Canada

As some of of you may or may not know myself & G submitted our application for immigration to Canada late last year. Thus far we haven't really heard anything back from them other than a "here as number, wait in line and dont call us we will call you".

If truth be told we dont really expect to hear anything until at least this time next year - Really were just trying to get on with things but be ever mindful that our future lies elsewhere.

We have however arranged to head out to Toronto on the 20th August for 2 1/2 weeks staying in a lovely farmhousearound 40mins from both Toronto and Niagara Falls. The place sounds ideal handy for allareas we want to investigate but also a good place to relax and chill out away from it all.


We are trying to use this trip as a scouting mission to investigate this area ofCanada. Its still a bit early in our application but hopefully it will give us a better grasp of the areas we should be looking at for jobs, ammenities etc.

We've been trying to gather some info from online as well as previous imigrants who have been through thewhole process.Of course were gonna do the whole tourist thing with the likes of the falls and the CNtower high on our list of places to visit. Unfortunately due to G's condition the attraction at the top of my list has had to be scratched - I was all set for somerollercoaster action at Paramount Canada's Wonderland but G has put the brakes on that one.

If anyone has been to the Toronto area before and has any tips of places to visit or avoid - drop me a line

World Cup

Well the feast of football that is the World Cup finals is over for another 4 years with Italy deserving their victory over the Zidane-less French after a penalty shoot-out. The 1st 90mins of the final summed up the competition as a whole I thought. Decent football but never quite achieving the high quality we were expecting. I cant really think of too many games that we'll still be talking about after the next WC.

For me there were too many disapointments - Brazil, Argentina, Czech Republic & Holland all underperformed while the likes Ronaldinho failed to live up the their pre-tournament billing. There was also very few newcomers grabbing their chance to shine on the biggest stage of all - Usually in a WC superstars are created by this year it was the established stars that were grabbing the headlines.

Best game - Either Argentina v Mexico or Italy v Germany
Best Goal - Maxi Rodriguez v Mexico

Here's to Euro 2008 and hopefully Scotland's chance to shine :)

Simplytot

45 days since my last post and what a crazy 45 days its been.

So much news to tell you but in reality only 1 piece of news that matters

G (My Wife) is 3+ months pregnant!!!!

We've known for a long while it became semi-official on the 15th of May (2 days before our 10th Anniversary of meeting) when after a week or so of convincing ourselves that it was/ or it wasn't morning sickness G took a test and it came back positive.

The 2 of us were over the moon but then the real fun started. As well as being pregnant G also had a particularly nasty stomach virus which involved her being sick 10+ times daily. This coupled with general concern meant that somehow the two of us managed to keep our news to ourselves for a further 4 and 1/2 weeks until G got the all clear for the doctor and the scan came back.

So after lying to everyone (and I mean every one - The only ones who knew were G's Doctor and medical staff) We finally got both set of parents together and told them the good news

For my Mum and Dad it was news they had heard 10 times before with my Brothers and Sister's but for G's Mum & Dad its was news of a first grandchild,

The next few days were a blur as we went round everyone telling them the good news. With holding on till G was 12 weeks in the pregnancy it meant we also had some scan photo's to show everyone.

At time of posting 0.30 on Friday night/saturday morning its now 176 days until Simplytot is scheduled to make an appearance or 31st December 06 - Tahts gonna be some Hogmanay :)

So thats my excuse for not posting - since finding out the news my world has has been hectic - I changed job shortly afterwards (to maximise income) and that involves a 100 mile round trip to work each day and that coupled with the feast of football that is the World Cup has mean I have rarely been online.

I have still managed to catch up with all the blogs I usually check out but haven't been posting as I didn't feel it was right too

Anyway I hope all is well with everyone and I will try to get round you all.