The wait continues but the end is in sight!

So I'll cut to the chase and continue on from where we left off last time. Sandra was granted her visa yesterday morning so things have finally been settled and she will be making her way to the glorious promised land that is Canada shortly! There are no solid dates yet but we're hoping for around April 1st. So that's all very exciting and more than likely I will be holding off on any extensive exploration until then.

Work has kicked into a steady flow of work now and the days are passing by well. I'm really enjoying the work that I am doing and the project that I am working on so all is going as well as I could hope for really! There was a departure in the office on Thursday and so we all went out to say our goodbyes. Unfortunately a few of us stayed out a little later than the rest and were paying our dues on Friday. The news from Sandra cleared up my hangover for at least a couple of hours though.

I finally made the plunge and bought myself a mattress for my bed. I didn't think I was missing it that much but even the cheap mattress I got has made a significant difference to the standard of my sleeping comfort. We were out at another local hockey game today but unfortunately we lost this time, still it's good to get out with the office crew over the weekend and just wind down.

Back again!!

Don't worry, I'm still eating! (Ignore the salad dressing wrapper corner, it was removed before consumption (Also, this was delicious!))

So what's been going on for the last 2+ weeks? Well I've had some good weekends between poker in work-colleague houses, going out with Liam the housemate, heading to pool (snooker) parties from work and making my way for a one-night-only man-party 3 hours out of town. I've been kept on my toes anyway and being out with people from the office each weekend has made the transition into a new office much easier.

Work has been slow to get into drive but we're finally at a stage now where things are moving ahead, how much of an affect this delay will have is yet to be seen but hopefully it will be minor. Apart from the slow start everything with work has been great; the people, the location, can't complain.


What's in the box?!

Last weekend we took a trip to watch the local hockey team (The Mooseheads) who have a tendancy to lose but ended up winning the game 2-1 in the dying minutes. Not only this but unknown to use there was a charity drive that day for the local children's hospital. Two minutes into the game the Mooseheads scored a goal and a deluge of stuffed toys rained down over our heads and onto the ice (us being seated in the 3rd row). They're then collected and donated to the charity. Also present in the game were two team-sized brawls; no doubt also for the kids.

Most important of all however is the technological advancements the last two weeks has seen. After searching for a while on Kijiji for a cheap Xbox 360 Liam and I managed to find one for $100 and split it so I finally had something to do after work. Then after my first pay check it was time for the mandatory 1st paycheck spend and it was never going to be anything but a PC. Unfortunately there were a number of complications with credits cards until finally someone in work took the bill for me and I paid him back.

Well it arrived last Thursday after a slight delay due to shipping address complications but it was up and running within a couple of hours. It's like Lego for adults and just as much fun. I still don't have a bed but that hardly matters.


Bits and pieces.


Bits inside pieces. (The benefit of a cheap build is that it's a tidy build)


The final product including stupidly over-sized mouse-mat.

The best news of all for the past while is that while Sandra was home in Sweden last week she has been able to get a new passport and all of the police certificates that she needs to put in her Visa application. We're hoping that by the end of March she'll finally be able to make her way over her and hopefully we can explore this country a little more throughly together.

There are some plans about what to see and that but I haven't really got anything concrete in mind, but I'm sure it will come together in time. In the meantime, I'll push the blogs out to bi-weekly updates (next update on the 17th!). Weather wise, we're due for 15inches of snow over the night and it's been pretty consistent so far so it should be a very snowy day tomorrow. There are some bitterly cold days, but nothing that can't be countered with a few more layers, a hat and some gloves.