Is this Belgium?

This is a pretty long post with lots of photos. For a reason....

You see a long time ago in a city far far away, two star crossed lovers drinkers were sleeping on an airbed surrounded by bags and one particularly lazy brown dog shaped dog. These two nameless entities were leaving the dog behind and taking all the bags with them on a journey. They were about to depart the greatest city on earth for a destination unlike anywhere else. The place they were going had mysterious stories written about it - How the ground disappears for months every year, how two rivers converge to create one huge confluence of brown water and a breeding ground for tiny little flying monsters that suck your blood and leave you in pain. The beings who inhabit this place have have weird drinking habits, putting pepper, hot sauce and vegetables in their alcoholic drinks.They  are unable to drive their vehicles without becoming evil, sadistic monsters who aim their cars at anyone that moves. The people also have an affinity for singing, a lot of singing I mean - They never stop singing. EVER.

You may have guessed by now that the two star crossed pissheads were in fact Ms Fubby McCowtan and her strange partner in life Master Rochard Davinious. Me and Buff. The reason I concocted such an elaborate, poorly grammarised and bullshite intro is that the event in question happened 3 years ago....Today.

I am blatantly now posting a few photos of Taz so you keep reading...

Her and TAZ

TAZ on the airbed mentioned above 

Not TAZ but an equally cuddly and cute Dave. 

Yay. more TAZ.

 It was actually 4 years to the day just a few days ago, that we sent away my permanent resident application and just 2 days before leaving UK we received a reply and confirmation that I was allowed to join the Canadian Gang as a member.
Yay Canada, Go Canada Go or whatever you are supposed to shout.
So we packed our bags, flew on a plane because it was quicker than walking or swimming and landed in Winnipeg 3 years go today, on May 10th 2015.

One of the first things I did was to get a tattoo to remind me of Manchester. It turned out pretty good.

We then set about finding a house. We found ours accidentally at the end of May, while on the way to see a different place. We drove along Westminster Ave and saw the open house signs, so stopped to take a look and immediately liked it. After looking around 764 we did actually still go to the other house, but spent all the time talking about the one we had just seen. It is perfect for us and we were really happy a few days later to have our offer accepted and a move in date of early August 2015.

So we finally moved our boxes from Jon and Susan's house...

Into our new house..

and on the first night invited a few friends around.

We have had some great times so far in the house and intend to stay for a long time yet. It may have cost us thousands of dollars to fix the leaky basement and the dodgy roof, the bathroom ceiling, the front door and various other things that have fallen apart, broken or burnt down - But its still our little house and we love it.

There have been many many other things we have done since moving back over here...Trips to San Francisco, Cuba and Phoenix. Days and nights out at Hockey, the Bombers CFL and even Baseball.

Late in the first summer back we did a Canoe trip to Experimental lakes where we came across a naked man, doing 'things' to a naked woman on top of a picnic table on an island - We saw no such thing when we walked the 60 odd  kilometres on the Mantario trail a few weeks later though...

The naked people were just a few yards behind us

Before the beer snake at the bombers game

and after the beer snake at the bombers game

We also got a bit married at one point. We didn't mean  it to happen, but went to Brent and Megs countryside palace of parties and lo and behind if everyone else we knew didn't have the same idea. We just happened to have a white dress, a tie and some 900 beers with us, so we filled a bath with ice, sprayed garlic to attract as many mosquitoes to Gareth as we could and ordered rain for about 9pm, to get rid of the boring people. Then we got half naked and danced - badly - until the concrete dance floor jumped up and punched Pat in the face. All in all a nice day out, that we will probably remember for a week or two.
Here's a few of the best bits...

What have you got in your pockets Stef?

It was great that Chris, Emma, Gareth, Tracey, Chuck, Mark and Kate all travelled over to get pissed up with us at the wedding and Nikki, Jack and Matt, who couldn't make the actual date, came over for a few days earlier in the year. Thanks for coming over everyone!!

We also got some work done...

I retired in 2010, went travelling - got a job in UK in 2014, retired again and honestly didn't mean to start working again - But Buffy was working at Wilderness Supply and I joined the company - Working there for 18 months and having a great time with Rick, Garrett, Heather and Blair - All good friends still,  who we meet up with for bad movies and beers every now and then.

Buffy left her job there to move onto bigger, better and s-l-o-w-e-r things at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, before leaving there and now she works at the University of Manitoba, where she mainly attends meetings discussing when the next meeting will be.

I accidentally wrote an email one night when I couldn't sleep. The email was addressed to a company called Telexperts, and I asked them for a job. They now employ me as some sort of token English speaking person and I spend my time calming down irate customers who cant resist the accent and my knowledge of pies and UK sitcoms. You think I am joking!? I certainly am not.

Then onto late last year and after a particularly late night Buffy came into the bedroom and said 'I am pregnant'. We laughed and went back to sleep - waking up 6 months later after a long winters hibernation to find out that she REALLY IS pregnant and we need to paint the window frames. That's where we stand today. Just 8 or 9 weeks away from a new messed up person living in our tiny Brussels sprout smelling house.

So I wont even try to list them everything else we have done or all the people who have been part of the last 3 years, but thanks to everyone who knows us, everyone who has lent us things, shared dinner, escaped rooms, got drunk in yurts, tents and cabins, been to visit and spent more than 2 minutes with us in the pub. You are all awesome.


Here are a few more of the best bits of the last 3 years...

There are so many more memories I could add, but it would take another 3 years to go through them all .

Its been great though. Winnipeg, now feels like home and everything is looking good for the next 3 years. Its an exciting and busy time, so for now I will say goodbye, but keep an eye open - there is more to come soon..

Yarp.