The first day in the saddle

Today felt like the start of a new routine here. We got up, we went to French lessons "comment vous-appelez vous?" etc.
Four hours then Jude leaves level 4 and heads for home and I leave Level 1 and head for gym.

Home, homework, arrange dinner for tomorrow with an old friend who has a very cool company here.
Watch some TV - Lie to Me with Tim Roth

Call old friends who are in New York for a week (from Norway)
Head for bed

Good to have a new routine, however dull...

No need for panic

I didn't get my scans before I left the States. Not for the want of trying, but it seemed that once they got a sniff that my policy was up at the end of the month the good people at the insurance company stalled time and again in a bid not to have to pay for the last scan. But it's now been 6 months and 2 weeks since my last scan.

So when I woke up this morning with swollen glands I was convinced that death had found me (I'm a HUGE fan of the schlocky Final Destination movies) and that this was it. After all the sun was shining, we're in a city that we really like and may well come to love, we'd just come back from a BBQ with interesting people, the canal was abuzz with the young, the fun and the vibrant, there was a photo studio for hire at the end of the street, Jude had a job that met her exact requirements and an office with a view that surpassed them, I had the job that I'd been after forever and the start of something that seems even better and we'd just eaten amazing food from the market. It was too good to be true. It was in fact that way that our lives seem to others. It had to come to an end - surely we weren't allowed to be this happy?

We'll see. The glands are still up - but so are Jude's. Summer cold? Result of Jude having (already) spent too much time in the doctor's waiting room? Or cancer? Who knows... but the fact that I have to ask bugs me...gnnnrrr.

On a happier note - loads of kids at yesterday's July 4th BBQ... here's a pic

Oh Canada

So yesterday was Canada day and everyone was off hurrah. Jude and I headed down to the jazz festival site and drank wine while some middle eastern influenced Canadian jazz meandered along on a small side stage before heading home, jumping on our bikes and cycling along the canal for 10kms or so - stopping off for a bottle of water and a beer sampler at a local brewery. All very idyllic.

Today was Jude's first at work - cut short by the failure of a computer to arrive and the early arrival at home of the men who are employed to move her (boxes and boxes) of academic books to her office. It was also the day that the garbage disposal unit got lock in the 'On' position... noisily. We've asked that they remove it - as the only way to shut it off is to turn it off at the fuse and that takes out the dishwasher.

French lessons start Monday, we get driver's licenses tomorrow, friends heading over soon... all is well

Other than these nightmares... keep waking me up and carrying over to the next day. Hard not to carry over the awful things done to me at the hands of relatives and friends once I do wake up... which is hard for them to take... must try to sort THAT out....