Ten years since Hurrican Juan hit Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI

That definetly was a storm of the century. I had to work and afternoon, early evening shift the night it struck. I just managed to get home about an hour before it struck. My wife and I had put our kids to bed and then stayed up all night as one entire wall of our underground apartment was either a window or a door.
The next morning we spent looking around our neighborhood looking at the destruction. Many trees were down, many century old homes with century old windows were knocked out as the wind had used stones or acorns to smash them.

A shot from Point Pleasant Park, forever changed by the storm

Relaxing in the grass

One of the few squirrels still left behind.

Ian's new toys

On our trip back to Atlantic Canada, my son was able to go to Toys R Us twice, once at Dartmouth Crossing, and once at Charlettown Mall. He was able to buy a True Heroes Knight Playset and True Heroes Pirate Playset.

Pirates

Now my wife doesn't understand the lure of such toys, but for a young boy (and his Dad's) vivid imagination, these sets can provide endless hours of fun and excitement.

He also got from CubicFun a Mayflower 3d Puzzle. As in, this is a 1/100 scale sailing ship which brought some of the first English settlers to Northeastern North America. His older brother helped him build it.

Pirate set, soldier set, knights set.

One must go home to refresh your spirit

I was finally able to take my wife and two younger children and myself back to Atlantic Canada from Sept 13-22, 2013. It was nine years, seven months since I was able to go home. And what a great time we had. I will post a few shots here on this site, but will also blog at length of my trip on my Maritime Union blog.

Ian holding his new to musket and wearing my first uniform coat made for me in 1985!

Outside my Dad's house.

enjoying the spectacular view.

the home we will move to in the future.

 

 

downsizing my WW2 collection

I just returned from a visit back to my home in Nova Scotia, Canada. I will subsequently be blogging about my trip on my other blog Maritime Union.

From about 1975, my father and I collected Airfix figures to recreate battles which we were interested in. I have continued the collection with more expansions. I was able to move the majority of my collection to my father's home, these include all of my Napoleonic, WW2 and Cold War units. My collection is still in good condition and I will see about either downsizing it in the future.
I will be posting pictures of my enlarged armies over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Figure sets which I am debating to sell
 (plasticsoldierreview) I have several sets of these which I can part with.
(plasticsoldierreview) I have several of these which I could also part with.
(plasticsoldierreview) I no longer wish to hang onto my American units.
(plasticsoldierreview)  I also want to part with this set as well
(plasticsoldierreview) I also have a few too many of these. I have I believe 2 sets which could be up for grabs.
 and at least 2 sets of these as well. I have enough Esci and Revell WW2 Germans to fill out my units for the Normandy campaign.

Asakusa Samba Carnival 2013

On Saturday, August 31, 2013, my family took part in the Asakusa Samba Carnival. My kids were part of a Matsudo contingent. While they were chaning and advancing up the streets, my wife and I checked out Senso-Ji, a temple which began in 645 and is dedicated to Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy.

My wife, Emi and I outside one of the gates leading to Nakamise Dori, I wore my Che t-shirt in honor of the South American theme on the streets.

This was the first part of the group my kids were in. They were on a float, which can be seen on my youtube channel japanesehighlander as G Friends Dance Club in Asakusa Samba Carnival.

Leena, Ian and Emi enjoying some Kakigori, Snowcones with cola syrup! Mine was Lemon! It was pretty hot, about 34c inside a major city.

I have some other shots of the Carnival, which I will upload after my wife shows me how to with our other camera.

Kamagaya Fire service

There is a small park near our house. Last month, I had to chance to see the firefighters trim the grass over the emergency wells.

Ian with a pumper truck

Firefighters cutting the grass over the emergency wells.

A utility truck where the firefighters would chuck their weed whackers and brush cutters.

Big Hop Mall, Inzai, Chiba-prefecture, Japan

This is a garden style mall, with many outlet shops. Most of my Eddie Bauer clothes I buy here.
 

This is some of the new remodeling at  Big Hop Mall. This fountain was nice on a hot summer day. I then was told the sign told you not to do what we did.

Leena decided to climb on the new jungle gym outside the Wild One Outdoor shop.

Ian and Leena finally got a chance to be in a tumbler.

Arakawa World School Camp, August 24-28, 2013

WOW, I had a pretty busy but good week!
I had to finish up the Matsudo city Junior High school English Speech contest, then I had to do a special work assignment.

Back in June, we had an invitation to volunteer for this camp, which is put on by Arakawa-ku Board of Education. It's a massive program involving 20 Assistant English Teachers (the native English speaking ones,) 12 Japanese education student teachers, 10 Japanese teachers and about 140 Grade 6 students from all over Arakawa-ku's elementary schools. The event took place at Arakawa-ku's Summer education camp in Kiyosato, Yamanashi-ken, a 3 hour bus ride from Tokyo. The place was GREAT! The accommodations were similar to a YMCA conference centre. The food was superb and our students were top notch, as were the men and women to work with.

The pictures I took are of the teachers and some scenery.

Viren from California and I. This was taken in the Teacher's lounge which had a soft drink and beer vending machine! Each night, after we had our meetings, we'd go here to relax and have snacks which were provided. Usually they had hot dogs or sandwiches, or instant soup. There was coffee in the mornings.

Chris from Colorado, and Martin from Michigan

There is an interesting story involving this shot, but I leave that one for Martin to tell. It involves his teenage years. Viren, Chris, Martin and I all shared the room. The accommodations provided Japanese futons, Japanese style chairs and a table.

Jessica from Philadelphia, incidentally a fellow wargammer, and Matt from Belfast, Northern Ireland. We were coming back on the bus on August 28. We went up on the same bus and came back on it.

My buddy Tony

Tony and I are both from Nova Scotia and have been teaching in Asia since 1997.

Tony came to stay with us for 2 weeks. We went out to our favorite Indian restaurant, went to Costco twice. It was too hot for a bbq, but we did grill steaks.

On August 13, we sent him back to China, these are the shots from Chiba-New-Town station on the Hokuso-Kodan line, which also is a part of the Narita Sky Access Line.

See you Tony

To our great sorrow, this was the last time we saw him

Tony Blackmore passed away on August 27, 2022. Rest easy my friend 

Battle of Paoli 1777

This was a night attack on an American camp by the British.

(photo courtsey of Kerry DeLorey)

(photo courtsey of Kerry Delorey)