Hello everyone!

I knew it had been months since I had written anything but I was alarmed to see a Christmas/NY picture of myself when I signed back in to Substack. Eek. Its been a tough slog over here and staying afloat took all my energy. It turned out that the job I was really excited about was a very poor fit. That whole situation took so much of my energy that writing, working on getting my SW credentials accepted and generally having a life (you know, the holiday part of this ‘working holiday’ plan 😒) all took a back seat in order to keep me (sort of) sane. Initially I tried to power through and keep all those balls in the air but eventually I had to (grudgingly) accept that it was too much. This realization came after many tears and much self-recrimination but I finally realized that what felt like defeat was actually just reality. I needed to temporarily set aside the pressure to write and work on the writing and the SW credentials so I could remain upright and have the energy and focus to apply for new jobs. I also managed to maintain key self-care things like going to the gym and physio which helped my mood and pain levels.

Happily, this strategy worked and after many applications, several job interviews I finally cracked the code on Scottish social service interviews and have a new job with a local Council! I am very grateful to the SW manager in a nearby Local Authority who took the time to give me very supportive and focused feedback on my interview with her team. I am sure that helped me tip the scales in my next job interview.

So, June 22 I started a job as a Social Care Worker sitting with a team of SWs, OTs, and other Social Care Workers in a local Health and Social Care Partnership. Our team reviews the social work requests that come through the phone and online forms and screens them. They come to us after a basic triage by a large admin team and we review them more closely. We try to close or redirect the straightforward or inappropriate ones. We do some digging, make some phone calls and maybe do a home visit to the ones where we need a bit more info and then close it or pass it on to teams who can do the more complex work. Its a big team and so far everyone seems really nice. It is going to be a great place to learn more about the social service context in Scotland. It is more in line with my skills and interests and it pays more so, it all bodes well. I already feel like I have more energy and brain space so that is also a good sign.

In fun news, I have managed to have a few small adventures in the midst of the chaos of the past 6ish months. One of the bigger adventures was a week of exploring Scotland with my mom and her friend E when they came in April. We rented a car and I drove over to Edinburgh airport to pick them up and then we headed off to E’s friend's place in St. Andrew's. We enjoyed the small pretty town and dodged students and golfers on the cute High St on our way to the ruins of the ancient cathedral. We waved at the famous Old Course and walked on the beach where the famous running scene in Chariots of Fire was filmed. (We did our own re-enactment which I will spare you but was very funny!)

Mom and E walking on the beach.

Mom and I at the ruins of the St. Andrew's Cathedral.

Then back to Glasgow via Pitlochry where we bought some fancy woolens at The House of Bruar and explored up the river that runs down the side of their property.

We had a very musical day in Glasgow with an organ recital at the Kelvingrove Museum, bagpipes in Kelvingrove Park and a fiddle band at this cool restaurant/event space/theatre called Oran Mor. Enjoyed the Victorian glass houses at the Botanic Gardens.

We soaked up the Harry Potter vibes of Glasgow Uni.

We did a driving tour of the coast and enjoyed an excellent lunch at the Italian institution in Largs that is Nardini's. Headed around to Ayr and saw Arran along the way!

(Arran is just baaaaaarely visible in the background of this shot.)

We went to the very cool Falkirk Wheel which works a bit like a canal boat Ferris wheel and lifts boats up 35 meters from the Clyde and Forth canal at the bottom to the Union Canal above.

From their site,

“The Falkirk Wheel opened in 2002 and replaced a flight of 11 locks that once stepped the Union Canal down to the level of the Forth & Clyde, more than 100 feet below. Whereas weary travellers once had a day’s heavy work opening and closing 44 lock gates to complete the journey between the two canals, The Falkirk Wheel allows vessels to transit between the two waterways in just a few minutes.”

And, they do it using the same amount of energy that it would take to boil eight kettles. Very clever!

We did a trip up in a canal boat, got out at the top to explore the woodland and then caught one of the trips going back down. It was hard to get a picture that captures the feeling of being in a boat 35 meters up in the air but these ones are close.

After the wheel we went to check out the Kelpies which are very cool sculptures of horse heads nearby.

The grounds are nicely laid out to make walking up to them part of the experience. It would have been easy to plunk a parking lot nearby and have it be a Large Thing On The Side Of The Highway situation (something we love in Canada and the the US [please note that, sadly, the Worlds Largest Hockey Stick no longer resides in Duncan BC. RIP WLHS.]) but the parking is spread out, the grounds are nicely landscaped and have with interpretation panels with information about native plant and animal species. If you wanted to keep walking or if you were on a bike, the location is part of a network of walking and cycling paths which connect 16 communities with 26kms of paths. I thought it would be a kind of stop, take a pic and go type thing but it felt more like interacting with an art installation. And, if you wanted to interact with the Kelpies even more, you could book a special tour and climb around inside them! Its not cheap but it would be very cool.

This is a diagram of the climbing route inside the sculpture.

You can also book tours of the inside of the Falkirk Wheel too! They run once a month and also aren’t cheap but if you love cool engineering stuff, I am sure it would be a really interesting experience.

Most recently the fantastic Heather and Ian came for a visit on their way home from walking the Camino in France and Spain. I am so proud of them for completing their epic adventure! We explored Glasgow and also rented a car to go exploring. We went through Glen Coe and up to Fort William and then over to a remote spot near Loch Shiel for a night. It was fun to spend the Summer Solstice with them in a gorgeous part of the world!

We had a great time. Even with our epic drive through Glen Coe, into Fort William, over to Loch Shiel and then back again the next day. That was a couple of long days even for intrepid Canadian road trippers such as ourselves but it was beautiful. I had the whole week off while they were here and it was amazing to spend time with good friends who know me well. I enjoy making new friends too (or I wouldn't have undertaken this crazy, mid-life adventure!) but there is something special about spending time with people you love, who love you and have known you for 20 (!!) years. It was a great way to start recovering from the previous 6ish months. It was just what my battered heart needed. ❤️

So, that gets you fairly well caught up! My next post will be about the 2 weeks I spent in Helsinki and the Baltics with my fantastic 🇦🇺 friend Hannah. We had a fabulous time swimming, sauna-ing, going to a spa, trying yummy food in markets, finding the best combos of cheap/boozy Aperols, eating at amazing vegan restaurants (they also understand gluten free which is handy), climbing towers, walking ramparts and squizzing in cute shops for the best souvenirs.

This year I spent Christmas and Hogmanay (NYE) with Jenny and Zul and their family in Lochwinnoch. Both Christmas and NY were relaxed affairs that involved some late nights, sleep-ins, great food, lots of tea and chocolate and some lovely walks. Above is a quick selfie taken on a walk at the Lochwinnoch RSPB reserve. Below is a gorgeous pre-sunset shot of the loch and wetland area.

We also found this mess in a local park on our way to the loch which seemed like a very Scottish, post-party mess that could be created. I had to take a pic.

On Christmas day I even went to the local pub for an hour (they were only open for two) and had a drink with J&Z's son and grandson (kids allowed in certain sections). It was packed! Many people were dressed in their Christmas best and I saw at least one sharp dressed man in a kilt go by. It was warm and cozy and felt very British. It was a fun little blast of busy socialization in the midst of a relaxed weekend with the Bhatias.

NYE is called Hogmanay here and there were pub nights to join and a big event in Edinburgh but I opted for another relaxed night with the Bhatias. We stayed up late and rang in the NY with popular Scottish and English NYE TV programs. We had a very lazy start to the morning and made it out fomr a NY walk at a nearby park. I had a vague hope of trying to fit in a Polar Bear Swim but as the wind felt like it was a gale coming directly out of the arctic, I opted for two coats, a toque, an ear-warmer head band, gloves, jeans and boots and the swimming gear stayed buried in the car.

Jenny and I. Photo by Omar.

Jenny, me and Omar. Photo by Omar courtesy of his long arms which are great for selfies!

OH, and the car! So, public transport stops here over Christmas and New Years and taxis are double the price (what are people without cars and who need to get to work supposed to do you ask? Hope their employer will pay for a taxi or get a ride with a friend apparently. It's nuts to me that a huge, multicultural county like Britain stops all public transport on those two holidays but, there you are). I was a bit uncertain about whether or not I might get called in to work so I didn’t want to end up in Lochwinnoch and not be able to get back into town so, I rented a car! It was really stressful because most rental cars are standard here so not only was I driving on the left, I was also driving standard which I haven'tdone in 10 years. UGH. BUT, I did it! I channelled my inner OT and thought, “how can I break this tasks down into smaller pieces and not overwhelm myself?” First I drove by myself with no music. There was alot of self-talk and I sang to myself to be sure I kept breathing. Then, once I noticed that there was less singing and out-loud reminders of how this all worked, I added music. Then after a couple successful days of practice I added some (calm) passengers. Ta da! I was driving. The added bonus of having a calm person in the co-pilot seat was that they were able to gently point out when I was overcompensating and was too close to the parked cars on my left. EEK! Thanks Omar!

It was a bit expensive to rent a car but it was high time for me to try driving here and it was nice to be more mobile. On Jan 2nd I went out to the coast and stopped in Largs briefly for a shot of the Viking sculpture on the beach.

He was quite festively attired and I look forward to going back at other times of year to see if his outfit changes!

And this is a view of the Largs seafront,

Postcard perfect!

The first weekend of January I was in Edinburgh for physio with someone who ChatGPT tells me is the only physio in all of Scotland who does Gunn IMS. This form of dry needling is common in Vancouver but it turns out that is because Dr. Gunn is from Vancouver and pioneered the technique there. I has been a game changer for my chronic pain stuff and so I am grateful to have found someone in Scotland who does it and who is nearby(ish). It was a cold, crisp day so I was able to get some really pretty pictures. Here is a sunset street scene and a cheerfully lit Scott Monument.

Beautiful.

However, I am afraid to say that after a cozy and auspicious start to the month and the year, I have really been struggling. My job is turning out to be a poor fit. I knew there was going to be a learning curve, and that there would be things in this junior management role that would be a bit of a challenge for me, but I hoped they would be outweighed by things I am good at like building rapport with clients and their families, case management, team building and (hopefully) getting people to do their flipping jobs properly. Unfortunately, that is not the case. It's turning out to be stuff I don't like and am not good at about 60-80% of the time. It's exhausting to feel like an idiot 60-80% of your day. Especially when I don't have as robust a support network as I did at home. Luckiky, I work with some great women who are funny and hard working. We are often frustrated but we also laugh alot. They are keeping me sane and I am very grateful to them.

My frustration at work is compounded by my ongoing struggles with the Social Work regulator in Scotland and the life admin burden of trying to set up an adult life in a new country which appears to be deeply committed to bureaucracy as part of its national identity. Partly I think its the tedium of trying to do all the grown up chores 6ish months that a person normally work through over the course of a lifetime. I mean, normally a person spreads out things like getting housing, a bank account, a Social Insurance type Number, a credit product, a driver’s license, a car, a professional designation, a job they like (and that pays decently), a new cell phone, a new GP and eventually an optometrist and dentist over a lifetime. Doing it in under a year in a country obsessed with regulation is alot! Add to that my own unhelpful and unnecessarily critical self-talk about needing to go to the gym, keep writing, make an effort to online date and/or make friends, cook good food to save money, and track my spending (savings =s travel!) and I have felt like I am drowning. When I write it all out it makes sense that I'd feel overwhelmed but also, OOF. Many of these things seem of equal importance and the small ones just nag. It reminds me a little bit of when you are in University and you can't ever really relax because you know there is another paper or project or reading assignment due soon. The constant background whine of To-Dos becomes tiring in itself before you even tackle any of the actual work. All of this, plus some wierd hormone fluctuations, has lead to some very hard days. I have had a couple cry-like-heartbroken-teenager meltdowns fuelled by big questions about what the eff I am doing with my life but, I am slogging along.

I am sure the short January days aren't helping. This is the farthest north I've ever lived (roughly the same paralell as Hyder Alaska!) so from mid-Dec to mid-Jan it was a constant surprise when the sun went down so early. You finish work and think, "Whoa, it must be so late!" and then realize it was only 5:30! The upside of being so far north is that the length of day is changing quickly. We are already up to about four hours more daylight than we had Dec 21 which is lovely. And, everyone says Scotland is super rainy but so far I think the winter in Glasgow has been drier than winter in Vancouver. That helps too because if you can get out at lunch then at least you can get a bit of sun.

So, I am hopeful that my mood will continue to lighten with the days and that an eventual change in employment will help emotionally and financially. Hormonal sabotage remains a constant threat to my best efforts which annoys the 💩 out of me but I am doing all I can about that and just have to soldier on.

I can't leave you on on a bummer note so I will end by sharing my new favourite Scots expression, “lang may yer lum reek.” Its a traditional new years greeting and the literal translation is, “long may your chimney smoke.” You say it to wish people prosperity and good health. The idea is that you hope they will be prosperous enough have something to burn in their fireplace so their family and home are safe and cozy. I love it. I look forward to having my own lum and to it reeking heartily by next NY.

❤️ G

PS This is coming out Feb 1 (UK time) b/c of crappy internet on my side. I tried to post it 4 times from my phone. Took a break so I didn’t smash anything and am now posting from my laptop. I have having connectivity issues so if you see typos, or sentences that are disjointed its b/c the screen on my phone reloaded every 10 seconds for the last 30 minutes in order to “sync my unsaved changes”!! 🤬

But first, Merry Christmas from dark, rainy Glasgow. The past 6 weeks has been jam-packed with illness (this flu is no joke!), getting my head around my new job, getting cards and gifts in the mail for friends at home and abroad, bingeing on Christmas markets and trying not be bankrupt myself buying cute Christmas decorations everywhere I go. In terms of markets, I have been to three markets in Germany and two here. Its been a really fun treat to have so much cool stuff so close at hand!

I flew to Germany on the last weekend in November to stay with Bruno and Monique who I met on the first part of my trip to Africa in 2022.

They live in a small town outside of a small city called Ulm in the south of Germany. Initially, I was just going to find out what city was nearest them, book mid-range accommodations there and then see if they wanted to poke around a market and drink gluwein one night . However, once I reached out they very generously put me up for four nights and Bruno happily drove me all over the place (at TOP speed) to explore as many cool things as we could cram in a long weekend. It was fabulous.

On my first full day there we explored the huge, beautiful Ulm Minster which had its first stone laid in 1377 (!), some of the old sections in Ulm, the “Medieval Market” in Neu Ulm (I walked across a bridge over the Danube river to get there!) and the larger, “regular” Christmas market in Ulm. It was a long, chilly day but we had a great time exploring.

Ulm’s market was packed!

Day two was the big trip to the naked sauna. This adventure came about after I casually mentioned that I’d brought a swimsuit in case there were any interesting saunas nearby. At this point point Bruno and Monique both looked excited and said, “Oh, you don’t need a swimsuit for the saunas here! We love saunas. Do you want to go?!” Ummmm, yes? How do you raise the topic of saunas and then say you aren’t interested!?

We had a thorough discussion of the rules (no clothes in pools or saunas but towels or robes when walking around the facility) and my comfort level (low to middling) and my interest in checking it out (fair to high). Bruno was as baffled by my discomfort with nudity as I was by his comfort. I was hesitant, but it did sound like a very cool experience so I decided to give it a try. Happily, one of their favourite thermal pools/saunas is only about an hour away and was near a small, community Christmas market where one of Monique’s sons was working. Perfect!

So, on day two we packed our towels, robes, shower bags and flip slops and headed off to Therme Bad Worishofen (check out the link and the family friendly Google photos to get a sense of how extensive and beautiful the facility is!) I can see why its one of their favourite places to go. Its gorgeous! Its a huge facility with a family side, where kids are welcome and swimsuits are required and a naked, grownups-only side with a restaurant and two swim up bars! After paying you get a bracelet which is linked to a locker and to your account so you can use it to run a tab at the bar and restaurant. You go through to a mixed gender change room (tbh, this was almost harder to get comfortable with than the nudity in the main pool areas) and secure all your clothes in the locker. Then, clad only in flip flops and a robe, and armed with your bracelet and a towel, you head off to the main pool and sauna zone (with a brief stop in the single gender shower and toilet sections to scrub up) before getting in the pool.

Walking into the main pool area was a little overwhelming for my senses. There were palm trees and orchids and lush landscaping arranged around a large central pool in what feels like a huge glasshouse (which has a retractable roof for the summer!) Now, that on its own was quite cool, but it was also full of naked people and some of them were drinking pints of beer from (plastic) glasses. WHAT? It was so bizarre to my Canadian brain that I wasn’t sure what to look at (and not look at!) first. Bruno and Monique headed for the bar and so I half-floated and half-walked after them. (It was a bridge too far to stride confidently through the 4 feet of water on my first outing. A brain can only manage so much bravery in one go!)

We ordered drinks and swam/walked through a half-sized (so it didn’t push through the water) revolving door which allowed us to go through the wall into the outside section of the pool to enjoy the sun. It was a cold but bright day so it was quite busy out there. There was another swim-up bar, some jets on the wall to get some pressure on your back, a waterfall thing that poured water on your shoulders and these built-in, tiled “loungers” which kept you below the water line but allowed you to lay back and rest in the sun. On the other side of the pool wall was a pond that was full of huge koi and across the pond were a couple of saunas, a cold plunge pool and a building with cold showers and some toilets.

We eased into the day by floating and chatting for a while as I surreptitiously checked out the crowd. It was an even mix of men and women, some groups of friends (can yo imagine spending the day hanging out naked with your BFFs?!), some couples and some singles. I would put the average age around 45 - 50 but with outliers in their teens and 80s and some cool tattoos! After about half an hour it was time to go find a sauna. There were quite a few to choose from and I could have spent the whole day trying them all out!

There are about eight sauna rooms with different temperatures and themes inside the main building. There are also a “hot-tub” that’s only ankle deep so you can warm your feet while relaxing in a lounge chair, a regular depth hot tub for full body soaking, indoor and outdoor cold plunge pools, a faux cave with about three “waterfalls” pouring cold water on whoever is brave enough to stand there, a warm room with anti-gravity chairs for lounging, chairs set up all around the pool deck and a restaurant full of people in robes and towels having lunch.

Near the indoor cool-down spaces there was an ice machine that was slowing pouring coarse crystals out into a basin. It was fun to sit in one of the nearby saunas and watch through the glass wall as people went by, quietly grabbed some “snow” for a snowball and threw it at their friends. When I first saw that pile I thought, “Its a good job this is kid-free otherwise there would be a constant snowball fight out there”, but sure enough, the grownups couldn’t resist either!

I think the most beautiful sauna they have is one I didn’t spend time in because it was packed when we went by. Its built down into the pond outside and two sides of the room are made of thick glass which essentially turns the room into a large aquarium and allows sauna goers to watch the beautiful koi cruise by while they enjoy the heat on the inside. I need to make sure I hangout there next time. We spent about four hours floating, soaking, steaming, roasting and cold plunging. We felt amazing by the end and it was hard to tear ourselves away. I can definitely see why people book the full day. In terms of my comfort walking around naked, I would say that by the end I wasn’t exactly comfortable but I was less uncomfortable which was a great start. Its such a gorgeous facility and a unique (for me, apparently they are quite common in Germany) experience that I would definitely go back again.

After we got showered and dried off we bundled up and headed off to a local Christmas market. I was geared up for a smaller version of the Ulm market and when we arrived it was tiny. I was a bit disappointed at first but then I realized it was a truly local market full of homemade crafts and neighbours catching up with each-other over sausages and warm, boozy drinks while everyone’s kids ran around like maniacs on the the stage at the front of the little square. It was lovely. I am excited to report that some Christmas markets do hot Aperol instead of mulled wine. I was initially disappointed to miss out on a gluwhein opportunity but the hot Aperol was great. I highly recommend.

Day three of my Very German Weekend was a trip to Ludwig II’s 19th century, romanticized, fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein. A bit of snow made it extra magical.

Its down near Austria and the road took us across the Austrian border and then back into Germany. No passports needed. Does that count for my list of countries visited? I don’t think so but I loved the idea of literally swinging through another country to get to a castle. Hello Europe. I have missed you.

The snow meant that the bus that takes you up the hill wasn’t running so there was a long queue for the horse draw carriage and we needed to walk up the hill to get to our tour in time. I was a bit bummed because I quite liked the idea of arriving at the foot of the fairy-tale castle in a horse drawn carriage. Especially because the carriage I imagined was going to look something like this,

However, in very practical and sensible German reality, it looked more like this,

Clydesdales are beautiful animals and it would have been a cool way to get to a beautiful castle but its not quite the same as a gold encrusted carriage. I was fine to walk.

The tour was short but interesting and I recommend it. It is cool to see the rooms they have cared for and decorated and you get the extra historical. You also get a phenomenal view of the Alps, the valley, Alpsee lake and Hohenschwangau Castle on a nearby hill. Hohenschwangau Castle is where Ludwig II grew up.

The view of Hohenschwangau Castle from below.

The castle is huge so I was veeeeeeery curious about what all the other rooms looked like! Our tour was right near the end of the day and there was a tiny part of me that hoped I might get left in the castle after the last tour had ended and I could explore it at night. How cool would that be?!

The sun had set by the time we left so I got some dramatic photos of the castles through the bare trees.

Very impressive.

By Monday it was time to pack up and be ready for the trip back to Glasgow. Bruno kindly drive me around the area to check out different local landmarks and we popped back to the the Ulm Christmas market so I could pick up a couple more smoking santas. The trip home was smooth other than the airline somehow losing my luggage in the small airport of Glasgow. They did return it safely the next evening though which I was very grateful for.

Germany was definitely the big treat for this Christmas but I would be remiss not to mention the huge, busy and almost-German market that Edinburgh puts on. I have been going to Edinburgh once a month to a physio who does the kind of treatments one of my Vancouver physios was doing and that means I get to spend the rest of the day exploring when I go. A couple weeks ago I spent my afternoon drinking mulled wine (not quite as good as Germany and definitely more expensive) and looking at the stalls selling (mostly) beautiful Christmas stuff. Oddly, I found GF sausage options in Germany but not the market in Edinburgh so I took myself out to dinner at Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. It was off-theme but very tasty.

Here are my favourite shots of the market and the lights in Central Edinburgh!

Glasgow has divided up its festive Christmas offerings so I can only report on the small market in the middle of the city. They have GF sausages and lots of seating for eating, drinking and music. They have a much smaller offering of stalls but they do have a solar powered Ferris wheel so take that Edinburgh!

Glasgow has a huge carnival set up on Glasgow Green for folks who want more excitement than a Ferris Wheel but I haven’t checked out either of those zones so I can’t compare. Apparently, Glasgow and Edinburgh both have outdoor ice rinks too. I haven’t found Glasgow’s and I didn’t dare try Edinburgh’s because of my poor skating skills. The last thing I need is a new injury because I tried to show off my Canadian-ness in a temporary Christmas rink. Just say no Jones.

And, my local neighbourhood is full of gorgeous old tenement buildings (which conjures up a very different image at home than it does here!) and many people have put up big, dramatic trees in the front windows. SO pretty.

This year I will spend Christmas with Jenny and Zul and their son Omar and his son Cosmo. My cousin Diane and her lovely partner Cam will come up in January for second Christmas which will be a treat too! I am going to miss my family and friends at home but I will be well looked after here.

❤️ G

PS I have tried to ensure that I have used Canadian spelling throughout my recent posts in spite of moving to the UK. I share this to preempt any criticism from the group of Canadian linguists and editors who recently wrote an open letter to Mark Carney and the Federal Government insisting that they will not tolerate a slide towards British spellings in their federal government documents. “You’re back in Canada now Carney! Knock it off with the British baloney!”

This was a real thing btw. A group of folks really did write this letter and IT GOT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION. Seriously?? I get the “elbows up” sentiment but there are wars, terrorist attacks, illegal US naval strikes, a rising tide of populism and weekly news about climate related disasters, and these folks want to talk about the spelling in Canadian budget documents? Not only that, the BBC, The Guardian and the NYT also picked it up. WHHHYYYYYYY?

PPS I have to share one more pic with anyone who has made it all the way to the bottom of this post. A friendly tourist took this picture of “us” at the lookout at Neuschwanstein. I was hoping it would be a fun shot of the three of us in a beautiful place buuuuuut, it just looks like I am crashing someone's date.

FFS.

First of all, let me say thank you so much for all the messages of support after my last post! I was struggling hard in September and it was lovely to get so many comments, emails and direct messages letting me know that feeling lost and a bit sad is normal and that everyone was rooting for me. It really helped push back on the blues hovering around the edges of the current stage of this adventure.

I am happy to report that I now have a job! As of November 17 I am going to be a team lead with a non-profit in Scotland that helps adults with disabilities and their families hire staff to support them to live in the community. The agency has divided Glasgow up into sections and each section has about 6 - 7 adults who have a variable number of staff. The estimate was that I would be managing/supporting about 15 - 20 staff.

It sounds like a combo of case management (“What do you mean Marcus hasn’t received meds from the pharmacy since Wednesday?!”), advocacy (“No, Judy really can’t manage with only 12 support hours a week. We need to find a way to increase them so she can live safely and her family isn’t exhausted.”) and staffing stuff like hiring, scheduling and performance management (“Kyle, you asked for Friday and Saturday off and the request was declined because there was no coverage. Later, you called in sick for those days and Yusuf didn’t have any staff until late Friday afternoon. Can you tell me more about what happened there?”)

I think its going to be an excellent combo of the skills I have gained working in various roles over the years and it will ground me in the social service landscape in Scotland. It pays less than official “S”ocial “W”ork, but who knows how long it will take to get those credentials signed off on. This will be a fantastic place to meet people, make friends, get the lay of the social services land and, of course, get a paycheque!

My other good news is that I have long-term housing! My land lady/roommate said she thought I was fitting in really well and that the kids liked having me around (yes!) and that I could stay as long as I want. WOOHOOOOO! Its a gorgeous space and a great neighbourhood and its fun living with a family. It helps keep me functioning with a normal-ish schedule while I am waiting to start this new job. Left to my own devices I turn into a teenager who stays up until 1am and sleeps in until 10am. Its a treat for a couple days but after a while my mood gets weird. Waking up to the sounds of the chaos of kids trying to get out the door for school is way better. Especially when it’s not my job to actually *manage* that chaos.

Now, lets talk about travelling!

When I accepted the offer to share a home with this lovely family, I agreed to clear out for 10 days in mid-October so she could fulfil her commitment to a home share arrangement she booked earlier in the year. I looked at the cost to stay in Glasgow and soon realised that for not much more I could go to a new country so off I went! I found weekly direct flights from Edinburgh to Marrakesh and a 10 day Intrepid tour that started right in the middle of a two week window. So, on Oct 9 I was up at 3:45am and out the door at 4:15am to catch the 4:40 shuttle from central Glasgow to the Edinburgh Airport. The flight was smooth (other than parenting other people’s children the entire time 😒) and in a mere four hours (vs. 15 - 20 hours from Vancouver!!) I touched down in hot, dusty, chaotic Marrakesh. I was so not ready.

My first accommodation was at a riad in the old market, or Medina, in the middle of Marrakesh. I had booked a transfer from the airport to the hotel but I didn’t realise that you couldn’t drive right to it. My driver dropped me off at a gate into the Medina and I stood there feeling tired, confused and suspicious as a new man with a large luggage cart with bouncy tires loaded my stuff into his giant, off-road wheelbarrow and beckoned me to follow him through the crush. Um, OK.

We headed off towards the large square called Jemaa Ee-Fenaa and my porter pointed out the cobras, snake charmers and monkeys that did tricks (while they were attached to the ends of small chains 😔 ) as we went along.

Jemaa Ee-Fenaa from a lovely terrace just after sunset that first night.

The square seemed impossibly busy but we soon plunged into a little street on the east side of the square and the real chaos began. The narrow alley was jammed with shops, stalls, locals, tourists, motorcycles, bicycles, donkeys pulling carts and tiny, alley-sized, dump-trucks attached to the front of a motorcycle. The smell of grilling meat, baking bread and incense mixed with diesel, gas fumes and dust. People yelled in multiple languages, honked and banged their trolleys to get you to move out of the way while others asked you how you were, where you were from and would you like to come into their shop. And, it was 31C. So. Not. Ready.

Eventually we made it to the hotel and I was asked for money from the porter. I was annoyed because I thought the fee for the transfer was paid so there was a bit of squabbling but eventually he agreed to take four, one pound coins and I went inside the cool, quiet riad to get settled.

The staff at the Riad Lamzia were lovely and took me up the three flights stairs to my small room on the roof. This room would be way too hot in high summer but it was fairly comfortable in mid-October, especially after the sun went down. I also had the whole roof-top terrace to myself much of the time which made me feel quite fabulous. It did mean that there weren’t many walls to dampen the calls to prayer each day (that first early call was a bit of a shock!) but I got used to it.

Over the next two days I explored the Medina and tried to figure out how to navigate the chaos without getting run over.

In spite of my best efforts to stay sharp and not get sucked into any scams I did get pulled into a racket where a “friendly” man who just happened to be going in my direction walked me to the tannery section of the Medina. He turned the corner and voila, a kind and surprisingly un-busy man just happened to be ready to take me for a tour. After the tour of the tannery (which, to be fair, was interesting) he popped me around the corner to a shop full of very beautiful things. One of them even made sure to take a picture of me,

Note the sprig of mint in my hand which is given to visitors to the tanneries to help mask the smell.

Once in the shop more very friendly people whisked me around the store and showed me lots of pretty leather, wood and wool items before plying me with tea and then taking me into a side room to look at carpets.

By this point even too-friendly, Canadian me had cottoned on to the fact that I was being railroaded into spending money but I was confident I wasn’t at risk of buying a carpet so I sat down to at least look and learn more. After learning about all the different wool options the man showed me a “cactus silk” option and suddenly my resolve started to crumble. It was so soft! It was so shiny! It was so strong!! *sigh*

In the end, I walked out with a carpet about the size of a single bed for the low, low price of $700(CAD). ACK! I was able to get him down from the $1100 he initially started at but I think I could have done better if I had been confident enough to walk away. For a few days I was obsessed about getting sucked into such a silly purchase on day two but after the embarrassment wore off, I contented myself with the knowledge that I really do like it and I and I will have it forever. On the upside, as the carpet wasn’t wool it was quite slender so it fit comfortably in my carry-on sized luggage and it was easy to carry for the rest of the trip. Plus, it makes a pretty funny story. Who buys a carpet on day two of a two week trip to Morocco!

Less funny was being bossed into paying the “helpful” guide at the end of the shopping experience and then being assigned to another “helpful” guide who was supposed to be taking me back to the main square. After paying Mr. Helpful I was about to turn on my heel and walk off but a young man with what I would guess was probably moderate cerebral palsy popped up and my resolve to leave on my own weakened. I knew I had a small amount of money left and that he likely did have a genuinely harder time than his colleagues making money so I agreed to be “guided” (never mind that Google maps works brilliantly in the Medina) back to the main square. He was hustling and more than once I thought he was going to fall on the cobbles. I learned a new phrase as we pushed through the crowds - “piano, piano!” This was usually yelled out by locals who appeared to know him and didn’t want him to trip and fall. I looked it up when I finally got back to the hotel and it means “slowly, slowly” in Italian. Even I was saying it to him by the end.

By this point I knew I was basically being charitable by being “guided” by this young man and I knew I was being led long a too-long route to get back to the main square but I put my foot down when we ended up his “cousin’s” shop. After refusing to go into the store and starting to walk away he reluctantly agreed to take me back to the main square. Once there, he insisted on a $20 USD fee for his services and showed me a medication bottle that he said was his and needed help to pay for. I was polite but firm and offered him the small amount of cash I had left. In reality he had probably worked physically harder than the other “helpful” men I met that day but my wallet was literally empty. I gave him what I had, wished him well and headed back to the hotel to cool off.

For the rest of my time in Marrakesh, I tried not to be too nice, definitely refused all offers of help to navigate the market or to come into people’s shops. I was trying to work on having better “borders” (boundaries) as advised by a very kind young man named Khalil at the riad who commiserated with me after my carpet adventure. Its good advice!

Khalil, was such a kind guy that when he found out I was gluten free he went 5km out if his way on his off time to find me GF baked goods for breakfast. I hadn't mentioned it on my booking form because I didn't want to be a bother and had brought my own bread but he looked physically pained when I declined the breads he offered at breakfast and explained why I couldn’t eat them. My Canadian need to not be a bother clashed strongly with his Moroccan need to be a good host. He looked very serious and said he would have to go find me some. I tried to dissuade him but no luck. And really, he found such great breads that I am glad I didn’t dissuade him!

He served these with great pride and solemnity the next morning. I was really full after breakfast that morning but there was no way I wasn’t eating what he’d bought for me!

He was such a lovely young man. He had a masters degree in Arabic law (that’s extra hard he said because Arabic has “so many words!”) but was cobbling multiple, non-law jobs together to make a living. For the millionth time I found myself grateful for having the random luck to be born in Canada.

Somehow I forgot that Morocco had been a French colony and that they still speak French along with Arabic, Tamazight (the language of the indigenous Amazigh people who prefer not to be called Berbers ), English and Spanish. Once I caught up to the fact that French was still an option I had fun dredging up my high-school French to try to communicate. My new friend Khalil at the riad was always very patient with my French and more than one waiter indulged my practice as well. I was very grateful to all of them.

Unfortunately, as I got more tired throughout the day my language skills got more and more sluggish. One night, after a difficult exchange with an annoying woman on my tour, I tried to ask a waiter for a table in French, Spanish and English. He looked worried for me (which was fair, I was on the verge of tears) and gently asked which language was my strongest. He then warmly and kindly conducted the rest of the exchange in English. Thank you sir.

After two days in Marrakesh I moved to another hotel in a new part of town and met up with the people I would be travelling with for the next ten days. We were a mix of people from Australia (always lots on an Intrepid tour!), England, Grenada/USA and Canada (two Francophones and me.) The average age was about 60. I was happily lumped in with the young folks in their 30s which I thought was pretty funny.

Our tour guide was a really cool guy named Ayoub who is also a fantastic musician! You can check out his Spotify page here and the playlist he made for our southern Moroccan adventure here. Its beautiful music! He also had the patience of a saint. There was a good deal of complaining on our trip and he maintained a good sense of humour the whole time.

The tour segment I did was the 11 day South Morocco Discovery with Intrepid. I have never really thought much about travelling in Morocco but the timing fit so I booked it. It turns out southern Morocco is much less developed than northern Morocco. It sounds like travel is harder on the southern segment than it was on the northern bit but I was used to long travel days from the 2022 trip to southern and eastern Africa although the bus was smaller this time which made the journeys a bit less comfortable. One of the upsides of a less developed region for travellers was that the places we stopped were, on average, much less busy and touristy than the northern spots. We spent a night in a mountain village at a very clean and comfortable guest house and went for a hike (a source of MUCH debate among people who felt our mountain-confident guide’s definition of “easy” was not, in fact, easy. He quite fairly pointed out we were on the side of a mountain so *of course* some elevation was expected. )

Our triumphant lookout pic from the hike! Happily, we all made it.

We spent a night in a rustic camp on the edge of the Sahara and rode dromedaries to a big dune to watch the sunset. We also got up early for the sunrise which was hard for me but it was so worth it.

After the desert we explored another mountain village, toured La Maison Traditionnelle a lovingly restored Amazigh village home, enjoyed some traditional music (the banjo is a recent addition to traditional music, there is an Amazigh instrument but apparently its complicated to make and play so when people discovered the banjo makes the same type of sound they adopted it) and a fantastic cup of tea.

Photo taken by Yves, one half of the Francophone couple on our tour.

We had a great tour through Essaouira, haggled with shopkeepers (who were way more chill than those in Marrakech) enjoyed (and worried for) the cats of the city, learned about the fish markets and the history which stretches back to Carthaginian and Roman empires.

We also had a major sea food feast in Essaouira!

We explored the ancient, hill top village of Ait Benhaddou and pretended we were extras in Gladiator and Game of Thrones.

The most unexpectedly interesting thing we did was explore a village granary. I am always game to learn more about local traditions and resources and was happy to check it out but didn’t have high hopes. I am so glad we went though because it was so cool!

Each family in the village gets a room and they store grain but also important family documents. The small black holes that you can see to the right of the doors in the middle picture are cat doors! The grain attracts rats but the rats attract cats and the cat doors allow the cats to come and go easily on their hunting rounds. The granary is heavily fortified with high, thick walls and heavy doors. There is also a huge cistern of spring water in the middle so if there was ever a siege the villagers could retreat to the granary and wait it out for quite a long time.

The man giving us the tour was in his 70s and could run up and down those ladders like a cat himself! It was amazing!

You can't go to Morocco and not take pictures of the gorgeous doors!

On my last day I did a hot air balloon ride at dawn!

I was temporarily adopted by a German family during this excursion. They were such nice people. The 12ish and 14ish year old daughter were keen to practice their (already excellent) English and and the husband generously took my photo several times. The mom looked happy not to have to pay too much attention to anyone at that hour of the morning! They also adopted a young woman who was born in Benin and lived in the Congo before becoming a nurse in Germany. She was dressed like she was on a fashion shoot. The groggy Germans and I were really impressed!

After my hot air balloon ride I went out for lunch at a fancy French Cafe and did a bit more shopping before I headed back to the hotel to relax, pack and get ready to head back “home.”

I’m not going to lie, it did feel weird to be going back to Scotland and not Vancouver. In fact, at one point on the trip I actually forgot I didn’t live in Vancouver any more. That was a very disorienting moment and did make me tear up a bit over my chicken tagine. It is a strange feeling to be as unmoored as I am right now. I mean, that was kind of part of the point of this adventures but feeling it is a different thing than anticipating it.

The stable housing helps and the routine, friends, contacts (and paycheque!) that come with a job will help alot too but it definitely doesn’t feel like home yet. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though. I am only four months into this adventure and only a couple months into properly trying to make Glasgow home. And, even then, I was in a crummy Airbnb for 3 weeks and Morocco for two weeks. Its unrealistic to expect that I will feel truly settled in a few weeks. Patience Jones. Patience.

I’ll leave you with this serendipitous (thank you seagull!) sunset pic taken on the terrace of the restaurant we ate at in Essaouira.

Thank you as always for reading!

❤️ G

This is one of my favourite shots from the 10 days I spent with Caroline (middle) and Amy (right) in late August/early September. Read on for more on why I am not *actually* writing about our adventures in Edinburgh and on the North Coast 500 in this post. This is just proof of life (although admittedly its from August) and a fun pic to encourage you to open the email!

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Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I’ll be blunt, September was hard and I could not motivate myself to sit, focus and write. As the venerable Lynley MacPherson once wisely pointed out when I went silent on another trip many years ago, “I figured you were having a bad time because you stopped writing. No one wants to write when they are struggling because why would you want to document that?!” Truth!

For the majority of September I was anxious and lonely and spent far too much time alone with my own thoughts in a mediocre Airbnb in a gritty part of town. And by “thoughts”, I mean thoughts of failure, regret and embarrassment that I blew up my life to fly 7, 000 kms to a city I have never been to so I could sit in a sort-of-sad flat and and scroll though job and housing websites. Thoughts that can essentially be summed up as, “What the eff was I thinking?”

After days filled with tasks like reactivating ancient school accounts (have you ever had to request your high-school transcript 30 years later?!), navigating clunky University websites, endless job posting sites, limited flat share options and filling in many, many text boxes, my wrists ached and my mind was numb. Spoiler alert, these are not the ingredients for creativity, motivation or focus.

However, after a kind and unexpected email chat with another friend recently, I (finally!) realised that 98% of the folks reading this are friends and family and will probably be very supportive of the fact that I have been struggling in the early days of a massive change in my life. (Because, um, DUH.) She encouraged me to just get out of the house and write and so I did. I went to a great coffee shop in my new neighbourhood near the Kelvingrove museum and wrote.

As the title suggest, I am pleased to report that October is off to a much better start! It is also starting to look very pretty and autumnal.

Late in September I met with the sister of a friend who is a psychiatrist who works near Edinburgh. We had a great chat about how the Scottish mental health care system works (and doesn’t). There are some very interesting Social Work positions here because a SW is required as the third signatory to the paperwork that authorises involuntary psychiatric care. In BC the process requires one physician so, if I could get one of these SW jobs it would be a type of advanced practice that I can’t do at home. SWs here also do safeguarding work which is similar to the Adult Protection work I was doing in Vancouver and that also appeals to me. I find the intersection between clinical presentation, legislation and the ethics of balancing involuntary intervention with autonomy and self-determination to be complex and interesting work. I think it is an excellent use of my MSW brain. As I was explaining how interesting this all sounded to me the psychiatrist smiled ruefully and said, “Well, its a lot of responsibility and it doesn’t pay any better.” “Yep,” I said cheerfully, “that sounds like social work!”

October 1st I moved into a GORGEOUS apartment in the converted attic in a tall, old, row-house in the West End of Glasgow. It is temporary (she likes to have the spare room free for friends and family in the summer), its at the max for my housing budget and its at the top 80 stairs but I don’t care. It is sooooo beautiful and I am excited to be in a lovely space in a fantastic neighbourhood. I share with a woman who is probably in her late thirties or early forties and her two kids aged 6 and 9. They are all great. I think we are going to have a lot of fun together.

I am also happy to report that there is progress on the job front! I had a JOB INTERVIEW this morning! Its for a junior manager position with a large, Scottish non-profit. They help hire and coordinate staff who support adults with disabilities who live independently in the community. This role would be relevant to my previous work with people with disabilities, would deepen my leadership experience and give me a better understanding of the Scottish social service ecosystem. Well, it would if I get it. Cross your fingers!

Another fun piece of news is that I am going to go to Morocco for two weeks on Thursday! Whaaaaat?! It sounds bonkers but hear me out. I need to clear out of the apartment for 10 days because my housemate/land lady has some folks she met through a home-share website coming to stay. I was looking at Airbnbs and was starting to despair that I would end up in a similar situation as the last three weeks of September when it finally dawned on me that I could probably spend the same or less if I went somewhere sunny and and with a lower cost of living. After some searching around (with the help of my lovely Australian friend Lisa via the intertubes in Ethiopia) I found flights to Marrakesh in/out of Edinburgh and an Intrepid tour on sale! I could have spent less with a packaged holiday trip to Turkey or Greece but I really wanted to be able to explore and meet people. I didn’t want to feel trapped in a resort in a gorgeous-but-inaccessible coastal town on the Mediterranean. That is NOT a sentence I ever thought I would write but after three weeks essentially on my own in September, I didn’t want to risk the same feelings plus an overlay of shame for feeling sorry for myself on a beautiful beach . SO, off I go to Morocco to possibly feel trapped with 14 ding-dongs for 11 days instead! BUT, its more likely that I will meet some amazing, funny, curious people (and maybe a couple ding dongs) like I did last time I took an Intrepid tour through east Africa. Can a person have too many travel friends? I don’t think so.

My final piece of good news is that I went out with my new landlady/housemate, her BF and two of her friends to a pub quiz last night and we won! I am usually terrible at those but somehow we pulled it off. We won 75 quid towards booze at the next visit and a bottle of a terrible liqueur or bottled cocktail thing that tasted like sweet and sour, blue vodka. Clearly, no actual berries were harmed in the making of that drink but we didn’t care because we won!

As for my delayed report from August, I have a ton of funny pictures and stories to share but if I wait to post them before I post this, this whole project will come to a grinding and embarrassing halt. As September drew to a close I could feel myself collapsing under the weight of my own expectations and I don’t want that to happen. I am on this adventure to learn new skills and strengthen under-used ones. Challenging black and white/all or nothing thinking (“If I don’t post about August I can’t post about anything ever again.”) and moving laterally (“tell them about October instead!) instead of plodding along and driving myself into the ground are some of those skills. Please marvel as I use them here. #SmallVictories #AnotherEffingGrowthOpportunity

As for the delayed report from August, Amy, Caroline and I had a hilarious time soaking up culture and natural beauty and even fitting in some swims! We also checked out a few pubs along the way, quelle surprise.

And as for my mood, it has definitely picked up. There was even a rainbow on the weekend after a kickass storm. That has to be a good sign, right?!

Thanks to everyone for reading!

G

After Bournemouth and south Wales I came back to Glasgow to spend some more time with Zul and Jenny and start looking for housing. Here are a few fun highlights to share. Enjoy!

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I turned 48 (WTF?!) in Glasgow and tried the famous Scottish soda Irn Bru!

Scottish people are passionate about Irn Bru and the taste is unlike any other pop I've ever had. It’s a bit like a very sweet cream soda + orange soda but with a bit of a metallic tang. Its a flavour that’s uniquely it’s own. I don't think I'll become a mega-fan but now I can say I've done it.

We spent some time that day in the Burrell Museum. Sir William Burrell (1861–1958) was born and raised in Glasgow and was part of a successful family of shipping merchants. His wealth allowed him to pursue his passion for art and he amassed a huge private collection of items from many different eras and parts of the world. In 1944 he and his wife donated the entire collection to the City of Glasgow with the expectation that it would be free for people to come and enjoy. The museum is housed in a beautiful, modern building in Pollock Park. The interpretation in the sections that we saw was interesting because they were going by theme and not by date. It was a neat way to look at different collections of art.

After some art, snacks and Irn Bru we went looking for the park's prize-winning Highland Cows. We found them waaaaay out in a field and they were not at all interested in coming over for a visit. Here are Jenny and Zul's son Omar and I posing with them at Zul's insistence.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with Zul and Jenny's other son Ally and his family. It was a nice chill way to celebrate my birthday.

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A few days later we went back to the west coast for another swim and I finally saw Arran!

😍

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Jenny and her grandson Cosmo and I explored Old Govan church and looked at the “Goven Hogbacks.”

The church is on a spot that is believed to have been a location for Christian activity for the past 1500 years! The large, rounded, carved stones pictured below are a few of the 31 “hogbacks” which were found in the church yard. These are estimated to date from about 800AD and are thought to be Viking grave markers. These are some of the best surviving examples and were brought inside to protect them from further damage from the elements.

The collection in the church also includes a carved stone sarcophagus estimated to be created late in the 9th century!

Amazing!!

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I explored the Castle Semple loch area near Jenny and Zul's and soaked in the history and nature. One day I spent about an hour at the ruins of the Castle Semple Colligiate Church drawing.

The long walk, the fresh air and the focus of drawing were lovely ways to de-stress from the frustration of looking for housing. I definitely had a few “WTF have I done with my life?!” moments in that 10 days but doing something cool like drawing an 520 year old ruin reminded me the goal is to soak it in, not be renting my own gorgeous apartment in a hip neighbourhood and be running the NHS by Christmas. Relax Jones, because,

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The World Bagpipe Championships happened to be on while I was in Glasgow so I went to see if I could find the Simon Fraser University pipe band. I did my undergrad at SFU and I am proud to say they have won the world championships six times over the years!

It took a while to find them in the park amidst the hundreds of other pipers and drummers but eventually I found them warming up!

And I made it to the central competition area where they performed!

They placed second last year and fourth this year. I am sure they were disappointed but I was excited to be able to see them place so highly while I was there.

At the end of the day all the bands meet up in a huge field to play a couple songs together and to receive the prizes. It was so cool to hear the cheers go up as different bands in the various grades and types of performance found out who won.

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I also managed to fit in some more swimming while I was in Lochwinnoch with Jenny and Zul. I went up to a local swimming hole and had a soak on a hot day. It was chilly but such a treat after a hot, muggy day. The teenage boys who were there were impressed that I stayed in for almost 15 minutes! I did not point out that I was better insulated than they were! 😆

You can go behind the waterfall too and I tried that the next night. It was a cooler day and I got there later in the evening though so the whole adventure felt colder that night. I did a quick explore behind the waterfall, soaked for a shorter time and then walked back down the hill to Jenny and Zul's house. It was a lovely, summer-y, village day.

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I did some exploring around central Glasgow while I went to flat viewings. I found the famous statue of the Duke of Wellington who, since the mid-80s, has worn a traffic cone on his head. You can read more about the long simmering tension between city council, who keep trying to find way to remove the cone and discourage future orange hats, and Glaswegians, who has persisted in doing so (and even change the colour up for various social, political and sporting events!) here. The day I went there was one hat and many spares to be had for what, photo ops maybe?!

I went back another time and the spare cones were gone but the hat remained. I wonder of the city workers took them back for road works. So mysterious!

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I have to end my Glasgow postcards section with a report on my fabulous experience at the very expensive jewellery store Mappin and Webb. Being Canadian, I didn’t recognise their name but they turned out to be the company who are jewellers to the Crown!

After a few disappointing flat viewings I was poking around downtown feeling a bit blue when I went past the store which is at the front of the very glitzy Argyll Arcade. The Argyll Arcade is FULL of diamond jewellery and expensive watches. Fancy watches aren’t my thing (even though I can appreciate their beauty, craftsmanship and precision) but I am a sucker for sparkly jewellery. So, to brighten my mood I spent almost an hour looking in Every. Single. Window. I did a detailed analysis of the latest styles, noted the rise of large lab created diamonds for impressive solitaires and enjoyed the wonky diamonds, warm gold tones and filigree of the antique estate jewellery.

Along the way I saw an 18karat gold necklace that looked a bit like a silver necklace some of my girlfriends got me before I left. (Thank you ladies!!) I took a picture of it and was going to text my friends to jokingly ask why they hadn't gone for the 18kt gold version.

I mean, it would have only been about 4,000CAD. What is a friendship worth these days anyways?! 😆

As I looped back past this store (I said it was a detailed analysis!) the sales lady saw me stop again and rushed out to say hi. She said she'd noticed me stop on the way in and then again on my way out and asked if I wanted to try it on. I balked and said, “OH gosh no. I can't be buying jewellery right now but thank you so much. It is beautiful.” She said, “No! Come on in. Just for fun. Why don't you try it on!” After a bit of back and forth, and assuming she could tell from my casual clothes that I wasn't in a position to be buying gold necklaces, I relented. I mean, I love trying on beautiful jewellery. I just don't like wasting people's time.

She was so lovely! Wendy introduced herself, sat me down and had the necklace on my neck in a flash. I showed her the pretty silver version I already had on and explained that I was just planning to send a pic to my girlfriends to joke with them. She laughed and said she understood why I stopped. Her sales partner, who was looking dapper in a three piece suit, then popped by and said,

“Can I get you a glass of something?”

“Oh, yes please. I would love some water. It’s so warm out!”

“Oh no madam, this is a full service establishment” and he proceeded to pop a drink menu in front of me! I stammered and said, “OH gosh, no worries. I mean, I'm just trying something on for fun. Water will be fine.” He laughed and said, “It’s all part of the service!” As I continued to splutter my weakening refusals he looked at me with a big grin and said, “Are you sure?”

“ Weeeeelllll,” I said, caving. “Actually you did mention a glass of something sparkly. Maybe something along those lines?”

“Of course! Champagne or Prosecco? Maybe a wine spritzer? A fizzy cocktail?”

“I think Prosecco would be lovely. Thank you!”

“Of course!” And within a minute a lovely glass of Prosecco was placed in front of me.

The lady who was showing me the necklace said, “Come on! We have to take a picture for your friends!” So,

It was such a treat! She was such a nice woman and seemed genuinely happy to chat. She was so excited for me to be in Glasgow having this big adventure. She insisted that I email her and keep her up-to-date on my adventures.

Near the end of our chat (and the glass of wine) her colleague came back and brought me the other necklace that was just a plain chain. It was slightly cheaper and, after a glass of wine, seemed infinitely more affordable. Wendy could see that something had shifted in my eyes and could tell that my mental wheels were turning to find some way that I could justify this purchase. As I was discussing it with her colleague, exclaiming about the affordability of this reclaimed 18k gold chain (stamped with the Royal Mint logo no less!) and its suitability as a gorgeous souvenir, she very gently pulled the necklace back and said, “Well, now, why don't you get a bit more sorted and when we have some Christmas promotions, I will let you know.” I looked at it longingly as she slipped it away and said, “Oh, ya, maybe I should like, get a job and a home before I buy 18kt gold jewellery.” “Ya,” she said, “I think that’s a great idea. I'll be here and you need to come back and tell me how things are going anyway.” Yes. Indeed. Excellent point.

So, I still don't have housing or a job but I do have my very own sales consultant at a very posh jeweller. A girl has to start somewhere!

❤️ G

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After an action packed weekend in London I headed south to Bournemouth to meet-up with my cousin Diane and her lovely partner Cam. They have a small flat in Boscome so I stayed nearby in student residences in central Bournemouth. It was basic but comfortable. The only hitch was the hordes of teenage boys who seemed to think they were the only people in the building. I poked my head into the gym one night at about 11 to check out the space and you would have thought I’d walked in topless! The youngest ones were shocked into immediate silence and stared at me as I walked in and checked out the space. I am not hardcore enough to need super specific stuff and I had a good idea within a few minutes but I walked around like I knew a gym inside and out and was checking to see if this one would meet my incredibly high standards. One 20-something guy gave me the, “hey” head/chin nod and the boys went back to messing around with the rowing machine and some weights. It was all I could do not to snicker as I walked out.

BUT, other than the teenagers everywhere (visiting for language schools apparently) and a bit of a basic bed set up it was quite comfortable. The staff were all really friendly and responsive (to reports of teenage boys on the patio at 2am) and it was super affordable which was great.

Day one we headed for the Jurassic Coast in Dorset to check out The Etches Collection Museum in the village of Kimmerage. which houses the most complete pliosaur skull in existence.

This Pliosaur was essentially a carnivorous sea monster (aka “Sea-Rex”) who lived in the warm waters of the Kimmeridge Sea 150 million years ago. This massive, 2m long skull was found when a piece of the skull fell out of a cliff above a nearby beach a few years ago. Further investigation revealed what appeared to be the rest of the skull buried up high on the cliff wall! You can read more about the tricky excavation and the subsequent BBC documentary with David Attenborough about the Pliosaur here.

They have a lot of other fossils too.

Including, fossilized poop!

These must be a hit with kids as well as being educational in terms of providing some record of what the pooper ate.

After some tea we were off to see the famous Durdle Door,

and Man O’War beach,

It was a gorgeous day and I was aching for a swim but the cliffs and stairs were steep and I didn’t have a swim suit. I will return another time and swim through that door!

The next day we went for a drive through the New Forest looking for the horses, ponies and donkeys who roam the park. We saw a few horses but no ponies or donkeys. Cam insists there are usually donkeys all over the place but I remain skeptical. 😉

We stopped for some tasty tea and (GF!) cake at a gorgeous Burley Manor.

After tea we were off to look for the rumoured donkeys!

The following day we went to the beach!

Diane bravely joined me in the water while Cam happily stayed on the beach. Every mission needs someone in charge of snacks and photography so it was a win-win-win.

The following day I headed for a town in the south of Wales called Swansea to meet my cousin Patti. Cam and Diane had very generously agreed to drive me to Portsmouth to catch a train but due to unexpected delays on the motorway I missed my first connection. They ended up needing to be extra generous and driving me to Bristol. Thank you!

Patti is one of my Dad's cousins and she met me at the station in Swansea just as some local police showed up to shoo off some kids zipping through the bus station on BMX bikes. Perfect timing!

Patti and I spent three days exploring south Wales and soaking in some beautiful sights.

We drove through the Brecon Beacons park on our way to the town of Brecon. It’s a huge, beautiful park full of great hikes and wide, sweeping vistas. We were driving good pictures were hard to take but this one from a brief stop gives you an idea.

We also saw some sheep! Of course!

On one of our days together we explored the St Fagans National Museum of History which is an open air museum where you can find traditional homes, mills, barns, churches and a castle which is really a large manor house. It is referred to as a castle because it was built on the ruins of an old Norman. The current house was built Manor house you tour when you go was built in 1580 and it’s furnished to be as if it was the mid-1800s.

At the beginning of the day we were battered by the corner of a big storm moving up the eastern side of the UK. But, after struggling with wind and driving rain for a few hours, we popped out of the Manor house to this weather!

The Manor house included many beautiful, practical and interesting things to help visitors understand what life was like for Lord Windsor and the servants in the mid-1800s. The piece I found the most interesting was this ornately carved fireplace in one of the family's rooms,

The inscription reads, “Of what value are pedigrees.” Um, probably alot given this was the home of Lord Windsor who, by 1850 when this was brought to the castle from his winter home. *another* of his homes, was also mayor of the area. Nevermind that he went on to serve in Cabinet and become the 1st Earl of Plymouth. 🙄

One of our other adventures in Wales included exploring the area around the village my dad grew up in. My Dad's cousin Patti is living in her parents old house and it’s a bit run down at the moment. She’s working on getting it back up to snuff but it’s a big job and its taking time (she kindly put me up at a nearby hotel to spare us both the stress of an added body using the old toilets etc in the house!). This is an old photo taken from a helicopter probably about 40+ years ago.

You can't tell from this but he garden is steeply slanted up the hill which adds to the trouble of maintaining it.

It was quite an achievement for my great Uncle Wat to carve that garden out of the woods on the mountain. He loved working in it and grew much of his family's own food for many years. He also had bees, chickens, a small bird aviary and propagated cacti! He was passionate about the natural world and he was a huge influence on my dad's life. It was sad to be there and see the mountain reclaiming the garden although I feel like he might have even told me once that he knew it would happen. I took a sprig of the mistletoe that grows in his apple tree as a keepsake. ❤️

As for my dad, he was born in a house in the village of Resolven which is just a short walk away from the houee in the picture above. Patti showed me the house my dad and his sister Sal (I was visiting her daughter in Bournemouth) were born in and grew up in and explained where other family lived when he was growing up. We also walked up to a church yard above and behind the village where some family are buried.

There is also a nearby waterfall that was hard to access because of a recent treefall and thats where my dad wants his ashes scattered after he dies. I couldn't get a proper view of the falls but I could hear them just over the edge. I took this pic, which seems a bit frivolous given its where my dad wants his ashes scattered, but I share it so you have a sense of the foliage and the ravine.

Its beautiful and peaceful. It reminded me alot of the type of forest we explored when we were growing up in Burnaby. It will be a lovely spot for him to rest whenever that time comes.

After our day of family history Patti and I took a trip to a local seaside town called Porthcawl and had a look around. The rocks at the headland were too rough for swimming but we got a pic around the corner in the harbour for posterity's sake. I took my sunnies off so you could see my eyes but you can'tsee them anyway because I was squinting so hard! 😆

Then Patti took me to a long fabulous stretch of sandy beach where I was able to get in! Glorious!

Next up, a long train trip up to Glasgow and 10 days of exploring the city while also looking for housing. Spoiler alert, it’s cheaper here than London but the nice neighbourhoods are still expensive especially when one is unemployed! 😬 Send lots of love, patience and good wishes and say a prayer to the Housing Fairy (all Social Workers have one on their shoulder don't they?!) for me. Let’s hope housing is sorted soon!

❤️ G

Hello friends! This one might be a bit long. Grab a cup of tea and enjoy!

…..

I left Glasgow for London early on a Friday morning. UGH. Thank you to Jenny who VERY kindly agreed to drop me off at the airport for 6:30am. After dropping me off she came straight back home to bed. Smart lady.

I had a short, smooth flight down to London which was made even more enjoyable by the friendly Scottish prawn fisherman sitting next to me. As he got settled in he mentioned that his wife was seated further up the plane. When I offered to switch with her so they could sit together, he looked me in the eye and with a dry chuckle said they’d been married 35 years and it was absolutely not a problem to spend 90 minutes in separate sections of the plane. Ah, right. So, we discussed life as a prawn fisherman, innovations in fish farming, his pride for his kids and my wacky plan to live in Scotland.

Landing at London City Airport on the east side of the city meant an easy transit to my friend Adrian’s house and I was unpacked and relaxing with a cup of tea in no time. Adrian worked the afternoon and I napped and then by 6:00 we were heading out to see some Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre. It was a warm night so the streets were packed with cool young people standing around outside equally cool restaurants and beer gardens and leaning on the wall by the Thames. It felt like all of London was outside living their most fabulous urban lives.

Somehow I was labouring under the misapprehension that the Globe we were going to was the original but once I realised that the original was built in 1599 it seemed unlikely. (In my defence, London is full of really old buildings! The White Tower at the Tower of London was built around 1080 and its still functional!) But, as it turns out, the original theatre burned down after a pyrotechnics mishap in June 1613. A new one was built shortly thereafter but it was shut down by the Puritans in 1642. (So glad we've progressed in the past 400 years and religious extremism doesn’t impact politics or the arts any more. 🙄) The current incarnation of the theatre is a recent addition to the 2000 year old city. It opened in ye olde 1997 and is only about 750 ft (230 m) from the site of the original. Fun fact, it is also the only thatched roof building in London! The proponents were granted special permission because a ban on thatched roofs was put in place after the Great Fire of 1666! You can read more fun facts about all the various incarnations of the Globe theatres here.

You can get really cheap tickets for the Globe if you want to stand in front of the stage but I am too old to stand for two and a half hours so I booked us seats in the balcony. (Rent or bring a cushion, maybe both, as they are hard, wooden benches) We were in a front row, stage left in the middle gallery and the view was great. The show was Romeo and Juliet and the cast did a great job retelling the tale in Wild West setting.

The audience in the “pit” had a great view as well. (If you opt for those “seats” the hot tip is to go early and get a spot where you can lean against a wall or the stage because apparently, that makes all the difference. Also, try to be 20.) The actors interacted with the folks down there a few times and even moved through the audience on foot and on separate, mobile mini-stages. All-in-all, it was a fantastic performance which is exactly what you would expect at the Globe. Even from one born in 1997.

Day two of the London itinerary was a 0930 slot at Buckingham Palace for a tour of the state rooms. As some of you might imagine there was a great deal of grumbling on my part but I have to admit that getting the first tour of the day was absolutely the right call. I recommend it even if you aren’t a morning person or a retired naval officer.

You can't take pictures inside but trust me, it's beautiful. You get headsets and little tablet type things to help guide you through the various rooms and interpret the various paintings, sculptures, carriages, thrones and architectural motifs. Apparently they move 6, 000 to 7, 000 people a day through that tour so they have it down to a fine art. I also have to say that the staff are the most polite people you will ever meet in what is essentially customer service job in London. Clearly, even people in entry level positions in the Royal household are held to high standards.

After some tea and a quick spin through the gift shop (I resisted a tiara!) we were off to the British Library. The British Library is the largest library in the world with over two million items and they add approximately three million new items every year! We were there for the Treasures of the British Library room to check their, well, treasures. Some of the documents in their Treasures of the British Library room include, the Codex Sinaiticus which is the earliest surviving manuscript containing the complete New Testament thought to be completed in the middle of the 4th century, a Welsh elegy decrying the Norman Invasion (early 12th C, its going to get worse guys 😔 ), one of the few remaining original copies of the Magna Carta (1225), a beautifully decorated copy of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales from around 1410 and Shakespeare’s first folio (1623). They also have political items like protest posters and pamphlets (more like zines than the tri-fold pamphlets we think of today) and lighter fare like music and lyrics hand written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and snarky letters written to a literary journal by major US and British writers about British and American culture respectively.

The Magna Carta

The Canterbury Tales

And of course, Shakespeare.

I have to admit I was skeptical of the plan to visit the National Library but Adrian wanted to go and as he was hosting me it seemed rude to object. I am so glad I did! There was so much cool stuff in that gallery. I won't bore you with more pics of ancient paper and vellum but it's definitely worth a visit. It's also free which is always nice in London!

After the British Library we grabbed lunch and chatted with some Oasis fans who were stoked for the show later that evening. The it was off to the National Gallery.

They had many beautiful paintings including works by many (all?) of the European masters and many, many more. One of Adrian’s favourites is the Fighting Temeraire by Turner as it deals with military history and the transition from war ships from sail to steam.

I am sure I only scratched the surface with a quick spin around on a busy Saturday afternoon. I took a ton of pics (which if course are never as good as the real thing because, of course, that's why we go to galleries!) but the one I really want to share is, St George and the Dragon (~1470) by Paollo Ucello.

We had a print of this painting in the house I grew up in and I used to look at it and wonder what all the elements meant. Why are the clouds spinning off in the corner? Did it lead to another dimension? Did people in those times think about other dimensions? Were they a gathering storm? What was the storm? Was it political and relevant to the time it was painted? Did it reflect romantic troubles for the knight? (Maybe the lady wanted more than a dragon getting stabbed in the nose!) Was it a storm that was personal to the painter?

And as for the dragon slaying, why was the knight trying to kill the dragon through its nose? Especially if it was already tethered? Why did the knight get the credit for slaying the dragon when the lady appeared to have tamed it? I always thought the slaying of dragons was more risky than being handed a dragon on a leash!

After soaking up the beauty, history and colour of the National Gallery we tracked down the “wine cave” that my brother Morgan recommended. It was so cool!

There was a lineup for the patio but we wanted the cave vibe so we got in straight away. We even found seats!

It official name is Gordon’s Wine Bar and I highly recommend it. Its a fantastic space and, of course, had amazing wine.

After this epic day of sightseeing we were fried. We had some excellent Indian food near Adrian's house and then rolled home to zone out in front of a movie.

We had a slow start on Sunday and after a late breakfast we headed for the venerable Oval cricket pitch to catch the semi and final of the inaugural English women's T20 Cricket competition for England and Wales.

(Apologies for the blurry bit. The screen over that wide angle camera is cracked.)

T20 or Twenty20 cricket was introduced in 2003 by the England and Wales cricket board. Its faster paced and designed to appeal to more people than the traditional, long-form game. In addition to the faster pace there are flames that go off when someone scores and the wicket sticks (properly called stumps) and the little sticks that sit across them (bails) light up when they are struck. I am sure this makes purists want to barf but apparently it working and bringing new people to the sport. It certainly helped make the game more interesting for me.

Unfortunately for the women on the field, the women's Eurocup final was also on that afternoon. You could tell that half the Oval was watching that game on their phone or in lounges because when the English football team scored a goal to tie the game a cheer went up that had nothing to do with the cricket.

After the home team won the cricket tournament everyone rushed inside or off to pubs to watch the final bit of the other women's game going on. The football game ended in a tie after extra time and they went to a shoot out. The crowd in the lounge I was in went absolutely silent as England approached the ball. I think it was only on the third kick that someone pointed out that it didn’t matter if we were quiet because we were watching it on TV and they were in Switzerland! The air crackled with tension and when the English women won the shootout the room erupted! It was incredible!

Monday Adrian had to work so I had a slow start before checking out the Portrait Gallery on my way to the Harold Pinter theatre for Giant starring John Lithgow. Canada House occupies prime real-estate on Trafalgar Square near the Portrait Gallery so I took the requisite picture of that before checking out the portraits.

There were incredible portraits from hundreds of years of painting but the ones I was most engaged by were in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award competition gallery.

Light and Shadow by Shinji Ihara, oil on canvas, 2025

This is a portrait of the artist’s partner and I was struck by the complexity of the detail, shadow, perspective and the mirror. I also enjoyed thinking about what the conversation might have been between them when the artist had this idea,

“Hun, I would like to paint your portrait.”

“Oh, thanks sweetie. That sounds fun.”

“Here is a mirror. Please go stand at the bottom of the stairs with that junk I keep meaning to put away.”

“What!?”

Satisfaction by Jose Antonio Martinez Santos, oil on linen, 2024

In the description the model is described as a long time friend of the artist and that the painting was made over 40 sittings and was done on site at the fire station in the sitter’s work breaks (can you imagine the teasing he got from his buddies?!). It says, “the sitter’s stance is suggestive of historically promoted ‘macho’ masculinity, which appears in contrast with the care and attentiveness of firefighter duties.” Is it though?! I know firefighter’s jobs are complex and can be demanding but I don’t think of them as working with particular care and attention. I would have thought the description would have made more of the sitter holding a glass bottle. Maybe some comment on the fragility of life and holding people’s lives in their hands in an emergency? Maybe that is a comment on macho masculinity but I see this image embracing the masculinity of the role. But hey, what do I know?

Portrait of an Artist by Dide, oil on canvas, 2024.

For some reason this reminds me of my friend Tina’s art mentor Bunny even though it looks nothing like him. The description states, “The surface of Dide’s portrait of the sculptor Laurence Edwards seems alive with a kinetic, electric energy” and its that energy which reminds me of Bunny. You can see both Tina (Athena professionally) and Bunny on my post about Calgary in the picture of us on the red and white bridge called the Peace Bridge. Athena has been my friend since I was 6 (!) and is a visual artist in Calgary. You can check her out her writing and some of her paintings at her Substack, . She met Bunny when she was looking for an art teacher/mentor and he was a a game changer for her practice! Her IG is @ athenacreative You can check out Bunny’s work on IG @brianbunnybatista.

And finally, proof I was there at the Harold Pinter theatre to watch John Lithgow play Roald Dahl! The play was complex and, as the London Theatre review said, “blisteringly topical.” Its set in the 40 years ago and Dahl has just written a book review that turns from a rant against the Israeli government invading Lebanon into something more hateful. Representatives from his British and American publishing houses show up to try to get him to smooth things over and it all goes downhill from there. The playwright did a phenomenal job of exploring identity, religion, politics, prejudice and hints at debates about cancel culture. Its sharp and painful but there are also some funny moments. Dahl demonstrates kindness and compassion at times but but is at turns childishly stubborn and outright cruel in others. I had no idea he was such a complicated character before I saw the play. I recommend you see it if you ever have the chance.

Next stop, the south coast county of Dorset and then off to Wales!

❤️

G

Hello friends!

After leaving the steamy metropolis of Toronto I hopped on a WestJet flight to Edinburgh. Six-ish hours later (and minus my "complimentary meal" b/c Westjet didn't have anything that was gluten free and dairy free, lame!) we touched down in green, rainy Scotland. After almost three weeks of being too hot I was in heaven. Well, until a very unusual warm and sunny day revealed itself a couple of hours later. I was probably the only person for miles around grumbling (to myself) about the nice weather. The weather made for some pretty pictures but I was roasting. Everyone else seemed really happy though and were out enjoying the sun in little clumps all over Prince's Park.

My initial plan had been to take a taxi to the hostel but I found the bus to the city centre and then found the luggage storage at the main train station put my luggage in storage for a few hours. I was tired and sweaty but I had come all this way and was determined to make an effort to look around before I passed out. Being at the main train station meant I was able to explore the Scott Monument, East Prince's St Gardens and one of the national art galleries without straying too far.

The Scott monument was erected as a posthumous tribute to the writer Sir Walter Scott and was completed in 1844. It is a dramatic structure and it would be cool to go back at some point and climb the tower sans jet leg.

The galleries in Scotland are all free which is amazing! You can just pop in for a quick look around and not feel like you have to see Every. Single Thing. to get your money's worth. Thank you Scotland for making the arts accessible!

The iconic “Monarch of the Glen” by Sir Edward Lanseer (~1851).

And the beautiful “Progress of a Soul: Victory.” (1902) The third panel of an incredibly embroidered triptych by Phoebe Anna Traquair.

After a couple hours of sightseeing I was toast so I went back for my bags, hailed a taxi and heading for my hostel. It seemed welcoming on approach. What with the big, red doors flung open and the coolness (for a Canadian) of it being in an old church but it was very disappointing. The private rooms were in the basement which meant luggage + stairs down and then back up a half floor. It was kind of damp/humid depending on the ambient temperature and I didn't have an en suite. I could have sworn I booked one with an en suite but no. After I got settled in my room I went to find the loo and discovered it took SIX FLUSHES to dispose of anything more than a square of TP. And, each flush required four minutes (I timed it!) for the cistern to refill. I was in there for half an hour and my business only took abt 5 minutes! It was maddening. The best part was that all of this charm was costing me $175CAD/night because it's summer in Edinburgh and accommodations are insane. Bah humbug.

I hoped that my impression would improve with some sleep and it did, but not by much. So, I messaged the folks I was staying with in Glasgow and asked if I could come a day early. I was really nervous about putting them out but happily they said yes! 💃💃💃 So with that weight off my shoulders I went out exploring.

The Saturday was much more like the Scotland you see in broody movies and TV show. It was damp and cool and beautiful buildings poked out of the clouds as you walked around the city. It was gorgeous.

At the illusion museum!

Beautiful.

After a long day of exploring it was back to my hostel to pack up and get ready to leave for Glasgow the next day.

All went smoothly during the transition to Glasgow. An American tourist with her family even complimented me on my "very organized" luggage. 🤯 I almost replied, "Said no one ever!" But, I caught myself, thanked her and tried not to cry instead. (I know I *always* have a crap-ton of luggage with me in most settings but I really do long to be the cool person with one credit card, a phone and a cardigan in case its chilly. In terms of that ideal's distance from my regular approach to life, its a bit like dreaming of going into space as I ride a disabled e-bike around town, but it's still a dream.)

I was soon picked up by the lovely Jenny Bhatia in a stair free train station (great call Jenny!) outside of Glasgow. I haven't seen her or her husband Zul in abt 20 years and was a bit worried I wouldn't recognize her but I did instantly. It was so nice to see another warm, smiling face on this adventure. Back at their house Zul greeted me in the doorway with a big hug. He is recovering from an injury so wasn't up for the car ride but he was still as welcoming and mischievous as always. Zul is the maternal uncle of my friends Shuki and I first met him and Jenny in 1994 when I met Shuki and her brother Jamu up in Inverness. I haven't seen them often over the years but they feel like family when I do.

My time with Jenny and Zul was lovely and relaxed. Probably a bit too relaxed for Zul, who still wanted to get out and engage in his abiding passion of bird watching (mostly from the car at roadsides and car parks as he continues to heal) but I think we all did ok. We explored some local parks and beaches and I reconnected with Jenny and Zul's kids and grandkids. Jenny and I spent an afternoon in Glasgow. Everyone we talked to that day was so friendly! One guy in a shop said he'd worked in the downtown core of Glasgow for 15 years and had met more Americans, and a sprinkling of Candians, who were moving to Scotland in the past two months than ever in his time working in Central Glasgow. We talked a bit about the divisions and tensions in English speaking North America at the moment and we lamented the growing bitterness together. He said I was very welcome in Glasgow and he wished me well with the transition. I almost cried (again!)

Here are some shots from our adventures!

Kelvingrove Museum

My first ever Dali painting IRL!

Van Gogh!

A beautiful seascape by William McTaggart.

This engaging installation by Sophie Cave!

Then off to one of the beaches on the western coast!

Jenny, me and Jenny's friend Eve post-dip. Eve is pointing to where the Isle of Aran should be clearly visible. Sadly, it was hiding in the sea mist that day so I only got a fuzzy glimpse of it later in the day. I'll just have to go back!

Next stop, jolly old England!

❤️ G

Athena ("Tina") Cooper and me at the welcome sign in Calgary airport. We have been friends for 42 years!

…..

Hi everyone!

First of all, thanks to everyone who liked, commented and pledged support after my first post for this adventure! Writing about yourself and then emailing it to 100+ of your closest friends and family (after blowing up your life!) feels like a big risk. Especially, when it's just me and a blank computer or phone screen. The positive feedback is helpful and reassuring. Thank you! ❤️

.....

For the first leg of my adventure I hopscotched across a good chunk of Canada and visit friends in Calgary and Toronto. A week in Canada allowed me to relax and try to recalibrate my nervous system a bit after the pressure of wrapping up work, packing up my apartment in Van and saying goodbye to family and friends. It also meant I got to see the Calgary Stampede which I have never been to. The Stampede is an iconic Canadian rodeo/agricultural fair/party which the entire city of Calgary celebrates with great pride and enthusiasm.

The Stampede grounds include agricultural shows and competitions, a fairway, a hearty selection of deep fried foods and some international fare to mix it up, a motocross show (at least the day we went), a marketplace, an exhibit of local art and of course, the rodeo. We did a loop around the event grounds, grabbed some food and then headed to the rodeo ring for the opening ceremony.

If you are really keen, you can watch the national anthem being sung here.

We bore the 30° heat in the full sun of the accessible seats long enough to watch some bull riding (how do they not all have acute cervical spinal injuries after their first round?!?) and barrel riding by some very fast, very well dressed cowgirls before we excused ourselves to the air conditioning of the indoor event art show.

Along the way I grabbed some cotton candy and tried on some cowboy hats.

Turns out, I look great in an Australian outback hat! Who knew?!

The rest of the trip was a mix of relaxing (/recovering from Stampede!), having dinner with our friend Patty who we went to highschool THIRTY YEARS AGO, exploring the Bow river from the water (glorious), exploring the park and walk way that run along it by e-bike (this is Tina’s husband Stefan, when not being the photographer, Tina was zooming along with us in her power chair) and spending time with Tina's art mentor and teacher, Bunny. (There is a good story about his name but I can't remember it right now. Sorry Bunny!)

Then, it was off to Toronto!

Emma and I were roomates in Victoria almost 20 years ago! I stayed with her and her son Ben for two nights and then went to her parents house for one night so she could catchup with another friend who was swinging through town.

It was a casual visit and a lovely mix of catching up and exploring the city. It also included a surprising amount of me sleeping in. This is especially remarkable given Emma had to get a small, enthusiastic child out the door each morning by about 8:00. Thank you Emma!

While Emma was working I went out to explore the city while trying to minimize exposure to their 30° + one million percent humidity heatwave. 🥵🥵🥵

Luckily, galleries have AC so I headed for the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum. I had an amazing meal at the AGO (expensive but worth it!) and cheked out the art in the private-but-unoccupied dining rooms. In one of them I found this beauty!

This is “View from the Sea to Sky Highway” by Ryan Sobkovich. It's an oil on canvas, measures 36" × 72" and is priced at $10, 500.

I stood there admiring it for quite a while and very briefly considered buying it until I realized that would mean getting a job IMMEDIATELY upon arrival in Scotland. As that is not the plan, and I don't currently have any walls to hang it on, it continues to wait at the AGO for its forever home.

After falling in love with that painting I decided I couldn't stand any more heart ache so I headed for the sparkly rocks and nature exhibits at the ROM. I zipped up (under) the road a few subway stops and wandered around there with what felt like a thousand other people trying to escape the heat. As I moved through the crowds I realized that "seeing museums" is another time when I am not sad I don't have kids. But, after further reflection, the teenagers were the most annoying at the ROM. The little kids were alternatively excited, tired then cranky but they mostly allowed themselves to be shepherded by their parents. The teenagers on the other hand, were blissfully unaware of the amount of space they were taking up, well, anywhere and the looked annoyed at *you* when you tried to move around them. Classic.

Still, I did see some pretty things!

Day two was a neighbourhood day exploring Roncesville St in TO and my final day was a trip downtown to grab a few stuffies for the grandkids of the folks I am staying with in Glasgow.

I went to the St. Lawrence Market and passed the hockey hall of fame and this cute park on the way. Clayton, I thought of you!

I also went past this lovely little square which had a very fun fountain!

And this little statue of a cat staying up high away from all those dogs!

After some good food and success in the stuffie department I headed back to Emma's parents. They made me an excellent dinner and then Emma came and took me to the airport. In keeping with all trips to the airport so far there were some tears but also lots of big hugs and reassurance. Thank you friends.

Next stop, Edinburgh!

❤️

G


* Techincally Calgarians celebrate Stampede with a "yahoooo" and not a "yeehaaaaw" but it just sound wrong to a non-Calagarian. Sorry for taking artistic license Calgary!

Hello everyone!

I did it! 25+ years after I had the idea to go work and live in the UK its happening. I was granted a 1 year LOA from work, gave up my apartment, got rid of alot of my stuff, put the rest of it in storage and am on my way to Scotland to look for a job in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

NBD.

🤯

My dad was born in the UK so I have a British passport and since my 20s I have dreamed of going for a working holiday but I never got around to it. I don't have regrets about not going when I was younger because there were many other reasonable and worthy things that put of that plan but I often wondered, what if. The dream crept back into my consciousness over 10 years ago but I told myself that I was too old. People in their late thirties don't blow up their life and go work overseas. People in their late 30s get married, buy condos and have babies. Problem was, I had been going down that path with someone for a few years but they weren't a good long term match and it imploded in 2014. The emotional recovery from that put me at almost 40. I was single, renting and in a crap ton of debt. The husband/baby/condo dream was turning to ashes but I plowed on in hopes of reaching the shimmering mirage because, what other options were there?

There were (and are) times when I am sad that I am single, childless and property-less at 40 something (although going to Ikea, shopping at Granville Island and sleeping in on weekends are not those times!) but it dawned on me (possibly with my therapist's help, thanks Douglas!) that this also allowed me a freedom that other people didn't have. Maybe I could do something big like take three months off work and go travelling. Or maybe, I could move to the UK .

So, now I am on my way. 25+ years, many hours of therapy, lots of hand wringing, a great deal of budgeting (and help from the Credit Counseling Society of BC, they are amazing, I highly recommend them if you are struggling with debt!), a fair number of tears and some lengthy recovery journeys from some frustrating physical and emotional injuries later, and I am doing it. Ho. Ly. Shit.

I am making a few stops in Canada and then I touch down in Edinburgh July 18. Then I'll gallavant around the UK (and hopefully Ireland) for the summer to see family and friends, explore the sights, take in lots of theatre and explore the Highlands. I will submit my credentials to the Scottish regulatory body early in my time there so that they can work through them while I travel. *Hopefully* I'll be employed as a Soccial Worker by Sept or October. And, if I work at a coffee shop or the Scottish equivalent of MEC for a while, that's ok too. If the biggest problem I have to solve is making someone a hotter latte or finding them a smaller pair of shoes, it will be a nice break.

I plan on writing about my travels by segment and then maybe weekly once I get a job and life gets a bit more routine. Please join me!

G

(Tom and Jen in front. Lisa, Hannah, Gwyneth L to R in second row. On the “Aqua Safari” in South Luangua Park in 2022.

Totally by chance Lisa was on the other side of the world in Tunisia with another traveller from our 2022 trip while we were in Seattle. We made some good friends on that trip!)

There are lots of incredible parks and views on the Olympic peninsula but sadly we didn’t have much time to explore. We were aiming to check out Dungeness Spit Park (the longest sand spit in the coastal US, who knew?!) but we missed it and found the much-smaller-but-still-pretty Cline Spit . A bit further along in Port Gamble we found Butcher and Baker Provisions and grabbed some snacks for a quick picnic. I had been planning to take the Bainbridge Island ferry but accidentally saved the wrong map to use offline. “No matter,” I thought, “coming through Edmonds and the north side of Seattle should be too bad.” HA. Foolish foolish me. I think in the end it took us almost as long to get from Port Angeles to Edmonds (120Km) as it did to get from Edmonds to Jen and Tom’s Capitol Hill (25km). Seattle traffic is known for making short journeys into ordeals but man, that was a test.

But, we did it. Eventually we got all our gear up to J&T’s apartment, pulled out the remaining hodge-podge of picnic treats, opened some drinks and settled in for a good catch up. It was lovely to see them. Our weekend plans were really to just hang out and watch sports and we were off to a good start. Hannah was keen to see “ice hockey” (they have to distinguish from field hockey down there!) and luckily the Vancouver Canucks were playing the Seattle Kraken on the Friday we were in town and the Mariners had a game on the Saturday. It was perfect!

The next day we went down to Pike Place Market prior to the hockey game. I have been many times and love it each time I go. The “flying fish” fish market , the flower stalls and the craft vendors were a hit. The gum wall was nauseating but impressive (apparently it started in the 90s in the little theatre and was not an overflow of enthusiasm for Douglas Coupland’s Gum Head which was actually in Vancouver, I merged the two gross pieces of art/phenomena when I was telling Hannah and Jen about it, sorry ladies!).

After we'd soaked it all in for a couple hours we headed towards the sculpture park and then up the hill (a steep hill with no complaints from my tendons! I almost cried! ❤️💃😭💃❤️) to the Seattle Centre. In the Armory food hall we found many people in Kraken jerseys fuelling up for the game. Hannah was so excited! If you go, you have to try the falafel at Kabab. It was crispy on the outside, warm and soft in the middle and served quickly. It's a little hole in the wall type spot in what is essentially a food court but it might be the best falafel I have ever had!

After fuelling up and draining our “soft water bottles” (to be security compliant at the stadium) we proceeded to queue at our gate. Tom and Hannah sailed through security but *just* after I said to Jen, “These things always make me nervous because even though I know I'm fine I worry they will turn me away”, I was turned away!! Apparently my Very Small Bag was a half inch too big on one side and therefore was not actually the regulation size of Tiny. So, I was turned around. Never mind that the Very Small Bag contained nothing of concern and that I would have happily turned it inside out and emptied its contents into my many pockets it was verboten. I could either throw it out (its too pretty thank you!) or go back through the crowds to find a locker at another location. All b/c of a half inch on one side. Are you effing kidding me?! I almost started to cry.

Jen had a quick, quiet consult with Hannah and Tom who could see how all the lines were moving now that they were on the inside, and then we went out, emptied the bag stuffed my pockets, put the bag in a coat pocket and went back through a different line. I may have actually been holding my breath but, it was NO PROBLEM. FFS. I was simultaneously furious and freaked out that now I had to *keep* everything in my pockets b/c otherwise the bag police would know I had snuck it in. And let me tell you what happened next, NOTHING. 🙄 UGH. What a faff. On the upside, Tom said it was hilarious to watch my Canadian self look super worried about getting busted at the second gate so, you know, at least I contributed to the entertainment for the evening. *SIGH*

After we made it past the security gates we found our seats easily and were settled in time for the anthems.

Hannah was impressed that they sung the Canadian anthem as well as the US one!

They put the words to the anthems on the big screen (it was like a very serious karaoke night!) so I could even sing along with the American anthem which was fun. Its much more dramatic than ours (which I sang quietly!)

I haven't been to a professional hockey game for over 20 years and the production value of the “show” aspect has come a LONG way. Hockey lovers, is like this at Canadian games too? Or is this a bit of American razzle-dazzle thrown in for extra entertainment?

So, we weren't close but it was still really fun! Hannah had her Canucks hat on and I had a Canadian neck gaiter on so we were ready. Jen and Tom were siting a couple rows back and were probably grateful not to be seen with us in Canadian gear.

Sadly, the Canucks lost and seemed to be asleep for most of the game but it was pre-season and everyone I have complained to about this tells me they weren't going to come out full force in the pre-season. Oh, ya. That makes sense.

Hannah was FULL questions about how the game worked and I have a limited hockey-is-in-the-air-in-Canada type understanding so I was grateful for wi-fi and Google! She was also fond of observing when someone fell over which I thought was hilarious.

I started out with an “I don’t care who wins” attitude but Hannah said I got more committed to a Canucks victory and just generally more Canadian as the game went on. But come on, its not really a hockey game without at least ONE call for roughing is it?!

Our second day in Seattle started slowly with lots of coffee and tea before we launched a mission to a couple local bookstores. We started at the very cozy and cat friendly Twice Sold Tales and then moved on to the beautiful Elliot Bay Book Company We spent a lovely few hours enjoying books and soaking up hip, Seattle vibes before wandering home.

After dropping our book haul at Tom and Jen's we zipped down to the MoPop (which their neighbour had kindly given us free tickets for!) for a quick look-around. I love the sci-fi and fantasy exhibits and feel more and more nostalgic at the Nirvana exhibit each time I go.

After MoPop we took the incredibly futuristic (if you still lived in the 60s) Monorail just for fun. Hannah was excited when someone in the crowd chimed in on her chorus of The Simpsons Monorail song and then transited to the ball park.

So hip. So urban.

We stopped at the Victory Hall “cheer garden” in the Box Yard near the stadium for drinks before the game. Its a cool space!

Luck was in the air!

And, then, baseball!

Tom was in charge of imparting the sports knowledge at this game. Hannah had many more questions which he gamely answered but which seemed to have annoyed the folks sitting in front of them. Apparently they got at least a few side-eyes during the game. But, hey, lets respect her commitment to learning here people! I mean, at one point, Jen and I were accidentally cheering for the wrong team so it could have been worse!

This is the “Salmon Run” which as one of the things that happened between innings. The little clump of colourful bodies by the wall were people dressed as large fish mascots who then ran a “race” to presumably win a prize. It was an odd and very PNW bit of entertainment. Apparently “Humpy” the salmon has never won and rumours are starting to circulate about why!

Surprisingly, b/c it turns out the Mariners are having a bit of a tough season, they won! In overtime! Never mind that the game didn’t matter because they are already out of the playoffs. We took a celebratory selfie anyway!

OH, and, we were on the Jumbotron thing! It was probably because there were cute kids dancing behind us but still, we made it. The Canadian, the Australian and the Brit all cheered enthusiastically and the American didn’t believe us when she returned from the loo!

The next day all woke up feeling surprisingly well and packed up for the drive home. We had a very slllooowwwwwllllly served brunch nearby before we left and even though we were hungry it was a beautiful day with good friends which made it as enjoyable as a 60 minute wait for pancakes can be.

We took Chuckanut Drive home and made sure to stop for pretty pics along the way.

Gorgeous!

I made sure to stop in Bellingham to stock up at Trader Joes’s and Hannah marvelled at the many, many BC licence plates in the parking lot. It was PACKED and the checkout woman said it was one of the busiest in the country! Luckily, they are building a 2nd one to accommodate all the visiting Canadians.

Post-Trader Joe’s we headed for the border and were through in no time which is always a relief. Soon we were piling two weeks of gear, clothes and the spoils of trips to both Goats on the Roof AND Trader Joe’s into the kitchen and then we were tucking into bed. 2, 170 Kms later our big adventure was done.

Hannah had big plans for the last few days of her trip but unfortunately, was taken down by a shitty 🦠 so she didn't get far. We did manage to get to MEC so between that, her rain jacket, her purchases at Roots and her Canucks hat, she is going pass for a Canadian next time she travels. Which will help us support the story that we are actually sisters, a question we got a couple times. (OR, what if she is my daughter and I had been sent off to visit an aunt in Australia for a school year when I was 15 and then returned to Canada childless. We had a lot of time to think complicated back stories to the frequently asked question, “Are you sisters?”)

So, other than Hannah’s illness at the end, we had a fantastic trip! Thank you all for reading along!

My tendons seem to FINALLY be on the mend so I am working on getting stronger (a year of hobbling takes a toll on one's fitness!) and am hoping to be able to share more travel dispatches next year. Stay tuned!

❤️

G

Hello friend!

Our last day in Bella Coola included our morning petroglyph walk, some exploring of the the town, a bit of shopping and then back to our Airbnb to clean and pack. We had to be up at FOUR IN THE MORNING the following day to ensure we were at least sort of awake by the time we hit the road at 5:00am. It was a struggle for me but we did it and as we drove along the dark, rainy highway we joined a small but growing line of other vehicles heading “downtown” for the early ferry to Port Hardy. We checked-in a small parking lot down the road from the ferry terminal as queuing on the road would have made it impassable for anyone else to pass. At about 6:45am we caravaned down the road to the terminal and a surprisingly cheerful man guided us onto the ferry. This ferry only opens at the stern (I assume this is to keep the bow good and watertight for the winter storms in the open channels but I didn't actually ask anyone) so I drove on, turned around on the car deck and parked facing the rear of the boat so we could drive off in Port Hardy. If you are unlucky enough to be further back in the line you have to turn around on land and back down the ferry ramp onto the car deck. In the rain. In the dark. At 7:30am. 😬 The cheerful ferry guy working the ramp assured me it was a breeze but I was happy I didn't have to try. Once we were all loaded they locked the deck (except for one 15 minute break about four hours into the sailing) and we all came upstairs to settle in for the ten hour trip.

We immediately went outside to look for whales! We saw two in the first few hours of the trip but it was too wet and windy to get a pic.

We did get a couple more of us though!

(I had the camera bag covered with the rain cover which looks ridiculous in a photo but kept did its job of keeping the camera dry.)

It was stormy so we didn’t get to take in the full majesty of the fjords but it was still beautiful. It was also very West Coast.

Eventually the wind picked up even more and Hannah and I headed inside around the time the captain came on and gave us all warning that it was going to get a bit bouncy as we left the protected channels and crossed the open Queen Charlotte Sound just off the north end of Vancouver Island. She advised us to take our seasickness meds if we had them and otherwise not to worry because it would be “fun.” We weren’t totally sure fun would be the word but a calm captain and crew went a long way to convincing us.

After a couple of hours of rolling through the swells we tucked in around the northeast corner of Vancouver Island and the seas settled down. Shortly thereafter we were driving off the ferry into Port Hardy and looking for our hotel room. We found the lovely Glen Lyon Inn easily and checked into our waterfront view room. It was clean and comfortable and the staff were very friendly and accommodating. Waking up to the sun rising over the harbour and watching for seals was really fun.

We also got some gorgeous light at sunset.

I recommend it if you are looking for a hotel in PH.

The next day we wisely planned a slow start with a 12:30pm departure of a Prince of Whales trip in Telegraph Cove. Such a pretty spot!

We got there a bit early and toured the amazing Whale Interpretive Centre (highly recommend!) before boarding our boat with PoW. We headed out into the Johnstone Straight and saw Humpbacks and Orcas within 15 minutes! That was Hannah’s big goal for the day and we hit it after barely leaving the harbour! It turned out that we saw two groups of Orcas that have generally left the area by late September which made it feel even more special. It felt like they hung around just for Hannah b/c she had come so far!

At one point there were so many whales you could look in any direction on the boat and see something interesting. The guide on the top deck said, “No need to rush to one side. Its whale soup out there! Anywhere you look you’ll probably see one!”

(Thank you to PoW for taking pics and sharing with the entire tour. SO nice to enjoy what was happening and not fuss about getting the perfect shot! And clever marketing for them too as we all share these with friends, family and on socials.)

We saw a mom and calve pair!

That male’s dorsal fin was amazing! Approximately two meters in length!

We also saw Humpbacks with calves, porpoises and dolphins!

And Stellar’s Sea Lions

Such a hard life.

All in all, this was our trip and the animals we saw,

It was a fantastic tour!! They were organized, incredibly knowledgeable and very professional. Three hours just flew by. I think many of us could have stayed out there for another three hours without evening thinking about it. It was one of their last trips of the season and we even had a hint of a rainbow as we returned to the dock. Everyone was so happy.

The next day was an early-ish start for a 7 hour trip with Coastal Rainforest Safaris. The guide was still learning about some of the details of the animals in the area so he didn’t have as much knowledge as the PoW guide but was honest about what he knew and what he was learning. He also knew more than the average person so lets not be stingy! He and the captain were Indigenous guys who lived in the area and had lots of local knowledge and cultural to share which was fantastic.

The trip was in a Zodiac so we geared up,

before heading down to the boat. (The huge pile of clothes stayed at the office!)

This time we headed north to look for whales and otters while also keeping an eye out for seals, sea lions and birds. My big goal for the day was to see some sea otters and we saw some right as we left harbour but didn’t stop so I was hopeful we were aiming for more further up the coast. It took us a bit to find them but eventually we did!

Ahhhhhhh! So cute!!

Look at those feet! Hard to catch even with the SLR and long lens Evan and Ashley loaned me but you can still clearly see the cuteness!

They were curious but cautious. I guess you would be too if you clawed your way back after being hunted to extirpation for your dense, fluffy fur. :(

Our guide said they lie on their backs, place shellfish on their bellies and then smack them with rocks to break them open. Then they hold on to all the tasty bits, roll over, wash all the shell pieces off and roll back up to eat. We saw them doing it and could hear the crack of rock against shell but I couldn’t get a good picture. Such clever critters!

We also saw seals, sea lions, eagles, ravens, a Blue Heron and more Humpbacks. We even saw two breaches (apparently unusual for this time of year) but sadly, missed it on camera.

This bunch of Stellar’s Sealions were not at all worried about our approach.

However, their friends on another rock got a bit annoyed when we all got excited about the breaching Humpback. They were super chill when we cruised up in the Zodiac but did NOT appreciate our collective gasp and cheer when the whale jumped out in the channel. It was quite impressive to hear them all start barking and calling at the same time. I was glad I wasn’t in a kayak!

Then we came across some cute, wary seals on a haul out nearby. They were not quite as chill as the Sea Lions but did tolerate some photos.

And of course, whales!

It was a long day but it was gorgeous. The survival suits were awkward but kept us nice and toasty the whole time. But, hot tip, don't wait until the last minute to use the tiny toilet (which locks from the outside so also, trust your friends!) b/c those suits take a bit of time to take off!

It is such a beautiful part of the world.

Our route for the day!

I would absolutely book with these guys again. I would love to do the two night, two day combo package they do looking for whales, otters and grizzlies and the puffin tour! Did you know we have puffins on the West Coast!? I didn’t until I found this tour! I am thinking of going in the spring when there might be some pufflings and Sea Otter pups around. Anyone want to join me?!

The following day we packed up and headed down the island for some time in Victoria. We made a quick stop in Campbell River to see if we could find any more bears at the fish hatchery. We saw a million fish, thousands of seagulls, a heap of ravens but only one bear. S/he was cruising along the opposite bank of the river so all I have for a pic is a sharp image of withered blackberries with a blurry, furry, bear bum sort of identifiable in the background. Nevertheless, we saw it clearly and Hannah was really happy to add one more bear sighting to her list of Canadian Things.

We made another quick stop at the Elk Falls and had our picture taken with the huge waterfall. Its another gorgeous stop and a great place to stretch your legs on a long driving day.

Once we were back on the road it was straight on to the famous “Goats on the Roof” market in Coombs!

I think Hannah thought I was exaggerating that this random market on the side of the road would be worth a stop but a basket full of food, baking and gifts later she was convinced!

Once we were stocked up for treats and presents we finally got back on the road to get down to Victoria.

We stayed with my friend Michele (thank you Michele!) and enjoyed a lovely meal with her. We also enjoyed the huge selection of used and new books at Russell Books and, as books are expensive in Australia, brought many home with us. We also made sure to stop by the iconic Rogers’ Chocolate shop on Government for chocolates and Chocolats Favoris down the street for ice cream. They even have non-dairy soft-serve and dark chocolate dip which is always a treat for me!

The following day we packed up at a decent hour and headed downtown for the Coho ferry over to Port Angeles in Washington state. Other than a bit of unnecessary tone from the US Border guards towards Hannah for the crime of being not-American, the trip was easy-peasy. It also gave us another opportunity for a pic in our dramatic series entitled “Gwyneth and Hannah Bundle Up On A Boat.” I am sure all the galleries will be clamouring to show it in no time.

Next stop, Seattle!

❤️ G

A grizzly spotted on our river float!

I last signed off 1524m or 5000ft above sea level at the top of Heckman Pass and above the infamous stretch of highway down into the Bella Coola valley known as The Hill. This graded gravel road descends almost all the way back down to sea level in just over 19km. There are some grades of 15%, some sharp turns and a few single lane bridges but there are also pullouts in case you meet an oncoming vehicle. It's nerve wracking but its also beautiful!

(photo taken from a blog, I definitely didn’t stop to take pictures!)

In the 1950s valley residents decided they wanted road access and were frustrated when the government of the time refused to build the road any further than Anahim Lake claiming it was too steep to be done. The locals weren't having it. In slightly over a year they used two bulldozers (one going up and one going down) to carve a road out of the mountain and The Freedom Road was born. Apparently the government has been regrading it ever since!

Thankfully, our trip down was uneventful except for a slippery, muddy corner. The forest fire damage from the massive fires a few years ago was evident across the plateau but was particularly obvious in that tight descent into the valley. You can see some regrowth starting in the under layers of the burnt trees but it will be a long time before it has grown in thickly again. 😔

Once safely down on the valley floor we resumed our lookout for bears. The Belarko Viewing Platform was still open so we popped in there for a look. It's an area on a bend in the river with a good view up and down stream with some shelters, lots of beautiful and informative panels and an electric fence around the perimeter. It is jointly managed by the local Nuxalk Nation and BC Parks and was staffed by some really nice Nuxalk women the night we went. Unfortunately, there were no bears to be seen but the river was teeming with fish so we watched them jumping in pools and wriggling up the pebbled shallows before they kicked us out at closing time. The smell of dead fish was pretty strong but the hope of seeing a bear kept us there until the platform closed.

After the bear viewing station we carried on down the highway and found our lovely Airbnb in Hagensborg. Our host was Tanya, her daughter and her big fluffy cat and we felt very welcome.

The cabin was really comfortable, was near the Saloompt River and suited us well.

Our first full day in the valley we did a five hour river float/bear watching trip with Copper Sun Journeys and had a fantastic time. Just after the other boats got off the water we came across a grizzly fishing on a gravel bank! Ahhhhhh! ❤️😍😱🐻😱😍❤️

This gorgeous grizzly was obviously the main event but the scenery was also gorgeous!

(I have big feet so we know this bear was a big'un! 😆 Well, actually, she was probably pretty average/small tbh.😬)

We did a five hour tour which was a gorgeous way to see the river but was a bit long. The best chance for bears is in the Atnarko River before it joins the Bella Coola river and that takes about an 60 - 90 minutes but we saw “our” bear just past the main pull out so I recommend a bit longer for increased chances a some beautiful views of the valley. You can’t bring snacks on the trip though so its a long five hours with feet sloshing in cold water. I think three or four hours would still be lovely and more manageable. If you are thinking of a tour with Copper Sun you may want to consider a slightly shorter option. Whatever you pick, you will be in good hands on the river and learn about the Nuxhalk people, their pre and post-contact history, and their beautiful beliefs and cosmology. I highly recommend them.

The next day it was up early-ish for a day trip out to some nearby hotsprings, waterfalls and The Big Cedar. We went with Bella Coola Grizzly Tours and they were great! We were short the required number of people but they did some juggling and fit us on to a smaller boat. We were so grateful! Our Captain and guide was Daniel. He grew up in the valley and knew it and the waters well. Some weather blew up on our way back to dock but he managed it all very easily. I highly recommend them!

We left Bella Coola harbour and cruised along the estuary hoping for bears or MAYBE a wolf. Sadly, no luck on either count but we saw lots of seals and eagles enjoying the thousands of fish coming back up the river.

Hannah with Daniel’s very sweet dog Buck. He was also an excellent tour guide and took us right to the Big Cedar without difficulty!

Getting kisses!

He just got cuddles the whooole time!

The now-defunct cannery in the inlet. There is also a very small B&B out there and apparently it's popular for weddings.

The “beach view” hotspring with our boat in the distance.

It's a ridiculously gorgeous spot. The water comes out of the rocks higher up the hill but it's piped into these pools. Beachview pool is cooler and has more algae but wins the view competition.

There was also a more “forested” pool and we switched with this lovely British couple half way. (I hope they don't mind going in my blog!) It was her birthday and she was having such a great day.

This one is a bit hotter and has a gravel bottom which is a bit nicer but you lose the view. So, swings and roundabouts.

Then off to see a waterfall.

And pose w Buck and the waterfall!

We thought he wanted to come for a snuggle but he just wanted a bit of a sandwich someone had lost! Ack, break my heart Buck!

Then off to The Big Cedar! This tree is estimated to be 1500 years old!

The very nice German man who took our pictures didn't really understand the assignment. 🤦‍♀️ I would have thought Big Tree =s wide shot buuuut nevermind let's get a portrait. Also, please note the pepper spray. Safety first!

Luckily, Hannah understood the assignment!

It's abt a 1km trail up a gentle but continuous slope to get to the tree and that was the longest I have walked on a forested trail IN SANDALS for over a year b/c of my mangled Achilles tendons. I kept waiting for them to get pissed off but they didn't. I was sooooo happy to be back in the woods!

After that we got back on the boat, bundled up and headed back to Bella Coola with another fabulous day under our belts.

Day three in the valley was a guided petroglyph tour with Copper Sun. You can do the walk up to the rock carvings on your own but it was amazing to have someone explain them and share their significance. I highly recommend booking a tour with these guys to get the most out of the experience. It's about a two hour trip and an easy walk up from the river to the main carvings.

Along the way we stopped for a pic with this cool trees-on-a-rock situation. Love the rainforest!

Then we got to some carvings,

The one immediately below is Happy Boy. He is the first rain drop that falls in a big storm. He is happy because he knows how much fun is coming with thr thunder and the lightening!

Sadly, I forgot the stories with the other ones here. There were so many stories shared it was hard to retain them all.

They are thousands of years old. So cool!

Me on the way back down,

More happiness walking in the woods. ❤️

Such a fantastic trip.

And after a few more hours exploring, that was the end of Bella Coola and Hagensborg for us. We wished we had one more day but we had to be in a ferry line up at 5:30am the next day and the next one wasn't for a few days so we had to go. It's a beautiful place. I look forward to coming back!

❤️

G

…..

Hi everyone! I hope it's OK that I am sending out an update that is not Africa/Germany/UK/mini-sabbatical related but I am on a local adventure which I hope will be worth sharing. A friend from that trip has come to Canada for a visit and will be gallivanting around BC and WA for two weeks. We are doing a counter clockwise loop from Chilliwack to 108 Mile House to Bella Coola then down to Port Hardy and on to Victoria. Then its over to Washington to visit some more lovely friends from our trip in Seattle. Then it's back up to Vancouver in time for me to return to work Oct 1. Just a cheeky little 2000+km road trip!

I expect I'll send about three posts so don't worry about me flooding your inbox.

I hope you enjoy!

G

.....


Hannah Naughton (daughter of Lisa Whittle), who you may remember from the Africa trip, arrived in Vancouver in late August for five weeks of Canadian adventures. She did an Intrepid trip from Calgary to Vancouver for a week and some city exploration before we rented a car and left Vancouver on Sept 12. 100km and 1.5 hours later we arrived at my mom's house in Chilliwack to celebrate my niece  Lilywyn's 9th birthday. It was quite an event with my mom's brother and SIL driving out from North Vancouver and her sister and BIL flying up from California. Hannah was a trooper to meet most of my family in one fell swoop!

While we were out there we did a drive to the border marker in the Columbia Valley before waiting out a downpour to have a swim at Cultus Lake.

After a huge, tasty brunch, lots presents (Hannah brought presents for Lilywyn AND Caradwyn, thank you Hannah!) and two kinds of cake we packed up our nice shiny 2024 VW Tiguan and headed up the Fraser Canyon. 360kms and about 4.5 hours later we arrived at 108 Mile House (did you know that the “Mile Houses” are counted from Lillooet and indicate places where a person heading north on the gold rush trail could atop and rest, feed and water horses, re-supply etc? I didn't until we read some handy interpretative panels along the way!) and the Spruce Hill Resort and Spa (run by very friendly and responsive people but a weeeeee bit less fancy than it sounds) just after dark. Hannah had the very Canadian experience of having an Elk jump in front of our car on the highway during her first time driving on this side of the road! 😬😱🤯. At the time she was NOT excited about this type of wildlife sighting but she did a great job staying calm and moving smoothly to an Elk-free lane. Thankfully, no Elk, shiny Tiguans or tourists were harmed in the making of that Canadian adventure.

The following day we booked a two hour trail ride at Spring Creek Ranch. Spring Creek is a huge, beautiful property being lovingly restored by new owners after the previous owners were no longer able to manage the physical labour of caring for horses, cattle and 600+ acres of land. (the previous owners’ son still lives on the property and he said it was a very hard decision for them to sell so they haven't spoken much about it much since they left. 😔) Megan, our lovely guide and one of the new owners, met us after we had been greeted by her goofy Lab/Bernese cross immediately after parking. She got payment and paperwork sorted and got Hannah on a very calm and reliable horse named Joy and me paired up with a beautiful horse named Brown Eyes. She saddled up Juliet and we were off to explore the property!

If you are in the area and want a beautiful place to stay (they have waterfront access to a gorgeous lake if horses aren't your thing!) check them out!

Then it was a trip into Williams Lake for supplies, a bit of silliness (you know its a road trip when you get to the inappropriate humour zone!),

and back to the hotel for a swim and soak in the hot tub. Perfect after two hours on a horse and three in a car.

Then, on the way back to our rooms we looked up at what could have been clouds but turned out to be the Northern Lights!

We spent at least two hours enjoying the magic and trying to capture the show on our cameras. It was amazing! Hannah was SO happy to be able to add this to her List of Canadian Things To Do!

The following day we packed up and started the 500 km trip northeast to Hagensborg near Bella Coola. It was a long, beautiful drive. and right before coming down The Hill (a colourful description can be found here) Hannah saw her first bear on the side of the road! We were so happy!!

❤️

G

Happy New Year’s Eve from Vancouver! I hope you all have happy, healthy but otherwise very safe and unremarkable 2024s. There has been alot of sh!t going on in the world and I think the helpers and the carers and the fixers and the builders need a bit of time to catch up. To help with that, lets all have real boring 2024s ok??

….

On Dec 13, 2022 I was up at the ungodly hour of 3:00am to pack up, check out and head out to the small, regional airport of Nuremberg. I am sure my sleepy taxi driver wondered why I needed to be there at the same time as the janitorial staff but he was too polite (or tired) to ask questions. He kindly dropped me off in the open-but-not-really-staffed airport and probably went back home to bed. Meanwhile, I stood around and realized that my earnest, Canadian self had arrived two hours early for a very short regional flight to Frankfurt and there were no airline staff to be seen. In my head it was an “international flight” because I was going to London but a) I was going to Frankfurt first and b) even Leaving the EU for Britain isn’t as big a production as arriving for an international flight in Vancouver. *SIGH*

Originally I booked this flight for mid-day so I could have a leisurely morning and then head east without the nausea that comes with a hideously early morning. But that was before I realized David Tennant was playing in Good in London’s West End. I was lucky enough to get a ticket for Dec 13 and assumed my afternoon flight would get me to London in good time but upon further consideration my timing seemed delusional in its optimism. It cost $600 to “change” my flight (just tell me I am buying a new one!) because the only theatre ticket change was for January but this turned out to be the one scheduling error in all the flights and activities I booked over the whole trip so I paid it and moved on. So, a whack of cash and a VERY early start later I found myself in a lineup for a hopper flight with a bunch of friendly, chatty Americans heading home from a river cruise and I was getting excited.

For reasons I can’t remember the little hopper flight took ages to get off the ground so I started to get a bit anxious about catching my next flight but I thought, “Its a short flight. The Germans are very efficient people. I am sure it will be fine.” Upon arrival in Frankfurt we learned there was a delay with the flight to London so I thought “Ah, never mind. No need to worry. Its just one of those days.” I could have an early lunch instead of a late breakfast and all would be well. My heart sank however when, after waiting at least an hour, we were bussed out to the plane and parked in front of the stairs but the driver wouldn’t open the doors. We all sat there confused and muttering until he came on in German and said something that made all German speakers groan. When the man next to me realized I didn’t understand what was happening he translated it and I laughed out loud and shoved his arm. “Bwahahahah! Cancelled?? Not its not!” Alas, he was not kidding. The bus driver came on again, repeated his announcement in English then turned and took us back to the airport. And so began five or six hours of hopscotching around the Frankfurt airport following numerous updates from Lufthansa as they tried desperately to find us an airplane, staff, a gate and a receiving airport.

When we finally took off many of the young, well dressed, women and men (sporting those nicely pressed shirts from the cleaners in Frankfurt no doubt!) who I assumed were supposed to have spend the day wheeling and dealing in the City in London and our checked bags (the airport didn’t have enough staff to move the bags from the morning plan to the afternoon one) stayed in Frankfurt but we were moving. Eventually I landed at Heathrow around dinner time (not London City on the East Side at 9:30am) and, even though I had no idea when I would see my giant backpack again and I had to take my carry-on to the theatre, I made it. I saw David Tennant live in the West End and it was fantastic.

The play is a bit hard to describe so I will borrow the words of The Guardian’s reviewer who said that the play is “Often considered an examination of how a ‘good’ man is corrupted, the play begins in 1933 and follows Halder’s conversion to nazism, step by step.” It's got a very stripped down set and three actors play all the roles and the scenes change quickly so, coming to it with maybe four hours of sleep and after a 16 hour travel day was a bit tricky. However, once I got the hang of what was happening I was riveted. The Guardian also described it as “fascinating psychological theatre with the feel of a fever dream.” SO, its maybe not everyone’s cup of Christmas tea but ummmmm, David Tennant!

After the show I wandered around a bit and looked at the lights I have seen in many a Christmas-in-London movie. This is a selection from a couple nights in the West End!

(Yes, I was that annoying tourist taking pics in the middle of the road!)

Eventually I finally had to admit to myself that I was barely awake and needed to go check into my hostel. I paid for a private room in a giant hostel in the east end of London (thinking how handy it would be as I was coming in to London City Airport :/) and, even though it somehow felt like it was a cross between an old department store and university dorm, it was comfortable and quiet in my section. The teenagers practising dance routines at 1:00am were, thankfully, on the other side of the fobbed door and the breakfast buffet was tasty.

The next day I just kind of wandered around the East End. I stumbled upon St. Magnus the Martyr,

So pretty. (And really, what Christian doesn’t love a viking convert who was subsequently martyred?!)

When I entered the church I unknowingly passed through the original pedestrian entrance of the medieval London Bridge. Cool! As I exited I was about to blithely pass right by a 2000 year old piece of Roman wharf when a very enthusiastic man made me stop and check it out.

Ta da! I definitely wouldn’t have noticed it on my own. And, as silly as I felt looking at a piece of wood strapped to a wall, it was pretty cool to think about what the world looked like when that tree was growing, then what was happening when it was made into a wharf and what people and goods must have back amd forth from the boats moored there. Extra cool.

I also took some time to pick up clothes and toiletries to tide me over until my checked bag arrived. It was uncharacteristically cold in London last December so I grabbed a warm coat which I was very pleased with. At the checkout I was chatting with the lady and when I told her I was from Canada she said, “Ohhhh, Canada. Well, its not as cold as here!” “Um what??” I think it was the only time in my travelling life anyone has made the claim that their weather was colder than Canada’s! I mean, its not like I live in Winnipeg or anything but still, 1C isn’t usually cause for a claim to beating Canadians at the cold game!

The following day I spent the afternoon at the Tower of London and had a great time! I had been there before but not for YEARS. I recommend a tour if the timing is right. I joined one led by a very gregarious Yeoman Warders who made many jokes at the expense of the Americans and told lots of gory stories of battles and beheadings much to the delight of the kids.

Then it was off of the Jewel House to ogle at the Crown Jewels before a quick spin through the Armoury. I have no pics from the Jewel House as they are not permitted but I did find this amusing suit of armour in the Armoury. Two teenage boys and I thought it was hilarious!

Honestly, Henry. Methinks the gentleman doth advertise too much!

By then the sun was setting,

(note the snow!) and it was time to head back to the West End for the pantomime Mother Goose with Sir Ian McKellen and John Bishop! Somewhere along the way I took the requisite Canadian at Canada House photo,

(Note the touque AND head warmer/band thing underneath!)

But then, to the theatre!

(Why didn't I include the bottom of this poster?! Wierd compositionchoice on my part!)

They were quite possibly one of THE oddest odd couples in all of theatrical history but the audience was 100% on board. The house was packed. We sang, we cheered, we boo’ed and we had a blast.

Our erudite friends at the The Guardian weren’t buying it though,

“… even with McKellen’s luminosity on stage, this pantomime seems ill-put together and strained in its humour…. The production’s plot seems thrown together as a whole, its writing scrappy and its characters blandly generic…. there is an unruliness to the action that seems to come from a lack of cohesion and polish, even within the uproarious bounds of the panto form.”

Ouch! To be honest, I think they were a teeny bit right. It didn’t quite hang together and there were sections that were clunky, or barely connected and some of the jokes were a bit obvious but overall the sheer joyful absurdity of it all carried it through. Aside from getting to see Sir Ian McKellin on stage (complete with a nod to Gandalf and a stirring Shakespearean speech, OMG!) the women playing the fairies (Sharon Ballard and Karen Mavundukure) also had powerhouse voices. I hope they have long and busy theatre careers ahead of them! John Bishop? Weeeeeell, he is a good sport and made an excellent effort but its possible that football → stand-up might be the extent of his career transformations. But hey, what do I know?

By this point in the trip I was supposed to be packing up and heading out to Wales to see my cousin but we decided that with possible snow and planned strikes on the rail service it was safer for me to stay in London. I was bummed but it made sense. The upside was I had time for more theatre and a quick trip down to Winchester to see my other cousin. I also upgraded to a glamorous-by-comparison Holiday Inn closer to the airport in case I needed to take a taxi to the airport or something. OH, and still no sign of my backpack!

So, after getting settled in the new hotel I went wandering and made my way to the Wyndham theatre for Life of Pi.

The Life of Pi was incredible! Its based on the book by the same name by Yann Martel and features a young man stranded in a life boat with a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, a female orangutan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. If it ever comes to a theatre near you you have to see it. They used puppets and marionettes to bring all the animals to life and it was magical. It has won a ton of awards and got heaps of five star reviews. Go. See. It.

The next day was lighter fare with The Play That Goes Wrong,

This one was almost like a panto with a lot of very carefully choreographed silliness, disaster and catastrophe which was all cheered on by the many children at the matinee showing. This was a recommendation from Dr. Naccarato who I worked with at the Strathcona Mental Health Team in Vancouver and I very much enjoyed it!

That evening it was St. Martin in the Field’s for a choral Christmas concert,

It was glorious (and I love that window!). Then I headed out into the heaving holiday streets and made my way “home” to rest up for a quick trip down to Winchester in the morning. If I couldn’t see my Welsh cousin at least I could have a bit more time with my English cousin. And, just after I got back , I got a call from the front desk saying that my back pack had arrived! Whoohooooo! A Christmas miracle!

By the time the morning dawned London had returned to its customary warm, wet weather so I don’t have any more pics of Diane and Cam and I. We spent the day happily in steamed up coffee shops, crammed under awnings at Christmas market stalls and warming up again with a hearty lunch. Cam and I went and checked out Winchester Cathedral and, even though its beautiful, I didn’t take any pictures. I may have been suffering from “church fatigue” or it's possible I was too cold to take my hands out of my pockets. Regardless, if you would like to learn more about the 1000+ year old Cathedral you can go here. Eventually the day came to a damp end and, after exchanging many hugs, Cam and Diane put me back on a bus to London.

The following day was the usual struggle to get to the airport, get through security and find the right gate. I was tired and sad to be going back to my real life but I was also looking forward to my own bed and my own toilet. There were some delays getting going because of the usual things but there were also mutterings about a big storm on the Vancouver end that might screw things up. They were only mutterings though and eventually we were in the air and I thought no more about it.

Until we landed and we couldn’t get off the plane! Our pilot and crew very patiently explained that the snow we could see falling heavily outside our windows was causing problems for YVR and that airport staff were on it. An hour later the annoyed pilot came on and made it clear that Air Canada staff (not YVR staff thank you very much) had rigged up a solution and we would all have to file out through Business Class (which is annoying after 10 hours in cattle class but this was no time for complaining) but we would be getting off the plane. We all cheered. It turned out, that we were some of the last folks to get deplaned at YVR that night and others had to wait up to 12 hours before they could be removed! It was mayhem and when I woke up the next morning to texts with links to the news about the shutdowns was even more grateful to have made it home when I did.

I had a few days rest, saw some friends and allowed the slow plows to catch up before heading out to Chilliwack for family Christmas time. It was so fun to see everyone again! I also had about a week to get re-oriented to Vancouver life before heading back to work whereupon immediately started boring people with stories of zebras, giraffes, lions, elephants, penguins, drinking stories and theatre reviews. I am sure they were all SO happy to have me back! :)

….

Happily, in mid-January my package from Nairobi arrived unharmed!

I told you it was huge and almost waterproof!

…..

Now, at this point in the post I had planned to allude to big adventure plans for 2024 and to tell you to all stay tuned but apparently my body has other ideas. I seem to have developed this thing called tendonosis in BOTH my Achilles tendons which has really hobbled me. I have torn them both in the past so its not like I had stellar tendons to begin with but they are currently very pissed off. I have been going to weekly, and sometimes biweekly, physio since the middle of September and I have had a reduction of one or two points on the pain scale but still have pain most of the time and have very limited function. Considering this sssslllloooowwww trajectory it seems foolish to plan a big, overseas adventure with luggage. I mean, right now I can’t even walk around my neighbourhood with groceries!

SO, after much anger and many tears I have decided to postpone my big adventure to 2025. I will use 2024 to do treatment and rehab with the goal of being my most kick-ass self in 2025. (Ironically, I tore one of my Achilles tendons quite badly in 2004 and had to postpone a kayaking trip to 2005. I am both amused and annoyed by the symmetry 20 years later.) It is profoundly disappointing BUT, it does mean I am here to play host and tour guide for another summer so if you are thinking about a visit to Vancouver, please let me know!

In the meantime, I will look to the slightly further horizon while I get stronger and plan for 2025.

❤️

G

I left Nairobi for the cold northern climes of Amsterdam on Dec 7, 2022 at around 00:30. It was not a great time for flying. The (many) kids cried and the grown-ups snapped and snarked at eachother until most of the plane was asleep. But, we made it. I stepped out into the spotless, orderly, chilly Amsterdam airport at about 08:00 local time and, in spite of thinking I was done with the heat, it turns out I was also not quite ready for the cold! It was weird to go from warm and bustling Nairobi to cool and well-organized Amsterdam literally overnight.

I was sad to leave the more adventurous part of my trip behind and start the trip home but I was really excited for some Northern European organization and tidyness. I was SO excited in fact that my first photo in Amsterdam wasn't the huge, gorgeous Christmas tree in the middle of the airport atrium but the bathroom stall. 😆🤦‍♀️😆

I mean, look at those hooks! 😆

Alongside neat and tidy bathrooms, I was looking forward to reliable (if brief) instructions given to tourists, smooth border crossings, efficient transit, increased GF options with great labelling in grocery stores and safe exploration of cities. Still, it was difficult to come to terms with the end of the African portion of my trip. It was hard work for sure but I was sad say goodbye to the potential for adventure, a new crew of people to hang out with, the kind, talented and funny guides, drivers and cook, the excitement of seeing new views and new animals at every turn, enjoying new food and even hearing new news. I hadn't considered that it might be nice to have a break from the news cycle in Vancouver (for non-Vancouverites, usually the high-cost of real estate, the concomitant housing crisis and the ongoing opioid overdose crisis rotate through top billing here). It was nice to be reminded of the big wide world with all its ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows. News flash - in spite of its many problems (and strengths), the neighbourhood I have worked in and around for the past 12 years is not the center of the universe!

It was also great to meet so many fantastic people. The teams that supported our tours, the travelers and the kind folks we met along the way. I was so anxious about all the things that might go wrong on the trip that I had completely forgotten that, not only might I make friends with cool people, they might think I was cool and want to be friends with me too! What?! Honestly, it seems silly but there it is. It was another lovely reminder of what happens when you broaden your horizons.

Anyway, after all these big experiences and big feelings I was a bit sad to be heading home. I wanted to see my family and friends but didn’t want to give up the adventuring for my regular life. Combine this enui with general fatigue and post-viral malaise and I was a bit mopey in Amsterdam and Frankfurt but I was determined to enjoy myself. As my friend Kim used to say, onward.

So, back to the travel!

It really is as easy as everyone says to lock up your bags in Schipol airport (luggage check is in the basement, DO NOT lose your tag, they are very serious about that point), jump onto a train and be downtown in minutes. Here is their very pretty train station,

And from another direction earlier in the day,

The Dutch really DO love bikes! And, because there isn’t enough real estate to park them all at ground level they actually have bike parkades (behind me below)!

According to the boat tour I took after lunch there are also underground parkades but even with all that bike storage infrastructure approximately 12, 000 to 15, 000 bikes are dumped in the canals each year. This has even been confirmed by the people at the Guinness Book of World Records! 🤯

Evidence of Amsterdam’s campaign to educate/discourage young, rowdy men from coming to the city and acting like jerks was everywhere. This was my favourite type of sign,

There are also “greenpee” planters installed for the same reason although I don’t recall seeing any.

(I would like to point out that none of the signs admonishing people for “wild peeing” were silhouettes of women. 🙄)

I only had about five or six hours in the city so I had lunch at a GF restaurant (such a treat to have GF bread again!) and hopped on a canal boat tour. It was a beautiful day and a lovely way to see the city.

After the tour I had a bit more time so I popped into the famous Sexmuseum Amsterdam which was, to be honest, kind of lame. I mean, it could have been cool if they tried provide even a shred of thoughtful or critical analysis but they just kind of have a bunch of “sexy” stuff with labels. It might be titillating if you are a young, mid-Western, American college student but even they have the internet! There is so much sex and naughtiness online now that if you are going to offer a “Sex Museum” you have to offer something more complex than you can find online. It doesn’t have to be dense and academic but it needs to be more than vintage dildos, cheesy animatronic mannequins and “porn” from the 1800s. I definitely didn’t need to pay 10 Euro for it but it was warm and they have a gorgeous bathroom so it wasn’t a total waste. Plus, I can say I’ve done it.

After that it was back to the airport for the short hop to Frankfurt.

Why Frankfurt you ask? Why not Berlin you scream? When I first started working on this plan I was going to leave the Africa trip in Dar es Salaam and found the only direct flight to Europe was to Frankfurt and, sadly, not Lisbon or Barcelona. At first I was kind of bummed because, what’s going on in Frankfurt in December? But, then I remembered, Christmas markets! Once I had that as a theme for Germany I decided to go to Nuremberg which is supposed to have one of the best and oldest Christmas markets. Once I was actually in Germany I realized that of course Berlin would have had an amazing Christmas market. Never mind. The die were cast. Berlin, I’ll see you another time.

Frankfurt was very badly bombed during the war and they decided to build back as a modern city. As a result it is quite boring (sorry Frankfurt) but I was still really happy for a nice (tiny) hotel room which had a fabulous hot shower. The first night there I showered for 45 minutes and used almost all the towels. It was glorious.

Architecturally Frankfurt is kind of boring but it is *the* center for finance in Europe and you could tell there was a good deal of money sloshing around. For a small city they seemed to have quite a few Rolex dealers and high end jewelry shops. They also have a gorgeous opera house,

While I was walking through the financial district I had to take this picture. I thought it was a “Tell me you are in a financial district with out *telling* me you are in a financial district!” type of thing and for some reason I found it really amusing.

(You can tell I work in publicly funded, female dominated industry by how impressed I am by men's dress shirts!)

Perhaps if I had stayed longer some gorgeous banker with a Rolex and sharply pressed dress shirt would buy me fancy jewelry and take me to the opera! I guess we’ll never know! 😆

But anyways, the main goal was, the Christmas market!

That Apfelwein was very tasty!

It was packed!

I had a great time exploring over a couple nights and came away with some lovely German ornaments.

This is the current set up with the addition of a small Santa that I bought in the US and a wee Elephant from the sanctuary in Nairobi.

The figures with their mouths open are German Smokermen. They are hollow in the middle so you twist off their legs and then fit a small cone of lit incense into a holder and replace the legs. The smoke rises and comes out their mouths and they look like they are smoking. We had one when we were kids and I found it fascinating. They are much cheaper in Germany than here so I was happy to pick some up while I was there.

After a couple days of sleeping and Christmassing, with side trips to a tower for a sunset view,

And a visit to the local Botanic Garden,

It was off to Nuremberg to soak up some more Christmas and reconnect with friends from the first portion of the trip. Bruno lives in Germany and Shauna and Charles were visiting Tina (also from the Botswana part of the trip!) and Bruno, Charles and Shauna came down to join me for a day or two. Sadly, Tina couldn't join us but the four of us had a blast!

We started at the local castle and explored as snow fell.

Lunch was a bit underwhelming for me because the kitchen of the lovely restaurant we ate at got super stressed out when I asked about gluten. The server went back into the kitchen and came back and said everything had gluten. I tried to clarify that it was ok if it was in the air or on the grill but that I did need to know if something like a sausage or a sauce had gluten IN it. Sadly, I couldn’t get our server to budge on the “everything” answer so rather than risk hopscotching from bathroom to bathroom all afternoon I went with a salad. In winter. In Germany. *sigh* I was able to try a few bites of potato salad as the dressing appeared to be vinegar based and not have any sour cream in it and that helped bulk out my meal but man, it was a chilly afternoon being fueled primarily by salad. (People make fun of me for packing lots of snacks around all the time [and lots of stuff in general tbh!] but lunches like this are why!) Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon in spite of the chill and eventually made our way back to the old town to explore the Christkindlesmarkt. It was PACKED but beautiful!

Bruno found us a great restaurant in an underground space that looked like a huge wine cellar. I needed a degree to wade through the allergy information on the menu (the Germans are very thorough people!) but eventually found something hearty and robust for dinner. I added some wine and we went back out into the crowds well fortified.

Of course more warm, spiced Gluhwein, or “glow wine”, was needed to help keep us going so we tried a few different stalls and shops around the square. This is the view from one of our stops. It was so nice to be up and out of the crowds for a bit.

After we warmed up we went back out into the fray for more exploring and more wine!

We had so much fun!

Sadly, Charles and Shauna had to head off for the next portion of their epic adventure the next day but Bruno was able to stay and explore with me. The town was much more manageable during the day!

Lighting candles for friends.

So much fun!

…..

Fast Forward a year and the German Christmas vibes continue!

My little nephew Bear is now enjoying the mysteries of a German Smokerman!

(Picked up in the Nuremberg market after Morgan saw mine and wanted in on the festivities! And also, how cute is that kid?! 😍)

And my mom and I just finished a trip to Leavenworth Washington where they have embraced a Bavarian theme and go all out for Christmas. Saturday was bonkers busy! If you are interested in going and have the flexibility I highly recommend adding a weekday to your stay. Parking will be cheaper and more plentiful and you can actually see things in the shops.

Saturday lunch at the beer garden attached to the Cured meat and sausage shop,

Monday lunch at the Munchen Haus Beer Garden across the street. The line up was massive Sat aft but there were only two people in front of us on Monday at about 11:30. And they had GF buns!

Our cabin at Sleeping Lady Lodge. Super comfy, well appointed and lovely staff. Highly recommend!

Hot tub is open in the winter!

Sleigh ride with Icicle Outfitters. We were pretty sure that in the summer it was a boring field and and an even more boring parking lot for river access but in the winter it is very pretty!

We had a great time!

❤️

I mean, come on.

This is another long-belated post but it is also just long so, grab a cup of tea or lock the bathroom door so your kids or spouse can’t bust in mid-way. My four days in Kenya consisted of a challenging border experience, sleeping, sniffling (either b/c of sadness or illness, both were very annoying), showering, eating, writing (not this post obvs), organizing my gear, looking at cute animals, shopping (I wanted ALL the gorgeous fabrics), re-organizing my gear and trying to use one of the large post office stations in Nairobi. Now, I don’t know if it was the overall fatigue, the illness, my incompetence/naiveté, the Kenyan civil service or the banking systems that wouldn’t speak to the systems that held my money, but sending a package from the post office in Nairobi was truly one of the most trying experiences/challenges OF THE WHOLE TRIP. If you tried to write a little play about a naïve, Canadian trying to use a post office in an African nation that used to be an English colony, you would have written about my Herculean attempts to send a package of summer gear home to Canada. Its funny now but at the time I was almost dizzy with frustration. Although, that could also have been the virus.

BUT, to read that you have to get through my adventure at the border and look at some animals so, like I said, grab a cup of tea!

…..

Dec 3 (2022) was the last day of our trip from Vic Falls to Nairobi and was my 53rd day of travel. We got up early, packed up early one last time and left our comfy campground in Mto wa Mbu (always love a lawn to camp on, a pool to swim in and a TV to watch the World Cup on) and headed for the Kenyan border. This was another border where I was NOT able secure a visa online (AAARRGGHHHH!) and so had to line up at the wicket and explain myself. This started out as a fairly straightforward process which was slowed only by the soon-apparent custom of letting nuns, elderly people and mothers with small children in front of you in line. This was fine with me but made our forgetful travel companion Susan quite antsy and anxious. At one point she told me I should say no when a nun asked to cut in because her priority was to get to Nairobi early enough to go buy a new yoga mat to replace the one she lost in Zanzibar. Susan! SERIOUSLY?? Ummmm, NO.

I got to the front of the line in decent time, explained myself and was asked to go to another wicket. I presented myself to that wicket and a man said I had to come back to his office behind the wickets. My heart sank. No one ever wants to be pulled into a border guard's office.

I was somewhat reassured that our guides weren't alarmed and two of the other folks one our trip were called in too. You could also see his office through glass walls and barriers so at least I wasn't out of sight. The first person they called in was a lovely English man about 70 years old named Martin who joined us in Zanzibar and the other was forgetful Susan (who had now somehow gotten in front of me, possibly b/c her online visa application worked and mine didn't? I don't recall). I could see them in the office and it didn't seem that intense so I tried to remain calm. Eventually it was my turn and the guy called me in.

He asked the usual questions about why I didn't have a completed visa application, ("Well, sir, I tried and you can see here *points to printed receipt* that my payment went through but the whole process just never completed." I wanted to be clear it wasn't my fault while also not insulting the Kenyan online application system. This is a very fine line!), how long was I staying, why was it different from all the rest ("Well, sir, we all have different  plans after this trip finishes tonight." Him: "But, they are going to Uganda." "Yes, I KNOW they are going to Uganda. I am not." This went on for a few more rounds before he moved on) before his final question, “are you travelling alone.” Wait what? He had JUST been talking to two people from the same trip in his office. I was so confused. The next part of the conversation went like this,

Border Guard: "Are you traveling alone?"

Me: "Um, no. I'm with that big group out there." *points to group of white people milling around the waiting hall*

BG: "What group?"

Me: "The large group heading to Nairobi. And some are them going to Uganda? You just spoke to two of them."

BG: "But you. Are you alone?"

Me, starting to guess where this was going and standing my ground: "No. I am not alone. I am with a group."

BG: "But do you have a travel partner."

Me, still standing my ground but not wanting to lie or justify myself: "I do not."

BG:  "Do you have a partner at home?"

Me, staring incredulously and getting angry while also trying not to *appear* angry so as not to make this worse. But, also being unable to play along with this bullshit: "No. I do not."

BG: “You need a partner.”

Me: “No I do not.”

BG: “Yes you do. You should get one when you go home."

Me, wanting to say "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" but resisting: "I do not need a partner."

BG: “Yes you do. You need to find one when you get home.”

This unbelievable exchange went back and forth along the lines of "yes you do"/"no I don't" for a few more minutes and then eventually, and with a look of mild scorn and pity he stamped my receipt and let me into the country. I was fuming but said thank you and left.

I was furious when I met the group but said nothing until we were outside the building and firmly on Kenyan soil. Then I explained the whole exchange, asked anyone else of they had been asked their partnership status (they had not!) and tried to shake off the shitty feeling of being single and judged lacking. Barf.

Our Kenyan guides were very supportive and looked embarrassed that my first "welcome" to the country was so insulting. I thanked them for their kindness and said I knew it was an old-fashioned attitude and that it didn't represent all Kenyan people but man, I was pissed.

Susan, in all her disorganized glory was just happy we were all through and could move on to Nairobi and to her new yoga mat. Cue a collective huge eye roll from the rest of us.

As our drive towards Nairobi wore on I started to feel sniffly, congested, achey and sweaty(er). I was REALLY hoping it was fatigue or an allergic reaction to something I had eaten but by the time we arrived in the parking lot of our hotel (after crawling through Nairobi’s traffic) it was clear, I had a cold. Fuuuuuuck. In retrospect I should have been grateful that I had made it that far without picking up an illness but at the time I was exhausted and SO done that I could find nothing to be grateful about. I made it to my room and barely closed my door before bursting into tears. Forty six days of travelling through southern and eastern Africa with various groups of moslty great people were coming to an end sick, tired, alone, in a small hotel room, without A/C (which turned out to be fine but at the time seemed an impossible burden, see note re exhaustion above). I am not sure exactly what I imagined my last night with our group would be but it sure wasn’t this. UGH.

I had a good cry and then I pulled myself together and went back down to the parking lot to say a proper goodbye to our guide, cook and driver and give them their tip. When I found them downstairs they were in the middle of a flurry of activity. My co-travellers were pulling their things off the bus and lugging things into the hotel and Laban (guide), Patrick (driver) and H (cook) were loading their things into the cars of friends who had come to pick them up. They were done! They had been on the road and away from family and friends for almost 100 days (they all did the trip from Nairobi to Capetown and then back up together) and they were finally going home. The joy on their faces was obvious and even through my teary eyes was a delight to see.

I wove my way through the chaos of bags and cars and people and gave each of them a big hug and a card with my thanks and a good tip. I tried very hard not to cry and did an ok job. They were all very supportive but were so happy to be home they didn’t linger with the crying tourist and tbh, I didn’t blame them!

(Also, pardon this PSA but, please tip your guides or drivers or cooks! Even people who support your team on smaller day trips and safaris. Good guides, cooks and drivers work really hard when they are on a trip and basically have no time off. When people cut their finger on safari and need stitches the guide has to find a driver and go with that person to the clinic even if its getting late. When a bus gets stuck in the mud, the driver [and friends and neighbours] needs to get it unstuck. When someone is gluten free they need to find food that works. [And they need moral support when they find out gluten is in so many things, “Why yes, it IS annoying!”] its the cook who is hunting things down and making adaptations. Usually they are paid very minimally for the work they do and good tips make a real difference to them and their families. Please, if you are going to travel with guides or drivers, include a good tip in your budget.)

Ok, back to the chaos of the parking lot! In the midst of all of this action and emotion was Susan. Flapping around about the lack of time available to her to find a new yoga mat. It was about 4:00 and she was worried the shops would all close at 5:00. When one co-traveller pointed out that the itinerary was clear that we likely wouldn’t be in to Nairobi until around this time she looked shocked and said, “I didn’t read the itinerary!” SUSAN! In the end a taxi driver named Masha, a very nice man and friend of our guide Laban took her shopping and I believe she was able to find what she was looking for. Honestly. She has a LONG history of living and travelling around the world but by the end of that trip I had serious concerns about HOW. It was remarkable.

Anyway, that evening everyone kind of did their own thing. There was a briefing for the handful of people on the trip that was leaving in the morning to look for gorillas in Uganda (similar to this trip but I think theirs might have been 14 days).A couple of people were briefed on a trip leaving for Kilimanjaro the next day. Some people went out to dinner to a well known restaurant called Carnivore where you are promised a “beast of a feast” and I took as many cold meds as was safe, ordered food in the bar, watched some soccer and went to bed early. Blargh.

The next day everyone from my trip was up early and had joined their respective next trips and were gone from the parking lot before 7am. I had this idea that I was going to get up early and go down and give everyone one final hug but a) I was too tired, b) I didn’t think it was a good idea to go sharing my germs around right before my friends joined two new trips and so I waved at them from my window, wished them well, took more cold meds and went back to bed. Double blargh.

After almost 50 days of travelling with people it was a shock to the system to be on my own in an empty hotel and, with a damn cold at that. The only solution was to sleep, watch some Netflix, message friends at home and try to recover. Happily, I was absolved of any travel guilt (the need to see EVERYTHING when one is in a new city because, “you’ve come all this way!”) by it being a rainy Sunday. Very little was open and the hotel was almost empty. It was a perfect sick day.

The following day I felt a little bit better and had booked a visit to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Giraffe Centre so off I went with a guide/driver. The tickets for the Sheldrick Trust were all sold-out but I was able to hire a guide for the day and they had tickets. (I wonder if the local tour companies buy them all and then include them in tour packages for tourists. Perhaps if I had tried to book further ahead I could have got one on my own but I still would have needed to get there so I wasn’t too opposed to a driver/guide.) Both experiences were fantastic and I highly recommend them. The guided tour had a couple stops for shopping which I was initially a bit annoyed about but I found gorgeous fabrics at a craft centre and some beautiful beaded items at Kobe Strong. Kobe Strong works with Masai women rebuilding their lives after fleeing abuse or becoming widowed.

It was, however, real easy to be annoyed about the guide ordering lunch, not telling me I was expected to pay and leaving me to find out at the till. WTF buddy! I briefly considered refusing but ended up being too Canadian and just going along with it. I wished I had the nerve to channel my inner Australian but I chickened out. I just seethed quietly to myself and then didn't tip him. I didn't even give him or the company a poor review on Trip Advisor letting people know about the additional cost of a lunch. In fact, I *didn't* give any review at all. Just my silence. Ya, that'll teach ‘em. 🙄

BUT, friends, the cuteness. The cuteness was outstanding. We started at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust…

Who doesn't like a good bum scratch after a dirt bath?!

I got to pat an elephant's ear!

And then I got a kiss on the toe!! 😍🧠😍

(She was not eating the man whose feet poke out behind her! 😆 If I knew how to use photo shop I would remove them but it's too cute not to share!)

There was a little girl to the right of me who was SO excited to see the elephants. It was so sweet. I am not sure if either of these videos capture one of her sweetest lines which was “Baby elephant, milkies!” She was almost as cute as the elephants themselves!

This is little clip where you can hear some of the explanation of the head Keeper about how they come to their care, hear the cute girl and my giggling as some of the little ones come over to say hi.

After that cuteness (and a quick stop at the gift shop!) it was over to the Giraffe Centre where they are protecting and breeding the endangered Rothschild’s Giraffe (named after an English guy b/c hey, it was the 1800s, of course it was). At the Centre you get a small coconut shell with some giraffe-approved pellets and you go up onto an elevated walk way so you can feed them. They know the drill and will steal the pellets right out of your bowl if you aren’t paying attention.

They may also head butt you if they think you are too slow or trying to get too cozy!

Here you can see the ossicones of our friend and the lumps developed from clonking heads with other giraffes. I believe this indicates this giraffe is likely male (the evidence of fighting, not the ossicones themselves) but I don’t recall checking other, um, *cough*, indicators while I was there.

Hello beautiful!

Some people put the pellets in their mouths and get the giraffe to “kiss” them but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Partly I was worried that I was still a bit sick and had this horrible idea that maybe I would pass my germs to the giraffe and some horrible new giraffe illness would be created and hurt these endangered animals and partly I didn’t want to get slobbered on or clonked in the face!

After the Giraffe Centre we did the shopping and the lunch outlined above and then it was home to the hotel. I was one of the few guests at the hotel so when I returned the front desk staff were happy to look at the fabrics I bought. They complimented me on my colour choices and let me know I had gotten them at a good price. Always reassuring.

The next day was my last day in Africa and one of the hardest! Lord help me. OK, so to review, I am tired, coping with a cold and feeling blue about nearing the end of my trip and I decided I needed to mail some of my summer clothes and a couple of presents home to myself so I had less to lug around in cold, snowy Germany and England. I pulled out what made sense (and I could have said goodbye to without too much grief in case the package never arrived), put it in a couple shopping bags and asked the man at the front desk if I could buy brown paper or a box and tape and postage at the big post office. “Sure!” Great. “Do they take credit cards or do I need cash? I don't have any Kenyan schillings.” “You can use credit.” Awesome. “Can I walk there?” “Yes. You can walk.” Fab. He started to review the directions with me on a paper map (b/c I would have no service as soon as I left the wifi of the hotel) and he became less and less confident about this walking plan. “Hmmmmm. OK, well, should I should take a taxi?” “Yes.” (Said with the same confidence as his assertion that walking was fine.) So, we called Masha again.

As I was getting into the car Masha commented on my bags of clothes and wondered where we were going. “Oh, the post office! I want to mail these home.” I said optimistically. He looked alarmed, “you can't take them like that. You need a box!” I assured him I had been told I could do it at the post office he looked VERY skeptical. So, the hunt for a box was on. In the end after a thorough canvas of the kitchen, the hotel lobby and the trucks of his friends’ cars turned nothing useful up he found a sturdy bag made of woven plastic straps and we got everything in there and stapled the top closed. We then took off through the bonkers Nairobi traffic for at least 15 minutes before we arrived at the post office. “OK, here is my phone number. When you are done ask the staff at the service desk to call my cell and I will come back and get you. The counter for international mail is at the very back of the hall.” “Awesome. Thanks”

I stepped out into a busy side street and made it safely to the front door where I was swarmed by people telling me I had to buy a mask b/c masks were mandatory inside. I was a bit overwhelmed but I watched the locals going in mask-less and thought, “nope” and pressed through the crowd. I made it inside and navigated the busy, high ceilinged old hall passing passport pick up wickets, a small shop and wickets for small mail and domestic items. I got to the end and left the hall to find the International counter outside. I got to the front and explained myself and the lady said she could help me but that I needed to buy tape, paper and postage for my postcards inside and that they *might* take a card. SO, back I went past the super chill guards at the back door and found the right wicket. “We don't take cards.” “WHAT?!” “Do you have any cash?” “No!” “OK, well there is a bank machine down the street. It's really close by in a huge building. You can go there. It will be easy.” ARRGH!

I went back to the International counter and told the lady they don't take cash but that I would go get some. She very kindly did all the math to figure out what the parcel and packaging would cost so I would get out the right amount of money and then offered to hang on to the parcel for me. “Yes. Thank you.”

So, back I marched through the hall and went out the In door and navigated towards the main road. As I stepped out into the throng I considered giving up and just completing this project in Germany but I thought, “I am not a baby. I can solve this problem. They said it was close. I'll just have to look confident.” I stood tall, looked forward (but not directly into anyone's eyes so as to appear inadvertently challenging [women also do this at home!] and tried to look like it wasn't my third day in Nairobi and that I knew what I was doing. I strode confidently forward for a short distance before my I'm-a-local cover was almost immediately undermined when I decided I would jaywalk. I thought this would actually up my “street cred” b/c everyone does it there and I was tired of being a timid Canadian. Plus, the other side of the street looked more open and and the corner might not have any clear pedestrian signals anyway. So, I waited for a gap and marched out to the small median where I promptly noticed the short-but-tall-enough-not-to-easily-step-over barbed wire fence that was clearly designed to stop people from jaywalking. It was covered by landscaping so I missed it until I got close. Gah!

By this point I had attracted the attention of a very thin, poor child who was asking for money, “Please madam. Money? Food? Money? Madam, please?” Trapped by the fence and the now flowing traffic I marched along the narrow median saying, “No money. Very sorry. NO money.” (And resisting saying, “Like, LITERALLY. I have NO money. That is why I am out here!”) While he followed me and I kept an eye on the traffic cruising by on my right. I finally made it to the corner where the very clearly marked crosswalk was full of people using the fully functional crosswalk signals to move across the busy intersection. Seriously?! Nevermind. I had done it. I was at the big corner with the big bank that I couldn't miss. Hallelujah.

I found the vestibule with several ATMs on the other end of the building, put in my Visa debit card and… nothing happened. WHAT? “OK. Don't panic. This has happened before. Just use another bank machine.” I moved over and, same thing. “NOOOOOO!” At my anguished cries (like, almost crying by this point), a kindly security guard came to see if she could help. “Are they out of money?” I asked. “No. Other people have been getting money. Maybe try a teller in the main hall. They might be able to tell you what's happening. Its just around the corner.” Of course it is. “Thank you.”

I made my way to the enormous banking hall and got in the line for a teller. I eventually spoke a very nice young woman who figured out that the card I had worked on a system that wasn't supported by their bank (“Oh, is that why it didn't work at the Kenyan border” “Most likely.”) but there was another bank (formerly Barclays) and it should work there. “OH, OK. Do you know where that bank is? Is it close?” “Oh, I don't know. Sorry.”

At this point I had to admit defeat. These clothes were coming to Germany on my midnight flight and that's just how it was. Trying not to cry I made my way back outside and reversed my (confident??) slog through the busy, warm streets of Nairobi. I dodged the people asking for money and the street vendors, went to the back door of the hall, picked up my package and made my way in the Out door to ask the Customer Service guy to call my driver. Then I pushed out the In door, was yelled at by a security guard, pleaded innocent confusion and, after a few awkward minutes standing around with my big bag of clothes, slunk into the back seat of the taxi utterly defeated.

“OH no! What happened? You still have it!” I tried to explain the dilemma quickly and without crying. “Wait, you went to the bank by yourself?!” “Yes.” “Why?!?” “I just wanted to get it done.” “I could have come and got you!” “But it was supposed to be close!” He looked at me like he was saying a prayer of thanks for my safe return and then said, “Do you have cash?” “NO. That’s the whole problem!” “But, back at the hotel. Do you have any cash?” “Well, ya some Euros and some Pounds but they won't take them.” “That's OK. We'll go get them changed!” “What?!” And he pushed out into traffic.

Once I had actual currency in hand things went fairly smoothly. I skipped the front door all together and went to the back. The lady was happy to see me, held my package and sent me back in to buy paper, tape and postage for the postcards. I did that, posted the cards and returned feeling fairly triumphant. I started to wrap my parcel but a man standing nearby seemed disappointed with my packing skills and offered to take over. I agreed and he worked on that while I worked on the multitude of forms I needed and I paid. Then the man put the label on and wrapped that package a few more times until not a centimeter of brown paper was left uncovered by tape. It was so well wrapped it looked waterproof! And then, finally, close to four hours after starting this project, I triumphantly handed my parcel to my new BFF at the post office. She mentioned that the package might not arrive until mid-January b/c our postal service “basically shuts down over Christmas” and wished me well. I said goodbye to her, Wrapping Man and the lounging security guards at the back door, marched back into the postage hall to ask the nice Customer Service man to call my driver and pushed out the In door (I didn't even respond to the yell I got that time) and crossed the street to meet my ride.

Sweet.

Baby.

Jesus.

……

PS The package arrived in good condition on January 9, 2023. I was so excited!

My triumphant selfie!

Friends,

Happy sneaking-in-under-the-wire Canada Day! 🎉🇨🇦🎉

Apologies for the ever-growing length between posts! I really want to get them done because I have so many great phots and adventures left to share but June was BUSY! I left my job as a Case Manager on an inner-city mental health team and joined the Adult Protection team at Vancouver Coast Health (VCH) as an Adult Protection Lead working with the mental health teams in Vancouver. This change came in the midst of twice weekly paddling sessions with a novice outrigger team. Further adding to the busyness, was back-to-back weekend travel in May to Chilliwack, Victoria and California. So, its been hard to sit still and focus but I’m doing it!

Now, because these posts are opened more frequently if I add a pic of an animal at the top, I place this gorgeous giraffe from our Serengetti adventure here for your viewing (and my click-baiting) pleasure.

(I was so excited to be close enough to get a great shot and that s/he wasn't under a tree so you can even see their head! They are so incredible! 😍)

Then, and I hope this brief switch in content is OK, I also want to share this video from our novice outrigger teams recent “huli” (capsize recovery) drill from Thurs June 22. (Fun fact, “huli” is the Hawaiian word for “turn”, people who have been to Hawaii will be familiar with the “huli huli” chicken which is turned on a spit.) Due to the positioning of the camera on the ‘iako (arms holding the pontoon or ama), and me being in seat three, I feature rather prominently in the first third of the video. I am glad I look mostly capable and didn't do anything embarrassing like pick my nose!

I thought it would be fun to share to give a little window into what I have been up to but also because Vancouver looks spectacular from the water!

Aside from being generally fun and great excersise, one of the women on the team is someone I worked at Camp Squamish with about 28 years ago! Her name is Slinder and you’ll see her in the later 2/3rds of the video b/c she gets in seat three after the drill. You will hear our camp-y cheerfulness throught the video and, it turns out she is a Social Worker too!

Here we are on our final paddle of the June Novice program,

And our fearless coach Ron,

So fun!

Anyways, back to Tanzania!

…

After our amazing time in the Ngoro Ngoro caldera we headed up and over the rim and out towards the flat plains of the Serengeti where we camped for two nights, saw more amazing animals and really started getting on each other's nerves. 😒 BUT, I also got to fly in a hot air balloon and you know, ANIMALS so it was still an amazing part of the trip.

On the long, dusty, bumpy drive to our campsite in the Serengetti. We passed the entrance to the Oldovai Gorge on the way but only stopped for a pic and the bathrooms because of time.

(Now, be honest, would you be reading this if I lead with that pic?? 😁)

At the gate to the Serengetti Park we stopped for some more pics and some young Maasai kids came to say hi and ask for donations. For this trip I decided I wasn't going to give people money when asked but would support local community development initiatives. Intrepid also donates to various groups along its travels. The kids were ok with pictures though so you see them below.

It was hard to say no when people asked for money but I felt like a) relying on random donations from tourists isn't sustainable funding for communities and b) giving money to everyone isn't sustainable for me. I have the same approach in Vancouver and figure I am supporting marginalized communities through my work. Its obviously not a perfect arrangement but it is one I am (fairly) comfortable with.

Just to the left of those kids was the gate to the Serengetti! It's a bit boring but , um, SERENGETTI!

It is FLAT and there are lots of different kinds of antelope.

Starting to green up in some spots!

And a giraffe just cruising thru!

The quality of the video is so poor on YouTube. Well, maybe my camera's video translates to poor quality on Youtube. 😔 If you want to see this lovely creature in better detail just send me a msg and I can share it with you.

And an elephant!

Then we came across a hippo pond.

They are super stinky but they DO NOT care. They are very happy floating around in their usually fairly sludgey ponds all day. It keeps their sensitive skin safe from the sun and then they go out and look for food at night. I don't think I have a good video with their wiggly little ears but come on, they are just too much!

We saw this snaggle toothed character in another pond (possibly the following day, I may be getting some of these out of order!),

And how we viewed them,

And I finally saw a Secretary Bird! I saw them in my Etosha guide book but hadn't seen any at any point even tho they are very common. Apparently they are *all* in the Serengetti because8 I saw quite a few there. You can read more about how they got the common, English name here.

The San Diego zoo link also has *much* prettier pictures. If mine leaves you confused please check that link out.

This isn't a great pic but it's evidence!

You can just barely make out the Secretary’s “pencil” feathers tucked behind its ears here. Again, see the San Diego zoo pic for more cclarity.For some reason I just think these birds are really cool!

OMG and then we found a sleeping lion!! 😍😍😍