Still Stranded in UK

We just received an email around midnight UK time from my sister (we affectionately call "GB" because my daughter, Trinity couldn't pronounce her name "Geraldine") - the subject line said simply "Gatwick Reopens" (which is one of the London airports) and when we opened it, it said simply "GB go home?"

She is missing her hubby & kids, but geesh, she is having a great time galavanting around the countryside of England.  She has galavanted all around the downs of Sussex, train rides all over England & been in the Yorkshire moors in Bronte country.

We have been trying to orchestrate the reprotection of a ticket from here as she was getting the runaround over there.  We were bounced around from Expedia to Air Transat back and forth for hours as each one INSISTED the other is to co-ordinate the rebooking! A lesson in patience to be sure!  However, they didn't know that I have been dealing with the Canadian Immigration Department for almost 20 years!! They met their match!! Anyhoo, there is of course a huge backlog (I read 7 million stranded), so we are hoping in the next few days that we may see the wandering Nomad again with all her tales!! We don't feel like she really left though - the constant contact to us through the iphone and ipad.  At last count it was 63 emails just for today alone with pics & vids today - ya she hasn't lost her "papparazzi" touch!

Here are a few pics of what she sent me today:

               Missing someone?

                                         A car for me!!

            A house for me!

       Ha Ha - kids liked that one!

                                                                                                Snicker Snicker

              This cross is from the 600's. !!

                                      GB was in Haworth (Bronte Country) for a couple of days and visited the Museum and Parsonage etc. This is the church that Reverend Patrick Bronte looked after.

I was very jealous!  Years ago on a trip to England I wanted to see Haworth - I must have taken a train near there up to Scotland, but for some reason I didn't stop there!



                                            

Holy Crap!

I cannot believe I typed "cuz" in that previous post - wow too much texting eh?

Stranded in London

My Sister Geraldine (GB) was in Wales at the University of Aberystwth (try saying that three times!)  last week.  She is studying for her Masters. She was due back in Toronto today - it is her youngest child's (Freya) 2nd birthday today! 

Unfortunately, she is stuck in London along with the thousands of others!  We have a betting pool going on here at this point as to when she will return. 

She is an iphone and ipad fanatic (we call her "paparazzi" for a reason!).  Apparently walking around the UK with this ipad has garnered her a lot of attention - she has had dozens of people ask to have their picture taken with the thing & offered her money to buy it, as it is only available in the U.S. right now.  She has been keeping us up to date through daily videos.  Unfortunately I couldn't fathom out how to get the videos saved from the emails to the hard drive, otherwise I would have posted one - cuz my Sister has a great sense of humour, so they are quite funny.

Weekend Birthday Getaway

In honour of Avalon's birthday (yes, any excuse to get away!).  The girls & I went away for the weekend to good ol' Niagara Falls. Yes, we love going there! It's only about a 40 minute drive away. It was incredibly busy with "wall to wall children" - I even asked at the front desk if there was a "children's convention" in town.  Nope, just the long weekend with families coming out in droves to Niagara Falls.

                                              Cosmic Cars

                                              Clifton Hill

We stayed in a hotel near the action of Clifton Hill and The Falls, ate lots of chocolate covered strawberries, spent lots of money playing in the Canadiana Midway, eating in the great restaurants, people watched, rode the rides, and went in all the Museums and Haunted Houses on Clifton Hill.  We walked until our feet almost fell off and then topped it off with renting a horror film in our hotel room! The next day we put our battered feet to the test again, crossed the border (which is right there!) and went on a shopping spree in the U.S. I scored a great necklace that I had eyed in Target a few months back and didn't buy at the time.  It's 14 kt gold with natural pearls.  When I saw it last, it was on sale for only $50.00 - this time it was on sale for $12.00 - bargoon!!!

                                             Wearing my Bargoon!

                                           My new boyfriend has eyes only for me!

                                           Like she doesn't need more sugar!

I think it was a memorable birthday for Avalon - especially since she managed to talk me into going into the "old school"  haunted houses and boy - they were actually pretty scary!! She loves to be scared to the max.  The entire time we were in the "Haunted House" she was buried behind my butt holding onto my jeans waist.  At one point in a dark hallway (& I do mean dark), something above us rattled and she dove on the floor for protection!! She came out of there loving it though and wanting to go through again!!

                                                                               Going into the Canadiana Midway.

Avalon's Birthday

My April Fool's baby turned 10! At the time of Avalon's birth I was working in a Management position of a New York City Financial Services firm.  I had accepted the position at 8 months pregnant without my employer knowing I was pregnant - I did so by hiding myself under big winter jackets, voluminous business jackets and sitting behind huge desks. I'm sure they must have wondered, but I'm not petite, so it wasn't exactly THAT obvious. Avalon was a very co-operative child - she decided not to inconvenience me and hence she was born on the Saturday and I went right back to my full time position on the Monday! (As an aside, I had widwives for both my kids and I thoroughly recommend that experience.) I felt allegiance to the company as I had been there to start the business up in Canada along with a small group of other Managers and the money was very good! I could have taken the 6 month maternity leave, but Douglas was also doing some schooling so that would have interfered and again the money was very good! Douglas & I were on completely opposite shifts so our kids were always with one of us or our extended family.

We had the family party on April 1st to celebrate my fiercely creative child's birthday (she wants to be an actress and we have no doubt she will achieve this), but tell that to my car battery - it decided to die on me as I left the office.  As a result, I was delayed in picking up the ice cream cake and getting back home to get my "party dress" on.  Eventually I made it home to Avalon & family - but it was a bit of a late starting party!  Since a lot of our family are just little ones they had to get to bed at 8pm - so it was short and sweet.  One of the prezzies that Avalon got that she really loved was a wooden box from Nana & Grand Dad filled with loonies and toonies. She got some cute little "lolly goth" clothes as well that look so adorable on her!

Pics from Mexico and El Salvador

50 Pesos for a Puppy - the kids begged all night long!

  

                                                                               

            What do you think these are? They are cashew nuts!

                                Trinity and Tequila

                                   A  Happy Coconut

   Avalon at "Dale Dale" Cafe in El Tunco - owned by fellow blogger.

    The professional bra fitter at the Mercado.

                           Douglas climbing down.

Car Vandalism

Douglas was bored and sent me this email today from his iphone of his car having some work done on it.  He parks it on the street outside his house - someone tried to break into the lock of the car on the driver's side of the door, but couldn't quite get in.  I think the same guy came back for more a couple of weeks later and tried the driver's side - again no luck getting in. With no locks on the passenger's back doors, how does one get into the car? He had to climb into the trunk of the car! Ya, quite a sight.  So, here he is getting the locks fixed on the car only to park his car on the same darn street where it keeps getting vandalized!

Family Reunification

We have spent the last few weeks in El Salvador with Douglas. It has been absolutely wonderful for him and the girls - and me too.  Our journey there was not a direct flight - big mistake! The first flight out of Toronto was cancelled due to a snow storm in Chicago.  We then got a flight out the next morning to Mexico City - stayed there for a day/night and then got a flight out the next day to El Salvador. Avalon was so ecstatic to see her Daddy that she left her carry on luggage at customs and flew out to greet him - we didn't realize until that night that we were short a suitcase.  Thankfully some good-hearted person handed in her suitcase to security.

We escaped the smoggy city and spent our time on the coast - we caught the Bohemian vibe of El Tunco and stayed in our favourite resort "La Roca Sunzal". It was HOT!!!! We stayed in the ocean and pool from morning to night. We had ice cream, limonada and palettas (popsicles) by the pool. We loved it so much that Douglas is moving out of the city and moving to El Tunco.  He has leased space on the main vortex of this little "happening" place to open a funky little Hair Studio.  Apparently, there is a real need by the locals for a hairstylist - they have to travel into the city to get their hair done.

I'm posting some pics of our wonderful time there. Just counting the days until we return. My contract ends August 1st, so it has bought me some months to see what happens with the ineptitude of this Immigration process.

             

Proud Canadian

                (Inukshuk at Whistler Mt. Summit)

I'm getting excited about the Olympics in Vancouver starting this Friday! We have been hearing for days now,  the news reports that they had to truck in snow from other mountains and cancel some practice days due to the "spring" weather they were experiencing, and luckily they had a little snow fall today.

The theme song is sung by Nikki Yanofsky - a 15 year old Jazz singer from Montreal. I went to "youtube" to watch it again and found a long version of the song. It brings tears to my eyes when I watch it.
Click here to see video of Olympic Theme Song

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans!"

John Lennon couldn't have said it better.

Our plans have been "stop and go" since Douglas flew to El Salvador in April.  At the end of January I had just been lining up a 9 month sabbatical from my University position to begin at the end of February, busy keeping my eye on the prices of flights to El Salvador on the 'net, Douglas running around looking for a house for us on the coast and then "BAM" the opportunity of a promotion at work is offered.  Now, let me try to convince myself again; with University positions comes tenure, security, benefits and perks - to be honest this has been an enormous - not the only, but definitely -  contributing factor in our hesitation to pack up and move. The education of the girls has been the other very huge factor, when the girls are old enough to go to University, one of my benefits is that 90% of their tuition is paid for by the University! Yes, quite sweet!

Needless to say, it was a very difficult decision that had to be made.  I was quite keen for the adventure of El Salvador, but surprisingly, it was my usually free spirited and "who gives a heck?" attitude husband that thought it might be better for us to stay up here for a bit and see how much longer the Immigration paperwork will take. So, I accepted the position on a 6 month basis & (will review the situation at the end of July); with travel plans modified, but still able to execute.  I started this past Monday in my new position. My head is still swimming a bit with information overload!

I am so inspired when I read all these blogs of American women who pick up and move to Mexico or Honduras or elsewhere, when their husbands have been deported from the country or are awaiting Immigration decisions.  There are so many challenges that they face and yet, they alter their lives forever by staying together.

I don't know if I have made the right decision, but I am relieved that 6 months will "buy" us a bit more time to see how quickly or not Guatemala City will process him.  They received the paperwork at the end of November  and our MP has said that  they are apparently looking at the file again on March 2nd. Is this good news? I have no idea!

The girls and I fly out next week to El Salvador via Chicago and Mexico City. We have 6-7 hr layovers at both airports.  Unfortunately, the indirect flights will make it a long journey to get down there, but the flights were a great price and I am a bargain hunter! We won't be back until mid-March, so Douglas can get a good look at his girls. It has been a long 10 months since he has seen them and they are soooo excited to be finally seeing him again.