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!