Snow Snow Snow

As I write this, I am looking forward to weeks skiing in the Alpes. I am all set, have gotten the gear ready, checked out the snow forecast (looking good) and even dyed my hair to get into character.

Should be a great week.

It would be wrong of me not to mention Easter in this blog. I attended a beatiful service today in Church of England and it just got me into the right frame of mind. Actually, it reminded me of a story that I had heard recently. Now, I have no idea if it is true or not, but run with me. I am sure if it is not true that there are many similar stories which are.

It was of two soldiers who were stranded on occupied Japanese territory during World War Two. For days they hid, all the while getting weaker and weaker before eventually the rescue team arrived. There was a big shootout and 5 of the team was killed but the two men initially stranded were indeed rescued. The two men met up years later and one of them was horrified to discover that the other had wasted away his new opportunity at life. It wasn't that he was a bum or anything like, in fact he was actually quite well off. But he had accumulated his money in a dishonest manner in the process causing pain to countless other families. Upon leaving his friend the 2nd man who had lived a life of intergrity but was not so well off couldn't help but weep as to how the 1st man had let down those soldiers that had died during the rescue attempt. How had his life honoured them?

Christian can look at this story and see the parallels with what God has done for them. How do they honour God with there lives? But this story is relevant to me regardless of any faith structure I may have.

In getting to where I am right now in my life people have made sacrifices. Most obviously my parents and my entire family but also many of my friends who went out of their way to help me. How is my life now honouring them?

So that is my Easter message. If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you went to Queens with me or have worked me at a fantastic job in Muskoka. That means that you have been blessed intellectually, financially and in many ways that I am sure I don't know of. How is your life honouring those sacrifices?

Walk On

This week, I finally got my fingerprint results back from the Canadian Police.

As part of my application for permanent residency, I had to get such a test done from everywhere that I have lived for over 6 months and for some reason the RCMP took about 5 months to get the results back to me. Nonetheless, this means that I can now actually mail off my application. So if everything runs smoothly (which I admit is unlikely), by the end of the year if I choose I should be able to take up my status as permanent resident of Canada.

This brings me to a huge dilemma. There remains a outside chance that I will be able to go back to Canada in September and finish off my studies either at Queens or University of Toronto. More likely though, I will be in London England though taking the bar course. The thing is that the bar course over here is so expensive that I would be well advised to get a firm to sponsor me as they can contribute to up to three quarters of the tuition. But in such a case, I am committed to that firm for a year and so I would be committing myself to an extra year in the UK.

So it is weird in that I may be able to become a resident of Canada by the end of this year but it could be a further year at least before I am able to take up the offer. By then, will I still want to........Oh too many variables!!!

What a thing of beauty!! It is going to be the greatest concert ever!!! 

All New Look

Wow

This has been an exciting week. Allow me to explain.

I received offers from the leading law schools in London to take the bar course (the legal one, not the drinking one) at their university. I have yet to accept one and have another week to make up my mind as to where to go but the choice is exciting.

I also got back some good results from how I have done in recent exams and coursework. Even more exciting the coursework mark is actually important!!

Liverpool gave one of the best performances that I have ever seen them give on Wednesday night, convincing me that maybe the glory days are not far away.

Brett Favre announced that he is not going to retire meaning that I may get to see him play after all next season.

I discovered that another one of my best friends has gotten engaged. Congrats Ryan, so happy for ya.

My skiing trip to Austria is only 2 weeks away!!

And finally.......I learnt how to put pictures on this thing. Hope you enjoy the new look. The one immediately below is of my sister and her fiance and hopefully if this has worked properly there is a picture of me just below that.

That's it for now. I'll be back soon to offer some thoughts on the Terror Bill perhaps and hopefully to revel in more good news.
Talk to you soon

This is my sister Linda and her fiance Stuart 

This is me 

Long Time, no chat

Hey all

It's been a few weeks but I did say that I was heading back to Ireland for a bit. Now, I am back and getting straight into the swing of things at school.

My most exciting news is that I am going skiing over Easter for a week. My family is all going to Austria along with my good buddy Jeff Berezny who is coming along as well. It is going to be sweet and I will learn how to snowboard properly. WooWoo

So since I have last posted, I have been up in Edinburgh for a weekend and then spent the following week back home. Edinburgh is a wicked city and such a fun place to go party for a weekend. It also has a lot of cool sites to see including many spectacular art galleries, a fabulous castle and most importantly the Scotch Whiskey centre.

My time at home was extremely relaxing and worthwhile. I always enjoy the opportunity to spend more time with my grandparents as I see them far too infrequently and the week at home gave me ample opportunity to do this. I was also able to get beaten at golf by Stuart again (the score is now 2-1 to him in the series) and see my cousin Chris out of hospital for the first time in a while. Undoubtedly, a highlight was when my mum decided that she was reaching her time of mid life crisis and came out to a club in Belfast with us all. Fair play to her, she had a great time and everyone wants her to come out again. Then to top it off, she played in a field hockey game (her first game since she was at school). I think she was a wee bit sore afterwards but all in all she loved it. Way to go mum.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get any surfing in as my leg is still giving me some problems. I discovered that it had bruised up severely and I have been told that I won't be able to go flat out on it for at least another two weeks, i.e no football until after Easter.

So here I am back in York. I had some great news this week when I found out that two of my best friends from Canada, Lindsay Reid and Robin Willis are going to be working in London next year. It is extremely likely that I will be in London next year and I have to say I was not looking forward to starting again in terms of social scene for the second year in a row. So to have two good friends there already along with others from the college her is extremely exciting. It should be a fun year.

Ok, I promised that I would make this blog look better and I double promise that it will happen at my next update. But for now, I have to run.