Crunch Time

So I'm experiencing the first proper crunch time on our project. It was decreed today that the team is to work extra hours above our 7.5 day in order to meet Alpha, Beta and our Gold Master.
It's been a terrible schedule, with a huge scope and ups and downs all the way, I'm amazed we're in as good shape as we are.
Anyway, as a result I've not had time to update the blog with pictures of the house or anything.
I'll be working late for the next couple of weeks I reckon, but at least Kath might have time to get her new routine in order at the house.

Moving

We moved house on Saturday to the previously mentioned mansion :)

The lads turned up and we had a lot of help, so much so that we were unpacking by 3pm. Hayden helped out as much as he could and Remi saved him small items to take to the new house.

A familiar sight?
Anyone who remembers my March post will remember the big juggernaut that parked in the same spot and unloaded all our stuff from the UK.
Much more modest this time, cheap as chips U-Haul van (it's a play on words!), only $19 for the day. It took two trips plus vans and trucks of buddies.

Sunday saw us get most of the stuff sorted in the new home, but there's still a bit to do and set up. Eastlink, the cable and Broadband provider messed up and didn't come yesterday when they were supposed to, but they arrived today and we're back online. A busy week ahead at work, I had a day off to pack last week - last minute, wouldn't have got fully done otherwise, and so have to make up that time, as well as sort the house.

I'll get pictures of the new house once we've got it all tidy and set up with pictures and stuff.

Emotions

Granddad Russell left today, he flew to Toronto where's he's staying for a week before heading back to England. Hayden understood, and was gracious at saying goodbye at the airport.
But later tonight before bed, he threw a complete wobbly, Marilyn Manson style warbling, throwing himself on the floor - it was terrible. After he finally calmed down and we got him into bed, it became apparent that the realisation that he was not going to see Grandad for a long time had hit him hard.
He said 'I don't know why Grandad has to go back to England, he could stay in his home in Canada...' He said he was sad and then starting crying as he gave me a hug.
Bad times.
It was great to see Dad and have him here but it has not been an ideal time all round.
With Dad and Kath's parents here virtually 24/7 for the past 4 weeks Taryn has not settled well at all. She's not able to sleep for long and is quite demanding. The house and environment has just been way too hectic.
Hayden's up and about at 7:30, Kath's then rushing around getting breakfast for us whilst I get get ready for work. Dad's here and Hayden's singing loud and playing with him, come 9:00am Marg and Lee arrive and Hayden starts on the piano and then that's it a house full until 10pm, they're either going out, or packing, or shopping, and the whole day is hectic as hell.
I'm not part of it because I leave to go to work, but when I get back from work at 6 generally, the house is sometimes like a madhouse, Hayden charging about playing light sabres and mad rush to make dinner. People talking, chatting, 2 way conversations, misunderstandings. We've eaten out quite a bit also and then the nights have slipped away.

Now we're at the real pinnacle of the heightened emotions. Kath's not had much sleep since she was in her 7th month of pregnancy. With Taryn not settling, due to the hectic nature of the household since her birth, Kath's starting to get real tired and real snappy.
At the moment the house is choc full of boxes, stuff out everywhere, and now Marg and Lee are staying with us for their final week and have nicked our bed! :)

Taryn's just drank an entire bottle and been screaming for more. She's had so much handling during her short life that she requires body warmth and is far less independent than Hayden was. Therefore she is now on our small inflatable mattress with Kath. There's no room for me, so I sit here blogging. I'll probably sleep on the sofa - it makes sense, but that will probably be taken the wrong way and there'll be huge emotional uproar over it.

I had really hoped to have some extra time off work to at last see Dad, and the 4 weeks have just disappeared. All I've managed to do is get some drinks in at Dooly's a couple of times and have a meal. The weather has been rubbish and everything else has been shared time with everyone involved. There's been some very unfortunate things at work and on the project that has meant it was impossible for me to have even a day off. His stay has flown by, but it was also too long in some respects. With Marg and Lee here also, coinciding, it's really been difficult for us... nay impossible, to sort any routine and start Taryn off correctly. As a result both me and Kath are very strung out. We can't blame Taz, it was always going to be different with another baby and trying to balance Hayden but we had thought the Grandparents would offset a lot of the 'burden' with Hayden and he'd not be so bothered about us spending time on Taz, as he'd be distracted. But it hasn't really worked out that way, he's still needed us just as much and has not substituted the Grandparents for us.

We have Remembrance Day tomorrow, another public holiday, so that's great, but a shame Dad's now gone. At least we can get this packing done and try to return some calm to the household.
Oooh, there goes Hayden crying now... the two of them are like a tag team at the moment!
We need to move and get Hayden a nice room that's all his with his posters and toys in, and Taz into her own room with a cot so she can start getting used to being away from the body.
I might go sleep with the boy actually rather than down here on the sofa.

Roll on Saturday, wish I could have the rest of the week off - ha, the first time I've actually wanted AND needed time off work since I started... and I can't have it.

Next time we have visitors the scheduling must be worked out very carefully, well in advance.

Confederation Bridge

Our parents have been over to visit us and see Hayden and meet Taryn, but they've come all this way and its been pretty much the norm as far as a visit goes. They've not really had a holiday, so to speak.
I had my time off work for Taryn's birth, we get 5 days full pay, and due to the current schedule for my project amongst other issues there's no way I can have any time off at the moment.
During my Dad's first week here I was working 9, 10 and 11pm for three nights running.
But, such is the games industry, and especially when things are badly scheduled and budgeted and there's unforeseen things going on.
Anyway, In order to rectify this, Lee rented a big Christler Caravan 7 seater so we could all go sightseeing over the weekend. This is great for us, since I've not left the island... ever!
Yesterday they went out and saw Cavendish etc, places where I've been as I was at work, but today we took a long road trip to Moncton. This is across the Confederation Bridge.
I suppose I should give what little facts I know about this bridge here before you see some pictures, because it is one of the most amazing things. It's late and been a long day - so I'm not going to Google all the facts for your pleasure.. you can do that :)
What I will do is spur on your interest by telling you things form memory - some of which may be entirely wrong or overly exaggerated - you can go Google it further if you care.
So here goes....
The only way to get to Prince Edward Island was by ferry, up until about 10 years ago. This is when they opened the bridge.
The bridges stretches something like 12km across the sea to New Brunswick.
It took 3 years to build, I read something about it once, the size of the bits of concrete that was used was staggering. They had this big custom barge made in Holland or somewhere that travelled at 1 knot carrying these HUGE sections of road out over the ocean, and then lowered into place, onto big pillars.
It's REALLY cool.

This is the bridge, it is so tall. Apparently it has dips and hills, turns and bends, in order to keep drivers alert. Fear that a straight road would be too mundane and people would lose focus and drive off of the thing into the icy water below :(.

Possibly the first picture of both me and Kath together in months!

The weather was really cold today, but the sun was struggling to get through the clouds, making it some sort of wierd bright... overcast day.

But it did help to make this picture really moody :)

After we stopped and took a load of pictures from the base of the bridge, we continued our journey to Moncton and the long drive across the water.

The bridge costs $42.50 toll, to get off the island, although it's free to go the opposite way. It was much... thinner than I expected, just one lane. Kath was driving and got a bit freaked out when we climbed a hill in the middle of the bridge... LOL

And then we went on to Moncton - more about that in another post. It was great to get off the island, and I hope that the parents felt more on holiday having this trip out today and yesterday.

Home Alone

Here's our new place :)

We've always said we wanted a Home Alone house. Both me and Kath knew what we meant - a massive house, like that in Home Alone - the MacAllisters place ;)

Well this is it. It's huge... 5 bedrooms, lovely modern kitchen, 2 bathrooms, finally a front lawn for the kids, rear private garden, massive rear deck, driveway that fits like 8 cars, a laundry room and a dedicated games room... which is massive :)

It's like the house we had an offer on, but bigger. We've signed and move in on the 15th, just 9 days time Hurrah! So it's all systems go on the packing front right now, the main PC is away and the study/dining room here is choc full a White & Co moving boxes.... again :(

I hated the time in this house when the stuff was just delivered, everything bare and empty. It reminds me of that time again, and right now with a house full of boxes, stuff and visiting parents it's horrid.

So I sit here having just watched a new Smallville, whilst downloading the new V episode on the laptop (which I totally forgot about the other day). I found the house picture on Dad's photos so thought 'd show you and it reminded me why I'm sat yet again in this mess, going through the stress of moving.

So I've been told that moving is the most stressful thing one can do. Followed by new babies and then planning a wedding. So what do we do? Have a new baby and move at the same time.... twats!
Can't wait to be in there sat on the sofa in my gaming room playing Forza 3, whilst Kath makes some roast lamb upstairs and the boy watches Madagascar 2 on a different TV in a different room.. . whilst Taryn sleeps or sits, or lays.... quietly.

OMG!

Scammed

It would seem I've been getting scammed by my Landlord since I got here!.

In Canada it's common to rent a place without heat. This means that you pay for the heat on top of the rent (not that you have no heat :) ).
I understood this when taking the house on. Glen told me that when Irving, the Propane company delivers and then bungs a bill through the door for the fill up and I had to just pay that.
The bills were extremely high $290 sometimes in two weeks, however as it's so cold here, the house had poor insulation and was empty it seemed a high but not so unreasonably high amount. So I paid it on and on. I also had to pay for January's heat - anyone who remembers will know that I was supposed to come out on the January 6th, but the work permit was delayed.
So I've been playing catch up all these months. Basically paying $300 per month to pay off the bills.

Anyway when we got flooded here in the summer I saw another boiler downstairs - he said that this was next door's boiler and that they had underfloor heating. Next door is an add on to this building. He said he pays for their heat, it's all-in on that bill.
I accepted this.
Later when we were trying to paint the house I saw the two gas tanks, but on closer inspection saw only one feed coming from them.
Again I questioned on this, and he said it splits off somewhere in the basement. I queried who is paying for the fill ups, he said he gets a bill for it.
I figured that they must have some metre on each tank - naive - springs to mind, but like I said - some people do pay $300 nearly for heat.
Anyway more recently, couple of weeks ago, he came in to fix next door's boiler and it reminded me again.
What with the run up to Taryn's birth and other such things going on I'd simply been getting on with life and paying the bills - it made life VERY hard and meant we couldn't save for a UK trip, but it was affordable.
So I checked with Irving, and to date had paid $1900 to them - for just 3 1/2 months worth of heat. Jan, Feb, March and half of April. It got so hot here after that that the only gas we used would have been for hot water and stove.

So we get on his case.

Two Saturdays ago he phones up, and admits that we've been paying for our heat PLUS next door's heat since January!!!! He says he's investigated it and that he was getting billed for a house he sold a year ago, he didn't know about it, yada yada yada, and ended up offering to pay 18% of the bill, as the size of the add on with 1 person is 18%. This came to about £350.

Well....

After putting the phone down, collecting my thoughts and talking to Kath, it became apparent that we've been totally played.
He says that somebody has been using the gas at the place he bought and he's been paying it - but who the hell buys a new house and when they phone the utility company to set up gas and are told 'Oh, someone else is paying that for you', they then proceed to think... 'hmmm.. nice one we'll see how long that lasts muhahahaha!'.
Answer: NOBODY!
Unless they're extremely stupid. And he said once that he built the extension so how could he not know how the pipes and tanks were laid out.
It would seem that by having it as a connection to the house, and having no registered account for it, then they'd be no reason for him to say it was rented, and no need to declare it's income.. and therefore not pay taxes on it!

I was livid!!

I saw no way forward, a couple of ideas were banded around - he ended up offering 30% + paying 30% in future. But we've been very conservative with our gas, because we pay for it. 100% of people who have heated properties leave the heat on all the time, they don't put it on low when they go to work, or through the night etc. We have cold washes for our clothes and shower rather than bathe. You can bet the bird next door had it at a toasty 30C, and took nice long hot baths when it was -8C outside, whilst I, had my heating at 16C sat in a jumper and was out down the pub most of the time.
No way!

If I turned off the heat for this month of November, showered at a friends house and ate take out all month therefore spending 0%, I'd still have to pay 70% of next door's bill!!!!
Oh yeah his argument to that was... LOL... get this.. 'Well it wouldn't be 0%... you'd still be using gas for the pilot light of the stove AND the boiler downstairs... they have to stay on'.

WTF?!!? Get real!!! $200 for a frakkin pilot light! Whatever!

Someone suggested that we demand we pay $900 instead of $750 per month rent and have heat included, solving all worries. It was the ONLY option.

However I felt too betrayed to continue any further dealings with Glen Strickey... he let me down... he let me down BADLY!
So... The answer?
We move...

We've found a place, an awesome place - it's far more expensive, but I'd rather take it up the arse and have a decent place to live than to stay here. This place was very convenient and close to town, but it was always too small and cluttered, not what we envisioned.
We're really looking forward to moving and have started packing. I got most of my money back by refusing to pay this months rent, of $750, so I've ended up paying about $300 per month for 4 months which is more like it - I wouldn't get more out of him with out a fight, so at least this way we leave and he can't hold us to his lease agreement otherwise we'll grass him up.
GIT!

Let's hope he did us a favour, because we really love the new place.
So I'll keep blogging, but I'm now about to pack up the PC, so it'll be... occasional.

It's a SCAM!

All Hallows Eve

As I said a few posts ago, Halloween over here, as far as outfits and costumes go, is not always scary, with people dressing up as super heroes, pizzas and other such stuff that we - in the UK, might do at New Year.
However the actual night is probably much bigger and more involved than anything I've experienced in the UK.
We managed to get 'oot and aboot' after all and went to Dooly's who were hosting a Halloween party and dressed the place up.
We didn't bring all our stuff from the UK, so last year's Wicked Witch of the West and Voodoo Bloke were resurrected.

Before that though, and the thing that really got me and Kath int he mood to dress up, make an effort and get out was the Trick Or Treat session we had with the kids. Our street, and a bit further on, the wealthy Brighton area of Charlottetown was sooo into it, it was fantastic.

In the UK, the scary aspect and pub/club/house parties are great - but when it comes to Trick Or Treat... well I've never had such fun. You normally get the teenagers who actually do scare you! It starts 3 days before 31st October, and when you actually take your kids out, there's maybe 3% of the houses on the street ready with sweets and dressed their house up. The rest are hiding away or purposely gone out for the night.

Not here though, houses dressed up to the max, and people with baskets and baskets full of goodies. Not just sweets - crisps, drinks, chocolate... tons of stuff. They left with a full carrier bag full of goods.
I did Hayden's make up much better this time but went too close to his eye with the black. He ended up rubbing it into his eye and smudging it right off the bat, but that's the great thing about Heath Ledger's version - the make up can be messed up and it makes it even more menacing.

You can't read his Joker face... ;)

This old witch was sat in her porch - ready for all the kids. You can imagine it, she got dressed up and said 'Right Lloyd, I'm off to sit in the porch for 2 hours, you watch the NHL'
She had bags of goodies all waiting

This house and some really cool features on the way up to the door.

More goodies from this lady. It's almost regulated. Apparently there's a curfew of no Trick Or Treating past 8 O' Clock, so it's really cool because everyone is geared up for the 5-8pm session. And only on that one day so they remain in the spirit I guess.

This lady, is actually a nice lady... but she didn't need make up to scare!

One of the bigger houses. Incidentally I never saw any teenagers out, only kids up to about 12ish all with parents.

This house was the nuts!
Not only was it well decorated, but the house itself was just.. haunted looking. And it had a great big baby stood outside!

An evil shot!

This is like some sort of mansion - the boys were not intimidated at all. Conner always being the first to rush the door and bash it down shouting 'Trick Or Treat', and then turning and shrugging when people didn't immediately appear :)

It felt so safe, all three of the boys went inside this place to get their treats and us parent were miles away -down a long path anyway. I ran up to snap them just as they returned - still alive and unharmed.

The Fall...

... or Autumn as we call it in the UK. I have to admit that most things British are named correctly... Football for example... but, The Fall makes much more sense than Autumn, and I think I'm going to call it that from now on.


I said before that the colours in PEI are just much more vivid than the UK. Prime example being the grass... it just seems.. greener - no pun intended. It really does.
Right now the place looks really awesome.
Christian said that in the fall it looks like someone has photo shopped the island and just enhanced all the colours... he's right.

We went for a drive the other day to the middle part of the island, past through Cornwall.

This is what PEI is all about, just some incredibly serene views and peace out in the country side. And this is only 5 minutes out of Charlottetown - I plan on having some picnics next year out in the country.



The weather is odd at the moment, the other day there was frost on the ground and it was really cold and icy out, in Denver - the US, there was thick snow and blizzards. Then the very next day the sun is shining and it's actually warm - not even brisk.
Last night we went out without coats, on Halloween night?

Granddad Lee and Nanny Noodles

Well, as with any standard Brimble visit, it seems to have been a non-stop hectic week :). So I've not been blogging :)
On the 28th October Kaths parents arrived to visit us and see Hayden and Taryn. Hayden was overjoyed to see them again... and of course to receive all the new presents that they'd have for him.


Nanny noodles gets a cuddle with Taryn.


Then Grandad Lee gets a turn.


We've not taken advantage of our parents being here enough really, i.e. going out by ourselves, until last night really - which was Halloween.
But it's been nice to off load the kids a bit. One of the great things is that both Grandads like to play with Hayden, and Lee has been teaching him the piano. It's kept him off the XBox, so hopefully when they go we can cut down a bit on that aspect.

First day out we had lunch at Brits and ordered the Family Meal. Bargain at just $50 - 8 pieces of Haddock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We haven't measured Taryn's growth in height since her birth, but now we can safely say that she is a tall as a large Haddock....