Away 'Cross the Ocean, Away 'Cross the Foam!

Hey there,

Well, it's hard to believe but this day 6 weeks we will be at home in Ireland.  We are leaving here slightly earlier than we had anticipated, but saying that, the time has still gone by much too quickly.  This week is the end of the work here and we have a car booked for the 9th of August so planning a three-week adventure of a lot of travelling and sight-seeing etc, so hopefully the Blog here will be full of interesting stuff in the next few weeks!

Planning to hit Vancouver and Vancouver Island on the 1oth of August and spend a good few days there, taking in the sights etc. and work our way from there to do as much as we can before making our way to Toronto at the start of September, and do a few trips from there, like Niagara Falls, and the flight home is then booked for the 6th of September.  It seems so close but can't wait to get in more travelling.

Oh yeah, and just if you are wondering where the title of the blog came from, here it is.... a bit of Christy Moore! 

And you can listen to 30 seconds of the song here by clicking on the orange play symbol next to the song: 
http://ubl.artistdirect.com/store/artist/album/0,,134002-469831,00.html

Missing You
"In nineteen hundred and eighty six
There's not much for a chippie but swinging a pick
And you can't live on love, on love alone
So you sail cross the ocean, away cross the foam
To where you're a Paddy, a Biddy or a Mick
Good for nothing but stacking a brick
Your best mate's a spade and he carries a hod
Two work horses heavily shod
Oh I'm missing youI'd give all for the price of a flight
Oh I'm missing you under Piccadilly's neon
Who did you murder, are you a spy?
I'm just fond of a drink helps me laugh, helps me cry
So I just drink red biddy for a permanent high
I laugh a lot less and I'll cry till I die
All ye young people now take my advice
Before crossing the ocean you'd better think twice
Cause you can't live without love, without love alone
The proof is round London in the nobody zone
Where the summer is fine, but the winter's a fridge
Wrapped up in old cardboard under Charing Cross Bridge
And I'll never go home now because of the shame
Of misfit's reflection in a shop window pane"
 
Well, that's it for the moment
Take care and see you soon!
Dave

Hey there,
 
Well it is finally feeling like a real summer...it's been in the thirties, weather-wise for the past week.   It's even a bit too hot for my liking, but since it could be snowing next week we're not complaining!!!
 
We went for a B-B-Q in Ryan's place on Saturday night and it was really nice, and it really felt like the beginning of summer, with a b-b-q, beer and some shisha.  We went to the last day of the stampede then yesterday, and spent most of our time at the rodeo.  It was really cool and hopefully the pictures will turn out well too.  Got a bit burnt but it was really worth it, and Erin was right -  the mini-donuts were well worth the wait!!! 
 
Just on the phone to Nana at home too.  It was great to hear all the news.  Looking forward to seeing everyone again pretty soon.  This year has gone much too fast...it's crazy!
 
Thats it from me for now
David

Well, from what we have seem so far, car rentals for the month are looking more expensive than we expected...so if there's anybody out there who doesn't need their car for the month of September we would gladly take it off their hands!!! And we promise that we will leave it in a nice and safe area of Toronto!!!.....OK so, we will bring it back to Calgary!!!!

Dave-id

Hey there,

Well, the Calgary Stampede officially kicked off today with the Stampede Parade. We are hoping to get to see a bit of it this weekend, and bits and pieces over the duration of the Stampede. The city is really buzzing at the moment. There is so much to do for the week, and hopefully we will see a lot of it. But with work now, I'm working the 3 - 10pm shift so it might be a bit hard.

I can't believe that this time last year we hadn't even booked our trip to Canada but already we are planning our trip home. The plans so far are that we will work this July and August and go travelling for a month in September, and fly home at the start of October. It's a month earlier than the full year, but we thought that weather-wise, September would be better and safer to travel in, than October. It really sounds like no time at all when you see it written down like that. We think we will probably head to the west coast first, out to Vancouver and then make our way back to Calgary to say our last goodbyes and then make our way east towards Toronto from where we fly home. Have to go check on car rental prices, accommodation etc. to get an idea now. Can't wait to get on the road again, even though the year has gone much too quickly.

Anyway, thats it for now.

Yahoo!
Dave

Hi

Well, went for the interview this morning for the Market Reearch job and got it. The guy that hired me at the other place wasn't too impressed that I was asking for a day off after my first day, but what can you do?! I wonder what he'll say when I tell him I'm leaving!! And I have to leave straight away because they have a 2-day training for the Market Research job, starting tomorrow!

Anyway, that's it for now

Dave

Hey there,

Well, after much scouring of the Canadian world for any job resembling a Marketing connection, nothing turned up and so I replied to places which were looking for labourers etc. just to earn a few 'squid' for the travels. I ended up with a job that had me awake this morning at 5.30am, on my birthday of all days (Yes, for all of those who remembered I thank you so much, and for all those who forgot....I know where you live!!!) So, the job....I was literally working for peanuts! It's a food processing company that packages and sells their own brand of peanuts, nut raisins, fruit punch etc. We only live 5 minutes walk from Chinatown here in Calgary and I'm sure one of the 15 million Chinese people working in the job could give me a lift to work - (It was crazy, it was nothing but Chinese women working there!) The day passed pretty quickly though and the money is good enough too, but as always happens, I spend weeks looking for a job and the day I start, I get a phonecall from a marketing company, to come for an interview tomorrow. It would be market research (The people everybody loves to hate!), but it would probably look better on the CV than peanut-packer (No jokes allowed here, for all of those dirty minded people!)

Anyway, we'll see how it goes tomorrow, and of course, the David Nolan tradition, I have to call in sick to the other job after just one day...some things never change!!

Had a lovely celebration dinner for my birthday on Saturday with Sinead, after a morning trip for a "Belly-buster" breakfast. We went to Brewsters in the Eau Claire for the meal and then went to see Spiderman 2 - (definitely better than the first one!)
Got lovely presents today too from Sinead and received the second of two parcels from home. The labels for the parcels got mixed up when they were being sent though, so the contents of the package reading Shirt and T-Shirt actually had chocolate and T-bags in it, and thus was probably the reason for it being stopped in customs, and led to me incurring the cost of $67 dollars for taxes etc.....for T-bags!!! That happened us before though and we can get the money back for it, so don't worry Mum!!!

Nothing else strange or startling at the moment.
Thanks again to all who remembered my birthday...your reward will be great in heaven!!!

Take it easy
David