Have been quite busy the last month, so haven't been able to write much. Here's a bit of a round-up:

Finished my first two courses in my Msc in e-learning, which involved lots of final assignment essay writing. I'll start two more next week, so I am getting mentally prepared now.

In December I also went back to the US for about 5 days for Keith and Joy's wedding. It was a very nice wedding, and it was good to see my family, including most of my aunts and uncles from California who flew in for the wedding. Keiko, Paul, and Ray flew in from Japan so it was good to meet Ray for the first time. Unfortunately they all got sick with a stomach flu that quickly made its way around the family. Didn't have much time to visit with friends though, as everything was pretty wedding focused. I got really sick on the airplane ride home which was not fun at all, but managed to avoid giving it to Victoria thankfully.

After the wedding, I flew back to England for Christmas at Victoria's parents' house. It was quite hectic there as there were about 15 people in one house. Had a lot of fun though, but unfortunately many people were sick and Victoria was unfortunate to catch this one, which has lasted until now.

It's back to work on Wednesday since I used my extra vacation on the wedding. I imagine not many people will be at work then, but we'll see.

Some of the time we just hid in cafes (behind bags) and watched people through the glass. This was particularly true when it was raining or cold.

We did a bit of shopping, but most of the stores were the same chains as the ones in the UK. On Grafton Street, a big shopping street, we found this cute indoor shopping center, which was practically made from glass.


We found this section of pet clothing in a popular store for accessories. I was amazed by just how many pet outfits there were.

We found some nice green spaces, including St. Stephen's Green (pictured here), right in the heart of the city. The university campus for Trinity College was particularly nice, and extremely large given where it is located.


St. Stephen's Green had a nice pond which had lots of leaves of different colors that had fallen off. We had a bit of a game trying to take pictures of the ducks who swam really quickly and just became a blur on the pictures.

We wandered around the city a lot the whole time we were there. This touristy pub is located on Temple Bar, the main street for nightlife (and often expensive prices).


This was part of Dublin castle, of which we could only see a very limited part.

Thought I'd put up a few pictures of Dublin on here. This is O'Connell Street's bridge that crosses the river that goes through the center of town. Of course, that is Victoria. One thing I found interesting is the giant Heineken building in the background, given that Guinness is king in Dublin. The Guinness factory/museum was a bit further out of town and we didn't make it that far.

I found a man's wallet on the bus today. I think it may have been stolen rather than lost, as there was no money left in it. It did have an ATM card, but I suppose that is worthless without the PIN. We now have chip and pin on all UK credit cards too, so those are unusable without the PIN too. It's helped a lot with reducing card fraud.

His driver's license had his address, but no phone number, so I ended up calling his bank and explaining that I found his wallet. I gave them my work phone number so they could pass it on to him, as obviously they would not give me his phone number. I haven't heard anything yet, but maybe there will be a message when I get in tomorrow.

Yay! I passed my driving test. I have to wait three weeks to get the license apparently, but I'm not planning on using it in the meantime anyway. You are allowed 15 minor faults on your driving test, and I got just 1. It was a fault for being in the wrong lane at a roundabout, and I remembered which one he was talking about, so at least I recognised it. The driving instructor asked if I had a license in the US, since I was such a good driver. I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement!

I feel as if we have travelled back in time to World War II or at least the middle of a war torn city. All around our apartment we can hear the sound of explosions every night. As we approach Guy Fawkes Day, there seem to me more and more idiots playing with fireworks in the center of the city. There doesn't seem to be the same level of concern here about setting off fireworks next to buildings and houses as I remember in the US. In fact there is a special fireworks counter at the supermarket this week, and a new fireworks store has opened in the city center. At least we can take solace in the fact that it won't last too much longer.

This weekend has been fairly relaxing. Victoria took a much needed more relaxed stance towards getting her lesson planning and other school work done, so I think she enjoyed this weekend more than some of the previous ones.

I spent some time this weekend writing the first assignment that's due for one of my master's courses. It's a reflective piece, and it is not exactly hard writing, but it does encourage you to really think what you have learnt from something we did in the course, and how it could affect you in a workplace context.

I also had my final driving lesson before my test, which is scheduled for Friday afternoon. I feel pretty good about my driving, I just need to be relaxed and drive normally on the test. Wish me luck!

Our trip to Dublin went really well. We had a relaxing time and the flight was onl 35 minutes, much to Victoria's pleasure. The hotel we stayed in (a Comfort Inn) was brand new, but we still got a good deal on it. We didn't do many things in Dublin, as far as touristy stuff. Mostly we walked around and saw the different parts of the city center. We did go to the Dublin Writer's Museum, which made me realise just how many famous writers Ireland has. It is a nice city to look at and easy to get around. We met up with Jo, the other teacher at Horikawa, the school I taught at in Japan. She was there for my second year, and came to Horikawa two days out of the week. She took us to a Japanese restaurant downtown that had great food. I'll try to put up some pictures soon.

We went to see a play this weekend. It was called The Unexpected Guest and was an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel. Victoria like murder mysteries on TV, so we thought we might go see one acted out. It was interesting, but a bit too easy for Victoria, who guessed the big twist before the intermission. Our seats were the front row of the balcony, which is quite high up. There was only a little bar separating us from the edge of the balcony, so it was a bit scary. I don't think Paul would've liked it, as it seemed even higher than it was as you could not see the circle/lower balcony below us, so it looked like a 50 foot+ drop to the ground floor.

We also went out to a new restaurant that just opened not far from our house. The last two years they have been renovating a small square that is surrounded by a huge old building. This building is now a hotel and the restaurant is in part of it. They have done a great job and I think it will be pretty popular.

There's another postal strike which starts today and ends next Wednesday, so if you sent me anything in the post, I am unlikely to get it for awhile (Dad). This is about the fourth or fifth postal strike in the last few months, and it's getting pretty annoying. Basically the government has opened the postal service up to privatisation, and the postal service is losing business as a result, which will mean job cuts inevitably, which the workers are obviously not happy about. It seems like one of those things that wasn't really broken, but reforms seems to have messed up (at least in the short term). Not quite sure how competition is supposed to work in a postal sector though. Will we have lots of different people delivering our post to our door?

New York, New York. Guess where we are going for Easter? That's right, New York. We are going for 6 nights, and it should be lots of fun. We're even staying at the Waldorf Astoria, as it was not much more expensive than some hotels that looked really tiny on the inside. Plus how often does one get to stay at a nice hotel that is a piece of history? Nothing like favorable exchange rates as well. I would hate to be an American wanting to travel abroad right now, but travelling to America has its benefits.

It seems like it might well be another year of trips. Dublin in a few weeks, USA for Keith's wedding, and New York for Easter. We'll go somewhere for the summer too, though this will probably be somewhere in Europe as it is not so far to go. At least we don't have a car and generally do all the other good stuff for the environment, but flying so much is not so great for the environment. In the UK they have green taxes on flights, which are in theory supposed to be used to help offset carbon in the UK, though I reckon it just goes in a big government pot somewhere. It's too bad because if the UK took all the money from fuel duty (<50% of the gas price) and flight taxes and put it to work in making renewable energy sources, I think they would be able to phase out all the coal power plants, or upgrade the trains to be more efficient.

As it is, they won't even waive VAT (value-added tax, essentially a sales tax) on the sale of energy efficient lightbulbs to encourage people to buy them. As a note, if you don't have them already, get some. They are great, in that you get about 100 watts of light for about 8 watts of power. Costs more in the store, but also lasts longer and saves electricity.

I still keep wondering when Sheffield will start having recycling at your door besides paper. I have to cart the glass, metal, and plastic to the supermarket every Sunday, as they are the only place with bins for it. We had door-to-door pick-up in London but not here in Sheffield.

We've started planning a holiday for the upcoming half-term school break that Victoria has. We found a cheap flight to Dublin from Manchester, so we are going to Ireland. Neither of us have ever been before, so it should be interesting. We are arriving Saturday and returning on Tuesday. The flight is only an hour, which shows you just how close Ireland really is to England. More details to come as we plan the trip. We might stay in a pretty nice hotel if we find a good deal. I think Victoria's earned it with all the work she's been doing (especially on top of a cold this week).

My master's course is going pretty well. One class has launched into a wiki activity for the next few weeks which I need to start participating in. The other one just got past introductions this week and has been working on some e-learning scenarios. I need to think about the assessments a bit ahead of time, as both the big ones are due a few days after Keith's wedding in December. It would be good to have at least one of them done before the wedding.

Our friends Francisco and Fatima (whose wedding we went to in Madrid last year) sent us these photos they took at the wedding.

Victoria found a baby to play with at the wedding.

This weekend featured yet another wedding, which was on Sunday. It was in Manchester, which was good as we would have a hard time spending the night if it was too far away, as Victoria needs to work in the morning. A lot of people could take the day off, but she wasn't really able to. The wedding was really nice and we went to a place called Mere Court Hotel for the reception, which was an old family home turned into a hotel. Unfortunately the band took a long time to set up and started about 2 hours late, so we had to leave right when they got started. There aren't many trains on Sunday night, so we had to be careful not to miss the last one.

It was the wedding of two of Victoria's friends, Gisella and Chris. They met while in Salzburg when Victoria was there. Gisella lived with Victoria as well when she was at Leeds University.

Two big things have happened this week. The first is that I started driving lessons with a two hour lesson on Thursday. It went pretty well, in that I didn't drive the wrong way down the road. Chris, my instructor, said that I drive very confidently, but I will need to watch out for certain things that the examiners wouldn't like (you can't go over the limit at all he said for instance, which is not the way most people actually drive). Also, they expect you to do some strange steering method that nobody does anymore and seems to be from the days before power steering. So I will have to relearn how to steer. Near the end of the lesson I think I was getting tired, because I let the car get too close to the curve and the side of the wheel hit the curb. It is more exhausting driving here as you have to think about it more. I kept looking to the right for the rear view mirror and once I grabbed the door handle to try to change the gears (luckily the door did not open). My next lesson is Wednesday, so I just need to internalize his suggestions into my regular driving, and get used to the wrong side of the road. The large amount of roundabouts will take some getting used to as well.

The other thing is that at work they have introduced a new pay modernization scheme, which is based upon a national framework system of evaluating job roles at work. The theory is to ensure equal pay for equal work across the jobs at the university, and doing this nationwide. However, the result here has left many people disgruntled. About 24% of staff got a pay increase as a result of this. 14% have gotten a pay cut, though the pay cut won't happen for 4 years as part of the bargain. Then another group is not having their pay changed (I am in this group), though the number of advancement points on the pay scale may have changed positively or negatively. Some people, particularly those in IT jobs have gotten significant pay cuts (8,000 pounds one person said they were cut). That must be at least 25% of their current pay. I can't see how many people will stick around too long if their pay is going to drop that significantly. My department was particularly badly hit with something like 40% being negatively affected in some way. It will be interesting to see what happens with all of this. I am just thankful my pay is fine.

At the Sheffield Fayre thing I went to I ran into a driving instructor who seemed really nice and had the best rates I have seen so far. So I have now arranged with him to have some lessons, starting with a two hour lesson on Thursday. I am hoping to set a date to take my test soon, as it must be scheduled in advance, and it can take a couple months to get an appointment. If I could have it before Christmas that might be ideal.

I went to the ALT (Association of Learning Technologists) conference in Nottingham this week, and I had a poster there about the e-learning starter packs I worked on last year. It turned out to be a very popular topic, as I had over 30 people come to talk to me during the hour of the poster displays and the tea break afterwards (which wasn't really a break for me as a result). Having such a pack seems to be something a lot of universities were thinking about doing, so we had taken the lead on it a bit. In fact, the poster was so popular that someone stole part of it. I had some white space on my poster, so I attached pieces of the starter pack so people could see what it looked like. Between when I arrived Wednesday morning and the 2:30 poster display time, someone stole one of the guides right off the poster. It kind of pissed me off, especially doing it before the poster display time. Luckily I had brought some extras to give away, so I was able to replace it. When someone from SHU went to take down the poster on Thursday, she found the guides had all been ripped off the poster and taken again! Good thing we didn't mind people having them.

Robin took pictures of me with two regimental flags from NC regiments at the Civil War camp. You can see a "North Carolinian" in the background there.

This one looks very similar to the state flag I think.

Here's a video of the cannons firing in the Civil War one, to give you an idea of how it worked. I think it sounded much louder than it does on the video.

In this picture, all of the different groups have lined up for a final parade. The closest group was the oldest, but I couldn't place what group they were supposed to be exactly. I thought maybe the Greeks or the Celts. You can also see the Romans and way in the distance, some of the World War groups.

A couple of the knights were practicing before their big tournament, so we watched them hack away at each other. The taller one kept beating the shorter one when they sparred.

The civil war battle was by far the largest and most popular of the battles. You can see the union on the close side in this picture. In the far distance on the hill is the confederate artillery, which kept firing a lot. They even had little explosions happen in the grass sometimes. The union artillery was to my left when taking this picture, and they were incredibly loud. Despite their superior numbers, the union lost this battle. There is another day of the fayre today, and I think the union will win this time.


The union had a cavalry unit, but they still lost the battle. They had to rent special horses that didn't mind the constant explosions (which were really loud). The only problem with the cavalry is that they could not die. Because they would need to fall off their horse and then the horse would run around free, possibly hurting someone. So they never seemed hurt, even when shot at point blank range. Surprisingly, the cavalry did not attack the unguarded confederate artillery either. Oh well.




Here's the civil war camp. They eat and sleep here for the two days of the festival. The close side is the union, with the confederates in the rear.

Here are some giant cabbages from the vegetable contest. There were long parsnips and leeks too.


Here's a close-up of the city center.

This is one view of the fayre. The park is on a hill, so you cannot see all of the fayre from here. You can see the city in the background though.

In what can only be described as really bizarre, I went to the Sheffield Fayre yesterday and watched a US civil war reenactment. The fayre had rides for kids, a few animals, and lots of vegetables, but the main attraction was the large group of historical reenactments. There were romans, knights, WWI and II soldiers, and many more. However, the largest group by far was the US civil war soldiers (all British from what I could tell). You can read more about it at http://www.eventplan.co.uk/Sheff07.htm but I've got pictures to add too.

Here is a mini-movie I made while standing at the top of Niagara Falls

The latest thing to spring up at the university are lots of posters everywhere which explain why it is a waste of paper, ink, and money to print out the electronic newsletter. Somehow the irony of their actions seems to have escaped them.

The 7 hour bus ride from Montreal back to Toronto wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, and I think we both managed a little sleep on the bus. We stayed at the Canadian Backpacker's Inn for one night in Toronto, and got a newly done room which was much nicer than the first one we stayed in. I still think the Canadiana is the best (and cleanest) hostel I've ever stayed in. We went back to Sushi Time restaurant where we went when we were staying in Toronto. For about 20 dollars we got buckloads of great Japanese food, so we were desperate to go back.

The next morning we picked up our rental car, a Chevy Cobalt. It was a tiny car that somehow still got worse than 30 mpg during our trip despite its size. The traffic was horrible in Toronto, and it took forever to get out of the city, even on the highways. We drove up north to the Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, where we discovered that all the provincial parks in the region were fully booked for camping for the weekend (it was a Friday when we arrived). Luckily we called around and found a private campground called Wasaga Dunes near Wasaga Beach (the longest freshwater beach in the world apparently) which had some spaces left.

We went to the beach that afternoon but just to eat some food rather than swim or anything. That night we thought we had the perfect campsite with sand to sleep on, etc. However we didn't count on noisy neighbors arriving at 9pm and never shutting up until 2am. They did get quieter after I went and asked them to, but it was still annoying. There was a fire ban because the region had not had any rain in a month, but several people just seemed to ignore it. Luckily they had someone from the camp patrolling. We were also awakened by a scratching sound that I thought was a raccoon trying to get into car. It turned out to be a mouse that was trapped inside the hood of the car. I guess he was there from the rental place's parking lot. He escaped from the car on Saturday, running right past me which gave me a fright. Victoria was worried it was a bear, despite my assurances that it was highly unlikely a bear would a) make that little noise, and b) be in such a developed area.

On Saturday we went to the beach in the morning. It was very crowded, but still nice. We made sure to wear lots of sunblock as it was quite hot that day. I went into the water to go swimming, but found it was actually very shallow. It was only up to my shoulders about 500 meters into the water. It must have gotten deeper though as there were boats past that point. We had a nap that afternoon to catch up on some sleep. Then that evening we went to a drive-in movie theatre, which was a lot of fun. They showed two movies, License to Wed and The Bourne Ultimatum, which meant it didn't finish until 12:30am. They were both pretty good, though the latter was better.

Saturday's sleep was disturbed by a large growling sound outside of the tent. It seems our noisy neighbors left out lots of food on the table and raccoons were fighting over it or something. It was a bit scary, and Victoria slept in the car for a bit after that.

Sunday was spent driving down to Lake Erie in the south of the province. We were going to stay at a campsite but it rained all day, so we found a cute motel about 45 minutes from Niagara Falls instead. It took awhile to find one though as a lot of the region on the lake is not that developed until you get close to the falls.

Monday we walked alot around Niagara Falls. It was a nice sunny day and the crowds were out in force. We didn't do any of the falls touristy things like the boat ride to the falls, or the journey behind the falls, partly because of the 3-4 hour wait they required. We did decide to cross the Rainbow Bridge on foot and go to the USA. We had to pay 50 cents to cross the bridge, but it ended up being free as the change machine gave me extra money. I put in $2 and got back $2.50. We still needed another 50 cents for the machine so I put in a dollar and got back a buck fifty. It was very strange, and didn't work when we tried it with another dollar. So we went over there, saw the falls on that side and had a huge brownie sundae at Hard Rock Cafe. In the end we were in the US for about 2 hours or so.

We found a nice campsite called Jordan Valley Campsite which was amazingly pretty and the facilities were really good. There were not many people there so we choose a campsite close to the amenities. Unfortunately one group nearby was really loud so we decided to move to the far end of the campsite where we would be alone, though far from the toilets, etc. It ended up being the best night's sleep we had when camping.

Tuesday was our last day so we drove back (through more traffic) and returned the car. There was one problem with the car besides the mouse. The front left tire had a screw in it, but it didn't lose any air so the emergency assistance people told us to just keep driving it. I don't know if we ran over the screw or if it was already there, as it looked worn down and Victoria spotted it on the first day of the rental. In the end it didn't cause us any trouble but they made us fill out an incident report form, and seemed to be implying that they might want us to pay for it, which seems ridiculous. We spent most of the rest of the day going to the airport and waiting around, playing yahtzee (which along with poker and rummy kept us entertained throughout the trip) until we could check in to our 9pm flight. The flight was pretty uneventful, though it showed the movie Blades of Glory which I thought was hilarious. I had to keep from laughing too much and waking everyone up around me.

I slept a couple hours on the plane, which is unusual for me. Then we had the long trek back to Sheffield, barely missing the direct train by 3 minutes, meaning we had a more difficult way back, and had to change trains in Manchester. Of course the weather on arrival was cool with a light rain, typical of Sheffield. Can't say I missed the weather. We took a nap and hopefully I won't be too crazy with my sleep tonight as I am going to work tomorrow.

During the trip we had a bit of berry-mania going on, as there seemed to be fresh berries everywhere. Strawberries and raspberries were the most popular, but we also found blueberries for sale as well. It seemed throughout the trip we were always finding some berries to snack on or have in a dessert.

Our last night camping was near a place called Jordan that is famous for its vineyards, but we also saw many other fruits there, including apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, and raspberries.

In other fruit related news, I saw a tomato about the size of my head at a fruit stand near Quebec.

Yesterday we rented bikes from a nearby shop with a discount for people at our hotel (they pay the 15% tax for us). We took them out for about 5 hours in total, and used the city's dedicated bikes lanes to go to Parc du Mont Royal, a park for the "mountain" in the middle of the city. It was mostly uphill on the way and gave us a good workout. At least coming back was easy. The mountain's trail was 6 km, and it must have been at least that to get there. We also wanted to go to another island that wasn't too far, but it turned out we had to cross a really high bridge that cars go on, and we didn't want to do that so we turned around.

Today we slept in late and went to the Biodome, a giant zoo/aquarium sort of place with four major habitats (tropics, temperate forest, maritime, and arctic). All of the environments but the first (tropical) can be found in Canada. The tropical area had capyberas, sloths, and caimons running around, along with lots of birds and little monkeys. Then there was the Laurentian forest region, with otters, lynxes, and beavers. The coastal/tidal region had starfish and lots of really big fish. The final region was the arctic with puffins and penguins. There was also a temporary exhibition on animal mating rituals, which was really interesting and interactive. It was quite a neat place, but horribly crowded today. Strangely all the food options, including a large cafeteria, were shut down except a tiny cafe which had a really long line as a result. We were even eating there after the main lunch rush, so I think that must have been a nightmare. I think the Biodome building was an old Olympic structure, as it was next to the Olympic track stadium, so they made good use of it after the Olympics.

Tomorrow we will take a bus to Toronto and then the next day rent a car to go to Niagara and the Great Lakes, hopefully for more camping if the weather is good.

One interesting thing we've noticed is that nobody can understand Victoria when she asks for water at a restaurant. The British say water with a much weaker beginning (more like Hwater, while I think North Americans say it more like WAater or something). In the end I have to translate for her, even in the areas where English is the primary language.

Last night was unfortunately terribly noisy. Our cabin was right next to a patio where people were supposed to be quiet starting at 10:30. We waited until midnight, but people were still talking loudly so we asked the front desk to ask them to move elsewhere if they wanted to stay up. People mostly left but then some came back an hour later, and we barely slept any. Around 4am a huge group of people had formed in the courtyard and started playing music and carrying on. It was really disrespectful to those who were sleeping, such as ourselves. We got to listen to lots of exciting stories about how people had drank so much they puked. Was not much fun as we were exhausted from an early start yesterday. I complained to the desk again and we finally were able to get some sleep, only to be woken up early in the morning by a huge thunderstorm which carried on for a few hours.

As a result we got the front desk to move us to a room in the basement. It doesn't have great ventilation so it may get a little hot, but at least it is quiet. And the hostel did our laundry for us last night, so at least that is good having clean clothes.

Most of the day we have just wandered around and tried to rest where we can. We did walk to Chinatown and the Quartier Latin (where many students are). We both feel a bit jet-lagged from the night, but the bedsheets apparently aren't ready for our new room, so it is making things tricky with taking an afternoon nap.

I did manage to time most of our journey on the way back. Here are rough timings:

Halifax-border with New Brunswick - 2 hours
across New Brunswick - 4-5 hours
New Brunswick northern border to Riviere du Loop - 1 hour
Riviere du Loop to Quebec City downtown - 2.5 hours

That makes the total time about 10 hours on the motorway/freeway. Of course, stopping and getting on smaller roads meant it actually took longer.

We've made it to Montreal, after our drive back across New Brunswick. We stayed one night at a motel near Woodstock because there were massive thunderstorms that evening, so we had to ditch the camping idea. Last night we stayed in a campsite about an hour from Quebec, which was in a small wooded area surrounded by farms. It was pretty nice, and slightly less crowded than the other campsites we had seen. All of the campsites were in general quite packed.

We're staying at Le Sous Bois, a hidden hostel right in the old city of Montreal. I say it is hidden because we had a hard time finding it. It shares a reception with the hotel in front of it, but there are no signs for the hostel at the hotel. Luckily we did find it in the end though by using the street number. The hostel seems alright, though it is very popular, and our room is right next to the courtyard where people tend to hang out. I hope it is not too noisy as a result. I'm using its free internet though, so that is a plus.

We've now finished the Nova Scotia leg of our journey, and begin to drive back to Quebec, which will be a bit boring. We have to get it back by Sunday morning at 11 to return the rental car.

Halifax was nice enough, though the lady we were staying with at the B&B was a bit of a talker. The Citadel in Halifax was similar to the one in Quebec, but more like a museum (the Quebec one was a working military base so lacked most of the pagentry). The Halifax one had a changing of the guard ceremony, bagpipers and fired a cannon at noon. The Citadel was incredibly well defended historically to stop the Americans from taking over the last British interests on the continent, especially after the War of 1812.

The Halifax Maritime Museum was also interesting, with exhibits on a huge explosion in Halifax that was the largest manmade explosion before the atomic bomb. Some 2,000 people were killed and half the town was levelled. A ship carrying explosives and fuel hit another large ship and caught on fire. Then it drifted right up to the dock where spectators gathered to watch it. All the spectators were killed instantly when it exploded, forming a mushroom cloud. The lesson is that if you see something large on fire, get away from it, don't watch it. The museum also had information about the Titanic, as the ships that were sent to recover the dead were all from Halifax, the nearest port.

We also drove to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg, which were nice little towns on the waterfront, but the weather was rainy and foggy, so we did not enjoy them as much as we could've. We spent a couple days up in Cape Breton, about 4-5 hours north of Halifax. We went on a scenic drive called the Cabot Trail, which goes around the cliffs that are next to the sea. On both of the hikes we took we saw some moose, including two baby moose. At the end of the longer hike you could see whales down in the ocean, even though we were really high up. With my camera's zoom I managed to get a decent picture of a whale, which I'll put up here later. It was really neat seeing the whales, as there must have been over 30. There were whale watching boats down below right next to them, only meters away. If we had more time, I would've been interested in doing that too. Perhaps instead of driving, we should've flown from Quebec to get more days in Nova Scotia. I would've liked to spent more time on Cape Breton Island, and possibly the west part of Nova Scotia too.

Last night we drove back towards the airport, staying at Dolan's Inns in Pictou, which was a tiny waterfront town with a good atmosphere but an ugly factory across the harbor. Now that we've dropped off my parents we're going to start the long drive back.

We have made the long drive from Quebec City to Halifax. Now we're at Halifax airport waiting for my parents to show up. Their flight seems to have been delayed about an hour unfortunately. Well, at least we found an internet cafe where we can use the internet as much as we want if we order a beverage.

Our last day in Quebec we drove to a pretty island called I'le de Orleans, which is just to the north of the city. We drove around the island, made some friends at a petting zoo, picked a big thing of strawberries, and visited a cidery. It was a nice trip. At the end of that afternoon we went to the Basilica de Sainte Anne, a large pilgrimage place for Catholics with problems walking. Apparently the church started there with someone whose foot was healed, so now many people come there in wheelchairs and crutches. We did see a lot of people, and I hope that their leg/feet situation improves as a result, even if I am personally doubtful. The worst part about the basilica was that it was hard to find a parking space. It has become a bit of a tourist trap, with a huge 360 degree cyclorama painting of Jerusalem on the day Jesus was crucified. There were lots of gift shops and a museum too. At least visiting the church was free, unlike many in Quebec City we saw.

Our first day of driving was Thursday, and we mostly just drove. It took forever to leave Quebec province. We ended up behind schedule when the major highway stopped moving because of something like construction. Eventually we made our own detour through some small towns and local roads, but I don't know how much time it actually saved us. At least we kept moving. They are making the Transcanada highway two lanes in each direction in that part, so there was a lot of construction on the roads. We stopped at a motel in Fredericton.

Yesterday we only had to drive a couple hours, then we were at the Fundy National Park. We stayed in a campsite there, and it was really nice. The Bay of Fundy has the most dramatic tide in the world, or so it claims. There was a massive difference between low and high tides. I'll try to put up some pictures after the trip, but it was at least a 1/2 mile of beach that was exposed at low tide. The only downside was that our tentsite was rocky, and not that comfortable since we didn't bring pads to sleep on. There were some grassy sites but we didn't get one and we didn't ask to change (we should have!). We did some simple hikes and went into the nearby town of Alma some for food. It was a nice visit to the park, and with better padding it would've been perfect.

Today has mostly been driving (4-5 hours), and waiting at the airport now. Then we'll head to Halifax to spend the next few days, before moving to Cape Breton in the north of Nova Scotia.

We are now in Quebec City, after our long but not too painful trip on a bus and train from Toronto. The train was really plush and nice, and was the best part.

We are staying at a lovely B&B which is amazing and the breakfast is really delicious. Quebec is nice and relaxing, and has a European sort of feel to it. Tomorrow we are renting a car for one day and driving to Ile de Orleans, which is about 10km north of Quebec City. Thursday we will rent another car and drive east to eventually meet my parents in Halifax. It should be a lot of fun seeing more of the country. Not sure how much I'll be able to get online though. Rest assured we are still having a great, relaxing time.

Today we went to the Toronto Islands, which were great. We took a short ferry ride across part of Lake Ontario to get there. On the islands, private cars are not allowed, so we rented bikes and biked from one end to the other. I think it is about 5km in length. There is a disc golf course, children's amusement park, hedge maze, and some nice beaches. There is also a small airport there, so we got to see some planes taking off and landing. There was a small community of houses on the island, and they looked like a cozy place to live. It is probably not so nice in the winter though.

The only difficulty we've been having in Canada is that most cash machines are not accepting our bank card. We have managed to find one or two that will take it, but it has been frustrating, as none of the ones at the airport would give us money. Luckily Victoria had some already and I changed some pounds to dollars.

Walked about 5 miles through Chinatown and Bloor Street (north downtown) today. Went to the Bata Shoe Museum, where I have never seen such an interesting and varied display of footwear. My favorite were the tiger shaped shoes for Chinese babies to wear as a sign of fortune.

We're now safely in Canada. Still feeling a bit jet-lagged on our third day. Yesterday we went to the CN Tower really early, and beat the crowds. It was a bit hazy, but generally we could see ok. As it turns out, today is completely cloudy and rainy, with tomorrow predicted to be cloudy too, so it is a good thing we went yesterday.

The hostel we are staying at is nice, but the air conditioning does not work so great, which has left us a bit hot at night. On Saturday we head up to Quebec in a marathon journey on bus and train (about 10 hours). Not looking forward to it too much, but hopefully should be ok. I wish I could buy the Harry Potter book to read on the journey, but I don't think the stores will be open in time, and I am not anxious to go to the stores at midnight on Thursday with the long lines. I will get to read it later I guess.

Anyway, better get ready as we are going to the Bata Shoe Museum today.

We went to the south of England for a wedding yesterday. It was in the middle of the countryside, with the nearest large cities being Eastbourne and Hastings. Our journey started at 7am when our train left from Sheffield. When we arrived in London, we got a bit annoyed because we had to cross London on the Underground (it turns out the ticket covered that part of the journey, but we didn't know and paid extra). The annoying part was that the one line that went directly from St. Pancras station (north London) to Victoria station in the south (the Victoria line) was completely shut all weekend for maintenance work. Our connecting train from Victoria station was based on the assumption we could get there using this tube line. We ended up taking two different tube lines to get to the same place, which resulted in 11 tube stops (including one transfer) instead of 5 stops with no transfers. We missed out train but this turned out okay as we could take any train we wanted and were planning on being there early. It also gave us time to get some lunch at the station.

We arrived at Polegate station, which was the closest one to the wedding. Victoria got the name of a cab company for the next morning's departure as the hourly bus from Polegate to the wedding apparently doesn't operate on Sundays. We met up with two other wedding goers that Victoria knew while waiting for this bus to the wedding. The bus driver dropped us off in the town of Boreham Street, unfortunately at the wrong end of it, which meant walking back over a mile with all of our stuff in tow. We did eventually find the bride's family's house, which was where the wedding was.

The wedding involved a procession from the town hall to the bride's family's house. We had a little 5-piece band leading us in the procession, and we clogged up the only highway so I think we may have pissed off some cars. It was about a 5-10 minutes walk on the highway.

The ceremony was outdoors, in the back yard of the bride's family's house. It was a nice ceremony, led by a minister whose style seemed quite liberal, and reminded me of what a Unitarian Universalist minister might do. I do not know what faith she was, but the ceremony was not distinctly religious. They had been legally married at the town hall that morning, but I think only family were invited to that part. Luckily the weather was cooperating and it was pretty sunny. We even got a little sunburnt as rain had been forecast so we were not prepared.

After some time hanging out in the sun, we had a procession back to the
village hall, where the reception was. The wedding atmosphere was very relaxed and nice. We had a great time. There were speeches by a bridesmaid, the groom, and the best man. They were all hilarious, and everyone was practically rolling on the floors. After dinner there was barn dancing, which was very fun. Unfortunately Victoria had a headache and couldn't dance very much. We ended up going back to the tent and falling asleep a bit early as we were exhausted from getting up at 6.

This morning we were woken up at 5am by a huge thunderstorm that hovered above us for an hour, making a racket. We ended up taking refuge in a potting shed and then the main house (when we realized it was unlocked) because the lightening was very close and we were on a large ridge, fairly exposed. Victoria arranged taxis for all of the people who were camping, which turned out to be cheaper than the bus when split between us. It was also much faster.

We took an earlier train to London to make sure we had plenty of time to cross London. One girl, Lucy, who was going up north on the train like us suggested that we take a cross-London train instead of the tube since we knew it was still broken. This worked well and saved us a lot of time and hassle. However, we ended up at St. Pancras station over an hour early as a result of leaving early. It did give us time to get some food for the journey though. When we got on the train, it was a bit annoying as they had not put out the seating reservations, so everyone was sitting in the reserved seats. We did manage to get our seats though. Just when everything was going so smoothly on the way back, we had a bit of disaster. There was a delay at the first station, as they said there was an obstacle on the track just in front of the station. I guessed that this was someone who jumped in front of a train, and I found out I was right later. They had to clean up the mess and get the police in, so they said this would cause a delay for at least an hour. It did take exactly one hour, which was of course quite boring for everyone on the train. Everyone made a run on the food as we didn't know how long it would be. The on-train catering services were completely sold out by the end. Eventually the train did go and we passed by the police and a covered up body. This is actually the second time it has happened to me on exactly the same route, near the same station. Seems to be a popular place to commit suicide or something.

Conveniently, the train managed to make up 30 minutes of the lost time which meant we were not home too late. I've got work tomorrow, but Victoria gets the day off. She can take care of last minute business before we leave on Tuesday for Canada.

Tomorrow morning we are going down to the south of England for Will and Alex's wedding. We will be camping in their front yard tomorrow night as the wedding is in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately it just started raining a ton, so it may be a wet night tomorrow too.

Victoria was bored one evening and decided to dress me up in a makeshift toga, complete with "sword" and "shield". It was surprisingly fun being a roman citizen.

This is a picture of my first attempt at homemade pizza. Unfortunately it didn't come out too well, as the crust wasn't baked fully. In my more recent attempts I've pre-baked the crust which seemed to help make it more like real pizza.

Here's a nice self-portrait that Victoria took as well.

Just found some photos of Paris that Victoria took on her camera, which I thought came out particularly well. You may recognize Notre Dame in the background of the first two.

We leave for Canada on Tuesday for a long 4-week holiday.

By the way, things have mostly returned to normal after the floods. Most of the villages have had their water pumped out, and the restoration work has begun. The biggest way it has affected us is that the train to Victoria's new school is still not running. Apparently there was damage to the track and the signalling equipment which they say will take at least 12 weeks to fix. Hopefully it will be done as soon as possible so Victoria does not have to keep getting rides from co-workers.

We're going to a wedding in the south of England this weekend. I'm hoping this continuous rain we have been having for about 3-4 weeks will finally stop, at least for Saturday night when we have to sleep in a tent!

Not too much has been happening recently. Mostly we have been preparing for the trip to Canada next week. It will be great having a whole month off to relax and travel.

I had my yearly appraisal at work on Friday, and it seems like they are pretty happy with what I am doing. I have some stuff to work on for next year, as one always does.

Also, here is another photo from Victoria's Ball that I thought you might enjoy. It was taken by her friend Charlie:

Terrorists strike again. It seems terrorist cells have decided to become active again, possibly because Gordon Brown has just taken over as prime minister since Tony Blair has retired. Yesterday there were two car bombs found in downtown London. Luckily they were both detected and defused without any casualties. Today a jeep was set on fire and two guys tried to crash it into Glasgow airport. The jeep did not explode though, and that attempt failed as well. Still, it is a bit worrying.

The effects of the flood continue to be felt throughout the city. In the city center, most of the flood waters have dropped. But some outlying villages in South Yorkshire are having problems with dams overflowing, and have had to be evacuated.

Transportation is still spotty, with Victoria being unable to take the train to work since Monday (when she couldnt' get home by train, and the train hit a tree on the way to work). On Tuesday she took the tram and then someone picked her up, but they couldn't make it all the way to work, and then the headmaster canceled school eventually as many people couldn't make it, so she had to come home anyway. Yesterday she was getting a ride with the same person, who had a massive asthma attack while driving. So they had to pull over and phone an ambulance. That meant she spent a long time at the hospital before going to work. And today the trains are down again, so she has just given up as she doesn't have a ride now.

One of my co-workers is unable to get into work as there is no bus or train service from his town to Sheffield because of the flood. Another effect is on electricity. Apparently electricity is overtaxed because some power stations blew up in the flood. So now they are having rolling blackouts in the city. The city center will not be affected I don't think because of businesses, but many suburbs will be. Our collegiate campus is currently without power until noon today.

They said we had the equivalent of 6 weeks of rainfall in one day, which is quite amazing really. Unfortunately the forecast for this weekend is heavy rain, which is not what we need right now. I'm afraid the situation may just get worse if there is a lot of rain.

You might be curious to see some photos of where my co-worker Helen lives. She is close to the river and when it burst its banks, the building her flat is in had the ground floor flooded. She's on the top floor, so she didn't have any problem though.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8310321@N06/sets/72157600486648583/

Victoria is now a qualified teacher, having completed her course on Friday. This is great news, and she also has a job lined up for next year.

On Friday there was an end of year ball for all the trainee teachers. We got dressed up and went to the Royal Victoria Hotel, which is owned by Holiday Inn now. It has a long history, including being a train station for awhile. It was very nice on the inside, and the food was good. The "swing" band turned out to be a slow jazz band instead though which was not easy to dance to. Altogether I think everyone had fun though and it was nice to see everyone dressed up.

The photo is copyright of Mary Ormandy, Victoria's friend, who has graciously allowed me to use it. I did not bring my own camera, which turned out to be a good thing, as it seemed like someone searched the pockets of my jacket and took out all the contents during the ball. Nothing was in them luckily, but it pissed me off to say the least.

This image, courtesy of Sheffield City Council, shows one of the busiest roads in and out of Sheffield at the moment. Could be fun to swim in I guess.

Victoria said her train this morning ran over a small tree and nearly derailed. Now the trains aren't even running at all, so a co-worker is trying to get her back home. I imagine with the heavy traffic and lots of flooded roads, this may take a little while. A lot of the buses are canceled as well.

We're now having an even worse rain storm than last week. It's just dumping gallons of rain at a time. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6236348.stm

Luckily our flat does not seem to be having problems yet, but there is a huge amount of rain falling. I think the article says that we may get a month's worth of rain in about a day.

Thought you might be curious as to what some of the test questions were like, so I've got some of my test questions for you to try.

This is the one I missed on my test:
Signals are normally given by direction indicators and:
a) brake lights
b) side lights
c) fog lights
d) interior lights

Not particularly tough:
Which of the following should you NOT do at the scene of an accident?
a) Warn other traffic by switching on your hazard warning lights
b) Call the emergency services immediately
c) Offer someone a cigarette to calm them down
d) Ask drivers to switch off their engines

My personal favorite:
You are following a learner driver who stalls at a junction. You should:
a) be patient as you expect them to make mistakes
b) stay very close behind and flash your headlights
c) start to rev your engine if they take too long to restart
d) immediately steer around them and drive on

I'll post the answers as a comment, including why I missed the first one.

Mission Accomplished! Today I passed the first part of the driving test in England. It was the written theory test, and the hazard perception. The theory test was not too bad as I had read the entire book of questions beforehand. I did miss one though, as the terminology sometimes throws me for a loop. The theory test is 35 multiple choice questions, and you have to score 30 to pass.

The second part was also on the computer, and it is a series of 15 1-minute video clips from the driver's perspective in a car. You are supposed to click every time you see a hazard, but you are really scored by how quickly you first notice the one hazard in the clip that turns into something serious which requires you to brake or steer. You are judged by how quickly you notice it. If you click early it is 5 points, then goes down to 0 if you miss it. The pass mark is 44 of 75. I got a 64, which I thought was really good. I got about half 5s, and only a few 3s, with nothing below that. The hardest part about it is that the video quality is pretty low. So sometimes you are supposed to notice a turn signal on a car, but you can barely see that there is one. In real life, you don't normally have that problem, so I didn't think it was a good simulation. I was more worried about this part of the test because there was only one practice test you could take for it. I took practice theory tests about 20 times, so I felt confident I could pass as I passed all the practice ones. If you fail one part, you must take the whole test again (and pay another 21 pounds). I've already paid 38 pounds for my learner permit (which you can get without taking any tests), and I will have to pay more for a go at the practical test sometime.

I can take the practical test anytime in the next two years. I hope to go down to Victoria's parents' place to practice one weekend then do it on a Monday or something. I don't really want to buy a car now, but I would like to be able to rent one sometime, especially at times when train prices can be astronomical.

It turned out it was the Gatecrasher One club, which was perhaps the most famous in Sheffield. I've never been there though, as generally techno/club music drives me insane. We have to listen to enough of it as it is since our upstairs neighbor likes to listen to it.

Read the full news story at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6765331.stm

Sheffield is now covered in a thick layer of smoke. There's a large building not far from where I work which is gushing out smoke. I walked down the road to look at it, and the roof had caved in. The firetrucks were just dumping water on it, as I guess there was no one in it. I couldn't tell what building it was, but some people theorized it was a famous club, Gatecrasher One, which is in that area. I suppose I'll find out later what building it was. It was probably an abandoned building that someone couldn't rent.

I wish I had my camera with me, as it was a pretty impressive sight. Most of the smoke has been blown uphill into the downtown of the city, so Victoria said it was very smoky walking back from Starbucks where she was meeting her friends.

Rain, rain, and more rain. That's been the weather the last few days. There's even flooding in some parts of South Yorkshire (the county where Sheffield is). We're not at too much risk of flooding though as we are on the side of a high hill, and on the third story of the building.

At work (completely unrelated to the rain), we are on our third day of no network. Something happened with the Novell network, and we've been unable to access the network drive where most of our work is stored. This has at least given me the chance to work on some things that I had been putting off, but is quite annoying at the same time.

That does conclude the Paris trip pictures, though I would like to wish my ex-co-worker John and his family a great trip to Paris, as they have just headed there now (after much difficulty getting a plane to fly them there). Our next trip we have booked is four weeks in Canada starting mid-July.

We started out Monday in Montparnasse, where we visited the cemetary. Some famous people like Sartre are buried there. Montparnasse is also famous for this ugly tower that is one of the tallest buildings in Paris. We did not go up it, but apparently the line is not as bad as the Eiffel Tower. It seemed expensive too though.

We didn't eat here, but it was strange seeing the city we lived in turned into a Japanese restaurant. Their slogan has the ring of an invitation to Godzilla though. There were tons of Japanese restaurants throughout Paris though, which really surprised me. We did eat at one early in the trip, though the waiting staff were obviously not Japanese as they were extremely rude, and did not understand us when we spoke to them in Japanese.

On the walk back into the center of Paris, we passed by the Palais du Luxembourg again, but did see a different part of the gardens this time.

We also swung by the backside of Notre Dame, after visiting the Latin Quarter first. There we found a really neat bar where we sat for a couple hours, which was much better than the touristy places right in the center of the Latin Quarter where a coffee cost about 10 euros (15 dollars) and a Coke even more.

Our last stop of the day was Bastille. You might expect there to be a prison here or something, but sadly all that is left is a big column. There are similar big columns for the Nation and the Republic. Nissim said protests often march between two of the three columns (or all three).

The last day of the trip was Tuesday, and we spent the morning shopping then went to the station in the afternoon for the long trip back. It was thankfully uneventful on the way back.

After walking for awhile, we stopped in the Palais du Luxembourg gardens to sit in the sun.

Many other people had had the same idea as us though.

Next we went to Notre Dame, where we met up with Nissim. It was extremely crowded there, so we did not go in. Instead, we headed towards the Latin Quarter. No, it's no full of Spaniards. Apparently it refers to when students used to live there and spoke Latin.

The Latin Quarter is some of the only remaining old neighborhoods in Paris. The rest were mostly torn down to make way for the sweeping boulevards that Paris is famous for. You can see an old city wall in the middle of this photo.

The Louvre.

We headed towards it through the dustiest gardens ever (behind Victoria)

We stopped off for hot chocolate at Angelina's, a cafe/lunch place next to the gardens which is apparently quite famous. The hot chocolate was the thickest I have ever had.

We saw how long the Louvre was....

We saw the pyramid entrance....

And finally we saw the queue and recognizing our own lack of desire to enter, we moved on.

Paris continued:

Sunday morning we went to the area around the Louvre, which I think is called Tuilleries. You can see the arch de triumph in the distance.

I had some good news finally on the financial front. Barclay's bank has approved me for a debit card and checkbook. I got tired of waiting with Nationwide, who basically said I needed to be a citizen to get a debit card. This will help with my building a credit history for the future.

My parents have gone off to visit the baby in Japan now, but I still have a lot of work to do before Victoria's and my vacation. This year we are going to Canada for four weeks, so that should be great. Victoria deserves a break after all her work this year. Apparently the first year of full time teaching is also a lot of work though.

I'm thinking about starting a distance learning master's in e-learning at Edinburgh. I have to figure out if I count as a foreign student or not. It will affect the cost a lot potentially.

At work I've been busy creating a web 2.0 treasure hunt, which will serve as a staff development event to encourage our staff members to find out more about new things like blogs, wikis, and youtube. Hopefully it will be interesting and a bit fun.

Yay! I have a nephew now. He was born today early morning in Japan. His name is Ray and he is a large one, at 9 pounds and 11 ounces. He has deep blue eyes, and is cute as a button.

The end of our walk took us to Paris Town Hall, pictured here.

After the park, we followed some canals back to the center of Paris.


It was a nice walk, and there was a large arty district near there. There were also lots of homeless people leaving by the canal in a tent community. Apparently there was a project the year before to give tents to the homeless to help raise awareness. I'm sure the tents provide a good basic shelter too.

Here's Sarah and Nissim in the park.

Victoria and I went camera happy in the park, as it was such a nice day.

Those dots on the hillside reflect how many other people had the same idea as us, probably because of the nice weather. Sarah and Nissim said you can't sit on the grass in many of the parks, so this park is especially popular as you can.