Tuesday 25 March 2004

Walking to the bus station with a light wind blowing cherry blossom petals everywhere - must mean that spring is springing upon us in Vancouver! At last, hurrah! Anyhoo, this is what i have been up to over the past few whiles....

Road trippin USA….

Adam & I decided it was time for our annual road trip down to the USA, Wed - Sun, it was time for some fun…

Trip started with a drive to Bellingham, to pick up a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and of course, the old skool styled free hats, we which wore for a few hours down the highway…

Next point of reference was a town called Olympia, which is where the infamous Courtenay Love was born. No stopping for pictures, it was on to Seattle…Seattle is all freeways, skyrises and twinkling lights, makes for a very pretty city to cruise on by…a few more hours, a few more cds, a few more doughnuts and it was time for our first night camping.

Ok, camping with no tents, just the back of the car. Adam's mode of transport is a lil Honda Wagovan, like a wagon and a van, compacted into one! It holds loads of gear, we had in the back: 3 small backpacks, one big bag, one snowboard, 2 windsurf sails, a box of windsurfing bits, a wetsuit, a football, 2 sleeping bags, a few jackets, our snowboarding gear. On the roof racks were a sail board, mast & a snowboard. So the car was reshuffled about, and voila, we had sleeping space….lesson learnt: next time we're sleeping in the front seats….turns out the back was just a bit to short to contain us both…anyhoo, it was all hotels after that...

So we crossed the mighty Columbia River, where i saw many trees that had been skinned and were waiting to be made into all sorts of things...

Now, I've loved the film 'The Goonies' since I was a youngun…and when Adam suggested we could go and check out the coastline where it was filmed I was all systems go! Goonies was based & filmed around the town of Astoria, Oregon. It was blowing a gale, but the clouds parted and the sun came out when we arrived at Cannon Beach, home of Haystack Rock - which features in the films (think the beach scene when the kids are reunited with their families after finding Pirate Pete's gold & treasures!). We couldn’t find the shack where the kids meet the Fratellis, but we think we know where about's it was located. Just got to watch the film again. If you want to see some scenery shots, email me and I will send you a link. We had lunch in a great café in Wheeler (the only place we could get food), and afterwards Adam got to go windsurfing. Windsurfing isn't a great spectator sport, well visually it's great, though hanging out in 25 knott winds isn't the most fun. So I was a big girl and sat in the car and painted my nails.

Next day we drove inland towards Hood River. Checked out some long long waterfalls at Multnomah, before heading further into The Gorge...the Gorge area is well known for fab windsurfing and kiteboarding. Adam was disappointed the winds had disappeared. Motel we stayed at was wicked. Its all 50s themed, our room had tasteful pics of Elvis (think the Andy Wahol pics) and retro furniture (that didnt smell like second hand stores) and the view of the river is spectacular, the motel is perched up high on the clifftop that overlook the river, about 10ft from motel to death plunge. It's all fenced off though. Ive mentioned lots of wind & windsurfing, of which I'm not that interested in, of course id like to give it a go, but not when the water temps are below Sydneys average winter air temps...

Luckily, just 40 minutes from Hood River is the sensational Mt. Hood (www.skihood.com) for all your snowboarding desires! I've not had that much mountain experience, but in the words of the crocidile hunter Steve Irwin - this one's a beauty! You're sunbaking at 7,300ft at the top of the highest chair lift, the ski cat takes you up to 9,000ft, but the runs are all black, and well, im just not quite confident on the blacks yet. Adam thinks i can handle them, second run of the day he says 'Let's try this one' not a problem, course i didnt think he was going to make me start on blacks that early in the day (esp in non powder conditions!) and i made an ass of my self. Sitting there scared, steep and bumpy- 2 things i dont like. I made it down the run, possibley in the most awkward way possible (yes, i slipped down a third of the way, then edged and sideslipped my way down...). I only got sucked in to doing one other black run that day. After that i misjudged the snow a few times and got my ass whipped for it. Second crash was not fun, but thankfully my 4 pound sun glasses from H & M bounced off my head, in the snow and then rolled their way down to meet me in the crumpled pile that i had landed...ego bruised and battered i was in a bit of a stroppy mood after that. Food helped me a lil, and then we found another run which totally cheered me up...this mountain has about 10 chairs going, and every run we'd end up at a new chair, but this was the best yet! It was the very top run called Cascade, up in the apine area....WOWOWOWOOW! Of course i didnt have my camera with me by that point in the day so i have no shots, but it was soooooooo pretty...it was a really long run, not that hard, totally enjoyable, so much so that we did Cascade again...then we called it a day after about 6 hours out (our bright pink sunburnt noses had enough by that point too!).

Nightimes were movie sessions - Dawn of the Dead had just been releaased that day and was a film we were hanging to see - its a zombie flick, where there are about 15 people left who arent infected and how they try to survive...anyhoo, i think you should all check it out. Had some very on the edge of your seat bits in it. You must stay and watch all the credits though! The other flick we saw was 50 First Dates (Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore) this was a fall back as Starsky & Hutch had sold out. It was entertaining enough - very Adam Sandler. Saw it in the smallest cinema ever - 8 seats across and 6 rows back...tiny! Rest of the evening was spent watching cable tv - dubbed over Japanese obstacle course type shows - totally hilarious!

So that covers my holiday weekend away. Other than that, life has consisted of snowboarding at Grouse Mtn. Ummm, Jess has been doing a cake decorating course, and i have been eating a stupid amount of cake & icing.....mmmmm....Sunday was Adams bday and it coincided with the wedding cake class...very nice cake....

Few weeks ago i had 2 wisdom teeth pulled. Ouch, both physically & financially. $550 later, i was down two wisdom teeth. And yes, i asked if i could take them home. The reality of me not being able to eat solids for more than 3 hours is not something that i want to face again soon. I had minimal swelling which is good. That night as i slept in a hazy Tylenol 3 type daze, i heard a sound near my bed, i lifted my head and then tried to scream, there was a person climbing the ladder to my loft bed! Screaming with a tiny swollen mouth is a challenge. Turns out the scary man was Adam - trying his hand at being the Tooth Fairy. After he had calmed me down and left for work, i was out like a light once more! My alarmed woke me up for work. Yup, i had been working for a small non profit org and they needed me back in the office and said if i felt ok to come in. Well i felt fine, so i got up, slurped down my milkshake and was back in the office at noon. I needed the money. Of course that day they had a big lunch on, and there were all these amazing sandwiches that were fair game.....doh! It is against my beliefs to turn down fab sandwichs, so i slogged away at this tasty foccacia. Three hours it took, but damn it, worth every minute of my time! Next day they had pizza - managed better times there - 4 small slices in an hour! I was on the road to recovery, and boy, was my stomach happy.

So i have been working for the government this week. Such a dull job. 90% filing. 10% talking to the girl who i sit next too.

Gym going has ceased. Will start again soon. My 16 portuguese classes are over. So i can say a few things, besides expletives, and this should all enhance my experiences in Brasil. That is if i pick my books up and revise again...

Speaking of travel plans, my round the world itinerary has totally changed. Anyone out there surprised? No, i didn't think so...grab a pen kids and take note:

I leave Canada May 7th or 9th...i think i wrote the date down wrong...

In between I head to Hawaii & Fiji for a week each....you know, time to defrost before I hit winter in Oz.

I get to Australia May 23.

Please friends in Oz, I want to head down the snow for a couple of days (this is after i rob a bank to pay for it - so can everyone start saving if they are keen to go.)

I leave Australia on July 21 (yes, lot's of time to see everyone this time!)

Spending a few days in Chile before...(drum rolllll please..)

I arrive in Brazil on July 29

I leave Brazil and arrive in sunny old London on Saturday 18th September - so my traditional week of birthday partying will be delayed a few days....

And then, well who knows.

My thoughts at the moment are that i hate secretarial work the more i do it, whilst it has been nice to work in non profit/govt jobs as opposed to corporate jobs.

My brain needs a work out (actually all of me needs a work out!).

I'm considering staying in London until early December, then heading back to Oz for a proper summer. And possibley to study.....i will be looking into university type places when i get back to Oz in May. Yes, i know ive said this 'study' before, but i think it's time to stop throwing about my 100% disposable income and use my brain for once. Presuming it is still exists of course (the brain, the disposable income will totally be disposed of by then!!!).

Of course I hope someone wins the lottery out there and can support me financially as I'm scared about this new venture into poor student land!

To those with newly borns, those currently incubating babies, newly weds, newly dumped, dumpers, desperate, in love, orgainising weddings, parties anything, i hope everyone is making the most of life. I will get around to sending personal emails as and when i can...be bothered.

Anyhoo, to the whole 2 of you left reading this, you have reached the end of my saga, I love hearing from you all. So don't be shy writing back. Here is the lovely Cannon Beach and Mt Hood...all the other pics are too big to send on this email - you want em, you gotta write to me!!

Til my next rant,