Halloween

It was a bit of a dismal week at work.  We had three people quit when our holidays were cut short for next week’s Eid.  I this the quittings were a result of many things being piled on at once but the mood around the office has been gloomy.  I decided to bring in a Halloween cake to cheer us all up.  It worked for a bit and then at the end of the week with only an hour left in the day, we got the extra days off for the holiday.  I’m off to Nepal with friends for next week so I’m pretty excited about that.

Here’s a picture of the cake by spooky candlelight.  First layer was spice, second was carrot and the third was spice again.  I put a cream cheese filling with a butter cream outer frosting and then fondant for the outside.

The Chaine

Last night I was invited to a dinner for the Chaine des Rotisseurs club. It's a world-wide club that holds fine dining events for it's members. Only 50 members are allowed per city so that the events can remain the best quality. Here in Al Ain, the dinners are rotated between the big hotels as they have the best, most creative chefs. My friends Sharon and Serge are members so they invited myself and Linda, another co-worker.

This dinner was held at the Hilton, out in the gardens. It's about 23 degrees in the evening so it was perfect weather these days and there was a nice breeze.

 

The dinner had a Halloween theme  so all the servers were dressed in costume and some of the food was designed to look scary.  The smoked duck and pumpkin soup was served from a cauldron and one of the starters was oyster margaritas in test tubes.

Apparently the dinners are usually seated but this one was a buffet and we had a huge variety of dishes to try..  Quail, lamb, beef medallions wrapped in bacon, and the best rosemary roasted potatoes that I’ve ever had.  There was also a good selection of wine and cocktails before and during dinner.  Of course, my favourite part of the meal was the dessert.  Fruits, berries and chocolate all mixed together in amazingly good morsels. 

Linda and I were both told that we might be able to become members and I might do it.  The dinners are a bit expensive at $75 but I met some nice people there and the food was really good.  I also got to buy a new dress and get all fancied up for the evening which was fun. Next week there is a wine tasting event held by a different group so I’m probably going to that as well. 

Trivia with Britney Spears

Had a good weekend.  Went to a trivia game charity event on Thursday night and was embarrassed to be the only one on my team to answer the Britney Spears questions...no more top 40 for me.  I did know a couple of other questions but these people were fierce.  Jeopardy champs all the way. 

The event's dinner was catered by the organizer's wife who is Thai.  Of course, we had Thai food and it was delicous.  Got her number because she apparently delivers.  We also raised enough money to buy cameras for the local elementary school so the kids can use them for class projects. 

You can see the bamboo, character, dragon, flower, wind and circle sets in this picture

The next day I was invited to sit in on a regular Majjong game because one of the players couldn't make it.  The players were very sweet and let me practice on the first round of the game...apparently there are tons of different aspects to the real game when you get into it so I hope that I can go again soon before I forget when I learned. 

The Saga of Etisalat

The Internet Saga

Day 1: apply for high-speed connection with the state-run internet provider, Etisalat.
Day 20: visit internet provider to ask when the connection might be coming.  I am told two days.
Day 25: call provider to ask when the the connection might be coming.  I am told two days.
Day 33: receive a call saying that a team will come to connect my internet.
Day 38: wait four hours for the team.  They say they will come in two days.
Day 39: the team comes but tells me that the connection is not possible due to 'technical problems'
Day 41: provider says technical problem will be solved in two days.
Day 42: problem is not solved.
Day 52: Visit provider.  I'm getting really good at navigating customer service.  I am told to wait one week but they don't know what the problem is.
Day 60: They still don't know what the problem is.
Day 65: While the customer service rep at the counter is looking up things on his computer, I call the customer service number on my cell phone.  The man at the desk says it will be fixed in four days while the man on the phone says it could be three months.  I give up and order a slower service which they tell me is crap.
Day 75: A man calls and asks me to stand on the road so he can find my house.  He is coming to install 'something'.  He throws a cable off the roof of my building and drills a hole into my building wall.  The cable is put through the hole and connected to my computer.  Internet does not work.  Apparently, it will magically begin working the next day.
Day 76:  It works for two hours.  Stops and doesn't start again.
Day 77: I call and the man tells me that I have been disconnected because I didn't pay for my internet for the past two months.  I take a deep breath. 
Today:  The man is coming today to fix the connection problem and I'm worried that there won't be an ending to this saga as they deport people for murdering internet service providers.

Busy Week

This week has been pretty busy for me and I've been getting out a lot.  On Monday, I joined some friends for a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner at the Palm Sport Resort.  It was a nice setting with red being the theme and little Canadian flags here and there.  Unfortunately, the food was somewhat lacking.  Great turkey but bizzare stuffing and no pumpkin pie.  The Halloween party will be there later in the month so I have to look into getting a costume made up.

From left to right; Sharen, Serge, Louise and Julie...I'm in the window/mirror

I also locked myself out of the apartment on the way to the dinner.  I hadn't put an extra key anywhere because I hadn't found a safe spot yet so I was stranded out in the hallway when I came back from the hotel.  Interestingly, the procedure would normally require me to call the police who would verify my occupancy and then sign a document allowing a locksmith to break in for me.  This apparently takes hours so I was relieved when the handyman from the college came with his tools and banged away until we got in.  He replaced the lock for about $30.  I now have a spare key in my purse and another one hidden away so that shouldn't happen again. 


On a happier note, I went to Abu Dhabi for the Film Festival this weekend. 

Cotton Candy in a cup from our gas station stop on the way to Abu Dhabi

I went with Patreshia, Tania and Lisa and we stayed at the Hilton which was on the beach and within walking distance of the main theaters and a huge mall.  We spent our first morning at the Emerati Palace Hotel looking at the incredible fixtures and art.  There was even an ATM for buying ounces of gold. 

The Palace

The gold ATM...seriously!!!

The view from the palace

There was also a museum in the Palace and we could see old pictures of the city as well as future models of an incredible plan to make Abu Dhabi the Culture Capital of the world...it's pretty impressive with a whole island devoted to museums, aquariums, galleries and performance halls.

Abu Dhabi beach in the 1970s

Abu Dhabi beach now

A future cultural center

We hit the film festival later in the day.  It was fairly well run and I had bought my tickets online.  I saw two films which were worth mentioning.  The Cave of Forgotten Dreams was a 3D look at a cave in France that has the oldest known cave paintings.  What amazed me about this was that the artists had used the curvature of the rock to emphasize movement and musculature of the animals.  The 3D imaging really made this clear.  The other movie I saw was City Dark and it was fantastic.  It was about how we're loosing the night sky due to light pollution and it dealt with the emotional to the physical and everything in between.  It was fantastic and, I think, as important as Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth.

The others saw more artistic type movies so we had a lot to compare over our meals and drinks.  I also got some shopping in so I now have my boots and a backpack for my trip to Nepal...I can't wait.

From left to right; Patreshia, Lisa, me and Tanya at the Hilton lounge in Abu Dhabi

This has been a bad week at work.  We had a big meeting about holidays.  It was bad news on the holidays and then there was an email giving more bad news about housing allowances.  This, compounded with a freeze on wages this year has really soured a lot of my co-workers and everyone is grumbling and talking about leaving.  Not the greatest environment for me to be starting in and it seems like it might be an indication of future trouble for the colleges and the country.  To add insult to injury, my boss insists that I give up one of my weekend days next weekend to sit at a conference.  

To end this on a positive note, I'll show you a picture of a restaurant I went to last week.  Great butter Chicken.



We aat outside in the back, under the palm trees and ate our dinner on lounges...very cool!!!



Jazzing the Gulf

Went to a jazz performance by the North Rhine Westfalia Youth Jazz Orchestra the other night.  It was held at Toowoomb Hospital which seems like an odd place for a jazz concert but they have a good concert hall/auditorium there and the building is quite attractive all surrounded by palms and covered in scrolled and flowered iron works.

While there, I learned that this was the season's opening performance and that I should expect pretty good things to come.  The Sheikh and his mother, the Sheikha sponsor all kinds of great acts.  Last year they had Yo Yo Ma perform outdoors in the fort and before that was Winton Marsalis with his band and Bobby McFaren.  The tickets are always free or very cheap.  Last night was free.

The show was a interesting mix of styles with two German conductors and one Argentinian and each musican had a solo of one sort or another.  They had everyone dancing in their seats including me.

There is a pretty famous local DJ working a dance at the Equestrian, Shooting, Rugby, Golf Club (yes, that really is the name of the place) this weekend so I might hit that next. 

On another front, I've booked a flight for Nepal this November so I'll be celebrating my birthday at the foot of Everest.  I'm pretty excited about it.  It's too bad I left my trekking boots in Canada because now I'll have to break another pair in but I guess I can always use that as an excuse to walk slowly if I want.  :)

Hanging out at home

This week has been kind of a 'getting used to my place' week.  Where do I eat my meals, how do I actually prepare the meals in my bizzaro oven, where does that weird dookicky go and so on.  I've gotten most of the unslightly wall damage and odd electrical boxes covered up with art of one kind or another.  There have been some great deals at the mall so it hasn't cost me much to put some interesting things up.  I haven't invested in more than $20 for any one piece.  I even bought some blank canvases and paint and painted a few pieces myself for about $10 each.  One of them actually turned out good enough that I don't cringe when I walk past it.

The building cat, Scruffy, has adopted me and hangs out when I'm home.  He's very lovable but meows a lot so he gets kicked out at night.  He goes upstairs to his 'official' caretaker to sleep.

I've also been enjoying the outdoors a bit more as the temperature is falling to a comfy 37/38 at noon.  In the early morning and the evening it's okay for sitting or slowly walking now.  I'm looking at BBQs now so I'll be ready for next month.  As it is, I'm having fun watching out my windows at all the flora and fauna.

A bird dangles off a banana fruit flower outside my kitchen window

It's good that there is a lot of entertainment going on around me as I still don't have TV or internet but I guess I'm more motivated to go out and do things so I'm not going to complain. 

Internet

The ongoing saga with my internet has yet another chapter.  The company actually made an appointment with me to do the hook up so I was quite excited.  Everyone at work cautioned me and tried to make me see reason but I was determined to be optimistic about the whole process.  I've since learned my lesson.

 I wait for four hours the first appointment before giving up.  I waited two hours on the second appointment (later that weekend) before a man showed up with his tools and explained to me that there was no junction box in our building so I couldn't get my service.  They weren't in charge of the junction boxes so there would have to be some phone calls made to get that work order written up. 

When I asked the man why he made two appointments with a customer before checking to see if the work could be done, he just looked confused.  It would be funny if it wasn't happening to me.  Hopefully, things will be sorted by next week.

Al Jimi Oasis

My natural history group has different outtings every weekend so last weekend I went on a tour of one of the seven big oasis in the region.  Amer, our guide/host is a member of the group who took so many of these tours that he became an expert.  We were also lucky enough to have a local person in our group who worked for the municipality that takes care of the oasis so we got lots of inside knowlege on the place. 

It was like walking in a wild palm tree park with odd wells and irrigation canals.  Tall grasses are grown and harvested for animal feed.  There are tons of birds flitting around including green parots, swifts, bee eaters and swallows.  Interestingly, a lot of the birds were imported to increase the beauty of the country and, I'm assuming, polinate the flora.  We even saw a snake called a Wadi Racer. 

Here we are traipsing through the grass

a lot of this walled walkway was demolished in the wind storm last week and
we had to climb over downed trees

Historically, Al Jimi Oasis was a natural source of water like all oasis and it was used by the local community as a farming area.  They grew date palms, fruits and vegetables.  There was also a big fort for protection against any invading tribes who might try to steal the water, food or women.  

During the 1960's the discovery of oil created a movement out of the oasis and into the coastal towns so the agricultural communities died off.   To maintain the oasis nowadays, desalinated water is piped in from the coast and they almost exclusively grow date palms.  A palm tree needs 50 gallons of water every day and there are over a million in the area so that's a lot of water.  



they put mesh bags around the dates before they get ripe so that they don't fall on the ground

 Of course, the people who work in the oasis are from India or Pakistan and it's hard work.  They shimmy up these palms to bag and harvest the dates as well as cut the leaves every year to maintain the health of the tree.  Date palms were the most important possession that a person could have in the desert because you used the dates for food, feeding camels, making arabic coffee and the leaves for shelter and weaving.   Because of this, the late Sheikh made sure that every citizen had at least one date palm.  There are sections of the city where anyone can go and plant their palm and there are areas of palms that are donated to the poor.

There is still a fort there and it's open to the public but the local workers have decided to live in it illegally so they locked it up and we couldn't get inside.  I'll try again another time because it looked pretty interesting from the outside.

the fort at twight

It was hot during the walk but it was my first look at the UAE that didn't include a shopping mall so I had fun.  Afterwards, my friend/neighbor Patreshia and I went to La Brioche Cafe and had a good dinner surrounded by tables of white robed Arabic men.  The delicious corn-fed chicken in a muchroom sauce, whipped potatoes and a very large mint lemonade that I ordered was less than $15 which impressed me.  There was also a good selection of pastries that I'm going back for next time :)

The weather

Last night we lost our building's electricity for 4 hours.   I think that some idiot cut something that he wasn't supposed to because no one would give us a straight answer and they claimed to be 'working' on the mosque down the road at 10:00pm which caused the outage.  It turned out alright because my neighbors and I sat out in the hall for a while and chatted.  This was only possible because the incredibly opressive heat has been replaced by a nice summer heat.  I eventually gave up and went to bed without air conditioning.  Of course, at 1:30 everything came back on and woke me up but at least I didn't wake up in a pool of my own sweat this morning.

It was so nice today that the students opened the windows and I taught class to a lovely breeze blowing in and the sound of songbirds.

The latest update on my internet is that the company is going to dig a hole for the fibre optic cable this week.  I may be stupidly optimistic but I'm going to assume that I'll have internet by next week sometime.  I wonder if I should buy a shovel and offer to help out :)

The Natural History Society

Last night I went to my first Natural History Society meeting.  There are a lot of these clubs in town and I'm going to have fun trying a few out.  This one is a keeper I think as it's like having a 'live' National Geographic in my life.  The lecture was on the coral reefs of the UAE and how they're being impacted by things like the giant palm tree islands that have been built. 



They built this right on top of a coral reef and destroyed it.

In addition to the twice monthly lectures, there will be weekend excursions and day trips.  There was a trip to the local souk (market) last week but I missed it so I'm going to try and tour the souk on my own.  The club website is here.

There are quite a few clubs here so I'll have to try out some of them.  It'll be a good way to meet new people.  I was going to join the book club but it's on Thursday evenings (last work day of the week) so that might be too ambitious. 

Dubai Conference

Last weekend, I went to the 24th Dubai Education Conference for HCT (my college). It was held just this side of the city so I didn't have a chance to see any of the gleaming towers or even the coastline and I was inside all day anyways so I'll make another trip to see the wonders of Dubai when the weather cools down a bit.

From my seat in the main auditorium

It was mandatory for all staff so I got to see the 1500 teachers working country-wide for the colleges and the 287 new hires for this year.   As far as conferences go, this one was kind of a bust as both lectures I attended were out-of-date but I did get to meet His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology.  I even got to shake his hand along with the other 287 new hires.

He's the one in the middle

The best part of the day for me was the drive home as my friends Sharon and Serge had driven me and I could sit back and relax.  Then, suddenly we drove into a storm.  Sand obscured everything and blew wildly around the car.

The view on the side of the highway

 

The highway

Then the rains hit with thunder and lightening.  The roads flooded and trees came down everywhere.

no drainage

These updates are a bit slow because I still don't have internet at my apartment.  On the bright side, I do have a sofa and chairs now.

First week of school

I'm actually sitting in my office with all kinds of teaching materials surrounding me.  The college is quite nice and, although I've gotten lost a couple of times, I'm starting to feel comfortable.  It's been a bizzare week after being out of the classroom for a year and a half  but I'm slowly remembering all the little things that need doing and how to do them.

Al Ain Woman's College

I now have a regular taxi driver named Evelyn (from the Phillipines) who picks me and my neighbor (Patreshia) up every morning and brings us to work.  It's costing me about $2.50 every morning because we've been tipping her.  So nice to have a woman driver who speaks fluent English and drives calmly.  Some of my taxi rides have been crazy, hang-on-for-dear-life trips with an uncertain destination due to communication difficulties.  I like the idea of supporting a woman in this male dominated place also.

My work schedule isn't great as I have four 8:00am class starts and I'm not always at my best so early in the day.  In addition, my office and my classrooms are on opposite sides of the campus.  On the plus side, the students are very sweet.  They all call me 'Miss'.  "Please help me, Miss?", "No homework, please Miss."  Adorable!   Once in the class they take off their head scarves and relax so it feels more like a normal classroom to me.  

Our first week is kind of a write-off as we don't have text books and they're going to move students into different classes at the end of the week so we can't teach anything important because our new students will be left in the dark.  It wouldn't be so bad except that it's 15 hours to fill with nothing important...that's a lot of time to waste.  This confusion is apparently normal and everyone is very accepting of the disorganized start so I'm trying my best to chill out and make do. I've got four more hours to go and apparently things will be better next week. 

Sooo, I went into Etisalat (internet, telephone and TV) to find out why I still don't have services more than two weeks after registering and I was told that my building doesn't have a 'wire'.  I'm still not sure exactly what this means but they were very appologetic and said that they would install a 'wire' within two days and then someone would contact me for a connection appointment.  I'm expecting that it will be a nice Christmas present for myself.   In the meantime, I'm expecting my living room furniture tomorrow afternoon so I'll be able to enjoy my TVless existance with a nice soft sofa.

The bus station

I went up to visit my friend Karen in the capital City of Abu Dhabi the other day.  It was my first time dealing with the buses.  The trip was about two hours and cost around $2.50 so that was great.  What was also great was the fact that the buses run every 30 minutes so I won’t have any trouble getting around.

The ride was pretty boring with nothing much to look at except the date clumps hanging in mesh bags as they ripen and fall.  It’s dry scrub or rock most of the way.  I did get a glimpse of the Grand Mosque and it’s stunning from the road…apparently there are tours so I’m definitely putting that on the list.

The interesting part of the trip was when I was leaving Abu Dhabi and had to catch a bus home.  It’s a big station with absolutely no signs, no posted schedules and almost no employees.

After getting in line at a counter to buy a ticket I was told politely that women didn’t have to wait in the big long lines and I could go directly to the counter.  Then, after asking several people where to find my bus I was faced with a huge long line and immediately thought that I would be waiting for the next bus but when the bus did come, all the men were pushed out of the way so us ladies could get on and sit at the front.  I felt badly for those guys left standing but the heat was bad enough that I got over it pretty fast.  It’s funny how we hear all about the disadvantages faced by women in the Middle East but not so much about the perks.

My neighbourhood

 

I live in a place called ‘Old Sarouj’…across the six lane road is ‘New Sarouj’.  My actual building comes off a dirt road which is kind of annoying as no one can find it for deliveries and it gets really dusty.

Luckily, the yard is filled with date palms, lime trees and has a kind of jungle feel to it.  This is the backyard..I’m not sure what they’re doing with the bricks.

Al Ain is called the garden city because they had the idea to put in green spaces long before other cities in the country.  I’m not sure ‘garden’ is a great description but there are some tree lined roads and a few parks which I’m going to check out as so as the weather cools down.

The most distinctive building in the area is the state owned telephone/internet provider, Etisalat.

 

The other notable buildings are the shopping malls which are big and glittery.  I’m a five minute taxi ride from two of them which is very handy and costs about $2.50.

 

 

Because it’s so hot here, there are covered parking spaces…I’m guessing that this is cheaper than building underground parking lots.

 

Anyone for skating while shopping?

I mentioned about the Eid candy in my last post so here is a picture of some typical baskets as well as the Eid moon and stars decorations seen everywhere.

My next foray is to the industrial shopping area to look for furniture at more affordable prices…we’ll see what happens :)

Eid Mubarak (Happy Eid Holiday)

Yesterday was the last day of Ramadan and today is the first day of Eid.  That means that all those people who were fasting all day and being extra devote can now relax, eat and celebrate.  The stores are filled with Eid candy and sweets platters wrapped in ribbons and bows.  Apparently all the kids will get new clothes and, from the amount of parents in the toy department, I would guess toys are also common gifts for Eid.

The most interesting aspect about Eid for me is how it's decided.  The Imams have to see the crescent moon in the sky before they can declare that the holiday is official.  It seems that a few years ago in Iran, the government tried to regulate the holiday by following the lunar calendar and the Imams were upset by the break in a long standing tradition so now, some regions set a government holiday break but the actual declaration of the holiday is dependent on the sighting of the moon.  Luckily for me, this whole week was made a holiday so I have the time to set up my apartment.

One of my biggest challenges has been getting curtains for my 3 meter high windows.  Last week I went to a curtain shop (just a tiny hole in the wall) and picked out the fabric (burgandy).  I had measured the windows but the salesman wasn't confident in my measurements so he drove me home, measured the windows and promised to be back in three or four days to install them.  This is how you buy curtains in the UAE...I got three sets for around $300 and I saved the taxi fare back home :)

I've taken some photos of the surrounding area so I'll put them up in my next post.  I went to Abu Dhabi to visit my friend Karen before she leaves the county but the dust in the air made photos pretty much worthless...I did have a wonderful visit with Karen and she saved my life by giving me a bunch of teaching resources that will last a long time. 

Internet hook up

I've just come from the internet company...the only internet company from the sounds of it and it was a bizzare experience.  There are no addresses on the houses so I was shown a map of the city and asked to point out my home.  Of course, the map looked completely different from my my idea of what the area looked like so my neighbor might be getting free internet when it gets connected in two weeks....I hope he doesn't do anything illegal on my account :)

For about $90 per month I got a TV package, telephone line and unlimited internet access....or my neighbor did.

First week

It's week two and I've finally got access to internet on my new work laptop in my new office so I can give an update of what's happened since I arrived ten days ago.

Unfortunatly, I can no longer harbor dreams of being an international criminal as I had my retinal scan registered with the government as part of a very slick immigration procedure at the airport.  I guess it bypasses the need to lift a woman's veils for identification and it was pretty cool.

I was put up at a swank five start hotel http://www.rotana.com/rotanahotelandresorts/unitedarabemirates/alain/alainrotana for six days while I went through orientation at the college.  My hotel room was bigger than my last apartment so that was nice.  Their gym was great and because of the time difference I was up early and able to work out before going into work everyday.

the lovely Rotana Hotel

Orientation was a bit of disaster due to several people being on holiday but there were five new hires so we banded together in survival mode and took advantage of Vijay, our driver/helper/savior.  The college is big with over 150 teachers and, what seems like, 500 administrators.  I'm sharing an office with some really nice people that I'm sure I'll be writing about in future.

My new apartment is echoing with 20 ft ceilings and tile floors.  It's huge and I'm going to get lots of exercise walking from one end to the other.  Interestingly, I had to buy all the appliances as well as furniture but they've provided me with $10,000 to do that and I think I can do it nicely for about $6000.  My whole world has become about shopping for the last few days so that I can have something to sit on and something to cook with.  Yesterday, three men took two hours to assemble my bedroom furniture set which is great...first time I've had more storage space than I can fill up...hmmm, more shopping I think :)

It's the holy month (Ramadan) right now which means that you can't eat or drink during daylight hours so that's made for long days out and about.  In addition, all the shops are closed from 2:00pm to 8:00 so shopping is especially difficult.  Next week, that will end but there is a week long holiday where all the business are closed so I won't be able to get services like TV/internet hooked up for a bit or get delivery of anything.  A bit of bad luck at the timing of my arrival but I'll survive. 



I haven't had time to take many photos as I've been running around like a crazy person but here are a few of my apartment that I took quickly before coming to work (which is a ten minute drive away).

This is what the rooms all look like..this one will be the livingroom.
You can see that there is a lovely jungle view out the window
and they all have that...limes, breadfruit and dates are growing
which brings in singing birds.

My kitchen...another lovely window view.  I've even got
Starbucks coffee for my new coffee maker

The bedroom...not much to look at so far but at least I'm off the floor now

Hired for work in the UAE

About six weeks ago I had a video interview with two nice ladies working with the Higher Colleges of Technology  in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and soon after I was offered a contract with their Al Ayn Woman's College campus.   

This is the UAE and you can see my new city, Al Ayn, just on the border of Oman.  It's about 140klms from the capital city of Abu Dhabi.

Much like working in Korea, I needed to prove my educational qualifications, get a police record and do a few other paperwork tasks for the government okay but then I was officially hired. 
They sent an airline ticket for August 13th so that's when I'm going to be off on my newest adventure...hence, this blog.  If you want to see photos and learn about Al Ayn City and the UAE along with me, feel free to follow along for the next while.  I've signed a three year contract but who knows how long I'll be there.

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying time with my family and the Canadian summer.

Sailing with my sister Christine and brother-in-law Mark

Me and my mom and dad at the pub

My nieces Asia (top) and Emerson (bottom)