This time last year......

we were in the UK for a funeral.  Our two children popped over as well for a few days to attend said funeral, as it was their Pop who had passed.

However one of the funnier stories of our time over there involved the kids.  They flew into and out of Manchester airport.  As no one (including us!!) wanted to be in Manchester for 7am to pick them up; as we were staying two hours away, so they decided to take the train up to Carlisle and we would pick them up from there.  It was relatively cheap and they got to see some of the countryside while traveling up.

They had only been on the train half an hour or so, when they pulled into Preston; which turns out to be a main hub.  There was an announcement on the train that they driver was taking his break ??????? (we were all stunned with this!!)  Okay, so the kids sit there, and a few minutes later there was another announcement that the train was now cancelled as they didn't have a driver....WTF????? (again this also shocked us)

Luckily the kids will talk to anyone and they got talking to a fellow passenger who was heading to Penrith, which is the stop before Carlisle.  Our daughter recognized the town's name, so knew we would come and pick them up from there.  They go with this guy to another train and get on board the train. (This guy also told them how to get a refund)  They are sitting there waiting for it to leave.  Then there was another announcement, that the original train was now running!!!!  

So back they go to the original train and they travel up to Carlisle.  Shockingly they were only an hour late.

So a few days later they have to travel back down to Manchester again by train.  The day they left they had booked seats for around 7pm, as they were staying overnight at the airport and flying out the next morning.  That day it was pouring down, torrential rain.  So by around 3pm we saying to them you'd best check the trains and see if they're still running.  At that point there were numerous cancellations, so they rebooked for the 4pm train that was still running and headed out to the station, as it was around half an hour away.  My brother and hubby drove them down.  As they were driving down to the station daughter received a cancellation notice for all trains running down to Manchester.  So brother and hubby drove them all the way down to Manchester.

This time it was a landslide that had closed the line at Lancaster.  Luckily with both these problems daughter got her train fares refunded.

Fast forward to this summer and again daughter and her family were in London and went to visit my mother and took the train up to see her.  We were all on pins and needles as to whether the trains would run.  They did with no issues I'm pleased to say.

The sad thing about this story and I am sure the readers in the UK will confirm none of this is unusual with the UK rail system.

I can't comment on the rail system here in Canada, as I have never used it.  If you have in Canada, please let us know how you got on.  Or if you're from another country, do you use your train system to travel around?

The Weather Girls - It's Raining Men

I was watching video's on Facebook, when an exercise video popped up using this music.  This song was one of the hits of April 1984 when our son was born, as I noted it down in his baby book.   You can see a list of all the top hits from April 1984 here.

Daughter turned 40 this past week, so this is one of the top 40 hit's from that week:

Here is more from that week.

Well that was a blast from the past for me!!!

Done like a toasted bun...........

Bit crispy on the outside, but still soft on the inside.

That is how I felt after doing our errands on Thursday.

Met up with the lawyer to sign the paperwork for selling our house.  We are only putting down a deposit on the new house as the condo corp., won't be registered until the 25th of the month.  So we are "sort of renting" the house until then.  It's all very standard stuff, but a bit annoying. Have to pop into their office on Monday when they have prepared a couple of cheques for us to hand over to the new house lot.

Got a bit of a surprise though, to discover that our lawyer is also the lawyer for the people buying our house.  No one had bothered to tell us that.  So the lawyer wasn't happy.  On the plus side it may help us close a little faster......we hope.

We then had to deliver snow fences and posts to dh's boss' house.  He lives on 50 acres, and most of it is wooded.  I DID NOT get out of the car to help as I could see the mosquito's and between me and you they had been eating their spinach, as they were huge.  Dh didn't spend too long unloading the stuff either when he saw them!!

Did our civic duty and voted.  Our voting station is a good 20 minute drive from where we live......dead as a dormouse in that place, just walked straight in and voted.  Funny as come Monday we are in a different county.

As you may or may not know it's The World Cup, for those of you who are not sporty, it soccer/football.  Dh thinks he has died and gone to heaven for a month.  He is a huge soccer/football fan and of course he is rooting for England.  Me, well it's a bloody inconvenience as they have moved Coronation Street to 11am during the day {SIGH}  Missed it on Thursday because I thought it started at 12:30 pm.

Anyhow, back to the soccer.  Dh put on ESPN on the radio to listen to the Brazil vs Croatia game while we were driving around.  I couldn't stop laughing as they had an Irish commentator with a thick Irish accent.  I'm British so have a good handle on the accents from the British Isles, but even I was struggling to keep up with him.  At one point I am sure he said something about "stopping the bus."  I even said to dh what on earth is he talking about?  Buses have nothing to do with soccer/football, do they?

Dh didn't find it as amusing as I did, but then I am not a huge fan of soccer or any sports come to think of it.  We have the kids coming up on Saturday and dh has told me, if they are still here at 6pm when England is playing they either have to be quiet or go home......it's a serious business being an ardent soccer fan you know!!!

It's Friday the 13th today and I am going to embrace the day, rather than worry something bad could happen........hopefully I'll be back posting tomorrow!!

This smart phone will be the death of me, I swear......

I know you're saying, "now what's happened?"  So here is the latest episode in how me and cell phones should never be in the same room as one another.

When I got my smart phone I just went with what the guy at the store told me.  It turns out according to the kids I have a crappy plan.  They tell me that every time they see me.  So ds told me to get this other plan with unlimited minutes and texts for $65 a month.  On Christmas Day it once again came up about my bloody phone and one of them was looking at my phone and told me I had over 500 messages?????  Who on earth has been calling me and leaving me messages???

Turns out they are emails.....okay so that's not bad..........as I was worried I had missed 500 + phone messages.  Also turns out I didn't even have my voice mail set up..........I didn't even know I had voice mail and unless one of the family set it up I wasn't doing it.  I think Our Little Princess' mum found this all quite funny as we are arguing back and forward over this bloody phone.

Then our little Princess' dad was saying how I must be signing up for everything and how he has different passwords for everything.  I pointed out I only have a couple of different passwords and it takes me all my time to remember them!!!    Dd installed the PC Plus phone app on my phone which was good as I can check how many PC Points I have.  However it turns out I should only have it attached to my credit card not a separate card...........gosh it must be nice to be a know all when it comes to technical things!!!

So back to the bloody phone, I called Bell and changed my plan to the $65 one.  They were going to charge me $75 but I told a super rep called Lovely; yes that was her name, that no the kids had said $65.

So now I am paying $65 a month and am now in a 2 year contract rather than a 3 year contract.  Between you and me I have no idea what the plan entails until I get the paperwork and/or email.  Told ds I would forward the email on to him and he can make sure I got the right things.

Lovely did show me where my voice mail is though I need to set it up.  She muttered on about data, but was confused about that.  The main thing I use my phone for is taking photos, sending texts and checking my email and if I have to using the phone.  

By the way I have a Sony Xperia, and as per the kids I should have an I Phone not an Android phone {{{SIGH}}}  Next time I need a new phone I will make the kids come with me, so if there is an issue it's their bloody fault not mine!!!

Some days I feel so bloody old you know!

P.S. the phone did NOT come with a manual, you have to download the bloody thing???

I have been keeping a secret........

and I must I am very proud of myself for not shouting it from the rooftops.  Just over a week ago, dd boyfriend came up to the house to ask permission to propose to dd.

Anyhow he came over Christmas morning and surprised dd and proposing to her on the front deck.  She had no clue it was going to happen and they are so happy.

Here is a photo of her ring, a diamond solitaire set in a platinum band.

Needless to say there will be more about this on my blog in the upcoming months.  I just hope I don't turn into those monster mother of the brides!!  As yet no arrangements have been made so not sure if the wedding will be 2011, or 2012.

I bought the kids scratch and win tickets and ds went and won $1,000.  Can you believe that.......

So all in all I had a lovely Christmas with my family.

Busy day on Saturday........

thank goodness for the kids, with their help we managed to get the three bush cords of wood stacked. I hope there is enough wood to last us through the winter? The wood pile is pretty close to the patio doors, which isn't that far away.

Dh and ds cleared the rest of the insulation out of the attic. There was a mouse nest in the insulation, with baby mice in there, which of course are now dead. We set a couple of traps and caught the mother mouse within a couple of hours. A harsh attitude I know but I don't want mice all over the house.

We got a lot of jobs done today thanks to the kids helping us!!!!

Shameless brag about our son.........so if those sort of posts annoy you, please feel free to skip this post :0)

Now to be fair, I don't often talk about our kids on here, as to be honest who is really interested in what our kids are up to, other than family and close friends? However every now and then they do something which I feel is worth mentioning.

Ds as it says in my profile is an accountant. He is in the process of taking his exams to be a CA. He took his second exam at the beginning of this month, and finally got his results back this morning and he has passed....YEAH!!! He has to take one more exam in September and then work the rest of his hours, so by the Fall of 2009 he will be a fully qualified CA. We are so proud of him (as we are dd) and he has worked hard (as has dd).

Now this is something that probably won't interest anyone outside of Ontario, but here goes anyway. Back in 2002/2003 the Ontario government decided to get rid of Grade 13. In fact ds year was the last year to do Grade 13. Despite the fact that there are 19 months between the kids, the way their birthday's fall, ds in April and dd in November, there was only one year between them during school. Honestly it was like having twins.

Anyhow, both kids left school at the same and wandered off to University the same time. What a shock it was to me and dh to lose the kids overnight, and then be moving house amongst all this happening. We were homeless for a month, as this house wasn't finished....what a time that was.

So the Government called this "double cohort," as there were twice as many kids leaving to go to University and College than there would normally be. It was pretty stressful for the kids, not knowing if they would get a place, despite the fact the universities opened up more places. Also they had a lot of kids going to university that were only 17 years of age (dd). Well for those of you who went to University, you know as well as I do all sorts go on. The residences were supposed to be "dry (no alcohol)" but there was always a stack of beer bottles in dd's block???

Anyhow fast forward 5 years later and you think this double cohort thing is behind you, but no. Ds was saying that normally there are 800 applicants taking this exam when he was at York. This year there was closer to 1400 people, all because of the double cohort.

I wonder if the Ontario government for saw this happening back in 2002???