November 8th

7pm: A day off today & so what am I doing on a plane? Well flying it actually, this was the rather wonderful Xmas present that Nicky had given me last year. A session on the flight simulator near Calgary Airport. An amazing experience as the thing is so life like, it moves around & you actually fly over Calgary, or Canmore or in this case sit on the runway at Vancouver having just landed. I really enjoyed it, great fun at the end when the kids came & joined me - they thought they were actually flying. I had taken a single real flying lesson back in about 1999 in London & loved it, even thought about getting my pilot's license. We ended up taking Tabby for Sushi at the Sushi boat restaurant in Calgary because let's not forget, it was her sixth birthday today!! Tabby had spent the morning in a private pottery making class, i think she enjoyed that as much as I did my aviation experience.

September 17th

11pm: On the way back from Vancouver the other day, I picked up this little birthday present for my boy Charlie. He will be 3 on Sunday - I suspect I might get as much enjoyment out of this remote controlled helicopter as he will!

July 26th

11pm: Amongst the illness of last week, I wasn't much good for celebrating Nicky's birthday - I made up for it today whilst in between meetings in Calgary by buying her the GPS watch she wanted for her running activities. Not convinced that she will use it properly, technical stuff is not her strong point but she is doing so well with her running, that anything that helps her to be better at it, is fine by me.

July 10th

10am. Birthday breakfast at Harvest Cafe in Downtown Canmore, heart attack on a plate but so good - one of Harvest's famous Cinnamon Buns. Very enjoyable with the family & a relaxing day in which not much was done, due to rain but i cooked a special family birthday dinner & we went moose hunting afterwards up to Kananaskis Country but saw not much other than deer & gophers as we sloshed through the rain!!