrrgh  run for your lives. Bowler hat wearing dinosaur!!!

So, you can see that me and the missus have been a little bit busy these last couple of weeks. We have been out and about too enjoying fish and chips down at the forks as well as a wonderful 21 gun salute on Remembrance day just behind the legislature building. A great way to remember the fallen but never forgotten.

The forks and river covered in snow

The guns before the 21 gun salute

A cold bear. (Not as good as a cold beer)

The ledge in a snowstorm.

You can tell from all these photos that it is now winter and a bit chilly here in Canada, Weird things happen here in winter and if you keep reading I will endeavour to tell you about one of those weird things that happened to me.... so read on..

Keep reading...

Here it comes....

OK, just kidding its coming next...

So, one morning a couple of weeks ago, I went off to work, locking our back porch after turning on the alarm as I do every day.

I nipped home for lunch and opened the back porch to find big lumps of dirty brown ice strewn across the floor of the porch. Immediately I presumed someone had been in there and trudged across the floor with dirty brown ice falling from their shoes. But the door was locked and the alarm still set.

What I found...

A right mess...

I nervously entered the house and expected to find a homeless vagabond eating all our chocolate hobnobs (Yep, we always have chocolate hobnobs in), but I found nothing. The expensive looking wine glasses were still here along with the toaster, light bulbs and computer. Nothing seemed to be missing - Even the mattress stuffed with cash we sleep on every night. All $43 in pennies was still there! Nothing had been stolen. So how , I wondered, had the dirty brown ice made its way into the porch and up the walls and door - It was quite a mess.

I investigated further and discovered what had happened. Take a look at the photo and see if you can spot it....

Do you see it??

  If you look carefully you will see a tray of cans of coke. One of those cans is lying on its side where it exploded after freezing and expanding, spraying frozen cola all over the porch and walls.
The moral of the story is - You don't want your drinks to be that cold!!!

One other very quick story from the last couple of weeks involves a party, a camera and a toilet roll. It sounds disgusting and a bit dirty, but in fact was just a quirky way to take a photo. I think it was quite inventive....

Bearded man through bog roll

More news from the Extra long summer - I must tell you about the store me and Buffy used to work at.....and where we still have some good friends....

The old store nearly cleared out...

If you visited for the wedding or live in Winnipeg, you probably got taken to Wilderness supply in their old location. A quaint but ultimately small and dingy little store near the airport.
Rick, the owner finally took the chance a few months ago and bought an old building nearer the city centre, renovating it and turning it into a lovely big new flagship store. It opened its doors just a week or two ago and it is such an improvement on the old place. I highly encourage anyone in town to go and take a look!!

The new store - being filled up!

Now, the big news around these parts is the impending marriage of my brother Chris to his missus Emma. Me and Buff are taking some unpaid time off work to go home to UK, spend some time with friends and family in Manchester and catch up with everyone as well as what we know will be a brilliant wedding day. We will tell you all about it next time, but one of the things we miss from UK is the Thursday night pub quiz hosted by DJ Dave Bradley at the Urmston pub. it a pub quiz like you never saw with the questions being answered in phones and tablets with real time scoring. Its amazing.

Well, last week our mate Joel put on his DJ's attire. broke out his laptop and hosted the first Canadian Hot Spot quiz to make some money for the choir. It was nearly as good as a night at the Urmston and went down to the last question on the last round before me, Buffy, Walker and rest of the team took away first prize by just 8 points.
I hope theres another one again soon!! Anyway, thanks to Joel for organizing it and I cant believe that in 8 days we will be at the Urmston again for the first time since May 2015. Its going to be amazing and then we have the wedding too. We really cannot wait and are so excited to go home and see Chris and Emma marry, see Gareth and Tracey and all the family and friends we miss.

Hot spot quiz Canada

Nearly as good as Dave.

  
So, keep an eye out in a couple of weeks time and read all about the adventures in UK!!