Victoria Day and State of Origin

This past week we celebrated Victoria Day by going to the Canadian High Commission for a pancake and bacon picnic breakfast. There were activities scheduled for the morning such as a Canadian trivia contest and guided tours of the High Commission building. While we didn't do too well at the trivia contest (we didn't have our trivia buddies on hand to help us - you know who you are!), we did enjoy the tour of the High Commission building. Here are a few photos that we snagged of the event:

The Canadian High Commission

Victoria Day Breakfast on the back lawn

Pancakes, Bacon, and Maple Syrup!

Kids Road Hockey Game!

This past Wednesday night was the first of three State of Origin games. Blair watched the game with some Aussie friends so he could get up to speed on the rules of National Rugby League (NRL). The State of Origin games are an annual series of three NRL games between New South Wales (blue) and Queensland (maroon). The series is played strictly for bragging rights and state pride. In simple terms, it's equivalent to the all-star game (or pro-bowl) where the best players in the NRL play for the state in which they first started playing professional rugby. The series of games are among the most watch sporting games every year in Australia and New Zealand.

During the game there was a very controversial call where a Queenslander scored a try from forward contact by a New South Wales player. Without knowing the subtle variations in the rules, it's not very obvious as to why this is so controversial, but watch it for yourself to see if you can sort it out. We're looking forward to the next game (3 weeks from now), as this first game was pretty intense.  It's worth mentioning that Australia basically has three sets of rugby rules: NRL, Rugby Union (international rules), and Australia Football League (AFL). It's all very confusing, especially for someone who has never watched a game of rugby before.

(Somewhat) Moved In

As some of you are aware, shipping furniture and household effects overseas can be a lengthy process. Though we received the keys to our apartment back in mid April , our sea shipment was only delivered to the apartment on May 9th. That is a total of almost 65 days from the time the movers packed it up Ottawa.

The shipping container arriving at the apartment

The whole process of unloading the container and unpacking all the boxes was completed in just 6 hours (versus the 2 full days it took to pack and load). However, once it was all unpacked, it became obvious that we had too much stuff for the size of our apartment. That's what happens when you need to decide what to pack before knowing the new place your moving into. Luckily, once we got everything organized and put away, it wasn't as bad as it initially seemed.

Stuff everywhere! Eep!

More stuff in the office! Eek!

Unfortunately, due to Nanny's funeral, Blair wasn't able to be there for its arrival - leaving all the work for Stacy to do. Thankfully though, the cats were active participants and 'helped' out where they could.

Riley surveying the goods and taking
a mental inventory of everything

Brady making sure he's the only thing
hiding inside the packing papers

While most of our boxed stuff arrived undamaged, most of the furniture arrived loose, wobbly, scratched, or just plain broken (we're really not too concerned though as we will get to buy new stuff now!). We're currently going through the claim process with the moving company to try to get things repaired, but the process is very lengthy as its coordinated by the movers back in Canada. In the mean time, we're making the most of the situation and are setting the apartment up as best we can. Once we get through our furniture woes, we'll post some new pictures of the apartment. In the meantime, we're planning some big vacations. More to come on that soon! :-)

Nanny

Last week was a tragic week. "Nanny" (Blair's grandmother) passed away very unexpectedly at the age of 84. Blair flew back home to attend the funeral and to spend some time with his family.

Nanny

Nanny was a loving grandmother (and great grandmother) to all the 'kids' in the family. Many of us have fond memories of spending many of our summer vacations at "Nanny's house".  Her home was always very welcoming and was place we could all retreat to when needed. Nanny was young at heart, and it saddens us that she will not be able to live out the rest of the good years that she had left in her. The entire family will miss her greatly.

ANZAC Day

This past Wednesday, April 25th, was ANZAC Day in Australia.  ANZAC Day honours the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought and died at Gallipoli (Turkey) during World War I. Though Australia and New Zealand also celebrate Remembrance Day, ANZAC Day is considered one of the most important days of the year and is of much greater significance. Each year on April 25th, many memorial services are held around Australia with the biggest services taking place in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.

Stacy and I decided to attend the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The service took place at 5:30 AM (at the same time the soldiers arrived in Gallipoli many years earlier).  This meant that we had to get up bright and early in order to get ourselves a seat. We arrived around 4:45 to find that there were already about 25,000 people there ahead of us and that seats were filling up quickly!

Dawn Service - Early start to the day!

25,000+ People at the service

After the service, everyone was invited to lay poppies on the Wall of Honour inside the memorial and pay their respects to the fallen soldiers. It was a very humbling experience to watch thousands of people laying poppies on the wall next to the names of their loved ones.

Post-Service Line-up to enter the Memorial

Inside the War Memorial - Still dark outside

Someone Placing a Poppy on the Wall

WWII Wall of Honour

Rather than placing our poppy on the Wall of Honour, we decided to place it next to the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

All in all, it was a good service and a great experience. We had hoped to go to the parade later in the morning (10:30 AM) as well, but we were both pretty tired after getting up so early and we had a BBQ at a friend's place to attend later in the day. Perhaps next year we'll attend the National Ceremony and Parade instead of the Dawn Service.

New Apartment and Kitty Freedom!

This past Wednesday, we picked up the keys for our new apartment/condo. As promised, here are some photos of it. We're very excited to move into this place!

Apartment

Entry

Main Living Area

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

En-suite Bathroom

The apartment building is well-known for its interesting design choices and artwork throughout.  It has direct access to the lake, a movie theatre, and a gym.  It also has many trendy cafes nearby, grocery stores, pubs, and Stacy's favorite -- Canberra's top spa is only 25 steps from our front entrance (literally). Here are a couple more pictures which should give you a feel for what the building is like.

Apartment Building

Front Lobby

Despite wanting to move into this place ASAP, we'll have to stay put in our temporary accommodations for the time being -- we found out on Thursday that our shipment is at least 2-3 weeks away from being delivered to us. The moving company has informed us that, although our shipment has arrived in Sydney, it'll be at least another 2-3 weeks until they can deliver it to us in Canberra. (As a side note, for those wondering, it took exactly 45 days for our shipment to travel from Ottawa to Sydney).

Moving on to some good news -- On Friday we woke up bright and early to drive to Sydney to pick up the cats! We were told we could pick them up from 8:30 am onwards and we were there at 8:30 am sharp! The cats were very excited to see us.  Likewise, we were so excited to see them that we actually forgot to take photos of them being released! Once we got them back to Canberra, we gave them a bath to wash the icky quarantine dirt off of them, and then let them roam free around the apartment. Within a few minutes they all noticed the big glass windows overlooking the lake (and the traffic passing by provided hours of 'entertainment' for them).

Chloe drying herself after her bath, while looking out the window

It didn't take long for all the cats to get comfortable and call the place home. They quickly settled back into their old ways... including hogging the bed! It's nice to finally have them back :)

All three cats laying on the bathroom counter