Legoland

A life size Ford Explorer and dealership

We promised Cooper that we would go to Legoland before we left North America so we made sure we included a day at Legoland while we were in Florida.  Cooper has been crazy about Lego for a couple of years now and is especially into Hero Factory, Ninjago and Chima.

We arrived at 10am and spent the entire day there until closing, taking in all the rides, shows and attractions.  The rides were a perfect size for the boys and there were no long queues.  We went on every ride and then spent a few hours in the afternoon at the water park.  Cooper was very impressed at the size of the bucket of water that tipped over the whole kids adventure playground, he said there was so much water that it held him on the ground. We floated around the lazy river twice before making our way back to the bus to take us home.

Laval from Chima Lego

We also bought plenty of Lego, it was the same price as normal but the range was much better.  Luckily you could pick it all up at the gate on the way out.

Farewell Labrador City

The removalists came on Tuesday 2nd July and speedily packed all our clothes and other belongings.  I was racing to keep ahead of the guys to make sure they didn't pack anything that wasn't ours.  By Wednesday afternoon our house was empty except for the furniture supplied by IOC.  I was determined to stay in the house until we left as it is way too depressing to stay in a hotel.

We spent the last few days with friends until we finally locked the door behind us at 315 Carol, packed our suitcases in the car and drove to the airport.

Leaving 315 Carol Drive

Driving to Wabush airport

It was great to have our good friends bid us farewell at the airport, Michelle, Ethan and Liam; Angela, Adrian and Georgie, and Rob, Nancy, Tali and Noah.  We said our farewells, boarded the plane and then waved goodbye to Labrador City.

Canadian Cuisine

We have experienced some unusual foods while in Canada and we have really enjoyed most of them!  Our favourite being poutine, the classic Quebec dish of fries with gravy (sauce) and cheese curd. Even McDonalds in Lab City sells poutine but it's not as good as the poutine in Quebec.

I was suprised when I ordered my first roast beef sandwich to find that it is immersed in gravy!

For our last dinner in Lab City, our friend Rob made us turtle burgers! He researched it on Saturday, watching videos on Youtube and he made them exactly like the picture (see below).  Mince meat, weiners and bacon. Fat overload, very tasty though.

Yummy dinner from St Hubert - roast chicken with poutine

Our homemade poutine with peas and chicken

Battered cod fish with poutine made with home fries

Roast beef sandwich with poutine

Turtle burgers, just made

Turtle burgers on the grill

Happy Canada Day 2013

Canada day was drizzly this year and the forest fires had put a bit of a downer on the town.  We had a fun afternoon at the Thompson's eating burgers and hot dogs dressed in our best Canada Day gear.

Tali Thompson and Cooper on Canada Day

Two weeks of farewell parties

Wow, it's been a busy couple of weeks of party-ing!

The highlight was the party with my tean where Simone and I had to dress up in crazy clothes everytime we said certain words.  I ended up wearing a green wig, a grass skirt, a mask and one gumboot.  The team sung the Cup Song (when you're gone) to us with some new words thanks to Belinda.  Lori and Jenna played the cups, Belinda and Joanne sung while we had three awesome backup dancers in costumes.  Kirk was Bert, Ken was a gorilla and Jamie was Ocar the Grouch.  I almost walked in on them all practicing at work last Thurdsay. This is what the HSE team does at work!

We had a steak supper on Friday night at the Menihek Ski Lodge an then on the following Friday we had a party at our place. Gerry dubbed the theme of the party: Drink my booze cause I can't pack it to Australia!

Last night we had a farewell for Steve at Corby's with two moving speechs from Richard and Steve.  Steve received a massive framed photo collage of the IOC Mine and the town of Labrador City as gift from IOC.  He was super impressed with the picture and said it was worth three years at the mine just to get it!

Forest Fires

Just thought I would let you know about the large forest fire that is burning just outside of Labrador City.  The fire started on Sunday in thick forest and is still burning.  We have had warm dry weather >20C so it has not been contained yet. We have four water bomber planes dropping water on the fire and also helicopters plus over 40 ground crew.  Many cabins have been burnt down including some of our friends cabin as the fire is in the area where there are a lot of cabins.  We have sold our cabin but our cabin is a long way away from the fire.

The fire is closer to Wabush which is Labrador City’s sister town 7km away and yesterday the fire came within 4km of the town of Wabush.  Last night at 8pm the town of Wabush was evacuated and a state of emergency has been declared.  Most people are staying with friends and family in Lab City.  The town is very smoky and ash is falling everywhere.  We can call local numbers in Lab City but we have no phone connections outside of Labrador City so we can’t call you.  Internet is still working.  The Trans Labrador Highway is closed but our airport is still open and the road to the province of Quebec is open also.  There are some long line ups at the fuel stations and grocery stores as people prepare for the worst.

IOC (Iron Ore Company of Canada) is helping out by providing accommodation to evacuated people and heavy equipment to clear a large fire break near Wabush.  Wabush Mines has closed down but IOC is still running and most things in Lab City are running as normal but it is very quiet.  It is extremely unlikely that the fire would reach Labrador City as there is a lot of water between the two towns.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/ID/2394895737/

View of the fire while flying to Sept Iles

Snow in May

Just when we thought the snow had all melted away and the weather was on the improve, we had snow on the last weekend in May.

Our bridge and driveway

Vacation 2013 - Carribean Cruise

The port of New Orleans was not far from our hotel and we boarded the Navigator of the Seas at about 2pm after spending another great morning in New Orleans.  We sailed at 4pm and watched the city disappear as we headed down the Mississippi.  Navigator of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and is ranked among one of the biggest passenger ships in the world, there were over 3000 passengers, 15 decks and we had a suite on deck 9.  The ship was amazing and was equipped with an ice rink, mini golf, basketball court, climbing wall and the list goes on.

Navigator of the Seas

We sailed all day on Sunday and arrived in Cozumel, Mexico on Monday morning.  We decided to visit the Mayan ruins and then went to the beach in the afternoon with a great Mexican lunch.  On Tuesday we arrived at Grand Cayman.  We did some shopping and then caught a local bus to the beach.  Two ladies spoke to us along the way and it was great to hear them talking to each other.  Cayman islanders speak an English dialect so you can make out the words and the gist of the conversation but it sounds completely different. The phrase I heard most was 'ya, man'.  The beach was crystal clear and calm, just what we wanted.

Wednesday was Falmouth, Jamaica.  We spent some time shopping, bought a cap with fake dreadlocks and then took a bus to the beach.  Not as good as Jamaica but a great beach day with a yummy lunch of jerk chicken and warm slaw.  Before we got back on the ship we stopped in at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for a margarita....mmmm.

Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville

Thursday and Friday were spent cruising, eating, swimming and hanging out. 

Vacation 2013 - New Orleans

Wow, what an awesome city New Orleans is!!  We arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel in the evening and walked straight down to Bourbon Street to eat. Absolutely buzzing, people everywhere, pubs, clubs, music, souvenirs etc etc.  The boys were impressed with the police on horseback who handcuffed a drunk guy in the street.  It drew a big crowd and we couldn't help watching.

We saw as much as we could while in New Orleans and sampled as many of the delicious meals on offer.  I had heard about gumbo and jambalaya but we had never heard of po-boys or muffulettas.  We also ate crawfish, red beans, beignets and drank hickory coffee and root beer floats.

Johnny Po-Boys restaurant

New Orleans was entertainment overload, everywhere we went there were great buskers and bands playing for tips.  Every day we wandered through the French Quarter and the French Market, along the Mississippi levee, down Canal St, Royal St, Bourbon St and around Jackson Square watching all the different street entertainment on offer. 

Royal Street - Ryder thought this guy was a statue

Caricatures at Jackson Square

Vacation 2013 - Australia

On March 13th we flew out to Montreal on our way to Australia.  I had not yet tried a Montreal smoked meat sandwich so we ate out at Reuben's Deli and ordered two enormous sandwiches. Delicious.  The next day we had an early flight to Dallas and decided to leave the airport and have a look around for the day.  We took a bus and then a light rail into the city and took a look around the city.  The claim to fame for Dallas is that it was the site that JFK was shot.  We walked around downtown, say the X marked on the road and read the interpretive signs.

Site of JFK assassination

To be honest, Dallas was a pretty boring place! We got back to the airport at about 6pm and boarded our flight direct to Australia after 10pm. Funny, when we got off the flight 16 hours later we bumped into our friend, Brad Currell, at the baggage claim, he was on the same flight as us.

Steve took a flight to Melbourne to see the Melbourne Grand Prix while I took the kids to Mum's place.  Solitaire and Whitney were there so we had a fantastic time going to the beach, eating out and shopping.  Later in the week we visited Steve's Mum and Dad and also stayed with Tania and Brad. 

We celebrated Jean's birthday with an afternoon at Redcliffe where we checked out the Bee Gee's walk.  We also celebrated Alyssa's 21st birthday with a family BBQ and an awesome weekend in the pool before flying back to Dallas on Monday morning

With Nanny and Grandad at the Bee Gee's walk

Two double doubles please

Steve went to McDonalds last night to get us a coffee, he bought two large double doubles for $1.47 (including tax), how cheap is that? In case you don't know, when ordering coffee in North America you need to ask for milk or else you will be served a hot black coffee.  A double double has two sugars and two creams.  Cream is 18% fat.  If you ask for milk in your coffee, you get 2% fat milk.  We have aquired a taste for our double doubles since being here!

Rio Tinto to sell IOC??

It has been quite unsettling at work this week as everyone has been talking about Rio Tinto divesting the Iron Ore Comapny of Canada (IOC).  There is no official word from Rio Tinto although the media is full of articles like the one below from Business Spectator.

Rio Tinto to sell Canadian iron ore assets: report

Published 5:23 PM, 1 Mar 2013 Last update 0:32 AM, 2 Mar 2013

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inShare

QUICK SUMMARY | FULL STORY | RESOURCES & ENERGY | RIO TINTO

By a staff reporter, with AAP

Rio Tinto Ltd will sell its iron ore assets in Canada and is reportedly eyeing a price tag of around $1.7 billion, sources told The Australian today.

The newspaper reports the miner has enlisted Credit Suisse and the investment banking arm of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to offload either part of or its enritre 58.7 per cent stake in Iron Ore Company of Canada.

The news comes a month after Rio Tinto boss Tom Albanese stepped down after the global miner announced a multi-billion dollar writedown of its aluminium and coal assets.

Rio Tinto recently announced a full year net loss for 2012 of almost $US3 billion ($A2.91 billion) and was criticised for its near total dependence on iron ore despite calling itself a diversified resources company.

The Australian reports the sale is latest move by a major miner to offload assets in the face of a slowdown in commodities demand.

The ice fire pit

During the Christmas break Steve had a great idea to build a fire pit with seats made of ice.  He made it in the back corner of the yard, dug a path through the snow and built the seats.  He then borrowed a long hose and filled the seat with hundreds of litres of water.  This took some time because the running water in the hose froze a few times and then had to be defrosted in the garage.

At each snow fall, Steve has to dig the snow back out of the pit, it can be completely filled up if we get some windy weather. Most of January was too cold to be outside but in February we had a few days of lovely weather and Steve made the most of it.  We decided to have drinks for Jeff Willshire's birthday and friends came over and sat around the toasty fire.

Jeff Willshire and Steve enjoying a beer in the ice fire pit

Jeff, Bob, Kristy and Simone

Ryder's first Valentine's Day

Ryder was very pleased with all of the candy he received from his friends at Wee College on Valentine's Day.  He took a cereal box and decorated it and he came home with it completely full of candy, cards, stickers and favours.  Unlike Cooper, who saves all of his candy and and gives it away to his friends, Ryder ate all of his the same day.

Cooper with his Valentine's artwork

Cooper, Ryder and Georgie eating their candy.

Cooper and Ryder opening their Valentine's Day candy

Ryder's first day at Wee College

Wee College did not open in September 2012 as planned due to a staff shortage.  This was disappointing for lots of parents in Lab City who were looking forward to their three year olds starting 'school'.  Following lots of discussion and a fee increase Wee College opened again in January 2013.

Ryder was very excited to be going to school like a big boy. He goes twice per week, either the mornings or afternoons and is really enjoying it.  Whenever I ask him what he does there, he says 'Clean up, clean up'.

Playing Play Doh

Ryder playing blocks

Circle time, singing the good bye song

Ryder ready for school