Friends

Jeff and I almost got used to the cold again - okay it did warm up from the -3C to +7C when we got the Christmas mail from some of our Australian friends today. Those .....!

We did go for our first paddle today since we are back in Vancouver. Burnaby Lake is nearly ice free again after being frozen for almost 2 weeks. Because we hadn't been out in a sprint boat since Oct 18th Jeff and I decided to do K2 together rather than braving the still icy cold water in the even more tippy K1. It was great - if not for the 50min run before that. The snow capped mountains were lit up by sunshine while we had some clouds still hanging over the lake - sorry no picture. The lake was flat calm and nice although the ice which was still present on the edges past the 1500m mark made some eerie noises when we paddled by.

Back to the friends topic. Jeff, I and Jeff's parents will be visiting my family in Germany over the holidays. I am looking forward to seeing my family again even though it means a lot of translating for the 10 days we are there. Oh well. I did get Jeff a "Learn German Fast" tape from the library so he can listen to it on his drive into work. Unfortunately he runs into work most days and I am guessing his German won't be perfect by Christmas. I also have some university friends visiting us while we stay at my parents - they live all over Germany now and none of them close to my home town. I went to University near Frankfurt which is a 3-4hr drive south of where I grew up. That means drinking a LOT of beer. Last but not least I am going to meet an old school buddy of mine. She got me into horseback riding when I was young and I actually competed in it a bit. She now owns her own horses but I am hoping it'll be too cold for a ride. Talk about not having been in a boat since Oct 18th - I haven't been on a horse for many years.

Now back to OZ photo sorting - stay tuned. I am almost ready to post part 1 - NSW.

World Masters Games Sydney Report

I posted a summary of the racing events on the BCKC website for those who are interested about reading up on the paddling we did in Australia. It's a long story about wind and feeling sorry for myself and medals:

http://burnabylake.com/blog/index.html

Back from Downunder

Back again in cold but sunny Vancouver. We went from +30C in Cairns to +17C in Sydney to -2C in Vancouver over the last couple days. Yikes! Is it good to be home? Hm, I am not sure yet. Australia was great, even though the first two weeks were rainier, colder and windier than Vancouver but the rest was like it is supposed to be - warm to hot and sunny most days. So much to talk about but that has to wait until I sort through my 10,000+ pictures taken over 63 days and 12,000+kms. Stay tuned.
Not much changed here: My plants are still alive thanks to my plant sitters!!!; the car started up without much problem - little bit of sputtering; our neighbour's cats still recognize us but they are still mad because we had our friend's cats here just before we left and they seem to remember that over everything else; nobody changed the carpets in the house; laundry is already done - funny how bad the traveling clothes smelled after coming back home - never notice that in Australia but I guess sweating into the same stuff for Weeks could cause that. We were taking the Aborigine approach were a sand bath is better than no bath; our house sitter left us a new Wii game and a fridge full of booze.
Now I have to figure out what's next. Finding a job? Or another big kayak regatta to train for? Or go back to school? Look into immigrating to Australia? But first get used to the bloody cold weather here.