Merry Christmas

To all our friends and family - and to the whole world,

May you be blessed

with the Joy and Peace

of the Christ Child of Bethlehem

at this Christmas season

and all through the coming year.

Terry & Ingrid and all the McCann's

Movember is Over

AND THE WINNER IS...

The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada and everybody who had anything whatsoever to do with the MoCann Terriers great performance during this month of Movember, raising $5450 for creating awareness of prostate cancer and funding cancer research: Mo Bros, Mo Sistas, friends, relatives, colleagues, poets and sponsors. Of course the majority of people are in a number of those categories. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNAS !

Ballad of the MoCann Terriers - Let Me See That Mo

Stephen's YouTube Contribution


...or you can go to YouTube:

To sponsor me just click on the link in the picture. All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada who will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer.

Movember Update - a great campaign

Two Platinum Club members.

Greg and I are proud members of the Movember Platinum club. You achieve Platinum Club membership when your individual sponsorship total reaches $1000. It needs to be said that this was the result of a lot of synergy with a lot of people working together to provide the kind of buzz that facilitates this kind of generosity from our sponsor-donors - including those who took the trouble to think up rhymes and stuff to put into the Mo Log comments. CONGRATULATIONS EVERYBODY.

As I write this the MoCann Terriers team has raised $3758 for the Prostate Research Foundation of Canada. What a team!

MoCann Terriers Anthology of Dogger Rel

OK. I know it's bad, but this dad did say would come the day when every word should be heard that our poets have written from know-it-all wisdom and genius bidden.


From Mark - self-confessed crap-rappa...
Mo Daddy wants you to go, put up a show!
Write it all out, say what you're about!
Do some writing, some typing, a little bit of something.
Put up your name, take the blame 'cause we are all the same...
We hate. Damn we hate!
all that is wrong with the prostate!

Still more from the Rap-Crappa King Zorro...
Don't be a frog,
write on our Log.
If it's a rhyme it's a sign
for Mo Terry to incline
to post it pretty and fine.
Click on this link
and don't be a dink.
I know you can write somefink!.


Sean Doggerel

Sista Ingrid said…
There once was a young man called Seany,
Whose mo was exceedingly scrawny.
He blamed his poor genes,
Said:Guess what that means,
The rest of me is muscular and brawny.


Taylor Doggerel

Lesley said...
This bro on the left - Wolfie by name
Is feeling bereft, I fear.
Maybe he’s a geek
– ag shame.
For it’s plain to see(There’s no one to blame)
He can’t tell his lip from his cheek.

Lesley said...
Taylor's fresh mo
is starting to gro,
And so is his new bag of dough,
ho, ho!


Mark Doggerel

Luisa said...
Oh no! Mark has a mo!
Is it Zorro on the fly?
If not, who is this guy?
My boyfriend I miss,
but "yay!" I don't have to kiss
so many little strands;
good thing he's in the Netherlands.
I'm proud of his cause,
ending cancer deserves applause,
but I'm going to be a stickler
for him getting rid of his tickler!

Andrew Clarke said...
The mo on young Mark
is growing quite dark
But is it as good as Bro Terry?
Whose smooth shiny face
Is filled full of space
Now that he's no longer hairy

Lesley said...
Mark's quite a bright spark,
says Lesley the Clarke.
But Andrew the Clarke disagrees.
He heard from a shark
who he met in the park,
that a mo grows best in the dark.


Miriam Doggerel

Lesley said...
Sista Miriam and co
are not going slo
in raisin' the dough
for you bros, Yo, yo


Greg Doggerel

Lesley said...
This mo's a joke,
c'mon you oke,
and show us what you're made of.
Or else we'll think
you need a shrink
or that you're just a fader.

Mo-sista Miriam said...
There once was a mo-bro called Greg,
Whose mo grew down to his leg.
He drank wine from the sink,
Which made his mo stink,
So now he drinks beer from a keg.

The Sequel - from Terry...
There once was a mo-bro called Greg,
who used to drink beer from a keg.
One night he got loaded
a great belch exploded
And now his mo's stuck to his leg.



Brian Doggerel

Lesley said...
Is this a growth I see before me,
the handles toward my hand?
Come let me clutch thee:
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. (after Wm Shakespeare)

D H Lawrence says...
His mo-ustache was drenched cold with fog, so that she shuddered slightly after his kiss, and shuddered again. (The Trespasser).


John Doggerel

Lesley said...
Now, John, you would swear
has got real strong hair.
His mo is really impressive.
So go, go, John Bro,
and give a sho
of hirsuteness non-regressive!


Terry Doggerel

Janet said:
There once was a fellow named Terry
Who shaved and became not so hairy
He started to grow
A charitable mo
But now he looks, oh so scary.

Lesley said...
Sis Ingrid, Bro Terry
- now don't youse now worry.
Just say the mo prayer every day.
And then youse will find,
when Movember's behind,
that mo will have growed really hairy.

Lesley said...
Prayer of a mo bro (To the tune of 'Row your boat')
Gro, gro, gro my mo,
Quickly on my face.
Hairily, hairily, hairily, hairily,
This is quite a race.

Kate said...
Way to go mo bro Terry!
We're relieved that Sista Ingrid does not find you scary.
Now to the future - smooth or hairy?????

Movember: MoCann Terriers Poetry Competiton

Please do go to our official Movember Log and click on Comment next to any photo of your choice. Enter your name and email address, and in the comment field put in a rhyme of two lines or more. It could be as simple as: Poor old Terry's mo, the damn thing just won't grow.

You don't have to be a sponsor/donor - anyone can enter. The only rules are:
Leave a comment in verse. Please do not curse.
I will publish a good rhyme in good time.

I will take counsel on which rhymes are considered the "best" and the winners will get public acclamation on our Movember Log as well as on this blog.

Movember update

I am happy to say that, so far, the MoCann Terriers have been sponsored to the tune of $1790, just $210 short of a nice round $2000. Not a bad effort but I fear that this was the easy part. Getting more sponsors will probably become more and more of a challenge. I do have to add that I have been having a lot of fun with this.

If you ever want to get our latest figures, go to our official Movember Log and look at the panel on the left.

Let me introduce you to our intrepid team members of the MoCann Terriers:

John Cariati:
John the Motaliano with all the family connections will help sponsors understand... Donta you worry. He maka offa you notta refusa.

Taylor Landry:
Tayla the Playa - big scora for the MoCann Terriers - Why have one numba when you can have two numba's? Twice as many chances for sponsors? (Somehow Taylor managed to get registered twice for the team.)

Sean McCann:
Sean with the broad shoulders and the winna smile and the persuasive manna.

Mike Peyvandi:
Programma, Debugga, S/W professional par excellence - Mo Bro with a fixit attitude.

Greg Landry:
The Singing Sales Directa - team moola maka.

Miriam McCann:
Social Wacka. Like John she helps sponsors understand but uses a different approach...

Mark McCann:
Engineeya. Screws up anything that is not nailed down. Gets lots of support from Mo Sista Luisa.

Brian Bernard:
Hockey Coach - move maka - goal scora - software guru.

Ingrid McCann:
Social wacka like Miriam. My much betta half - controla of my finances, my moola and my free time.

Terry McCann:
Well and tensioned captain of the MoCann Terriers. Here being supported by Mo Sista Ingrid or he would fall over.

Clean Shaven for 1st Movember

Yes! It has happened - finally- and here is the evidence.

Let's do it! Enough talk and build up. Time for action.

Off it comes!

Great support from Mo Sista Ingrid, eh?

Those chops look really great but they will have to go...

Is Ingrid really starting to have doubts at this stage of the proceedings?

Using Skype video Judith is able to see the damage after Round 1 between me and the beard trimmer from her dorm in Kingston. She laughed uncontrollably for 2 minutes. That made me feel really good.

Round 2: The Down Shave

This isn't so bad. Shaving technology has come a long way since my last shave nearly 40 years ago.

Ingrid's reactions really made it easy for me - Yeah, right!

Round 3: The Up Shave

This is the part you really have to get smooth: The "Mo"

Ingrid couldn't resist: enough looking, let me feel! And my face wasn't even dry yet.

At some point I started to wonder why I had waited nearly forty years to do this...

Ladies and gentlemen... The "No Mo Bro"

If I play my cards right, I might just get lucky tonight :-)

Who's da man?

For the rest of Movember I will keep my beard shaven but will gro' my mo.
To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/ca/donate, enter my registration number which is 63730 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 63730. Please mail cheques to: Movember, 145 Front Street East, Suite 306, Toronto, ON M5A 1E3 Canada. All donations over $20 are automatically issued with a tax deductible receipt. You can donate anytime between now and the end of November (Movember).

All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada who will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer.

My Primo pre-mo

Am I sexy with my primo Halloween pre-mo or am I sexy? You just have to sponsor me for this, right? I mean, my wife and kids have never seen me without a beard and mo - ever !!!! Watch this space!

So far our team, the MoCann Terriers, has raised $860 for prostate cancer research, and Movember hasn't even started.

I'll be growing a mo in Movember

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'll be growing a Mo (slang for Moustache). That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about men's health and the fight against prostate cancer. Why...

• Every year, around 22,300 Canadian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 4,300 die of the disease, making it the number one cancer threat to Canadian men.
• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.
• I actually have a small, slow growing cancer in my own prostate - bringing the whole issue pretty up-close and personal for me.

Here's what will happen. On the first of Movember I will shave off my beard and moustache (mo) for the first time since I started growing it at age 21. (My kids have never seen me without a beard and moustache.) For the rest of Movember I will keep my beard shaven, only growing a "mo" for the purpose of Movember sponsorship. I will regularly post pictures of the progress of my mo's growth and a running account of sponsorship received on an official Movember log as well as on my blog. The Movember log can be found at http://www.movember.com/ca/popups/mologs/ and typing in my name, Terry McCann, or reg number, 63730.

Canadian readers, to sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/ca/donate, enter my registration number which is 63730 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 63730. Please mail cheques to: Movember, 145 Front Street East, Suite 306, Toronto, ON M5A 1E3 Canada. All donations over $20 are automatically issued with a tax deductible receipt. You can donate anytime between now and the end of November (Movember).

Readers outside of Canada, your sponsorship would be hugely appreciated, but I doubt that you will be eligible for a tax receipt.

All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada who will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer.

Some family members and friends have agreed to join with me to form the MoCann Terriers to make this a team fund-raising (raiding?) effort. The guys are the Mo Bros, the ladies are the Mo Sistas. Go to the Movember log link to see who is on the team.

Thanks for your support

More info, such as the rules for growing mo's, is available at www.movember.com.

Terry

Trots op die Bokke

Answered prayer.

I had prayed, "Dear Lord, Let the best side win, and please let the Boks be the best side."

Today South Africa beat England to win the Rugby World Cup. Can you believe that Mark and two friends were actually at the Eiffel Tower watching the game on big screens that had been set up? Miriam and Geoff joined Ingrid, Sean and me in a local pub in Newmarket and watched the game on a nice big flat screen. Actually, we had the best seats in the place for the purpose. I think there were more Springbok supporters there than England supporters, but it may just have been that England's supporters were rather quiet. Ag, shame. Just to be totally impartial and non-partisan you can read an English take on the match in London's The Sunday Times, Springbok kickers destroy England.

Click on this link for a great picture of South African President Thabo Mbeki hoisted on the shoulders of the players, holding the cup proudly.


The Proper Way to address an Englishman.

This one is doing the email rounds.

Happy Thanksgiving

To all Canadian readers, Happy Thanksgiving, though I guess by the time you read this, Thanksgiving will be long past.

In Canada this long weekend is known as Thanksgiving. Like most other students away from home, Stephen and Judith have come home for the long weekend. Today Ingrid made us an amazing turkey dinner with pumpkin pie and home-made cranberry sauce. During the meal we each had a turn to tell the rest of the family something that we were especially thankful for that has happened in the last 12 months. We all agreed that Judith's response to her chemo was the real biggy. Other things to be thankful for included admission to Queen's University (both Judith and her boyfriend,) assurance of a job for Stephen when he finishes university next year, and Sean's job progression over the last year. I nearly included the Springboks' Rugby World Cup quarter final win over Fiji today after giving us all a huge fright by allowing Fiji to score two quick tries with only 14 men, but decided that wasn't quite in the same league of personal thanksgiving.

So what has happened in the six weeks since my last post?

In a nutshell:
Judith has moved into res. at Queen's University in Kingston,
Stephen has gone back to Queen's for his final year,
Sean has cracked a bone in his foot,
Luisa (Mark's girlfriend) has come back from Holland to Toronto and started her Master's,
Mark came back with Luisa, just for a week,
Heather (Stephen's girlfriend) has left to go to India for two months,
Miriam is working full-time on finishing her Master's,
Terry and Ingrid are now taking care of Judith's guinea pigs,
and, of course, Opa came to visit for 12 days at the beginning of September.

Calabogie
Ingrid and I had booked to go back to Calabogie Lodge for a week at the beginning of September and we invited my father in law in Holland (everybody calls him Opa - Dutch for Grampa - his name is Joop) to come out and join us. You can link to the photo album I put together from the links panel on the left. While there we did a one day outing to Ottawa, going to the Museum of Civilization in Hull. The highlight there was probably the IMAX movie on dinosaurs.

On another day we drove to Algonquin Park, one of Canada's most famed national parks - some would say the most famed. At 7725 sq km it is roughly 20% of the size of Holland (41 526 sq km). Seeing as Joop needs a walker to get around we chose to do the Spruce Bog Boardwalk as the most accessible of the trails. See the photos in the album.

The other big thing we did that week was eat. Every evening Joop hosted us to dine at one or another restaurant in the area. It was great. The closest we came to a fast food chain was buying the odd cup of coffee from a Tim Horton's outlet while we were driving.

On our drive back to Toronto we went via Kingston so that Opa could visit Stephen and Judith at their university town. While there, surprise, surprise, he treated us all to lunch which the "poor" students took full advantage of.




Autumn colours
Last weekend Ingrid and I took another drive up to Algonquin Park to view the fall colours - not only at the park itself but also along the beautiful drive there.

Not far from the park we stopped at a place called Henrietta's Pine Bakery to buy sandwiches for lunch in the park later. Now Henrietta is a very South African name and one of about five flags flying outside the store was South African so we could not resist asking some nosey questions. Sure enough, the store is run by a South African couple from Nelspruit and Pretoria who came to Canada two years before we did. Henrietta was the aunt who started the store many years before. Their wares did not disappoint. The carrot cake was the best we have had since coming to Canada - in no small part because they make the icing with cream cheese like you are supposed to. Here is a link to a review of the bakery.
.

Long Overdue Update

Obviously a lot has happened since my last update so I will NOT attempt to fill you in on too many boring details. What follows is in the disorder in which things come to my mind rather than trying to maintain a chronological sequence.

Judith's first round of semi-annual tests were all negative which means she is still cancer free after six months. We continue to thank God for the wonders of modern medical technology. Right now she is totally preoccupied with getting herself ready to go to Queens University in Kingston, Ontario to begin studying Physical Education/Kinesiology. Queens is where Mark got his electrical engineering degree and where Stephen will be going into his final year of mechanical engineering. It's almost 300 km east of Toronto on Lake Ontario - a three hour drive by car from where we live.

By sheer coincidence (?) Judith's boyfriend (also Mark) will also be going to Queens to study mechanical engineering.

OFSAA Award for Judith
In June, at the end of year Athletic Banquet at Denison High, Judith was awarded the OFSAA Award for field hockey by the York Region Athletic Association. OFSAA is the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations. The award reads in part: Congratulations on being selected by the YRAA Association as the recipient of the "360 Athletics - All Round Field Hockey Student Athlete Award." This award represents your positive attitude, fair play, dedication, and leadership throughout the entire Field Hockey season. We thank you for your hard work on and off the field.

Nine Years In Canada
On 21 July it was exactly 9 years since I landed in Canada. Ingrid, Judith and Stephen will be celebrating their 9 year anniversary of landing this week on 25 August.

On August 11 the Holst family - Ingrid's uncle, Oom Joop, and aunt, Tante Ria, cousins and their children and grandchildren - held their 12th Annual Holst Picnic at Gulliver's Lake in the Hamilton area of Ontario. This will be the 8th year that we have gone to be together with them for the occasion.

We have a store not far from where we live that sells egte boerewors (farmers' sausage) from a South African butcher so it's a great opportunity to make the most of the excellent braai (BBQ) that Herb has made from a half drum and charcoal fire.

Ingrid and Tante Ria sharing a joke.

On the same day as the Holst Picnic, Stephen and his girlfriend, Heather, went to Canada's Wonderland to cool off in the waterworld. I don't know what they weren't thinking but instead of putting their stuff in a locker they just left it on the grass while they went to have fun in the water. When they came out they were amazed and dismayed to find that somebody had walked off with their rucksack containing all their clothes, cash, credit cards and not one, not two, not three, but four pairs of prescription glasses, including 2 pairs of prescription sunglasses. Luckily for them the thieves were only after the cash and the following day Stephen received a call that his kit bag had turned up - minus wallet. Quite a shock for a South African to discover there are actually criminals in Canada!

Beginnings of a prostate saga
Blood tests that I have had over the past four years have shown above normal PSA levels in my prostate - indicative of possible cancer of the prostate. Further examinations and tests were unable to confirm anything until this April when one of ten biopsy needles showed very slow-growing cancer cells in 5% of the specimen. For the grade of cancer cell that was found it will likely be a number of years before any medical intervention is indicated so I have opted not to do anything radical for the moment but to wait and see what the tests show in 6 months time and take it 6 months at a time. Meanwhile I am watching my diet, taking exercise and rest and have put myself on some supplements that are supposed to be prostate friendly :-)

In July Mark and Luisa, who have been in Holland for the past seven months, went camping with Vincent and Jeroen and their families. Here are all the happy campers. I suppose Luisa was taking the picture. She is returning to Canada at the end of this month to begin her Masters at the University of Toronto.