5 days until I head Back :-)

Wow, 5 more days and we will be boarding the plane out of Ottawa into Toronto. Then comes the iron butt 14 hour into Hong Kong. Four hours later and we are back in KL. Then comes 2-3 days of jet lag and we are right back into teaching.

I always find the first week of school so exciting. New minds to explore and personalities to understand. We also have 10 new teachers on staff who will need to be mentored and most of them are in my department.  It should be a busy first month.

I hope the initial scheduling is solid and there is only a little fine tuning to do on Sunday. I am not quite sure how long I will last. Lots of caffeine may help somewhat.

Shelley and I are also in our new condo and we are finally done with our old landlord. I can hardly wait until she finds out we owe her money. I just may make her wait as long as she made us wait for the air cons to be fixed.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we are off to see Father Tom and say goodbye again for another year. We saw him last Sunday and we hope to convince him to come visit us for a month next year when he retires.

Monday is dinner at my sister Ann's place on a lake in the woods. It is always a pleasant time and is quite peaceful.

Tuesday is back to the optometrist to pick up my new reading glasses and then Wednesday is a little bit more shopping. Thursday is packing and goodbye's all around. I will visit my mom on Tuesday and Thursday as well.

Lauren, Jordan's girlfriend just flew in from Vancouver and it was a real surprise for Jordan. Hopefully he was behaving himself at the keg party he was at!

I also hope to see John McGrath on Thursday night before we head out.

That is just about it for now,

TTYL,

Jim

Friday, July 2nd

We have one week left in Canada.  The time is flying by, but the good news is that Shelley and I have pretty well managed to get everything done that was necessary to do.

Today I went shopping and picked up new running shoes, 4 new shirts, and 2 new belts. That just leaves some pants and regular shoes to purchase.  Good thing I arrived with a half full suitcase.

We have about 2 more dinner dates and then we are home free to do whatever we want.  The weather is warming up to the low 30's with some humidity over the next few days.  That should acclimatize us for our return back to Malaysia. It should be interesting to hear everyone complain about the heat here, except for us :-)

We fly out eary Friday am, July 8th and arrive in KL at 6:30 pm the next day due to the date change. I work Sunday as the admin staff has to finalize the class and teaching schedules.

TTYL,

Jim

Canada Day - July 1st 2010

It is Canada Day today and so far it has been very quiet.  I had a meeting with Brent this morning and Shelley and I are going to Rheal's for a pool party. Probably too cool for the pool as it is in the low 20's but sunny.

The one thing we won't be doing is heading downtown for the Canada Day celebration on Parliament Hill. It is mostly tourists that do that as 'seen it, done it, before, and don't like the crowds!'

Jordan has planned a garage party and is having about 6 buddies over for a barbecue and game console night.

TTYL,

Jim

Home in Canada

That is one lllllllooooooonnnnnngggggg flight. From the time we departed to the time we arrived it was 27 hours of travel time. However, it is worth it. It is a beautiful 28 degrees, sunny, no humidy, not a cloud in the sky!

Yes, I have been to Timmy's this morning and I had a breakfast sandwich and a medium double double. It does not get much better than that.  I have been busy getting a lot of administrivia out of the way before getting down to visiting folks. It is amazing the amount of mail that accumulates over a year :-)

Unfortunately my motorcycle battery disappeared over the year.  The culprit just may be Yams who may have thought it was junk and threw it out in the trash. I went to the motorcycle shop to get a new one and they were out of stock. Fortunately the owner is a friend of mine and pulled a battery from one of the new motorcycles. All is good!

We changed Jordan's flight to today from this coming weekend and he gets in at noon. Lots of hugs! So the whole family will be together again for a couple of weeks.

TTYL,

Jim

Leaving for Canada

It's June 18th and my last post was June 8th. My bad! Things just got busier and busier. The prom has come and gone (pics later) and the grad was today. Shelley and I are home packing for our Saturday morning flight back to Canada.  It's been quite an adventure.

We have an airport limo picking us up at 7 am and our flight leaves about 9:30 am. We have learned not to go to early as they don't open the counters until 45 minutes before boarding.  Going early is a waste of time.

We fly Air Malaysia from KL to Hong Kong. We then fly Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Toronto and then Air Canada to Ottawa. We get in about 8 pm same day if I remember correctly. It's not really same day for us but we cross the international date line again and get back the day we lost last June.

Our daughter Jaime is picking us up at the airport and I expect a big hug. Sunday will be jetlag day and time to visit my Mother. Monday is Dale's retirement party and perhaps breakfast with some of the chimps.  Tuesday is the Prescott with more  of the chimps.  I expect I will be going for a motorcycle ride or two on Monday and Tuesday as well.

Living in South East Asia will either leave you changed or deranged.  I will leave it up to you folks to determine what happened to me :-)

See you all soon,

TTYL,

Jim

The Missing Week!

Wow, it has been a week since my last post and I think that is the longest stretch I have gone without a post.  That gives you some indication of how busy I have been.  It has been a week of presentations, review, exam invigilation, year end meeting, meeting of all other kinds, software issues back at my previous Board, and Shelley and I are trying really hard (and have been successful) to work out every second day.

Time has flown and before you know it we will be on the plane back to Canada to visit friends and family. Our schedule is filling up quickly and we will need the down time as well.

We will also miss some of the wonderful people and students (not that students aren't people) that we work, live with, and teach with here in Malaysia.  No doubt we will be sorry to leave Canada once again, but we are also looking forward to another year at Taylors.

TTYL,

Jim

Last Day of Classes

It's arrived. Yippie kai yah. The last day of classes.  It's been a very busy week of presentations and marking of presentations.  I noticed that I am one of the few teachers still going full tilt. I do so because I try and give the students as much time as possible to complete their CPT's. So, unfortunately, no class parties in my class for year end.

I have quite a bit of invigilating and other exam duties so next week is pretty busy as well.  Then there is the prom as well as the graduation.  I will defintely look forward to stepping on the plane and vegging out for 24 hours or so.

Jordan caught a bad bug and was sick for quite a while but is now on the mend and in his summer courses. I have not heard much from Jaime (hint) and I hope she is well.  She apparently is working quite a bit.

That's it for now,

TTYL,

Jim