Christmas Highlights

Still experimenting with video/photo editing and have made one of a few highlights from our Christmas.

Snowy Christmas at home 2007

A brief bit of video from a snowy Christmas at home 2007, showing the garden, house, Mr C, David's new CSI XBox game and a bit of weather forecast.

Christmas Day Swim

Here's Charlie swimming on Christmas Day

Christmas Walk

Is there a whiff of Burrard Inlet in the living room ? Ah yes, that'll be Mr C !

Last year David worked Christmas Day so I took Charlie to Lynn Headwaters for the first time. This year, David was working again and as I already knew it would be too snowy at Headwaters (the parking lot was covered in snow and that usually has the least of the whole area) so I decided to make another first for Charlie (and me for that matter) and walk around the seawall in Stanley Park. I have walked parts of the seawall before, but never in it's entirity and Charlie has never been to Stanley Park before.

It was cold & wet and in parts windy so not really the ideal day for a stomp somewhere so exposed but it was lovely to do the walk and I really look forward to doing it again with David when we have a better day for it.

Here are a few pics from the walk. Due to the weather they are a bit dull & miserable but show Charlies Christmas Walk off nonetheless.

Charlie posing with a backdrop of downtown

There was a large raft of ducks, seen here with Lionsgate Bridge in the background



The lighthouse on the North East side of the park

Having a festive swim & stick fetch

Posing post swim

More swimming

Towel dryed off, ready to go home

When we got home we were surprised to find a good 2-3cms of snow had fallen while we were out, and Charlie was dismayed to remember that he had left a bone in the garden before we went on our walk. He is seen here desperately trying to find it. He does eventually track it down and quickly eats it before it can get lost again.

All in all, a good Christmas day of walks in the morning and sofa-snoozing in the afternoon. A proper dogs Christmas.

Christmas Lights

While there are a number of non-Christian or non-celebrating households, those that do celebrate Christmas and express it with festive lighting more than make up for it.

Here are a selection of our neighbours homes with their seasonal displays......

Christmas Tree

So this is 2007's Christmas Tree. It is a 6' noble fir, similar to the one we had last year. We have also succeeded in filling the space under with presents which is pretty impressive as we didn't really have many people to buy for. I guess Charlie's going to be very lucky again this year.

Merry Christmas to All

It is times like these that we miss our family & friends the most. Know that we are thinking of you all at Christmas.

Have a Very Merry Christmas and an even better 2008!

(Click Link)

Love

D & A

Work's do.

Some pics from the Work's Christmas Do.

Sprout Eating

A bit of fun for Christmas.....

Click Here For Sprout Game

Getting Ready for Party Season

Need we say more ?

Bon Jovi

On Sunday 16th Dec I went to a Bon Jovi concert as part of their Lost Highway tour, held at GM Place here in Vancouver. I had been lucky enough to win a ticket at David's works Christmas party the previous week. I went with 'the girls' (Davids colleagues) while David stayed at Donnellys (Jaimes husband) and played games on their XBox360.

The gig was particularly good because the band apparently love Vancouver having written three of their albums here and so did 3hr sets on their Saturday and Sunday night performances, consisting of all the tracks of their current album Lost Highway together with all of their number 1's. Add to that the pre-Christmas treats of a couple of Christmas songs and a visit by Santa and a it was quite a party with a great time had by all.

Obviously the lighting did little to help get good photos (nor did not taking a camera!) but I did manage to scrounge some images off of Addy.

Below is the group of us at Jaime & Donnellys apartment before we left.

From left to right,
Me, Addy, Bonnie, Caroline, Jaime, Andrea & Jen (who somehow managed not to go into labour during the night !)

Another pic of Jaime & Addy

A view down onto the stage....obviously much clearer when we were there than in the picture with low resolution and poor light


And a visit by Santa.......

Fun News

A example of good Canadian News Broadcasting

Happy Chanukah

OK so we are a bit late but couldn't resist posting this.

D & A

Charlie Loves Canada!

Those of you that know Charlie are aware that when he is having fun it usually involves some shakin' of Booty. Either the waving of his long furry butt or wiggling of his stump!

As this video montage demonstrates, Charlie has alot of fun here......



D & A

Turbidity Returns

OK so once again with dramatic weather and raging rivers (see previous post) our resevoirs have been churned up and 'turbidity' levels are high. Fortunately this time no sewage works were compromised and despite the lack of clarity of our tap water apparently it is safe to drink. As you can see from our tap 'vs' bottled water picture we are using bottled to drink!!

High Water

Our recent snow fall was short lived as our weather has been very changeable. Starting with temperatures of -3 and about 4 inches of snow (see previous post) we then got a 'Pineapple Express', so named because of the warm air and heavy rain rushing up from the South Pacific. The Temperature went from -3 to +13 within 24 hours, melting the snow very quickly. Combine this with the washing away effect of 100 mm of rain and our usually little creek to the front of our house was transformed into white water rapids!!



D & A

Cheers!

Thanks to Carol & Neil who gave us this rather lovely bottle of Champagne before we left for Canada. We were too busy to enjoy it when we arrived so saved it for a special occaision. Well we very much enjoyed it last month marking our pseudo 10 year anniversary. Yes we have been together for 10 years!!!

Bubbly was awesome and went particularly well with our lunch of Gravadlax & king Prawns. Yum !

A toast "To the next 10!"

XX

D & A

Let it Snow

Video captured this morning. It is really feeling like Christmas now!

Happy Birthday Mum

This Time last year Mum (AKA Sue) visited us to celebrate her 60th Birthday. Unfortunately this year we have not been able to share the day with her. We had a chat on the webcam and looking at photos & video is a great way to remember & keep in touch.

Still playing around with video stuff so here is one for mum....

Winter's Here (Again)

We had our first storm of the winter pass through earlier this week. Whilst it managed to knock power out to over 200,000 homes we escaped unscathed.

These couple of pictures were taken walking Charlie in Princess Park. The Parks Board had to close part of the park while they dealt with a tree that had snapped and then leant precariously against another.

Lake Louise

There's not a whole lot to say that the photos here don't do better. Lake Louise is beautiful any day & time of the year, but our day there in October was just about perfect....crisp cold morning (about -5 overnight, -1/0 while we were there) blue sky, plenty of fresh snow on the mountains.

Spiral Tunnels

This blog entry is in particular for Anne & Ian.

In 1884 the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) wanted to get a line through the Rockies, but in the Kicking Horse Canyon between Golden and Lake Louise the terrain was extremely steep. As a temporary measure they built a direct line at grade 4.5% (instead of the steepest ever built before of 2.2%). However, despite many safety measures there were numerous fatal accidents (typically brakes failing and trains running away as they decended the hill) and there were few engines powerful enough to pull trains up the steep hill.

Eventually in 1906 they found funding to build two huge spiral tunnels in the mountainside to enable the track to pass through the canyon at a lower grade. The tunnels opened in 1909. Whilst the tunnels were hugely expensive they had the great attraction that the track would not be subject to avalanches as the area was prone to.

These images show the lower spiral, tunnel entrance and general area. This entry is for Anne & Ian because they have actually been through these tunnels on the Rocky Mountaineer.



This is an old drawing of the valley, showing the layout of the track with the two spiral tunnels (the dotted sections being the tunnels).


Since our timing didn't include a train using the tunnels, I had to steal one off of the internet. The trains are often 80-100 carriages long, so are still going in the tunnel whilst the front has appeared below it as shown in this photo.

Vancouver Fashion Statement

OK so winter has arrived here in Vancouver which on the most part means loads of rain!

Funny how this can effect even the most fashion conscious.....

David Beckham Comes to town - Reaction

So david Beckham comes to town and look what happens.....

Vancouver Pride

For the second year running this summer we had a great day at Pride. Vancouver has a strong and integrated Gay community of which we are proud to be a part. It is open, inclusive and honoured.

This year we had our new video camera so I have been able to make this video to share the fun of the parade!

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The RCMP are our everyday police force and on the whole look very much like any other modern force. Their history however is one of a pioneering hardy decendant of the victorian evolution from the 'Red coats'. In the way that the British police owe their tradition from the first Peelers in London.

In their traditional dress they represent a classic Canadian icon. I had not seen a 'Real Mountie' until my recent trip to Regina where we met a recent graduate of the RCMP academy in full ceremonial dress for his graduation parade whilst he waited to pick up his proud family at the airport.

I was not previously aware but all RCMP conduct their basic training at 'Depot' in Regina. It would appear that Regina is the home of the RCMP. A trip to the recently built museum center was great fun; including some dressing up!!!!





Not sure why but the outfits were too small for me to put on, they were only really big enough for children!

For more info on the RCMP visit http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/