My first post of the new year - and what a way to start this post - such excitement in the neighbourhood last night! Dad and I were watching a movie when the power went out and we heard a loud bang! We both ran to grab a flashlight and then Dad smelled burning. When we looked out the patio doors, we could see an orange glow through the trees about 200 metres away. We went outside the front door and stood on the front lawn. From there, we could hear crackling and see smoke rising out of the forest near us. Two of our neighbours were out there and when we started talking, one of them told us that he had called about it and was told that a car had run into a power pole. Due to that, the transformer had blown up which was the cause of the loud bang. This caused a very large bush fire very close to us. I immediately asked Dad to grab our passports and his Ipad while I grabbed my purse (with all my ID in it). I figured that if we had to evacuate, it would be good to have all of that stuff with us. After standing outside for half an hour, we decided to do as the neighbours were doing and get out our lawn chairs and sit in the driveway to watch 'the show'. Soon a second fire truck came and things started to settle down not long after that. We finally went inside at about 10:30pm. We figured that the power would take ages to come back on, so we went to bed. Dad had left a light on so we would know when the power came on so that we could check the fridge and freezer to see if anything had thawed out.. About 11:30pm, it came back on - we were really surprised (and grateful) that the energy company was able to get one up and running so quickly.
So, after that excitement, there isn't much to share about our week which will beat that. :-) We decided to spend New Year's Eve watching movies and so we went to Blockbuster's to pick some up. We then watched some more on New Year's Day and watched one on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights and tonight. There were some really good ones (here's the ratings out of 10): The Call (7.75), Hugo (8.5), Olympus Has Fallen (8.0); some were good ones: Alex Cross (7.25), Edge of Darkness (7.25), Inception (7.5), The Lincoln Lawyer (7.25), Se7en (7.25); some weren't so good: The Company You Keep (6.0), Flight (6.25), The Adjustment Bureau (6.0) and one was sooooooooooooooo boring we gave up on it: Silver Linings Playbook (Fail). One thing I have learned about movies is that even if critics and the audience on rottentomatoes.com think a movie is a good one, it doesn't mean I will like it. The movie 'Flight' got a really good review from everyone on that internet site, but although the first fifteen minutes were really good, the rest of it was rather boring. Since the rating was so good on rottentomatoes.com that we kept watching it thinking it would get better. We didn't make the same mistake with Silver Linings Playbook. We gave it over an hour and then just pushed the STOP button. But, all in all, it was a really nice way to spend New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Dad and I also set goals for this year on New Year's Day. We don't want to call them resolutions as that term doesn't seem to work for most people (including us). We set goals for six areas of our life: physical (eat healthy and become fit), intellectual (do crossword/other puzzles), social (have people from church over for dinner once a month), spiritual (read the Sunday School lesson material and studybook each week), financial (for me: learn to do the family finances, and lastly, emotional (again for me: read books for enjoyment from a list of books I have made from goodreads.com). Dad's are the same for the first four; his financial one is helping me learn how to do the family finances and for emotional to do jigsaw puzzles. Our idea for an emotional goal was to choose something which would be relaxing and good for stress relief. We hope that we will continue to work towards achieving these goals throughout the year.
On Thursday, I went to my new dentist - Dad had been there once before earlier this year, but this was my first time. When I went in, I told him about my fear of dentists from when I was younger, but that my last dentist in Canada was amazing. This dentist was very understanding and told me that he would tell me what he was going to do each time and that I could stop him anytime I wanted to. Everything went very smoothly, I am pleased to report. :-) By the way, the dentist is from Egypt, came to Australia to go to graduate school and loved the country so decided to stay - tried a few different cities before settling in HB and he's only 31.
On Friday, I tried my first aquafit class here in HB. It's held at the local pool and it is run by a woman, her son and her daughter-in-law. I found out from friends that they used to run an orphanage in Nepal a few years ago. There were about 30 ladies at the class - mostly retired ladies and it seemed like many of them knew each other - I'm guessing that a lot of them have been coming to the class for a while. The son was the one who led the class and he kept us moving the whole time. I couldn't believe what a good aerobic workout it was. I really enjoyed doing it and plan on going again tomorrow - my friend, Chantelle, is going to join me there then - it will be fun to do it with a friend. Yesterday, the day after this workout, I could definitely feel it in my arms, so my muscles got a good workout, it seems.
After the class, I went to a local cafe to meet up with my teacher friends, Bronwyn and Chantelle. Chantelle is back home for the summer (she works up north about nine hours from HB) and since she used to be Bronwyn's student teacher (and mine while I was doing Bronwyn's contract), we like to meet up whenever we are all in town at the same time. We mostly talked teacher stuff (as teachers do :-) and other stuff (like what we did over the holidays, etc) and it was so good to catch up with them again. It's nice to have friends who I can not see for ages and yet, when we get together, it's like the same as it was the last time we got together (I hope that makes sense :-)
Dad and I had the best day yesterday (up until the excitement of the first last night, that is) - we totally relaxed all day. Dad did stuff on the computer and I read my new library book (In The Woods). We also played a game of Trivial Pursuit outside on the patio - it was so nice to be able to sit outside in the warmth with a light breeze blowing - it's a wonderful life here in HB. :-)
Today's blog finishes off on a high note: it was 40 years ago on this date (on a Saturday) that I was baptized into the church. What a wonderful day that was! Back on January 5, 1974, when I came out of the water, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I have loved every minute of my church membership over the past 40 years. I am grateful to the Osmonds for being such good examples - I still remember my friend, Marilyn, telling me that she had read in a teen magazine that they were Mormons and asking me if I thought that that was why they were so happy all the time; then asking me if I would come out to church with her to check it out. I can honestly say, in answer to Marilyn's question: YES, being members of the church is why they are so happy. I know this because being a member of the church makes me so happy. :-)
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