The mist on the ocean and the rock face shore made for nice riding into the city of Halifax proper. I find I am getting more retrospectful (?) as I near my time to go home. The ride into Halifax is enjoyable and I make it to the Citadel at opening time. I catch the English tour and am impressed by the costume of the 79th Highlanders. I believe the tour guides might actually be Reserve members. Not sure. We took our tour around and through the Citadel. It is an impressive piece of work. Much was made about Halifax never being attacked but it could also be that people didn't want to be too close to Dartmouth! See Dan, I can bash Dartmouth too! :) I spent an enjoyable 3 hours there and the weather was actually too warm for a sweater! I had a few hours to kill before I went to Ross' house so I ate at a pizza joint on main street which Dan and company had said was the closest I could get to skid row in Halifax. For skid row, it wasn't too bad. I sat and wrote being tired from the morning and decided against going and seeing the graves of the Titanic victims. It wasn't too far, it was just that my heart wasn't in it. Instead, I made my way to the ferry, successfully boarded and watched in amazement as the seagulls cruised above the water. It was when I noticed the splashes in the water that I watched a little closer. The seagulls would cruise but then tuck their wings in close, not unlike Stuka dive bombers and plummet to the sea. Just before impact, they would tuck their wings in completely and enter the sea like a lawn dart. It was the most interesting thing to watch them fish. No one else was too interested but I marvelled at it the entire trip. The ride was soon over and I made my way over to Dan Freeman's to pick up the remainder of my gear. I gifted Dan my tarp and gave my raincoat a burial. It was a raincoat in name only.
I got to Ross' house and was greeted by Anya and their huge Burmese Dog named Samson. It would not be an exaggerate to describe Samson's size as being roughly equivalent to that of a baby elephant. He is gentle though. I dropped stuff off at Ross' since it was earlier than the 6 pm appointed time and tried to find a mall to buy a hockey bag. This search proved difficult and I returned empty handed to the Armstrong residence. I knew Ross from doing a French Immersion at Laval University. I have always maintained that having to sit beside Ross for my courses held me back from reaching my true French potential but it was sure a lot of fun too. A group of us would play guitar and sing songs on the commons and for the talent show, Ross, Mark D, Jim Morisson, and myself did "Country Roads" in Japanese. It was a tremendous hit and people were stopping us in the halls days after wards and telling us how much they liked it! We made the big time at Laval. Sadly, the guitar was no where to be seen and Ross mentioned something about not having time. Poor Ross. Ross and family, (Hannah-doting wife, Cloe and Carmen- adorable 10 year old and 7 year old daughters). I caught up with Ross on his life over a delicious bowl of stew while he supervised the homework of the children. They seemed a bit worked up over my presence. I have that effect on kids for some reason. We enjoyed a pleasant evening and I tried to do a few songs in preparation for the speaking engagement at Ross' class the next day. I'm not sure Cloe and Carmen were completely caught up in the songs but they did make an attempt to sing. Ross cautioned that they had some problems so I did my standard "Meatballs and Spaghetti", "Ham and Eggs", "Waving Flag" and "Dynamite". Hannah was working late on her Master's course so I didn't actually see her that night. I was slightly nervous about my speaking engagement, sad about the trip being over, and excited about getting home all at once-strange.
I got to Ross' house and was greeted by Anya and their huge Burmese Dog named Samson. It would not be an exaggerate to describe Samson's size as being roughly equivalent to that of a baby elephant. He is gentle though. I dropped stuff off at Ross' since it was earlier than the 6 pm appointed time and tried to find a mall to buy a hockey bag. This search proved difficult and I returned empty handed to the Armstrong residence. I knew Ross from doing a French Immersion at Laval University. I have always maintained that having to sit beside Ross for my courses held me back from reaching my true French potential but it was sure a lot of fun too. A group of us would play guitar and sing songs on the commons and for the talent show, Ross, Mark D, Jim Morisson, and myself did "Country Roads" in Japanese. It was a tremendous hit and people were stopping us in the halls days after wards and telling us how much they liked it! We made the big time at Laval. Sadly, the guitar was no where to be seen and Ross mentioned something about not having time. Poor Ross. Ross and family, (Hannah-doting wife, Cloe and Carmen- adorable 10 year old and 7 year old daughters). I caught up with Ross on his life over a delicious bowl of stew while he supervised the homework of the children. They seemed a bit worked up over my presence. I have that effect on kids for some reason. We enjoyed a pleasant evening and I tried to do a few songs in preparation for the speaking engagement at Ross' class the next day. I'm not sure Cloe and Carmen were completely caught up in the songs but they did make an attempt to sing. Ross cautioned that they had some problems so I did my standard "Meatballs and Spaghetti", "Ham and Eggs", "Waving Flag" and "Dynamite". Hannah was working late on her Master's course so I didn't actually see her that night. I was slightly nervous about my speaking engagement, sad about the trip being over, and excited about getting home all at once-strange.