Oh Holy Niiiiiiiiiiight........
Friday, December 30, 2005
Oh Holy Cow. One week tomorrow and I head off to Vancouver. The time has gone so fast. I guess I am as prepared as I'll ever be. I seem to have come down with some sort of Obsessive-Compulsive disorder concerning my suitcase however. I have packed and re-packed and packed yet again. It all fits too neatly, so obviously I am forgetting something crucial. But I keep telling myself that whatever I forget, I can always buy over there. Unless of course it's my passport or money or credit cards or glasses or medications. Hmmm....maybe I had better go and check out that suitcase again....
And guess what? I was surprised the night before last with this fantastic digital camera...oh my God, I was SO happy! Thank you, I just love you guys. What a great thing to do! Mind you, my head is almost exploding with the reading of the manuals, I feel like I am cramming for an exam, trying to learn all the basics before I leave. I have been fooling around with it though, and it doesn't really seem that hard to figure out. I'll have 22 hours on the plane with nothing else to do, I should be a pro by the time we land.
So when I return, I'll be able to post all sorts of great pictures on here, theoretically anyhow, whether I'll actually be able to figure it out may be a whole other story.
And guess what? I was surprised the night before last with this fantastic digital camera...oh my God, I was SO happy! Thank you, I just love you guys. What a great thing to do! Mind you, my head is almost exploding with the reading of the manuals, I feel like I am cramming for an exam, trying to learn all the basics before I leave. I have been fooling around with it though, and it doesn't really seem that hard to figure out. I'll have 22 hours on the plane with nothing else to do, I should be a pro by the time we land.
So when I return, I'll be able to post all sorts of great pictures on here, theoretically anyhow, whether I'll actually be able to figure it out may be a whole other story.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
I can hardly believe that in only 15 more days I will be heading towards Africa! Well, I'll actually be heading towards Vancouver, but that's the start of the trip. Everything is purchased, the suitcase is packed ( more or less...I still need to do some serious fine tuning there.) and Nicole has e-mailed me our itinerary, complete with phone numbers of the hotels we have booked. Even they, the phone numbers, seem exotic; long and not in the 3-3-4 sequence that we have in North America. I like the idea of a phone number being 0747 787088, (just in case you ever need to call the Dhow Palace in Zanzibar.)
Scott will be home sometime tonight for Christmas, the roads are covered with black ice right now, so I hope the weather warms up a bit before he leaves Edmonton. This morning I couldn't walk down our driveway, it was a sheer sheet of ice, I had to slide and slither my way down. A very faint mist of rain is falling, and the temperature is just 0, so it will be a trecherous day for travel unless it warms up a degree or two.
I just came back from the hairdresser, with a very short cut which will hopefully be "care-free" during our trip. We won't have any blow-driers or curling irons with us, so hair will all be "wash n' wear", mind you, I guess we will have hats on for most of the time, so "hat-hair" will be my biggest worry!
Scott will be home sometime tonight for Christmas, the roads are covered with black ice right now, so I hope the weather warms up a bit before he leaves Edmonton. This morning I couldn't walk down our driveway, it was a sheer sheet of ice, I had to slide and slither my way down. A very faint mist of rain is falling, and the temperature is just 0, so it will be a trecherous day for travel unless it warms up a degree or two.
I just came back from the hairdresser, with a very short cut which will hopefully be "care-free" during our trip. We won't have any blow-driers or curling irons with us, so hair will all be "wash n' wear", mind you, I guess we will have hats on for most of the time, so "hat-hair" will be my biggest worry!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
A Sepia Coloured Walk.
I went for a walk in the woods behind our house yesterday, it was just about 4 PM, close to twilight at this time of year. I had actually planned to just go up the road a little ways, i don't relish the idea of being in the woods once the sun sets, especially when the temperature is -16. Even though I have walked those paths for more than 20 years, it's still very easy (for me anyhow) to get turned around and lost.
I looked yearningly at the path that I usually take, it's a little bit off the beaten trail, and there was 3 or 4 inches of fresh snow, I could see that no one had walked there since the snow had fallen, and I like to be the first one to leave footsteps, it reminds me of a Currier & Ives card. So off I went.
The sky was dark gray, heavy with unfallen snow and as soon as I was beneath the trees the temperature dropped and it was a little darker. The trees were extremely laden with snow and all I could see was trunks and limbs in a dark shade of brown, and all the snow, one shade of white. Usually you can see green needles from the ponderosa pine and different colours of bark and branches, but I suppose the combination of dark sky, twilight and fresh snow gave it this sepia colour. I felt like I had quickly been transported back into an old photograph and I almost didn't want to look down for fear I'd find my feet encased in high black button boots and my hands tucked into a rabbit-fur muff. I have often thought that I belong in another time, but I didn't want to be there just then.
I walked a little further down the path and came into a bit of an open area where the light was brighter. I looked behind me and I could see the green needles of the trees and the red bear berries as vivid as drops of blood in the snow, no shades of sepia at all. I wondered if I had imagined it all, or maybe I walked into a little bit of the past.
I went for a walk in the woods behind our house yesterday, it was just about 4 PM, close to twilight at this time of year. I had actually planned to just go up the road a little ways, i don't relish the idea of being in the woods once the sun sets, especially when the temperature is -16. Even though I have walked those paths for more than 20 years, it's still very easy (for me anyhow) to get turned around and lost.
I looked yearningly at the path that I usually take, it's a little bit off the beaten trail, and there was 3 or 4 inches of fresh snow, I could see that no one had walked there since the snow had fallen, and I like to be the first one to leave footsteps, it reminds me of a Currier & Ives card. So off I went.
The sky was dark gray, heavy with unfallen snow and as soon as I was beneath the trees the temperature dropped and it was a little darker. The trees were extremely laden with snow and all I could see was trunks and limbs in a dark shade of brown, and all the snow, one shade of white. Usually you can see green needles from the ponderosa pine and different colours of bark and branches, but I suppose the combination of dark sky, twilight and fresh snow gave it this sepia colour. I felt like I had quickly been transported back into an old photograph and I almost didn't want to look down for fear I'd find my feet encased in high black button boots and my hands tucked into a rabbit-fur muff. I have often thought that I belong in another time, but I didn't want to be there just then.
I walked a little further down the path and came into a bit of an open area where the light was brighter. I looked behind me and I could see the green needles of the trees and the red bear berries as vivid as drops of blood in the snow, no shades of sepia at all. I wondered if I had imagined it all, or maybe I walked into a little bit of the past.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Well, I had the last of my shots today. In total I have had:
-Diptheria
-Tetanus
-Yellow fever
-Hep A
-Hep B
-Influenza
-Typhoid
I will drink the cholera vaccine and eat the Malaria pills and hope for the best! Our mosquito nets are treated (and some socks as well) and we have an ample supply of hand sanitizer, repellant's and other various health related items. So now watch me be trampled by an elephant and all the immunizations will be for naught. Although I have good health insurance too.
I did learn that the Malaria mosquitoes come out at twilight and the Dengue fever mosquitoes come out during the day, so you are never totally free from the disease ridden things. 35 more days until I leave! Yipeeeee!
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