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April 2012

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Today I have to return to the UK after what seems an all too short stay in Victoria. I have been snapping away with the Fuji x10 throughout my visit, and this post consequently comprises a miscellanea of images.

These were taken around our dear friends’ farm:

Food shopping around Saanichton is very different to the UK. The local supermarket is called Thifty’s – and looks completely unlike any Waitrose or Sainsbury’s I have ever seen:

…and this is the very wonderful Orr’s in Brentwood Bay – fabulous meat and delicacies such as black pudding, and a cornucopia of delights from home for the British expat. The model of the paddle steamer Waverley in the window betrays its origins north of the border (the Scottish border, that is!)

I really liked the way the waitress in the Prairie Inn in Saanichton carried her change:

I love Sidney by the Sea. I think you can see why:

…and finally, something of a surprise:

Kickass Canada Girl discovered that the Maple Leafs (Rugby Canada’s development squad) were playing the Ontario Blues (national champions) in an exhibition match at the new Bear Mountain Stadium. Being big rugby fans we thought we would go along. We went early in case it was sold out (it wasn’t… come on, Victoria rugby fans!) and found ourselves the first ones there. We got into conversation with what appeared to be the head honcho, and found – to our surprise – that he had been to school in England, and had subsequently taught – and coached rugby – at the school that I worked at prior to my current school. We had overlapped briefly but not met. We also found that he has a residence in London a stone’s throw from where I work now. Small world!

As the conversation wound up I asked his name. How embarrassed was I to find I had been talking to Canadian Rugby legend, Garreth Rees?! Doh! He is now in charge of Rugby Canada and their splendid new Centre of Excellence at Langford.  Great things are anticipated for what is clearly a growing sport in Canada.

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It is the Easter weekend and our good friends and their two young boys – for such there be – have loaded up everything including the kitchen sink and headed up island to Nanaimo for a few days camping.

Now – at the risk of sounding like a broken record – ‘when I were a nipper, camping weren’t like this!’ Camping for us meant hefting a heavy rucksack loaded with everything one could possibly need, including the tent (invariably a tiny two ‘man’ job) and all the accoutrements. It meant rain that seeped into your clothing through every conceivable opening (not to mention into the tent at night) – sleeping (if that were possible) on the hard stony ground with only a groundsheet for protection – and heavy, cold, soggy hiking boots that one had to squeeze one’s swollen feet into in the morning.

I do recall one experimental ‘lightweight’ camping trip that I rashly undertook with an overly enthusiastic friend of mine one summer – for which we decided to forgo the tent. We were interested in the then recently available polythene survival bags. We figured that all we needed was one such to keep us warm, and a shared sheet sleeping bag to keep the polythene from our skin. We slept – if that is the word – under another sheet of polythene stretched between two bikes (decorated as I recall by the luminous – and probably toxic – contents of a festival ‘glo-stick’. Well – it was the early 70s!). You can probably guess how the adventure turned out. We both perspired like crazy for the first hour and then – when the temperature dropped – we froze! We were up and about in the middle of the night – teeth chattering castanet-style – trying to cook a ourselves hot breakfast. So much for that experiment!

Canadians do things differently. Camping this side of the ocean invariably involves the Recreational Vehicle – the RV! For the Brits the closest equivalent would be the almost universally loathed caravan, but it really isn’t the same thing at all. For a start some RVs – once fully expanded – are the size of a small apartment. For another, whether the Canadian roads are just bigger (which they are) or the RVs are more suitably powered (which they also are), one just doesn’t see the sort of traffic queues behind crawling vacation homes-from-home that so blight the English A roads in the summer months.

Another alien concept to the average Englishman (if there be such a beast) is the Fifth Wheel. As we don’t really do pickups at all the notion of a large camping trailer hooked onto the back of a truck seems a strange idea. In fact it makes a huge amount of sense both in terms of utilising the existing powerplant – which can also still be used as a separate vehicle – and making the best use of the extra space over the bed of the truck.

Either way, camping – as practiced by the Canadian – is something totally outside the experience of most of us in the UK. Having watched our dear friends packing to go to Nanaimo, however, (and with two small boys that is a non-trivial operation!) I am still not persuaded that I should be joining in the fun, though Kickass Canada Girl naturally considers me something of a wuss for taking that view.

I think boating is more my line!

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Any fears that I might have entertained concerning seeing Kickass Canada Girl again after a month apart disappeared in about 10 seconds flat last Thursday evening, at the culmination of my lengthy trek from London. It was as though we had just come home from a day’s work rather than having been an ocean apart for an extended period. I can’t help feeling that this bodes well, though of course longer periods of separation lie ahead.

These things are difficult to judge. My readings on long distance relationships (LDRs) suggest a plethora of potential pitfalls (not to mention an abundance of alliteration!) and offer much in the way of advice – of some of which I will certainly not be availing myself. I intend to write something more detailed on the subject in the near future, but for now the sights, sounds and sensations (there I go again!) of British Columbia are filling my senses and leaving little room for extended contemplation.

This next stretch – through the School’s summer term – will pose a more severe challenge, until the end of June when I can again return to the province. That visit will, fortunately, be a little longer than this one. This 10 day trip has – largely on account of the excursion to Kamloops – been not nearly long enough for all that we need to accomplish.

For now, though, I am content to be here, to help the Girl settle in to our dear friends’ suite and to do whatever I can to assist her with her new job. That – for the present – means casting an eye over the charity’s IT setup, to see if things can be sharpened up a little. This is what we Brits would call a ‘busman’s holiday’!

As I may have mentioned before, the Girl really is quite remarkable. When she and I met I was filled with admiration at the courage and sheer pluck she had displayed in uprooting her life and decamping to a strange city – where she knew no-one – to take on a new job for a concern with which she was unfamiliar. Now she has shown similar chutzpah in returning to Canada to take up a high powered position – on which a considerable amount rides, both for her and for the charity – and to live apart from her most ardent supporter – ie, me! Yes, she is blessed with wonderful friends who seem to exhibit similar traits of fearlessness, but this is still a big ask and I am once again awestruck.

So – things still to be done before my return:

  • Open a joint savings account
  • Look at some more properties on the peninsular
  • Talk to telecom providers about iThing contracts
  • Book flights for summer visits in both directions
  • Visit more friends and relations
  • Assorted domestic chores
  • Cook ‘thank you’ dinner for our good friends in Saanichton
  • Find time for further blog entries!

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Living in the south of England gives one a particular perspective on the matter of snow – in that we only get any once every few years, it is only ever an inch or so deep at most and it usually disappears as quickly as it comes.

Seeing snow on the Coquihalla was a different matter entirely. The fact that both ends of the journey to Kamloops were spring-like and sunny, but the high pass had six foot drifts and there was a clear snow line on the mountain tops, was unlike anything I had seen before. We were very grateful that our dear friends had lent us their Toyota Surf for the journey. It certainly reinforced my feeling that owning a 4×4 is a pretty good idea in the west of Canada.

On the way back to Victoria – and because we had not seen each other for a month – Kickass Canada Girl and I treated ourselves to a night at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort. I had not heard of the Harrison Hot Springs and the Girl had never been there. We had a stunning view of the lake from our room, a splendid dinner and several opportunities to wallow in the outdoor hot spring pools. It was a wonderful way to wind down after the stresses of too much travelling and we thoroughly recommend it.

I wanted to take some photos of the view from our room but the battery on the x10 ran out of charge having been worked hard at the Aunt’s 80th birthday party the night before. As I was travelling light I had left the spare battery – and the charger – in Saanichton. Not wanting to miss the light on the lake and mountains I took a couple of snaps with the Galaxy Note instead. To my slight annoyance – in the circumstances – they turned out rather well!

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Air Canada did not, regrettably, live up to the precedent set last week by Air Canada Cargo. The flight to Vancouver had already been delayed by an hour when I reached Heathrow and, once boarded, we then sat on the tarmac for a further hour waiting for a take-off slot. I consequently missed my connection in Vancouver and had to take a later flight to Victoria.

It had already been a long day. When I return to the UK in ten day’s time I will need – to preserve as much leave as possible for further visits to BC – to head straight for the office. To facilitate this I drove to the School first thing on Thursday and, leaving the car there, hauled my bags to the tube station and took the train to Heathrow. With the subsequent delays the whole journey took around 20 hours. When I arrived all I could manage was to collapse and go straight to sleep.

So – what did we do the next day?

We got up early – naturally – caught the ferry to the mainland and drove for 5 hours to Kamloops, birthplace of the Kickass Canada Girl. Though the weather at either end of the trip was fair enough for the time of year, the route traverses the Coquihalla pass and we found ourselves passing through some pretty serious snow.

We are in Kamloops for the Girl’s aunt’s 80 birthday and today – Saturday – there is a party at her cousin’s house.

Phew! I might just be getting a little old to sustain this pace…

I am writing this on my Galaxy Note sitting in a Starbucks in Kamloops, which is a a new experience and not the easiest thing to do. I will write more – and much more elegantly – once we are back in Victoria on Monday. All I have to figure out now is how to get the picture to accompany this post off my camera and onto the blog. Neither the Note nor the x10 has a standard USB port, so I will probably have to borrow a computer elsewhere to do so. This is a problem that will need to be addressed for the future.

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