February 21 – February 28, 2016

I recently bought a book called Keep Calm and Pedal On. It has some great quotes in it: Some of the early attitudes to cyclists: “Velocipidists are imbeciles on wheels” – Le Gaulois, 1869.

I might add a new quote on each new post, if I remember.

At my first visit with my new Doctor in January I mentioned to her that Ralf was concerned about a couple of moles, I had on my neck and leg. Last week, after getting back from the UK I had two biopsies performed. I was very brave and didn’t cry, I didn’t get a lollipop or a sticker. Good news both of them came back negative, but this is a timely reminder to do as the Aussies tell you: Slip, Slop and Slap, they have also added Seek and Slide to the original recommendations.

• Slip on sun protective clothing that covers as much of your body as possible.
• Slop on SPF 30 or higher broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen, at least 20 minutes before sun exposure. Reapply every two hours when outdoors or more often if perspiring or swimming.
• Slap on a broad-brimmed hat that shades your face, neck and ears.
• Seek
• Slide on sunglasses

This link is for an ad that was promoted by the Victoria Cancer Council: http://www.sunsmart.com.au/tools/videos/current-tv-campaigns/slip-slop-slap-seek-slide-sid-seagull.html

When we were in Australia we were reminded of this Slip, Slop, Slap all the time. At almost every campsite there was a big bottle of sunscreen/sunblock on the counter at reception and we were always asked if we had put sunscreen/sunblock on and had enough in our bags. I had always been really careful about not burning and nagged Ralf about putting cream on before we left in the mornings. We didn’t burn once while we were away.

More and more people will be diagnosed with skin cancer in the coming years. Because, let’s face it when people of my generation were younger we never thought about putting sunscreen on – heck olive oil was good – we just wanted a tan. Some nationalities still haven’t got the message – you can always spot a Brit on a beach – they are the ones bright red with sunburns. SPF 8 does not cut it in Cuba, Greece or Spain or anywhere else in the world. Stay safe and Slip, Slop Slap. J

Ralf this week got his A-Z license renewed. It gives him better opportunities to find work, although I do not want him to drive tractor-trailer again, he could do shunt driving.

February 14 – 20, 2016

The deep-freeze has left us, and been replaced with snow! That damn rodent (Wiarton Willie) was right for a change – 6 more weeks of winter.

Fortunately for us to keep our sanity we have our bikes set up on the trainers and we are cycling every morning and dreaming of our next trip. Here is a conundrum, how come when I check my stats at the end of my training ride I have climbed anywhere from 4 to 14 metres, on a stationary bike in the spare room. I am cycling away, keeping a steady cadence of 81 rpm, heart rate is good, everything is going well, but I have gone up an incline of 4 metres to 14 metres. Remember I am in the spare room on a trainer. Inquiring minds need to know how that is possible.

Life is Like Riding a Bicycle – in order to keep your balance. You must keep moving. Albert Einstein

I have been working on promoting my business, visiting some of  the planning companies in Barrie. I am getting some work from Chris which is keeping me sane.

It was rather nerve wracking visiting all the planning companies in Barrie, I have never had to \”cold call\” before.   A couple of them seem interested, I will follow up next week, to see if they have any work for me. If not I will go to the Engineering companies.

Saturday Feb 20, 2016

I woke up this morning feeling sad and missing my Dad. I rolled over in bed and told Ralf I was missing my Dad, he put his arms around me and held me. That is why I love my husband, no words just holding me while I had a little cry.

February 8-14, 2016

We arrived back in Canada on Monday February 8, 2016 to a snow-storm and squalls as we drove home. The rest of the week was more snow and then on the week-end the temperature dropped to -27 with a windchill of -40 what on earth is that all about.

Why on earth did we opt to stay in Canada for the winter – we must be crazy!

I had work waiting for me from Chris, and kept busy for a couple of days.

Sunday was Valentine’s Day – a hallmark holiday that Ralf and I do not participate in. We show our love to each other every day, we don’t need a special day to remind us to do it.

The drive to the airport was uneventful and we had a good flight to the UK on February 1^st, 2016. The flights to the UK and Europe are always overnight flights and usually I get to sleep, but not this time unfortunately. The flight arriving at Gatwick was early, but we couldn’t get an earlier train to Long Eaton.

I am always amazed when I go to England how much green space there is. They have had a fairly mild winter and some of the trees were in blossom, the daffodils and spring bulbs were poking there heads up and some already blooming.

My niece picked us up from the station at noon and we had a nap in the afternoon. The rest of the week was busy, visiting family, getting together, crying and of course the funeral. As the hearse arrived with the flag draped coffin and the Last Post playing, I was sobbing, along with the rest of the family.

At the wake there were lots of tears, but also lots of laughs as we remembered all the good times we had with him.

We had a big family photo taken with the siblings and spouses and another one with all the Grand children and Great Grand children.

We were told not to wear black – but as a lot of us have black in the wardrobe, we had to accessorize with some colour. I loved Sharon\’s pink shoes.

Great Grandchildren to the left of Dawn – Grandchildren from Dawn and to the right

Bye Dad we all loved you so much.

The reason for the late postings.

We had a great day on Saturday January 16, 2016. We got the office set up and the road bikes set on the trainers – yeah we can start training again.

After a busy day of really getting the office and work-out room organized, we sat down with a glass of wine and were ready to relax for the evening. It was 8:30 pm.

Ralf checked on facebook and my sister-in-law had just posted a message to call my brother asap. It was 1:30 a.m. in England, I knew this wasn’t going to be good. My sister called almost at the same time.

It wasn’t good news – my Dad had passed away at 12:30 (an hour earlier).

My Dad joined our family when I was about 12, he was a big man over 6 feet with a very big heart. That big heart finally gave up.

What can I say about my Dad, he was kind, generous, funny. We all loved him very much. He was lost without my Mum who passed away in 2006 and in the last few months had been in and out of hospital. The family had got him into a care home for a couple of weeks to help him recover from the last stay in hospital and to give us a chance to look for a place for him with assisted care. We all felt that he was safe.

A few memories of my Dad:

Dad asked us all if he could marry my Mum, knowing that she would not say yes if we didn’t agree. When he proposed to my Mum she said “I have to check with the kids” his response was “I already have asked them and they have said yes”.

We used to take Sunday drives into Derbyshire, one of the best areas to go was Dovedale, where there were stepping stones over the Dove River, one of us always went home wet after missing a step or being “bumped” of the stone.

I left home and moved into my first flat with a couple of girls. Neither Mum or Dad liked one of the girls, but let me make my own mistakes. When I called to tell them that this particular girl had left with all the money for the utility bills, Dad came round with the car and picked me up. He spoke to the landlord and sorted everything. Dad (and Mum) was always supportive of whatever I did.

When Ralf called my Dad to ask if he could marry me (both Ralf and Dad old fashioned and military) he started to laugh – and cheer. I was the last of six to be married.

Mum and Dad came to visit us while we lived in Germany. We had just bought a new Saab. Dad was so excited to drive it, he had owned a Saab 96. We took them to Rottenburg ob der Tauber, my Mum who was the worst back seat driver (ever) held on to the “granny handle” and watched the odometer, if Ralf went over 130 kph, Mum used her “imaginary brake” which happened to be the mechanism where the seatbelt went into, this tightened Ralf’s seatbelt against his chest, he slowed down – Mum released her “brake” and that is how the trip went. Dad realized quickly that Mum was the “safety” in the new Saab.

So many memories of a great man.

After Mum passed away, Dad and my sister came to visit us in Canada. We went to Niagara Falls, Dad was so excited about going on the Maid of the Mist.

Ralf and Dad got on really well, it was close to Ralf’s birthday so Dad treated Ralf to a helicopter ride over the Falls.

I had a special week with my Dad when we spent a week crossing Canada on the train. We met in Vancouver (Dad flew in from the UK and I flew in from Ontario) we spent two days on the Rockie Mountaineer from Vancouver to Jasper and then spent a couple of days in Jasper together, followed by a trip on Via Rail to Toronto. While on the Via section of the trip there was a problem.

We came into Folyet a Northern Ontario Town and stopped, this was not a scheduled stop on the route. As Dad and I came from breakfast we noted the station was covered in police tape and the police were in Hazmat clothing.   There had been three unrelated instances on the train. One lady was airlifted to the local hospital with breathing problems, one of the carriages had Australians who were sick (as it turned out they had the flu, but Toronto had the SARS crisis the year before) and unfortunately a lady had died on the train. My Dad with his wonderful sense of humour kept saying “We’re doomed, we are on the plague train”. He had seen a movie with the “plague” on it and the train had driven over a wooden train trestle and fell into the ravine below in flames”. We were laughing so hard, we were crying, “We were doomed”. He wrote a great essay about our trip with his usual dry humour, so funny.

We visited him while we were on the Grand Adventure and every time we called him via skype he told us how proud he was of us.

Not half as proud as I was having him for a Dad. It’s not often you get to pick your Dad, we made a great choice. He was the best. Love you Dad.

We fly out to the UK on Monday February 1, 2016 next week for the funeral – February 4, 2016.

A slight delay in posting for January.

This post was going to start of with …. Nothing happened this week in Barrie and I was going to leave it at that.

However, Ralf has got his lay-off notice from The Source, we knew it was only a temporary job.

On Friday January 12, 2016 we met our new Doctor a very nice young lady. Canada and Barrie has a shortage of family Doctors. To try and help people who do not have a family doctor the local hospital has created a service called the Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU). What this means is that newly qualified doctors who are training to be General Practitioners work under the supervision of qualified doctors for two years as residents. They have a full slate of patients, but are able to seek advice from qualified practitioners. Each appointment is recorded and the trainee doctor gets to go over the interview with the qualified doctor before the end of the appointment, to confirm the diagnosis and recommendations for treatment. We tried to reconnect with our old Doctor, but we had been removed from his list as we had not seen him two years. We are now part of the FMTU at the RVH. The appointment was quite interesting, we get a new Doctor every two-years or if the Doctor sets up a practice in Barrie we could move with the Doctor. Our new Doctor only has a year left in her training and is going to set up a practice in her home town near Ottawa. I think we will opt for the new Doctor every two years.

Sunday December 29, 2015 to Saturday January 2, 2016

Sunday

Our heating system went down and we had to call the service guy. They sent a very nice young man who wants to travel Australia on his bike with his two friends – motorbike not bicycle – wimp. They have already done a week-long trip together. I told him to do it now and not wait.

Monday

As I sat watching the TV last night I realized that I was becoming a slug.

The road bikes, in the past, would have been set up in the basement and I would be cycling to virtual cycling videos or spinning, attempting to keep my summer fitness level and keep away the winter fat. This year the road bikes are in the dining room and the spare room is steadily getting organized but not enough room to set up both bikes to enable us to work out. I much prefer to be exercising outside, but the bikes are put away and any outside exercise is usually done on the week-ends – snow-shoeing or cross-country skiing. However, this year it has been so mild I was considering getting Mrs SweetCheeks out and going for a ride.

Before I decided to do this today, I checked the outside temperature minus 7 degrees. Although I couldn’t cycle I could go for a walk and that is what I did. This morning I headed out for a short walk, it was really cold. I discovered that about 1 km away I could walk into the Ardagh Bluffs. This is a natural area that has been maintained in a natural state by the City. I will investigate the trails tomorrow.

I also started doing a light weight work-out, it felt good to be exercising again. There is not enough room in the condo to do my Tai Chi, but I am going to see if I can clear a space to be able to do Tai Chi again.

Tuesday

Our first heavy snowfall on Monday night, we had about 20 cms. I guess we will be needing snow tires after all. The condo corporation cleared the sidewalks and the driveway by the time I got up this morning. I didn’t go for a walk today, the sidewalks were too icy. I did my 15 minute exercise routine and felt good. It’s amazing how quickly the muscles forget what they are supposed to do. My arms actually felt a little stiff from yesterdays 15 minute work-out.

New Years Eve – we relaxed and spent the evening watching the Blue Collar Comedy Tour – very funny.

New Years Day – We had about 20 cms of snow on Monday, Mr & Mrs SweetCheeks were outside covered with tarpaulin, but we really needed them to be inside. We moved stuff around again and Mr. & Mrs. SweetCheeks are now in the spare room, the road bikes are still in the living room. Embrace the chaos!

Next week I am calling a house clearance guy so that we can get the spare room back and on our road bikes and trainers – Mrs & Mrs SweetCheeks will be in the dining room!

Saturday January 2, 2016

Reasons to divorce your husband.

When husband thinks he has lost a very expensive piece of electronic equipment that you spent a lot of money on. “I have looked everywhere” he says. “I think I might have left it in the rental car” he says. “It should be in my camera bag but it isn’t.” he says,

We search every box, cupboard, storage area that we can – no trace of the Garmin. Ralf called the car rental place, no they had found nothing.   I look in his camera bag, I remove everything out of camera bag, which is what you should do when you are looking for something.

“Did you take everything out of your camera bag?” she asks. He looks sheepish as she produces the Garmin. The Garmin was tucked in the front of the camera bag, underneath a book. Can I kill him now!

Sunday December 21, 2015 to Saturday December 26, 2015

After two years of being away at Christmas time and enjoying a very simple ‘holiday’ time while we were on the road, Ralf and I decided we would make it our new holiday tradition. No gift exchanges just the enjoyment of spending time with each other and having a good meal together.

However, because the condo was still in a mess I hadn’t decorated at all. I decided that I would move stuff into the spare room so that the living and dining area were tidy for Christmas.  (I closed the spare room door – couldn\’t see the mess).  I found my collection of Father Christmas’s and set the dining area. It looked very nice and festive for Christmas Day.

I had initially planned to cook Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve and relax on Christmas day, but we were out all day Christmas Eve day and had a meal of hors’douvres, salad and veges and dips.

Christmas Day Ralf’s father woke us up with a phone call of Christmas wishes. We called my family in England and we relaxed the rest of the day until I cooked dinner.  No brussel sprouts for dinner – they were all sold out in the three grocery stores we went to!  We had to make do with green beans, carrots and broccoli, and turkey of course.

Ralf prepared dessert – chocolate éclairs, ice-cream and baileys.

Ralf was working on Boxing Day and had to be at work at 7:00 a.m. I had noticed in the Boxing Day flyers that the Dyson vacuum cleaner we wanted was on sale ($150.00 off the mfr). I chose to get up with Ralf at the ungodly hour of 6:00 a.m. and go to the ‘door crasher’ sale. After dropping Ralf at work, I headed to the store. I could not believe how many people were in the store at 6:45 a.m.  There were hundreds of people most of them buying the big screen televisions.  I saw over a dozen people carry these monsters out of the store.  Not one of the T.V.s were under 50\”.   I fortunately did not see anyone in there pjs! all were dressed and some of the women had make-up on!

I managed to get the Dyson and headed home back to bed!

The Dyson is also a flighty red number and works very well, a tiny vacuum for a tiny condo.

To all our family, friends new and old we wish you all the very best for Christmas and hope the New Year brings you health, happiness and prosperity.

Sunday December 13, 2015 to Saturday December 20, 2015

Are we really only a week away from Christmas. OMG I think we will still be in chaos. Slow but sure we are getting organized.

I am really enjoying the kitchen and using my new stove. I might even venture into making some cookies or muffins this week-end. OMG I am becoming domesticated. One thing I did this week that I haven’t done in two years, is ironing. It was pure heaven for me, no more wrinkled clothes. Some of you may or may not know, but I enjoy ironing.

Along those same lines, here are a few other things I am enjoying now that we are no longer living in a tent:

• Butter on my toast, actually having toast
• Milk in my tea and coffee
• Salad dressing and even better a choice of salad dressings
• Sitting in front of my dining room window having a leisurely breakfast with a nice cup of tea made in a teapot.
• Having a stove with more than one burner
• Having an oven
• Sleeping in my own bed with a big feather pillow – Life is Good.

Of course I cannot forget about the things I complained about on the road – I now have a big fluffy towel every day and a hot shower that pours water over you, no buttons to press to keep the water flowing.

I enjoyed working for Chris, it was nice to get my brain working again. I have decided to create my own business – Quality Administrative Services. Supporting small businesses in Barrie that may need assistance with secretarial, administrative work occasionally or on a regular weekly basis. The official launch will be on January 2, 2016.

Sunday December 6, 2015 to Saturday December 12, 2015

Are we any further with the unpacking? I think so, although it seems as if I unpack and get one area organized, only to have to move stuff into that area to unpack more stuff.

Just to add to the chaos, we have decided to renovate the kitchen. We have unpacked our kitchen stuff (temporarily), as we know the renovation will not be happening until the New Year. One area of the tiny condo is organized. The adjacent dining area is not, we can get to the table and have our meals at the table.

The bathroom is the only area which I can say is unpacked and nothing else has to go in that room.

The living room is semi-organized, we can get to the sofa and watch TV. Ralf had wanted me to get rid of my little school desk as he thought there would be no room to put it. I love my little school desk, so I cleared an area in the living room and now I have an office! Temporary, but an office!

Amidst all the chaos, I have been working for Chris, I usually get the work done in the morning and then unpack more stuff in the afternoon. When Ralf gets up, he then goes to Sally Ann or Habitat for Humanity with stuff – team work.

We bought a car! On Saturday, after checking out the Nissan, we visited a few other car dealerships. They are all in the same area in Barrie. We have to buy a manual transmission car (I have never driven an automatic). Unfortunately, they are few and far between. However, Mazda had a few on the lot and arranged for us to test drive them on Monday. We met Steve, a really nice car sales man, honestly he was really nice.

Steve showed us a couple of cars, a Toyota that had big miles, but only a couple of years old and then a Mazda 2, low miles and 4 years old. We took the Mazda for a test drive and decided it was perfect for us.

Then we had to arrange insurance and pick-up dates. On Wednesday we became the proud owners of Maisie Mazda, a flighty little red number and a joy to drive.  We were going to call her Millie, but wasn\’t sure if my niece would object.

On Saturday we were able to organize the spare room a little!! We now have the things that should get stored in the spare room in the spare room and other boxes moved to their new homes.

Surprisingly we need to buy some furniture to be able to organize the stuff that we are keeping. Organizers for the walk-in closet and a buffet for the dining room. We realize that even with the renovated kitchen we will need to store some of our kitchen things in the dining area – glasses etc and items that are not used that often but we still want to keep.

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.