A quick visit to Comox

We brought Adrian over to Comox for a pre-Christmas visit with the family as he will be working over the Christmas holidays and not able to join us on Vancouver Island. After he finished work yesterday we picked him up and headed to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal for the two hour sailing to Duke Point. When we disembarked at 5:30pm it was totally dark and raining heavily until we reached Parksville. Thankfully the rain finally stopped and an "almost full moon" was visible through the clouds as we drove between Partksville and Comox.

Reinforcing drinks were poured when we arrived after 7:30pm!! The Christmas tree was decorated and the fireplace warmed us as we shared stories and exchanged our traditional gifts of books.

There was a heavy frost overnight and this morning we made a chilly visit to Goose Spit where we quickly realised that we (John & I) did not have appropriate clothing!!

A c-c-c-c-cold Papa with a swaddled Heather

Lots of snow overnight.

From Goose Spit we drove to Cumberland for a walkabout through the historic centre of town.

Cumberland's Ilo Ilo Theatre (meaning place of variety in Japanese)

opened in 1914...and closed in 1955.

Adrian's at the Airport

Our Notary's office called this morning to tell us that the condo purchase was finalised and we are now the owners of a new home....still don't have the keys until Thursday morning...but...we decided to celebrate anyway! So...I began the research for Greek restaurants in Langley. Much to our complete amazement we discovered "Adrian's Restaurant at the Airport"! How perfect! Greek food in a restaurant with our son's name at an airport...Langley Airport.

We shared a delicious dinner(lamb for me and prawns for John) in a funky place that resembles a diner from the road and is quite nice inside. It is owned and operated by a Greek fellow who named the place after his grandson...a great discovery!

Salmon Arm and Langley City

In 1991 we moved to Salmon Arm from Richmond B.C. We left my family and all of our community connections behind in order to start the next chapter of our lives in a small town. Not long after arriving in our new home we read in a Canadian magazine that Salmon Arm was one of the most intolerant, bigoted communities in the country. What a scary idea! What could we expect on the job, in the schools, on the streets?!

To our relief we were soon welcomed into the arts community, minor hockey, rotary and everyday life in our neighbourhood. I am sure that there were intolerant people out there but we were rarely exposed to their ignorant behaviour. For over 24 years we enjoyed the support of our friendships, our community connections and a peaceful life in Salmon Arm.

Now we are ready to move into Langley City. With a population of 25,000, it has recently been designated by McLeans magazine as the 6th most dangerous community in Canada! Another scary place to live!! Again...what can we expect on the streets?

There are homeless people on the streets who seem to keep to themselves. There is social housing for a large number of people with special needs. It is encouraging to see these people welcomed into the Community Centre and library, to see them enjoying coffee with their assistants, to witness the patience of clerks in the grocery store as they help to process orders.

We have joined the community centre with its modern facilities and friendly staff. The Red Velvet Cafe has already become a favourite hangout for morning coffee served with smiles from Pam and Daphne. The Opus Art store has everything that I will need and John hopes to become active again with Langley hospice.

So...after we have time to settle into our new home...we will see if it is a comfortable fit. If not...there might be another chapter waiting for us!

birds and bags

winter days are filled

with strange images 

of birds and bags

as we wait for the keys

to our next chapter

Almost two years

The end of November will mark two years since we sold our home in Salmon Arm...two homeless years dedicated to travel and new experiences. We spent a total of six months in Greece on three separate trips to share Easters, John's 80th birthday celebration and a special baptism with our Greek family and friends. There was also a tour of several Balkan countries with our group of Balkaneros from Greece and Turkey ...wonderful friends who happily shared adventures with a couple of ageing Canadians.

In between these European trips we managed to fly to Mexico twice for visits with friends who generously hosted us in their new Mismaloya home for two months on each visit.

The other days, weeks and months were filled with house sitting gigs in Vancouver, Gibsons, Saltspring Island, Surrey and Cloverdale.

Added to all of these adventures was a test of endurance for our relationship. It seems that we can still laugh at each other's foibles in between occasional gasps of frustration!

So, at the end of November we will start a new chapter in our lives...as condo owners! But... before we get settled...we will fly to Mexico again at the end of December for a couple of months in the sun!

After living out of suitcases for two years...there is no rush! 

End of the weekend

Last night we decided to take public transit out to the River Rock casino in Richmond for a birthday celebration. I am quite enjoying this new experience of having a seat on the bus offered to me. As I don't spend a lot of time in front of a mirror these days, it is surprising to acknowledge that others must see me as a white haired old woman!

On the return trip to downtown Vancouver a young woman immediately stood and offered us her seat and the empty seat beside her. I happily accepted but John, perceiving himself to be younger than his true self, refused her generosity and teetered on his pins for half of the trip. When another seat finally became available, he plopped down by the window and was immediately joined by a "white faced ghoul" with a stitched bloody scar across her cheek and hair laden with dead leaves. She was obviously on her way to a Rocky Horror party. Of course it was one of those times when I had left the camera and the iPhone in the apartment!! Back on Davie Street we found ourselves in the midst of various monsters and ghouls lurching along.

This morning we woke to another gorgeous day...walked down to Denman Street for coffee and a reunion for John at the gym. While he was lifting weights I enjoyed a walk around Coal Harbour watching kayaks in the water, seaplanes landing and a ridiculous number of small dogs with their poop-scooping owners.

Coal Harbour yellow harvest of leaves

When we returned to Cloverdale the temperature was 18 degrees and a warm wind was blowing leaves from the trees out front. Intent on harnessing the leaves we attacked the front lawn with great zeal...for the fifth time ...and discovered that the leaves on our neighbour's lawn were being carried over to us! 

With any luck the wind will blow the remaining leaves off 

and we will do the final raking tomorrow!

A Vancouver weekend

We are enjoying a weekend in Vancouver and an opportunity to attend the preview performance of Calendar Girls at the Metro Theatre last night. What a great story!...and the cast did an incredible job.

Adrian has dual roles in the production (this is a rehearsal photo).

This morning we sailed across to Granville Island on a beautiful sunny day.

Musicians were singing, children were playing and leaves were falling.

Kayaks were stored in hibernation for next spring...

...alongside life jackets.