Oh Canada!

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Dear readers,

In my last instalment I left you having left Brisbane and arrived into Sydney ready to depart Australia.  Apologies for the lack of updates for the past few weeks, I’ve been enjoying the trip, devoting my all my brain cycles to my adventures, and spare moments to catching sleep and relaxing.

After a very long Thursday (courtesy Air Canada), was met at the other end by long time friends, A and E.   Had to remember, or be reminded, to get in the correct side of the car for Canada.  Canada not being of the 76 countries that drive on the left.   Was entertaining for the A and E to watch my reactions to being taken in traffic in the front passenger seat for the first time.

Headed off to A and E’s apartment to freshen up after the long flight.  As A famously boasts, “Closer to the airport than the nearest hotel!”.   Their apartment has a birds eye view looking out over the Vancouver Airport.  The area of Richmond that they live in is being slowly developed and turned into apartment towers.   I’m slightly jealous of the view and that it would be a nice place to spend a lazy winters afternoon looking out of the window.

Of my Vancouver experiences, two stick in my mind.

The first was ringing at my bell tower in a foreign country [1] at the Holy Rosary Cathedral.  I managed to ring there twice, once for a wedding and once for service.   Unsurprisingly, ringers are not a diverse bunch, easily spotted lurking outside towers, and fit into some stereotypes.    That said I had a great time and would love to visit them again.

The second was a trip out to the Richmond Night Markets with A, E and Z.   We worshipped at the stall supplying Rotatos (potatoes cut in a swirl on a stick and covered in cinnamon).  Yum!   Wandered past lots of other delicious food smells coming from the other vendors.   Looked at the dozens of stalls selling iPhone covers and shaking my head.   It was a great market experience.

Sadly, I had to leave Canada for the rest of my trip into the the US of A and crossed the border at of all places, Vancouver Airport.   I think I get bonus points for avoid LAX 🙂

[1] No, Queensland doesn’t count.

South of the border one day, Queensland the next

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Arrived into Brisbane late morning on Saturday 4th August, it was great to finally get out of the chilly parts of Australia back into a nice, warm sunny part of the country.

First memorable experience of my time in Queensland was getting dragged along to a publicity sing for QUMS at the University of Queensland (UQ) Open Day.   Having participated in UWA Open Days I had some idea of what to expect.   Given it was a publicity sing and they needed all the voices they mustered, joined in and sung a lot of the usual songbook repertoire.   Several people were impressed at the sound tech controlling his rig with an iPad, and he was impressed with the volume that we made when we sang Bogoridtyse Deyvo.

I managed to also attend a couple of QUMS Rehearsals and Coffees during my extended stay in  Queensland.   The coffee at S place was enjoyable with lots of spirited post rehearsal conversation, scheming about BIV and working out QUMS fundraising ideas.  Hot dog, anyone?

Catching up with friends in Brisbane was also important.   Had lunch with R at the local golf club that is near his place, unfortunately in the electorate of that awful Campbell Newman person, but a good afternoon with chats about trains, choristers and beer.

The second lunch that was organised was going out to Brisbane’s Worst Vegetarian restaurant, the Norman Hotel, with I and colleague.  A nice T bone steak was consumed and a lot of very geeky conversation ensued and some discussion on careers.

I also got the chance to cook during one of my evenings in Brisbane.  I’ve grown quite fond of cooking bangers and mash.

Celebrated K’s birthday by heading out to dinner at Southbank.   The food was excellent and was the company.

Lots of ringing, rehearsals, service and even a quarter peal behind.  I’m looking forward to visiting more towers later in London.  I, K and M were excellent company during my ringing in Brisbane.

The second weekend in Brisbane was spent with a trip up to Mount Tambourine with S and K to eat lunch at the Fox and Hounds.   A very good faux English Pub 🙂   The trip also involved a wander around the markets, buying avocados, eating cheese, drinking beer and purchasing some very sinful fudge.

Packing and preparing for the overseas trip became the focus of the last few days in Brisbane.  I’m growing more accustomed to travelling with less, but there were decisions to be made about what ended up getting packed in the back pack and what got left behind.     This also meant the end of the driving trip across Australia, I’d covered somewhere around 7000 km (will need to check fuel records) over the length of the whole journey.    I don’t think I’ll undertake another long drive for a while again, although I’ll need to head down to Busselton for my school reunion when I get back to Australia.

Driving around Brisbane was much nicer than Sydney or Melbourne, just as long as you get the right exit and don’t disappear off onto the Inner City Bypass…. 25 minutes later ….. anyhow, hills are still exciting for a flat town person like me.

Woke up on the morning of the 16th August and took the taxi out to Brisbane Airport.   A mixture of sadness at leaving Brisbane with the excitement of heading onwards to Vancouver for the first leg of my international trip.  The trip down to Sydney with Qantas was uneventful but otherwise enjoyable.   I’ll leave off here and will continue to write about the next part of my trip in another post.