My First Dollar

For Joanne

To my very first

I shall always remember

To my very first

I shall always believe

To my very first

You made my day brighter

To my very first

I just spent your dollar on iTunes.

Sorry B your boob fund is back to $0.

Love ya Josail!

DM

For Siobhan

Hey Vancouver

I've heard of tall trees
Buzzing bumble beez
Many piles of delicious imported cheeze

Is Vancouver the place to stay?
Some friends live there and plant trees all day
A few are there just to be gay

I think the town is nice and clean
I think the city must be rather pretty
I don't have a clue where the apple trees are
I guess I'm just not from Vancouver

How did this poem come to fruition?
What waste in University was my tuition?

I think we know it isn't true
I haven't been smoking that funky tobacco
I just felt like putting out some M F 'in words
To you, all the way out there
In Vancouver

I Love India

This short video of Emerson really describes how she feels living in India, she yelled this at the top of her lungs for about 30 mins just until the flash drained the battery of B's camera.


We are doing good and have one more week before Ashleigh arrives, looking forward to the new nanny!!


Lova ya
Dave 

But I'm not tired!

Yep ... they were tired. Both look almost the same, except the size and amount of stripes on the PJ's.

See you in bed, I am tired today.

DM

Wants, not needs. Everyone should make a list.

Candy.
More Licorice.
iPhone.
Midnight Escalade.
World Peace.
Large Fire.
More Shoes.
Dual Core. No, Quad Core.
12 MP SLR.
Wii.
PS3.
360.
X Star.


Thats all.


Brrrrrring!!!!!!
Damn, time to wake up.




Ahhhh I love +30 in January!




Miss everyone

A run in with the cops

Hello - I just want to tell you a short story about last night.

It all started about 7:00PM when we decided to go for a drive, we ended up at local Jasmine tailors for a piece that B conceived. The kids were hyper as ususal in the store and terrorized the shop keeps to their limits!

Upon leaving the store I made a few random turns, through a familiar area with no set destination in mind. Cruizing. Rolling. The Maruti.

We were all hungry and decided after much debate to go to the food court at City Center (a new mall with a great set of food choices: Pizza for Gage, Pizza for B, some spicy Indian dishes for me, and sweet pickings for Emmy. I was past the 'usual' turn for the road we needed to reach so I just kept on going towards what I thought was the right way to go.

Enter the red light.

Waiting.

Light turns green, with only a straight arrow. I don't want to go straight, I would love to just hang a right. I decide that it is ok to turn right on a straight arrow. (Remember we drive on the opposite side of the road in India.)

I look left. I look right. I look straight. No cars; clear, ok lets go.

I take er up to 20 and clear the intersection, and on the last 10% of the turn a street cop is waiving at me. I wave back and keep going.

Brandy: Dave, you were not supposed to turn there! Whack.
Me: Ouch! It was clear. This is India!

As I catch up to the traffic ahead of me I slow to a stop and wait. Waiting.

Suddenly a motorcycle with the still waiving street cop sitting on the back pulls up on my left, and he hops off. The driver pulls over and watches our white family in the Maruti with large white eyes staring down the police.

I roll down the window; Winnipeg style. (Think 'The Retun of the Jedi; Han Solo to Chewie: Just Fly Casual!')

Cop: Sir; you can't turn right there.
Me (thoughts): Mmmm I kind of knew that officer but it was clear to go and this is India.
Cop: Can I see your license sir?
Me (thoughts): Yep that isn't possible since my Manitoba license is in my dresser drawer beside my underwear, and my Indian license is 'conceivably' there but actually doesn't exist in reality.
Me (action): reach for the wallet, and fumble around a little like it's stuck in my shorts.
Me (words): You can't turn right there? I mean I saw a couple of other cars just turn right on the previous light, and it seemed like since they turned I should be able to.
Random driver from the motorcycle that dropped the cop off: Foreigner sir.
Cop (louder): Sir you can't turn right there.
Me (words): It was clear, and I really thought it was ok.

Pause.

Cop: Ok sir. (Head Bobble)(Waiving, this time to go forward not pull over)
Brandy (sound): First breath since we stopped.
Gage: Did he ask you for your license? Do you really have a license?
Me: Yes, I have a license.
Gage: Why didn't you have to give it to him?
Me: It just turned out he didn't need it.

After some laughter (quiet) by B and I we reflected on this moment.

Some thoughts:

Now try this situation in Canada, and the driver is a foreigner who barely speaks the local language. He is pulled over for turning left on a light that is straight only. The driver is not actually carrying a valid license (although in theory the license exists, as this person was trained to drive by the provincial driver training program).

Did he get a ticket or was he let free to continue driving?


We never made it to the food court; instead we decided to go to the Mariott (All of our new favorite restaurant).

Another very short story:
We missed the turn into the Mariott, but instead of going way around the block, taking a U-Turn, straight then taking anther U-Turn, and finally getting into the place - I just hit reverse.

I love it here.
Dave

Roll the Dice

Hello all!

I have the family back on the time here in Chennai; we are into the swing of school and work again and we are fortunatly blessed with +28 in January. I really feel for everyone back home as it has shown up on the weather network site at -48 a few days in a row now, this is damn cold and my heart goes out to everyone.

To all of you resort hopping - tequila popping - tanning oil slopping - hedonist beach walking - escaping minus 48 - you are the smart ones! Welcome home and I hope your skin didn't fall off in the Mexican sun. I am going to roll the dice and propose next year we all plan a trip to Mexico together it would be a blast!

Well back to the poolside it is sunny and hot out - just have to rub it in a little more (i still can't believe it is -48 in the peg!!!)

Dave

A Short Winter

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello all!

It's been a very short winter, three weeks in Canada has come and gone faster than we even thought. We had a great time, and spent many nights away from 'home' with friends and family.

One of the best things that could have happened did ... a huge dump of snow right before New Years. It was not too cold and I think the coldest day was about -22 (without wind of course) so now that we are sweating again in +30 that just seems silly.

My Mom and Dad (thanks guys we couldn't have done it without you!), B's Mom and Dad (we had lots of fun in Delta and would have liked to stay longer), Angie and Garth's (thanks to the games room at 4AM playing dodge ball), the Brown Family Cabin in Lac Du Bonnet (Doug better fish those grease logs out of the sump pit for next year! D'Arrgh), and of course our house way out in the south that our renters graciously let us back into for a few nights.



It has been a good trip back to India with the kids except for the time adjustment, there have been a few nights in a row now waking up at midnight and 3 AM to start the day, and I hope tonight starts to get a little better with sleep and we get on track for next week (work and school begins again!).



A few pics from our travels:


Emerson got her ears pierced; they are very cute and she loves to tell everyone including her dolls that she got them done. She also decided to squeeze into baby Ava's shirt and talk on the phone.

Gage and Emerson had lots of fun in the snow, I took them out the night it really dumped on Winnipeg and we had a blast! It snowed all night and left a beautiful memory of Winter looking back. We had lots of fun with everyone, I made a collage of Christmas and New Years; sorry if I missed you on this! We had a great time and alot of plain old fun.

See ya soon

Dave Brandy Gage Emerson