Happy Christmas from Canada

We are just back in Toronto from a Cottage Christmas with Pip & Anneli and Tim & Maddy up north. Don't let the snow mislead you. This is the warmest Christmas on record in Ontario, and Xmas Eve saw temps of 15C. This was a special order of snow that arrived just as we got up there and disappeared after a day or two...Lots of walks, board games, turkey and nut loaf...and time to reconnect. Wonderful! Hope all your Christmases are equally marvelous and know that we are thinking of you, wherever you are!

Happy Christmas One and All!

Christmas Eve tiffin  (with champagne!) at Raffles!

Like uncle, like niece!

Kirsty did her first half-marathon today.......must be in the genes somewhere!

Chez Robinson Toronto

We've been promising to post a few pix of our new condo for a while - so here they are. Not looking so empty/messy as when many of you saw it in Aug/Sept/Oct! We love it to bits and we can walk to everywhere from here. The top photo is the dining room and kitchen, the middle one is the living room and the bottom one is the view from the sun room over Queens Park. We have a guest room when Tim's not in residence, so drop by soon...

JUST CAME ACROSS THIS CUTTING FROM AUTOCAR CIRCA 1957   ...JIM SELLING THE C TYPE JAG FOR $1000    FUNNY.....   PETE..   LOVE TO ALL

Caption Competition

Who can write the best caption for this pic from last month's Clan Gathering in Canada?

Canadian Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Switzerland, UK, Portugal, Florida and Singapore from Chip, Dara, Maddy and Tim in Canada!    Lots of Love from Lake Paudash  xxx

Family Cottage Week

Just some quick pics form the Robinson family cottage weekend. A good time was had by all!

Family in Canada

WHO SAYS YOU LOSE MONEY ON CARS ?

I GUESS YOU HAVE ALL HEARD THE STORY OF JIMS OLD C TYPE JAGUAR BY NOW....BUT IF NOT   HERE GOES.....JIM BOUGHT THIS CAR IN 1956 FOR ABOUT  £1000...A FAIR AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THOSE DAYS...HE LOVED HIS MOTORSPORT AND RACED THE CAR QUITE A LOT......ENDED UP WITH A MASSIVE SHUNT AT SIVERSTONE.....SO DECIDED TO REPAIR IT AND SELL IT IN 1958 TO JUST ABOUT RECOVER HIS COSTS OF £1000.   I STILL HAVE THE ORIGINAL ADVERT FROM AUTOCAR MAGAZINE. YOU WILL SEE THE TWO DIFFERENT PHOTOS ONE IN 1957 WITH POP AT THE HELM IN BLACK AND WHITE AND THE OTHER WAS ABOUT ELEVEN YEARS AGO...WHEN A FRIEND OF MINE WHO RENOVATES OLD CLASSIC JAGS RANG ME UP TO SAY HE WAS GETTING JIMS OLD CAR BACK FOR A BIT OF RESTORATION FROM ITS OWNER IN THE USA AND WOULD JIM LIKE TO SEE IT AGAIN AND TAKE IT FOR A SPIN.....SO WE MET UP AT A PUB IN......... APPROPRIATELY ENOUGH IN SILVERSTONE.THATS THE COLOUR PHOTO.A DOG WITH TWO TALES EXPLAINS JIMS PLEASURE ! ! ANY WAY THE ACTUAL CAR JUST CAME UP FOR AUCTION  IN MONTEREY CALIFORNIA TWO WEEKS AGO AND SOLD FOR THE NOT INCONSIDERATE SUM OF 13.2 MILLION DOLLARS.  SO DONT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU THAT YOU ONLY LOSE MONEY ON CARS !!!!  I ATTACH LINK TO THE AUCTION SITE FOR ANYONE INTERESTED TH READ THE DETAILS INCLUDING MENTION OF POP AS A PREVIOUS OWNER AND SOME GREAT OLD AND NEW MOVIES OF THE CAR.

1953 Jaguar C-Type Works Lightweight | Monterey 2015 | RM Sotheby's

HAVING TROUBLE WITH PIX  WILL TRY AGAIN   PETE

One Down, Four Found!

Pip has completed his first week in Switzerland and is enjoying the experience massively. He has promised to post on here as Swiss Family Robinson soon...
No time for us to feel lonely as we have been graced by Gabi, Steve, Finn and Maizie up at the cottage for the last few days. It was so good to have them here and they have been awarded the distinction of the first of the family to see the new cottage. It was a close shave: the builder was still putting the finishing touches on the place on the day they arrived!
We swam in the lake, hot-tubbed, boated and s'mored. You'll need to ask Finn and Maizie about that last one! They are spending a few days upcountry now, discovering whether black bears like English cubs as appetisers, then we'll meet up with them again - and hopefully Anneli, Tim and Maddy - next weekend in Toronto. Then they'll head south to ultimately bookend the family tour with American Family Scholten in Florida.

HI EVERYONE  HOPE YOU ARE ALL WELL  LOTS OF THE CLAN IN DIFFERENT PLACES AT PRESENT    WE HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM A QUICK BOAT TRIP IN THE MED AND OTHER SEAS.  SO QUICK PICTURE UPDATE AS FOLLOWS    A BIT OF ROME .........HOLDING THE SHIP UP IN CORFU..........KOTOR IN MONTENEGRO........AND THE GRAND UNION CANAL AT BLISWORTH INIT !!      OH AND SOME MERANO GLASS WE HAD JUST BOUGHT...HELL OF A JOB PACKING IT....

 

LOVE PETE AND PAUL   X X X

PS   GOOD LUCK PIP  

Holiday in Malaysia

Cameron Highlands, then Club Med.........perfick!!

Canadian Update

This is the Year of Change!
- Today is Pip's last day at Manulife after 4 years there.
- July 24 Pip flies to Zurich to live and work in Switzerland with his new job
- Anneli will join him when she's completed her first year at her new job
-Tim is also away: he is working in Kingston over the summer at a full time govt job
- Tim then starts his last year at university at Queen's in Sept
- The old cottage is no more and the new one is 95% complete now...so close!
- June 30 we complete on the purchase of a downtown condo and start 2 months renos
- July 8 we complete on the sale of our home of 18 years at 36 Binscarth in Toronto
- July 9 we rent a tiny one bedroom apt in downtown Toronto while the renos are completed
- Aug 1 we are looking forward to seeing Gabi, Steve & co at the cottage
- Sept 1 we move in to the condo at 62 Wellesley #1706 in the heart of downtown Toronto
- Sept 23 family birthday reunion with Pete, Paul, Bev and Owain at the cottage
So by the end of 2015 we should be downsized, cottaged and on a graceful path to retirement as we hand over more of the day to day management of the business to the radio station...
I like a good plan!

95 Today!

Antarctica

The most fantastic holiday.....so different to anything else I've ever done. Wonderful ship and crew and wonderful sights.......I'm hooked!

Happy 18th. Jordan !

Back from Antarctica just in time for J's birthday!

(Antarctica pics to follow)

Canadian Family Robinson returned this week from a cruise vacation around Cuba, including some days in Havana. It was so great to have all six of us together for ten days and introduce Tim's Maddy to the family dynamics for the first time - she passed her initiation with flying colours!  Here's the family portrait from the cruise. Now we are in thermal shock: from +30C to -30C in 3.5 hours... We toured Havana in classic convertibles from the 1950's, lazed on perfect white sand beaches, snorkeled the Meso-American Reef, visited four UNESCO World Heritage Sites and swam in an underground river deep in a cave system under the jungle. Fairly typical stuff for a Robinson jaunt!

New Cottage - January Update

The new cottage continues to take shape. Most of the outside work is complete - which is just as well as the temperature is down to the minus 30's with lots of snow. It's quite cosy inside now there's power and so the work goes on through the winter. The upper floor should be complete by the end of Feb and the lower floor by the end of April, ready for moving from the old cottage in May when the trillium bloom in the woods. I can almost hear the spring bird song now...no, wait...that's the sound of another 20 cms of snow falling...

Happy 2015 To One And All!

To all of you from all of us...Happy New Year and lots of love xxxxxxx