Back in Canada

We arrived back on the prairie midweek and we've been incredibly lucky with the weather we've had so far.

At Calgary airport we were forced to leave the car unplugged and so had our fingers crossed it would be the right side of -20c when we landed. Fortunately we were lucky!

Despite a winter storm on Thursday which closed the base early, the sun has been out and the temperatures around freezing.

Yesterday I took the dog out for a walk, which for once was a leisurely pleasurable experience. I had time to linger in the garden and check out thermometer, which revealed our winter lows have quite literally been off the scale! I also discovered our rubbish bin lid poking out of a snow drift, when the snow eventually shifts in spring, all sorts of forgotten possessions reveal themselves!

The snow is still very deep though, as you can see from the photo of Macy below, naturally the dog should have legs!

With the start of 2009, we are now into our last 6 months in Canada and preparing the paperwork for our next posting. Hopefully we'll be heading back to Germany in July, but we won't know if this is the case until May. With only about 26 weeks left, there is an awful lot left to fit in...

Jim came back from Kenya just before Christmas and having noticed some visitors to this blog were looking for information about BATUK, I promised a short summary...

The British Army Training Unit in Kenya is based at Kifaru Camp which is about 8km north-east of Nairobi, it is a drive which can take anything from 15 minutes to an hour! Jim was accommodated on the base, but families who are posted there live in houses in the city.

BATUK is currently undergoing a transformation with more staff being posted in to cope with the increased training. Jim thought the countryside was beautiful and would like to have spent more time seeing more of it.

Things are changing, but if you are posted in and can get hold of a copy of the guide on armynet, it has a lot of useful information for families and dependants.

PS - Audio from Jim and my Christmas show is now available to download and listen to on the BFBS website www.bfbs.com/canada