Eye Spy Another Update

Well, we won’t mention how long it’s been since the last update, so we’ll jump right in…

The first big news is that Ben now has proper eyes! Yes, he had laser eye surgery! On April 15th, we traveled down to Halifax for the big event. Nerves were on edge (mine even more so than Ben’s), but everything went well. The surgery itself took no longer than 10 minutes, and I actually got to watch it being done via a TV screen (I apologise to the squeamish for that detail). Ben had to administer lots of eyes drops for a while, but now his eyesight is perfect, and even better than mine.

Ben sans glasses!

In case you didn’t know, the reason Ben had this done was because he needed to have a good level of uncorrected vision in order to be a police officer. Since then, Ben has traveled to Ottawa to take the standardised testing that allows him to apply to a variety of forces in Ontario. Of course, Ben nailed the tests, and has been applying to a number of places. Now we just have to wait to hear back.

In other related news, Ben has been working as a security guard at Regent Mall for a little while now, and has also been continuing his volunteer shifts as an auxiliary police officer. Although at different ends of the spectrum, both have been giving him some great experience for his new calling.

Back in March, I started my second period as a volunteer mentor for the Kids.Now organization. I had a lot of fun again and was lucky enough to get to hang out with some great kids. Every week they made me laugh and blew my mind with their insights. I’ll definitely consider doing it again in the fall.

I’ve also expanded on my volunteering at the Fredericton SPCA. I still take photos every week for the website, but now I’m also helping out with a wonderful new cat socialization program. Basically, I get to play with kitties every week, but the importance of the program should never be underestimated. A team of us go in when we can and make sure as many cats as possible get to spend time out of their cages (one at a time) and interacting with humans. This really helps to calm any of the scared or stressed cats, and also makes sure they get used to people as much as possible. The cats become happier and more adoptable as a result, and are also less likely to fall down with illness due to reduced stress levels. I’m very proud of the many amazing things that the Fredericton SPCA does, and I’m happy to be able to help in any way I can.

It's a hard job, but someone's got to do it.

I’m not the only volunteer in this household, however. Ben has been helping the Fredericton Meals on Wheels organization, by delivering meals as often as he can. He’s doing a great service!

In June, we drove down to Boston for a vacation and met up with Ben’s parents, his sister Rachael, and her boyfriend, also called Ben, who flew in for the week (although we were there for just 5 days). We had a fairly long list of things we all wanted to see and do, and managed to accomplish a lot without getting too tired.

The New England Aquarium was a hit!

Quincy Market

Suffolk Downs horse racing

Having fun at the Science Museum

View from the Prudential Tower

On the Historic Boston Sightseeing Cruise

Pure delight at the Cheesecake Factory

Harvard Museum of Natural History gets two thumbs up

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox

Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox

Ben teaching Jill how to play pool

The wonderful Lenox Hotel

Whew, we really did a lot in 5 days!

Back in Fredericton, Ben has been playing lots of soccer, and his team have been doing well in the new McCain New Brunswick Premier Soccer League. They have done a great job at involving the community and have really become the city’s team. A recent game against their rivals, Fredericton Picaroons Reds, was televised on the local Rogers TV station, and had in excess of 300 people attending. Unfortunately Ben’s team lost, but they played well in a high standard game. The best part was being able to PVR the game and watching it back!

Lastly, I’d like to mention the weekend I recently spent in Nova Scotia, cycling 100kms in two days with a bunch of friends to raise money for the MS Society of Canada. It was a weekend full of fun, and a lot of money was raised (over $340,000 in total). We were the Neon Riders, and certainly lived up to our name…

Neon Riders at the start line

Neon power!

100kms later & still smiling

So, that’s about it for now. I hope you enjoyed it, and don’t have to wait so long for the next update!

Take care,
Helen & Ben

Let It Snow

As I type, there is a heavy snowstorm falling all around us, adding to the already towering banks of snow around the city. Hunkering down for the night, I find it the perfect opportunity to update the blog. Since the last post, Christmas has come and gone and winter has truly set in. Firstly though, to keep it chronological, I’m going to take a quick leap back to Halloween. Remarkably, neither of us had carved our own pumpkins before, so we set out to remedy that situation.

Making the first incisions

Starting to take shape

Jaunty Jack O'Lantern

Just before Christmas, we took a weekend away in Halifax. We went partly because Ben had an appointment with a laser eye surgeon (because he’ll need to get his eyes fixed to train for the police force), and partly because we wanted a relaxing weekend away. We rented a lovely house on the lake.

Relaxing house on the lake

Feeling festive

Ever since we booked the weekend away, I had planned to take Home Alone on DVD with us to watch while we were there. I’ve watched that film every Christmas since it has been made. I even took some popcorn with us to eat while we watched it. However, after getting everything ready and feeling as excited as I did when I first watched it (yes, I really am still a kid!), I put the DVD in the player, only to find that it was the wrong region. I forgot that I had bought the DVD while we were still back in the UK! After a period of great disappointment, we decided to look in the cabinets to see if there were any other DVDs we could watch. Well, we struck gold, and found a Wii! That helped to ease the pain a little bit.

Playing Wii

Me beating Ben at Wii

As I mentioned, the house was right on a lake, so we made sure we took advantage of it despite the winter temperatures.

View to the lake from the house

Deck and a sad-looking kayak

View over the lake

Soon after we spent the weekend in Halifax, it was Christmas! It was a quiet Christmas again, but it was very nice and relaxing. The house looked festive soon enough, and the kitties seemed to like all the tinsel and sparkly lights.

Miley now thinks that snuggling with us on the sofa is OK

On Christmas morning, the kitties enjoyed opening the presents almost as much as we did.

Rosie helping us unwrap our presents

As always, we got some lovely presents!

Presents!

Presents!

We also managed to cook a lovely dinner between the two of us. Well, Ben did most of it, but I helped. A little.

Christmas dinner

Ben’s parents generously gave us enough money for Christmas to buy a Playstation 3! We also got the ‘Move’ with it (a bit like the Wii), so we had a lot of fun over the Christmas period playing games.

Playing PS3

Since Christmas, Ben has done all his training for the auxiliary police force and has really enjoyed it. He has also now gone out on his first shift and is looking forward to more. He looks very smart in his uniform!

Auxiliary Police Constable Griffin

Yesterday was my birthday, and although I was working I still had a nice day. We went out for a meal in the evening, and have plans to meet some friends on Saturday night for laser tag and bowling! It sounds a little like a party for a 9 year old, not a 29 year old, but I’m looking forward to it!

Well, that’s all the main news we have for now. It looks like the snow has set in for the night, so I guess we’ll have some good shoveling to look forward to in the morning. Until next time, take care!

Helen & Ben

Summer and Fall Have Come and Gone

It’s been a while since the last update, so we have a few stories and photos to share with you. Summer was beautiful here, with perfect temperatures and gorgeous blue skies. We took advantage of the weather and got out and about as much as we could.

Early on in the season there happened to be a British car show on in a place called Rexton, which is about a 2.5 hour drive away. Ben especially was excited about seeing the cars, although I will admit to enjoying the games they had there just as much!

Cars at the British car show in Rexton

One of many MGs

One of Ben's favourites

One of my favourites

Rexton also happens to be the home town of a friend of ours, and she happened to be visiting home at the time we were in the area. Her parents very kindly invited us to visit and stay for dinner, and fed us a delightful feast of steak and lobster! Well, only Ben tried the lobster, but it was fun to watch him make a mess.

Later in the summer we revisited another place in New Brunswick called Nackawic. We first visited when we came to the area on holiday, before we moved out here.

Walk along the rivier in Nackawic

River walk in Nackawic

Nackawic is famous for its axe (the world's largest!)

The axe

The requisite self-portrait photo

Another summer trip took us to Maine. If you read the previous blog post you will have found out that we needed to cross the border to officially activate our permanent residency status. We decided to make a weekend of it, and spent a couple of days in a small town called East Machias, not too far across the border into the US. It was a pleasant town, close to Machias, which we also visited and spent some time in.

Inside the house we rented

View over Machias

Apparently, ‘Machias’ translates roughly to ‘bad little falls’ in Passamaquoddy, and so the waterfall in the town is named Bad Little Falls.

By the waterfall in Machias

By the waterfall in Machias

We had a tour around the Burnham Tavern Museum in Machias, which was very interesting. Machias is famous for being the place of the first naval battle of the American Revolution.

Burnham Tavern Museum, Machias

We took a walk along the nearby beach

We couldn't resist eating at Helen's Restaurant

The crossing back into Canada went very smoothly, and now we’re officially permanent residents! Yay! In a couple of years from now we can apply for citizenship.

Summer wouldn’t be complete without a visit to a fair or two. We went to Keswick Fair, which is about 20 minutes or so from Fredericton (actually, I went twice!), and also to Stanley Fair, which we went to last year as well. The Keswick Fair ran from 1848-1966, but they decided to hold it again this year, fortunately for us.

Feeding the animals

It must have been nap time

Yep, definitely nap time

No New Brunswick Fair is complete without a good ol' woodsmen competition

A friend of ours has a camp/cottage on the water not too far from Saint John, NB (it actually belongs to her parents). A few friends were going down for the weekend and we were invited to come along. It is rather rustic, with no electricity or running water, but it sure was a pretty setting. There are a few beds in the cottage but it was pretty crowded in there, so we decided to sleep in a tent.

The cottage

Our tent

It happened to be New Brunswick Day when we were there, so as loyal New Brunswickers our group made up a New Brunswick flag to erect. On the water near the camp is a small “island” (extremely small!), which has been nicknamed ‘flammage island’. I won’t go into why! We all decided that it would be a great idea to erect the flag on the island.

Journey to erect the New Brunswick flag

View out to 'flammage' island

Triumphant!

A couple of our friends have a cute dog called Asia, who came along for the fun weekend.

Asia

Camp decor

View in the morning

This next photo was taken by a friend, and worries me as a LOST fan. Can you spot why?

LOST fans - that weird black smoke-like thing looks scarily familiar...

In September, there was a special CFL (Canadian Football League) game that came to Moncton, NB. There are currently no CFL teams in Atlantic Canada, and this was a one-off event to test the reception of a CFL game in the area. ‘Touchdown Atlantic’ was the first ever regular season game to be played in Atlantic Canada. The game was between the Toronto Argonauts and the Edmonton Eskimos. We managed to get tickets, and had a fun time!

Before the game started

As the teams came out

Mid-game

Eerie figure keeping watch over us...

A better view, and a touchdown!

In October, my dad came to visit for about a week. It was his first ever visit to Canada! As it was slightly out of season not everything was open, but we managed to find plenty to do anyway. We went on quite a few walks as it was the perfect time of year to see the beautiful fall colours. We also visited a few museums, played bowling, and me & dad went to Saint John on one day. Ben & dad played golf on another day, and the rest of the time was spent relaxing and eating lots of nice food.

View of the river in Fredericton

Walking around Mactaquac

Dressing up at the York Sunbury Museum in Fredericton!

I don’t have too many photos of his stay here, and I’m eagerly awaiting to see his photos once he’s worked out how to upload them to Facebook!

The last exciting thing that happened recently was Ben’s graduation. He now officially has three degrees! One of his friends came back to Fredericton for the graduation, so it was great to see him again.

Ben Griffin, BA MA MA!

Well, that was a bit of a mammoth update, so well done if you reached this far! Knowing my slack rate of updating this thing, the next post will probably be after Christmas! The weather is now getting increasingly wintery, but we’re yet to see any snow. I’m sure that will come soon enough.

Until next time, take care!

Helen & Ben

Permanent Residency at Last!

After a slightly frustrating and long process, we received our passports back in the mail earlier this month confirming our status as permanent residents! We have to go to the border to make it official, but we’re pretty much there. This means that we can stay in Canada for as long as we like. We can choose to apply for citizenship in around another 2 years, but for now, permanent residency is great. To celebrate, we have booked a weekend in Maine in June so that we can get it all made official and have a nice relaxing time while we’re there.

In the meantime, I can tell you all about the trip we took to Grand Manan last weekend, which was a long weekend here in Canada. Grand Manan is a small island just off the coast of southern New Brunswick. We went with our friends Corinna and Andrew, and took the ferry on the Saturday.

Andrew, Corinna & Ben on the ferry

We stayed in a bungalow with a great view of the sea.

View from the bungalow

Grand Manan is a small island (with less than 2,500 residents!), so there isn’t a great deal more to do than walking and cycling etc., and even less when you go out of season like we did. Nevertheless, we had a nice, relaxing time exploring the island.

Dark Harbour

Exploring some old fishery buildings

Me & Ben

We were lucky with the weather, as it was sunny and nice pretty much all of the time. As it is an island and we were right by the coast, there were some inevitable patches of fog. These were rather more chilly!

Attempting to walk in the fog

The beach was about a 10 second walk from our bungalow. We spent a surprising amount of time there skimming stones and throwing smaller rocks at larger rocks. This amused Ben and Andrew immensely.

Steps to the beach

On the beach just in front of our bungalow

Rocky beach

We also came across a few deceased critters.

Shell of a crab

The bungalow had a barbecue, which we put to good use by cooking bison burgers for dinner. Yum!

Barbecued bison burgers for dinner

More exploring led us to the famous ‘Hole in the Wall’, and a cliff with one of the island’s lighthouses.

Hole in the Wall

Ben, Andrew & Corinna on top of the Hole in the Wall

View back over the island

Seat with the best view!

Lighthouse

Our bungalow was perfectly nice and comfortable, but the (tiny) TV was not up to much. We didn’t mind this for most of the time, but the weekend we went to Grand Manan also happened to be the weekend of the Lost finale. Any Lost fans will understand the importance of this event. Unfortunately, the TV only “received” 3 channels, although saying that is being generous. Fortunately, one of them was the right channel for Lost, so we decided to give it a try. It was ok to start with, but as the night wore on, the picture got worse and worse. As the signal faded by the second, the only way it seemed to improve enough to be watchable was if Ben stood in a certain position with his head leaning over the TV. He did this for the last 15 minutes or so of the finale. My hero.

Trying to watch the Lost finale...

Since visiting Grand Manan, we have been fairly busy. Ben is now a fully trained football referee, and has been linesman for a couple of games already. His first outing as a referee is on Monday. It will be fun for Ben and another great way to run around, plus he gets paid for it, too! Bonus!

I have had a few sessions as a kids.now mentor, and have really enjoyed it so far. My group of kids are great, and I’ve been impressed with how they have done. There are only 3 more sessions left, and I’m looking forward to those.

Ben has now finished his thesis (well done Ben!), and is doing some landscaping work as well as some work for a consultancy company. He did a fantastic job with his thesis, and I’m looking forward to getting a bound copy to keep. I’m sure he’ll be sending some poems off to try to get them published, too. This stage also comes with some sadness as we have to say goodbye to a lot of our friends that were studying with Ben. Most of them live in various places all over Canada, and as I type this, most of them have already left for home. It’s a sad time for Ben especially, as he made some great friendships with some fantastic people. They are sure to be successful in their next adventures, and we wish them well!

That’s about it for this update, so I will be back in a few weeks when we been to Maine and are officially permanent residents! I’ve got barbecued steak waiting for me for dinner, with some rhubarb crumble that I made from rhubarb picked in our own back yard, so I’m off to enjoy that now. Yummy!

Take care,
Helen & Ben

Christmas, Sledding and a Warm Sunny Spring

During the past couple of days, we have been relaxing in the back yard in shorts and t-shirts, as we’ve seen some of the warmest April days on record. On Saturday, it was 25c and beautifully sunny. So, as I sat down to write a (vastly overdue) blog update, it was very strange to look back over the photos taken since the last post to see masses of snow around (despite having the warmest winter on record)! Another reminder that I should have done this sooner. Nevertheless, I shall share some photos from the last few months, including some from Christmas, which was our first ever on our own.

Miley and Rosie enjoyed wrecking the Christmas tree over the Christmas period, but it did look nice at the start! Being a feral cat at one point, it was quite possibly the first Christmas tree that Miley had ever seen (dressed up in lights with fun looking chocolates dangling off that were the perfect height to hit, that is).

Christmas Tree

Christmas Day was considerably quieter than any other we’d had before. We still had a few presents to open though.

Opening presents!

I got a Snuggie from Ben!

On Christmas Day we went for a walk in nearby Odell Park. The snow was very pretty and luckily it wasn’t too cold.

Walking on Christmas Day

Walking on Christmas Day

We also took a walk in nearby town Oromocto, and came across a playground that kept us entertained for a while.

Fun on Christmas Day!

On Christmas Day, we also visited the people that we stayed with when we first arrived in Canada, Helen & Bill. It was their first Christmas without seeing their kids on the day, who are all grown up and spread over Canada, so it was nice to spend some time with them.

During winter, we went skating and sledding a few times, which was a lot of fun! I only have some photos of sledding:

Sledding fun

Sledding fun

Sledding fun

Later on in winter we took a nice walk an Mactaquac park. The sun was shining this time, and it looked very pretty.

Mactaquac

Since then, we haven’t done too much out of the ordinary. Ben has been working hard on his studies, and wrote a book review that was published in a Canada-wide literary journal. He is also having some poetry published in the next Qwerty magazine, which is also distributed Canada-wide. Well done Ben!

I applied to be a volunteer mentor for a 12-week afterschool program for middle school kids. I got through the interview & screening process, and next week I’m going to have some training. Then I’ll be let loose with a group of around 10 kids aged 11-12! That’s quite scary, but also exciting too. I’m looking forward to the challenge (which it will certainly be!).

Rosie & Miley have really loved the last couple of days, as we’ve been able to keep the doors and windows open (with the bug guards shut!). They love sitting in the sun and breathing in the fresh air.

Miley

Rosie

At the end of May, we’re going on a weekend trip with some friends to Grand Manan, which is a small island just off the south coast of New Brunswick. We’re really looking forward to that, and Ben will have finished his Master’s degree by then, so he’ll really be ready to relax!

We hope you all had a nice Christmas, New Year, and Easter!

Take care,
Helen & Ben

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! I am aware that I haven’t updated the blog since July, but I guess it’s better late than never! I won’t bore you with all the details, but will attempt to point out some highlights. The easiest way to do that is to look over the photos that we took, so I’ll share some of them with you now.

Back in September we visited the 159th annual Stanley Fair. There was a woodmen’s competition (a great Canadian activity!), animals, and live entertainment (actually by a friend – Jesse Ferguson). Stanley Fair

Stanley Fair animals

Chopping competition

Jesse singing and playing

Ben’s parents came to visit in October, with his sister Rachael joining them in their second week here. We had fun visiting various places, and stayed in Prince Edward Island for a few days too. One of our outings was to the Woodmen’s Museum in Boiestown, the geographical centre of New Brunswick.

He killed the bear himself

Farmer Ben

Jill, Jem & Ben

Samuel de Champlain

Impressive saw

Exploring

Lake in the rain

The trip to PEI was unfortunately marred by a constant downpour of rain! We still managed to have fun though, and I think I must have taken advantage of all of the short spells of sunlight when looking for photo opportunities!

Ben & Jem

Ben & Jill

We originally had booked a nice old farmhouse to stay in, but when we arrived we were greeted by an uncontrollable & unbearable infestation of cluster flies! Fortunately Ben arranged for an alternative accomodation for us, which turned out to be not too shabby.

New accomodation

New house interior

Yay for Ben!

Some of you may also know PEI for Anne of Green Gables. While Ben & Jem were playing golf, me & Jill visited the Green Gables house and took a look around.

Green Gables house

View from Green Gables House

We also took a walk along one of the many beaches.

Red sands of PEI

Thanksgiving in Canada was on October 12th, and we all went to Kings Landing for a day of fun and festivities. Kings Landing is an historical settlement about half an hour from Fredericton. Ben and I have been before, and really enjoyed it, so we were eager to go back again. Kings Landing

Kings Landing

Kings Landing

There was a scarecrow competition between the different houses and attractions that we could all vote on.

The scarecrow is the one at the back

The dancers were (unintentionally) funny. I think this is about the only moment that they weren’t bumping into each other and laughing!

Kings Landing dancers

We found a swing that proved to be a lot of fun!

Swings are always fun

Rachael desperately wanted to have a go, but couldn't get on no matter how hard she tried!

Kings Landing is fun!

We ate a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which was delicious!

Yummy

Kings Landing

Kings Landing

Kings Landing

Just as we were about to leave, we were asked if we could be filmed for the Kings Landing promotional video. We immediately complied and volunteered Rachael for the task. We’ll keep an eye out for the finished product!

Rachael filming for Kings Landing promotional video

We have also been busy with more renovations on the house, mostly painting, painting, and more painting! We have been working on the basement room, which is shaping up into quite the games room. Also, looking back at the photos from the previous blog, we have had hardwood flooring put in the main living space.

Hardwood floors and a sleepy Rosie

We put our Christmas tree up at the weekend, and before we’d finished placing the last piece of tinsel, Rosie was trying to climb up it again. Silly kitty. Not only that, she’s teaching Miley bad habits, as she has been trying to climb up it too and has had a few nibbles on the branches (it’s an artificial tree!).

The winter has been relatively warm so far, and we have only just had our first snow. It’s nice to have a white Christmas to look forward to though. For the next update, we’ll take some photos over Christmas and some of the snow. It really looks beautiful when it has freshly fallen. This Christmas will be our first on our own, but we’re looking forward to a quiet time alone with Rosie and Miley.

Miley has settled in well and she’s still growing in confidence day by day. Miley and Rosie are now good friends, and when they’re not play fighting, we often find them snuggling on the sofa together.

Rosie & Miley snuggling

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! I’ll try not to leave it so long before the next update. See you in 2010!

Take care,
Helen & Ben

New House, PEI, Canada Day and a New Friend

We’ve got a few photos to share with you all in this update! As promised, there are some of our new house. We have done some decorating since we moved in, and planned to take before & after photos to compare. However, we forgot about the ‘before’ photos, so we’ll just have to show you the ‘after’ ones!

This is the street that we live on. Keeping in mind that we’re right in the centre of a city (the capital of New Brunswick no less), it’s wonderful that the streets are so tree-lined and pretty.

Our Street

This is our house. As you may be able to see, the car is too big for the garage. We have actually sold it since taking this photo, and are currently without a car for a while!

Our House

I apologise for the graininess of the following interior photos. They were taken at low light, and the camera didn’t handle it very well!

This is the living room, with our awesome 80s-style sofa (which cost $50 for both the 3-seat and 2-seat!):

Living Room

Living Room

As you may be able to guess from the pieces of wood lying around, we’re going to be putting hardwood flooring in this area soon.

This is the dining area just off the living room:

Dining Area

Through the back there is another room that we use as a TV room. There is a bar area in this room that looks through to the kitchen. Here Ben is making us dinner! (Please ignore all of the DIY paraphernalia on the bar):

Dinner

This is the TV room:

TV Room

This is the back yard (you probably didn’t need me to tell you that…):

Back Yard

This is the house from the yard. You may be able to see the deck, which came with a free barbecue!

House From Yard

This is Tigger, our neighbour’s cat, who is the fattest but also the friendliest cat we’ve ever met. You can’t really tell from this photo, but we estimate him as being 3 Rosies wide:

Tigger

A few weeks ago we went to Prince Edward Island with two of our friends Corinna & Andrew for the weekend. We rented a cabin near the beach that was part of a farm. We went slightly out of season, so it was a little quiet, but it was a nice relaxing break. Thanks to Andrew & Corinna for a couple of these photos!

This is our cabin. You can see Ben playing football while Corinna & Andrew make us dinner!

Our Cabin

Inside the cabin:

Inside the Cabin

Walking in Charlottetown:

Walking in Charlottetown

Charlottetown

Walking on the beach:

Beach

Beach

Beach

Beach

The farm that owned the cabins recently had a litter of kittens arrive. They were so tiny and cute!

Kitten

Some of you may know that Prince Edward Island is most famous for Anne of Green Gables. We were lucky enough to bump into Anne in Charlottetown:

Anne of Green Gables

The 1st of July was Canada Day, which meant that we got a day off work and enjoyed plenty of festivities! There were many things going on in downtown Fredericton, including fun & games for kids, stands selling ice cream, popcorn and other goodies, carnival games, fireworks and more. Unfortunately the bouncy castles were just for the kids, but Ben did manage to win a lemon shaped soft toy by successfully throwing a dart into a balloon!

Officer’s Square:

Officer's Square

View from the Bridge

We walked around downtown with our friends Justin & Chantal:

Justin, Chantal & Ben

We also bumped into our neighbours Jim & Jane, who kindly took this photo of us:

Me & Ben

There was a “green” parade in the afternoon, which meant that everyone was on foot. Many groups and organizations were proudly on display:

Marching Band

Chinese Society

Chinese Dragon

Marching Band

One other piece of news we have is that we have welcomed a new friend into our home. Meet Miley:

Miley

This photo was taken while she was still in the SPCA. She used to be feral and had been there since October. She is quite timid of humans and was very scared for a while, but after a couple of weeks she started to get braver and has now come right out of her shell. We’ve had her for around a month now, and are slowly helping her to feel at home. The only problem is that Rosie has not accepted her at all yet. We were hoping they could be friends and play together while we were out at work, but unfortunately this doesn’t look likely right now! We’ll give it some more time and hope that Rosie decides to play nicely!

Throughout July & August in Fredericton there are many events and activities to enjoy. One of these is the ‘Under the Stars Classic Film Series’, which screens various movies outdoors for free in Barrack’s Square in downtown. The first movie was The Day the Earth Stood Still, which I enjoyed watching lay out on my blanket (although I’m planning to take a chair next time!). This Sunday is Casablanca, a real classic not to be missed. Can’t wait!

That’s about it for now. We’re planning to have a housewarming party this weekend, so there may be some more photos to share in the next update.

Take care,
Helen, Ben, Rosie & Miley!

News, news and more news!

Hi everyone! In this update we have some new news, some old news, and some other news that I just keep forgetting to tell you all.

Firstly, as some of you may know, Ben and I are in the process of buying a house! Our first home in Canada is almost ours! If all goes to plan, we should be completing on Friday 15th May and officially moving in on Saturday 23rd May. It’s all very exciting and we’ll take some photos once we’ve moved in to show you all. It’s a cute 4 bed raised bungalow on pretty much our ideal street in the city – within walking distance of just about everything, yet on a quiet street with a real family feel. Rosie will finally be an outdoor kitty!

Secondly, our immigration application has moved onto the next stage, which means that it has passed the provincial nomination and moves onto the federal part. They try to iron out all the kinks in the application at the provincial stage, so usually once it gets nominated, it’s just a matter of processing the paperwork before it gets finalized. It could still take another 12 months, but hopefully it will be quicker than that. We will then officially be permanent residents!

Thirdly, Ben has recently started a new job at the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce! It’s a part-time job that he can continue while he studies, and is exactly the kind of job he was hoping to get. He’s working as Project Coordinator for a new Business Immigrant Mentorship Program, which brings together new immigrant entrepreneurs with established professionals from the city. He is already on their website, and I must say he is looking very handsome and smart in his photo! http://www.frederictonchamber.ca/content/221907.

Those are the main pieces of news that we have to share, as the rest is more day-to-day stuff. Feel free to switch off at this point if you wish!

In other news… A few months ago I joined the Physician Recruitment Committee at the Chamber of Commerce, which aims to bring (or keep) more family doctors in Fredericton, as there is a severe shortage of them. I am helping out with marketing and website activities and I hope to be able to help the very worthy cause. Perhaps at some point we might even be able to get a doctor too!

I have also been helping out at the local SPCA, taking photos for the Pets of the Week feature that they do. Photos and posters appear in local stores and the Daily Gleaner newspaper, which really aims to help the animals that have been at the shelter for a while get adopted. Here’s an example of what I’ve been doing (please excuse the poor photo quality, which is not due to my photo skills, but rather the newspaper’s doing!): http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/search/article/661595.

On Friday night I joined in with a local soccer (sorry, football!) group. Over the summer there will be some games / a tournament (not sure of the details yet!), which will be great fun. I haven’t played since we left, so I was a bit apprehensive, but I managed to score with my second touch of the ball and had lots of fun! There are a few casual kick-abouts for a few weeks until the games begin. Ben has also been training and playing, and hopes to play through the summer if injuries allow!

I think that’s most of the news we have to update you all. By the next time we’ll have moved into our new house, so I’ll have some photos to show you. We’re also going on a trip to Prince Edward Island with some friends at the end of May, so I’ll probably have some photos of that too, I’m sure!

Take care,
Helen & Ben

Photos

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all survived the winter and are enjoying a little bit of spring in the air. There’s still plenty of snow around here but the days are getting over the freezing mark, so we’re definitely turning a corner.

This blog is mainly going to be an update of photos! Jill & Jem sent us some of their photos from when they were here for Christmas, and I’ve finally caught up with transferring the photos from our camera. Some of these are fairly old (November-ish, maybe October! Who knows!).

We do have one exciting piece of news to tell you all! Rosie is currently a Petcetera Pet of the Month! It’s a nationwide competition, so we’re very proud of her and we’re giving her lots of extra love. We also win a $100 coupon for the store! You can see her online here: Rosie

Enjoy the photos!

Killarney Lake (on the north side of the river in Fredericton) around November time:

St John River around the same time:

Our heroic car – named Titan – that has brought us through the winter (we soon found out that our old car was useless at driving in the smallest amounts of snow, even with snow tires):

Ben with some ice:

Christmas morning, Jem received some gloves that proved to be very useful:

Ben received a hilarious snowman toy:

Ben also received some boxing mits, which I helped him to test being the awesome girlfriend that I am (complete with silly face!):

The table all set up for Christmas dinner! It does look a little bare, and we had to make crackers because we forgot to buy some. Whoops!

The crackers came complete with homemade hats and “jokes”:

Ben and I went for a walk but some guy followed us and insisted on posing with us for photos:

Here he is again:

This is what happens when there’s no-one around to protect me:

Jill enjoying the sun in St Andrews!

So, you may be wondering what the snow has been like here…

Compare that to an earlier photo of the house:

A closer view (that is a polar bear with his head in the snow):

I didn’t quite make it to work that morning (yes, that is waist-high on our driveway!):

We had to call someone to plow our driveway, but first I had to walk to the local Superstore to get some cash. At least it was a pretty view:

Although slightly irritating, the snow is very pretty before it gets turned into brown mush. This is a photo that Ben took when he went skiing earlier in the season:

No blog would be complete without a few photos of Rosie. This was her favourite activity over Christmas:

She really is super cute, though:

No more jumping on the bed with Rosie’s new favourite place to hide:

Well, I hope you enjoyed the photo update. I will try to update you more often on what we’re up to, before I get so far behind that I have to empty the camera again!

Take care,
Helen, Ben & Rosie

Overdue Update!

It’s been a long time since the last post, so there’s lots to update you all on! I just have to try to remember it all! I’ve had problems retrieving the photos off my old camera (long story), so I’ve only got a few photos to share right now that were taken with my new camera.

As most of you are aware, Ben’s mom & dad (Jill & Jem) came for Christmas, which was extremely nice and great fun. Apart from their nightmare journeys, including driving back to Halifax in a whiteout, I think they enjoyed it here. We showed them around Fredericton, went to the local Beaverbrook Art Gallery, introduced them to friends, did a bit of shopping, and various other activities. Of course, they got to meet the lovely Rosie too. Apparently they thought it was quite cold though.

We took a trip to St Andrews on one of the nicer days:

We also went to Gagetown, although there wasn’t a lot open just after Christmas! The river looks very different when it’s frozen.

We found an awesome board game called Artifact, and despite losing every game I still enjoyed playing it a lot! I won’t tell you who won most of the games. We also watched about 12 episodes of ’24′ on DVD, because Jill & Jem got to experience the wonder that is Canadian television and soon realised that it is better switched off.

You may be wondering how we’re coping with our first Canadian winter! Well, as you can imagine it’s pretty cold, but as long as you wrap up and have a nice warm home to return to it’s really not that bad. Temperatures at the moment tend to be around -20 at night and -10 to -15 during the day. Recently it reached -34, which was very cold. When the locals say it’s cold, you know it really is! Apparently at that temperature, frostbite starts to set in after 15 minutes, so you should never forget your gloves on a day like that!

Unfortunately we were recently without heat and hot water at home for 5 days! Our oil furnace ran dry unexpectedly and couldn’t be re-filled for a few days. Our landlord decided to replace it with an electric furnace anyway, so we huddled around little electric heaters for a while and took showers elsewhere. We toughed it out pretty well and feel that after surviving living in an unheated house in -20 to -30 temperatures, that we can survive anything!

There’s been plenty of snow so far, and it was nice to have a white Christmas. I don’t have any snow photos to share from my new camera, so I’ll post them next time. We’re both pretty tired of shoveling the driveway already. It took me 45 minutes the other night, and when I woke up in the morning another 15cm of snow had fallen, with the same again throughout the day. I shall remember to check the weather forecast before the next time I do it.

The city looks pretty in the snow and looks very different than when we first arrived. There are some very impressive icicles around at the moment, including one on the building just opposite my work!

I shall try to take some more icicle photos soon.

Ben insists on sharing this last piece of news for this update! He was out on campus one evening and somehow managed to smash his head on the lid of the car boot. With blood running down his face, he had to grab some snow and smother the cut to try to stop the bleeding while he found a washroom. Apparently it was bleeding so much he had to change the snow on his head before he even reached the washroom! Once he’d cleaned up he came home, where I helped him treat the wound that was still bleeding. Here is the evidence (some viewers may find this disturbing):

Ben also wanted me to report that even after this ordeal he went out for the evening with some friends from university.

I’ll leave you with a nicer image. This is Rosie in one of her favourite poses (asleep).

Well, that’s all I can remember for now! More photos and updates will come soon. I shall endeavor to update the blog more often so I don’t forget what we’ve been doing!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year (I know, it seems like a lifetime ago now!)

Take care,
Helen & Ben