Man-flu and overload on Italian grub

I am rarely sick but for the last few days I have been coughing like a seal and today I almost lost my voice. I kinda sounded like Stephen Hawking in most of my meetings at work, which someone kindly pointed out to me as well! I was planning on, and was looking forward to, meeting up with our Dublin-friend Jenny after work but once I got home I realized that that was just not going to happen. All this because of a severe case of the man-flu! Total bummer that I don't get to meet up with Jenny and instead, I will be spending the night coughing and moaning about nothing at all whilst feeling sorry for myself.

So, blessed with yet another chunk of spare time I started thinking about dinner options and instantly ruled out Italian. We had a business lunch at work today in an Italian restaurant and last night I went out for dinner with a colleague from work, also in an Italian restaurant. But then I started counting backwards and realized that I have actually had Italian food so many times it is almost verging on insanity! Earlier this week I had made a Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner at home from which, as I don't have another mouth to feed right now, l had enough leftovers for not only one but two lunchboxes to bring to work. Going back another couple of days to last week, as you know, I also had Italian not only one but two times last Wednesday. Grand total: 7 Italian meals in 7 days!

So to break this unfortunate but oh so tasty stride of Italian lunches and dinners, I am having a good old Chicken Tikka tonight and will be kicking back with one of my favorite episodes of How I met Your Mother; 'Slapsgiving' where Marshall is handing out the final slap to Barney after a 'Slap-bet' and finishes the show with a song that he wrote for Barney:

"Slapetizers, anyone?"

Ethan living it up in Canada

With his new buddy Dallas...and his new outfit.

With his new spoon...and his new outfit.

With his beautiful mommy...and his new outfit. See a pattern here?
Someone is getting spoilt!

Another recap of a bee-zay week

Let me give you an update on what has been up for this past week and a bit. Shaena and Ethan left for Canada on Friday morning for their epic mother-and-son journey. The same evening I was invited to Piers' house to help with with his computer and also for dinner and drinks. We definitely made a decent effort at sorting out his computer, but the delicious Thai-food and the wine from their wine club strong-armed us so in the end, the computer did not get sorted out and I had to go back there yesterday to finish the job.

On Saturday and Sunday I had homework to do to prepare for my course in London that was to take place on Sunday morning. So I did. I read through case study after case study and actually found some of them quite interesting after a while. The course on the Monday however, was super-interesting and the visiting professor from the University of North Carolina, Dr. Daniel Cable, was both witty, entertaining but most of all, thought provoking. He really knew how to keep the discussions and though process going for a whole day. In the end of the day he also gave us a signed copy of his book 'Change to Strange'. In the evening, our class went for a 'networking dinner' at an Italian restaurant. I never thought that you could get disappointed by Italian food, I have always seen pasta as a safe bet, but our Chicken Milanese was terrible. Tasted like fish and it seemed like it had been in the frying pan for the past 2 weeks.

On Wednesday it was back to work and we had a visitor from Sweden in the office so lots of meetings and discussions on how we do things, how we can do things better, how they work in the office over in Stockholm, process, workflow... you know, sexy conversations like that. Very interesting and very needed however. In the evening... wait for it... more wine and dine! Our visitor wanted to take us out for dinner so we had reserved a table at an Italian restaurant, yes lots of Italian food in one go, but I can't really complain as I organized the whole thing. Before knowing that we would get crap Italian in London, of course! :)

On Friday evening I was exhausted after the long days and nights of the past week and pretty much fell asleep standing as I walked through the front door after work. Slept all of Friday night away and woke up around 10-ish on Saturday morning, and off I went again! Piers obviously wanted to get the rest of his computer stuff sorted and after that we were to head out for the Scotland-Ireland rugby game at Malone's bar. We had a great night and a ton of our friends showed up, only downside is that I can only sit through so much sport before I: a) get really really bored, or b) pull my hair out and eat my hat.

On the agenda for today: Housework! As I have not had a chance to be home much this past week, I am really looking forward to some good ol' dusting, vacuuming and laundry.

A few snaps from last night, borrowed from Jen's camera:
(As this is a family blog, I opted to leave out any evidence of Nicky's 'knee-high-pink-and-gray-tartan-sock dance show' as it may severely scar young retinas)

To the place of "origin"

Well we've been here for a few days now and quiet and sickly as they may have been, it has been nice to be surrounded by family. Ethan and I arrived to Jessika collecting us from the airport and after I informed her of my brief breakdown in the Toronto airport to a helpless customer service agent, I was welcomed with open arms and a Timmy's Tea! BOOM!

It really is nice just to sit back and let everyone paw over Ethan. He is enjoying it more than I can describe and is full of giggles constantly. Tonight is St. Paddy's Day and a few friends and family are heading out on the town. We were going to go to Dylan's Pub but $15 cover is ridiculous so instead we're heading to a bar/grill I've never been to before but it has no cover and Karaoke!!! Bust it!

Grandma is with Ethan playing with his new toys she just bought him. Can we say spoilt?

Tower of London & Tower Bridge this fine afternoon

Prep for Sweden 101: How to recognize accents

This is how people from Piteå are likely to sound like:



...and this is what to expect from people further north around Haparanda:
(skip to 5.40)

Cheerios, Chinese food and Harvard case studies = Busy week!

Let’s recap. This week has been another one of those tornado-like fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of weeks. So let’s start with Sunday, my birthday. Shaena took us out for brunch at our favorite breakfast restaurant around the corner, Indigo yard and we all took our good time; some of us were eating food and some of us were eating cookies with the entire face. Guess who. We have introduced Ethan to Cheerios and Rusks this week and he loves them! He can down Cheerios by the fistful and can savor the taste of a Rusk cookie for a food 15 minutes. Somehow he seems to think that it is funny to snack on those Cheerios, as when he gets a few of them, he’ll smile from ear to ear and you can really tell that he is thoroughly enjoying feeding himself.

Other than that, we have also finally ironed out dates for our trip up north in Sweden this summer and the research pro referenced in the entry below and I have spent hours trying to find the best deals and the best trip options. We have now booked our flights to Sweden, but still have to figure out what the best option is to get back, as the second session of the leadership program I am attending for work is to take place somewhere in Europe, not sure where yet, the day after our holidays are up.

Yesterday after work Maeghan dropped by to hang out and catch up after her fantastic trip to New Zealand and then Jen gave us a call and asked if she could pop by on her way home. ‘Of course you can!’ Jen also brought ‘Fun time Heather’ and their friend Claire. Since we are still overloaded with free wine from the housewarming party, some of us had a quick drinksy-poo and then as by magic we all had a simultaneous craving for ”Hellooo, Rice King!”. Fate had decided that we should treat ourselves to a Chinese feast, so we did. Completely ad-hoc and completely awesome!

Work has been manic for the last few weeks, sometimes enjoyable, sometimes just plain manic, but hey! That’s the way we roll in the fast-paced world of online business! On top of this I am heading down to London on Sunday to attend the first session of the same leadership program on Monday, so I really should be reading up on the Harvard case studies pre-course work that all participants have been tasked with reading. It’ll probably be my mission for Saturday to plow through all of that material and add my scribbles in the margins, like a real student. Will probably also uncork a bottle of wine while doing this, like a real student.

Shaena and Ethan are leaving for ‘the place of origin’ tomorrow morning so off to the airport we’ll go. Having said that, this is probably our queue to go to bed and catch a few winks.

I think someone should scout me out and hire me

I'd like to think that I am a helpful researcher when it comes to various items and I think my dream job would be to assist people in various searches while working from home. For example, a friend of mine here in Edinburgh was having visa issues and being that I have read front to back the loop holes there are, I was able to assist her in finding the best route to apply for hers.

I am trying to pack for our trip tomorrow to our "place of origin", I don't tend to call Winnipeg home anymore...not because it isn't, just because I feel like home is here with Peter in Edinburgh. Actually, home is anywhere my family is now.

Anyway, I am currently researching what you can and can't bring for babies while traveling internationally. It looks like the airports are really lenient on bringing food/formula/toys but funny enough, there have been times that we get to the airport for international flights and they ask us for proof of address, birth certificates, etc and I'm like "Whoa, that wasn't on the website or anywhere in the T&C's" but they can ask for it and I'm sure they can refuse boarding if you do not produce such documents. So anyway, now I am prepared for most journeys.

So my areas of expertise are travel, visas...oh and finding wicked deals to your destination of choice. I think the trick is to be patient and to search, search, search. So anyone needing assistance, my fee is minimal! Give me a shout and I'll help!

Today is a sad day in the world

You may remember our guest blog written about Granny in Ireland...well Granny has gone on to a better place. Although I only met her the once, she was a privilege and an honour and was everything that I was expecting after Orlaith's many tales about her. If I can be half the woman she was at the age she was when she passed (in her 90's!..ah hem 39) I will feel like I conquered the world.

Here's to you Granny!

Happy Birthday to Peter!

You know I think Peter and I would make a great con-team! We scored some birthday brownie when we were out for brunch today and the waitress didn't even ask to see his credentials! We should do that more often!!

Finally we've located our camera charger so we were a bit snap happy today (heck, who am I kidding...we're snap happy all the time!)

Champagne Anniversary

Today marks my 4 years living abroad and being that it is March 4th, it is also my champagne anniversary! I never really understood why champagne was the drink of choice to mark such events. I mean, my birthday is the 1st and technically that means I would have had to have a swig of the bubbly when I was 1. Peter would have to when he was 7. At least Ethan has an appropriate age of 30.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary to me! Ps - Mother's Day is also this month in the UK...Present planning commences now.

Giggle bum

Shaena and Ethan to Canada

You may have figured it out already by watching our mysterious, riddling video below but mommy and Ethan are heading back to the prairielands of Canada in just over a week to visit family and friends. At first we were planning on keeping it a secret and Shaena, wild and crazy as she is, would fly over there and simply go knock on her mother’s door, but then decided that it would probably be a better idea to be a bit more organized about it. Either way, it is going to be a great trip for them and I know that Shaena is really looking forward to it, even though she might not be looking forward to the long flight over and back, but that is the price you have to pay for being an expat I guess.

Ethan on the other hand probably won’t mind at all. As long as he’ll get his playtime, his food and his naps on fairly set intervals, it doesn’t seem to matter to him that he’ll sometimes fall asleep in one country and wake up in a completely different one.

One of many things I admire about my wife is how she can get so many things organized in such a short period of time when she sets her mind to it. As this trip came up kind of last minute, in the last few days Shaena has been researching flight routes, prices, durations, been phoning around booking things like travel cots for Ethan, organizing dates and timing with family, borrowed a travel-friendly stroller and at the same time managed to do all our normal admin here at home, even to the point where she phoned up our broadband provider and questioned a £1.25 fee for paper invoicing, even though we have e-invoicing, and got the money refunded!

What about me then? Well, this time around I won't be joining them on the trip as I have to stay behind and work. I am actually heading down to London on a quick trip of my own shortly after they head off to Canada as my company has kindly invited me to a leadership training session. Should be very interesting of course, but other than that, I will probably take it relatively easy, hang out at home and Skype chat with my little family in the evenings. I will miss them dearly, that is for sure!

Seriously, what would we do without Skype? For one, we would be broke because of all the overseas phone bills, but most importantly, it would be quite hard to stay in contact with so many people and know when people are available etc without modern day technology like internet telephony. There! I said it! I plugged Skype once again. If we had a penny for every time…

Wait for it!