It has been over a month since my last entry and a lot has happened in that time. On the 24th July Kathryn turned 23 years old  ....WOW 23! as her Father I now feel old and officially I am entitled to the Grumpy Old Man award. Anyway to celebrate we took ourselves off to Saint Andrews and had a great day at the sea side. We paddled and picnic'd off Indian Point, then into Saint Andrews for dinner at the Harbour Lights restuarant (not bad meal).

'

Here in New Brunswick (and I expect across Canada) your car requires a Motor Vehicle Inspection certificate, much like the UK's MOT certificate.

Kathryns car was due for it's MVI at the end of July, and with some small rust holes in the sill under the drivers door it would probably fail. I knew she couldn't afford to take it to a bodyshop for repair, so in my best grumpy old man voice I mumbled that "I would help repair it "(which I found out later actually means I will do it entirely on my own).

.

Ah the nostalgia of repairing rust holes in cars. It was like going back 30 years  to my first couple of cars. Rubbing down to bare metal, cutting off pieces off rusted metal, being surprised to see the couple of pinholes grow to a large hole and then agonising over what technique to use to fill in the gaping chasm I had revealed/made.

• I tried fibreglass (messy affair) and remembered (or was reminded) that fibreglass cannot resist gravity..... most of it either ended up on the floor or on my hands....
• next came a fibreglass filler... which worked well but my experimenting with the hardener meant I either had 30 minutes to work with it or 30 seconds before it hardened. It is amazing the heat the chemical reaction generates.
• Finally I finished the remaining holes (the previous two methods has some success) I used a combination of wire grills and body filler mastic... Then lots of elbow grease rubbing the whole thing done to a reasonable finish. Anyway surprisingly the end result was a repaired sill, primed and ready for inspection, that still looked like it was part of the car.

Much to my surprise the car passed and everyone was happy (I was relieved). Before any one asks I do not take work on for anyone beyond my two daughters.

.

During our first visit to Canada (Recce in 2003) we stayed at the Chickadee Lodge B&B on the outskirts of Fredericton and really got on well with the owners (Guy and Christine Donnelly). They became our first friends in Canada and after we landed in November 2005 we often visited each other for meals, parties etc...  Their annual Lobsterfest was a favourite event of mine. Well about two years ago they told us they were moving to Calagary Alberta and they sold up and moved, we kept in touch with emails, christmas cards etc... Mid July we found out they were coming back and they have just returned to NB. It is funny to hear almost the same reasons for moving back to NB being played back to us by Christine and Guy as the ones we used on why we moved from the UK.

Anyway we held a BBQ yesterday afternoon and invited a bunch of people round(Sean & Wendy, Guy & Christine and John).  After a great BBQ (cooked by yours truly) around 9pm I lit a fire in our fire pit (an upturned wheel rim of some big SUV) and as we men watched the embers glowing and I threw on a new log (there is something primeval about sitting around a fire), Sean (a chemistry professor at UNB) commented that in the UK he never imagined that one day at 10pm he would be sitting  around a fire pit, with a , truck driver(Guy), IT consultant from Ireland(John) and Project Manager(Moi).

A good time was had by all, they all stayed 5 hours so I assume they had a good time and we have lots of dessert to eat  (Jules always asks guests to bring dessert)

.

I have to show you a couple of photos by Gemma (my youngest daughter). You may know this already, but she is studying an Bachelor of Applied Arts (UNB) and really into Macro photography here are some from of her latest:

Cornflower

One of many insect photos

Can you see all three bugs?

This blog doesnt really do them justice, but I'm impressed (proud Dad coming out I better watch that, it doesnt fit with my grumpy old man award).

.

Finally on a slightly different note, today (8th August) Julie and I reach a big anniversary in our relationship. It was 30 years ago today that I took Julie out on our first date. We met up at 8pm, 8th August 1980 in Beeston Square Bus Station (she was on time, which impressed me). I remember showing off that I owned a car A Vauxhall Chevette - hatchback metallic gold in colour too(the first car I owned that didn't require daily running repairs).

I think she was suitably impressed. In my then sophisticated soldier way I drove her to Nottingham and my idea of a good night out was to go on a pub crawl....  I think we visited about 8 pubs in 3 hours (I only had one beer in the first pub, and then switched to Tonic Water... again I think that impressed her). Anyway despite my uncouth nature she managed to stick it out and refine me into restaurants, country pubs, and wine bars. The net result we are still together and I very rarely crawl around any pubs . (I still switch to Tonic Water)