As you can see, winter has arrived up north! The snow fell heavily last night, leaving a fair coating on my car that had to be brushed off before I could head off for work. Then it snowed all day and I was left with an even thicker coating to brush/scrape off before I could head home. Fortunately I got my winter tyres put on last week, so I could handle the slippery roads. What the hell happened to summer?
A quick check shows that my last blog was celebrating an upturn in the temperatures. It’s been a full season since I last blogged! In fact it’s been almost seven months. So what have I been doing if I haven't been blogging? Well, here's a quick whistle-stop tour through some of the highlights of my last six months:
(Again, I can't get these pictures to come out bigger on this thing so most of them aren't big enough to fully appreciate the finer details. Just click on them and they will open up full size.)
The Battery
Before the snow arrived, I resumed my house-sitting career in a old, quaint, inconvenient neighbourhood of St. John's called the Battery (after the guns they had there to protect the harbour mouth). Tina and I were looking after a friend’s dogs. They ate a lot and shat in the house. Nice.
Halloween
Prior to the shitting incident, we had another Halloween party at my house. I went as the Marlboro Man, complete with a genuine tracheotomy pipe (not fully installed) that I got from a friends mother who works in a mercy home. Tina went as a 1950s divorcee, after serious wig issues put an end to the Betty Paige idea. That's my new housemate playing the devil opposite the angel on Minnie's shoulders.
The Glorious Victory
Of course, the build up to Halloween included New Zealand's recurring nightmare, the Rugby World Cup. Amazingly I found a pub in Kentville, Nova Scotia that was showing the Rugby World Cup final (the second strangest place I have watched a World Cup final, behind sitting atop a tumbledrier in a laundromat in Swakopmund for the 2002 Soccer World Cup final). I received a cheer as I entered the pub in my Springbok top and delivered a great cheer when the Bokke walked away with the crown!
Nova Scotia
Following a week's work, I had got to Kentville by way of a brief roadtrip around Nova Scotia in the Chevy Cobalt (crap) I had rented. Incredible Fall/Autumn colours, pumpkins bright and orange ready for Halloween and harbours built incredible distances from the sea (Bay of Fundy).
Halifax
The week before I went to Halifax again to consult with some fisheries modelling experts at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. I flew (well Air Canada did) Tina up for the first weekend and we took in some of the nicer parts, and less nice parts, of Hailfax. There was a street I had passed a few times before that I thought was called "Buddy Dave St" so we went there for a photo opportunity. It was a seedy neighbourhood (downright dodgy by Canadian standards). As I realised that it was in fact called "Buddy Daye St" one of the locals saw us taking photos and shouted: "So you like this neighbourhood, hey!?" I said: "Yes, it’s fantastic", to which he replied "You should see it at night!" and then he sat in his car and watched us. We quickly made our exit. The next morning I woke up to the radio saying that a 28yr old nursing student had been stabbed to death the previous night on, you guessed it, Buddy Daye St.
Bonavistas
Newfoundland is actually a very scenic place and we took in many of its great vistas (including Bonavista, the alleged landing site of John Cabot, nee Giovanni Cabotto - which personally I felt was the least bona vista). Traveling through the small outports of Newfoundland is like going 50 years back in time, its quite an experience actually. And of course it was great to see the folks again.
"Wildlife"
Despite the plethora of warnings signs we had to travel a thousand kilometers before we finally saw a live moose in Gros Morne National Park. It was a cracker siting, we could hear him chew. We also strolled undeterred through bear infested territories and participated in the less risky pastime of wild berry picking.
NL roadtrip
We paid no heed to the warnings of killer meese and demented lorries and set out on a cross-island tour of Newfoundland.
The Rock
As the World Cup was starting the folks came out to visit me on the Rock (Newfoundland). I arrived home to a stranger in my house. Apparently, we had got a new housemate (After Ali, my Iranian housemate had left), Graig, in my absence. The folks and I spent some time around St. John’s, put our toes in the frigid Atlantic and cruised to Puffin islands and through ancient Fjords. Mom basked in the cool Newfoundland sun while Dad put on his best Sea Dog impression.
Liberated Steve
Before we headed off to the more remote land of Newfoundland, Steve departed for the tamer shores of Liberia. We saw him off from Bristol Bus Station. It was sad seeing him go, and a bit uneasy not knowing what he had to expect in deepest, darkest Africa, but he has settled well and is living the good life traveling muddy roads from Monrovia to Bong county.
Bristol
We had a good relaxing time in Bristol, besides Chris putting me to work paving sections of the garden. Most of the time was spent doting over the latest Miller.
Hereford
Not that we really needed to do much relaxing in Bristol - we had just come form the green fields of (fortunately dried out) countryside Hereford, which was a real change of pace after the bright lights of London. Annabel had geared up for the big tournament ahead, I took my shoes a-walking through winding country lanes and Oom Faan (Steve) played with Anna and met up with an old cycling buddy of his.
White Hart
Before going cross country to Bristol and Hereford I had spent some time in London. Shmeim, Dave and myself also got to see a live Premiership game at the Lane, home of Spurs, the team I have supported since I was 10. We lost. And it seems to have become a habit this season.
London
But there are plenty of other things to do in London beside watching your favourite sports team lose (although the English do a lot of that). I took in the finest that the London West End had to offer (Monty Python's Spamalot) with Steve, Amy and her mother, had a beer or two, and got to see some friends I hadn't seen in a long time. Happy Days.
London Cousins
And the muddy isles actually did provide some sunshine, enough for the local cousins, Steve and Amy (his American girlfriend) and I to laze in the park in good English style (so warm in fact, that Grant's face seems to have melted during this photograph).
London Calling
Ahead of the Newfoundland trip, London called and I answered. Spring in Newfoundland hadn't offered me much in the way of sunshine and I was hoping England would gladly provide it (I've been away from South Africa too long!).
Regatta
I had spent almost the whole year in Newfoundland before the UK trip, but it has been an eventful year and I can really say that I have settled pretty well here. St. John's has a lot to offer, including the St. John's Regatta on Qidi Vidi lake - the oldest continually running annual sporting event in North America. Tina and I took in the 147th version of this race. I also found time to pop into the hospital for another night. It was the same problem as before but fortunately this time they kept their scalpels to themselves and I left the next morning unscathed and in fine fettle.
Lantern Festival
Before that we had gone to the Victoria park lantern festival. There were more bright colours than I was able to capture on my camera, really impressive to see first hand.
Boris Shoes
If you're going to be going places, you'll need to have good shoes. So I bought the coolest pair of shoes ever. Boris, Tina's cat who has a bit of a shoe fetish, has taken a fond liking to them as well.
NAFO
But all play and no work would make Dave an unemployed man. So in order to earn a good month and a bit off work I had to put the nose to the grindstone for a while in June. This culminated in a two week trip to Halifax where I presented some work at the NAFO scientific council meeting. This went very well in that we decided a meeting in Spain next year would be necessary to take my work forward. The NAFO SC meeting was actually held in Dartmouth, the Bellville of Halifax. Although Halifax has the benefit of having a large bay separating it from its Bellville, so I had some nice relaxing ferry rides across the bay everyday. We also got taken on a tour of the local Keith's brewery. When asked what he thought the hops smelled like, one of the German representatives stunned everybody to silence by replying: "Wild women."
Kayaking
On the one day off I got to do some sea kayaking with a couple Newfoundlanders, a mainlander, a Dane and a Spaniard. Note the South African is the only one hard enough to go kayaking in Canada barefoot (before you start making jokes about my hobbit feet, they actually didn't have a kayak long enough for me to fit in comfortably with my shoes on, but it was a warm sunny day anyway so I didn't care).
St. John's
Before that I had a Baconator, because the sign told me that my mouth wanted one. With two big patties, plenty of cheese and six slices of bacon (no room for any veggies), it is officially the least healthy and therefore tastiest burger around. I like Wendy's. I also, of course, like Tina, my girlfriend who hates photographs and hence the photo of the back of her head on the puffin/whale-watching boat. I met Tina downtown around the beginning of May and its been a good six months now that we've been going out. Before that I had the less pleasant experience of presenting a paper at the 32nd annual Fish Larvae Conference, hosted in St. John's this year. I have never cocked up a presentation more horribly and I'm glad I no longer work in the field of larval ecology. The only good thing of that conference was a tour of the Ocean Science Centre and its many fish.
New office
Before I hung my head in shame in front of bored larval ecologists I moved to a new office with a bigger window. Unfortunately as you can see the majority of my view is an air-condtioning unit (or some other such thing). However, having any window at all is some indication that I must have a bit of clout around these parts already, as many others are stuck in their little cubicles in the nether regions of NAFC.
Fantasy Victory
Despite the title, this victory was indeed real. In late May I held off some strong challengers to take the third annual
Amadoda World Series Fantasy Football league. Featuring 20 teams (22 this year) from around 7 or 8 different countries, this is a tough league and this victory represents my greatest ever virtual victory. I am currently sitting in 10th in the 4th edition of this prestigious league.
Hospital
Despite the amount of energy that I displayed in my transoceanic travels, I was not in great condition in late May. I got admitted to hospital for a night to get put on a drip of anti-inflammatories and antibacterials after a periotonsil abscess swelled up large enough to make it difficult to eat, talk or even drink without excruciating pain. The nice doctor took a scalpel to the back of my throat to ease the pain. Ironic. I wrote a much longer blog entry about that hospital visit but in the end decided it was a bit gross, had too few pictures and was not as funny as I'd hoped so I never posted it (if there are enough requests I could throw it out there for public scrutiny). Anyway, I got a visit from Peter (my supervisor), a get well card from his daughter Ruth and a few finely minced meals.
Iceberg
After the ice floes that had come down (see "Spring in Newfoundland") but before my first ever stay in a hospital, I got to see my first ever iceberg. Iceberg season was impressive this year. There were many, many icebergs drifting down past Newfoundland this year (vs. none last year) and a few came right down to St. John's. I got to see this slightly phallic one up close (a LOT more impressive than it appears in this photo).
Car
And finally, full circle, before the icebergs rolled on down, I was rolling done the streets of St. John's in my new car (new to me, not the world). She's a 1994 Volvo 850 and I call her the Silver Swede. That's me turning my back on Metrobus for the last time. I've got my studded winter tyres on (fortunately just before the snow started to come down) and I'm really looking forward to doing some real winter driving in the Swede. It’s a slightly earlier version of the car Dad used to have; only he had it when it was still a modern luxury sedan. But it’s still got all those features and I'll get to use all the winter features that were merely novelties in South Africa. I have installed my dashboard Jesus ("enlightenment on a spring"), so i'm ready to go.
Well that's about it. Keep your eyes on "Milldaz of the North". In another six months or so there should be some more action.
