Stars, bacon and thieving canadian tax bastards!

HI - I have edited this post and added a few photos from the evening at the cinema - but I also have something important to tell everyone.....as you can see in the photo below, I am wearing my new Man United top - which arrived direct from Old Trafford this morning. Unfortunately, even though I got free postage courtesy of being a member of United online, the thieving Canadian government, charged me about 30% on top of that for taxes. I swore a lot at the postman who delivered it and he agreed that they are robbing bastards and should wear masks (the government and not the posties) anyway - in lieu of anyone around the world attempting to send me or anyone else in Canada any kind of parcel for Christmas or other celebration or just cos you think we may deserve it - please take a note of the following -

When you fill in the form to export/import goods from wherever you are, to Canada - LIE!! 

Write a big fat colourful fucking lie in the box that says - 'How much is the item worth??'

 Write on the form that the item is worth £10 or £5 or less (because they work out the tax from how much the item is worth)  and then when I or whoever finally receives it, we wont have to get out or credit cards and pay millions of dollars to the canadian government allowing them to buy more fucking show for winter or foam in order to wash the dirty polar bears after they have been ice skating while eating bloody nachos!! I thought I was a sodding gypsy - but no - the Canadian government and their fricking taxes take the biscuit yet again! 

On a brighter note I have also discovered a brilliant app called bump - which allows really quick and easy transfer of photos from your smartphone to your computer. Take a look at bump at the app store and at www.bu.mp its awesome and really quick!!

Me in my Canadian government owned Man United top!!

It’s Thursday and I’m waiting for the maintenance guy to come and paint the bathroom. He actually knocked on our door by mistake, when he was supposed to be at number 9. However, not knowing he was in the wrong apartment, he asked about the leaky roof and I showed him the bathroom, where we have had water coming through from upstairs a couple of times. The next I know he was in there up a ladder, pulling down the blistered plaster and replacing it with a new coat. Now, that plaster is nearly dry and I’m waiting for him to come around and repaint the bathroom. (It's now Monday and after not turning up again on Thursday afternoon or Friday, I am again waiting for him to turn up and finish what he started!!) 

Still waiting for it to be painted!!

On Thursday evening we had a night out to see one of the highlights of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. (Yes, Winnipeg has a LOT of festivals in summer. A couple of weeks ago was ‘The Fringe Festival’. Now it’s ‘Folk Festival’ and at the same time ‘Folklarama’, is on, celebrating the diverse origins of all the people who live in Manitoba) Anyway, we went out to see a guy called ‘James Vincent Mcmorrow’. He came on with his band after an opening set by guest, ‘Keri Latimer’. She was a bit mental but wasn’t afraid to make fun of herself and she was really good. James Mcmorrow himself was also pretty good, if some of his songs sounded very similar to each other – but the best bit of the evening was the final song when, for no apparent reason, they brought on a life size cut-out of Justin Bieber and set him up looking like he was singing into the microphone. A bit of fun! 

Bieber is the cardboard one

Friday was yet another night out – in fact it was two nights out in one. First, myself Buffy and Joel headed down to Assiniboine Park, where there is an outdoor theatre. At the theatre during the summer (as with all the other festivals) they are showing movies on a massive screen in the evening. Tonight’s first movie was ‘The Incredibles’, which we enjoyed with a massive crowd of at least 2000 people and some fantastic sandwiches made by Joel. The start of a good evening out, which after the movie finished was completed with a party at Wayne and Leanne’s apartment. We stayed there till after 1am chatting and drinking around the table in the front room and finally caught the last bus home at 1.40am.

The outdoor cinema screen....

..some of the crowd in the sunset

everyone leaving after the show.

The weekend had started and continued on a fine note on Saturday with a lazy day in followed by another evening out. This one was different though as Buffy headed out for a bit of dancing with a couple of the girls from work, while I took the BMW out and drove out of town trying to find a dark area in which I could sit and watch the meteor shower which was supposed to be so spectacular tonight. I drove out of town heading west and spotted a dark lane heading away from the highway – but it turned out to be the entry road to the local prison!! I did find a dark spot behind the prison, but was being followed and watched by the security guards in their truck. I decided it would be best to go and find somewhere a little less conspicuous to view the stars from!! So I finally found myself down by Assiniboine Park again, sat a little away from the road, with the roof down on the car trying to spot any fast movements in the heavens. Unfortunately, the sky had clouded over a lot during the evening and the only few spots where there was a gap in the clouds appeared to be the wrong area of the sky in which to view the heavenly lightshow. I went home a little disappointed, but also happy that at least I went out for a look and enjoyed sitting in the dark with the top down on the car.

The night sky

with clouds

over winnipeg

Buffy had arrived home a little giddy from her night out with the girls and so we had a good lie in on Sunday before getting up for breakfast. I am enjoying eating new things over here like Perogies but some of the food isn’t to my taste – so I decided to cook a proper big English breakfast on Sunday. I had done the shopping and grabbed all the food out of the fridge to prepare. Eggs, proper English style pork and beef breakfast sausages, mushrooms, fried potatoes, Heinz Baked beans and real British style bacon (Normally, bacon over here is of the very streaky and very crispy kind, so we got the butcher at the deli to cut us some back bacon – where it is ALL meat and not much fat at all) Two big frying pans full of good British food and the perfect way to start a long day watching the Olympics closing ceremony on TV and the internet.

Before....

After

Now, as I stated at the start of this entry, it’s Monday – I have already been out for a run this morning and will be off out again soon to do a bit of shopping. It’s going to be a quieter week hopefully – A couple of trips to the cinema and the usual quiz night on Tuesday night and that will be all before we head out to the cabin again for the weekend on Friday.