A Year in the Life...

So what happens next? I'll tell you what happens next, I turned 31. That's what's next.

This is me at 31.

Outwardly, not much has changed in the past year. Well at least my hair colour is still the same. But underneath the costume, life moved on. A lot can happen in a year I suppose.

For example, in the past two months (since my last post),much has transpired. Most recently we welcomed a new member into the Corbeil family. Everyone meet my brand new niece Isla.

Born just two days ago, to my brother Jed and my sister in-law Shannon, this is Isla at 12 hours old. Measuring life in hours. How strange is that? If we looked at it that way I would be approximately 271,775. And old man by any standards.

But Isla, she is just so new. Her life is at it's very ultimate beginning. Her odometer is so close to zero it amazes me. I've never seen someone so brand new. It truly is astounding.

So as Isla slowly learns about life, like what her fingers are for and who those two people are that are always hanging around and fussing over her. Jed and Shannon will be slowly, or quickly rather, learning to be parents. Life moves on.

But before beautiful little Isla entered our lives, my wife Liz and I were off visiting beautiful British Columbia. It had been some time since I last visited the left coast and Liz had never been there, so we tried to pack in as much as possible into the few days we had out there. We hit Vancouver first, then off to Victoria and finally out to Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley to visit my friend Sebastian.

And there was certainly enough beauty to go around in the Okanagan. That drive along the coast of the lake was enough I tells ya. What a view. I can't believe anything gets done out there. Every time I'd look over at the lake as I drove along, I almost drove off road. Here, don't take my word for it, take a look at the lake yourself.

Amazing isn't it.

The landscapes were great and all, but it was also great to see Sebastian again. It had been a year since we last hung out in Toronto and it's been almost two since we started our Brew masters course in Berlin. Time just seems to be going so fast now. A month, used to take seemingly forever, each day was an uphill battle towards the next. Now they pass in the blink of an eye. It's like I'm going down hill now, speeding up towards the end. Life moves on.

In the last two months I also started hosting my very own Beer and Cheese classes at the Leslieville Cheese Market. For a newcomer to the hosting game, the first two classes went really well if I do say so myself. I get to talk about beer, which I love to do and learn about the wonderful world of cheese at the same time. Does it get any better than that?

For the most part those attending seemed to enjoy themselves (but how can't you with all that delicious beer and cheese?), even the guy who passed out in the middle of class only had kind words as the paramedics escorted him out of the shop.

So yeah, all in all the classes were a success. I'll be doing a few more classes in the coming months and hopefully this will turn into something I can do on a regular basis. Or maybe it won't. Who knows. Life moves on.

So that's that. Now your all caught up. And that just about does it for this blog. A year has passed and I'm still alive and brewing.

We've said goodbye to some good people in the past year, my favourite author, Kurt Vonnegut passed away. His books taught me to love reading. So it goes.

And we've welcomed some new faces into the world. Isla Corbeil, Teagan Brown, Isabella Robinson...just to name a few. Good luck. Take some advice from a man of 271,775 hours: life is great, enjoy it.

I've drifted apart from some and moved closer to others. I've traveled to a few places and missed out on some opportunities. But that's kinda how it goes. Life moves on.

So what's next?

Who knows?

P.S.

I actually have one more post on this blog. For the past year I've been drinking a different beer every day. And on January 5th of 2008 I will post each and everyone of those 365 beers right here on this blog. Yes, I know the year starts on January 1st, but it took me a few days to shake off the hangover last year and I didn't start until 4 days in. Life moves on.