Yes my dear friends, it’s that time of the year. The air is turning cold, and the leaves have all changed colour and are fluttering to the ground. You know it’s going to happen, but you’re reluctant to admit it, and would just rather keep running in shorts and a tank top. Unfortunately, it’s becoming readily apparent that something does have to give here. I don’t have a really deep or meaningful story to share with you this time, but just a brief update on what was up on the weekend for me. The main event of the weekend was supposed to be a wine and cheese soiree downtown, but the host ended up falling ill, which meant we had to put the kaibash on that plan at the last second. Not to fret, there’s always plenty to do, right my friends? Read on for a couple Seinfeldian paragraphs about ‘nothing’ to keep you entertained for a few minutes. You can also gander at some pictures that we snapped on Saturday.
Travels
Hello gang. Well, right off the bat, it looks like I’ll have to apologize for the non-catchy title. I simply can’t think of a better title than what you read at the beginning. Since I’ve been back from my extended trip to NZ, I haven’t really taken any substantial time off from work. Actually, scratch that, I haven’t taken any time off apart from stat holidays. However, since Jody’s cousin Renee was getting married in BC this summer, it gave us a great excuse to book a nice week of vacation over on the far left side of Canada. The trip ended up not costing us too much, since we flew out on points, and then stayed mainly with Jody’s folks on Gabriola Island. As a result, we managed to squeeze in a couple fun activities while we were there, and spend quality time with the family playing extreme bocce, watching the Olympics, and enjoying some great home cooking. There are of course many pictures up on Flickr, which you can check out at your leisure. I also put together a map of one of our activities, a hike up Mount Benson, one of the nearby ‘peaks’ in Nanaimo. When you’re done checking that stuff out, come on back and read on for more details on the week.
Howdy my friends! Time for another quick tale of fun and excitement from the pages of my travel journal. Right off the bat, I’m going to admit something to all of you. Jody and I simply haven’t had the chance to get away just the two of us for quite some time. As it turns out, between our various international trips last year, due mainly to my own selfish NZ ambitions, we just didn’t travel together. While this was admittedly not a conscious decision, we certainly do plan to rectify that in the coming years by having some more excellent international adventures! In order to get back on that track, we decided it best to start small by a weekend getaway in the beautiful area around Picton known as Prince Edward county. There are a bunch of new wineries springing up, and we decided to do some cycle wine touring and stay in a B and B. Of course, another major reason for this getaway was to meet up with my sister Andrea, as well as Patrick and Helena. More on that later on if you read the full post, but in the meantime, you can have a gander at a little custom map that I put together of our wine touring, as well as the pictures that Jody posted on flickr.
Hey gang! Well, I’m slowly making my transition into my humdrum existence back here in Ottawa. Understandably, I’m having a bit of a challenge finding my focus again, but it’s coming. As I decide what my upcoming racing and traveling plans are, I’ll share them. Looking at my ‘countdown’ is depressing, since I have nothing to look forward to at the moment! However, for now, I can still be happy with the fact that I’ve put together my ‘best of’ pictures of both the North and South Island. It was a tough cull, and I still ended up with 1756 pictures, but at least I did a first sort. These are all up in full resolution should you wish to use them as wallpaper 🙂 Up next: getting the NZ ‘Mega-Maps’ done. I think I’ll do North and South separate. Otherwise, the files get pretty unwieldy. Without further ado, please check out the following links:
Best of North Island Pictures
Best of South Island Pictures
28/03/08
Good day and greetings from the land of snow and taxes, as my father put it. As some of you have rightly pointed out, this post is definitely a touch on the tardy side. I’ve been back in Ottawa for four days, and owe you all at least a few paragraphs to sort of close off this adventure of mine. I suppose part of my reluctance to write this final blog post had to do with wanting to absorb everything before writing my parting thoughts. Of course, on the other hand, getting back home was a bit hectic, as I was anxious to get settled back in and come to grips with the return to my ‘routines’. On that front, I definitely have a few things I can share with you all, as well as tell you about the last leg of my return journey. So if you’re ready, kick back, polish up your glasses, and I’ll try to entertain you or at least enlighten you on my brainspace for one more time 🙂 Be patient, as it will likely be a long post, but I suppose I have to do a bit of reflecting in this, the final chapter of my New Zealand adventure.