Syrian Ice cream and Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin

I am posting this on a sunny Monday evening, sat listening to the soundtrack of 'My Fair Lady', whilst me and Buffy enjoy the end of a lovely long weekend. We had a party in Selkirk yesterday and today finally finished painting the window frames the sickly yellow colour that some idiot chose for our house before we thought of buying it. Then, as it was a lovely sunny afternoon we went out for Ice cream.

There are a few Ice cream parlours in Winnipeg, but we went to the newest and the most unusual. (and what I now think is the best)  Chaeban Ice Cream was created by a Family who immigrated from Syria to Canada. They brought with them a totally original way of making and flavouring Ice Cream, which means you get ice cream infused with things like real mint leaves, rosewater or Orchid Powder. Honestly, I have never had Ice Cream with such distinct and delicious flavours. The special is called Abir Al Sham, which means 'The Perfume of Old Damascus', which is where the family came from. It is also delicious. I don't often get political, but anyone who thinks that refugees should be sent elsewhere, should speak to the hundreds of people who enjoyed the same ice cream as us today. This place is special and even on their website, they say that they wanted to give something back to the community that accepted them. Believe me, they are now a huge part of the community and have done a fantastic job. If you are anywhere near Winnipeg, get down to Chaeban and try their Ice cream. 

Buff and her Ice cream flight!

In other news...

This was written last Thursday as I flew back from.....Oh just read it.....

 I am quite lucky that my job isn’t based in a dull, grey office that I never have the chance to leave. In fact my job is brilliant for someone like me who likes to get out and about and see some different stuff. I have worked in a Turkey hatchery, dentists, farms, restaurants, retirement homes and Travel agents. Today has definitely been one of those days… I was working in a place called Flin Flon, which is about a 2 hour flight or 8 hour drive north of Winnipeg. Luckily the phone install I was doing was for Calm Air, a flight company so they flew me up at 7am this morning and I write this on the flight back. It’s now 10.55pm. It’s been a long day.

The job itself was interesting and a little unusual. Normally, on a job in the city or near to it, I get to visit the site to meet the customer, discuss their needs, take a look around at where the phones are going, where the equipment will be located and to test out the cabling and phone lines. I can then make a decision as to whether I need to spend another day on site, detailing every cable and every phone, where it connects to and with what wire, as well as whether things need to be moved, if the phone lines are good and working and where they come into the building and ascertaining what the customer wants their phones to do. Phones nowadays as I am sure you know are computers and like computers they can do a lot of funky shit. Unfortunately, with today’s job, I had no preparation apart from what I could get from the customer over the phone.

Luckily, the customer, Pat, was great. Not only did she know what she wanted, but she was able to make a short video of the office and desks, so I could see where the equipment and phones were supposed to go as well as the paging system and the incoming lines. You should know that the Pats phone has a very bad Internet connection and it took all afternoon to upload the video. We spent most of a day last week sending emails back and forth so I could get together all the information I needed.

Once I had all the info, I ‘built’, the system. This means getting a virgin equipment and fitting any cards or accessories required. Then loading on a new, blank piece of software. Updating the software to the correct type and licensing it. The once, that’s all done I can actually start programming phone lines, digital, IP and analogue phones and any features that the customer wants to use. This usually takes a whole day from start to finish and sometimes longer.

With this job, I also broke out some new phones and updated their software too, in case I couldn’t do it on site. Finally, I boxed everything back up again, with a whole pile of cables, connectors, adapters. Power supplies and spares of everything I could think of including about 50 meters of Cat5 cable and connectors, ports, junction boxes and labels in case I had to make any new cables on site. I also made up a pile of cables to save time on the day. All this was sent up a couple of days ago, so it was waiting for me when I arrived today.

So I was up at 5 and on the flight at 7. Weirdly, the flight only had 7 people on it. 6 of those were in the pre-boarding section, for people who need help getting on board. The city of Flin Flon is a bit remote, so of people need to visit a specialist or doctor, they fly to Winnipeg. I had my very own boarding section, just me on my own boarding the plane like a VIP. The plane stopped at The Pas, which is even smaller that Flin Flon but only about 20 miles north. So after a quick stop we had a 15 minute flight into the airport at Flin Flon. We landed and no one got off. Weird I thought, then realized that it was only me who was due to depart, so I stood up and was met, personally by Pat at the bottom of the ramp. .VIP service again!

Baggage loading Flin Flon style

Didn't have to wait long for my bag...No one queued around the conveyor.

The day flew by from here on – Equipment mounted and cables ran. New cables made and attached to the wall. I tested the old phone lines, plugged everything in, got out the new phones, tested them, changed a bit of programming and finally about 2pm (Half time in the England Belgium match, which I managed to get on my work phone) I finished and started to train Pat and the rest of the staff on how to use the new phones and how to change things using the web user interface. I don’t normally take the training. We have a trainer called Lisa, who would normally do it, while I look on, but the Calm Air wouldn’t pay to send her up here just for the hour training - so numpty here had to do it.

Everything went well though and just after 3pm the training was complete and I could switch the phone lines to the new system, disconnecting and then dismantling the old system which was now out of use. It was just about now, that the call came from Winnipeg. The flight home was already delayed by 2 hours. I was supposed to depart at 1955, but it was going to be closer to 2145 – I had nearly 5 hours to wait and not a lot to do. I chatted to the ladies in the office whilst I tidied up and then took a walk around finding a nice little beach and wandering around the outside perimeter of the airport itself. It’s a beautiful but remote area. Flin Flon is a city of just 5 or 6 thousand people, but is a few km’s away from the airport itself so I didn’t get to see it.  

I did have some great views from the plane though...

In case you were wondering Flin Flon is named after a fictitious character named Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin from a book called The Sunless City. All a bit ridiculous really!! There was a cool map of the area in the airport with some strange facts on – here's a few photos.  

He got caught!

Named? after...

Why did they go back?

Nice fact!

The rest of the afternoon was spent by myself in the airport (about the size of a small McDonald’s restaurant) I lay down on the soft seats and had a quick snooze as well as vegging out and chatting with the staff when they came back from a break. I was the only person there for quite a while, like a mini version of Tom Hanks in that movie about the airport bloke.

Why Flin Flon?

The entire airport

Having a wander

Sallys Beach

I saw no Limousines

Finally the flight arrived and hours later than expected we took off and had a final view of the thousands of stunning, clear and totally still lakes that take up most of the world in these parts.

I had a long day, but a good day and I look forward to my next escape out of the city whenever that may be!

BABY ALERT-BABY ALERT-BABY ALERT-BABY ALERT - BABY ALERT- BABY ALERT

Today in 2nd July, the baby is due on 7th July. So we have no immediate plans for this week or the next few. We are hoping to get to Folk Fest next week for a day or two, but obviously wont be camping this year. Buffy was gifted a huge pile of awesome kids books from her friends at work as Friday was her last day. She is now on maternity leave!! One of books is called The Grumpy Bird and Buffy reckons it reminds her of me.... I don't know what she is talking  about!!

So, sometime in the next 3 weeks we will head off to the hospital for a fun few hours while Buffy gives birth to the future of the human race. God help us.

Keep you eyes open for more news on all this.......