Ami's Canada Website

July 12 2008 5:00pm EST
Hello to anyone who is still reading. This site was beginning to look too much like an early nighties reject so I changed it around a bit, looks a bit better now and I've even added links to my Facebook profile and YouTube channel. This is the longest time I've taken between updates so this is going to be a long one. I've had a busy year with holidays, house moves, concerts and much more. Chewy and I are both fine and are still enjoying being in Canada. I'll try and keep the this short but there's a lot of stuff to write. Here goes with the update, I'll mention the month the events took place as I go along.

May 2007. I decided to try out my new car with a visit to Cleveland, Ohio (about five hours from where I am). This time we took Chewy, he insisted on a photo so here he is sitting on the king size bed. They even put a special do not disturb sign on the door handle for me that had "My best friend's here with me" written on it. Whilst in Cleveland we went to see American Idol runner up Bo Bice in Kent, Ohio. It was a good show but the town was dead.

It was so hot in May that as soon as we got back Chewy got his first full groom. When I got him back I didn't recognise him, I thought they brought me the wrong dog. Take a look at the pic on the right, he looks like another animal entirely! he actually loved it and started bouncing around like he weighed two pounds.

June 2007. My 35th (or maybe 29th) birthday was approaching fast so I decided to do something to make myself feel young again. I ended up going white water rafting on the Ottawa river with Owl Rafting. It rained the whole day but it was a great experience. They videoed the whole thing which I edited and put on Youtube, click on the YouTube logo above to open my channel. I also managed to catch Buddy Guy in concent during June at the Mississauga Waterfront festival, he was even better than BB King.

July 2007. July was a busy month for me. It started off with a trip back to Glasgow. I went to T in the Park with Aileen which was really good even though the weather wasn't too good. It was quick visit so I didn't manage to catch up with too many people apart from Davy who hasn't come out of the closet yet. I also caught up with Ann who just happens to be still in uni and said I looked like emperor Ming when I saw her. The day I left for Glasgow Chewy turned two years old, I got him some party balloons and a hat but he didn't like it on. I made up for leaving by taking him to Woofstock, Toronto's doggy festival. He loved it and sniffed two hundred butts. The pic on the right is Chewy showing off his new t-shirt and that extra short hair. I made them keep that parting on the top so I could still remember him. As usual I went to the Toronto pride parade in the middle of June and ended up in a lesbian bar (same one as last year) watched chicks make-out. Helen joined me for that one and a woman told me I'd make a nice lesbian. It would have been better but her gay son kept dancing in front of me and I forgot to wear my 'Chasing Amy' t-shirt.

July finshed with the Colingwood Elvis festival ( the biggest Elvis festival in the world). The festival was packed again this year with 50,0000 crazy Elvis fans there over the weekend. Eunice and Carl joined us for that trip and we got a cool suite at the Blue Mountain resort but I couldn't persuade Eunice to sing at the karoke bar.Ashley came along too and we managed to get a deluxe suite, Ash wanted to be Elvis so bad she turned into him! Carl got jealous because Eunice kept hitting on me even though I made it perfectly clear I was not interested. I have since changed my mind.

August 2007. August was a concert filled month starting with Billy Joel at the ACC he was unexpectedly good and had the place jumping. The Caribana festival was on during August and they had a special music concert featuring Ne-yo and Sean Paul, good concert but $10 a beer! The two concerts were the maddest of the year, the first was Manu Chao at Kool House (total mad with a crazy crowd to match and Gogol Bordello who cancelled being at 'Tinthepark' at the last minute but put on an excellent show near the docs The last concert was at the Mississauga Festival where we saw Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo. I hadn't heard of him before but he's part of the popular Canadian act Blue Rodeo.

September 2007. The big news this month was that I moved house. I used to live about fifteen minutes from work in a place called Port Credit, I moved to a semi in Oakabout three minutes from work. It's a nice place with a proper yard and enough bedrooms for an office. Nate, Ashley and of course Chewy moved in too. It's so close that I come home every lunchtime to walk Chewy, just time in before he poops outside my office. Much more homely and strictly run by lady Nate.

October 2007. It had been a while since I saw Davy and Graham from Glasgow so I arranged a trip for all of us to New York city. Took a while to arrange but we ended up staying right in midtown Manhattan. Davy and Graham managed to get sick during the trip but we packed in some memorable stuff. Highlights of the trip included a thrilling speedboat ride, dinner at a Ninja themed restaurant and drinks at the Tropical tan cafe.

We also played pool in the best pool club in North America and I got my ass kicked I managed to recover and kick butt at the worst place we've pool too. To top it off we didnt a cab back to the airport, we flew by helicopter to the airport in only eight minutes. The helicopter flew over security control straight to the gate and was amazing. I videoed the whole flight and put it on YouTube, have a look at my YouTube channel to see it.

December 2007. We took an extended break at xmas and apart from the usual xmas parties at work we chilled out at home and had a family christmas. Christmas day was spent at aunt Pattys who fed us so much food we spent the rest of the holidays on the toilet. I also finally bought an Xbox 360 and would end up playing Call of Duty 4 for three months until reaching commander status. I was mad fun of for buying camouflage clothing and dogtags. January 2008. I had some sad news in January when my grandfather died. Nate and I flew to Glasgow for a short visit for the funeral. It was good to see all of the family again even though it was such a sad occasion.

February 2008. My mum and dad eventually gave in and accepted a new job in Seneca Falls, New York. They moved to a temporary rental home and we went to visit with chewy. Seneca Falls is the place that inspired the writer of 'It's a wonderful life" and even has the bridge that George Bailey jumped off of in the movie. It's a nice quiet peaceful place, they are very happy there and have been looking for a historic house to buy.

March 2008. March will always be a memorable month for me because I finally had Chewy neutered. It was a long time coming and it had to be done to avoid problems in the future. The operation went well and he recovered quickly but during the pre-operation checks they said a liver enzyme was too high so he had to have his little belly shaved to have an ultrasound. It came back all clear but it made me very nervous but it turned out fine. He is always licking his privates so they insisted on a collar (as pictured) and he did not like that at all. A couple of days after the operation he was the same old puppy and it hasn't noticed he's a few ounces lighter.

April 2008. In April I had to go to a conference in Boston for a week. To make it a bit more fun Nate and Ash came too and we stayed 45 minutes out of Boston in a place called Gloucester. The highlight of the trip was the house we stayed it, it was called the Blueshutters Inn and it was right on the beach. We stayed in the captains quarters room whilst Ash stayed in the captains mate adjoining room.

Ed took care of us and made us fresh bread and coffee and we walked on the beach every day. During the trip we got a chance to visit Salem, which is famous for it's witch trials (and they totally cash in on it) and the Boston aquarium. We also went on a whale watch and even though it was early in the season we managed to see some humpback whales, it was really awesome to get so close to them. We really enjoyed that trip and have been invited to go back to join them again for their christmas festivities.

May 2008. May was a quiet month and summer was taking too long to kick in so we went to some concerts. The first was in Akron, Ohio and their we saw the world's best Elvis impersonator. We've seem him before in Collingwood but this was a special benefit concert. The concert was great and to top it off Nate payed extra for a special reception where we met the man (or the man pretending to be the man) himself. He seemed to love himself too much for my liking and he came out with a lot of crap about recognizing me. He didn't take too kindly to me saying "I recognized you too Gino", he said "I'm not Gino, I Shawn". Chill out dude, can't you take a joke? we won't be seeing him again in a hurry. The other concert for May was one of my favourites and even though I had to stand Mr Eric Clapton put on a great show, talk about guitar hero! bloody guy was awesome. Robert Randolph was supporting but we missed that because it took us an hour to park.

June 2008 June was important because little Ashley had her first communion. She wore a delightful little white dress, gloves and matching shoes and we all dressed up and went to church. It was very well organised and a ton of kids turned up and made a lot of noise! Ashley liked the last part the best which was going to the Rainforrest Cafe for lunch

July 2008 You've almost reached the end it you are still reading. July was really fun because the three of us went to Orlando for a week. I found a great hotel deal last minute and we used airmiles so it was too good to miss. The hotel was perfect, nice rooms, big pool, free breakfast, free evening meal and wine/beer! We didn't do Disney this time and decided to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure instead.It was awesome, Disney is cool but Universal has everything you need to get away from the mickey mouse stuff. We went to each park twice with a break for the hotel pool each time. My favourite ride was the Simpsons ride which is brand new this summer. It replaced the Back to the Future ride and it was like a virtual rollercoaster. A close second was the cool spiderman ride. We also went to Cocoa beach to chill out with about five thousand other people who had the same idea on the fourth of July weekend. Apart from the themeparks and beach we ate our in tasty restaurants, and did a lot of shopping at the outlet stores. Ashley also gave me swimming lessons almost daily because I can't float or tread water. It was a great trip and we'll be back!

That's about it. The last minute news is that my mum just bought a huge historic house in Seneca Falls for about a third of what we'd pay for a shack here. As a write this the iPhone 3G just came out and I didn't get one because our provider has the longest contract in the world at three years (and expensive too). If someone wants to send me one please feel free. Hellos go out to Ashley, Nate, Davy, mum, dad, Ya Ya, Eunice, nonaa, and everyone else who knows me. Thanks for reading all of this and I'll catch you next time (hopefully it won't take as long)

April 16 2007 10:00pm EST
Okay it's been bloody ages and I have no excuse, I've been a bit lazy (very). For those who worried, I'm not dead (and neither is my boy Chewy). I'm going to do a longer than usual update to tell you what I've been up to during the last six months which is going to require good memory recall from me. After a well earned rest following a very busy summer I took it easy in September (apart from the pubs of course) and got ready for October. I was planning to go and see my mum and round about the same time I got an email from my old mate Graham from Scotland who said he and a buddy were going to Vegas to see the UFC 64 championship.
What the hell I thought and booked my flight last minute the day before I left. Natalie joined me for the first couple of days. We stayed at the north end of the strip at the Tropicana hotel resort. We gambled, watched some shows, drank, shopped and saw a really good Elvis on Fremont street. Vegas was really packed and we had great time wandering about.

After Nate left I flew to Portland to see my mum. Harry was over there doing his flight training (since then he's received his private pilots license). Harry and I went to our usual pub downtown and my mum tried to make me fat. I stayed a few days and flew back to Vegas. The lads arrived much later that day after a very delayed flight (I think they had to take about three extra connections adding about seven hours flight time).
Before the fight we played pool at the #1 vegas pool club (where Graham kicked ass), gambled enough to have a very nice fillet steak before queuing to get into the fight. I didn't have a ticket but managed to get one for only $40 and I went straight down and sat with the boys (who paid $400!). Anyway we drank Bud and watched the fights which were awesome live (lots of blood). The main fight was amazing and the atmosphere was great. Silva dominated the fight beating Franklin to take the title. Cheers for the invitation Graham, that's the first fight I've seen. Now I wish I had used the golden boy tickets I had a couple of years ago. The next UFC is in Manchester in about a week which I will miss but Belfast in June is tempting (any takers?). Sunil do you fancy that too?

At the beginning of November I went to see Elton John with Natalie on her birthday. For an old guy he can sing his ass off, it was a great show. That definitely was the end of summer here and my ass would be frozen until just last week. My mum and step dad come over in December for xmas. We tried to have a good time even though everyone (except me) caught some sort of vomiting flu which made them hurl over all my stuff. Due to some paperwork problem my mum wasn't allowed back in the states. She's in Leeds, UK just now and should be allowed home in a couple of weeks. That's a long holiday.

On Dec 30, Natalie and I flew to New York so I could finally see Times Square on New Years eve and see that bloody ball go down. We didn't see it in the end since you have to stand in the cold for ten hours. We went to a couple of house parties instead. It was good but next year I'm going to wrap up and see that ball drop! Nice to see you again Sunil and Einav. Cheers for finding the parties and showing us those cool pubs. I still can't believe the budda bar you took us to charged $25 for a drink, no wonder people were ordering vodka by the bottle ($300!).

New York was the beginning of a busy January of trips for me. Less than a week after new York Natalie and I drove (yes drove) from Toronto to Memphis for the annual Elvis birthday celebrations. I went last year to and we couldn't resist another trip. This time though we drove through five US states to get there. On the way we drove through New York state into Ohio where we stayed in Columbus. It was only a short stop and we left the next day arriving in the home of country music, Nashville, Tennessee. We stole some drinks at the executive lounge and went to see the live radio show at the Grand Ole Opry. A lot of bands played that we never heard of but the atmosphere was great. Nashville has great nightlife, We drank at BB Kings after the show and watched some more great live music. The next day were on our way again and we reached Memphis by early afternoon. We went straight to my dream house and it was perfect as usual. The xmas lights always stay up until after Elvis' birthday and they really make a big effort. We stayed for two nights and on the last day we went to the house again early to see the major pronounce it Elvis day and the US military were there to honor Elvis' military service. After the ceremony we jumped on the highway and drove straight to Tupelo, Mississippi to see the birthplace of the king. It was only a one bedroom shack but I've always wanted to see where he was born. There were hundreds of people there that day since they were opening the new birthplace museum focusing on Elvis' childhood days. We went back to Memphis and spent our last night on Beale street before heading home the next day spending a night in Louiseville, Kentucky on the way. It was a good trip, I think we'll fly next year :-)

Every year Lotus have a conference for their software products and they always hold it at a small place called Walt Disney World, Florida. My company decided to send me this year and at the end of January I flew to Florida and spent week in the land where dreams come true. As a surprise Natalie took Ashley too the same week not telling her I would be there. She was so shocked when she saw me she almost shat her pants. I went to conference in the mornings and the we'd hit the theme parks during the afternoon and evenings. We took a million photos, the best of which appear on our holiday DVD and I'll put a bunch on the site soon. I don't think there's a better place to have a conference. The hotel resort was a New Orleans style resort called Port Orleans and it was huge. During the last couple of days we hired a car and went to seaworld to see Shamu and his friends. That place is fantastic and has a lot more 'real' stuff to offer than disney. The people who own Budweiser own Seaworld and they have a brewery on site and I did a cool tasting tour where they let you sample their best stuff. Thanks to Nate and Pip-squeak for making it such a magical trip.

I chilled out most of February after all those trips. I didn't take Chewy on the drive or Florida so we had a lot of quality time to make up for. In March I went to see Larry the Cable guy (canadian comedian) and I saw some other live bands at my local live joint. At the beginning of April Aileen came to see Chewy and I for a couple of days. Chewy pretended not to recognise her right away but he soon remember her. I think his memory came back after she gave him all of his presents. The coolest thing Aileen brought was a small dog kilt which she found for Chewy in Vancouver. We were meant to go snowboarding that weekend but Aileen caught a cold and was sick for the entire time! Anyway, it was nice to see you and thanks for the chocolate. For the Chewy fans out there , Chewy is doing very well and is now about one and half. He still plays like a puppy and has grown even more affectionate. He never leaves my side and even sits under my chair when I'm using my mac. That's about it I think for this update. Oh, I saw a UK artist last week called James Morrison. Those of you in the UK will know him. His CD is awesome and he's even better live. This Friday I'm going to see Billy Joel in Toronto so he can remind me I'm getting older. For the summer I've got tickets for Bo Diddley (he aint dead yet), Manu Chao, and T in the Park. Yes, I will be returning to Glasgow for a week round about the 6th of July. Aileen hooked me up with Sunday tickets and since Ebay have taken a load of their site getting Saturday tickets at the gate should be easy. Sunil make sure you book too, there's a good lineup this year.

Last minute news is that my Escort has been sold :-( it's only been a few days and I miss it but it was feeling rather weird the last few weeks and I thought I would never make it home each night. It had only 246K on the clock so it had so many years left in her. I hope the new owner will be happy with it. I bought a Chevy Impala which almost drives itself. There's a three person sofa in the front and all the lights work automatically so all I do is steer! And the bloody thing is huge! takes me about ten minutes to park it. I'm hoping the new amp and sub I'm going to put in it will liven it up a bit.

That's me off now. Thanks for reading all of this. Next time it won't be as long because I'm not going to wait six months again. Shout outs go to Davy (why are you never online and meet me in NYC for a pissup, zoom are now doing direct flights), my little pip-squeak, lady Nate, jacquie who's wedding invitation did not arrive yet, Ian and Norah who's invitations didn't arrive either, wuffty, Simon, Harry, ma maw, Sonia, Tash, all the old uni people and their kids, Helen, Yvonne, my toy girl Ya Ya, the Zanoni clan and all their kids, youngest sibling Eunice and Carl, and not forgetting my little bud Chewy. Goodbye.

August 26 2006 4:00pm EST
Hello Everyone. I hope everyone is doing well and living it large. Chewy and I are doing well and have survived our first Ontario summer. I can't believe how hot it got during July. I think it was near 40 sometimes and I was forced to buy a portable air conditioner just to be able to survive. It's the humidity that kills you over here, it's like walking in a steam room outside. Summers almost over now so it feels like spring now and then the mega low temperatures will hit. Chewy loved the snow as a pup, he jumps around like a little rabbit since he's so small.

My last update was around the beginning of June. My mum came to visit me at the start of June and told me to get off my diet because I was fading away and made me fresh currys everyday and nagged me every moment to get married and have kids. I dragged her and Chewy to the Woofstock doggy festival in Toronto where they celebrate all things doggy. There were hundreds of stalls selling everything from pet clothes to pet ice cream. There were thousands of people there and most brought their dogs so Chewy had a brilliant time sniffy about 1000 butts. There was even a doggy beauty pageant on a huge stage. Also in June I went to the Pride Parade in downtown Toronto. It's part of the official Pride week and it was very loud, colorful and gay! There was good music and everyone was in a good spirits so it was good fun. Afterwards I went to Church Street with my friend Helen who gave me a tour of the gay party street which was packed with people from the parade. I went to a lesbian bar and whilst I was using the urinal two girls walked in and went in the cubicle to chat about hot girls they had seen and then upstairs hot girls were making out all over the place. I'm planing to go back wearing a 'Chasing Amy T-shirt'.

In July I went back to Glasgow for about a week. I started off at 'T in the Park' which was awesome as usual. Aileen managed to get a Saturday ticket at the last moment from work and we got it for face value too. We had great time there, drinking plenty of T jumping around a lot. My favorite act was Damian Marley who made that whole tent shake. We didn't have tickets for Sunday but we went anyway and we managed to find someone selling tickets last minute for only 40 quid each, a bargain. My favorite tent over there was the new tent 'Silent Disco' where you wear headphone and they have two DJs and you can tune into either of them. It's a crazy thing to watch and people just sing out loud. See my vids section for clips from it. As soon as T finished I went up north for a wee tour of the highlands. I spent the first night in Inverness then went to see Loch Ness, then went across to Skye and stayed in Portree before heading down to Dunoon. It was a great tour and a bit different than my normal hanging out in Glasgow each night holidays although I did try and make up for that every other night I was there. I didn't get to see everyone this time but managed to see Nicola, Richard and baby Sarah, Davy Lau, Graham from EDS, May Gill, Big John Kennan and Heidi, and my aunt and cousins. Nic you still need to send me pictures of Sarah. I'm thinking about coming back for new years so I'll hopefully catch up with the rest of you them.

I got back to Canada just in time for a festival I've been looking forward to all year. It's held every year in Collingwood and it's the largest (officially from this year) Elvis festival in the world. Five days of shows, competitions, parades, stalls, food and everything Elvis. For the occasion I grew back my Elvis haircut and wore large gold sunglasses (see my Collingwood pictures). The impersonators where the best I've ever seen and the whole place was packed with people. I stayed a fantastic B&B which I already knew was for sale and I thought I could buy it and just work two hours a day (that's one more hour than I do now) and chill but at half a million it was a big steep and when the festival was over there was no-one left. They was multiple large stages, theater shows and a large area for the big acts. I saw Shawn Klush at the area doing his Elvis Vegas years act and he was so realistic it was scary. Wee Ashley popped up on the Sunday and stole my wig and glasses. She even entered the youth talent competition singing 'Don't cry daddy'. It got better after that because another Elvis impersonator called Gino lost his voice and let Ashley go on stage to sing with him at the theater. There were hundreds of people there and she sung well with no stage fright, a natural star. I'll be back to Collingwood every year, the king lives!

This month has flown by too. Two weeks ago I went to Fergus for their huge Celtic festival and highland games. There must have been about 25000 people there. It was very professionally put on with tons of things to see and do. The highland games were going on two fields with the usual events like tug-o-war, caber tossing, sack tossing. There was a highland dancing competition with about 400 dancers. At the same time as that all you could hear was the pipe bands, about forty of them competing for the best band competition. They had a great opening ceremony where they had a mass highland dance with the whole field covered with dancers and then a mass pipe band show. There was tons of Scottish souvenirs and home cooked food. I had a scotch pie and square sausage for lunch. For the occasion I wore my camo kilt which I'm glad I did because it was roastin. See the pics on the link on the left. Last week I tried out my first game of softball. The finance department invited us to a picnic and combined it with a softball challenge. I practiced some batting and catching before jumping straight into the game (in which we were the runners-up). I only got one chance to bat but I hit the ball so that was excellent. I think I'll hit the batting cages next year so I can go for a home run next year :-)

Chewy the wee rascal is doing very well and is just as playful as ever. I've been looking for a wee brother for him so I can watch them go mental together but haven't found one I like yet. I went to see a Morkie last week and was almost going to buy him but then a car went past and he took off down the road and never came back! the owner had to walk down the road and go get him, he did seem a bit mental so I'm glad I didn't buy that one. Aileen is doing well in Glasgow and is enjoying her very busy job. The good thing is they go to the pub at her office (unlike here) so that make it every more fun. She's still staying at her Hyndland pad so give her a call if you ever want to go out for a beer. Davy is still in the closet but he plans to come out any day now. Next time I come over dude I check out that club you keep telling me about. You should come over for a visit before winter hits, we can drive to New York.

Okay I think I've said enough so I'll sign out now. Shoutouts to all the new and almost new babies in Glasgow, Harry who's flying high in Portland, CJ in Vancouver, Sally and Jason in London (good luck with the new hoose), all the old uni crowd, Davy 'Non-Gay' Lau, and all of the Canada crowd. Bye for now. Ami

May 18 2006 10:00pm EST
Hello all. I know it's been ages since my last update, it's been a busy few months. Firstly, a Chewy update. Chewy is now ten months old and is about 12lbs. He lost some of his black hairs but he still is a nice blonde/red/black color. He goes mad every time we go out and humps every dog in sight (males too). He has learned to sit, lay down and put out his paw out and he now pees and sh!ts outside as well as in his potty at home. He’s looking forward to his Glasgow hogmanay visit this year.

My last update was at the end of November and since then Chewy kept us very busy. It took ages for him to stop leaving puddles (and little lumps) everywhere. He was better by Christmas but he whined a lot because I wouldn't share my turkey with him. We had a quiet Christmas and we made up for it by getting pissed and going to downtown Toronto to see the fireworks. It was mobbed there, live bands, ice skating and a cool light display to finish (see vids). It's not as busy as the Glasgow / Edinburgh celebrations but it's much better than Vancouver where they don't do anything.

Six days after new years I was on a plane to heading to Memphis so I could be there for the annual Elvis birthday celebrations. I've been there once before but this trip was extra special because of all of the fans. Graceland still had xmas decorations because Elvis liked to keep them up until after his birthday. We saw Elvis impersonators at Beale street, live blues at BB Kings and the Rum Boogie Cafe and ate a lot of good southern cooking. Last time I was there I missed the Gibson factory tour and this time I did the complete tour and saw how they make their guitars, very impressive. On his actual birthday (january 8th) we went to the Graceland where the mayor declared it officially Elvis day and they cut birthday cake and served it to everyone who turned up (and loads of people did, I only went for the free cake :-)). I think I went back to Graceland about four times this time and even hired a car so I could get there faster. I was going to go to Tupelo to see the house where he was born but I decided to save that for next time. That's my Elvis fix until July when Canada's largest Elvis festival hits Collingwood, Ontario. I've already got my room booked and tickets for the Elvis impersonator finals.

When I got back Ails and I went to see Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith, it was a great gig even though the venue was too big. I caught the Arctic Monkeys last month, this time at a small barrowlands sized hall and BB king live at Niagara Falls a couple of weeks ago (he performed well for an 80-year-old). We've not had many good bands since so I've been checking out some local acts at a local rock/blues club.

The biggest news since November is Aileen’s return to the UK. Ail's company in Vancouver was pretty small and they went into a bad patch and they had to close their doors so Ails had to look for another job here. She didn't have much luck here and so we decided she should try back home (the pay is better and there’s tons more jobs). After only a few weeks of hard searching (that's what Ails said but I think she drank Strongbow a lot) she got offered a great job with JP Morgan in Glasgow. It sounds like a good position with a good career progression. Ail’s now has a cool pad in the west end and gets to go to London next week for lots of training. Email Aileen for any nights out so she can build up her stamina to her former uni glory days. If everything goes to plan you can see Chewy at Aileens at the start if December.

Not much more to write this time. My job is going well and I am still enjoying myself here. I even had my first electric guitar lesson on Tuesday. It's going to be steep learning curve but I bought a new electric Washburn a few months ago and I'm getting nowhere on my own. I haven't even taken my amp out the box yet. I've just booked time off for my next Scotland visit. I'll be coming back at the start of July (just before the T in the Park weekend) for a couple of weeks, I won't be staying there the whole time I want to spend a week traveling around Italy in the middle of my visit. I haven't got T in the Park tickets yet so if anyone knows anyone who is selling some then please email me. The lineup isn't as great as it normally is but the atmosphere is amazing. I'll email you all nearer the time so I can arrange some pissups.

That's all for now, goodbye from me and Chewy. Special shout outs go to little princess Raven, Nate Zucchini, Aileen, Yvonne, Helen, Dmitri, Chewy, Davy, all the old Aon crowd, the whistler crowd, Sally and JJ, Hazel, Jaydawg in Van, Harry, CJ, the McGaws and the old uni crowd. ps If Aileen tells anyone I'm going to turn 34 next month don't believe her because she has added a couple of years, I'll actually be 32 :-)

November 13 2005 10:00pm EST
Hello all. It's not been too long since my last update so not too much as happened. I'd like to start by saying congratulations to Nicola and Richard on the arrival of their beautiful young baby Sarah (send me the latest pics). This month I've got some job news and travel tales but before I tell you what's been happening I'd like to announce the arrival of a new member to our family. His name is Chewy (because he looks like Chewbacca from Star Wars) and he is a cute little mixbreed (Pomeranian and Shitzu) puppy. We saw Chewy at a pet store and went to see him everyday for weeks before we finally took him home. I even named him the first day I saw him. He is very playful and extremely clever. He's still going potty in the wrong places but we've got him a special puppy litter tray which he's getting used to. I've been banned from wrestling with him since it teaches him to bite. There's more pictures of Chewy in the pictures section and some vids too.

Aileen spent a week cleaning the old flat in Vancouver, boxed up all our stuff and then gave it all to a removal company to truck it all the way over here. A week later, on 30 September, she flew over here to our empty apartment. Luckily all of the stuff arrived the next day so we now have a full flat again. Aileen only had a weekend off before continuing her programming job. This time however, she gets up at 8:30am, walks next door to turn on the coffee machine and then sits on the couch with her laptop coding whilst listening to a music channel. Easy life! she tells me that she's very busy working, clean and looking after the puppy but I don't believe her. I don't really mind as long as my dinner is waiting for me when I get home :-) Aileen is doing well and enjoying life over here although we're not looking forward to the east coast winter.

Chewy's been taking up most of our time lately but before he arrived we spent a long weekend in Montreal. Montreal has cool shopping and a lively nitelife scene. They're a bit biased towards French speakers (all the signs are in French too) but it gives you the feeling that you're in a different country. We also went to Niagara Falls for the day last week with Tracey and Calum (they flew over for the weekend). Niagara is a crazy tourist town and is very tacky. The falls themselves are very impressive (and very noisey). We've not been much further out since we're still exploring the local area (mostly pet shops just now!).

I've got some job news too. I was contracting at my current place (TDL group) and they offered me a permanent job last week (which I accepted). There's a good bunch of people working there and there's always a lot going on. Last week we had our Halloween pizza party and everyone dressed up. IT went as 'Software pirates of the carribean' (see pics section) and we won the competition for best dressed department.

Apart from the above I've started looking for a new house to buy. I'm tired of renting now and my job is permanent I should be able to get a mortgage. Somewhere down by the water would be cool with a big basement we can turn into our home theatre.

That's all for now, I'm off to take the dog to the park (he loves to run). I'll put up another update before xmas and they'll be more Chewy pics and hopefully some good house news. bye for now, Ami

August 26 2005 10:00pm EST
Hello Everyone. I hope you are all well and enjoying life. I know it's been ages since my last update but things have been a bit hectic and I wanted to wait until I was a wee bit settled again before I made another update.

Before I fill you in with all the stuff I've done since the last update I have to give you the big news ...no it's not a marriage or a baby... I have left Vancouver! It's hard to believe it's been two years since I landed in Vancouver and did my stint in Whistler then ended up back in Vancouver. After I finished my job at HSBC I did some traveling (details later) and then I thought I better get another job. I started looking around and applied to a few but there weren't many going in Vancouver so I started to apply for jobs in the east coast. Out of the blue I got a call from a company in Toronto (whom I sent an application to but didn't think I'd get a call since I was in Vancouver) and I did a few telephone interviews. The interviews went really well and they offered me a position (same kind of stuff I've been doing for years). The job wasn't local but over 2000 miles away in Oakville, Ontario (30 mins from Toronto). The company is pretty famous over here so I wanted to work for them and it's close to Niagra, New York (1.2 hrs by plane), and not even too far from my mate Sunil so I couldn't resist trying something new and continuing the adventure I started two years ago. They wanted me to start right away but I had just bought a car (which I need to get to work once I got there) and I had loads of stuff to take so Ails and I packed up the car and drove 3000 miles across Canada to Toronto. It was an awesome trip and we saw some cool stuff along the way. The whole trip took six days and you can see the photos in the pictures section of the website.

We arrived in Toronto on Thursday 11th August and I started work the very next day. The people at work were cool from day one and I've not met soon many friendly people since I started my first job at the Student Loans company all those years ago (Jacquie - you remember taking me to work on my first day when I started my placement?). Anyways I've met a lot of cool people during my first two weeks and I think it's going to be great here. I'd like to say a shout out to Helen, Yvonne, Nancy, Natalie, Dmitri and all the rest of the gang. They'll be plenty of pictures to follow but all those interested can check out our company website at www.timhortons.com. Aileen had to fly back to Vancouver when we got here to sort out the flat and her job but she should be here in a few weeks. We just received news that we were approved for our apartment so we will be living in a place called Port Credit from the start of September (couple of pics in the pictures section in toronto trip pics 4). I'll post my pics and news from Toronto and work in the next couple of weeks. We really like Toronto it's much more happening than Vancouver and downtown is like a cross between London and New York.

Right, last time I wrote my update we were on our way to San Diego and Tijuana. We loved it there and it instantly became one of my favorite American cities. It's got cool malls, a busy downtown area and some cool beaches not to mention all the attractions nearby like Seaworld and the safari park. We didn't manage to catch U2 there but we saw a similar band called Ash :-) . During that mad Ash concert I broke my cool digital camera that I've had since I got here grrrrrrrr. So that means no pics from San Diego or Tijuana. San Diego would pics would have been cool but Tijuana was stinking so you didn't miss anything there. I think the only reason people go to Tijuana is to take advantage of the laxed drinking rules which was the case when we got there because it was the middle of the spring break over here. Tons of babes everywhere, I mean tons of people everywhere (it was a typo Aileen!). Anyway we had a great time there and I'll be back there one day for sure.

Shortly after that I finished up at HSBC and booked a trip back home to Scotland. The main reason was because Scott was marrying Sarah and there's no way I was going to miss that. I wish I had gone to the stag do too which was held in New York (good one Scotty). The wedding was one of the best I've been to. The ceremony at the chapel was emotional (sniff), dinner was amazing, and the evening party kicked a*se. Scotty looked cool in his trendy 21st Century kilt and Sarah looked awesome in her dress. I also looked good in my nightwatch camouflage kilt which I had made especially for the wedding. unfortunately I don't yet have pics of the wedding because my camera was still busted at that point but I'm going to ask Sarah to send me some pics to place on the website.

After the wedding I planned to just chill in Glasgow for a while but out of the blue I get offered a chance to go cheaply to the Dominican Republic with my cousin and some mates. We jumped on the plane a couple of days later and I flew 10 hrs back toward Canada and landed in Puerto Plata and we had a crazy week drinking and partying. Harry has some pictures of that trip and I'll post them when I get a hold of them. After the trip I ended up back in Glasgow and I saw some cool jobs in Rome and the netherlands that I couldn't resist applying for. I wanted the job in Rome but the agency asked for far too much money (about 400 quid a day) so the company decided to recruit internally. I was disappointed but I thought it wasn't meant to be so I flew home to Vancouver where Ails was waiting for me

The above happened in about May and in june it was birthday time for me. As usual I wanted to go somewhere so we went to White River Amphitheater near Seattle for the Endfest music festival. The lineup included: Social Distortion, Queens of the Stone Age, Interpol, Hot Hot Heat, Stereophonics, United State of Electronica, The Bravery, Ash, Kaiser Chiefs, The Caesars, and Kasabian. It was a great even but the beer was too expensive!!!.

A couple of weeks after that I persuaded Aileen that we should drive 5 hrs to Penticton and catch the Penticton 2005 Elvis festival. We went there and had a great time. The Penticton Highland games were taking place the same weekend and there were over 30 Elvis impersonators in town. We saw some great acts and we visited some of the local wineries while we were there. Check out the pics section of the website for details.

I forgot to say that just before we went to the Elvis festival I bought a car. Calum and I have been testing driving cars for a while but I never really saw one I liked so one day I stepped out of my condo block and there was one there for sale and a few days later it was mine. Not too fancy. It's a Escort GT and it goes very fast. Ails loved it but didn't expect me to take it to Portland the following weekend and pimp it out with a new cd deck, amplifier and sub woofer. Sounds very loud now!!!

During the summer we (Calum, Tracey, Aileen and I) took a trip up north to do some camping. It was cool, nice barbecue, fire and a lot of booze. Check out the pictures. There also pictures there of when we checked out the sunset on Jerico beach which is not far from our condo. Nice view of west vancouver and the downtown skyline.

It wasn't long after the camping trip that I heard about my job East so it check out the pictures section for the photos of our 3000 mile epic trip across Canada. I've spent the last couple of weeks settling in and now our condo is approved things are sorted. I doubt we'll be back to Glasgow this Hogmanay because New York is so near and we both want to try our the new year Time's Square experience but I think we'll try and get over early next year for a visit. Noone has emailed about Nic yet so if you've had the baby congrats otherwise someone please email me cos I always want to know what going on over there. My old mate is getting married soon so I just want to wish the happy couple all the best. That's all for now, I'll put up another update next month and let you know how I'm getting on. If anyone uses messenger email me your address at amimail@yahoo.com and we can have a chat. Bye for now, Ami.

March 17 2005 10:00pm PST
Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. It's been ages since my last update. I think I got a bit lazy. I takes ages to update the pics and vids so that's why I never get around to it. From now on I'm going to update this section more regular since it doesn't take as long. Life in Canada is good, it's been like spring for the last few weeks and we've been enjoying the sunshine. My job is going well and I'm meeting more folk through it (shout out to Hazel Wheesht!). Aileen is on a lookout for another job since her company reduces in size almost daily. Vancouver is having a Celtic festival this week with bands, food, booze. It started last Saturday with a big market and then on Sunday a St Patrick's day parade (see pics, vids). There was a stall selling custom funky kilts and if you look at the pics section you can see me trying on my new kilt (camo colour!).

The crazy scissor sisters came to Vancouver last month and it was a excellent gig. We also went to see The Music/Kasabian which was also good. We've got tickets to see Snow Patrol in two months time so that should be fun. Apart from the bands we're also all booked up for San Diego at easter. Can't wait for the warm weather and some time off. There's a special trolley bus that takes you from San Diego to Mexico for only $1!!

There's a good chance I may be coming back at the end of April for a week since my bud Scotty (I heard you had fun at your New York Stag do) is marrying his sweetheart Sarah. I'm checking out flights this week. The jetlag will kill me again but it's always nice to come home for a visit. I hope someone bought me 'T in the park' tickets!! that thing is selling out faster every year. I like festivals, it's a shame they don't have any decent ones over here. I'll send an email out if I'm defo going to come over.

That's all for now. No major news. Just trying to enjoy Canada. We've been out looking for a car for the last few weeks. I want a Cadillac or an old classic car and Aileen wants a MX5 or a Ford Mustang convertible. I also some cool trucks but I keep changing my mind. We want to get one before summer starts so we can do some traveling/camping during the summer. I hope everyone is well. Please email any news to my yahoo account, amimail@yahoo.com. Bye for now, Ami.

November 01 2004 10:00pm PST
Hello Everybody. That last update took me less than four weeks and now two months have gone by and no word. I thought I'd better get an update up here before I stop getting those million monthly hits I normally get. Life is good here and after my culture shock of landing back in Vancouver (after Whistler) and the shock of working for a large corporation has relaxed a bit. Work is actually pretty good. I work downtown next to the harbor and our office has a cool view. I work with a good bunch of people and my boss is a fellow pisshead. The department is very big and they've got me swamped with work but it's nice to be back in that sort of job again after the Whistler job although Whistler was a good skive (Jason K you'll vouch for that). Life in Vancouver grows on you too. We've been trying a lot of new restaurants and pubs. We're also meeting up with a new crowd we met a couple of weeks ago so we can try and get to know more people here.

Aileen is doing well too although she wouldn't mind working for a bigger company so she can get more holidays. Of course I don't rub it in that I get 22 days whilst she gets only 10 :-) Apart from that she's having a great time and managing to cope very well staying with me. As long as she has my clothes washed and ironed and my dinner ready she doesn't get beat up too much. Ail's is very excited at the moment because we'll be arriving in Glasgow on December 31st for a fun-filled week. It'll be her first visit for about two and a half years so she'll want to see as many people as possible. I think we should book that bar Republic again, it was a good laugh last time and we'll be able to get that cool pizza again. Jamie will have to bring his woman this time so we can see if he was making up this pregnancy thing :-). I'll need to send an email out to see who's around for new years. Sunil is coming from Boston and he's up for a few good sessions too. Calum and Tracey should be there around December 18th and they'll be coming back around the same time as us on January 8th.

I'm looking for a flat to buy here now but it's a tough market and not too many deals. It's a choice between a cool condo or a house much further out of the downtown area. Calum has been helping me to look for a good car or truck because winter is fast approaching and that means snowboarding. We want to get a good SUV or something so we can travel up to whistler when the season opens at the end of the month. They've been getting a ton of snow in the past few weeks so it should be a great season.

I'm going to go now but be sure to check out the November pics for some snapshots of my office, the Whistler pad and a few others of the area where we live. I hope everyone is well. Take care.

August 26 2004 11:30am PST
How's it goan, Eh? This update comes less than a month since the last one since there is news to tell. First of all I had a great trip to Glasgow last week, it was great that so many people could make it out. Special mentions to Davy (thanks for dinner and hanging out so much, was just like old times), May (thanks for lunch and dinner and the long chat!), Kathleen (thanks for the Monday roast and the brill pissup at the Cascade) and also Harry plus the rest of the family for taking care of me. Just in case anyone does not know Jamie gave us some fantastic news while we out last Friday, he's going to be a father in February!! Congrats to him and Kirsten (hope that's right) and I'm sure he'll be wanting some tips from Martin. I took a lot of pictures in Glasgow so check them while you're on the site.

Good news, I finally got back into a higher level IT job! I am now a Groupware consultant for HSBC and will be starting next week in Vancouver. It's a great position with good dosh and benefits. It's on the same street downtown as Aileen's work. Taking the job means I have to leave Whistler but I'll still be going up most weekends during the winter to snowboard. I'm officially moving to Van (Aileen's place in English Bay) at the weekend. We're going to try and keep the pad going at Whistler so that means an invitation to you all if you ever fancy a ski/snowboard holiday and think you can catch up with Ails and I on the slope.

I'm off now to go and find a frame for my Glasgow pics and find a place to store all the Scotland souvenirs I bought. Ail's was really happy because I brought so many biscuits/tizer/irn bru and potato scones back. I'll update the site again next month and let you know how the new job is going and I'll even take some pictures out from my office which faces the harbor!! bye for now, Ami

July 29 2004 10:00pm PST
Hello all. As usual it's taken me ages to write. I've been enjoying the fantastic summer we've been having over here, it's been roasting since the first day of spring. There's a lot to do here in the summer, we've already been whitewater rafting, Ziptreking through the forest, trail walking and loads more. The lakes are packed with people hanging out and the mountain has been transformed from a winter wonderland to a bike park. I'm still working at the Internet place and having a laugh, Ails is working hard as a programmer (finally back in IT) in Vancouver. She's got an apartment slap bang in the middle of Vancouver's gay district. I'm still in Whistler and have got myself a cool condo right in the heart of the village (right about the liquor store!). The job market is picking up here so I'm going to try and and get a job in the city, although it will be weird working in a skyscraper after being in Whistler for a year. I couldn't make it for 'T in the Park' but I'm going to try and come back to Scotland in the next few weeks for a short visit. Check out the new videos and pics I've added. Hope everyone is well, next update sooooon. bye for now.

April 19 2004 10:00pm PST
Hey. It's been ages since my last update. I'm still in Whistler and I'm having a great time up here living the country life. Aileen is still surviving living with me and has come to the conclusion that I'm totally mad. Since I last wrote I passed my driving test first time, too me much longer in the UK and if any of you have seen me drive you'll feel sorry for the Canadians. I also just finished my seasonal job with 'Whistler Blackcomb' (Intrawest) and was lucky to get another IT job up here right away. I am now the Systems Administrator for a chain of internet cafes here in Whistler. I support everything including the servers, routers, switches, PCs and anything else they need. It should be good and I have a lot of control since I am the IT department! The snowboard season comes to an end shortly but I have managed to survive without any injuries and have improved a lot (Jacquie that means me and you in a race as soon as we get a chance). Oh yes, I forgot Ails is now pregnant. Spring is here and there's a huge music/snowboard festival in the village and there's tons of bands and pro riders showing off their skills. We'll be here all summer and I'm going to buy a good bike and ride the bike park. Apart from that they'll be kayaking, hiking, trail riding and loads more activities. Life is very different to the big city but it's fine and there's more outdoor activities. By the way, Ails is not pregnant, that's just a wee shocker for her mum. Check the pics section for new pictures and there's even a video of me snowboarding. Davy has organised my 'T in the Park' ticket and I'll be there enjoying a lot of T in July. By the time this message goes live Nic and Rich must be married, Karen must be pregnant again, Jacquie's got to be engaged, Davy must be a millionaire, Mike+Lo must have set a date, and Marqy must have decided to say 'f*ck it' and call his old mate. Anyway, I'm off now but it won't be long until I'm back for a while so get those spare rooms ready and we'll gave a very-late goodbye party for me. Take care all.

November 28 2003 11:00pm PST
Hi. It's been quite an eventful month but before I mention what I've been upto I'd like to say congratulations to Martin and Karen who gave birth to wee baby Owen yesterday. I think it was best that you didnt call the baby Ami because the world only needs one Ami. This month saw the arrival of my room mate Aileen who is coping very well living with me. We have kitted out the flat with loads of gadgets and have already put some xmas lights up on the balcony. Work is going well but those ten hour shifts can be tiring but then I do get three days in a row off each week! If you check the November pics you'll see that Ails and I went to the city of lights this month, Las Vegas baby. It was a fantastic trip and Ails was forced to go and see the Elvis-a-rama memorabilia museum and an brilliant Elvis impersonator (see movie clips). Vegas was great but we didn't win much (and we didnt lose much either) so we still have to work. We saw the Hoover dam when we were there and it was spectacular (and scary when you looked straight down). We left Vegas on a very warm Tuesday and arrived back in Whistler to find it had been snowing for 24hrs non-stop so it was a winter wonderland. Everyone in the village was excited because that's the weather we need for the extreme sports they have here. A few days later I was all padded up and on the way up the chair lift where Aileen gave me my first snowboarding lesson. I fell a lot on the first day but I got a bit better on the second day. I am going to go up a few days a week and have been told I will progress fast. Snowboarding is as good as everyone said it would be. I wont be coming back to Glasgow for new year because the flights at the time I wanted them were $1500. If I find cheaper flights I'll try and come over but it's unlikely. Ails and I will be over for 'T in the Park' though, as soon as they confirm the date I'll be booking a flight. I'm off now but I hope everyone is well. Take care.

October 28 2003 10:00am PST
Hello all. Regular updates eh? well looks like I'll need to change that to monthly updates since I've been too busy to get around to doing any more. I got the Ebay job but also got another at the same time. The choice was working in Burnaby on crap shifts or working in the Winter resort of Whistler up in the hills supporting users all over the resort. Well I've been living in Whistler for three weeks now and am slowly getting to know my way around. I'm staying out of the village in a cool flat with a balcony that overlooks the hills and trees. All you city-slickers would love it here, loads of fresh air and wilderness. Last week it was all blue skies and today it snowed all day and the hills were covered deep. The last couple of seasons haven't seen enough snow but this looks promising. I've bought my snowboard, bindings, boots and all the rest and can't wait for the season to start. I've added new pics to the site so check them out cos it's hard to describe but it's as cool as hell here. I'm working for Whistler Blackcomb (Intrawest) which owns many resorts and I'm working in the IT department doing helpdesk/desktop support. I always enjoyed that before and it's even better now that because our offices/retail stores are scattered around and we get to spend time away from our desks. The nitelife here is great too with tons of pub/restaurants/clubs and although it ain't that busy now it's only 30 days left until the gondalas are open for the start of the season and we'll see almost 16000 people hitting this place daily.

September 13 2003 10:00pm PST
Hello. It's been a while since my first update but I promise they'll be regular updates from now on. I see not many people have registered and started using my free and uncensored forums. Please register and start the chat going. Marq has not been slagged off enough yet! Also post any news from the UK and let me know how the weddings went. I'm doing fine, didn't get the job I went for but there's a few more possibilites cropping up. Ails and I are going for Ebay interviews next week so I may, ironically, end up working for the website that I spent most of my time for the past year. I joined a gym today and intend to get back into shape before the snowboarding season starts where I shall be kicking ass after just two weeks of training (Bring it on Dude!).
I've posted some new pictures on the site so have a look at a few of the trips that we've been taking. We have another boat trip, this time to a wee Island and it was superb, there's pics from Playland where they have crazy rides (I went on all of them! well maybe one) and finally pics from the long drive Ails and I went on to Whistler and beyond. It's been a lot of fun. Marq came back from his holiday last week with yellow hair, he blames it on the sun. Any more damage to his hair and he'll need to join the shaven community. Marq will be revamping his section real soon so lookout for some cool geekness from him. Anyone else who wants a link let me know or if you want any more forums on the boards.
I'm off now but I'll update you real soon with the latest. laters, Ami.

August 10 2003 12:30pm PST
It's been a crazy few days but I'm finally over my jetlag and ready to start trying to adapt. If anyone of my friends or family are worried about me, don't. This place is fantastic and very safe. Aileen is my guide and she's looking after me and keeping me out of trouble.
Right, here's a quick summary of my first week. Monday - Flight was delayed for seven and a half hours so we were stuck at the airport all day. I was meant to be in Vancouver at 4:40pm but didnt get there until 11:30pm. The good thing was there were no queue. They declared me an official Landed Immigrant as of 11:58PM 04/07/2003. Watch out Canada. We took a cool limo to the flat and I went to sleep at 3am and woke up at 5am :-( Next few days we went out a lot. Check the pics. I applied for my Social Insurance Number on Tuesday so I can pay tax? and then we chilled by Kits beach and watched the sunset. I'm staying in an area called Kitsalano(Kits) which is a bit like the west end of Glasgow. It's cool with loads of shops, a beach, and loads of bars/restaurants. Marqy turned up Wednesday and we partyed until he left on Saturday. Loads of pool was played (ask Marqy was a "Slop" is) and many a pint was drank. The week was finished off with the fabulous fireworks display at English bay. We watched it from a boat owned by a guy at Tracey's work. Thats all for now. Keep looking at the website for the latest info.