June 2015
Monday June 21
Halifax Public Gardens yesterday
I was travelling again last week, this time to Eckernförde, Germany for one of the regular series of international meetings that I've been attending for the last decade or so. Eckernförde is a small town near Kiel on the Baltic coast with a beach and the accompanying ice cream stands and touristy restaurants, as well as a small naval detachment where we had our meetings. I left late Saturday night with my co-worker Holly, flying via Reykjavik to Hamburg, then taking a bus to Hamburg and a train to Eckernförde, arriving just in time to go out for dinner with some of our international colleagues. We had meetings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then retraced our steps on Thursday getting home around 9 PM.
James is now all finished at school. He had his last exams while I was away as well as a couple of final concerts, one that I attended a couple of days before I left, and another that Ann attended in my absence. The graduation ceremony and prom will both be next week but we celebrated on Friday by going out to dinner at the Bicycle Thief, a restaurant at Bishop's Landing in Halifax, along with Amina, one of Ann's Health Informatics buddies who also just graduated from the MHI program, and a few other MHI friends.
Yesterday was a gorgeous day. After doing a bit of shopping, Ann and I went for a walk in the Halifax Public Gardens where I took quite a few pictures including the one above. In the evening, Ann helped out at a coffee house at the church that was a fund-raiser for the repair of the church piano. "Helping out" included making date squares and Nanaimo bars, singing in the chorus, and cleaning up after it was all over. James and I went to watch.
Today, Ann's colleagues at work held a picnic in Windsor complete with a roasted pig. It was held at the Trecothic Creek & Windsor Railway, a park in Windsor with miniature trains — but large enough that you can ride on. We arrived shortly after noon, shortly before the pig, but unfortunately the rain arrived soon thereafter. We had taken our portable camping shelter, so most of us managed to stay dry but, after chowing down on pork and salads, we decided to call it a day and come home and watch the World Cup soccer games. I was glad to see Canada make it through to the quarter finals but they're going to have to play a lot better to make it much further.
Monday June 8
The mariachi band at our conference dinner
A couple of Friday's ago was Ann's birthday which began with our traditional Eggs Benedict breakfast while she opened her presents. We considered going out for dinner to celebrate but, in the end, Ann picked up some special goodies (some nice steaks and a cake from Gourmandises Avenue, the French patisserie in the Halifax market) and I made dinner for her.
The following day, we both went to the Annapolis Valley for another bike ride with the NS Ramblers. It was a gorgeous day and the apple trees were all in bloom (in fact, it was the weekend of the Apple Blossom Festival though we steered clear of the festivities). The ride was about 45 kms starting in Port Williams, stopping for lunch in Kingsport, then returning to Port Williams via Canning. The terrain was mostly flat with only a few rolling hills: perfect! We enjoyed it a lot.
The following Sunday I left to attend the Symposium on Marine Propulsion in Austin, Texas. My flight left at 9 AM and I arrived at the University of Texas in Austin at about 5:30, just in time for the social gathering of conference participants. There were quite a few people that I knew and several of us went downtown to a Tex-Mex restaurant for dinner. The conference started on Monday and lasted until Wednesday. I presented a couple of papers on Tuesday morning: one that was my work alone and another on behalf of the international research group that I belong to. Both went well and I had quite a few good comments, especially on my own paper. The conference dinner was on Tuesday evening, on a boat on the river complete with a mariachi band to entertain us. There was a workshop on Wednesday that I also attended before flying home in the late afternoon. Ann was good enough to pick me up at the airport at 2 AM on Friday morning.
While I was away, James played with the All-City Senior Orchestra in the annual end-of-year concert in the auditorium at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. I was sorry to miss it.
This weekend we stayed closer to home. The weather on Saturday was miserable so we took the opportunity to sleep in, then caught up on some shopping. Sunday, on the other hand, was gorgeous so I spent most of it trying to whip the garden into shape; there is still a lot to be done.