Another Christmas season come and gone

It’s been a great break. I’ve really enjoyed having time off, and I’m really happy to say that it was also a really fun and generally pretty relaxed Christmas.

Once M was finally free for the holidays, we headed down to the Sarnia area. Instead of the stress of wedding planning and having to drive between Sarnia and Kitchener, we were able to celebrate with both sides of the family all in one area. (Thanks Wends for hosting). It was really good – everything seemed easier and less overwhelming. It totally helps that the nieces and nephews now know me and are comfortable around me. In fact, the nieces were even a little besotted with me, getting annoyed if I didn’t sit between them. 🙂 M’s parents also finished the basement at their place so there was more room to juggle the 8 people and 2 dogs residing there. M and I even got to spend some time together, which was really nice seeing as it’s been crazy at times this year.

It was also really nice to not have to travel nearly as far to spend time with my family. It was really nice that everyone agreed to move the traditional call to Africa to a later time, seeing as this year the plans on their side of the ocean were a little different too. It was good to have a brief chat, because I have to say, I really miss that tradition when it comes to Christmas. Last year I was lucky, and I got to have my aunt and cousin here for a few weeks over the wedding, but still I missed it. Going forward, I really hope we can find a balance of getting to see my family and doing some of their regular traditions too. But we’ll work on it. Either way, dinner with Christmas pudding, mince pies and brandy butter really hit the spot.

Christmas spoils were good this year too. M splurged and got me a new camera seeing as my digital has been on the fritz for some time now. I was so surprised because I had convinced myself it was Degrassi High on DVD by the shape of the parcel. Oops! I got M an awesome Hurley shirt that he loves. Wends spoiled us with goodies from England. It was great. There were tons of other prezzies, but I won’t list them all so that people don’t get too bored!

Once we got back from Sarnia, Marty and I had some time to recover (ie spend his work bonus of gift certificatesto Yorkdale mall) before heading to Haliburton with friends to celebrate New Year’s. There ended up being 14 of us in the end, and it was pretty fun. We hooked up some prime ice skating on the lake and drank enough hot chocolate to last me for a while. We played card games and board games. It was fun and I enjoyed myself, though I do have to confess, I’m not really a New Year’s kind of gal. I don’t put that much stock in it so it doesn’t take much to for me to have at least a little bit of fun. I also have to confess I was really to get back home and spend time with M again after having so many people around all day long.

Now, I’m enjoying the last bits of my vacation. We had a nice dinner with Rachel and Nick last night. M and I hit the gym together today, which was good. It’s nice to have someone who knows what they are doing with the machines explain a few things to me. But reality also creeped in because I bought my school books today too while we were on campus. Sigh- I guess I really do have to go back to class on Monday.

At least I’ve got another book to finished before I get there. 🙂

Virtual Insanity

After a long, awesome relaxing weekend at Rachel’s cottage, I came back to work this morning sunburnt a little tired, but generally good. Then it seems I was punished for being a heathen an not going to church yesterday – I’ve had back to back meetings all afternoon, one of which I totally forgot about so I didn’t get to my lunch until almost 2:00! BLARG!

I’m just going to coast through the day from now onwards because I’m not going to lie, I’m a little cranky and tired now.

Just one more month…

Afternoon restlessness

Today I’m one day closer to another cottage adventure.  This time we’re heading to the Muskoka’s to hang out at Rachel’s cottage, as pass time I truly love.  In fact, I’m so exicted this entire week I’ve been thinking that it’s one day later in the week than it actually was.  (ie Monday felt like Tuesday, etc.)  Today is just Thursday though and I can’t wait for tomorrow.

Seriously.  I’m so restless this week – I don’t want to sit still in the afternoons and I’m getting antsy about stuff.  It’s weird.  That usually means something is going to happen, I just don’t know what yet.  Weird.

A sort of long weekend

It’s come and gone.  The Canada weekend spectacular at the Duncan cottage is over.  It was full of adventures, drinking, and peeing in the woods!

Friday afternoon, M and I left the city early (3:00) but still landed in the mass exodus of cars leaving the city.  In the end, we were glad of the early departure, because it could have been WAY worse.  We met up with Dave and Danielle in Peterbourough and followed them all the way to Shawville, QC where we snagged the keys from Dave’s parents and headed to the cottage.  Now, let me explain, Dave’s cottage is a wonderful little house with no running water and an outhouse out back – totally a great place to have crazy good times, especially when you’ve got cold beer – which we did!  That was the first thing we had before heading to bed.

Saturday brought more people to the cottage – Dave’s cousin Rob and Danielle’s sister Lisa plus her awesome puppy, Tia. Then Andrew and Ericka came from Ottawa.  We had a relazing, partly rainy day, playing board games, reading and chatting.  We even managed to squeeze in a swim before dinner of organic beef steaks, potatoes and an awesome dessert made by Ericka.  After dinner we did some fun DIY fire works by the water at Norway Bay before coming back to hang out some more and go to bed.

Sunday was just as relaxing – for the most part – until we decided to have a brilliant stupid idea of hiking to a swimming hole nearby with Tia and with Dave’d parent’s dog Bridget.  It was a good plan overall because this swimming hole is awesome – it’s where I bumped my keister last summer when I chickened out on jumping off a rock.  HOWEVER – we did not fully take into account the fact that we were traipsing through a wooded area that was muddy and exceptionally slick because of a major rain the night before.  M, Lisa, Tia and I went in first, and managed to get somewhere though there were a few falls on the way, and a few nervous moments where Tia went a little to close to the edge of the fast moving water than we would like.  Then we discovered we were at the top of the falls, not the bottom and had to walk crawl on our bums down a rock face towards the pool.  Tia was the first down, moving straight into the water (God loves puppies who can swim) but she couldn’t get out of the slippery rocks to find Lisa!  Marty rescued her, and all three of us and the dog managed to test the waters a little bit. 

Then came adventure part 2.  Dave, Rob, and Danielle arrived with Bridget, a super dominant and slightly aggressive German Sheppard.  YIKES!  This got complicated because she wasn’t well behaved at all and nearly pulled Dave into the water when trying to get towards Tia.  Then she started biting at Tia, and they started a little fighting right on the edge of the fast moving water!  NOT COOL!  We all panicked a little, separated them, and quickly made the call that this was a BAD idea and scrambled out of there.  Dave, Danielle and Bridget left first.  Then the rest of us left together.  We managed to keep the dogs separated and then opted to swim in the bay instead.  That was until lightening and thunder rolled in.  We made it back to the cottage just in time – and apparenely we just missed a huge tree crashing on the beach at the bay too!

Waiting for us at the cottage was more friends, Ash and Maria, who chilled with us the rest of the time.  Lisa unfortunately had to take off with Tia, but we were a new crew of people.  We had dinner – and after that I had to head off to the Duncan’s house to sleep, because unlike everyone else, I had to work on Monday!  Luckily I had the option of going in to the Ottawa office, so it was an easy commute in with Mr. Duncan and an easy day at the call centre.  I was later picked up by the cottage crew who has decided to foray in to Ottawa to look around a little.  It was too bad is started to pour there too so we jumped back in the car and headed back to have an awesome dinner of BBQ burgers.

Yesterday was the last day – we relaxed in the morning in the sun! (I got a little sunburn – finally some colour!)  After tucking in, we cleaned up and headed back to civilization.  We left about 2:00 and made it home just before 8:00 last night.  All in all a good trip.

Thanks Dave for hosting!

Rachel’s cottage: The continuing story

“Hey Felicity, wanna come entertain me on Saturday when I go to get my cottage ready to be shut down?”

It started innocently enough…

Yesterday I got “suckered” into accompanying Rachel to her cottage for part of the day so we could clean out the fridge, etc and get it ready for the winter. Really, it just means making sure you leave nothing available for the mice to have a party with. So, I agreed. There is no harm in a road trip. Our initial plan was to leave at 11 am and stay for the day and come back in the evening. Ha! Initial plan being the operative words. Because I had to get my hair cut at 11, we pushed that back to noon, and well, we were flexible. So, my hair got cut, some errands were run, and some food was eaten. In the end we left the city at 2 pm!

The ride up to the cottage was relatively uneventful except that we seemed to hit every single type of weather possible on the way there. First it was dreary cloudy weather with sun in the distance, next it was a sprinkling of rain. Then came sun, next came a downpour of rain, then came hail! Luckily Rachel drove like a pro, and inside the couch we had Ben Folds keeping us going. (Yay Song for Silverman!) Finally we pulled into the cottage safe and sound around 5 pm. It was such a contast to see the autumn leaves on the ground a bare trees, but it was lovely.

Just as I was taking in the view I suddenly here “Oh Holy Shit!” I’m thinking there can’t be anything wrong now, we’re safe…and then Rachel says “I forgot the keys to the cottage in Toronto!” WHAT?!?! Oh my goodness. It was almost surreal. Really funny, but surreal. We paused, and decided not to give up after our 2 hr drive. So, we get into the covered porch and check out the locked cottage door – how do we pick this? For a few minutes we played with tools, which were luckily outside, an tried to get in. Then while Rachel was on the phone to engineering/possible deliquent type friends in Toronto I decided to investigate other ways of getting in.

So, I went checked out the cabin. I tried the screen door, and thought about other windows. Then it struck me – the windows near the dining area! I ran over to Rachel and screamed “I’ve got a plan!” and set about my task. With a little craftiness, I managed to get the screen to come off one of the windows at the back and wanted to desperately get the window open. Luckily after a little playing, I managed to get the window to open as well. Now the next step was deciding how to get my body in – would I fit? I decided there was no better way then head first. I launched myself in. Just as this moment, Rachel came back to see my arse in the air half-way in her cottage. She laughed and said “Let me in!” And that is how we managed to start our cottage adventure.

Once we got in, we got the hot water and baseboard heaters working. Next step – a nice fire to warm the house up. I managed to get a fire lit, and we sat in our coats under blankets and decided to watch Sleepless in Seattle. Of course, at this point we were a little hungry, but didn’t really feel like heading into town for dinner supplies. We were fortunate to find some frozen burger and buns among the condiments, so we decided to settle for that. (Little did I know they weren’t completely frozen before Rachel defrosted them – not until she asked the next day! Oi! I swear she’s trying to poison everyone!)

By this time, things were getting a little warmer in the cottage. My goal was to maintain the fire to keep us warm, but I was having some trouble. All they dry logs in the cabin were thick and were burning really slowly. I wasn’t about to get a hatchet and chop them on the hearth, so I settled for trying to improvise. I managed to find a nice flat board to burn, tucked in the back. I do admit it was a little big for the fireplace, but still, it would burn. And burn it did. But in doing so it filled the cabin with smoke to such a degree we had to open the window to let cold air in and the smoke out. Oops! Of course, I didn’t want to give up my piece of wood, but finally I caved to Rachel’s reason. I took the lonely, burning log and threw it over the balcony into the wet leaves. And no, it did not catch on fire, but it was pretty funny.

The rest of the night was significantly better. We watched Mr. Holland’s Opus, ate our not-so-poisonous burgers, and just layed low. Rachel and I had a good talk about stuff, and I also got a chance to work on a project I’ve been meaning to start for a while now. It was good. I managed to find some better logs to burn and built the fire up right before we crawled under tons of covers on the sofas next to the fire. And we slept.

We got up early the next morning with the intention of leaving for home early, aiming to be back around 10 or 11. We left at 9:30. We took an hour long pit stop in Barrie for coffee, dollar store goodies, and we even looked in Winners. We left the parking lot in Barrie at 11:55. We arrived at Allan Road at 12:32. Go Rachel! It was a good drive, the weather was much better, and we arrived safely. No gut rot, no overly smoked out lungs, happier and in good stead.

Thanks for a great time, Ms. Beck.

Rachel’s cottage: The sequel

Another long weekend in the summer has come and gone, but it was lovely. Once again, a few of us adventurous FT folk went up to Rachel’s cottage in the Muskokas. So nice. This time was much more relaxing – only five us went: Rob Awesome, David, Karl, Rachel and I – which gave us the much needed space to let our hair down.

We actually left for out destination on Saturday morning seeing as there were people staying at the cottage until noon of that day. It was a good trip up – everyone got a preview of the Freekout Tree Point Oh CD, which was fun (despite the disagreements between Karl and I when it comes to classic rock being good music). We talked and joked, and eventually made it to the cottage. We unpacked the car and headed into Mactier for groceries, which is always fun with 5 people. After that it was swimming, reading and watching movies. Really. Not much else other than that. Well, maybe the only variation was the addition of my good friend Jon for dinner on Sunday, but other than that, it was just lovely monotony.

Some highlights were bonding with the little girls who lived in the two cottages over from us. Sunday afternoon while swimming, we finally talked to our neighbours. The girl Jamie, dubbed “Little J” by me, and the other girl Jess and Emily were so fun. I talked with them, played in the water – they even gave me a bracelet. It made me laugh and think of Rim Rock and all the good times I had being a camp counsellor. Another highlight was a late night swim in the moonlight with Rachel, and finding a new spot to swim to across the lake.

All in all, a great weekend, thanks Rachel!

A long weekend in the Muskokas

This past weekend was absolutely fantastic. My friend Rachel invited a stack of us goons from FT to come up to her family cottage for the long weekend to relax and it was such a welcome break from the city and a good time was had by all. Oh, the adventures you have when you put a bunch of guys and only three girls together. (In the end our group consisted of Rachel, Ann Marie, myself, Enoch, Karl, Justin, Rob Awesome, Rob S, and Kyle; and Rob S was afraid there would be no guys! ha!)

It all started on Friday afternoon/evening when I met up with Rachel to do some grocery shopping. In the end, I was really glad to have the day off because I needed to get settled in the house, and I was free to help with the errands. I know Rachel was glad to have a second pair of hands. Once we were all set for the weekend, we grabbed the food and headed over to Rachel to make dinner for the crew before we headed out on the road. All in all, the trip there was a success, even if Rachel was a little crazy on the steering. 😉 We left between 9:30 and 10:00 and arrived just after midnight – we even took time to stop at Wendy’s to eat some soquid with a fpoon. First thing done at the cottage? We all changed into swim togs (my mum’s expression) and hopped into the lake! It was so lovely! We had one lone beam of light from a flashlight and the stars to light the way. The water was warm, and it was just what the doctor ordered. Then it was time to light a fire, relax and take in some of the peace and quiet before hitting the hay, which was an adventure in an of itself seeing as all three of us ladies were sharing a double bed. It worked out well once we worked out a nice spooning order!

The next morning, us ladies woke up early and starting chatting about everything and nothing. Ok, who am I kidding, we talked about the same old: relationships and poo. ha! Once we left the room, I went straight to the lake and went for a swim. In my opinion that’s one of the best ways to wake up. Breakfast consisted of blueberry pancakes and real maple syrup, and after that it was time to just sit and enjoy the sunshine on the dock while we waiting for Mark and Christine (former LR members who have just moved to Huntsville) with baby Max. That was awesome. We all got a chance to sit by the dock,and get some sun. In fact, some of us got a little too much because, well, let’s put it this way Karl sure looked like he was wearing a pink shirt. 🙂 We also went for some good swims – the standard one being a run across the lake because it only took about 10 minutes, not even. We would swim, sit on the opposite dock, talk about serious things and then come home, and then we would repeat it later on.

Dinner on Saturday was also really nice, we had burgers and salad and we broke bread together like one big happy family. It was nice to just relax. After dinner, Mark and Christine left and Jason came for the rest of the weekend. That was fun. We casually watched some of Justin’s DVD rental “The Long Way Round” and hung out. We played cards and drank beers and enjoyed the evening before retiring.

Sunday morning, breakfast was a little more halfhazard, consisting of muffins and fruit. A few people got up early and were singing worship songs and having some God time by the dock. Someone suggested that we do some church, which was a really good idea and much needed because some tension was starting to breed in because of sarcasm and close living quarters. Luckily someone came up with the best possible idea – an encouragement circle. We all sat around, took some time to spread some love and to pray for everyone. It was so nice to feel appreciated and to talk positively for a while. After that it was a late lunch, more swimming and then we all crashed out and watched Batman Begins while Rob (and Rachel) made delicious fish stew for dinner. It was lovely to break bread together, all sitting around the table. We decided undertake a game of Balderdash, which Rob S and I won (WOOT!). And we were about to retire to bed when the clouds lifted just enough to get to see the stars. So a bunch of us went to the dock, lit sparklers and sat under blankets looking at the sky.

Monday morning was more getting ready to go than anything else. We did one last swim across the lake, had breakfast, packed up and left the cottage by 1 pm. It was a easy drive back to the city, none of us really wanted to go back, but it’s nice that it was an easy drive. By the time it was all done, we were safe, sane and still single – and all the better for a lovely weekend away.

P.S. Rachel, I am SO in.