Our new Sensei

We are now back into karate and this is our new Sensei. Sensei David Jones is originally from the UK and moved to Calgary in the 80's. He has made us feel extremely welcome, as has everyone at our new club. If any of our friends from SKE fancy making a trip to Calgary, come visit us and we will introduce you to Sensei David.

Halloween!

Our first Halloween was greatly enjoyed by everyone. They really go quite mad here on Halloween, the kids are allowed to dress up at school, there is trick or treating going on in the malls and of course trick or treating around the streets. We decided to throw ourselves into it and have some fun. Unfortunately Becky was working so she couldn't join in the traipsing around the streets but did wear colourful 'scrubs' for work. The amount of 'candy' (sweets to us) the kids got will be enough to keep the sugar high going until Easter!

Here are a few more pictures.

New Gadget!

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Karate Started!

We finally made it to our first Karate session on Monday evening. I am still suffering after such a long break from training but Becky is fine. Our new Dojo is in the north east, only about 20 mins drive away and is very nice indeed. Sensei David Jones and his students made us feel very welcome. We look forward to getting back into shape and making lots of new friends. We will post a picture soon....

What's this white stuff?

We woke up this morning to our first snow! I think this little dusting has come to ease us into what is to come. The kids are looking forward to more snow, not so sure about Becky and I! The weather here is very odd, they do say that you could experience all 4 seasons in one day. We have certainly seen some of that already

This holiday weekend also saw our first Thanks Giving. It was officially yesterday, but we were invited to Nick & Ali's house on Sunday to celebrate 'Thanks Giving' together with his parents, who finally arrived in Calgary 4 weeks ago. We had a wonderful feast of roast Turkey and trimmings with great company. Nick & Ali have really made us feel so welcome we feel so very fortunate to have such great friends :-)

Here are some more pictures of the snow this morning :-

Boxes arrived !$%!

Yes, they have finally arrived and with it the memories of packing them! Now all we have to do is unpack! We have already made a start and find ourselves in a nice big mess. If we can only find the box with the hangers in we will be okay :-) One of the first boxes we opened contained all the gifts and cards that our friends and family gave us at our leaving party, that really brought back some great memories and some sad ones too. We have all settled in here fantastically well but we often think about our great friends and family we have left behind and shed the odd tear ;-( So we do look forward to your visits.
One item we have now found is our Karate Gi's. We have missed our karate and are both looking forward to seeking out our new club to resume our training.

This week Becky sat the Canadian Nursing exam. She is glad that is over and we keep our fingers crossed that we get good news through the mail in a few weeks or so. She said it was a lot harder that all the tests she has done from the books and the actual on line readiness test which she got 83% on.

1st Canadian IV Start!

I'm posting under Steve's name because I'm on his computer but I had to share that I did my 1st (& successful) IV start today!! I know I used to do them some time back in the UK but the needle & introducer is different to those I used in the UK plus I only did 3 in the last 2 years once I moved to Holly - so I was really out of practice.

The patient was really happy because she said I had been the most gentle person she'd ever had. I told her it's because I don't like needles either! Those who know me are well aware that's true! I have to do 2 more before I'm certified competent -I had to do 10 in the UK!