So we made it over the pond and a very nice flight it was as well. Must admit flying into Hamilton Ontario was a bit of a shock though. The immigration officials were all smiling and there was no queque for car hire which was manned by a realy friendly guy not the usual grumpy bloke who hates tourists that all made up for the barn everything was in. The baggage reclaim was great just one belt and that was only one way so they had a guy to take the luggage off for you. We're now driving round in a Mazda 3 which I'm pretty impressed with.

From there we went to Guelph which appears to have added a new town since our last visit. So many new houses makes you wonder where all the people will come from. After that it was up to Sauble Beach on Lake Huron where we spent 3 days chilling out on the beach and feeding peanuts to Dave the tame chipmunk.

Tommorow we're off to Point Pelee which they tell me is the southern most tip of Ontario for a couple of days then its back up to the beach to prepare for the big Meno Marvo meet next Tuesday. With all this sun I'll either be the impressively bronze guy showing off his tan or more likely a little red tomato (or should that be tomatetoe!)with very little skin left unfrazzled!! Mrs M and the Little Boss are enjoying living in the lap of luxury (don't get too used to it is what I say!)and are already planning next weeks shopping trip to Toronto like a military manouvre. Well thats all for now, cases to pack things to do etc Catch you all next week.

Well its now only a day until we fly out to Canada and Mrs M is so laid back I'm getting suspicious. Normally everything is sorted a month before departure this time she's only just got the cases out of the loft. As usual The Little Boss has selected enough clothing to cover a small South American country and tomorrow we'll have the "no you can't take that argument." But when I leave the office behind for three weeks I'll definitely be in Catherine Tate mode "Bovered!". We do though still have to face the tearful farewell to young Dan who has now become part of the furniture, thank god then for MSN although I'm sure one or other will forget the time difference and go off in a huff if the other isn't on line. The books are ready a slightly eccentric selection according to our friend Rosey who we had dinner with last night. What do you think? I'm taking:

My father & Other Sporting Heroes by Gary Imlach
Fantasy Island (Waking up to the economic, political and social illusions of the Blair legacy) by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson
The Life of Kenneth Horne by Barry Johnston
London 1945 by Maureen Waller
The Long Firm Trilogy by Jake Arnott
The Good old Days (Poverty crime and terror in victorian london) by Gilda O'Neill

And of course the highlight of the whole trip will be the Marvo, Meno Mama meet up in downtown Toronto. A venue is currently under negotiation and we're wondering whether to sell the rights to Hello or OK!!

Better be off Mrs M has just mentioned the P (packing) word, time to make myself scarce

Picture the scene Saturday night I'm in the Family Room the Speedway World Cup from Poland has reached a critical stage there are 4 heats left and its all up for grabs between Poland & Denmark. On the screen I'm following 3 gripping laps of action with the worlds top speedway riders and just as they go onto the last lap I'm aware that Mrs M is standing right in front of the screen fiddling with something over my head."Aaaaagh" I cried "what are you doing!!" "Oh that picture was wonky so I just thought I'd put it straight did you miss anything?"

Take 2 Sunday afternoon I'm there again this time the British Open Golf is reaching its climax little Sergio Garcia has a putt for the title he addresses the ball looks down and all I hear is "Dad get down here your teas ready!" I turn round and by the time my eyes focus back on the screen all I see is Garcia shaking his head.

Don't Think They'll Be Going Anywhere in a Hurry!!

A Banbury senior citizen drove his brand new BMW Z3 convertible out of
the car salesroom. Taking off down the motorway, he floored it to 90
mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left.

"Amazing!" he thought as he flew down the M40, enjoying pushing the
pedal to the metal even more. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a
police car behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.

"I can get away from him - no problem!" thought the elderly nutcase as
he floored it to 110mph, then 120, then 130mph.

Suddenly, he thought, "What on earth am I doing? I'm too old for this
nonsense!" So he pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the
police car to catch up with him.

Pulling in behind him, the police officer walked up to the driver's
side of the BMW, looked at his watch and said, "Sir, my shift ends in
10 minutes.
Today is Friday and I'm taking off for the weekend. If you can give me
a reason why you were speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let
you go."

The man, looked very seriously at the policeman, and replied, "Years
ago, my wife ran off with a policeman. I thought you were bringing her
back."

"Have a good day, Sir," said the policeman.

Today I've received an e-mail from Shanel Cooper saying Thankyou Very Much, I've received an e card from a neighbour as well to add to yesterdays e card from a member of the family and an offer for some dodgy blue pills. Its so nice to feel wanted except I've never met anyone called Shanel because if I had and I'd done something for her to say how grateful she was Mrs M would have cut off those things we men hold dear and few other things as well. (I'm talking about my collection of Arsenal Football Pro grammes don't know what you were thinking ). My neighbours god bless em are great they look after the cats when we're away they're up for a laugh and we get on fine but when it comes to matters computer no way. As for members of the family well, my nephews might send me a few malicious bugs as they support Chelsea and Spurs but never an e card. So that leaves the dodgy blue pills and...... thats too much information. Which only goes to prove if they are thinking of enticing me into their world of spam mail they've failed miserably. Now that's off my chest I must be off as I'm giving my bank account details to a nice man from Nairobi who says I've just inherited a fortune

Is David Miliband the new Home Secretary really the love child of Tim Henman and Mr Spock from Star Trek?

Well that's not exactly what Mrs M said but I know its what she meant. Yes so where have I been? Well how long have you got? Depression has played a part, thoughts about a change of career (I've actually applied for a new job for the first time in 17 years!)have also kept me away. Add to that trying to get a bit more work for my small part time business (if anyone wants Health & Safety or Food Hygiene training from experienced tutors let me know!)and worrying about the Little Boss and thats a bit more of the picture. Little Boss has been ill for a couple of weeks now and we get her blood test results on Tuesday. She's still all loved up as young Dan the Spurs Fan is still on the scene. In fact he's almost part of the family. I've also been trying to organise a 25th wedding anniversary party for me and Mrs M of course all my blog mates are invited as long as you send a cyber bottle! We've now got 10 days until we hit Canada (not literally Mama!)so Mrs M is getting grouchy with me as the pile of clothes is beginning to appear in the spare room and we'll soon be having the "do you really need all that?" argument.
So its good to be back blogging and now I'm going to do a quick sweep to see what you lot have been up to.
Marvo