Cara and Shaun's Big Canadian Adventure: The P's do Canada!

Well the western bit anyway!

M&D came out in the summer for a spot of dog sitting with Nina, so they stayed in the house of Rik and Janneke, our friends who we rented the bungalow off when we first came to Canada. They stayed there for 2 weeks and then moved to our house when Mr R started the cherry harvest in July.

Now one of the major concerns was not being eaten by bears, bitten by rattlesnakes or black widows but way more serious.....would there be coverage of the 2010 World Cup from South Africa!!!?
If that was not tramua enough, Canada being the land of hockey and football of the American kind - M&D were flying into Calgary on the day of the opening match - England vs USA!!!!

Special channels were purchased cable which showed every match 3 , yes 3 times a day!! Shaun was super pleased about this ! :)

However we needed have worried about things - plane landed from the UK at 12:05pm, match kicked off at 12:30pm- parents in bar with luggage, beer and the match on the big screen by 12:25pm!!!

They stayed in Calgary one night - just to give M her fix of cowboys as the Calgary Stampede was starting in a week or so - and then headed on the Greyhound to Banff and Jasper. Amazing scenery, great hikes, hot springs - would have been slightly better had it not been raining cats and dogs in the 'worst rain for 10 years' accordingly to a local.

But they made it safely to the Okanagan and we had a great 6 weeks (yes, 6 weeks, bros!) - now there were many things I could recap but I will give you a few of the highlights....

Evening speedboat ride down the Lake for dinner at lakeside restaurant! Thanks to our friends Brian and Bonnie, Shaun arranged for us to be picked up off the dock near the house and then they whisked us down the lake for a great meal....with some donut riding in between!

Terrified..me?

Da Man!

Yours truly, embolded by the fact than Brian's 9 year daughter was managing this, jumped on the donut and proceeded to scream myself hoarse, the fingernail marks in the palms took a couple of days to fade! But things were getting better and the screams were more 'fun', less 'terror'....that was until Shaun took over the driving....what part of 'NO CORNERS!' is difficult to understand?????

They say revenge is a dish best served cold....my thoughts....why wait!? IF your husband who has just scared the bejezzus out of you (how much of hand Dad had in this is still under investigation, Mum is believed to be innocent), does decide to get on the donut immediately afterwards...then the words 'gift horse' and 'mouth' do come to mind....and what do you know, those decks are so slippy, it was just oops and overboard.... I blame the karma monkey... :)

Thomas & James get a little too serious

Watching England Vs Germany in Canada with some Germans! World Cup...Dad....2 Friends of German extraction....time for a party! Confident of England's impending victory we decided to have a World Cup party and in the interest of making things, well, more interesting we invited Bianca (parents are German and emigrated to Canada, speaks german, off to germany in a couple of weeks), James, their children and Thomas (German, emigrated to Canada, works with me in TCM) and his lovely wife Gill.

Mum! Help! I being eaten by a giant football cake!

Naturally when they arrived Mr R welcomed them with a medley of rousing party music i.e. Jerusalem, ride of the valkyires, Dambusters, Land of Hope and Glory....etc etc. Bianca up the anti by arriving fully facepainted up, children brainwashed into supporters of Germany, complete with themed chants (hat's off to Mrs S) AND a giant football cake.....

...so lets gloss over the match....oh hum....!

Surprise Flight in a Helicopter
Shaun pulled the rabbit out of the hat on this one! M&D and me were up at Grey Monk Winery having lunch with Karen and her husband George. Karen works at Grey Monk so we were able to get a great deal on the wine (which was gorgeous - Ehrenfeltser 2008, Kerner 2009 if you can get it!) and the restaurant is on a patio overlooking the lake so all fab!

Chocks Away!

Shaun phones and asks us to get back to the farm as M&D are needed for a photoshoot as they need somebody to pretend to be a cherry buyer....yes, writing it down it does seem somewhat bizarre but guillable is my middle name....although I prefer 'trusting'! We got to the farm and drove up through the orchard to the helipad, got out, Shaun introduced us to Ryland and explained he had got us a flight round the valley! V.excited....would have been slightly less nervous if Ryland hadn't looked about 18 but quick interrogation revealed that a) he had been flying helicopters for 10 years, and b) no, they don't let you start flying at 8 years old in Canada. Yay! So in we got!