Kragmortha -d!

Here are Nat and my Mom during a game of Kragmortha tonight:






It's a little game I picked up the other where you play a goblin nosing about about the evil overlord's library. whenever you get in his way, he gives you a withering look and a curse. THe effects range from keeping a card tucked in between your forearms to keeping your tongue out at all times. And the effects are cumulative!

A lot of fun and plays really quickly

Goodbye baby doggy...

Masha died last night.

She got violently sick on friday, and she had to be put down at 3:30 am last night. we were all with her for that, but it still fucking sucks she had to go that way, it's not what I hoped her last two days would be.

Farewell bébé chien, I'm gonna miss you here. May you find snowy fields wherever you're going...

The day the Mighty fell

At the final whistle I stared for a few seconds in complete disbelief. The old enemy had done it again and bested us one step away from the ultimate prize...

So our World Cup hopes are over. Without taking anything from the English, who beat us fair and square, the most frustrating (and for a few hours last night, infuriating) part of it is that the defeat is due more to us shooting ourselves in the foot than our opponents playing brilliant rugby...

But anyway, I will not here make an analysis of the game, I don't think many of you would care much for that. Instead, I'll just say that despite the disappointment, I'm still proud of our team who made it to the last 4. There's no shame in losing at this stage of the competition, especially to the reigning World Champions.
You can walk with your head high guys! Now go and get that 3rd place for us!

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!

2 more to go!

Come on guys, one great thing done, but the hardest is yet to come. Keep at it, we're behind you all the way!!!

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!!
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!!
ALLEZ LES BLEUS!!!
...

Call me Master Nico!

OK, so I'm not a master, simply a humble black belt. But still, I feel pretty good as I join Wendy in the official Killers' Club of the group.
I don't have many pictures, actually practically none - Natalie didn't know there was a sports setting on the camera, so as a result all the pictures of me doing cool stuff consist of a big white blurry stripe. You'll have to be satisfied with this one then:


As for the World Cup, well, it took me a while to regain a semblance of composure - which was made easier by my self-control skills I developed on my way to becoming a black belt ;o)
But once I did, I decided to do like Masha here:


Sleep it off and pretend it was all just a bad dream! Hey, we still have a shot! All we need to do is find 22 rugby players to play instead of the 22 toilet paper rolls we had on the field last night! :o)

Love y'all!

Busy Busy!

Hey folks,

So it's been a while since I gave an update. No, I didn't change my looks this time, although my hair did grow back quite a bit already. Still debating whether to 'shave it' again and let it 'grow' back to its usual level.
Anyhoot, it's been somewhat of a crazy month, busy at work, getting sick for a while and for the last 2 weeks preparing my black belt test. It's this afternoon. I'm a little nervous but no more than that, because, hey, I never really get nervous. I must have some lizardry in my family tree the way my blood is cold like that.

Anyway, wish me luck, it'd be a pain to have learnt all these forms and kicks, written those essays, and learnt all that Korean terminology and writing for nothing!

Oh, and ALLEZ LES PETITS! Elle est pour nous cette Coupe!!!

Nico version 'summer 2007'

Well, I'm not as funky and fresh as those of us who dye their hair, but I went for a change too.

So without further ado, here goes:


Aaarrgh!! Where did it all go?


For a better view of the overall result

It was kinda weird at first seeing myself like this, but when I woke up this morning and went to the bathroom I did not feel overly strange. And I appreciate the improved aerodynamics, I walk much faster now...

Chose promise, chose due...

Since I said I would post a 'Best Off' for the first half of 2007, and considering I have, on occasion, not made true to my promises regarding this blog before, I decided this morning that I would kick my own butt and do it.

For those of you without a visual impairment, enjoy!
(PS: you can click the pix to see larger versions)


Morning Angel


The Irish fighting spirit


Marcel cheers the Colts to victory during the Superbowl


Meanwhile, Natalie discreetly teases me with a sausage...


Macha ponders on her choice to join us for walk


Thursday morning


Kitchen fun


My little volley-ball chick getting ready to set


Nature's birthday present to me!


Girls and booze


Marcel gets shocked again (this was unbelievable, he got shocked about 15 of the 20 times we played!!!)


Thank you Sony...


Rock on, mountain lovers!


My bitc... ladies


My hood...


What would my blog be without pictures of me?


You, be cool...


Look at them melons!


Marcel vainly tries to compete


Just cute


At the top


I was there too


Franginou's ninja training

Dragging myself back in it

Hey all!

No, I'm not dead, as you can see. The reason I haven't been posting lately is this: I've been in a bad mood, and this blog is not about getting everyone going: 'Oooh, look at poor Nico over there...'.
A freaking long time to be in a bad mood I hear you say. So, OK, I haven't been depressed everyday, no. But the whole immigration affair with Natalie is starting to take its toll on me, and for all that I need to be strong for her and appear confident, stupid bureaucracy is starting to get the better of ol' Bourgui. It's even worse as it does not affect me, but her... It's always the way huh? When you try to get to someone tough, you target the people they care for.

Anyway, enough of this self-pitying crap. It's funny actually, because I honestly believe that, were it not for this small administrative detail, my life would be fabulous. Sure I'm not rich and I could always use more holidays :o) but I got a job I like (most days), I live with Nat and I've got time and money enough to do the things I like (sports, games and movies galore in these parts!). I also get to semi-regularly spend time with Marcel (now if we could just get the Arab to stop pretending he's busy all the time and join us from time to time... Hint hint Karim! :op )

Life is really quite enjoyable here. So here's to hoping we can sort it all out quickly, so we can bask in all its comforts and pleasures. And then there'll be plenty of blog updates from me, for sure :o)

You all take care now!

El Nico

PS: You're right Tao, these pix are overdue. Tell you what, I'm gonna compile a 'best of' for the year so far, just to make up for it!

News from the new world

Wow,

How fast can time pass? So much has happened since I last gave an update I barely know where to begin.

The biggest news I guess is that my dad's got throat cancer. Fortunately it didn't spread anywhere else. He's on radiation treatment right now, for a few more weeks but he should be fine.
Kinda hard to follow after this without sounding mundane...

Well first of all, the skiing season was really short this year (along with the money), I only had the chance to go twice after my last post. But it was really good, because, for all that the season was short, the temperature never went over -5 which meant that the snow was absolutely perfect!
In sports still I've been working hard in Tae Kwon Do, hoping to get my black belt for the sumer so I can go to tournaments (full contact competitions are only opened to black belts here).
I've also been having fun playing volley-ball. We're in a recreational league with Natalie and we're having a ball. We're actually playing for 3rd place on thursday, in the season finale. This was so good we're signing up for the beach volley-ball league this summer.

Work has been kinda stressful lately. We are coming to all kinds of deadlines, for which we're no necessarily ready. But we're a hard working bunch, so we'll make do. I have to say though, this 4-day weekend was pretty welcome.

And to top it all off I've qualified for the Grand Tournament (Warhammer 40,000) in May. That will require a few hours preparation, which I have no idea where I will find!

So as you can see, it's been pretty busy here. You can also throw in a couple of weekends of fun with Marcel, who came down for the superbowl and for an orgy of playstation goodness, a couple of saturdays spent watching France and Ireland battling it out for the 6 Nations championship, and you'l have an idea of the pace!

I wouldn't have it any other way though, I'm happy as a pig in mud right now. Just wish you guys could come down sometime, but we'll work on that.


Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll try and post some pix later on for your visual entertainment.

Miss y'all


Nico

Skiing!!

We went skiing a couple of weeks ago (it feels like an eternity, I can't wait to go back!!). So I decided to give you lot a few pix, and even a video of Natali doin' her thang. :o)

And just for good measure, a few shots from New Year as well. Don't say I don't spoil you!!

Marcel really was in Canada: we have the pictures with the maple syrup stand to prove it!

My god... how does she do that?!?

Hustlerettes

Exhibit 21C in the case of harrassment againt Mr K. Saliba

Karim and Janine putting us all to shame with their skills

All hail King Marcel!

So, where are those slopes?

The happy couple

And the grand finale, enjoy!

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!!!

First snow

It took me by surprise. I must admit, I did not expect to see snow on October 22nd. Yet there it was!! For about 3 to 4 hours, it was falling nicely, heavily enough to start accumulating on the dryer parts of the deck.
Of course it didn't stick, and by the time I went to bed a fine rain was coming down. But still it got me really excited.

If you think it's early to get snow, picture this: the first time I was aware of a snowfall this year was on September 9th. We went to the local bar to get a bite to eat and they were showing a Canadian football game in Calgary, and it was snowing over there!!! Now Calgary is about 1 1/2 hours driving frpom the rockies, but it's not high up in altitude or anything, it's actually in the middle of the immense flat plains of Alberta.

Anyway, if the weather 'holds', it will keep snowing sporadically for the next few weeks, and we could have the first lasting snows by mid-November. Oooooh the excitement!

My trip to Montreal

On tuesday morning I woke up at 6am, quite early considering my average of 8:30am. The reason: a work trip to Montreal. Sweet, two days of very light work and the chance to spend some time with ol' Karim (ok, ok, he's younger than me, but he looks older)
Soon I am cruising down the highway, rock 'n' roll playing on the stereo and a cute blonde chick dozing next to me. Things are definitely looking up.

The first hint of a less than perfect day came about 40km from Montreal: crazy morning traffic forces everyone down to 40km/h. Alright, I'll be a bit late, no big deal.
45 minutes later, we're driving down Rene Levesque about 2 minutes from our destination. The phone rings - my boss just want to make sure I'm fine. I am but I can't find a parking spot to save my life. So we turn around for 10 good minutes. Isn't there room for just one more car in this town?! Finally, I find an underground parking lot that's not full. $15 a day?!? That's twice what I would pay in Ottawa! I don't care, I'm late, and that's going on the expenses bill anyway. This place is like a labyrinth, but I eventually find my way to a free spot; it's tight, I need to realign. Shklonk! What do you mean, 'Shklonk!' ? Transmission's gone. Sweet. I'm half-parked (well, three quarters really), I'm late, and by this stage I'm already a little pissed off. Now the freaking car breaks down. Fuck.

Alright, call the boss, let him know you're going to be even more late, then find the parking manager - last thing I want now is a ticket because I'm badly parked. Once everything is settled, I set Natalie free and make my way to my client's offices. People back home are asking around for a recommended mechanic.
I arrive at my client's - an office full of women, should brighten up my day. They're very nice and understanding - maybe because they need my help - and I set down to work. This should take me no more than 10 minutes. I whip out my cd, stick it in the drive and ... nothing. Take it out, dust it off, try the second drive ... nothing. Cool, the damn thing doesn't work on any computer here. Good thing Nico put some backup on ftp. Didn't put everything though, so 10 minutes turn into an hour. No big deal, everything is working. All I have to do is stay on call for the rest of the day, in case things turn sour.

With that, I can now turn my attentions to my car. I have a couple of names now. There's only one problem though: the car needs to be towed, but it's in an underground parking. Takes me over an hour to find someone to tow it out. The guy shows up, asks me what's wrong. "The transmission is dead" I tell him. He squirms: if that's true, it'll cost me the best part of $2,500 to replace it. Lovely. I spent $550 just last month on that car, might as well make it a nice, round 3 grands. Not to mention $600 in April.
Thankfully, the guy knows his stuff, and it turns out it's only the transmision cable, a much less expensive outlook. Good. We tow the car out, and set out on our merry way. Turns out I don't need to go to the transmission specialist that was recommended to me - it's 30 km away - so the guy drops me at a nearby garage. The car should be fixed by tomorrow morning.

Finally I can relax a little, and look forward to spending the evening with Natalie, Karim, Leila and Nadim. The night is indeed fine, we get ourselves a nice little Mexican meal and have a good laugh.

Morning comes, and like yesterday it seems promising: not even a half-day's work, France-Italie in the afternoon, and my car returning - by then I have accepted the fatality of having to pay for repairs. 5pm and I'm doing good (beating the Italians 3-1 lifted my spirits). A little game of 'Settlers' and we're 'out-the-door'. Get to the garage... WHAT THE FUCK?!? The car's been broken into! Company laptop gone, money gone, wallet gone (there was only souvenirs in it though)... No forced entry. I'm pissed. Next to me Karim is ready to gut people, and Natalie's intentions are only remotely softer. I don't know what the hell to do; sure, the mechanic is the primary suspect, but I don't know for certain. Besides the woman behind the counter - the only one left in the garage along with 2 apprentices - probably has nothing to do with it, I can't decently smack her head open on the counter. So I call the cops, tell them what happened. I need to go to the nearest station for that, they don't come out themselves. Alright. I pay my bill, step in the car and go. Or not. What the hell is going on??? The gearstick goes from one gear to next freely. Is that what they call fixing my car?!? I storm back in; "Your car is fixed, I tried it myself". Well you tried it like a monkey cause it sure isn't working right!
I'll cut it short here - about an hour later my car is finally ready. I go to the cops and report the incident. Not much they can do, I know, but a meagre source of consolation. Luckily my boss is completely cool, no worries about the laptop, in fact he was apologising for sending me to Montreal!!

It's late now and I'm aggravated. Karim is nice as ever and offers me to stay over again, even though he has a pile of work to do. I feel bad in a way because I don't want to distract him, but I take up the offer.

The evening was nice actually, the Salibas and Natalie all doing their best to cheer me up. We ended up watching Hot Shots, which was just what the doctor had ordered. A decent night's sleep and a few 'eggo's in the morning saw us back home. Just in time for Lasagna.

It looks like this week will end up better than it started...

Problem solved

Well, I made a complete fool of myself at the interview. I won't even give you details because some of it was quite frankly shameful. The answer will come in the mail in about 2-3 weeks from now, but I know enough that there will be no pursuing this any further. So now I can concentrate on my job... until next year when I can apply again!

Why is it always like this?

OK, so here I am, with a new job (well, 2 and a half months into it), good prospects, interesting... Nice. And then I get a phone call, from the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police).
Now for those of you who don't know I applied for police work back in december after a lot of thinking and money spending (it wasn't that much really but when you don't have a job $400 have a way of making themselves felt). I kept hoping and trying until after 6 months of not hearing anything and other agencies turning me down, I told myself "Nico, my boy, forget about that cop-idea of yours.". Fair enough, I'd just been lucky enough to land a decent job anyway.

Yeah but. There I am, and this lady tells me they want to interview me. First second reaction: "Sweet!". Second second (hehe) reaction: "Damn, what about my new job?!". And that's just before she hits me with: "Have you kept your physical up to date?". Have I, off course not!! I thought you guys didn't want me (it's only been 8 months...). "Well, if you don't have your physical up to date we can't interview you.". Precious. "Well sister, how about I call back tomorrow to confirm all that?"

So here I am for a day, pondering whether or not to go through with it. First factor: physical is made by a company that 'travels' through Ontario, and the only test dates before my interview are in Toronto. 5 hr drive from here. Not the end of the world, but roughly $100 on gas round-trip (turned out to be $70 but how was I to know speeding saves your gas? :oP ), plus a hotel room (it's at 8 in the morning, and it's a test of strength and endurance, don't want to mess it up by not sleeping the night before), plus $100 for the test itself. And a bit of food. I'm not the greedy type but that's $300, and I already spent over $550 this week to get a new radiator on my car.
Second factor: my new job is cool, and there are some good possibilities for the future. Plus the team is small and real nice, and they've included me in their plans. So I don't want to 1- mess it up if the OPP-thing doesn't work 2- screw these nice guys over.
Third factor: with the OPP, I could be positioned anywhere in Ontario, even though they try to place you where you'd like. But that's not always possible. And being positioned 6 hours driving away from here would prove problematic to say the least with Natalie.

Now these are the 'negatives' in terms of OPP. The positive is that it's just something that I can really see myself doing as a career for a long long time. Something meaningful... You get the picture.

The decision was made to go to the interview - it can't hurt right?. So on friday night Natalie and I hoped in the car and cruised down to TO. Of course we nearly couldn't get a hotel (where would be the fun if everything worked as planned, huh?) and ended up eating at McDonald's. I still bear the shame.

The physical was a piece of cake. Now I'm just waiting for the interview on thursday, half-hoping it will work and that ultimately I'll get through and will get a position offered, the other half hoping that I'll get turned down and it will make the decision for me.

To think that a week ago I was getting fat and content in my new job...

Ups and downs

A dream start and a masterpiece. A game that kept it's promise, with elegant, engaged play, even after that terrible header. Hope was the prevailing emotion, the French gamealways bringing danger to the Italians who concentrated on mounting a superb defense.Tension took its toll on my heart and my fingers, but still the show proved worth of a World Cup Final.

Then disaster struck when one of football's Gods lost his head, and in that one act put a dark mark on what should have been the consecration of 4 weeks of one of the greatest spectacles on earth. Then came the final blow, as the team wearing blue lifted the trophy, the men in white staring around in disbelief or openly crying. I didn't cry like I did 8 years ago. I just could not believe it...

That was 3 days ago, yet still it is still all around me. The excitement still runs through my veins, only to find that there is no match today. In spite of the loss I still feel really proud of those men that fought for me. And millions of others, but also in part for me. They were told too old and lacking in passion. Can anyone claim that now?

I wish that is all I could take from this, but the images haunt me. Images a man - yet more than a man? - running at another. Images of a missed penalty. And worst, images of everything that has been said since. Even as I speak, people are eagerly awaiting a speech from Zizou, rumours abunding of how Italy could be stripped of its title. What nonsense! Let the Italians celebrate their victory the way we surely would have celebrated ours. Let those regretable events not further stain what has been, by and large, a great World Cup.

World Cup Fever

To most of you who read this blog, the World Cup is just something that makes noise and warrants way too much media attention.
To me it has been pretty much a life-sustaining substance for the last 3 weeks, and it's only getting better.
Off course I hear you say, with France making it to the quarters against the odds, and facing Brazil in what promises to be (maybe falsely) a classic in the making. That would be ignoring that I have watched probably 50 of the 58 matches played so far. Kinda crazy, I know, but to me ultimately delightful. And tomorrow, for another 4 hours (2 matches), I'll be glued to my TV screen. When the final whistle sounds for the Brazil-France game, I may be laughing and jumping or hanging my head and crying, but no matter what my heart will beat to the rhythm of a bouncing football. And it will until next sunday when the final is eventually played.

It may seem weird or illogical to you all, but it is so.
So if you think of me tomorrow, just whisper this one sentence and we'll be just a little bit closer:

'Allez les Bleus!'

Luck of the (French-)Irish

Hello one and all!

You are all right, an update is long overdue! You must all be wondering what’s wrong with Ol’ Bourgui that he can’t find 3 minutes to post up a little something to his friends.
Well, the truth is life has been good, and thrown so many things at me that I got too lazy to type a few words. Lame I know, so a big ‘Sorry’ to all you guys.

Now let me move on to what’s been good. In fact it all came with that job I finally got a couple of months ago. Now that I have some cash I am actually able to do stuff, on top of the things I was already doing before.
The last few weeks have hence consisted of a lot of gaming, training (I’m back doing taekwondo after seriously hesitating with muay thai), enjoying the beautiful spring weather, indulging in the playoffs season…etc. Good times all round.

And as if this good fortune wasn’t enough, I have more great news: ok that may not be news to any of you, but Natalie has come back and we’re going to be moving in in the coming 2-3 weeks! Needless to say this has me a tiny bit excited and puppy-like happy.
In other developments I will be quitting my job in 2 weeks. For another one. You see currently I am only filling in for a lady who is seriously sick; while there are some good chances she will never be able to come back, the folks here are - rightly - not ready to give me a permanent position. In the same time, the director here has left for another, small, company and wanted to take me onboard. To keep it simple for this blog, there are a few risks in there but I decided to take my chances and give it a go.

All in all things are looking decidedly positive, reunited with my girl and life in the right tracks, not to mention I’m still over the moon with this country.
So forgive my long silence and spare a smile for Nico’s riches. I haven't been this happy in a while!

Still kicking

Well, hello there folks!

I'm sure you'd given up hope of me ever posting anything this side of new year, but SURPRISE! Bourgui points its nose!
So, I got both a lot and not much to say. It's great to have a job, or more to the point it's great to get paid. With the arrival of Natalie just around the corner, I need to refill the coffers a little ;o) It's also pretty nice not to have to worry about things like 'hmm can I take the car tonight? I may not have enough gas tomorrow'.
So for all that Canada was great, it's even better now.
A couple of weeks ago I was pretty pissed that the winter was finished. I mean, my first winter in like, what 8 years, and I could only ski once - being broke does that to people. But now it ain't so bad, we're having beautiful weather and instead of going to walk the dog in the snow I go walk the dog in the grass and in the sunshine, or go play some ball in the school yard behind the house. The garden table is back on the deck too and outdoors meals will soon resume, not to mention the swimming pool! So things are definitely positive.

And to top it all off, Karim is coming to Ottawa this weekend and we'll have the whole night for ourselves, steamy stuff in perspective. Almost a year here and still loving it!

'Later all, scrubs time!

El Nico