Looking back on 2014

LOOKING BACK ON 2014!

Last year I wrote my review but never got around to posting it, so I posted 2013 and 2014 at the same time!

January: The start to the year was the continuation of miserable winter weather; ice storms and heavy snow falls damaged more trees and my commute turned into a 2.5 hr drive from hell on some days!
A pic of our driveway...

Just joking.. but that's what it felt like!
Here's our real driveway...

February: Still cold. We warmed ourselves up with all you can eat Chinese buffet to celebrate several February birthdays in Ryan's family! In this pic is his Papa Randal, Nanny Mary, Sister Ralene, Mum Renee and Nephew Mason.

 

 

Even the kitty cats were cold...

 

April: Mum, dad and family friend Miranda came out to visit for a week before heading off to the boat. I couldn't believe that there was still on snow on the ground at this point! Never the less we got cracking on landscaping around the pool (to our dismay the soil was still frozen hard...didn't plan on that!) We took a touristy trip to Niagara Falls, one of my favourite places! We played arcade games and I even persuaded them to do a round of dinosaur mini golf.. hurrah!

Pool before

 Pool after

April: Ryan and I flew down to Washington DC the next week with my mum and dad. The yacht was moored in Norfolk, Virginia, a few hours south of DC. We were super impressed with all the (free) Smithsonian museums , and the city was absolutely beautiful with lots of cherry blossoms in full bloom. I would say it's the nicest city in America that I've been.

 

Summer: Ryan and I decided not to go away and to just enjoy the house and the pool (which was such a novelty!) On Canada Day we took Mason to see a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game, his first ever!

 

July: Another visit from Mum and Dad, once again passing by on their way to the yacht, which was moored in Annapolis, MD. We took a trip to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition), and I got free tickets to the airshow from work! The airshow was a bit disappointing, it was so hot everyone was huddled under trees for shade. However, the trees made it difficult to see any of the planes haha! We also had some of Ryan's family round to the house to meet my parents for the first time!

The week after, I headed down to DC alone this time to meet up with Paul, Dee, Derek (Dee's 4yr old son) Mum and Dad! It was a lot of fun and reminded me of all the great things and crappy things about boat life! (Mainly throwing up my breakfast burrito off the back of the boat whilst clinging on so I didn't fall overboard!) and wandering an hour to find a Chinese restaurant that didn't exist (oh google maps you let us down that day!) Let us never speak of that outing again.
We also visited the Smithsonian Zoo with Paul Dee and Derek. The best part was watching the lion cubs, but it made me sad that they were in captivity. It was fun but I don't think I'll visit zoos anymore. It just doesn't seem right.
Annapolis is just beautiful, mum and I liked to frequent the Starbucks with free wifi and I'd download our favourite shows to watch in the evening!

 

 

This summer we had an unexpected visitor at (or should I say IN) our house. A snake decided to start living in our exterior wall right by the front door. It used one of the ventilation holes to get in and out, and one day... if that isn't creepy enough... I found it's skin hanging out of the hole in the wall! Then my dad sent me a link on how garter snakes can lay 50 live baby snakes at once *shudder*.
I'd become quite fond of our little snakey friend, and after several failed attempts to humanely catch it, I waited until it was out of the wall then plugged up all the holes! I think it went to live under the deck which is fine with me!

In November we ended up taking a last minute trip to Cuba! We stayed at the Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin. It was a lovely resort and the Cuban people all seemed genuinely happy. Ryan's favourite thing was the swim up bar in the pool! It grossed me out a little though because we would see the same people sitting around the bar for literally hours and hours drinking....and it started to make us wonder where they are all peeing!!! My favourite part was definitely the coral reef off the beach, every day I'd go for a little snorkel, I saw an amazing chameleon fish. Ryan was a little nervous of the snorkelling and the first time he went in, he caught his hand on a rock and thought he'd been stunf by a sea urchin so he was flailing around all over the place!!

December we had a stressful time replacing the floors at the house, but we finally managed to get them done in time for Christmas! We were able to get away to Blue Mountain Resort for a night to celebrate Ryan's cousins birthday! It's like a mini whistler with "ski village" shops and nightlife. The slopes aren't anything like Whistler though! We had a great time and boogied the night away.

That's all I can think of for now. 2015 is going to be exciting because any day now we'll have the arrival of the very first grandbaby in the family. Paul's girlfriend Dee is due to have a little girl at the end of January! Until next year...

Looking back on 2013

                   Looking back on 2013!!

Wow I'm really late doing this blog this year, but as I've said before... Better late than never!! I like recapping the year because at first I think "well I didn't really do anything this year", but then when I really think about it I always come up with something!

February: Ryan and I went to Florida where we met my mum and dad, and Paul and Olly. We spent the first week in a rented Villa in Cape Coral, and the last 5 days we spent on a cruise to the Bahamas! 

Good things: playing jungle mini golf (this has to be one of my favourite things to do of all time!!), also meeting friends and playing stupid drinking games on the cruise "bar crawl". 

The not so good; the kayak tour through the mangroves was a bit of a let down, I was expecting snakes, and perhaps the odd alligator, but there were just tonnes of vines and a tour guide that acted just like Gareth Kenan!

 

 

Spring: this was my time to knuckle down at work. I was still training and in the most important stage of training. Spring/Summer got busy and I had to show that I could handle the traffic! There were some hairy moments that's for sure!

Summer: Paul and Dad bought an Oyster 55 yacht that was fire damaged (limited to the lounge area) and was sitting in a tiny town just north of Detroit, Mi. They came out and got to work on it, working like dogs for a few months and living in a hotel until it  was good enough to live on. I visited a couple of times since its only 4 or 5 ors away. The good; weeeeelll....there wasn't much good lets face it. The not-so-good: definitely when the marina girl gave me the keys for the washroom and said "it's just over there.."  I walked to said washroom, and went inside. Instantly I almost threw up, there was dried up shit in all the stalls and down some of the walls... I couldn't believe it! I went back and ranted to the marina girl. Turned out it was the WRONG washroom, and that one was "out of use for the season". Oops.

 

 

While Paul and Dad were visiting, Mum and Dan followed and stayed at our place in Brampton for the week. I took the opportunity to go with Paul and Dan to Canada's Wonderland, a massive theme park in Toronto. It was loads of fun going on the big coasters, but I had a shock when I started to feel nauseaus! I guess my aging boddy can't cope with coasters anymore!
 

Once the boat was looking reasonable, Mum and Danny came out to help launch it, and the.Olly and Angela came out and helped sail from Toronto down to Virginia! The good; visiting Michigan once the yacht was in the water and looking lovely. The not-so-good: the dingy ride!! I persuaded Ryan (who is wary of all things boaty) to take a dingy ride with Danny and I. He reluctantly agreed, and literally as soon as we set off, a storm hit and we got poured on with torrential rain and wind!! Needless to say he wasn't impressed!

 

August: Ryan's cousin and best friend Chad married his fiancée Kim. She is from a small beach town called Port Elgin, so they held the wedding there. The good: seeing Kim emerging from the shaded path onto the beach to walk down the isle, she was beautiful. The not-so-good: Ryan was wearing prescription sunglasses which he respectfully took off during the ceremony, leaving him unable to see anything the whole time!!!

 

August: August was a very special month for me because I qualified at work. Meaning, I am now a full air traffic controller. When I was training, had I not been successful, I would have been in danger of losing my job entirely. So it was quite a lot of pressure. Big thanks to my trainer Will who worked with me for a whole year, and was ultimately the person that qualified me.

 

Fall: Old family friend Jenny Barraclough and her boyfriend Michael came to visit for a few days on their trip across Canada to whistler! The good: visiting Niagara Falls, doing the maid of the mist! The not so good: the week before they visited it was summer, lovely and sunny and hot. The week they arrived, fall decided to come with them so the weather wasn't the best!

We saw Stereophonics play at the Danforth Music Hall, a super small veune in Toronto, how amazing!!

 

December: We bought a lovely house in Cambridge. I was dying to get out of our rental in Brampton, and I'm glad we did. Although the winter was to be one of the worst on record. There was a province-wide emergency after two huge ice storms hit and the sheer weight of the ice pulled down or damaged loads of trees and electric wires. Many people were left without power for 5 days leading up to Christmas Day. Luckily we had power the whole time, but we did have LOTS of tree damage that still hasn't been cleaned up! We will have to wait until Spring when the snow melts!