Back to Albion - Trials Consistency

It was deja vu. We were back at the Albion sauna house for the Splash Trials for the Winter session.  Plus it wasn't that chilly outside so I made sure I didn't wear anything too warm.  You will sweat sitting there in the bleacher with a t-shirt.  And don't forget the quarter for the locker.  Came in handy.  I didn't have to pack Kieran's winter jacket and boots in our backpack.
Also watch out for the beggars in the parking lot.  Not sure if his story was true or not, but you gotta help the needy.


It was two thumbs up from Song.  One for Team Swansea Stingrays and another for the India sized snack pack of 50 samosa's and sweet and spicy dipping sauces that she got for her birthday which she celebrated this past week.

This is their coach.  Allejandra. She's responsible for bringing the best out of these kids. Kieran for the first time said he was having pre-race jitters.  But once he got his first race under his belt, he was normal again.  Happy go lucky, goofing around, up until the GET SET!



This was the planning for their last two races.  Team relays.  They had 4 teams altogether for relays.
I forget how they did.  But it was exciting.
Usually I have this info but I was focused on the race.
The kids were exhausted.


Kieran was a model of consistency.  He was 4th in every single individual race he did.

Then he had to go poo.  Timed it so it was just before the first of two team relay races.  But his race was soon marshalling and I had to go find out what was taking so long, Theo his other coach, was also looking for him. Finally I found them, Tresa told me that he went twice.


In the first race his team got a 2nd place ribbon and then in the medley he did a very good breast stroke to keep the team in the lead, but they were 3rd after the 3rd leg but Elena put on the jets to retake 1st place ribbon at the finish! That was a great way to finish.
I figure he must have gotten lighter from expelling all that extra weight, or it was the lollipop sugar boost I gave him before the race and before the washroom break.

All he needs now is a 3rd and he's got the whole set.  Kind of reminds me of when I was collecting all those quarters way back.  And all I needed was 1 or 2 more and I had the complete set.  Any ol' joe can get it from the post office, but I was getting all the quarters out of circulation. Now most of those quarters are in a washing machine at my old apartment.

He's moved up from the 5th and 6th places to 4th.  Maybe next time at the Finals he'll move up to 3rd's and complete his set.  One stroke at a time.

Splash Time Trials - Albion Pool

Better late

 Kieran and I sent this letter to Santa off on the last possible day.  Dec 17.
Apparently you don't even need to attach a stamp.
Just send it to:

Santa Claus
North Pole
H0H 0H0
Canada

 And a letter will be sent back.

It finally arrived on Jan 5-2013.
I didn't think we got it there in time.
And I had not banked on a response letter from Santa.
But sure enough.  Canada Post came through.

And the letter did in fact arrive.  After Christmas, but better late than never.

Water water everywhere

This happened the day before I arrived on Friday. Apparently a furnace guy unplugged the sump pump and didn't plug it back in.  In a matter of 30mins, there was 2 inches of water every where.
That shiny floor isn't a glass tile.  That's laminate flooring with a layer of H2O.

The furnace guy came back and tried cleaning up the water. Some disaster guys, after getting lost, arrived from Peterborough, they and setup heavy duty dryer fans and worked til 2am to clean it up.  The rug is out being cleaned.
All the baseboards off, cabinets up on styrofoam, flooring ripped up. It will all have to be replaced.  It needs to be dry or else mold will form.
Damage was minimized as much as possible, but it was still a mess.
This is what insurance is for.  Hopefully it will be quickly back to the way it was or if there's opportunity for improvement, it'll be better than how it was.

Tooth Fairy

It was the end of Christmas-New Years break, and Sir Sams was open for business.

We were here on New Years day and I was expecting it to be packed but as we entered the parking lot there was hardly anyone here.  Maybe everyone thought it would be busy and decided to stay in.  Or it was because it was -16 deg C.


These guys stay warm by drinking booze. It also makes this little hill more challenging.  There's no moguls, but drink enough and you will see them.

I was our first skiing of the season.  There hadn't been any snow until after Christmas.

The low temps made sure that the snow wasn't going anywhere until Spring.




Even the Russians were here.  To them -16 deg C (3 deg F for those Yankees still fighting the metric system that the rest of the world uses) is balmy weather.
Don't even need gloves.  They go ice fishing with their bare hands.  They just eat bacon and put their hands in a hole in the ice and the fish smell the bacon grease and once they feel a nibble on their fingers they snatch em.


Kieran finally lost his first tooth today.  It had been loose for a while, but Baka yanked it out like it was a chicken feather on a freshly killed chicken that was heading straight for the soup pot.

It was precision yanking.  Kieran didn't even feel it.
Just asked to get it pulled and it was out.  Dental tools are for wussies.

I would have figured he would have lost his tooth going into the woods skiing.  I thought I was going to lose a tooth and possibly dislocate a shoulder going in through here.
I was dodging some rocks as well as fallen trees in there.  Much harder to make turns with 200cm long skis than his 120's.
But after cutting turns in the woods. The runs all of a sudden got much easier.



Surprisingly he came out largely unscathed when he ventured into the trees, except this one time that I decided to go with logic and not follow him in.
He was doing fine and then I couldn't see him anymore.
But he's in the picture.  Can you spot him?

Luckily someone spotted him struggling in the bush.  But he was fine, he was just having a hard time getting up in the deep snow.  Everyone is so nice up there.

This isn't us, these were a bunch of yahoos going for it.  The first guy made it.  The second crashed in a cloud of snow.  We didn't see the third.

I like this kind of skiing, there were lots of kids, but parking is no problem, next to no lines for the lifts, lots of fresh snow, friendly people, ski's tuned 1/2 the price in TO.  I don't mind that the hill isn't very large, i find it nice to ski at my leisure.   The skiing in the trees is another story.  A little stressful at first, but gotta admit it helped me get better.  No fear.

It's a Fishey new year

Fishey has been with us now for two years this Christmas.
He gets his water changed every week.  Which has probably helped in his longevity.
Most Beta fish that we've known have only survived from a week to a few months.

But from what we know, they can live for up to 5 years.
So that's many more tank changes.

Happy 2nd birthday Fishey.