Hyde Park

Over the winter period there's been a German market and funfair based in Hyde's Park.

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Here's a picture of the ferris wheel they've set-up - the crowds of people each weekend mitigate against doing much more than photographing what's on offer...

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Guess where?

China?
Paris?
Rome?
Venice?

Of course, it's Vegas! I wasn't quite sure if it was a theme park or a city!


The Star Trek museum was definately the highlight, they even have a bar where you can be served a Warp Core Breach (pink cocktail in a huge bowl with dry ice in it) by a Klingon! There should have been a picture of myself with a Borg but Nick (above, left) has returned to the UK with his memory stick.

I'm now back in T.O. where it is actually a balmy 1 centigrade today without any significant wind chil. The Canadians keep looking selfconcious and promising it will get really cold in February then wander off muttering about global warming.

Dylan

Africa Cup of Nations

Cameroon 5-Zambia 1

Cameroon will qualify if they beat Sudan, or if they get a draw and Zambia fail to beat Egypt, or if they lose by fewer than four goals and Zambia lose.
Zambia will qualify if they beat Egypt by at least three goals, or if they win and Cameroon do not, or if they draw and Cameroon lose.

As Egypt have a player called Zidan and beat Cameroon 4-2 I suspect the Canadian Boulds will be supporting Cameroon on Thursday! Until then, come on Zambia!

Come on you Chipolopolo

Zambia 3 - the mighty Sudan 0
Zambia top Group C

San Diego

A conference took me down to San Diego, the most south-westerly point of the Republic of California and the US .



Probably the only day that I'll ever be a Chargers fan: they won the Divisional Playoff as underdogs, the whole town went wild!

This is apparently where the film Top Gun was shot. Check out the outsize sailor on the left.


Saw plenty of sea lions out near the naval base.


This is, believe it or not, a Gray whale in Mexican water, just off the coast of Tijuana. This one was bout 40" long. Apparently they used to be called Devil Fish in the days of whaling as they were so aggressive but are now called The Friendly Whale as they're used to being left alone!



This is the train station.


California was mostly as I had imagined it would be: wide open streets, hot and sunny, good local wines, beaches and abundant Mexican food. I hadn't expected the excellent selection of local beers I'd never heard of before though. My Californian trivia: if California was an independent country it would rank 8th biggest economy in the world, smaller than Italy's but bigger than Canada's. Worried about the US recession yet?

Next stop Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dylan

Make it so!

This is me as Worf at the back, my boss/masters supervisor Vern in the center, Nick (right) is another UK fellow and Deven is one of Vern's previous fellows, now staff at St Michael's.

Happy New Year 2008

We started 2008 with a very small but fairly loud visitor to our Condo: Mimi, the 4-year-old daughter of Chil's friends Moira and Justin. Definately our cutest visitor so far.

This is Front Street just one north of us on the Esplanade here, the awning on the left is the Hummingbird centre, a theatre, and we're still trying to work out why there's always smoke/steam coming from the top of the TD building.

It's official! you can't live in Toronto and not be a Hockey fan......despite strong initial resistance Chil has now converted to the right side of the force and has not only learned the rules, been a hockey announcer and suffered for the sport we've now been to our first live game together...awesome!!

Happy New Year everyone,

Dylan and Chil

New year good wishes

I thought i would like to wish you all a happy new year.

As Janice and I have not been working today, we thought we would take a trip up to Horsey Gap, which is on the North Eastern side of the Norfolk Coast, as we had heard that the grey seals were pupping up there. Which indeed they were. It was great just being able to walk in the dunes within very close proximity to the pups. The beach itself on which they were basking, was out of bounds so as not to cause any undue stress.

As I am sure you will agree, they are charming not so little creatures, which certainly do have the "Ooh Aah" factor.

What I did not realise is that this part of Norfolk is significantly important to the grey seal population as a whole, where the pups can be seen for about 3 months at this time of year. Evidently the young are weened for a period of only3 weeks, after which time they are left to their own devices by their Mother. The milk must be a drop of good stuff!!

Those who are more witty than myself, I am sure will be well able to come up with some suitable captions.

Happy new year to you all.

Best wishes

Steve

Chil at the NIB

This is a photo of Chil at the National Institute of Broadcasting here in Toronto.

Hi there everybody. I hope that we all had a good Christmas, and wish you all the best for a happy and hopefully propsperous new year.

Although the phot is not particularly appropriate at this time of year, I thought I would include it, if nothing else to add a bit of cheer and hasten on the winter months. It is not a superb composition, but I was quite taken with the reflection, and thought the craft was quite aptly named as "Glistening Horizon". It was taken during the late summer on the Norfolk Broads at Irstead.

Anyway, it was good to speak with Dylan and Chil on Christmas day, and wish you all the best for the coming year. It is good to see all that is going on with the blog, and Bill, I hope you manage to find another five fingers to make up a dirty hand at the earliest opportunity.

Best wishes

Steve