Doppelganger

I ran into a younger edition of James the other day! What do you think?

hottawa

I'm back in Ottawa, where its getting revved up for a hot summer. After coming back from the Sound, the most important thing we did was create a big Indian dinner for my grandmother, which all the cousins worked on. The crowning glory being the yellow jello "jillo" for my aunt, followed by a rousing 7 player game of "racing demon" which I now have a much renewed respect for. Unfortunately its another one of these quick witted games that I really suck at. Jules and I did collosally badly, and would probably have lost even if we'd combined our efforts. Still it was fun, and I will somehow have to find some way to practice for the rematch at Farmor's 100th.

Here are some pics from the trip



here are some more

Dezo

As promised, I visited Desolation Sound, known to the Victorian sailing set as Dezo. Desolation isn't quite the adjective that I would choose, surely Captain Cook had found somewhere more desolate than that in all his world travels. The really misleading name is the "Sunshine Coast" which it is a part of...

Its a long trip up there, and we arrived at the Little River ferry terminal with about 2 hours to spare. The older generation got heavily involved in bridge, much to the disgust of Dix, who has formed an anti-bridge alliance amongst the non-converted. They were a lot happier though, because it was pissing rain the whole time, and the non-bridge crowd had nothing to do but stand around in the parking lot. Eventually we ordered a pizza to keep our spirits up.

The following day we kayaked, and I can proudly say that my boat was the only one which managed to keep all of its passengers throughout the journey. Other than the baby boat, which stayed firmly in the inner harbour. The picture here included makes it look rather more dramatic than it actually was, but don't let that take away from the hushed amazement about my skills.

Later that day we ventured into the real desolation sound for dinner on a little boat. The captain could call bald eagles, and he would throw them food which they would swoop down to eat. I've never seen so many eagles before. They've made a really good comeback from the DDT years. The mountains up desolation sound are spectacular, as mountains tend to be. Our dinner consisted of Crab and prawns, which he gave us useful instruction in eating, for which we were grateful. We got another earful of bagpipes out on the sound, upsetting many and delighting a few.

Today we had wild excitement, touring Powell River and it pulp and paper facilities waiting for a ferry again.

Turning 90

My grandmother turned 90 today. Its quite a feat if you think about it, and still enough to stop many in their tracks. The average age at the party today was probably well above 60, but I still managed to have a good time. I met many of these random people who know who you are, but you have no idea who they are. Weird as it sounds, it actually makes conversation a lot easier, because they know exactyly what to talk about. Plus these elderly people have often done a lot and been a lot of places by the time you get around to talking with them. I met not just one, but several people who had lived in Korea during the 1970s, which is interesting for me since by our standards anyone who had been there since 2002 was old blood. Other than that a lot of blathering, piping, drinking, and eating.

We're heading up the coast to desolation sound starting tomorrow, for what sounds like a rip roaring holiday.

Here's various pics of the birthday girl, but for more go to the link.


This is the link to other photos

Here's some of the current crowd heading out to dinner tonight. The party's tomorrow and the boozing's already started.

L'auberge Canadien

All of the various relatives are here now, and things have descended quickly into chaos, what with preparations for the party on Sunday and the usual goings on of a household. Joining us last but not least was Hamish, our very own bagpiping Scot. He's been practicing this morning, which, oddly, the cat, Rossini, seemed to enjoy. Not that I didn't enjoy it. Now that its back to the usual BC gloom, bagpipes seem quite fitting.

He came in by way of ferry yesterday evening, so the Ottawa contingent and my grandmother were left to entertain my great aunt Dione, who flew in from Montreal yesterday as well. Its been some years since I saw her, and she seems the same as ever. She's gung ho to watch some sort of horse race this afternoon.

We went to Dinner at my grandmother's, where they really screwed up our reservation, so we sat 6 at a table for four. Having an average age at the table, probably well into the 60s, we weren't the most flexible. Guess who got to get the cramped corner?

Thursday night at the Opera

Went to one of cousin S's choir things tonight. It was massively too long; somehow the artistic directors for these things can't seem to follow the old "leave 'em wanting more" adage. But at least it was pretty entertaining in parts, such as the gospel hour, and the rousing finally from Flanders and Swan's "Mud glorious Mud" as done by an opera tenor. Then there were the usual kids in the choir who just can't seem to follow along, or gesticulate wildly through the whole thing, or just can't seem to stop waving to ma.

Duncan

I'm sorely disappointed. We went all the way to Duncan, and I didn't even get to see the world's biggest hockey stick. Why would you go to Duncan and not even see the world famous beast stick? Well, unfortunately I had a terrible allergy attack after walking through grassy fields all morning and it slipped my mind. Mysteriously no one else reminded me. For some reason we all agreed to accompany Jill while she toured properties up in the Cowichan Valley. She currently has a dream to buy land up there and create a winery. All power to her for that as far as I'm concerned. That would be seriously cool.

My cousin Dix is now in town.

Back on the Island

I made it back to Victoria in time for magrarita tuesdays. Thank goodness.

I finished up my business with UBC, and sorted out some unclarity. I spoke to various current students, and they seem about as happy as students ever get. I should be able to push my accommodation date as far back as August and have no problem, so I can delay making serious decisions. On my way out of Vancouver I checked out the Granville market, and the various seedier parts of town, of which there are many. Sensibly all the homeless of Canada seem to migrate to Vancouver.

The current passion around here is for bridge, so I'm now learning the tricks of the game from my grandmother. I read a funny book today, fashion do's and don'ts from Vise magazine, pretty funny.

Harbour Hopping

Visiting Vancouver on a sunny day, I can really see why it tops all the best city in the world lists. With a setting like this, a sulphur refinery takes on a poetic beauty that’s pretty much unrivalled, so when the city is actually nice, its hard to compete with. I’m telling you Ålborg is facing stiff competition here.

Julia and I both flew over from Victoria this morning. We took the harbour hopper, a little sea plane. Flying that way reminded me of Tintin, and it was a hell of a lot better than airport bound airplanes. Hardly any security or waiting. I’m telling you its the only way to go.

The views were spectacular all the way across, Mt. Baker glowed in the distance, as did the Olympics. When we arrived we walked around Stanley Park for a while, and then back to town for lunch. We eventually settled on a place sort of like a crappy version of Turkish Delight. I’m telling you, Haligonians are lucky to have that place.

We continued to wander around to gastown, and points in between. Julia eventually left by bus, to continue Chem 101 tomorrow, and I rented a bike. I did a good tour of the city at sunset, and then made it out to UBC, which is where I am now, using their wireless network. I’m telling you, so far its a massively impressive trip.

I got to listen in on a lot of touchy feely conversation today. One girl feels that she needs a man in here life for stability, but she can’t handle the commitment, and the other feels that she has a negative attitude about life. Another was Gordon Campbell, whom we ran into at the Aquarium, telling us to donate blood. I’m telling you, that guy wears his heart on his sleeve. (Not like the Senators... the bums blew it again!!)

I've been offered a lot of chances to buy drugs, so either I know I'm in BC, or my beard is getting longer.

In the Old Vic

I flew into the Old Vic yesterday. My flights were awesome, I had unobstructed views out the window most of the way, complete with snow capped Rockies. I spent a long time in the Vancouver airport though, running into more Koreans than I have in months. It makes me nostalgic for "the old country". I decided to have a burger in the airport bar, and I ran into a gregarious Nova Scotian who was very eager to reminisce and tell me how drunk he got on his trip home.

Victoria is pretty much the same old, same old. Fun so far though. We went out to dinner at Farmor's yesterday, and it still reminds me eerily of Marriot for old people. My aunt told the waiter that I speak Italian, so he yammered on to me in Italian for the whole night... unfortunately my vocabulary is still pretty condensed. I'll have to try harder to keep up with the podcasts. The Victoria MEC was happy to exchange my old tent without even inspecting it... so James, if the come calling its because I messed up their tent.

Montreal

I am back from a feverish trip to la belle province. James and Marie picked me up from Ottawa in the driving rain and went to Montreal to meet Josh. I don't have time to write a whole lot now, but the highlight of trip was no doubt when the car burst into smoke and we pulled to the side of the road. After much cursing the car was towed to a nearby Canadian Tire for inspection. Other highlights included Harold and Maude, marauding raccoons and skunks at our campsite near Oka, driving in a shocked silence through an RV park, forgetting flashlights for the camping, being abused by a three year old québecois boy on the beach, the chocolate museum, and the fine crêpes on the final morning. I may write more later, but for now, here are the equivalent of 30,000 words.

Tomorrow I'm headed in another direction, BC. Will write more from there.

No longer working

I am officially unemployed again, so let the good times role. I'm about to head off to Montreal to visit with assorted central Canadians. (Names withheld to protect the innocent; apparently future political careers hang in the balance)

Despite the drudgery of work I was sorry to leave. It was getting fun again, as we had developped pretty good comradeship, us hardy survivor types. On the last day we ordered Chinese and Ali brought in a good selection of samosas (somali style). I can't honestly say I'd ever had Somali style before, but let me say that they did not disappoint, so go out and support those somali style samosas. The other reason I was terribly sorry to leave was the new reward system, in which you got a flower with your name on posted on the wall everytime you met your production quotas. Sweet. Plus I'll miss the rabid Senators cheering section, and mockery of Leafs fans. The game last night was awesome despite losing in OT.

More playoffs

I was 4-4 in the first round. So to follow up that rousing success, here's round 2:

Ottawa-Buffalo: Ottawa in 7
NJ-Carolina: NJ in 6
SJ-Edmonton: Edmonton in 7
Colorado-Anaheim: Colorado in 6

The only series I predicted exactly accurately last time was SJ in 5 over Nashville.

In other news, I was accepted to Ålborg, so now I have to hunker down and figure out what I'm doing next year.