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Travelogue

First Days in Riyadh

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Hello everyone! I figured it was time to give you all an update on the happenings of me over in Saudi Arabia. As you likely pieced together from the last couple posts, we had a very smooth arrival in the Kingdom. Unfortunately, the Internet connection from here is rather slow, making it difficult to fire off too many emails or do other things. In spite of this, I’ve still managed to post quite a few pictures on our flickr page, so feel free to head over to our sets page and check out the latest while we’re over here. I will also attempt to give a little insight into our first few days over here in Riyadh and the Diplomatic Quarter. I’ve decided that although these are the same physical place, life is much different in the DQ than in Riyadh. Namely, I am on ‘Canadian soil’ when I’m at the embassy and in the house here, so we have a lot more breathing room in terms of what we can do while here compared to traveling around the city. I’ll try to keep this post on the short side, as we are leaving shortly for the camel souq and the horse races, and I’ve only got a little time to sort out my thoughts. Read on for the details.

Into the Wild

Hey Gang! I figure it’s high time that I write a little blog post to let you know what’s new in Steve-land. Not too much actually, as you can probably tell by my rather sporadic posts of late. However, I’ve been keeping busy and having a good time whenever possible. To wit: the 2008 Fall Classic poker tourney out at Calabogie at Jim’s cabin. I lobbied to get a few more of the gang out there, but space is pretty tight, so the core group were all that could make it out. However, there may be space for the winter classic when that rolls around! As is becoming tradition, every year around hunting season, Jim has us out for a great guys weekend, where we are treated to deer meat (sausages this time), and some great poker action. Read on for a bit more about the weekend, and other stuff I’ve been up to. To check out some pics, head over to flickr.

Spending Time with Family

Howdy all you friendly people out there in the world wide world. Hope everyone is doing well, and that you’re not missing me too much. I realize that I must sound like a broken record, but once again, I’ll apologize for my lack of blogging of late. Getting back to domestic life takes a lot out of a person you know? Also, after spending my entire days at work on a computer, I must admit that I don’t much feel like firing up the ole PC to write when I haven’t been doing very much. Lucky for you, I’ve got a few stories to share with you. So many in fact, that I’ll spread them out over two posts. This one will be all about my mini family reunion that took place last week. Yup, Andrea, Patrick and Helena were over from Saudi Arabia, and by dad and his wife Nicole made the trip up from Nova Scotia. Read on for more details, and check out some relevant pictures!

Life in General

Bon Voyage Hill-Meyers


Hi folks. Well, although summer is traditionally a time of relaxing and getting outside to have some fun, it’s also a time that some people prepare to embark on the next stage of their careers and / or lives. One group of such people that are close to me are my sister, my brother-in-law, and my cute little niece. You see, they’ve just gotten themselves packed up and ready to move away to Riyadh for at least the next two years on a foreign service posting! In spite of the fact that I’ve been training like a madman, and very much self-absorbed, they’ve been very much on my mind, as this is a big move, and means that I won’t get to see Helena entering the terrible twos. I’m going to lose valuable time in my plot to turn her into a little hell-raiser! Oh well, I’ll just have to count on Patrick to do that for me I guess. Anyway, this post is really just to say Bon Voyage, Good Luck, and Thanks for everything to these important members of my Ottawa family. Read on if you’re interested. Also, you can check out some of the pictures of the last few days of their time in Ottawa.

Life in General Race Reports

3 Cakes and Another Year Wiser

Hello friends! I’ll keep the post short, but I did want to say first off, thanks to everyone who sent me a warm birthday wish, be it card, phone call, wall post or email. It’s always great to get a little love on your birthday. This past weekend marked yet another year going by for ActiveSteve. And what better way to spend that occasion then being active? The weather has been particularly uncooperative towards the end of last week, but that didn’t stop me and a group of friends from setting up a nice long bike ride for Saturday. All told, we were out there over 7 hours, 6 of those hours pushing hard on the mountain bikes all over Gatineau park. I’ve set up a nice folder of all the pictures, as well as put together a custom map of the ride for all of you to check out. It was certainly a large and great part of my weekend fun, but there were some other treats in store the rest of the weekend as well. Read on for a little bit more about the festivities.