Sunday 13th June 2010…..First England post…

Going back to Friday Karen drove Sara and I down to the terminal for the float plane trip to Vancouver airport..

The Pilot is young but he looks like he knows what he is doing….Sara had a day at the hairdressers and her hair for a couple of days is straight!!!

The flight is only about 20 minutes then they take you in a shuttle to the departure area of the airport.  Check in was a breeze and then we had a couple of hours to wait so we found some nice comfortable arm chairs in the lobby of the airport hotel and played a game of quick scrabble….you can tell my this photo who was the winner and who was the sore loser, fancy not getting my face in!!!!!

This is the plane that was to be our travelling partner for the next 9 hours.

I like to sit in the exit rows because of the extra leg room but those seats were unavailable so we sat in the regular seats and the plane was completely full, Sara had the aisle and I had the middle seat.

I have never been on a plane where the actual seats were so narrow and the leg room non existent.  There was just no room at all and it seems that many other passengers were complaining and this was further compounded when they announced that due to technical problems the in flight entertainment was not working.  I have never seen so many people standing in the aisles…

I spent a few hours at the rear of the plane reading giving Sara an extra seat so she could get some sleep.

The seating was so bad that when they made the final announcement thanking us for flying with them they did apologize for the poor seating arrangements and urged us to let the corporate offices know.

Anyway we arrived on time in Manchester at 11.30am Saturday morning and Janet and Malc were there waiting for us and the drive home was made more pleasant by the sandwiches and snacks Janet brought.

We had a cup of tea, how English…..it is so nice to be here especially with Sara meeting my family

This is the view from our bedroom window!!!!

after a small nap it was time for a good English supper of fish and chips followed by the live soccer game from the World cup taken place in South Africa, we saw England play the USA.

For missing one nights sleep we were doing not too bad but about 9pm we both just hit the wall and went to bed.

Slept OK till 8am which was good to get us on local time…we started this morning with a walk around the park at the back of the house.

The trails are very pretty..

As we were walking back saw this cat on a roof…

This is my brother’s home…

so now we are having a lazy morning and this afternoon Janet is cooking a turkey and all my family are coming over for dinner so we are looking forward to that……..

Thursday 10th June 2010… a busy few days!!!

Sara arrived back from her kayaking expedition late yesterday afternoon and apart from getting a little wet the first few days the girls had a wonderful time….it was sure good to see her.

Today I am in Nanaimo and have completed the sale of Sara’s old car.  I got Ramona and Bonita safely settled and parked whilst I am away.  I do believe I am all packed and all that remains tonight is to take another load of money from my poker buddies.

Our itinerary for the next few days is as follows.  We leave Nanaimo tomorrow at 2pm on the float plane from the harbour to Richmond where the Vancouver airport is closely located it is a 30 minute flight then they provide a free shuttle to the airport about 10 minutes away so we should get to the airport by 3pm.  Our non stop charter flight to Manchester, England leaves at 6pm and we arrive the next morning, Saturday, around 11.30am where my brother BETTER be waiting for us.  The flight time is 9 hours, I don’t know if Sara can sleep on the plane but I cannot so I have a great world cup soccer book to read, thanks Heather, my novel and the Lonely Planet travel book on England.  Even though I was born and raised there I really don’t know too much about the attractions, so will have lots to study.  It is about a 2 hour drive from Manchester to Janet and Malc’s home!!

The journey is really to see my family again and to introduce Sara to them all and just spend time with them.  One huge highlight is on the 23rd June we have tickets to Wimbledon, on my bucket list.  So we shall spend a couple of days in London and I have promised Sara I will take her to a show.  We also want to take the car for a few days and do some sightseeing.  Three weeks sounds like a long time but I know all too well the days will go by so fast and the weeks will zoom by.

I will try to blog when I can and I wish you all a great month of June, blessings Les

The float plane trip.

The 9 hour flight Vancouver to Manchester

Manchester to by brother’s home in Cottingham, very close to Hull.

Tuesday 8th June 2010…3 more sleeps till England.

getting excited now about our trip to England,  will fill you in on the flight details later……starting to get organized and the suitcase packed….didn’t hear from Sara today but I think she will be home tomorrow.

My Birthday celebrations just keep going…. today I had a one hour massage which was a birthday gift from Karen….thank you so much I really enjoyed the relaxation!!!!

Went outside tonight to get something from the car and this deer was in the driveway i came back with my camera and a piece of apple which he came and ate!!!!

 

Hope you all like the new look to the blog……

Monday 7th June 2010……a day to remember…

After my thrilling encounter with the Orcas, see next post, I took Trooper to the groomers and after 2 hours of this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the new Trooper was ready to come home!!

Doesn’t he look great??

The skies seemed fairly clear so I decided this was the only time I would be able to take my kayak out so off I went and picked it up and on the way to the ocean passed this lovely sight…

So this is my kayak and like everything I own it has a name….The Great One……you should know who it is named after!!!!!

So come for a paddle with me……..

The pin shows where I was…

See what happens when you get hit by a big wave!!!!

What a great time I had on the water just the tonic before a couple of very busy days coming up.

Whilst I was out in the kayak Sara called the house spoke to Heather and told her she was doing fantastic and that she will be home on Wednesday, so that was nice to know.

So who can say that in a space of 12 hours they saw up close and personal and Orca and Deer and a Bald eagle????   I CAN!!!!!!

Monday 7th June 2010….YES!!! YES!! YES!!!!!

I am so lucky to be able to stay in this great house in Nanaimo with a wonderful family that you have read about often.  The location is the very best…. this is me this morning sitting at the kitchen table doing this blog!!!

Well every day for three years now I often look out this window waiting for the orcas and TODAY IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!!!!

I was in the kitchen making toast and glanced out and they were right in front of the house maybe 200 yards out and one of the orcas was spy hopping.  I dashed down to the fence with camera in hand and it was simply amazing…..I could actually hear them breathing and saw them again coming right out of the water.

The photos are not the best but the memories fixed in my mind!!!!!!!

What a start to my morning!!!

Sunday 6th June 2010…well the sun lasted one day!!

Was planning to take my kayak out today but the weather put a stop to that.

I was up at 6.30am and spent the next couple of hours watching Nadal demolish his opponent at the French Open Tennis Championship.

 

Then it was chore time and getting things sorted out for the England trip which is fast approaching.

 

Then it was time for game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, another great viewing spectacle.

Also received another Spot message from Sara and the girls are now on Spring Island, which is only a couple of miles from where Sara works in Kyuquot, so she is safe and I hope dry.

There is so much sea activity right outside my bedroom window…

2 cruise ships Alaska bound..

I think this is the largest ship in the Canadian Naval fleet, the HMS Protecteur, which is a supply ship.

Saturday 5th June 2010…..SUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

Woke up to a beautiful sunny and warm morning!!!!!

Met some friends for breakfast and to catch up on all the news, thanks Barb and Dave.  Then did a few errands and came back to the house and cut the grass…I always realize how big a property this is when I cut the grass!!

I then took a chair in the front yard and enjoyed the rays and read my book.

As Sara is away and no one here will tell on me…..I had a date tonight with Irene!!!!

We first went to this restaurant in Parksville…

For those of you that don’t know I was a Bobby for 6 years!!!!  We both had fish and chips and it was a lovely meal.

Then we had a drive around the small town..

Love the snow capped mountains…

We then went here

and the concert was energetic and enjoyable.

So nice to have the sunshine and I hope Sara had the same weather today!!!

Friday 4th June 2010……a bit of a day

Will not bore you with the cumbersome details but today was the day I was trying to sell Sara’s car……it started when Heather drove me down to Duncan at 6am this morning, thank you…there were some problems and I drove back to Nanaimo without Sara’s car..then went back to Duncan and did come back with Sara’s car which is now getting some minor repair work done and then on Wednesday the sale should be complete….it was a long day of driving…

I am at the house on my own this weekend, well just Trooper and myself…Kirby and two of the boys have gone in their motor home to Tofino for 2 days of surfing….

and Heather and Zach have gone to Powell River for 2 days as Zach is playing in a regional zone golf tournament….

 

…..so I did plan to have a huge party tonight but I am too tired…….did I mention the rain again today???

Had another Spot locator message from Sara and they are safe and have moved down to the Bunsby Islands

 

…..wish you all a great weekend.

Thursday 3rd June 2010…one of those mornings when I wish…..

I had a camera with a big lens and zoom capabilities…one of the boys as he was getting ready for school this morning announced there were dolphins going by.  My camera took this photo but if you can imagine…….

I think over 100 dolphins going from left to right in the middle of this photo that is what we saw this morning.  I watched them through the binoculars for over 5 minutes and it was truly a warm and wonderful feeling to see them gracefully slipping through the water.

Went for a run,  did some chores and when I came back to the house I noticed that Trooper was not on the deck.  I looked for him in the yard and he was no where to be found.  Now Trooper is over 12 years old and his back end is not great he has trouble with stairs and I am not able to take him for walks every night like I did last year.

Anyway I went on a search of the neighbourhood looking for him and could not find him.  When I came back to the yard I don’t know what made me to go the end of the yard overlooking the steep bank but I did and there was Trooper.  I have no idea how he got out of the yard but he was over and down the bank by maybe 10 feet and lodged in a tree stump which thankfully prevented him from going all the way down the bank.

In the meantime Heather had come home and we were able to get a leash on him and Heather pulled and I climbed down the bank and pushed him and get him back up but poor Trooper his back legs would not support him, but he was trying to walk.

When Alex came home from school we carried him up to the deck and secured the gate and I fed him and he seems to be ok…

Here he is after his ordeal!!

Two days without talking to Sara….a record..I again received a signal from the Spot locator showing me where she is and that all is well……..

Wednesday 2nd June 2010…the Birthday celebrations just keep on going!!!

Today I met my good friend Allison for lunch, I used to rent the apartment in Allison’s home and she was a great land lady!!!

Anyway today she treated me to lunch and bought me a lovely Birthday card and some gifts for my girls in SMA plus she gave me a great cash donation for me to take down in November for the girls….Allison thank you so much!!!!

The photo below is taken last November when Allison went on a cruise of a life time  to the Holy Land,  Greece and the Pyramids in Egypt (they are on my bucket list).

 

I received another GPS message informing me that Sara and her paddling companions are safe.  I sure hope they are having better weather than here, rain rain go away!!!  Tonight I went for a walk and it was so cold!!!!!!!! 

Tuesday 1st June 2010…where did May go??

 

Modern technology..

 

the green arrow is where Sara is…..one of her friends has a Spot locator which transmits their location through, I believe satellite, and I received this today…so even though we cannot communicate I know where she is and that she is safe.

Thanks for sending me this Dave!!!!