Life has kept me away from the blogging, partly because of laziness and partly due to my recent mundane working life in Vancouver. But I have negotiated weekends off and finishing at 3pm everyday. I’m hoping this will kick start my blogging again! It will also allow me time to explore the parts of Vancouver I have yet to find ! And I’m going to document my discoveries!

I got a job as a lift opertator at Revelstoke Mountain Resort for this coming Winter and I think we may have found a brand new townhouse to move into in November! A brand new kitchen to cook the Christmas turkey and entertain our Vancouver family when they come to our digs in Revelstoke for Christmas day!! A place to sing Christmas Carols while making eggnog and cranking the indoor heat right up!!

Six weeks to moving about 6 to 7 hours into the Interior of Canada!! I am so excited! I can’t wait to see snow! Make a snowball, a snowman, a snow angel! Strap on my brand new snowboard and deck myself out in all my new gear! Going to be the happiest snow bunny in all of British Columbia!!

Keep you posted… and will back date you on my earlier adventures..

A Greyhound bus from Vancouver to Calgary takes a long time. As long as Sydney to Vancouver. And I think we’ve established previously that that is a long time. Much more fun to have company however, and regular truckstops to stretch your legs along the way. (The photos above are of Sam, myself and Matt at one of the many truckstops on route to Calgary). The whole household left on a Friday night for some Stampeding good times at the Calgary Stampede!

Once in Calgary we all headed to our respective accomodation and caught up on sleep. Calgary is just lovely. Big open spaces, blue skies that light up at night and snow capped Rocky Mountains on the horizon to remind you where you are.

Matt and I were pitching a tent in Calaway RV Park for the next three nights and on our intitial taxi ride to the park I was concerned as we headed out of Calgary and the metre was rising above $40. The spot was fantastic and although we were so far out, every morning, Mike the bus driver would show up in his bright yellow school bus (with a door that needs a lever to open) and take us to Stampede Park. Each night at Midnight he’d be there waiting to take us back to our tent again.

The bus was filled with the same people every day and everyone seemed to take to us because of our accents. I can’t get over what a novelty it is for them! Mike informed the bus on day one, “they’re talking English, they just sound funny”

We had a sense of community on those bus rides with our fellow Calaway Park Stampeders! People wished you a good Stampede in the morning and at night enquired what we’d got up to each day. I’m so glad we picked that campground. It certainly added to our Stampede experience.

After preparing more than I thought possible for a comfortable flight with the hope that my jet lag would be minimal, I have been in Vancouver for a week now and I’ve only just started to feel normal! The last week has felt like one big, long, blurry day. And It feels so nice to have a brain that is working again. Or at least a little!

The flight, however, wasn’t too bad and Vancouver is really pretty. The thing I am struggling with is the staying to the right rule. I’m hoping that it has been enhanced because of the jet lag, but I hadn’t really noticed how second nature looking right as I cross the road is or how people automatically stick to the left (or the right, as is popular here!)

A note for anyone new to Canada, pedestrian crossings mean nothing to the locals. So if you are used to looking right and having cars stop for you, it’s good to have a friend on hand who can reef you out of the oncoming traffic before you get flattened!

One day to go!

Who knows when this Dorothy will return to Oz but she’s so glad she caught up with most of her favourite munchkins over this last weekend..

I’m a sentimetal thing and was worried I would be feeling nostalgic and emotional at this stage of events. But I managed to snatch an hour alone in my favourite thinking place which enabled some well needed evaluation and perspective of my impending adventure.

My favourite place is a certain table in the Town Hall Hotel where you can look out over King Street and watch Newtown passing by. A better people watching spot I’ve yet to encounter and it’s the best place to spend a Sunday afternoon with a cold Carlton Draught and pen and paper. It’s a place to reflect and I’m so glad I managed that hour alone here in what was a very intense weekend.

I reached a content almost zen-like state sitting there yesterday and mentally prepared myself for the coming week. At the end of the night as I sat on a Mountains train heading to my childhood home, I got a text message asking if I’ll miss Sydney. My answer was, not yet. It’s not my home right now. That little table in the Townie has been a spot I’ve frequented on many a Sunday afternoon for the past seven years. It will be there when I get back.

I have ways of staying in contact with all my favourite people. And they too will be here when I get back.

One day to go! I’m ready for you Vancouver!

2 weeks. 14 days. No matter how you look at it, it’s not that long away. Then why does it still feel it?

I leave for Canada in 2 weeks and 2 days. Leaving Australia for 2 years. It doesn’t seem real.

I have to think carefully about how I am feeling. It is similar to waiting for Christmas when I was little, but this year I am a little apprehensive of Santa Claus. All the possible scenarios of what is to come play like a looped video tape in my mind. I think I am afraid of getting bogged down in the who, what, when, where and especially the why of it all. Trying to predict is something I have done in the past and it usually fills me with anxiety. But not so much this time, just a nervous excitement.

It is playing in the background like muzak or white noise. I can distract myself from it but it is always there, just under the surface, to get sucked into when I find myself in reflective moments. Staring out the window of the train or late at night when I should be sleeping, these are the times for the video to get louder and harder to ignore.

The feelings aren’t bad. Just confronting and different. I am looking forward to this imminent adventure and can’t wait to wake each morning to the newness it will bring and become an explorer every day.

I think perhaps I just feel impatient. I want to get going.

I’ve reflected enough!

Fast or slow, time is completely out of your control. Especially when you’re waiting for something.

I’ve made a game of being my own time machine. Making a mark on a calendar and at the time thinking “that is so far away, I can’t even imagine what I’ll feel like when I’m living that day.” Then on that day, remembering the you that was imagining that day. Suddenly you’re the future you! (I’ve probably lost you, haven’t I?)

It fascinates me. It frustrates me.

Time is a mystery.

It’s funny how you can lose yourself in life to the point where you become unrecognisable even to yourself. What’s even stranger is that you don’t realise it is happening until you get reminded of a way you used to feel or a way you used to be.

Some experiences foster who you really are and other’s detach you. What it really comes down to is a responsibility to yourself to ensure you don’t get lost in the twists and turns of life.

Once this epiphany hits however, the fear is that these habits that have formed will cling to you or are already a part of you.

I don’t know how accurate that is, though. Each day is a little bit better.. I can feel the fabric of “me” slowly knitting itself back together. And it feels good.

We saw an entire world inside a bubble today. Happened just after we saw a frog jump up the tree to his nest.. (don’t worry mum, this didn’t involve LSD) I’m learning a thing or two from Eloise and I’m enjoying the way the world looks through the eyes of a three-year-old..

Simple things like blowing bubbles, singing whatever lyrics you want so long as they fit the beat and only walking on the black tiles at the shopping centre are so much fun and capture the essence of childhood despite being 30 years old.

I’m going to try and keep the wisdom and teachings of Eloise and apply them to my every day.. even if it’s simply to follow the advice from the latest song she wrote - “Give a little Wiggle in the Morning Time”