California really DOES know how to party!

It is now more than 2 years since we had the accident – Or a better way to look at it, Joep has now enjoyed 2 years of extra life – Or an ever BETTER way to look at it, it is less than 1 YEAR until we get married!!

All of these things warrant significant celebration and this year we decided to escape the cold to celebrate all the wonderful things life has given us. Well, we didn’t decide it. Scheuten decided it. Joep was in California for work the week before our anniversary and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to (a) escape the Ottawa winter for a few days (b) celebrate our anniversary in style and (c) explore our new home!

By now it is no secret that we are moving to California some time next year. Exact dates continue to be a work in progress but we’re getting there. After a few days apart I met Joep at LA airport on Thursday night. He had just enjoyed an evening at Shutters restaurant in Santa Monica where all the celebrities hang out. Very impressive apparently. Upon arrival in LA we headed straight out of the city to Laguna Beach. For those who don’t know (which shouldn’t be many of you given how huge a hit the reality TV show named and set in Laguna Beach was!) Laguna Beach is a seaside resort and artist community located in southern Orange Count, California, USA. It lies 82km’s south of Los Angeles and 117km’s north of San Diego. Most importantly however, it is known for having some of the most beautiful beaches in southern California.

I am always dubious when cities claim to have the ‘most beautiful beaches’. I firmly believe it is because I am Australian. And we really DO have the most beautiful beaches. So I find myself constantly disappointed with the beaches on offer in other places. Yes, us Aussie’s are an incredibly spoiled bunch. However, for what I believe may be the first time ever, I was very happy with the Laguna Beach beaches!

We got to Laguna Beach after a 45 minute car ride and it was late and we were both exhausted so we hit the hay immediately. On Friday morning for the first time in over a year, Joep got up and left for work and I stayed home! I liked this role reversal very much. I spent Friday wandering around the town and soaking up the atmosphere. The town is full of tiny little art galleries, book stores and café’s. I was in heaven. After countless hours of just wandering around, Joep called to say that his Friday had finished early and that he would meet me for a late lunch.

Matt (Joep’s colleague that we met in NYC last year) tagged along for the ride and boy were we glad he did. He is a Laguna local and subsequently knew of some great restaurants … case in point: Casa del Camino. It is an amazing restaurant perched atop a restaurant which is perched atop a cliff over looking the ocean. It was glorious! We sat outside enjoying the warm afternoon weather and had a few beers whilst chowing down on some amazing food. A very nice start to the weekend!

After lunch Joep and I took the opportunity to chill out on our hotel balcony enjoying ocean views and a few snacks. Heavenly. I love being warm. Before too long we decided it was eating time again (I’m sure you are all noticing now that the entire day was eating time … from café’s in the morning to a big lunch to snack on the balcony and now dinner time? Seems excessive. It is. Whatever, we’re on vacation.). We walked back into the heart of the town to meet up with Matt and his fiancé Tiari at yet another great restaurant for dinner.

The food was amazing and the company was wonderful and we enjoyed a lovely evening. Alas Ottawa is 3 hours ahead of California so by 9pm I was exhausted! The excessive eating probably contributed to the exhaustion as well. Either way, we decided to call it a night and started to walk home. On the walk home we passed through the town and we were so impressed! The streets were positively teeming with people out enjoying a Friday night meal and a few drinks. The atmosphere was great! These Californian’s sure know how to live. Alas I was exhausted. And as much as I wanted to join in the fun it just was not possible. So home time was the decision.

It was a good decision though because we were up bright and early Saturday morning to make the most of the day! And what a day it was! We had a quick snack at the hotel before hopping in the car and driving to San Diego. We were there within 45 minutes and out wandering around the city. Its actually a really nice spot and even though it was early Saturday morning there was heaps of atmosphere on the streets and super friendly people! One man even admired my Saturday morning outfit from a great distance shouting out about it. No, he was not being disgusting. And no, he was not still drunk (I think). He just liked my dress. This pleased me greatly.

After wandering around San Diego for a while and deciding that we would DEFINITELY visit there again soon, we stopped for a bite to eat. An hour and a bit later and we were stuffed to the gills with a delicious brunch courtesy of Café 222 (which comes highly recommended). And once again we were eating outside. In December. Heavenly.

Declaring the exploration a success, we headed back to the car to ensure we had enough time to enjoy Laguna. We arrived back in Laguna late in the afternoon in time to have beer on the balcony once more. After sun down we got dressed for our celebration dinner and headed down to the town. Joep had found a great sushi restaurant in the town during another trip and raved about it so that was our destination of choice. We were not disappointed. We sat at the sushi bar rather than a table which was SUPER fun and we ordered copious amounts of delicious sushi and not so delicious (but we didn’t mind coz there was lots of it) wine.

My favourite part? Almost all of the sushi chefs were Spanish! True story. And it was delicious.

We spent the evening chatting and laughing and eating. All the things that we are best at. Afterwards we stopped off at a local bar for a nightcap before heading home. Unbeknownst to us, it was the anniversary of the end of prohibition in the United States! This bar was celebrating it so we were decked out in feather boa’s in the US flag colours and enjoyed the great atmosphere! A thoroughly enjoyable evening behind us and it was time to hit the sack. We were exhausted and very content!

Sunday morning, once again (thank you jet lag), we were up very early. It was great! We threw on some comfy clothes and headed down for a beach walk. It was such a lovely way to start the day! We explored the beach trails and spent lots of time gasping in awe at the enormous, elaborate mansions along the way. It is like living in a different world. Seriously. After finishing our big walk we headed back to the hotel to pack up and check out.

But we had one more fun thing to do before leaving Laguna – Brunch! Sunday brunch at a lovely restaurant, sitting outside, overlooking the ocean. Heavenly.

We are now even more excited than ever at the idea of moving to Laguna. It is going to be such fun!

And on the fun note – Our fun didn’t end there! Our 2pm flight out of LAX went without a hitch but when we landed in Chicago for our connection Joep had a voicemail from the airline saying that our connecting flight was cancelled. Yikes. Luckily though, for the first time in months, neither of us had meetings on the Monday. Phew! That is a first! So we weren’t toooo stressed. We subsequently found out that we couldn’t get out of Chicago until 5pm the following afternoon – most people would be irritated by the delay. Joep and I took one look at each other, grinned and high fived. A chance to check out the city!!

Sadly we didn’t have any luggage with us and it was -10 degrees in Chicago with snow on the ground but this was no issue for us. Sunday night was spent in a cozy hotel room with (you’ll never believe it …) heaps of food! We then researched our lonely planet and made our plan for Monday morning. Up early, catch the train to the city and, after buying some winter clothes, go exploring!

The plan went off without a problem. We caught the train from the airport to downtown first thing in the morning and, after grabbing some coffees, headed straight for Macy’s. Once we had our winter gear we hit the streets to check out the city.

The architecture in Chicago is beautiful and, if it wasn’t so cold, I could’ve spent the day just wandering around the streets. Alas it was freeeeezing so we had some inside time. Chicago has an amazing Cultural Center which was full of great art displays that kept us entertained for some time. We also spent some quality time in Millenium Park which has some super cool sculptures. We then walked up across the North Bridge with the goal of finding a pizza restaurant that was raved about. We found it. The Chicago people love these ‘deep dish’ pizza’s. It is literally like eating a pizza pie. It sounded delicious and we were so excited to try it! We didn’t even mind that it was after 2pm by the time we got there, the pizza would take 45 minutes to cook, it would take us 1 hour to get to the airport and our flight was boarding at 16:10. Do the math. We were cutting it close.

Alas the pizza was a bit of a disappointment and Joep & I both concluded that we prefer the standard pizza. However we are glad we tried it! It was definitely worth trying. After thawing out and pigging out we then legged it back to the subway station to get our train to the airport. We were both a smidge stressed about missing our flight. Upon arrival at the airport we legged it from the station to the departure gates. Queues at security were as long and as slow as can be expected but we managed to pick a reasonable queue, get through quickly and arrive at our gate in time to board. In fact, we even had time to … wait for it … get more food! Yes. We are gluttonous.

And so ended a WONDERFUL anniversary weekend away. We loved every second of it. We are still so conscious of how lucky we are to be alive and we love to celebrate it. In addition we are so excited to have our next adventure … even though we are really going to miss Ottawa and all the pals we’ve made here. But we have plenty of time left before we leave so we’ll be making the most of it! More to come …

Autumn is Ausumn!

The title of this blog is a direct Joep-ism ... it is also very true! Having been raised in a land where there is close to a year round summer (where the water restrictions are so severe at the moment that you can only water your garden once a week!), I was never really used to having 4 seasons in one year.

Living in Amsterdam gave me a little taste of what 4 seasons have to offer but moving to Canada has given us the FULL effect of 4 seasons. Winter is brutally cold (although it is colder in Europe so far this year mmmmmwahahahaha - is it evil that this pleases me?); spring time is slushy with sprouts of green all over the place and animals coming out of hibernation; summer is gloriously warm with temperatures soaring above the 30 degree mark day after day; and autumn ... well autumn is pretty spectacular.

The colours are just incredible! We enjoyed some of the autumnal beauty in October when we toured around the Cabot Trail, but little did we know how much beauty was just around the corner from us!

Gatineau Park is actually located in Quebec, not Ontario, but it is just across the bridge from Ottawa which lies on the cusp of Ontario & Quebec. The park is 363 square km's in area and is run by the National Capital Commission meaning it is very well kept. There are amazing hikes up in the park and over the summer / autumn months here in Ottawa Joep has spent countless hours up in the mountains of the park mountain biking ... he is an addict! And there are not many more beautiful places in the world to bike than here in Canada!

We spent a bit of time in the park this autumn enjoying the hiking trails and making the most of the last few weeks of outdoors weather and boy are we glad we did!

In addition to all the amazing beauty and colour that comes with autumn here in Ottawa, there is also the joy of North American Halloween! The Canadians are really into Halloween and this year Joep and I got on board.

We didn't have a lot of time to plan costumes and threw together a quick outfit on the day ... we decided to go as Gold Member & Foxy Cleopatra from Austin Powers. It worked because Joep already had clogs AND a gold tracksuit. So to finish the outfits off we got an afro wig for me and a mask for Joep. When we purchased Joep's mask we spent some time trying to figure out who it was supposed to be. It looked somewhat familiar but we couldn't figure it out and settled on it because at least it was blonde.

Costumed up we headed to Mikey & Anne-Marie's to carve pumpkins and enjoy a few drinks. It was, as per usual, a hilarious evening! For starters, pumpkin carving is actually really good fun. In addition to being really good fun, roasted pumpkin seeds are quite possibly one of the worlds most delicious snacks.

After pumpkin carving and admiring our work (PS - Joep was amazingly talented at pumpkin carving, his looked amazing!) we settled in for a few drinks and laughs. At some point during the night we realized who Joep's mask reminded us of - Group consensus is that it is a Hilary Clinton mask. Whoops. I can see it now but to me it looks more like a serial killer than anything else. I was positively freaked out by Joep in that thing and couldn't have a conversation with him when he was wearing it. It is a universal feeling because everyone tried it on and got the same general reaction from people. Creepy. But surprisingly hilarious.

Halloween sure is a fantastic holiday to celebrate! I am looking forward to a few more Halloweens in the years to come. Joepinator was a very impressive Gold Member and has perfected the art of shouting 'I love goooooold' at random intervals.

In addition, autumn in Ottawa really is amazing ... I'll miss having 4 seasons when we leave. Having said that, I think I'll always be a summer girl at heart so perhaps it won't be too difficult to adjust!

Trailing the Cabot in Nova Scotia

Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone for another year and I am very late in getting this blog written! I have no good excuse other than being busy with work and being lazy outside of work. Don’t judge me.

So last year for Thanksgiving (yes, we’ve been here more than one year!) we roadtripped to Quebec to go whale watching in Tadoussac. This year we headed even further east to Nova Scotia which is in the Canadian Maritimes (fyi the Maritimes are made up of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador). On Thursday evening we flew into Halifax, the capital city of Nova Scotia. Our loose plan was to pick up our car and check out as much of the province as possible. You can be the judge of whether we were successful with this mission or not.

Upon arrival on Thursday afternoon, we headed straight to our hotel to get settled before heading out to check out the city. First stop – Dinner at Durty Nelly’s. This Irish contingent are reading this and thinking ‘Hang on a second! That sounds just like any other Irish bar!’ You are correct. It was an irish bar. The Maritimes are totally celtic-esque. The people out there even speak with a semi Irish accent. There are heaps of Irish pubs and Irish music not to mention … yes, you got it, Irish dancers! Ha! I felt right at home!

Based on very good advice from friends, after dinner on Thursday night we wandered down to the Split Crow for a few drinks. We had been told by numerous people that this was the bar to go to in Hali. We were not disappointed. Granted, we were probably on the older end of the general pub population but we can party just as hard as any university student … is that pathetic? Should we have grown out of this by now? I think we will try ‘growing up’ after we’re married. We have still got plenty of time.

The evening was spent enjoying the live band at $2 beers (true story) and we were in high spirits by the time we wandered back to our hotel with Joep regaling me with his theory that the Split Crow has cheaper beer than the Elephant and Castle because … wait for it … It would be very expensive to buy an elephant and a castle. But splitting a crow probably wouldn’t cost much at all. I judge him here but if I am fair I have to admit that I got involved in this debate and things got heated. The important things in life :)

Friday morning we had planned to be up very early and out the door to begin our road trip. Thursday nights shenanigans put a bit of a spanner in the works and we didn’t make it out the door until 10am. Whoops! No matter, we hit the road with gusto and made our way down to Peggy’s Cove. It is a tiny village about 50kms from Halifax and has a population of 50 people. It is also one of the busiest tourist attractions in Nova Scotia because of a beautiful red-and-white lighthouse that sits on the tip of the cove and is still in operation. Word on the street is that it is one of the most-photographed structures in Atlantic Canada and one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world. We were not incredibly impressed by the statistics but we were impressed by how pretty it was out there! We (especially me) were also very happy to be back on the coast again. Living land locked is manageable but I do miss the ocean terribly.

So we spent the next little while wandering across the rocks around the lighthouse taking note of the many signs warning us of impending death should we do anything stupid. Apparently tourists are swept off the rocks with surprising regularity – We were not included in those numbers and got away unscathed but completely content with our first coastal experience for some time.

After Peggy’s Cove we had planned to drive north east with the hopes of arriving at the start of the Cabot Trail before sundown. The Cabot Trail is a highway and scenic roadway which runs for 298km and completes a loop around the northern tip of Cape Breton island through the Cape Breton highlands (yes, there are highlands up here, I told you it was quite Celtic!).

Rough calculations had us arriving at the start of the trail by about 5pm but we had not yet booked accommodation choosing instead to play it by ear. What we didn’t take into account was the fact that Thanksgiving weekend is also the weekend of a big Celtic festival in the highlands … yikes! We called B&B after B&B and got the same very friendly response informing us that they were booked out. The lovely thing was that every time we spoke to someone who apologized for having no room they then gave us the name of a friend of theirs who also has a B&B that might be able to fit us in. The Canadian reputation of being super friendly prevails!

After a number of calls we finally located our accommodation for the evening. The Four Mile Beach Inn. We then settled in to enjoy the remainder of the ride.

What we didn’t realize however, was that the Four Mile Beach Inn was much further along the trail than we had anticipated. In fact, it was all the way up at Cape North … the northern tip of Cape Breton island. Never fear, Joep is a driving maniac and we actually made it to the town before sundown. If we hadn’t gotten lost on the way to the B&B we would’ve also made it to the B&B before sundown but our GPS was not cooperating. No worries – We arrived at the B&B in time to meet John and Missy (best dog in the world … have I mentioned that Joep and I really want a dog? This desire is only growing stronger …). After settling us in, John informed us that there was one restaurant in the local town that would perhaps still be open if we were hungry. We made a made dash back to the town (a 20 minute drive away … this is really ‘getting away from it all’) where we were just in time to grab the last table at ‘Angie’s Restaurant’. We were literally eating in someones living room. And the roast dinner that I ordered rivals that of mother ship Delany’s (mum yours is still the best … this one was just really good, not the best). The service was also fantastic! We left dinner completely content and loving the hospitality in the Maritimes. Back at the B&B we settled in for a night of games and chilling out. Pure relaxation.

So just for context our B&B used to be the General Store of Cape North. The owner, John, has left the front of the house pretty close to what it was like back in the day so there are all kinds of cool things to check out. The rest of the house is cozy and comfortable and all around exactly what we were looking for. After a great night of sleep we enjoyed a delicious breakfast, went for a stroll around the grounds and then we hit the road to finish the Cabot Trail.

It was an amazing day of driving. We whiled the hours away taking in the phenomenal landscapes and enjoying some very good conversation. The Cabot Trail definitely lives up to its reputation as one of the prettiest drives in the world especially at this time of year when the leaves are all changing. It was breathtaking and we made the most of the lookout stop offs to take in all the views. We finished the trail during the morning hours and, after a stop off in Inverness for a bite to each and to stretch our legs, we headed back down to Halifax with plans of enjoying a nice looooong dinner somewhere.

It wasn’t hard to achieve this goal. We found a lovely little Italian restaurant right near the waterfront and we settled in to enjoy a long, delicious dinner with far too much wine. Heavenly. We had grand plans of hitting the dancefloor afterwards but the hours of eating, drinking and chatting flew by and before we knew it is was bed time. A successful day of R&R completed.

On Sunday morning we realized that we had achieved the goal of our trip with 2 days to spare. Having forgotten to bring our trusty Lonely Planet with us we resorted to the internet to figure out some good day trips from Halifax. We were not disappointed. First stop? Lunenburg!

An hour drive from Halifax, Lunenburg is a UNESCO world heritage site. The town itself dates back to 1753 and old town Lunenburg is really something to be seen. The waterfront is beautiful and all the old houses have been restored to their glory day. The streets are packed with little shops and cafes and the atmosphere in the town was completely festive. We loved it! We spent a good chunk of the morning there eating and wandering and checking out some pretty great shops. When we were finished in Lunenburg we had planned to head up to the Bay of Fundy.

For some reason we anticipated that this drive would take us longer than it did (a recurring theme on this trip) and we were pleasantly surprised to arrive at the Bay in the early afternoon. The Bay of Fundy is known for its huge tidal range claiming to have the highest and lowest tides in the world. So I read up on this (naturally) and found out that this claim has actually been challenged by the Leaf Basin in Ungava Bay which is in Nunavik (one of Canada’s Northern territories). Apparently, statisticians have officially declared that there is a tie between the 2 bays. Imagine getting that worked up about whose tides are the highest? Whatever floats your boat …

It wasn’t the high tides that drew us to the Bay of Fundy but rather a desire to check out some more of the coastline of Nova Scotia. The views from the bay were actually very impressive. We were also pleasantly surprised when we stumbled upon a hiking trail a Cape Split.

Despite being poorly equipped for a hiking trip we decided that it would be nice to get out and stretch our legs along the trail. As we walked into the trail we spotted a nice big sign informing us that between the months of September & March, hikers are required to wear ‘hunters orange’ so that they are not mistaken for bears or deer and therefore do not get shot by avid hunters. Hmmm. We didn’t have any hunters orange on. This did not deter us. We figured if we made enough noise we would be fine.

The sign also informed us that it was imperative that we remain on the trail at all times. This didn’t seem like such a big ask.

And so off we headed. At first the trail was pretty exciting and relatively easy. As we got deeper into the bush things got a bit more challenging. Then the trail became hard to find. Then the trail disappeared altogether. You’d be surprised at how long it took us to decide that the hike was a bad idea. Actually you’re probably not surprised at all. What is surprising is that it was not the fear of getting lost/shot/eaten by a bear that made us turn back for the car. It was the idea of being embarrassed when we were the stupid tourists who got lost/shot/eaten by a bear. No one wants to be that dumb Australian girl who went hiking in lovely leather fashion boots, jeans and a cute sweater with only a bottle of water a giant Dutchman for provisions.

When this thought crossed my mind (followed by picturing dad’s reaction when he got yet ANOTHER phone call from me in strife on a vacation somewhere …) it was decided that we should turn back. It was a good idea. The comfort of the car was welcome and we were able to make our way leisurely back to Halifax.

After an early evening nap in Halifax we headed out for a bite to eat and a few drinks. Happy hour prevailed and we ended up having a more exciting evening than planned but we didn’t mind this at all! The people in Halifax really epitomize the ‘friendly Canadian’ stereotype. We loved it!

After enjoying our last night out in Halifax we spent Monday taking in the city by day. Wandering the streets, spending some quality time in the city gardens and strolling along the waterfront. We got caught up in a few heated games of cards, ate some great food and soaked up as much of this relaxed living atmosphere as we could. *Content sigh*

Monday evening we made our way back to the airport for our flight home feeling completely and totally relaxed.

Canada continues to impress … seriously you go from Celtic provinces in the far east, then heading west you hit Quebec which is more French than France, then you get to Ontario which (don’t get mad Canadian’s … it is somewhat true) starts to be more American, Manitoba is next and from our brief encounter with it my impression is that it is pretty Canadian … and very cold … then there is Saskatchewan which is flat as flat can be. We haven’t been there yet so I can’t tell you what its like. After that you have Alberta which is like walking through the wild wild west (with amazing mountains!) and finally – British Columbia. Where Canadian’s meet Australian’s and the world is a wonderful place. Phew! Such diversity!

I really thought that after a few years in Europe I would miss the diversity of different cultures when we moved to Canada – My fears were unfounded! This country seriously has it all. And we haven’t even THOUGHT about the Northern Territories yet!

Still our ‘Canadian To Do’ list is slowly dwindling and we are thoroughly enjoying working our way through it – New adventures will need to be found pretty soon!

They Did!

It has been wedding season here in Canada for the last few months and boy do these Canadians know how to marry in style! We have been lucky enough to make some great new friends since we moved last year not to mention how lucky we were to make a Canadian friend in Amsterdam so we’ve been enjoying this wedding season very muchly!

After enjoying the festivities of the Mc El Mothe wedding in July we were more than a little bit excited to see what else Canadian’s had to offer on the wedding front.

First up was Natalie & Jasper! I worked with Jasper at KPMG in Holland and was lucky enough to be introduced to his now wife a few years ago now. After sharing a few too many crazy nights out in Amsterdam Joep & I were very touched to be invited to share in their big day in Toronto.

The wedding was just beautiful! A gorgeous church in downtown Toronto was the setting for the ceremony and I shed a few tears as Nat walked down the aisle looking gorgeous and being quieter than I imagined she was capable of being. It didn’t last long, thank goodness, and after the ceremony she was back to her old self. It was so great to see the 2 lovebirds so completely in luuuurve with each other. It was also fun for Joep and I to take notes on how a Dutch/non-Dutch wedding can be undertaken.

After the ceremony Joep and I headed for a wander through Toronto in the hopes of finding a bar to while away the hours between the ceremony and reception. Mission accomplished we were a few sheets to the wind by the time we arrived at the National Club, an exclusive private club in downtown Toronto. It was an amazing place to hold a wedding reception. Guests were greeted with drinks and hors d’oeuvres and it wasn’t long before the Dutch and non-Dutch guests were mingling easily. Our table for the meal was a mix of some of the most hilarious people in the room (a tough task given how many fun folks were around … West family, you are impressive!). We enjoyed an amazing meal, the speeches were hilarious, moving, thoughtful and memorable and just when we thought the night couldn’t get any better … the dancing began!

I don’t think many people left the dancefloor once the dancing part of the evening began. The band was fantastic and the dance moves were nothing short of phenomenal. The bride and groom were unstoppable! I was so impressed and hope that Joep & I can go the distance like they did at our own wedding!

For Joep and I the remainder of the evening was a blur of groove shaking and craziness. For me the dance portion of the evening ended abruptly in an unfortunate drink/dance related injury. Let me explain – There were many dance-off’s occurring throughout the evening. Nat was the winner of the majority of them however there was one wedding guest who was not to be defeated.

She was awesome. She had amazing moves. Joep, however, was convinced he could beat her and so they battled on the dance floor. At some point her dance partner was dragged into the battle followed by Joep dragging yours truly in as well. I didn’t really mind. However, after giving what I believe to be one of my better ‘running man’ performances, I was well and truly defeated. This girl, in a calf length black dress, walked the circle and then proceeded to do that dance move that break dancers do where they spin on their back and finish lying on their side. Oh. My. Goodness. It was incredible! As she finished up Joep began urging me to get back out there and defeat her. I couldn’t. I gave up. Joep was furious. Until I told him that a big reason I was giving up was that I was impaled by the girls stiletto heel as she spun around. Joep looked down at my foot and realized that the competition was over. Long story short, there was a decent amount of blood and a good chunk of skin missing from my foot. And it hurt a lot.

But the night was not going to end just because of a dancing injury. We made a few more friends up at the bar and I soon forgot the aches and pains. The night ended on a very big high!

Although on Sunday, as we drove back to Toronto things didn’t seem quite so lovely. Oh and my foot still really hurt. Worth it though. Totally worth it.

The following weekend, after wearing flat shoes all week and icing my foot regularly, we headed off to Cindy & Todd’s wedding. Cindy works with me and is, like Nat, hilariously good fun. This wedding was in Ottawa so we walked to the church for the ceremony at 1pm. The church was spectacular! I had no idea there was such a beautiful church in Ottawa! Again the ceremony was beautiful … and emotional (What is wrong with me? Why have I started to cry at other peoples weddings? Is it because I am getting married? I don’t get it … something has gone terribly wrong here …). After this ceremony Joep & I were able to head home for a midday nap before the reception.

It’s a good thing we did because this was another rip roaring celebration. The reception was held on the Quebec side of the river and again we were spoiled by incredible hors d’oeuvres, drinks and an amazing meal. We also had a great table made up of Cindy’s cousins and their partners all of whom were as full of energy as we were. The speeches were hilarious as were a few of the games played with the guests … we’re compiling ideas for our own wedding all the time these days!

The dancing portion of the evening was phenomenal. Joep had been full of dance moves the weekend before at Nat & Jasper's wedding but this time he was out of this world. You couldn’t stop him if you tried. Even when I wasn’t dancing with him he was on the dance floor pulling up old ladies and single bridesmaids and the like. At one point in the evening I was standing near the dance floor having a chat when I overheard a girl behind me exclaim ‘I love that guy! He is awesome! I want to dance with him next … who is he?’ I looked across the dance floor and said to the girl ‘Oh he’s with me!’ all proudly. I can honestly say I have never loved Joep more … I am also considering renting him out to brides all over Canada as entertainment for their weddings. He would be so good at that!

The night was again a huge success but … once again, there was an injury. Joep and I love to dance and often try to do swing dancing moves. I don’t know why. Late in the evening Joep called me over to swing dance with him. I did the run up, jumped into his arms, swung my legs to his right, then to his left and then … disaster struck. The next move is to go through his legs but I swung the wrong way and my bare feet collided with Joep’s shin bone. This doesn’t sound too bad right? Wrong. My big toe copped the brunt of the force causing the entire toenail to lift up and my toe to jar terribly. Again, there was blood. Again, it hurt to walk. Worse than the week before I had to immediately sit down and ice it up. Also worse than the week before, we had to go home. Thankfully we both saw the funny side of it.

On Sunday I didn’t find it as funny – I spent the entire day with my foot up and on ice ignoring Joep’s request that we go and get my toe x-rayed. It was swollen and blue but it was a little bit movable and therefore clearly not broken. It is now 2 weeks since that 2^nd injury and I am yet to be able to wear high heels. Totally worth it.

Wedding season is over for another year and the weather is starting to cool off a bit now. It has been SUCH fun to be a part of these big days for our friends and we are getting more and more excited about planning our own wedding! More on that to come in the not tooooo distant future!

Canadian Cottage Living

It’s been a while between weekends away by J&J standards but you can’t keep us in one place for too long. Rik & Sanne gave us the perfect excuse to head away to experience the Canadian cottage lifestyle. It’s huge here. Over the summer months people head off to cottages on the weekends to escape the cities and soak up the great outdoors. And clearly Canada has some of the greatest great outdoors in the world!

Given that they were Dutch guests, I left all the organizing up to Joep and he did a great job! We left Ottawa on Friday afternoon after another busy working week and hit the road for the Georgian Bay in Muskoka. The drive took us through Algonquin Park (we visited there last year, check out the ‘Where are all the moose?’ blog) and the sites were as breathtaking as we remembered them being.

What was forecast to be a 7 hour drive somehow turned into a 5 hour drive and we arrived at the cottage just before 9pm. Rik & Sanne met us there and had taken on the task of getting all food and drinks for the weekend. They clearly took this task seriously. There were food and drinks in abundance!!

Arrival at the cottage showed that it had everything we needed it to have … OK I’ll be honest. It was not the world’s most luxurious cottage but seriously Joep did a great job and was far too hard on himself when he saw some of the other cottages in the area. Granted there were a few things about the cottage that left something to be desired …

1. We had no heating. This was the first weekend since May that temperatures have dropped below the 20 degree mark and in the night times it was cold out there. Sanne in particular found it very cold. I was proud to realize that I appear to have acclimatized and stayed that way because I didn’t feel the need to complain constantly about the cold myself. Who would’ve thunk it!

2. The water smelled really bad because the property is on a septic tank system. When the owner sent us instructions re what to do at the cottage he actually wrote in his instructions ‘If its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down’. You can’t make this stuff up! It did cause me some concern before we got there but hey, we were with friends!

3. The appliances in the apartment were aged to the point of being hazardous. The 1 heater in the house made a LOT of noise and appeared to be on the brink of exploding at any point in time. This didn’t stop Joep from turning it on constantly.

4. The beds … ok this was a down side for sure. One bedroom had two teeny bunk beds. Rik & Sanne were sweet enough to insist that we take the other room because Joep literally would not fit into the beds. So we took the room with the double bed. When Joep went to get into the bed he pulled back the linen and noticed a stain on the bed. It wasn’t hard to notice. It was huge. When we described it to friends someone noted that it could be from a decomposing body. After hearing that I am convinced that must be it. There is no other explanation. Thankfully Rik & Sanne had serious camping supplies with them including linen and sleeping bags so not a single part of my skin touched the bed over the weekend. I still shudder at the thought.

BUT enough about the problems. The GREAT things about the house are that it was right on the Georgian Bay and there was an awesome fire pit outside for us to sit around.

So after arriving on Friday night we sat around drinking beers and catching up on life in front of the self destructing heater. Joep was in his element entertaining old friends and the beers were free flowing. Lots of mellow yellows.

We had a reasonably late night and, as a result, we all ended up sleeping in the following morning which none of us expected given the afore mentioned bed situation. After having a delicious breakfast we headed down to check out the bay and kick the footy. We then hit the road for Midland, a nearby town where there was boat cruises to check out the 30,000 islands.

The day was GLORIOUS. Sunshine in abundance and pretty high temperatures. Being out on the water was heavenly and, even though there were nowhere near 30,000 islands, we had a lovely afternoon. Afterwards we headed back to the cottage to get started on the evening’s entertainment.

Upon arrival at home I set about starting the fire outside while the boys started on the barbeque and Sanne worked on the salads. I have to boast here. I am awesome at starting fires. This is a true story. I could definitely go on that survivor man show. I would rock at it. OK maybe not that good. But I did manage to get a rip roaring fire going that burned right through the night.

Dinner was served shortly after consisting of a total meat fest before we settled in around the fire to chat. We’re so Canadian. Sitting around at the cottage chatting.

Sadly, at the night wore on the weather stopped cooperating and we were forced inside. But not so sadly, Joep had remembered to pack Yahtzee and so began the greatest tournament of all time. I lost. Every single game. Dismally. But everyone else was throwing down Yahtzee after Yahtzee. In fact, Sanne threw 9 Yahtzee’s! Seriously. I am witness to this.

It was fitting though because as we played the game the clock ticked over and we celebrated her birthday! That is awesome birthday luck. I could’ve used just a bit of it. I’m not going to lie to you. There was one point in the game where I was losing so badly that I started to think about getting cranky. I realized that I had 2 choices. Either get annoyed at my misfortune. Or make jokes about myself. I chose the latter. It was the best choice. No one likes a party pooper. Fact.

The following morning, after finishing the bulk of the beers, we set about cooking up the rest of the food for breakfast. Rik & Joep managed to work their way through numerous steaks and hamburgers. This is no word of a lie. It was really impressive.

And after devouring everything is sight (FYI Sanne’s breakfast was chocolate birthday cake … not a slice of it. The entire cake and a spoon. This was also impressive.) we cleaned up and hit the road. It was a LOVELY weekend! It’s always so nice to see familiar faces!

The drive home however, provided even further excitement … remember last year when Joep and I went to Algonquin in search of moose and Joep spent a whole day shouting ‘Yak! Yak!’ but even Joep’s moose mating call couldn’t attract the moose? Well that was a disappointing trip. As we drove through Algonquin this time around Joep suddenly ground to a halt on the side of the road shouting ‘Moose! Moose!’ He was totally right. There were 2 moose in the forest near the road having a feed. One of them was hiding and only popped up every now and then but the other was in plain sight! We didn’t have a proper camera just blackberry camera but we managed to get a few shots and we were EXCITED!

These moose are huge. Apparently moose are the largest deer of all time and they are the second largest land animal in both North America and Europe. I’m not so sure about this statistic because I thought a grizzly bear would be bigger but perhaps I am mistaken. On average, an adult moose stands 1.8–2.1 m high at the shoulder. That is as tall as Joep. Males weigh 380–720 kg. That is heavier than Joep. Anyway, the one we saw had no antlers which was somewhat disappointing but even without them he was huge!

We can now rest easy with the knowledge that we have seen a moose in the wild. Wonderful! So there you have it. A lovely relaxing weekend in the Muskoka’s!

Birthday surprises!

I turned the big 29 this weekend. I didn’t make any plans to celebrate my birthday because the Joepinator insisted that he had it all under control. Joepinator loves surprises. This is why I keep his gifts and birthday plans a surprise for him every year even though I am usually dying to tell him. I hate surprises. Joep loves surprises. So he plans a surprise for me every year. Did I mention that I hate surprises?

It is really hard being someone who hates surprises. Why? Because people who love surprises insist on surprising everyone and if you don’t like surprises you appear ungrateful. I’m not ungrateful. I love that Joep wants to do something nice for me. I just like to know what that something is in advance so that I can plan for it. Control freak? Anyone?

Anywhooooo – This year was similar to the many other birthday’s I have shared with Joep and incorporated Joep telling me throughout the week that he had a surprise and me getting concerned about what was in store for me.

I had nothing to worry about … this time ;p After a great dinner with the girls on Friday night I awoke on Saturday prepared for anything that Joep had in store for me. I was allowed to sleep in while Joep collected the car for us. Upon his return he packed our bag for the day and off we went.

First stop? Mikey & Anne-Marie’s house!! This was a great surprise because as you all know by now these 2 are one of our all time favourite couples. After packing the cooler into the car and piling in Joep announced that we would be going to Camp Fortune to go zip lining! This resulted in a great deal of excitement on my part. I have been dying to go zip lining since we moved here! For those of you who don’t know, zip lining involves climbing into very high trees with a harness attached to you and then climbing between these trees on wires OR attaching your harness pulley to a wire and zipping between the trees. It is super fun! It is also a little bit of hard work but totally worth it.

The drive out to Camp Fortune was uneventful apart from the extreme levels of excitement, loud music and various dance offs that occurred (I am not exaggerating …) and the high energy levels continued when we reached the camp and got harnessed up for our climb!

The next couple of hours were spent climbing between, hanging from and zipping across tree lines. It was just as much fun as I had hoped it would be!!

And the excitement didn’t stop there. After finishing our zip lining course we got back in the car and drove down to Britannia Yacht Club. A friend of Mikey & Anne-Marie’s whom we met at the wedding has access to sail boats that he takes out regularly. Mikey mentioned this to Joep when Joep was arranging for them to join us for the birthday festivities. Joep’s response to this was ‘I don’t want to impose … but I do’ and so we were invited along to go sailing!

This was incredible news. I LOVE going sailing! The weather however, was not on our side. Autumn is almost here and the weather is not as consistently good as we have gotten used to … having said that, we’ve had a good 4 months of incredible weather so I cannot complain! We had high hopes of the weather changing and the rain passing over, these hopes were continuously heightened by weather man Mike’s reassurance that it would pass over … he was correct! As we enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch under the marquee prepared by the Mc el Moth’s the rain passed over and just as we were all contentedly full we were able to head out on the water.

It was a great afternoon of sailing. The wind was good enough that we could pick up some speed. Our captain was more than competent and the company was fantastic. Joep spent a large portion of the afternoon sitting on the bow of the boat entertaining all of us with various random comments and raps about being on a boat with his flippy floppies … I don’t know. It was funny though! We had SUCH a great afternoon!

And the surprises didn’t end there! After sailing we headed back to Casa J&J for a birthday poutine feast! Trevor and Cindy joined us and Cindy played bar tender despite being pregnant … what a good sport! A-M and I made the most of her hospitality while the boys played games. At midnight Joepinator brought out a great birthday cake complete with candles for me to blow out!! By this stage things were starting to get out of hand and the blowing out of the candles proved more complex than one would imagine. Noone minded.

Birthday cake was eventually consumed and we all enjoyed my first few hours as a 29 year old before calling it a night at some stage in the early hours of the morning.

Sunday – The day of my ACTUAL birthday was spent recovering from the night before. I can’t bounce back like I used to. It must be old age.

It was worth it though. What a fantastic start to my year as a 29 year old. The last year has been one of the best one’s I’ve ever had. Moving to Canada, experiencing brand new adventures with my best pal Joepie, getting engaged and getting promoted. Not a bad year! I am intrigued to see if 29 can top it!

Joepinator you are a star and it was the best birthday ever. I couldn’t have planned it better myself!

An Addendum to the Mother Ship Blog

I was back at work today after my week off and regaling my new pal Katie about how fun the week was. I then told her how excited mother ship and I were to have seen a beaver at Niagara. She was very surprised that this occurred so I showed her the photo.

It’s not a beaver. It actually doesn’t look much like a beaver at all. There is a beaver picture here for everyone’s information however I fear most of you already know what I beaver looks like. Our animal sighting was a ground hog which I feel is JUST as exciting as a beaver … kind of.

Anyway, I stand corrected. So does the mother ship coz she also thought it was a beaver. But in our defense, we are from Australia and therefore are not familiar with North American animals. Lets not forget that I thought chipmonks were fictional animals that only existed in cartoons until I saw one for real here. I'm sure you're all judging me now and wondering how on earth I manage to remain gainfully employed however I don’t think most of you could tell the difference between a wallaby and a joey kangaroo so I feel it is not right that you judge me for my lack of animal knowledge.

Plus NOW my mother ship blog ties in very nicely with the Freezing, Curling & Tubing blog … ground hog day. Perhaps we met Wiarton Willie! No further adjustments to my other blogs are necessary.

The Mother Ship Lands in Ottawa!

Lynn Delany is one of the best travelers I know. I have been abroad for 4 years now and she has made it to every single place I have lived in. This includes 2 Amsterdam apartments, 1 Venlo apartment and now a home in Ottawa. Go Mother Ship!

Last Friday I woke up full of glee at the thought of the mother ship arriving at 5pm that evening. Work was hectic and a minor mishap resulted in me having to stay late at work. It could have been a total disaster however at 3pm I received a phone call from an unknown number. When I answered all I could hear was an Irish accent announcing ‘I’m on the plane and I’m in Maine’ … huh? ‘I’m on the PLANE and I’m in MAINE!’ Yes mother ship. If you repeat it loudly I will understand what you are talking about. ‘Listen to me! I’m ON THE PLANE! And I’M IN MAINE!’ … I remained silent after this last one in the hopes that mother ship would go on to explain what on earth she meant. Thankfully, she did.

Her flight had been delayed, then there was a problem with the radio forcing them to fly over Greenland resulting in them landing in Maine to refuel. She would then fly to Phili where she would connect to Ottawa but she didn’t know what time she would arrive. Aykarumba. I was then tasked with the job of figuring out when exactly I could expect the mother ship to arrive.

Thankfully this was the only hiccup of the visit. Mum arrived Friday night full of beans despite the long journey. We took her back to the apartment where we pigged out on Irish biscuits courtesy of Nanna Dunne and whiskey/vodka courtesy of the mother ship. After a good long catch up chat we hit the hay in preparation for showing mum around Ottawa on Saturday.

Saturday rolled around with glorious Canadian summer weather once again! We enjoyed a delicious brekkie before hitting the streets to show mum Parliament Hill and go for a wander around the markets. After taking in all the sights we decided to treat mum to a delicious Canadian lunch … Smoke’s Poutine! You should all know about this from the Canada Day blog. Mum loved it as much as I do. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Poutine consumed we ditched the Joepinator and headed out for some wedding dress shopping! I’m sure you’re all thinking that it’s a bit early to be dress shopping BUT we had good reason. I want the mother ship to help me pick out my dress and who knows if we’ll get another chance before the wedding so we made hay while the sun shined. And FYI the haymaking was a huge success!

After a bit of dress shopping we stopped to enjoy some coffee and cake before heading home to the Joepinator for some afternoon beverages & snacks in the sun on the balcony. The good life! Saturday night we headed out to enjoy the local cuisine in the market. Mother ship sampled the cocktails (This green apple splash is delicious!) and we enjoyed some great chats. So nice to be reunited!

Sunday morning saw us up at a respectable hour, enjoying a bite to eat and then hitting the road for Montreal! As mentioned previously, Montreal is just a stones throw away from Ottawa so we decided a day trip would suffice. Upon arrival in Montreal we wandered through the old town to find a nice lunch restaurant. Mission accomplished. We had a delicious lunch on a patio (thank you Canadian summer) before wandering around town for a while taking in the sights and trying on some local fashions … by local fashions I mean hats made of random Canadian animals. Mother ship made us rub noses while doing this. I don’t know why. But it was worth doing to see how giddy it made her.

After enjoying the city we drove up to Mont Royal which we had grand intention of climbing so that mother ship could see the view. As we began our climb we came across a squirrel and I would like to note that mum was excited about it as I always am. I feel this justifies my continued excitement over squirrels, raccoons and chipmunks (which I didn’t actually know were a real animal until I saw one here … true story.)

Sadly, the Canadian summer failed us as we stood admiring the squirrel and a few drops of rain began to fall which mum decided was a sign that we shouldn’t go further. It was a good call because as we got back to the car the heavens opened. Good call mother ship!

We arrived back in Ottawa late in the evening after a leisurely drive back and enjoyed a lovely meal at Casa J&J before hitting the hay early in anticipation of an early start on Monday.

As planned, mum & I were out the door early on Monday morning. A girl’s road trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto was in order! The drive there was surprisingly uneventful. Mother ship appreciated the fact that I am nervous enough on the roads here without her grabbing the panic bar, squeezing her eyes shut and screeching ‘Look out Jennifer!’ every few minutes so she agreed before we left that she would refrain from doing that. I was dubious but she was true to her word and had only 1 minor slip up the entire trip. This is impressive. Believe me.

We spent the drive to Niagara engaged in some fantastic chats and laughs whilst drinking Tim Horton’s coffee and eating tim bits. We’re so Canadian! Upon arrival in Niagara town at lunchtime I got us a teeny bit lost but it didn’t matter coz the falls are big enough to find and let me tell you, when we first glimpsed them – Mother ship was excited! I was glad that they were as impressive as I remembered from the trip Joepinator and I made! We were both chomping at the bit to get out and see the sights so we parked the car quickly and headed for a bite to eat.

We managed to snag a sweet table with a view in on of the many town restaurants and enjoyed a great meal (jeepers we seem to have eaten a LOT during this trip!) … before heading down to the falls. They were breathtaking. After taking a few pictures we wandered up to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist – The standard tourist boat tour that you see on all movies / tv shows about Niagara.

I’m not going to lie to you – I was not super duper excited about going out on the boat. I thought it would be nice to do but wasn’t dying to do it. Once again, I was wrong. Mum & I bought our tickets and walked down to the boat. On the way down we were lucky enough to spot a Canadian beaver! The two of us were equally excited about this! Shortly after this we were handed our blue ponchos to wear on the ride … the excitement levels rose and we began to get giddy. When we got onto the boat with a big group of people in the same outfits as us we got even giddier.

When the boat went out into the middle of the falls and we were blown around and drenched with water from the falls we were uncontrollably giddy. What a hoot! We really enjoyed the ride and the giddiness set in for the day.

After the ride we walked back to the car in our blue ponchos. We didn’t take them off for a very good reason – The Canadian summer failed us again and it was raining. Pouring in fact. Torrentially. Which made us giddier than ever! Having said that, mum loved that poncho so much that I’m not sure she would’ve taken it off even if it hadn’t been raining.

We made it back to the car soaking wet only from the knee down (where the ponchos didn’t reach) and headed off to check out Niagara-on-the-Lake … another spot Joep and I also visited. The rain had let up again so we were able to wander through the town to find a nice restaurant (yes, another one) where we intended to get only a drink but ended up getting a light dinner. Don’t judge us. We’re on holiday.

After a lovely dinner we drove the last leg of our days journey to Toronto. By this stage we were both pretty pooped but managed to find the hotel, get the car parked and check in without any major issues … whilst still enjoying a few random laughs. Unfortunately we were too tired to do anything but veg out when we got checked in but it was worth it for the great day we had!

We were once again up early the next morning thanks to a call from home wanting to chat with nanna. Lucky they called though because it allowed us to get an early start on our tour of Toronto! It was a scorching hot day and we managed to walk the length and breadth of the city before lunchtime. Included in the tour were a few shopping stops and, of course, food stops. As the afternoon rolled in we contemplated our options – more touring around Toronto or air-conditioned comfort of the car … we chose the latter.

It ended up being a fantastic choice because it meant that we could take our time driving back to Ottawa, which meant that we were able to stop in Kingston for dinner. Yes yes yes, you all know Kingston the original Canadian capital city. No more history lessons necessary in this blog! The thing is though, when Joep & I were in Kingston is was -30 degrees. When mum & I were there it was +30 degrees. What a town! Kingston is surely a summer town. And the restaurants! We didn’t take long to decide where to eat because we were hungry (I’m as surprised about this as the rest of you are …) but there is a huge selection of great looking restaurants in Kingston. We’ll be going back for sure.

But home was beckoning so after eating we drove the last leg of our journey for home. We were exhausted! So much sight seeing jammed into a short time frame but so worth it for the memories … and the laughs!

Our plan for the last few days of mums visit was based entirely around R&R … &E (yes, that is E for eating). Oh and shopping. Because mother ship is a big shopper. Joepinator pleasantly surprised us by arriving home early from a work trip on Wednesday morning so the 3 of us had a great time for the last few days.

Not an enormous amount to report for these days other than they were as fantastic as all the preceding days. Oh one more highlight, on mum’s last day we were headed for lunch and Joepinator took charge of restaurant choice. It was, hands down, the best meal of the trip. The food, the canal views, the service and of course, the company. Way to finish things on a high!

It was with a heavy heart that we dropped mum to the airport for her flight back to Dublin … We miss you already mum! Can’t wait for the next visit!!

Typhoon at Jen & Joep's

Joep & I have been dying to get a dog. We’ve been talking about it for ages and getting closer and closer to actually taking the plunge. We realize that this is not a rational decision given that we are not exactly settled down yet and that we live in a small apartment but all that seems irrelevant when you really want something!

A colleague of mine, Allison, and her boyfriend have a gorgeous golden Labrador puppy called Ty(phoon). He’s a toddler and he is 6 months old so he is all paws and no body and he is full of energy. Allison and Dan went away for the weekend last weekend and we had offered to dog sit. We were hoping that Ty would wear us out and then we wouldn’t want a dog anymore …

This goal was not entirely met …

When out walking with Ty you are guaranteed that pretty much every person you pass on the street will stop you and want to talk to you whilst petting your dog. We all know that the Joepinator loves to be the centre of attention so needless to say, he loved walking with Ty. In addition, we took Ty out a few times to restaurants in the market and sat on a terrace with him. He would lie beside us while we ate and bask in the glory of all the people walking by stopping to pet him. So again, Joepinator was happy to get attention and I was happy to be eating outdoors in the good weather.

We also took Ty down to the river where he had his first taste of submerging himself in water whilst chasing a stick. I’m not sure who enjoyed that more – Joep or Ty. Either way it was a lovely way to pass the time on a balmy summers afternoon in Ottawa!

These are all the wonderful things. Then there were a couple of things that were not so wonderful. Firstly, when you live on the 10^th floor, your puppy can’t just be let out to go to the toilet. You have to go down the elevator with him and take him out. Ty pee’s like 10 times a day. And he does lots of #2’s as well. Plus with the #2’s you have to bag it up … I did not like this task. However, to counteract this negative let me say that I am quite sure I could train Ty to walk to the elevator, push the buttons and get outside to do his business without any human assistance. Its not hard. And dogs are smart. I am sure I am not over extending my dog training abilities here …

The next semi negative thing is that at nighttime Ty didn’t like sleeping. In fact, on the first night he cried for ages before eventually nodding off at 1:30am. He then woke up a 4am for a toilet break. That was not fun. And after his toilet break he wanted to play. Joep took charge here. Then at 6am I took over and Joep had a nap. By 7am we were wondering how all those parents who have constant sleepless nights do it … sleep is important to us. I don’t know if that will ever change.

I did, however, find a solution to this crying and moaning problem. Joep says that it is not good parenting. I don’t care. Here is my solution. I found that if I let Ty do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to do it then everything was fine and we didn’t have to have a fight. So if he wanted to crawl into bed with me at 4am … I helped him get in. If he wanted to sit on my lap on the couch even though it meant I couldn’t see the tv, I let him. Joep was not a huge fan of this strategy. I didn’t mind because I had Ty and he loves me no matter what … as long as I let him do what he wants.

This methodology of letting your puppy do whatever he wants works splendidly unless you are outside the house and other people are judging you. So on Saturday night when we went to Mikey & Anne-Marie’s house for a lovely evening of chatting and playing games and drinking wine (What? You thought that we had a grown up evening without wine?? Ha! Clearly you haven’t read the other Mikey & Anne-Marie related blogs!) I pretended to be a good mum and Ty pretended to be well behaved. It was exhausting. So on Sunday morning we reverted to our old routine of Ty being the boss of me.

Joep, on the other hand, is going to be an incredibly good dog owner/father. He is full of discipline and certainly knows how to show who is the boss. I was very impressed by this and relieved that in the future I will get to be the good cop to his bad cop in disciplinary discussions.

So after 4 wonderful days of dog walking, poop scooping, face licking and no sleeping we returned Ty to his rightful owners. Now I’m not going to lie to you, on our last day with Ty I did start to regret all the things I let him do because I was worried that I had untrained him and his owners would be mad. Thankfully it appears that Joep’s strong discipline counteracted my free spirited approach to parenting and from all accounts this week Ty is as good as usual. Phew!

All in all the weekend met its goal. Despite the fact that we LOVED having the puppy around and I loved being able to force something to give me cuddles and kisses whenever I wanted them, the simple fact is that we really like to sleep. And to go out without having to organize anything. You can’t do that with a puppy. So we will keep being grown ups and not get one just yet. Who knows though … maybe in a little while …