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 …

Some Knot Tying

After our whirlwind tour of Calgary & Banff we were pretty worn out and glad to relax at home for a few days. The relaxation was relatively short lived though because on Saturday we were headed to the nuptial celebrations of Mikey & Anne-Marie.

As you may have gathered from other blogs (see “Bonsai” or “Canada Day”), these 2 are a pretty hilarious couple and we thoroughly enjoy hanging out with them because things have a tendency of getting out of hand whenever we get together. This works for us.

We knew that the wedding was going to be a good time when, on the Thursday before the wedding, we went to the post-rehearsal dinner drinks. We had been in Calgary until the Wednesday so we had missed the first half of the week and it appears we missed a lot. A lot of people had flown in from out east for the wedding. As a result, a lot of people weren’t working all week and could party all night. And there you have it. “Weddingfest 2010” was born. We thought we were going for a few quiet drinks to meet a few wedding guests before the big day. We had no idea we would end up flying around the dancefloor and taking shots of tequila on a Thursday night! Friday was relatively painful as a result but boy were we looking forward to the wedding!

So on Saturday afternoon at 4pm Joep & I were running late to the ceremony (despite the fact that it was less than 5 minutes walk from our house). The weather was gloriously Canadian summer hot and as we arrived at the church Joep announced that he had forgotten to put on deodorant and therefore we would need to go home in between the church and the reception. Fine.

The ceremony was beautiful! Anne-Marie was looking completely sexified in her gown and Mikey had cleaned up nicely for the big day too. After the vows were exchanged and we had enjoyed a few chats with friends we headed for home to ‘freshen up’ as we put it to our friends. A brief stint at home during which time I washed, dried and ironed Joep’s shirt (best housewife ever … I’m sure I could win an award for this) we headed across to the Plaza for the reception.

Penthouse floor, panoramic views of Ottawa and the river, glorious summers evening and great company. This was quite the show! The wedding reception was a hoot. Joep was paying full attention to everything that went on and making many mental notes of things to remember for our wedding. It is the most concentration I’ve ever witnessed. In the end he got a very good idea of what the whole ‘bridal party’ thing means as well as the ‘bridal table’, ‘MC’ and how the speeches should work.

On that note … the speeches were hilarious! The maid of honour went first and I really felt sorry for anyone who would come after her because she was seriously, side achingly funny. Then the best man arrived. And was just as funny! These people were seriously prepared to entertain us. I appreciated it.

I could go into intricate details of the entire night but I think that it is sufficient to say that the food was great, music was fantastic, groove shaking was a hoot and bride & groom were as wonderful as anticipated! The highlight of my evening has nothing to do with any of this. My highlight was that after midnight there was poutine buffet. True story. Poutine. Buffet. Heavenly. I helped myself to more than a couple of servings of this before we had to call it a night and head home (me complaining the entire time about how full I was).

Mikey & Anne-Marie are now married and therefore much more grown up and mature than us but we are quite sure that this will not stop them from misbehaving with us every now and then. We hope not anyway. Oh and now we have lots more idea’s to steal for our wedding … wonderful!!