A bonus week

This week has been a bit of a bonus as Annalie was meant to be away in India, but instead has an extra week at home. The passport didn't turn up anywhere so she's had to stay in CT - not that she really wanted to go to India again

On Sunday we had a fairly relaxed day and decided to go for a walk in Wadsworth Falls State Park just outside Middletown. We wanted to try and take advantage of the beautiful fall colours that are springing up. It was just over 3 miles in total and we did it in a respectable hour and a half, even with Ian making best use of his camera! We will get some more photos uploaded soon, we promise! We just don't seem to get round to it.

That night we went to Dan and Fi's for dinner. They have just moved into their proper home out here so invited us round for a chili and some beers.

On Monday Annalie ended up travelling to New York with work to help out with IAE's Board Meeting. Her team member that normally organises these events, David, has been in hospital (nothing life threatening) that has kept him away. Because of this, the IAE execs were a little bit nervous of Carla doing it solo, even though Annalie had complete faith in her. But she went along anyway, just to satisfy their request.

As expected, it all went very smoothly, no one need have worried, but the execs were grateful for Annalie's attendance.

On Tuesday Ian had another drill night out playing with the Fire Department. They went playing up with a hydrant at Mario's Pond to test one of the guys to check he was competent to use one of the pumps on the engine.

While they were there, Ian was being taught more about the company's light rescue vehicle, normally used as a back-up vehicle that has extra bits of kit on it. It's the kind of thing he can get involved in before he gets qualified. He's still waiting for news on a course for that but there's nothing coming in the foreseeable future.

The Pond is right in the middle of an apple orchard so when Ian and the guys finished the drill, they treated themselves to fresh apples off the trees. We're not sure if that's classed as theft though Mario happens to be a member of the Fire Police and an ex-Captain of the Fire House and is the Dad and Grandad of two of the current members.

On Thursday we went out to meet a potential member of our ski house. Nadine lives in South Windsor and works just down the road from IAE in East Hartford. We met her and her friend for a drink at Houlihan's so that we could all check each other out At the end of it, Nadine was in and our house statistics are looking very healthy. We don't need many more now.

This weekend it was the Glastonbury Apple Harvest Festival, or Applefest, an annual institution. The Fire Department run a stall selling Fries (chips to most of you!) and Ian was invited to help out. On Friday he went out with the guys to help set up ahead of the weekend's festivities.

That evening he headed off to JFK for another of his airport runs. This time it was Bruce's wife's parents as Tracy is booked in for an elective c-section on Tuesday. The flight was quite a late arrival anyway, scheduled for 9pm, but it didn't land until 9.50pm and then Tracy's parents are farmers, so they have to go through a special routine at Customs. So Ian didn't get home again until gone 1am.

By 3.30am he was up again as his Fire Department pager went off this time for someone's smoke alarm going off So at least he was back in bed for 4.30.

Ian's shifts at the show were 12-5 so he wasn't in for an early rise at least. Annalie got up and had her first hairdresser's appointment over here. She's been too nervous to get it done so far as all the girls have horror stories about how poor the hairdressers are out here. It wasn't exactly what she planned but it is a good cut so at least she knows she can go back there.

Just before 12 we both headed off down to the Applefest. Ian went straight to work and Annalie went off for a bit of a wander round all the stalls. Lots of apple pies for sale (no surprises there then!!) but the thing that got Annalie stopped were the two tiny labrador puppies at the Guiding Eyes for the Blind stall! One black and one yellow, they were adorable and she almost signed up to be a puppy raiser there and then! Maybe after we've ticked off a few more bits on our wish list

Saturday night we ventured into Hartford to see a production of Sweeney Todd. It was very different to anything we've seen before but it was well put together and very cultured of us . The only downside was that the legroom was non-existent so Ian was almost folded in two for the whole night.

On our way home we stopped off at the South Tavern to meet one of the other guys from the Fire Department. The Boston Red Sox are playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series play-offs and this was game 6 of 7, with Tampa leading 3-2 going into this game. Hugh is a Sox fan, so Ian takes great pleasure in jesting with him (being a Yankees fan of course) so he was hoping to turn up to a Tampa victory to take them into the finals.

Unfortunately Boston clinched it 4-2, setting up a decider on Sunday night. Ian is still hoping that the Sox don't stage a comeback having been 3-1 down at one point, but they are known for being good in a fightback.

And we've had some new visitors on the deck. There's a couple of resident Blue Jays that have started to frequent our feeder - well, more like the food that the other birds tip onto the floor. The Blue Jays are far too big to fit on the feeder. And there's also been a couple of sightings of a Dark Eyed Junco (that Birds of Connecticut book works a treat - thanks Gary!). Obviously the changing seasons are bringing some new birds back to Glastonbury for the winter.