Tracy was pissed of that I said she was "googleing" herself. Well, slightly miffed, would be a more accurate term.
She'd forgotten her password and was trying to get on her flickr account, so she googled it.
There, I explained it.
Now go to sleep, the games at 7.
oxoxox
Saturday, June 26, 2010
On our way to England
So here we are at 10:48 on a Saturday night in a hotel in Richmond BC.
On our way to England so my family can meet the newest Lobb. Who is asleep in the travel crib behind me.
Tracy is laying on the bed googleing herself on her iphone, go figure.
It was Tracys decision to spend the night in a hotel near the airport. A decision that I initially did not agree with. Then the results in the World Cup meant that England would be playing at 7am on the day of our flight. Mmmmmm.
I knew that there was no way I could watch the game at home and still make the ferry and the flight. So a night at a hotel sounded like the perfect solution..
"Okay honey, you're right.". There. That was easy.
It was a strange afternoon really.
Richmond, for those of you that don't know has a huge Chinese population. So much so in fact, that there are shopping malls that only have Chinese signs.
So when my friend Gwen called (we were supposed to meet earlier in the day but it didn't work out) and asked where are you? I said "I decided to expose Tanner to some of his heritage........... we're in Costco in Richmond".
Truth be known, it is an eerie feeling. Here we are again, in a hotel, in a city that is full of asian people, living out of a suitcase. I wonder what, if anything, he makes of it. We went to Landsdowne mall after Costco to buy some bath toys at Toys'r'us and the last time Tanner and I were in a mall, we were in Beijing.
I don't think he cares or even notices, but it was very nostalgic for me.
Of course in Beijing he would stay in his stroller and not scream and shout because he wanted to play with the big trucks and buses and bikes and books and every other colourful thing he could lay his sticky little paws on.
Tomorrow, the flight.
On our way to England so my family can meet the newest Lobb. Who is asleep in the travel crib behind me.
Tracy is laying on the bed googleing herself on her iphone, go figure.
It was Tracys decision to spend the night in a hotel near the airport. A decision that I initially did not agree with. Then the results in the World Cup meant that England would be playing at 7am on the day of our flight. Mmmmmm.
I knew that there was no way I could watch the game at home and still make the ferry and the flight. So a night at a hotel sounded like the perfect solution..
"Okay honey, you're right.". There. That was easy.
It was a strange afternoon really.
Richmond, for those of you that don't know has a huge Chinese population. So much so in fact, that there are shopping malls that only have Chinese signs.
So when my friend Gwen called (we were supposed to meet earlier in the day but it didn't work out) and asked where are you? I said "I decided to expose Tanner to some of his heritage........... we're in Costco in Richmond".
Truth be known, it is an eerie feeling. Here we are again, in a hotel, in a city that is full of asian people, living out of a suitcase. I wonder what, if anything, he makes of it. We went to Landsdowne mall after Costco to buy some bath toys at Toys'r'us and the last time Tanner and I were in a mall, we were in Beijing.
I don't think he cares or even notices, but it was very nostalgic for me.
Of course in Beijing he would stay in his stroller and not scream and shout because he wanted to play with the big trucks and buses and bikes and books and every other colourful thing he could lay his sticky little paws on.
Tomorrow, the flight.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sense of humour
I've always thought that you get your sense of humour via osmosis, you know, from listening to the grown-ups when you're a kid. I've also always thought that Londoners and Scousers (people from Liverpool) have the same sense of humour because it was derived from poverty. The poverty of the 1800's, when nobody had anything and you either laughed or cried. Laughing in the face of adversity as it were.
Just before I came to Canada I was a taxi driver in a small English town called Colchester.
It was one Sunday evening, a night when it seemed that everyone wanted to stay at home, which left all the cab drivers standing around the office waiting for a fare.
The controller (radio guy) started up with a story about a soldier.
I should mention at this point that Colchester is a "garrison" town. There are 6,000 soldiers stationed there at any one time and also a huge housing estate for families.
His story was about a squaddie (soldier) who had attemted to park a tank on his own.
He went on too explain how it takes two people to park a tank as there are no rear view mirrors, So you need somone to tell you where the hell you're going when you're going backwards. Well this young squaddie had decided that he could do it on his own. Not a good decision. He flattened a Land Rover. Totally obliterated it.
Now there was one other Londoner in that office. His name was Chris, if I recall, Short fella, big hair.
The controller, after lamenting the woes of the squaddie that couldn't drive, finished with " he's going to have to pay for that Land Rover, every month, out of his wages."
Sitting in the corner of the office Chris piped up with "F##k me, no wonder a Captain goes down with his ship"
Which reduced me to fits of laughter. Just me. All the other fellas looked over with a questioning look.
It seems the folks in Colchester didn't see the humour.
And now to Sechelt.
We bought some cabinets from Ikea. There were not enough bolts to bolt them together. So to the lumberyard I went. I was wandering the aisles when a very nice fella, with a badge that said his name, asked me if needed any help. I briefly explained my dilema and and off to the "bolt isle" we went.
As we passed the front counter, where there were five people standing behind it, he said "how long do you want them?"
I responded "Well, forever."
He turned at looked at me with a quizzical smile and started to talk. I looked over at the counter and of the five people standing there, only the young blonde chick was laughing. He said "no, I mean, what length?"
When you have to explain 'em, it's just not worth it.
The Blonde chick must be from London.
Just before I came to Canada I was a taxi driver in a small English town called Colchester.
It was one Sunday evening, a night when it seemed that everyone wanted to stay at home, which left all the cab drivers standing around the office waiting for a fare.
The controller (radio guy) started up with a story about a soldier.
I should mention at this point that Colchester is a "garrison" town. There are 6,000 soldiers stationed there at any one time and also a huge housing estate for families.
His story was about a squaddie (soldier) who had attemted to park a tank on his own.
He went on too explain how it takes two people to park a tank as there are no rear view mirrors, So you need somone to tell you where the hell you're going when you're going backwards. Well this young squaddie had decided that he could do it on his own. Not a good decision. He flattened a Land Rover. Totally obliterated it.
Now there was one other Londoner in that office. His name was Chris, if I recall, Short fella, big hair.
The controller, after lamenting the woes of the squaddie that couldn't drive, finished with " he's going to have to pay for that Land Rover, every month, out of his wages."
Sitting in the corner of the office Chris piped up with "F##k me, no wonder a Captain goes down with his ship"
Which reduced me to fits of laughter. Just me. All the other fellas looked over with a questioning look.
It seems the folks in Colchester didn't see the humour.
And now to Sechelt.
We bought some cabinets from Ikea. There were not enough bolts to bolt them together. So to the lumberyard I went. I was wandering the aisles when a very nice fella, with a badge that said his name, asked me if needed any help. I briefly explained my dilema and and off to the "bolt isle" we went.
As we passed the front counter, where there were five people standing behind it, he said "how long do you want them?"
I responded "Well, forever."
He turned at looked at me with a quizzical smile and started to talk. I looked over at the counter and of the five people standing there, only the young blonde chick was laughing. He said "no, I mean, what length?"
When you have to explain 'em, it's just not worth it.
The Blonde chick must be from London.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Selling
"Staging" was pain in the butt, it's true, but there was also finishing the niggly little things that you never get around to that now had to be fixed. To be honest, most of the "nigglies" didn't have to be addressed but I wanted them finished.
When you spend so much time making a great home it would be remiss to leave silly little deficiencies for the new people to look at for years.
As it transpired, I was pretty happy with the way the place looked on the day of the open house. Tracy worked tirelessly to get the place looking its best and Tanner and I work equally as hard keeping each other occupied.
It probably would have been better to wait a couple of months as, those of you that know our street can attest to, our street looks way more appealing when the leaves are on the trees. But, as I said before, circumstances dictated an immediate sale.
A princely sum of $849,000 was decided upon and on the Wednesday before the Sunday (which was the "open") on the market it went.
You have to leave when there's an open house and unfortunately the "open" coincided with Tanners nap time. So we drove, and we drove, and we drove. To White Rock, it turned out, and a fun time was had by all. That would be everyone else in White Rock except us. Tanner was as miserable as sin. Who could've blamed him?
The "open" was finished at 4 and the house was sold by 7 and Tanner was asleep by 7:10.
Glad that day's over.
When you spend so much time making a great home it would be remiss to leave silly little deficiencies for the new people to look at for years.
As it transpired, I was pretty happy with the way the place looked on the day of the open house. Tracy worked tirelessly to get the place looking its best and Tanner and I work equally as hard keeping each other occupied.
It probably would have been better to wait a couple of months as, those of you that know our street can attest to, our street looks way more appealing when the leaves are on the trees. But, as I said before, circumstances dictated an immediate sale.
A princely sum of $849,000 was decided upon and on the Wednesday before the Sunday (which was the "open") on the market it went.
You have to leave when there's an open house and unfortunately the "open" coincided with Tanners nap time. So we drove, and we drove, and we drove. To White Rock, it turned out, and a fun time was had by all. That would be everyone else in White Rock except us. Tanner was as miserable as sin. Who could've blamed him?
The "open" was finished at 4 and the house was sold by 7 and Tanner was asleep by 7:10.
Glad that day's over.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Packing
Before we can buy another home we have to sell our present abode. To facilitate this we have to "stage" our house. This is an acronym for Stuff, Take, Away, Get, Elephant or something like that. We had to get rid of a bunch of crap so that the potential new owners could visualize their crap where ours used to be.
Luckily, I had been unsuccesful in selling the cube van, although it didn't seem lucky at the time as we were getting pretty skint. On the other hand, if I were to analyze this even further, it would become apparent that selling the truck would have given us some breathing room and maybe "5930" (our new house) might have been sold by the time we started looking.
So stage we did, this entailed loading up the cube van with stuff from all ove the house and then moving it to an empty garage. This garage is also on the Sunshine Coast, Roberts Creek to be precise.
Never leave a couple of Karens in your house to help you "Stage" it. I know that eventually we would be leaving but that doesn't mean we need to empty the kitchen drawers of everyday cooking utensils. I'm sure that the new people can envisage their measuring spoons in a drawer without ours having to have been removed.
2 weeks before the open house and me vacuum packer has gone! WHAT'S A MAN TO DO?
It seemed to me that there was a lot of stuff gone already and once we got rid of all the furniture from the student rooms there wouldn't be too much stuff left. Really how much more stuff is there?
You know where this is going.
Luckily, I had been unsuccesful in selling the cube van, although it didn't seem lucky at the time as we were getting pretty skint. On the other hand, if I were to analyze this even further, it would become apparent that selling the truck would have given us some breathing room and maybe "5930" (our new house) might have been sold by the time we started looking.
So stage we did, this entailed loading up the cube van with stuff from all ove the house and then moving it to an empty garage. This garage is also on the Sunshine Coast, Roberts Creek to be precise.
Never leave a couple of Karens in your house to help you "Stage" it. I know that eventually we would be leaving but that doesn't mean we need to empty the kitchen drawers of everyday cooking utensils. I'm sure that the new people can envisage their measuring spoons in a drawer without ours having to have been removed.
2 weeks before the open house and me vacuum packer has gone! WHAT'S A MAN TO DO?
It seemed to me that there was a lot of stuff gone already and once we got rid of all the furniture from the student rooms there wouldn't be too much stuff left. Really how much more stuff is there?
You know where this is going.
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