George's visit.....

My son George was soon to be Canada bound with my long-standing friend, Stephen. In the meantime, I was taking on the task of manicuring our backyard and removing innumerable errant branches. Enter stage left or at least garden left, Colin Scruton; cousin, equine surgeon and all-round top fellow. He also happened to be a dab hand with a chainsaw as well a scalpel and I didn’t even have to refer to an edition of Bailey & Love’s Short Practice of Surgery to be vaguely useful.  We set about the task and in no time a mini tree appendage massacre was complete, and the trees were much more hirsute as a result. Ok hirsute is not a word normally used with the trimming of trees, but let a guy enjoy a little artistic license………Jeez. Anyhoo, George’s arrival was imminent, courtesy of our beloved friends Air Transat and off to the metropolis I travelled to collect their precious cargo. We spent the week immersed in all things Canadian, enjoying the great outdoors on Mount Washington, eating poutine and even visiting a staggeringly bewildering huge ‘outdoors’ store. Suffice to say that we only narrowly escaped exiting the store without George purchasing a full camo suit with added leaf embellishments and a bijou selection of firearms. The week was coming to an end all too soon and we had to make our way back to Vancouver for their flight the very next day. We had slightly misjudged our morning timings and as a consequence were running extremely late for our float plane. We shot down the highway at a most alarming speed and narrowly managed to arrive in time to catch our plane by the skin of our teeth, which is a positive boon as I am most attached to my teeth skin. A lovely meal in Vancouver ensued, accompanied by a few quaffable light ales and all in the great company of our Vancouver family Sholto, Berit & Finn.

The next morning, I said goodbye to George and Stephen and consoled myself with the knowledge that I would see George again in 7 weeks’ time, when he would come to celebrate our first Christmas in Canada……