Happy Valentines Day

To Sweet B

Its another day of the year

Its one more day we have together

Its special because we are lovers

Its special because we are friends

Take my heart, its yours to hold

Take my mind its open for you

My love

My girl

Happy Valentines Day

Love D

Kolton Happy 6th Birthday!

Hey Kolton

I wanted to wish you a happy birthday from all of us here, 6 years old! I remember when you were just a little guy in the bassinet and your Dad had to throw the cat across the room because it kept trying to cuddle you.

Aunty Brandy told me you asked your Mom if Gage could come home for your birthday, I wish I could say 'sure!' but we are a long way away and we just wouldn't make it on time.

Instead of a birthday present you can unwrap, we just made you this short video. You will just have to wait while it downloads - pretend the whole time you are tearing the paper off of a great big box filled with sardines. Or hotdogs, whatever your mom makes you eat at night.

Love From
Emerson
Gage
Aunty Brandy
Uncle Dave

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

Send off From Chennai

What a crew! We didn't even realize what -1 c was going to feel like, still +30 in these pictures.


See you all soon! Good luck in Germany (Elliot-McFayden) and good luck at the salon (Meghan-Jane)!


The Bus - Large and at the same time not large. We had 9 people and about 18 bags to stuff into this white Mercedes. Thanks Gregg for booking it! All sitting comfy like a can of sardines.....

I love the airport - we had two porters to manage 4 luggage carts. With the tip they made about 20 bucks, and it was worth every penny as inside we only had to stand in line and check in.

Dave

Winnipeg Bound

The bags are packed

The time has come

The bus is here

The sun has set

And we are ready

Lets get back home

And see some Snow

Not a rhyme, just some words.

Dave

Amy's final Thursday Ritual

The time has flown

The time has passed

Amy's last Thursday

Didn't really last

We tried to stay

We tried to play

At least we've had

Good times, not bad

Lets remember when

We first arrived

Lets remember Amy

How she was deprived

All outer sanity

has been removed

By three short months

of Thursday moons

PS I love pants

And Amy

You will be missed very much by this pseudo Indian family

Love the OMatthes Clan

And Dave's (Brandy's) pants

PS

Sorry B

I made a small hole in the rear.

D

Got Fro?

This is real. The helmet. The quoff. The poufier. The Fro.

Touch it. Believe it. This is real.

Gage man and his prized do.

"I'm not cutting this thing until we get to Canada. Then everyone will say 'holy - your hair is big!!' Then I'm going to cut it short so when we go back to India everyone will say 'holy - you cut off your big hair!'"

Awesome.

DM

Its Not Butter . . .

It's Not Nutella...
It's Not Butter...

It's Nutter.

Say it with me again ... NUTTER.

This is funny to me, this chocolate spread. This delicious treat.
I smile when I say it. NUTTER.

Nutter is a delicious spread, and it has many uses.

Taken from the actual jar label:

Direction: Spread it like dairy butter on bread, toast, pizza, etc.

Read it again.

Nutter.

You can enjoy many new sayings with Nutter:

Can you pass the Nutter?
Bust a Nutter!
Man, I really can't get enough of that Nutter.
Oh, damn! We are out of Nutter!


You know the best thing about Nutter?
It's healthier than butter.
Zero cholestrol, 100% vegetarian.

You heard it here first. Nutter is where it's at.


DM

Suckers and Peanut Butter

We are getting closer to the fantastic voyage home, today is the penultimate Friday we will be here in 2006.

Had a fun day today; took the bike to work, Gage had a disco, I won a game of 10,000, Amy learned to drive.

Tomorrow we are off to Kerala with our fingers crossed it will be hot and sunny to enjoy the beautiful beaches to Trivandrum.

See you all soon!!!!

Love Dave

Check out this funny little video of Emerson playing in the car:

The new colour?

Wow! We made the local paper, the Deccan Chronicle. I am one step closer to greatness and world domination.

How it all happened:

We spent Thursday evening at an art gallery kick off party for a family member of our company out here where Brandy, Emerson and I had our pictures taken. We thought nothing of it at the time, I think all three of us just felt cool because a bunch of photographers were taking our pictures. Well I did anyway, and I actually thought they were trying to just take pictures of Emerson as she was looking really cute in her green and yellow outfit.

A couple of days later on Saturday morning I was leaving the office when Brandy calls me to say she received calls and remarks about us in the paper. On the way home I made a point of stopping at 5 places on the Bajaj to sweep up a copy, apparantly it was not easy to find a paper here. I was really excited when I finally found a little stand with papers and got a copy! Leaving the element of surprise open I stuffed the paper into by bag and saved the first view till I arrived back at the bubble.

When I reached home I frantically started thumbing though the paper - I went all the way through to the back cover. Behold! There we were! All checking out a nice little statue at the Gallery. Awesome.

According to the headline 'Chennai gets new colour' .... the new color is white?

As one of our favorite sayings go:
Only in India.

-Nearly famous white guy giving Chennai it's new colour.

Gettin Goofy

I love this place - I have experienced more in the last 4 months than many have in a lifetime. I can't say the same for some of my team, these two are gettin a little goofy.

Love Ya
Dave

Sorry AMY!

On the Road Again

Aaagh I am on the road again
The winding climing road again
I can be free like the wind in the trees
I can honk at worshippers on their knees
I can yell at moving trucks and bikes
No more tuk-tuk searching hikes
No more waiting for drivers rides
I can jam and pass their hides
I can ride and honk at will
I can show off my skill
I am a man with a plan
I am here with my clan

And I have a Maruti 800.


Aaagh I am on the road again.



But have I told you this?
Its another sweet collection of rhymes.
If you don't care or don't have time,
F*ck off and at just drop me a line!
Of course I'm just kidding again,
I am known to do that now and then.
The point of all this babble
Is to tell you some fine drabble
Its amazing, its fast, its 100 CC's of rocket power.

BAJAJ. Say it with me . . . . BAJAJ.


Aaagh I'm on the road again.




So let me spin you one more time,
Let me tell you a few more lines.
We are kickin it live in India
The Maruti - Bajaj Combo
Indian Logistics are in effect!

Aaagh I am on the road again.


Peace from the OMatthes Clan

Double Take

Wow - India. This place is filled with people, and I think people around the world have real similarities that we can all relate to.

For instance I always have enjoyed a cold drink, and I ususally end up having a sleep not too long after.
Indian locals also enjoy the drink, and of course the sleep comes here too.

Double Take - Driving home a few days ago I saw a man laying in the road (the MIDDLE of the road) just inside an intersection who I thought was dead. Two days later I saw two men in the same spot, who also looked dead. WTF? Turns out they just chose to sleep right there on the road, which is outside a local wine shop.

Another example is driving during the day. We all have our moments of road rage, and I think even in India you are allowed to have a little rage.

Double Take - just a leisurly drive, going about 30KpH and looked left. What was unusual? I saw a man on a bike try to pass two other bikes - they got a little too close and the guy passing went through and crashed the two slower guys - each wobbled and swerved, they both were carrying passengers who calmly held on. After all regained control, the passing bike driver looks back and lifts his arms as if to say oops?

Had that happened in Canada, anywhere, can you imagine the bullets that would have been fired?

Anther driving example with motorcycles - just around town you see lots of bikes with two people; a man driving and a woman side saddle. you also see similar configurations but with a small child on the gas tank. Or a large load that a truck should be carrying like a door or a bunch of rebar or even tanks of propane (plural). The best is seeing families of 4, all sitting calmly on the bike travelling wherever they need to go.

Double Take - have you ever seen a white family doing the same?