As I was driving around our neighbourhood yesterday, I noticed that there is a lot of interesting shrubbery. So I pulled out the camera.
The picture is below – click it to see a larger version.
Top left – is that a squirrel or a rooster?
Top right – see the candles? Festive!
Second row, right – what some people call “meatball trees”
Right side, third row – a bear and something – a rabbit?! – in a boat?
Bottom left – a shrine?
We don’t often do things the typical way, nor at the typical time. And usually that pays off – shorter lines, discounts…
Today, however, I went to pay our water bill for 2013. If you pay early enough in the year, you get a discount. In addition, this was the first day after the Christmas holidays.
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I went to the door where you usually go in to pay, and was sent to the back parking lot. They had set up a canopy, and about 150-200 chairs. They gave me a number, and I was directed to one of the chairs. There were about 100 people in front of me.
Every once in a while they led 20 or 30 people to the front, and we all wound our way through the chairs to find a new seat. Everyone was mildly amused.
In the end, they were very efficient. They must have gone through the line at a rate of about 30 seconds per person. Now we’ve paid for our water for 2013. Now, if only we can actually get a regular flow of water into the house…
People in line
So over the past few months some of you have heard bits and pieces of our attempt to get visas. Well, we have visas (yes, we’re legal!), but we’re attempting to get more permanent visas.
Some of my favourite posts from the past are here:
Well, without going back into every detail, I decided it was time to give you an overview of the past few months and what will be happening in the next few weeks. I figured some of you must be wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON! (Actually, sometimes I’m wondering what in the world is going on!!)
So, if you really want to know, listen to the podcast below. It should explain a little more.
(If for you’re reading this through the RSS feed, and for some reason can’t see the media player below, just go to the original post here.)
This past Friday I was one of the judges at an English Christmas song competition at a local junior high (here’s a post from another time when we did the same thing). Now’s your chance to see clips of the performances, and decide who you would pick!
Yes, at the end of the video you’ll see the actual results (if you behave yourself).
Don’t feel bad if you get it wrong. The judges had some disagreements too. 😉
We recently received this flyer from our local Sam’S Club. Apparently they have everything you need to prepare your Mexican Christmas dinner (which would be on the night of the 24th). See anything you recognize? (Hint: the first menu item on the top left is a well known Mexican Christmas shrimp dish)
