Mark on the move

Mark will begin his 4th position at Innocon (subsidiary of LaFarge/Holcim) next week as a manager of two plants in the west side of Toronto. We'll see how the experience to oversee about 40 employees at those plants will go for him. So far, so good. He needed a new challenge. Cheers to his success!

Opa Vandenboom 91

 

Mary's father celebrates his 91st birthday today. Together with Susan and Ralph we visited the retirement home where he lives. It was breakfast time for all the residents so we walked these signs along all the windows to everybody's enjoyment. Susan also delivered a big cake which will be served as dessert today for their lunch. My father would have turned 101 yesterday were he still alive; he passed away just before he turned 96 five years ago.

Falls in the winter

After two weeks figuring out piece by piece, I completed what has been my most challenging puzzle so far: a map of the city of London. The time frame for managing this was sped up by the fact that I pulled a muscle in my back and we had a couple of windy & snowy days, resulting in me not leaving our house for 4 days straight. Today was a beautiful sunny (yet chilly) day, so I took my car - which has been sitting in the driveway for 3-4 weeks and still with gas in the tank of 5 or 6 months ago - for a drive to Niagara Falls. Made a nice walk of an hour along the river to the falls. Below a few photos of the views along the way...

In the distance the so-called "Horseshoe Falls" which form the border between the USA and Canada along the Niagara river. The photo below is on the other side what we call the US Falls and the other photos are closer to the Horseshoe Falls in the winter wonderland.

Puzzle challenge

Last week I started what turns to be the most challenging jigsaw puzzle so far. Sue & Ralph gave me a box with four puzzles of 1000 pieces each. They depict city maps of London, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome. I started with the one of London and boy, these pieces are hard to find. I had to develop a new strategy and basically going one piece at a time for all the pieces for the many streets on the map. But it is good to keep the brains sharp and focused, piece by piece.....

First writing milestone

A few days ago, I completed a first draft for my novel. It is probably still a bit lean and incomplete, but it has a ongoing story now with a beginning and an end; total 60 pages. After rereading it a couple of times, I gave Mary today a hard copy + send it as electronic copies to Hilary and Mark. We'll see what they say. My hard copy will go next to Susan and I am looking forward what our language guru will have as feedback. Jason also received a copy but he is very busy with his work. I will take a break for a bit of the writing. The past few weeks I have been at it for many hours each day. I am surprised how easy the writing flow was at times. But I am sure it is still amateur work at this stage.

Mark went up north last weekend with three friends to a cottage where they went ice fishing. Hilary is completing her two weeks in the small rural hospital in Hazelton, BC. And thank goodness the USA has a new President. Yesterday was the inauguration; the first time I actually watched the full event.

Spitting image

If you knew my father, you might think this photo is him. Not that he liked puzzling, but my face is just exactly how he looked in his sixties. 
 

Hard to believe

It is always hard to know how much credibility to give to these polls, but these kind of headlines make me very sad. Maybe it is the ups & downs of every democracy. History shows this is not the first crisis human being societies created; probably not the last one either. We'll see....

I have started another nice jigsaw puzzle Mary found in the Dutch store last week....