Friends, kiddies, squirrels, horses and wasps!!!!

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I took advantage of a late check in at work and headed over to Calgary the day before to spend some time with my good friends Brandon and Debbie and their three little ones - Ocean, Mason and Kai. I met Brandon and Debbie around 8 years ago when I still lived in Shoreham-by-Sea on the South Coast of England. Brandon worked for Ricardo, the same company as Alan my brother works for. They are originally from South Africa and were in the UK on a visa for a couple of years. Their visa was running out and they decided to move to Canada and were kind enough to help me move over - so you can all blame them for the Canadian Government letting me enter the country!!!!!

They've been living in Calgary for the past couple of years and although I've briefly visited their home I hadn't had the chance to stay over. I landed at lunchtime and Brandon collected me from the airport. We headed down to Okotoks as Brandon was collecting his new dirt bike. We strapped it onto the back of the truck and drove through the pounding rain back to the house - stopping en-route to purchase a few bottles of vino. Back at the house it wasn't too long until Debbie and the kids arrived. We had dinner, watched films with the kids - got them in the tub and then off to bed. Then it was time for us to relax with our bottles of wine and spent the rest of the evening catching up.

The next day I woke to gorgeous sunny weather and discovered that we were all heading out for a picnic. Debbie does child minding from home so we had two extra bodies for the day. Once our picnic was ready we piled into two trucks and headed out to Kananaskis Country - an area to the South West of Calgary and made up of parks and protected areas. We drove to Bow Valley and enjoyed our picnic by the banks of the river. We even had a wee squirrel join us and he took great delight in stealing bits of bread and running of to the trees for a munch. After our grub we walked along the river and enjoyed the sunny weather.

Debbie has just recently become Mum to another boy - this one being a gorgeous, handsome horse called Sid. On the way back to Calgary we stopped at the stables to feed Sid and talk to the many other horses that he lives with. The kids enjoyed petting the horses and feeding them hay and I enjoyed watching them have fun.

It was soon time to head back to the house and we sat in the garden and had a BBQ. We watched wasps flying and landing on the left over bits of steak. They amazed us - biting of bits of meat and flying of with their finds. I never knew they were carnivores and would fly around with heavy bits of meat in their legs. After that excitement I unfortunately had to get ready for work. So while the kids played in the bath and got ready for bed I preened and pruned and got ready for a flight.

After hugs goodbye, Bradon dropped me off at the airport and soon I was off on a plane - destination Vancouver, so nice to get home for the night before heading to Winnipeg and then on to Ottawa over the next couple of days.

So many thanks to Debbie and Brandon. It was lovely to see you all and so glad that I have such special friends. See you soon.

Lots of love to one and all.

xxxxx

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