Day 58

June 21

We played soccer this morning and I attempted to keep my goalie streak going, but I let in a goal. Half of the band had a gig at the war museum this morning and the rest of us got stuck with library duty. Most boring morning ever. I usually don't mind library, but this time I was putting marches back and if a box was not in score order then I had to sort it into score order. The worst one was the Radetzki March. Half of the parts had the instrument cut off or badly smudged. Once I figured out what was what I found a note in the box that said "Please note, there are 2 different arrangements of the Radetzki March". GAH! So when I gathered up all the parts, I had to pick out the ones in Concert Eb first and then the ones in Db. We were allowed to take our own breaks and I took my second one after that box. I went up to my room at 11:20 and when I was going back, ppl were coming up for lunch break! So I hung out with Brian Humphries (aka Humps lol) while we waited for our meal timing. The afternoon started with sizing for tomorrow's picture. It's so funny how the drum major will yell his head off at the guards and then turn around and joke with us! He was yelling at us as a group and the band was snickering at his jokes while the guards seemed too scared to move. He said something like "if you are thinking about making a stupid face or a rude gesture during the unit photo, think again. I know the photographer personally and we will blow your face up poster size, identify your sorry ass and I WILL KILL you! So don't F*%& with me or I will F*%& with you!". Now say that in a scottish accent and a few squeaks in the voice and you got it!...more or less and he did excuse himself for his foul language. Then we went in for a rehearsal followed by out on the parade square for a run through of the HEG Parade tomorrow. That parade will be a lot more standing while playing rather than marching while playing and apparently there will ba a lot of standing and waiting. After running a condensed version of the "show" twice, we were dismissed and I hung out with the guys for the evening. I re-polished my boots while we all hung out watching TV. I'm glad that I'm finding the older crowd and I much prefer them over the 18-20 year olds. "like seriously" lol

Day 57

June 20th

I rollerbladed to church this morning. It was great! I found out that starting on next Sunday they go to summer hours which means that the service starts at 10am. After lunch I did a whole lot of nothing. Chatted with Dustin, read a bit and took a nap. Then after supper I called dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and then polished boots with Brian, Derek and Jeremy. I really like hanging out with the guys, it's so chill and relaxing. Then Derek and I rollerbladed/biked down the canal all the way downtown! It was so much more enjoyable taking that rout rather than Bank street because we didn't ever have to stop, the path was much smoother than the sidewalk and the view was great. Once we got downtown, we hung out at the back of parliament and watched the sun set a bit. There was a first nations pow-wow happening across the river and it sounded like there were a lot of ppl there. Then we took the other side of the canal back to Carleton. The trip back is mostly downhill and it's so much fun! It only took like 20 minutes to get back. I made more fudge in my room but decided that the white chocolate chips were not the greatest. Then I caught Dustin online again and went to bed after that.

Day 56

June 19th

This wonderful day of leave began with sleeping in and waking up to a home cooked breakfast. I have for this cooking in my room thing down! After doing laundry and working on my kit a bit, Stevenson and I went to Southkeys to hit the Walmart. I bought everything I needed to make fudge :) We also saw a sale at the roots store and I bought two T-shirts. I really like the way they fit and wish that all stores would make their clothes to fit the human body the way roots does. Then we brought our stuff back to Carleton and took the bus to a sketchy neighborhood near china town where Stevenson bought a bike. We were on our way back but got distracted by a street that led to the "lake" part of the canal. We took the paths around the lake and explored a bit. There is a beautiful park and a lot of well taken care of green space around there. We crossed the canal and continued past the University to the beach. The dragon boat races are on this weekend so we checked out the area and watched a few races. After supper back at the University, I made fudge! I made plain with an almond on top, peanut butter (crunchy!) and coconut with amaretto! I put them in Bianca's fridge and hopefully it turned out alright. Then a group of us went out to see Karate Kid. Wow, that was an awesome movie! All together a great day and I'm glad I got to hand out with so many ppl.

Day 55

June 18th

Today was just a big joke. We had PT at 6am, but that wasn't enough time to do anything and meet our 6:45 breakfast timing. So we ran out to the soccer field, stretched and ran back to the shacks! There was no inspection and the first hour of the day was everyone's last chance to make sure they had all their kit. Then there was a 9:30 guard mount. We marched around campus to the simulated parliament hill again. This one went much better than yesterday for me because I was not the center marker. Yesterday I could not see anything because the guy in front of me was about a foot taller. Today I was able to play really loud, but my new challenge is to parade over potholes and on uneven grass and still be able to play. I noticed that I really don't care how much I sweat while on parade. We were dismissed for lunch and then I had the whole afternoon off! I got paid to watch a movie in my room in my underwear and to fall asleep while watching soccer in the common room! It's be cool is every week was like this lol. In the evening a bunch of us went out for Korean dinner and bubble tea. I had a dish that was JUST BBQ seafood. There were still all the side dished and the soup and such, but I couldn't believe that they brought me a dish of just meat! It was soooo good :) The Sergeant bought a bottle of wine for the table. It was a small bottle, just enough for everyone to have a shot. It tasted a bit like mild tequila that you could just drink. I'm pretty sure that one bottle could get a couple pretty tipsy though!

Day 54

June 17th

I couldn't find my room mate this morning and she missed PT. I found out later that she wound up sleeping in another room and the room owner didn't have PT so she also didn't wake up. I was a little worried, but she showed up right before we had to be in the band room for inspection; which was really quick and kinda funny today. After that I got a break in my room for about half an hour, so I took a nap. Then some of us did a guard mount while walking the streets on campus and using a field of grass to represent parliament hill. The guards also joined us for this practice and it was kinda neat to see what they do. The entire spiel takes about an hour. It's amazing how much money is spent on this parade that happens once a day for an hour. All these ppl have to be paid, fed, housed, clothed and be made part of the military (basic training) and so many more side costs...This is one expensive free tourist attraction!! I spent the afternoon in the library and my march pack is just a few songs short of being complete at this point. Yay! Again, we were dismissed early enough for me to go straight to the pool. I like swimming early because I find I am more motivated to go earlier in the day. I am also more awake for the rest of the evening. Also, there are less ppl if you go earlier and I had a whole lane to myself. This allowed me to swim at my pace and I got 52 lengths done in 35 minutes I think? Not all that fast, but definately an improvement on the first week of swimming! I spent the rest of the evening chilling in my room. I finished off the last of the BBQ from home and I watched Austin Powers while rotating the wheels on my rollerblades and cleaning the bearings. All together a very relaxing evening. We are in combats tomorrow, so I didn't have to worry about polishing boots. Good thing too, cuz after doing a guard mount through puddles and in grass, my boots are trashed!

Day 53

June 16th

This morning we went for a long run. I think i need to give up with the running. It's just never going to get challenging for me, oh well. Then after a regular inspection we were to report to the band room at 9am. This was break #1. I got sent to the library with some ppl to do music paperwork. Then there was a short rehearsal followed by 11:30 dismissal. I ate lunch in my room and took a much needed nap. When I reported to the band room for the regular after lunch time, I was told to come back at 3pm. Back to my room...basically I got paid to spend the day napping! At 3pm I was put back into the library for an hour. B Band had a combined O group meeting and was dismissed right away! I took off for the pool so I could wake up and get out of the groggy state that all the afternoon napping had put me into. Then Alexi and I went to bulk barn and I stocked up on my growing food supply. OH, good news about my parade boots...they are actually polishing on the sides and up into some of the cracks now!!! I have no idea why it magically worked tonight because I don't think I did anything different than before? After that, Amy and I realized that we both like hymns and had a bit of a nerd moment. Seriously, I thought I was like one of the few young ppl who likes hymns. In my efforts to go to bed before midnight, I will cut the blog short for today!

Day 52

June 15th

B Band had no PT this morning which was perfect because there was a room inspection to get ready for. We were to be standing ready at our doors at 8am in our ceremonials so the COs could do their inspection. Well, they didn't wind up coming by our hallway until after 9am. We didn't mind that because we could chat and move around while waiting. After the room inspection I was to go downstairs to get fitted for glasses that are plain enough to wear while on parade. They are plain, thin, black frames that remind me of Harry Potter glasses. After that I ran outside with my bear to catch up with everyone else. We marched out to the parade square and stood there for a uniform inspection. This took another 3 hours to complete bringing the total to 4 hours of inspection for some people. The recruits got called to the front to be inspected first so we could go start our QL3 tests. I only had to stand for 3 hours and that was lame. I feel sorry for C band who had to stand the longest. The recruits wound up getting let off early for lunch after bringing 2 chairs and stands up to the lounges so we could do our exams after lunch. I went first and did fairly well. I was very happy with the sight reading and transposing part. My scales also went better than expected! I made 2 small mistakes in my pieces which were only briefly mispitching a note or two. I was told I pretty much passed, so that's good. The only bummer was that there were 2 ppl playing a brass duet in the background and I knew the song they were playing. This was very distracting and I was a little slower while processing which scale to do and how until they finished playing. I was pleased to be able to do the test on my horn rather than the parade horn. After I did the test, I was part of the group that got the rest of the afternoon off! Other than the lame inspection, this has been the day of napping for me :). The evening was pretty boring. I got my boots done right away and did some reading/napping lol. Then Master Corporal Wong came to my door with Sergeant Joly's mase. My room mate has to clean it with brasso because she was one of the ppl playing the duet during the QL exams and when asked to stop, she argued and continued to play. So now either Amy or I have to deliver this wonderful message to Alison. I put a layer of brasso on it right away to try to make it easier because Alison is out teaching tonight and won't be back till late. Well, I'm off to the pool now....I did 52 X 25m = 1300m! Amy has one of those old air popper mashines and we all made popcorn when I got back!