Can you believe it? It's an update!!!

Hi all!

Saying it's overdue is an understatement, and I'm not gonna try to make apologies or find excuses. I've just been lazy (most times).

So what have I been up to? Well, last time I reported was back in September. Just at that time, I embarked on a massive (and I mean massive) warhammer 40k undertaking. For 2 months I did little else in my free time but build and paint my new army.
I gave myself a high standard of conversions and painting, and it really wasn't easy to achieve. The last 2 weeks were quite gruesome, with very little sleep, a few accidents and a building pressure as I had paid over $100 for the tournament, and invested a LOT of time (I had to have it all finished or I couldn't go!!). In the end I nearly got it all done to the standard I had set myself. I was about a day away from what I wanted to do. But in the end it was good enough for the tournament. I have to say, it wouldn't have happened but for Nat. First of all, she let me spend that much time on the project - not many girlfriends would have done it! And when the going got tough, she actually encouraged me/whipped me back to the painting table.
The tournament itself also almost went to plan. I was way ahead at the end of the first day, but horrible bad luck and an asshole opponent saw me falter on the second day. Oh well, I had a blast and met some really cool folks over there, so I don't mind.

With October come and gone, I found myself with November well under way. After promising early snow, warm weather came back. November was spectacularly warm with 10s and 15s being the average temperature. Life returned to its comfortable routine (safe for the gaming of course; models had taken me away from Natalie for 2 months, so the agreed deal was 'no models' for the foreseeable future. Fair enough). At least it did for about a week. Because then my car decided to die on me. Literally. Coming off the highway, just refused to go any further. Of course this was on a saturday night, so I had to wait till the following Monday to hear the news: I needed a new engine. Now they don't make new engines for my car anymore (it's a '99 model), and the only ones that could be found actually had more mileage than my own. Sweet. The best news however was that it would cost me roughly what my car was worth. Considering all the problems I'd had with the car so far this year (it had alreay cost nearly $2,000 in repairs), this wasn't worth it - especially for an older engine!!! So Nick decided to buy a new car. Well lease one actually, but that makes no difference really.

After careful consideration and comparison of all cheap cars on the market, I opted for a Civic (funny, considering my history with them!). A good reliable car, on the cheap side, very safe, with full comprehensive warranty on pretty much everything I could. However, since I have (had?) no credit history, it took a while for my loan to be approved. So for about 10 days, my mom, my brother and I had to juggle with her car to take care of all our transportation needs (and Nat's). Oh the pleasure!
But then my brand new Civic came and there was much rejoycing (except for my banker - my insurance premium doubled and I now had $400 gone for the lease each month. Mmmmh...). It is very nice and smooth to drive, although going from 175hp to 140hp leaves the bad boy in me feeling cheated. What's next, a station wagon?!?

Anyway, Christmas was just around the corner, so the preparations begun for the annual travelling madness. Not to mention the extra work as all our clients suddenly realised that this or that had to be dealt with for year-end. The snow came back for a few days, leaving me hopeful for the ski season (the west was, after all, buried under 3m of snow since october), but was quickly gone as nigh-tropical temperatures once more settled over eastern Canada. Was I cursed?
Before I knew it, I was dropping my folks at the airport - they were going to Ireland. Two days later I was dropping Natalie, also bound to the green isle, before coming back the day after for myself, as I flew to visit my dad in Switzerland. Talk about organization!!!
I actually had a nice Christmas. It was the first time in 10 to 12 years that I spent it with my dad! Unfortunately, there was as much snow on this side of the ocean as back home, so no skiing for Nico :o(

Then it was time to come back. I landed in Ottawa at 8pm, got home for a few hours then left at 6am. Destination: Toronto, 500km south. Target: Mr M Roberts. That's right, Marcel will be in Canada for the next few months! Picked him up at the airport, then drove to my place, staying for the night. In the morning (well, afternoon really) we left again. Destination: Montreal, 200km east. Target: Mr K Saliba. Yep, we stayed over at Karim's for a couple of days and New Year and had a big house-party with him and his fiancée's family, including cousins etc... Good times! Too short, but Marcel and I were knackered anyway - it had been a long year!

I was back to work on the 2nd, and Marcel ended up staying for the entire week. Sweet! I don't remember last time we got to spend that much time together (well actually I do, but reminding myself that it was 9 years ago is painful...). That was just enough time for Natalie to come back from her 3-week binging session - err... I mean trip back home ;o) - so we had a day to spend together. We did just that, having lots of sex (sorry no pictures) and a cool indoor-paintball-with-foamballs session, where we all distinguished ourselves (including Clem who at one time was the last survivor of our 'Commando' unit). Hu-rrah!

And then this weekend we finally got to celebrate Christmas with my mom. We were once again burried under presents, and I probably put back the pounds I had been trying to shed since the end of the holidays.

So here we are now, Natalie is asleep on the sofa, curled up in front of the fire, the dog a furry ball next to her. I'm at the computer, berating myself that I really should be working rather than telling you lot my life story. Ah well...

So, Cheztao, hope you're happy with the news. I'm actually quite pleased with myself as, except for that last, looong delay, I've kept this thing running at least once a month for a whole year now (yep, it's a year since I dragged you all in this mess!). Hopefully I can keep this up, who knows, maybe with even more frequent updates!

Love you all and Happy New Year!!!