Wednesday night update....life is nice

Part 1.
Its not been long since I posted my last update and as I ended that with a look forward to Brexit being done and United playing well, I will continue with those thoughts..... Brexit is a fucking laugh and so are United.  Both at the moment are a mess. Admittedly, I do really enjoy the news at the moment though as there is never a dull moment. Especially these people stood behind the news reporters carrying ever increasingly mad signs that blend incredibly well with the increasingly mad Politicians.

Its Wednesday September 25th today and I decided to write this in a couple or three sittings. So I probably wont finish for a week or two. But this excerpt from my life tells the story of last weekend - Saturday night in fact. When as a birthday surprise, Buffy invited our besties Adam, Joel, Alena and Byron to share an evening of drinking and entertainment in the form of a cocktail making lesson. Hosted by a professional cocktail maker (Also named Joel) in our basement. it was a lot of fun and after setting up tables, making ice and moving a little furniture around, we made a pretty passable cocktail bar for 6 in the catacombs below our living accommodation. 

It started with a cocktail made by Joel, and a short introduction into the characteristics of a good cocktail - the flavours, ingredients and why certain things go with other things and especially why FRESH things are much much better than NOT FRESH things. With the exception of bitters which are too hard to make and too good to not buy from the liquor mart. 

Then we learned how to make cocktails ourselves - The right amount of booze to not booze. The right amount of ice (a lot) to make condensate appear in the right amount as you shake the cocktail, just the right amount and then pour, the right amount, into the right size glass, containing the right amount of ice and the right amount of garnish. Then you drink it in the right way - which when i asked the professional how to do  - he gave two answers. If you want to get the taste and get drunk - drink reasonably fast. If you don't, then drink slow. So - drinking fast it is then!!

Professional Joel and the 'bar'

Yum!

Sunday came and one of us woke with a hangover - guess what -It wasn't me!
Luckily, we have a fairly easy day planned - Just a local kids 1st birthday party in a super massive house surrounded by about 30 screaming and crazy kids! To be fair, by the time the party started around lunchtime, Buffy had recovered quite well and we all enjoyed playing in the ball pool, eating Mexican and looking around the stunning house. I know our house is ok and I know a bigger house just gets you more room to store more shit and more shit means more bills and more cleaning. But a little extra room in the garden would be nice. Although we both agreed this house was far too big for us! Still a lovely place to visit and a really nice of the family to invite us around to Sammys 1st birthday!

Part 2.
Its astounding, time is fleeting. Madness takes control, but listen closely. not for very much longer. Ive got to keep control. I remember, doing the blogpost drinking those moments when the blackness would hit me and the void would be calling. Its time to update as its now 10 days later....

Well, the last few days have been exciting, dramatic and evolutionary. Exciting with animals and mazes. Dramatic with a tumble and crying and evolutionary as we develop and nurture superbeing!

A few days after the birthday party above, we were with Hannah at a small play park. She loves swings and slides and to climb the steps, be chased and generally do the things that little kids do - a bit of misbehaviour here and there. But unfortunately, kids slip, bang their heads or fall over and that's what happened last week. Hannah is fine - a bit of crying and a couple of grazes on her head but for a moment it was quite scary. She was climbing on a play structure heading for a slide and as she gets faster every day, sometimes she gets away from us and this time, she managed to slip between a small step and a side railing, falling onto the gravel below. It wasn't a big fall by any means, but she managed to bite her lip when she landed and blood got everywhere. Obviously, we checked her out and took her home, about 10 minutes walk,  by which time she had stopped crying and then spent the next while filling her face with food, while we tried to clean up her lip and the grazes from her head.
We really don't want to mollycoddle her and try to give her as much 'controlled freedom' as possible, but we both know that now we need to keep an extra eye open for when she scurries off!

She fell here, from the bottom of the ramp - Its not as high as it looks!

The daft gap where she slipped

15 minutes later

Bumped but ravenous!

A few days later - showing off her 'Leopard scabs' 

and a cool robot sweater!

 Apart from the 10 minutes after the tumble, she has been awesome the last few days. She is evolving as quick as a caterpillar changes into a butterfly....She now loves to spin around and around, is able to listen and take directions and is so so close to talking.  She understands nearly everything we say and actually answers back to a lot of things by humming or saying 'tish', which means yes.
Her learning curve has sky rocketed these last two weeks and she is so much fun to play with at the moment. We have also taken her out of the crib and now she sleeps on a mattress on the floor, where she is able to get herself up and grab books or toys to play with before she shouts to wake us up. Its lovely being a parent who gets to sleep till after 7 most mornings. We have also brightened her bedroom up with new curtains and a few bright picture frames too. It looks quite simple but really nice! She also loves playing with the Penny machine, which makes me so happy!

Reminded me of a photo of me as a small kid....

She has been painting with our Nanny, Andrea too!

After the drama of last Thursday, we had a lovely weekend. Saturday was a wonderful day and so we drove south out of Winnipeg, to one of Canadas best corn mazes, where we spent a lovely couple of hours getting covered n mud, wandering the maze, climbing the haystack, playing with lambs, goats, bunnies and even some Llamas!

On the haystack

IN the haystack!!

In other news, the weather here has been very 'Manchester', apparently its the rainiest September since the 1930's so I have been very much enjoying it! In fact we have all been enjoying life very much recently. Buffy is doing really well with her freelance marketing work and is gathering new clients all the time. I'm really enjoying my job at the moment  - learning new things and getting very busy. Then we get to come home and play with Hannah in the evening and at weekends. Its all good and we love our little family!

You know what, I think , for a change I am going to end it there for today. On a lovely high note instead of silly quote or piece of garbage voyeurism. Yeah, nice. Night night all.