3 years in

Just a quick place-holder post to note the fact that 8th August marked our 3-year anniversary of our arrival here!

Lara Drama Camp

Lara has been at a Drama Summer Camp this week, and she has been learning a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, playing the character of Peter Quince, complete with one of my best ties and my "old man's cap", as she called it.

She was very good, she knew all her lines, and where she should be, she was just a little quiet, but at the end all the kids were awarded a certificate based on something they had contributed to the week, and Lara got "Best Group Leader", which sounds about right. The teacher in charge was surprised to find out that Lara was only 8, she thought she was 9 or 10..

Lara enjoyed it so much that we have signed her up for Monday night classes with the same teacher throughout Autumn and Winter, which will replace Taekwondo. Wednesday's taekwondo will also be replaced by ski racing classes at Olympic Park, so her white dobok will be put aside for a while, perhaps until Dan takes over!

Here's Lara getting her certificate:

Lara's Grease Megamix skating show

Here's a quick post with a video of Lara's group dance from today's Airdrie Skating Club Gala. In order to try and identify her, Lara is the second tallest girl in the group, and starts off second from the back of the group of girls when they come out onto the ice...

1000 days in!

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 marks 1000 days since we moved to Canada, which warrants a quick blog post.
We're very happy here, the kids have settled right in, which was the biggest concern for Olga and I. All their various sports keeps us extremely busy, but since our house move last Summer, we now live very close to the city's main sports centre, where Lara has her swimming lessons (once a week), gymnastics (once a week), taekwondo (twice a week) and skating (three times a week). Dan has his skating and gymnastics there too, both twice a week.
I could spend much of the night trying to dig out a few photos and videos that sum up the last 1000 days, but for now, I'll settle on posting this video from last week, of Lara being given her yellow belt in taekwondo...



Olga and I will have a little celebratory drink in the back garden once the kids are in bed, and toast the next 1000 days!

(oh, and well done to Leicester City, winning the Premier League on our day 999, at odds of 5000-1)

Mexico Album, at last

Only two months after we returned from our winter getaway to Mexico, I've got around to picking 19 photos from the 200 I have, for an album.