An update - two months in coming - but an update nonetheless!

So I havent updated my blog in months, and no real excuse from my side...

Before I start jst wanted to send a pic which I took from my apartment the other week - I just thought it was a nice composition - this is just before dawn with the moon still visable... The resolution on this is much lower than the original, but you get the idea!




I've had a hectic couple of months with work, as there were a number of tight deadlines, and some of the work we were doing was new for a few people so that jst exasperated the whole situation to a point! I think (touch wood) that everything is going to start slowing down here now, as the major hump has passed... We'll have to see though! I can definitely say that in terms of work these have been the toughest months I have ever gone through, but overall I survived so thats the positive!

On a social front not much has really been happening, I have been going to a church small group/bible study type group every fortnight, which has been good, so have met a few people from there... But as seems to be the case with most people across here they have specific groups of people they meet for specific things, and those don't generally cross over...

One of the guys from the Zimbabwe office (Henry) recently joined the Calgary office, so the partner agreed to fly me over there to assist for a couple of days to help with his onboarding. It was a good time, awesome to see him, and just to hang out for a bit. He's a great guy, and I think he will do well in Canada! Also got to spend a bit of time with Jen and Adam over there, so that was really good too... Here's a pic of Henry out at dinner the night I got there!


Oh it was also my birthday here a few weeks back, but that was kept rather low key, got a number of birthday wishes which was great, and a couple of people bought me little gifts. I also received a parcel from home with a gift and card from the folks, which was awesome, I have that pinned up (the card) in my cubicle...

Looking ahead there are a few things which are coming up which the office has organised or people at the office are holding... I am going to a couple of "wedding socials" here soon - and these are basically parties where they sell tickets to try raise money for a wedding. So that should jst be a good party. Then the office has organised an evening where we are going for dinner and then to watch a hockey game, so that will be nice to chat with people outside of work.
For easter I am going skiing in Banff with Casey, who I met back in Zimbabwe over new year. Neither of us have been skiing so the one day when we were chatting we decided to go! She's flying across on the Thursday night and we are heading up for a few days over easter weekend. I am really looking forward to that coz it should be really good fun, I'll get to spend time with Casey, see Jen and Adam and probably Henry, and I get to try out skiing. Apparently it is really beautiful up there, so I will try take tons of photos and post a couple up here!

Other than that I can't think of much which is really happening, its a Thursday lunchtime and I just thought (after prompting from a couple of people recently) that I should update my blog... As I always say, I'll try and make this more regular (even though I think I have been pretty regular, if not frequent :P)

Hope everyone is well, and email me sometime, its always good to hear from everyone!!

Survivor Mazvikadei - The spoils of victory - ONE MILLION DOLLARS

 

Survivor Mazvikadei - The final two - the non-winner drowning his sorrows

 

Bunji Jumping at Vic Falls

 

Back in Canadia

Well, I'm back in Canada and at the end of my first week of work. My time in Zimbabwe was absolutely awesome - I managed to spend time with my family and friends - something which I was sorely missing in Canada.

Went to Victoria Falls and threw myself off the bridge (I was pushed!!) and then went white water rafting with my dad! Some things I'll never forget - and the entire time in Vic Falls is one of those.

Spent a weekend with my friends at Mazvikadei just hanging out and chatting and catching up - good times!

Had the New Years party at my house, while my folks were still in Vic Falls (yes they knew about it and condoned it!), and it was pretty darned good! I actually managed to stay up until about 7 in the morning - at which point I excused myself from everyone and crashed!

The trip back was pretty bad - cramped in cattle class for more hours than I would like to mention, and then, because it is holiday season, managed to miss my connecting flight, and then missed the rescheduled flight as well (neither was actually my fault - planes arriving late and bad planning for check-in) .

In the Google stand at Heathrow airport

Right - firstly excuse me if this post is a little less than comprehensive and readible... I have just gotten off a plane from Toronto - not slept much - and it is about 4:44 am Winnipeg time... but it is all good as I AM GOING HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!! I am so excited!

I was walking by and saw something and thought - deja vu - the google stand at heathrow. I saw pics of it online and yeah - i walked in - sat down and am now creating a post to my blog.

I know I havent posted for a while - and wont even start trying to explain why...

So for everyone who is in Zim or will be there over the christmas holidays - please get in touch - i would love to hear from everyone and catch up if possible...

I will likely be back - coz i have a long wait here and there is not much else for me to do here!!!

Corn Mazes and Diversity Breakfasts...

So I actually had quite an eventful weekend (for me, in Canada... in case anyone has some wise cracks).

On Friday night, on the way out of the client this other guy from work, Mike (who was at that night in Calgary at the Stampede), said we should go for a couple of beers. So we went across the street to a Moxies (which is a restaurant/bar type place - v nice). So anyway one beer turned into a few and yeah went home and slept pretty well :P

Then I was invited to go to a halloween thing at a "corn maze". So I got dressed up as a cowboy (coz I still have the OTT cowboy hat from Stampede) and yeah met up with this group of people. The person organising it works at Air Canada, where I am doing a lot of work at at the moment. The corn maze was pretty kewl actually, its jst a massive field of maize with a maze cut into it; and you have to locate various point in the maze according to a checklist. So it was nice to jst spend some time with other people and chill with them afterwards.

Sunday morning I was picked up with Rick and we met up with Rowena, the other TSRS person in Winnipeg, for a "diversity breakfast". The thing is that the TSRS team in Canada is very multicultural so they often do "diversity" dinners where they will go to a Portuguese or Chinese restaurant. Well the Winnipeg team is all non-Canadian, so we decided to go out to this place called Green Gates for a breakfast, which we assume is a Canadian one. So anyways it is a buffet style and the food is amazing! 4 or 5 star type food. Lets just say I was very satisfied after leaving there! Wow!

"Other" Pics

This is the view out of the boardroom at EY on a particularly gloomy summer day. You can see the local baseball team's (The Goldeyes) diamond in this. The river you see in this picture is the Red River, and further upstream (to the right) is "the Forks" where the Assiniboine and Red rivers meet. It apparently has historical relevance during the fur trading times... Not totally sure bout all tho...
This is me in the CN Tower in Toronto standing on the glass floor. The CN tower is the tallest tower in the world (somewhere around 500m high).
This is me, very tired from not sleeping well, on Canada day (July 1st). Yes, I did end up going out looking like this... But everyone was dressed up all goofy lookin!
This is at the one large tent at the Calgary Stampede. Not sure what time this was, but it looks as though it was after a number of beers. The other guy in the photo is Mike, who works at EY.
This is the municiple building in Winnipeg. Not sure if you can see it clearly but there is a golden statue of a boy on top of the building. Everyone refers to it as the "golden boy", and it looks pretty good on a sunny day (which this wasnt)!