Sunday, April 25, 2004
Road Trip, Baby!
Hey there,
Well, finally the weather was too good this time around to make the trip to Edmonton possible. We left on Friday night. It is just a crazy trip. Once you are on the main highway between Calgary and Edmonton it is just a straight road for about 350 kilometres. It makes the trip easier for Ryan who was driving, but it makes "I Spy" a little boring, with nothing but road and fields and sky! I can't wait to get a bit of driving done myself. The highways make it so easy...until you hit the city! Friday night was so windy too, and we were almost sand-blasted off the road when we stopped for something to eat. It made it harder to drive too, especially in a 1972 Valiant, but being difficult to drive in, and looking cool in a Valiant, evens itself out!!
We stayed with Ryan's aunt and uncle Gregg and Joanne, and their kids Christopher and Jesse. I have found my dream house..What a house. The jacuzzi bath was enough to have Sinead hooked! We arrived there pretty late so we pretty much went straight to bed, but we got up early then to go and watch Jesse and Christopher in a rugby match, which they won, of course! We went off to the West Edmonton Mall then. It's the largest shopping Mall in the world, with tons of shops, a hotel, a waterpark, an amusement park etc., etc. all under the one roof. The bungee jumping didn't happen as was expeted this weekend, (thank God!!!) but we are already planning a trip back for the waterpark, and the bungee jump is in the pool, so we'll have to wait and see. We also missed out on our trip to Hooters, for the chicken wings of course!! We made up for it with a delicious dinner made by Joanne. I avoided the spicy sauce option, but even the plain one was plenty spicy for me!
We all went back then to the Mall to go to the amusement park with the roller coasters etc., but we arrived there and the park was closed for a private party. We split up then and went to the arcade, while the girls went to Death By Chocolate...Sinead and Erin....Can't bring them anywhere!!
We left early then to come home, after another homemade breakfast, so that Erin could get to work. It was a really enjoyable weekend though, and really beautiful weather to go with it. Need to do a bit more thing like that on the weekends.
That's all for now though. Ryan is going to ask his cousin in Montreal about the best way to get tickets/accommodation for the grand prix too. Hopefully it will work out, if we're not too late in ordering them.
Thats it for now
Over and out
Dave
Well, finally the weather was too good this time around to make the trip to Edmonton possible. We left on Friday night. It is just a crazy trip. Once you are on the main highway between Calgary and Edmonton it is just a straight road for about 350 kilometres. It makes the trip easier for Ryan who was driving, but it makes "I Spy" a little boring, with nothing but road and fields and sky! I can't wait to get a bit of driving done myself. The highways make it so easy...until you hit the city! Friday night was so windy too, and we were almost sand-blasted off the road when we stopped for something to eat. It made it harder to drive too, especially in a 1972 Valiant, but being difficult to drive in, and looking cool in a Valiant, evens itself out!!
We stayed with Ryan's aunt and uncle Gregg and Joanne, and their kids Christopher and Jesse. I have found my dream house..What a house. The jacuzzi bath was enough to have Sinead hooked! We arrived there pretty late so we pretty much went straight to bed, but we got up early then to go and watch Jesse and Christopher in a rugby match, which they won, of course! We went off to the West Edmonton Mall then. It's the largest shopping Mall in the world, with tons of shops, a hotel, a waterpark, an amusement park etc., etc. all under the one roof. The bungee jumping didn't happen as was expeted this weekend, (thank God!!!) but we are already planning a trip back for the waterpark, and the bungee jump is in the pool, so we'll have to wait and see. We also missed out on our trip to Hooters, for the chicken wings of course!! We made up for it with a delicious dinner made by Joanne. I avoided the spicy sauce option, but even the plain one was plenty spicy for me!
We all went back then to the Mall to go to the amusement park with the roller coasters etc., but we arrived there and the park was closed for a private party. We split up then and went to the arcade, while the girls went to Death By Chocolate...Sinead and Erin....Can't bring them anywhere!!
We left early then to come home, after another homemade breakfast, so that Erin could get to work. It was a really enjoyable weekend though, and really beautiful weather to go with it. Need to do a bit more thing like that on the weekends.
That's all for now though. Ryan is going to ask his cousin in Montreal about the best way to get tickets/accommodation for the grand prix too. Hopefully it will work out, if we're not too late in ordering them.
Thats it for now
Over and out
Dave
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Somebody please tell Canada it's April!!
Hey there,
How's it all going? It's been ages since I wrote but have been working so had no access to net really.
"April Showers" definitely fits in well here! Last Tuesday we were ready to walk around in shorts in +18 weather and we woke up on Thursday morning to 10cm of snow! Crazy-ass country!
So here's whats been going on. I've been working in an oil lab here taking samples which then head off to the lab to be analysed etc. It sounds pretty good but really its dirty, heavy, cover-alls work. I was ready to quit yesterday becuase I'm working with two guys that hate each other and they are using games on me to piss each other off. It's stupid and yesterday was the worst day of it, but one of the guys is finishing up soon so I'll stick it out a bit longer and see how it works out.
Calgary is going "Flames Mad" here at the moment, with the local hockey team, the Calgary Flames, in the Play-offs, and only need to win the game tonight to make it into the next round. The atmosphere is great. Tickets are in the range of $200 or more though.
Well, we had a Good Easter. Spent the Easter weekend at the church really. I was part of the Good Friday drama thing that Ryan had been part of in Mahon too. After that we went for food with Ryan and Erin to a place called Open Sesame. It was beautiful. You pick what sort of rice/noodles you want first and then you get a bowl and you pick put all the vegetables you want in and they sauces you want and you put it on the counter and the chef throws it onto the flaming pan before your eyes. I'd definitely go back again. It was gorgeous. We went back to ryans place then and met his cousins and smoked his Egyptian Shisha. Its flavoured tobacco - nothing too illegal!!
We were in big demand for Easter dinner too with both Erin and Jeff's parents giving us invitations, but first come, first served...so we went to Erin's. On the Saturday though we were on the C-Train and the train hit a J-walker. It's kind o0f scary but I don't think he was hurt. We went to the Easter Vigil then at 9 and it lasted for 3 hours but it was really nice - candle-lit, music and 3 young people (about age 16/17) were baptised. It was cool to see, and they were kneeling in the big baptismal font they have here. I don't think they were expecting to get that wet though!! Then went to Brewsters after for some raspberry beer...Yum!
Easter Sunday was spent at Erins and once again we got a doggy bag to bring home. I haven't enjoyed a dinner so much since we were there for Christmas!!! And it really makes you miss your Mummys cooking!
Well, thats all for now. Sorry I'm so bad for sending emails etc. but time is short as ususal! Hope you are all well. Take care
All the best
David
How's it all going? It's been ages since I wrote but have been working so had no access to net really.
"April Showers" definitely fits in well here! Last Tuesday we were ready to walk around in shorts in +18 weather and we woke up on Thursday morning to 10cm of snow! Crazy-ass country!
So here's whats been going on. I've been working in an oil lab here taking samples which then head off to the lab to be analysed etc. It sounds pretty good but really its dirty, heavy, cover-alls work. I was ready to quit yesterday becuase I'm working with two guys that hate each other and they are using games on me to piss each other off. It's stupid and yesterday was the worst day of it, but one of the guys is finishing up soon so I'll stick it out a bit longer and see how it works out.
Calgary is going "Flames Mad" here at the moment, with the local hockey team, the Calgary Flames, in the Play-offs, and only need to win the game tonight to make it into the next round. The atmosphere is great. Tickets are in the range of $200 or more though.
Well, we had a Good Easter. Spent the Easter weekend at the church really. I was part of the Good Friday drama thing that Ryan had been part of in Mahon too. After that we went for food with Ryan and Erin to a place called Open Sesame. It was beautiful. You pick what sort of rice/noodles you want first and then you get a bowl and you pick put all the vegetables you want in and they sauces you want and you put it on the counter and the chef throws it onto the flaming pan before your eyes. I'd definitely go back again. It was gorgeous. We went back to ryans place then and met his cousins and smoked his Egyptian Shisha. Its flavoured tobacco - nothing too illegal!!
We were in big demand for Easter dinner too with both Erin and Jeff's parents giving us invitations, but first come, first served...so we went to Erin's. On the Saturday though we were on the C-Train and the train hit a J-walker. It's kind o0f scary but I don't think he was hurt. We went to the Easter Vigil then at 9 and it lasted for 3 hours but it was really nice - candle-lit, music and 3 young people (about age 16/17) were baptised. It was cool to see, and they were kneeling in the big baptismal font they have here. I don't think they were expecting to get that wet though!! Then went to Brewsters after for some raspberry beer...Yum!
Easter Sunday was spent at Erins and once again we got a doggy bag to bring home. I haven't enjoyed a dinner so much since we were there for Christmas!!! And it really makes you miss your Mummys cooking!
Well, thats all for now. Sorry I'm so bad for sending emails etc. but time is short as ususal! Hope you are all well. Take care
All the best
David
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Mmm, doughnuts!
Hey there,
Well since I last wrote I have been to two interviews for a new job. I was half excited about them since they were for "Marketing" firms, but the first one was for a job where you arrange appointments by phone to call to people's houses and try to sell them CUTCO cutlery. The money was good but they said that I didn't have enough contacts in Calgary to get started, because they get you to do presentations for people you know and then get them to call their friends to organise more jobs for you etc. The guy doing the recruiting for the job looked younger than me (and thats young!), and he looked like he was wearing his dad's suit which was that bit too big for him!
The other interview, I was brought out for a day into the "field" (it's always a bad sign when you hear that!), to see what the job was like. So, as you have probably already guessed, it was door-to-door selling, trying to get people to change from one phone company to another. The work and the hours was crap. For 8 hours of knocking on people's door, the guy I was with, got 3 or 4 sales. Pretty disheartening work really. But everyone working there is aiming at owning their own offices one day. They each build up teams of sellers and eventually when you move up the ranks to having your own office, you can just sit on your ass all day and cream commission off all of the slaves you have out door-todoor selling!! Again, good commission, but not my cup of tea!
Had interview today for Norwest Labs. It's a chemical labourer job - cutting, marking and bagging oil samples. Starts tomorrow. We'll see how it goes til something else comes along!!! So today I went off after the interview to buy steel-toed boots for the job and dropped into Krispy Kreme (oooooohhh! Heaven!)
For all you Irish reading this, Krispy Kreme have just arrived in Calgary and there have been queues, and people directing the traffic for the drive-through window since it opened, about this day last week. But you can't understand it......until you taste it! And queueing for it today we were all handed a sample as you walk through the line, and actually see the doughnuts being made, as you wait behind the other 400 people in the queue in front of you!!!! Well worth it though, even after the queue, and almost eing blown off the road today by the wind - crazy weather again! I think I got more wind-burn!
I was supposed to be helping Ryan out at the Church for the Stations on Good Friday, but it all depends now on what hours I'm working. Ryan has invited us to spend Easter Sunday with him too, so that should be fun.
Oh, and we finally got our clocks put forward an hour, a week after all of ye at home, so its back to a 7 hour time difference.
Well, thats it for now.
Take care
Dave
Well since I last wrote I have been to two interviews for a new job. I was half excited about them since they were for "Marketing" firms, but the first one was for a job where you arrange appointments by phone to call to people's houses and try to sell them CUTCO cutlery. The money was good but they said that I didn't have enough contacts in Calgary to get started, because they get you to do presentations for people you know and then get them to call their friends to organise more jobs for you etc. The guy doing the recruiting for the job looked younger than me (and thats young!), and he looked like he was wearing his dad's suit which was that bit too big for him!
The other interview, I was brought out for a day into the "field" (it's always a bad sign when you hear that!), to see what the job was like. So, as you have probably already guessed, it was door-to-door selling, trying to get people to change from one phone company to another. The work and the hours was crap. For 8 hours of knocking on people's door, the guy I was with, got 3 or 4 sales. Pretty disheartening work really. But everyone working there is aiming at owning their own offices one day. They each build up teams of sellers and eventually when you move up the ranks to having your own office, you can just sit on your ass all day and cream commission off all of the slaves you have out door-todoor selling!! Again, good commission, but not my cup of tea!
Had interview today for Norwest Labs. It's a chemical labourer job - cutting, marking and bagging oil samples. Starts tomorrow. We'll see how it goes til something else comes along!!! So today I went off after the interview to buy steel-toed boots for the job and dropped into Krispy Kreme (oooooohhh! Heaven!)
For all you Irish reading this, Krispy Kreme have just arrived in Calgary and there have been queues, and people directing the traffic for the drive-through window since it opened, about this day last week. But you can't understand it......until you taste it! And queueing for it today we were all handed a sample as you walk through the line, and actually see the doughnuts being made, as you wait behind the other 400 people in the queue in front of you!!!! Well worth it though, even after the queue, and almost eing blown off the road today by the wind - crazy weather again! I think I got more wind-burn!
I was supposed to be helping Ryan out at the Church for the Stations on Good Friday, but it all depends now on what hours I'm working. Ryan has invited us to spend Easter Sunday with him too, so that should be fun.
Oh, and we finally got our clocks put forward an hour, a week after all of ye at home, so its back to a 7 hour time difference.
Well, thats it for now.
Take care
Dave
