GrannyRant

Good Morning Granny calling..…I am getting behind now, I am actually writing days 20 & 21 0n day 22. Hopefully I will catch up today, we have been so busy during the day that I have been too exhausted to write up in the evening. So here we go with next instalment.

On Wednesday, we got up pretty early but we were awake before 7 as there was no air conditioning in our room and we left the window wide open all night, therefore the city noise woke us. I love to be awake before everyone else and just have the time to pootle about doing my own thing and waking up slowly. I made a pot of coffee, the tea bags we bought were shite and we can’t get any milk, there is only coffee whitener. I miss my four cups of tea in the mornings. So, coffee it is then!

By the time Martin got up and we both showered it was almost time to meet the others in Starbucks. We had a dark roast coffee, which is far better than the latte I had before and we sat and planned the best way to go to Pike Place. While we were talking, a man came up twice and took coffee cups which still had coffee in them out of the bin and drank them, must be sad to need to do that. He didn’t seem bothered by it though and after he had finished, he just walked off up the stairs and out to the street.

We spoke to ‘Alex’ at the reception desk of the hotel, who kindly drew us directions of how we could get to Pike place either by car, bus or mono-rail. We decided to drive and park, as we would be heading for Vancouver later that day. It was also cheaper to park, than for all four of us to take the bus both ways. We have a plan!

As we walked to the Market, I thought, this as not as busy as imagined it would be, but we were at the back and had to go up a few floors. After going up and down a couple of times and even out of the building, we asked a workman how to get there, “Floor Six” he said and up we went! As the lift doors opened, the sounds, smells and sights hit you like a steam train, so much going on and lots of stalls with people shouting for you to buy their goods, what a fabulous place!

I wanted to see the fish market stalls as I have watched a film about it, during some motivational training I have been on in the past. We found it pretty quickly and when we got there, there were a few people standing around waiting for the fun to start. Before long a man came over and told people, get your cameras ready, hold them at this height and click away…”Black cod” he shouted and all of the men behind the counter shouted “hhhheeeeeeeyyyy” as they threw the fish from one end of the counter to the other and the man our side of the caught it and shouted for some snapper. “Hhheeeyyyyy” they said again…and continued until they had thrown half dozen fish or so. “you’ve seen us throw, now would anyone like to buy one”? he said Jokingly. Seems like a great place to work and although they are busy, filleting fish etc they make jokes and answer questions for people willingly.
We wandered around the market for a bit and then decided that we would go back to the fish and see if we could buy something to eat now. We stopped near the counter to the left of the stall and a smiley man came and asked how he could help. “We are looking for something we can eat now” we all said in unison. “Ok, what about we have a tasting session” he replied. Sounded good to us and he let us taste the crab meat and two different types of smoked salmon. We decided on the salmon that was smoked with black pepper, garlic and brown sugar . We bought a pound of salmon and some crab meat. We went and bought some bread rolls from another stall. We found a table in the seating area and proceeded to have a fish picnic right there, amongst the old men reading newspapers and the families stopping to take pictures of a wooden statue of a Neanderthal man, Martin said he thought they were taking pictures of us, like the monkeys feeding at the zoo. It was a feast worthy of Royalty and we all really enjoyed it.

We wandered around for a further half an hour, I bought some cookies, I couldn’t walk by them, 12 cookies for $5 and they were huge. I also bought a framed photograph of the fish market as a souvenir and the man told me about his website where I could view and buy more. I am going to check it out as some of his photographs were really good. Robyn and Adam spotted a lady with a ‘Hard Rock Café’ bag and asked her where they could find the restaurant, we left the indoor market and spilled out into the street, being carried along by the crowd. Past the golden pig, which was of high interest to the oriental people, I must found out why, must be some sort of luck attached to it I think. Robyn bought a beer glass (for her collection) and we then worked our way through the crowds again to the car park, we would be heading for Vancouver to stay with Carmen and Steve for a few days. As we drove past the sights and sounds of Seattle, I went over the whistle stop tour in my mind, all the sights, the sounds and the buzz of this diverse city, happy times.

Out of the city, over the huge bridge and back into open countryside, I uploaded the photographs to the hard drive as we travelled. I tried to write up some of the blog, but it’s difficult with the movement of the car and I didn’t want to miss and of the scenery. We whizzed past small villages, shopping malls and fields. Two hours later, we were at the border. The Canadian guard, was about 25 years old in my estimation and spoke in monotone, “Where in the US did you go? How much did you spend? Who’s car is this? Why are you driving it? How do you know these people? Jesus H. Christ it’s like an inquisition. It makes you wonder why people want to enter countries where the first person you see is a man that seems like he had lemons for breakfast! I suppose that’s the point though, they need to be security conscious and probably reel off the same questions a million times a day. The border was very pretty, with the Canadian flag mapped out in petunias and lovely trees and water features everywhere, much prettier than the border at Idaho on the way into the states.

We arrived at Carmen and Steve’s house at around 4pm. They live in a basement suite and are busy packing to move into their own condo in the next couple of weeks, so it’s really good of them to put themselves out for us. As all first meetings are, it was all a little formal and awkward to begin with, but pretty soon, we were all chatting away and talking about our trip and where we had been, what we had seen and generally getting along fine, I thought. Carmen has found a place near her house, where I can go and have my acrylic nails in-filled, they have been through a lot these nails. Swollen fingers through some sort of insect bite, getting caught on a Gondola door at Banff and bending one back (ouch!) and a near death experience falling of a raft in the Bow river! So these nails are looking pretty sad. I can’t get them off because the glue the Vietnamese lady at my nail salon uses is like concrete and I would need a Jack Hammer, so I either need to get them soaked off with acetone or get them repaired, I would prefer to repair them.

They dropped me at ‘Pro-Nails’ at 5pm, we had called in earlier and they were expecting me, so I waited, and waited, for over 35 minutes. Robyn and Carmen were coming back for me in 25 minutes and I hadn’t even been started yet! They came for me just as I had sat down and I had to ask them to leave and come back in an hour. Shit! How long will this take? The lady, who was very nice said, I will have to take them off (in broken English) I said ok as I was expecting her to get the acetone set up and leave me with a leisurely ‘soak-off’ but she had other ideas. She came at me, with what can only be described as a ‘scalpel’! I’m sure she could detect the horror on my face, but I thought, maybe this is how they do it here? She scraped, and pulled and placed the knife between my own nail and the acrylic overlay until they were all off. It hurt like hell and I was sweating by the time she had finished. She kept saying “you ok lady?” and I just half-smiled. What else can you do in that position? After another hour the girls came back to get me but I was only about half way through having the replacement set, so they waited. We left the salon at 7.30 pm, two and a half hours after I had arrived. The nails look great now though, a sort of cherry red with sparkly bits, like a saloon tart! What an experience, the lovely Mai, who normally does my nails would be horrified!

When we got back to the house, Steve had cooked us pasta and chicken, he did a veggie version for Martin. We had coffee, beer and wine We relaxed and watched TV, chillaxin, is what I like to call it. We booked our ferry to Vancouver Island for the next day as we have been told that the ferry gets booked up quickly in the summertime. We decided to get an early night, Robyn was exhausted from all the driving, as Adam still couldn’t drive due to his broken toe. What an exhausting day…..zzzzzzzzzzz

On Thursday morning, we were up by 7, we left the house at 8.10 to get the 9am boat. We arrived at the port at 08.45 only to be told that our reservations didn’t stand as we should have arrived by 08.30 to take up our booking time. The lady said “it’s in the fine print” Yes it was, but you would need a magnifying glass to see it! We lined up to take our chance with everyone else but we weren’t lucky and had to wait in line for the 10am ferry. This has already seriously cut our ‘Island’ time but c’est la vie, what could we do about it now. As usual when we don’t know what to do, we eat, so we went Into the port café and had some breakfast muffins and coffee.

When we finally got on the boat, Martin and I went straight up onto the ‘sun-deck’. There was a chance that we may see some blue whales or even an orka, we didn’t want to miss the chance. It was freezing on the top deck, but we were determined to stay out there for the whole journey. Us British are hard as nails (bbbrrrrrrr)! We arrived on the island at 11.45 and as we drove off the boat, we immediately hit road-works, this resulted in an hour journey to Victoria and we finally arrived outside the Empress hotel on the sea front at 12.40pm. We planned to go off separately in case we lost each other and Robyn gave Martin and me her phone so that we could contact them when it was time to leave.

Martin and me wandered along the front, it was hot and sunny but there was fog on the water, it made for a pretty picture. We ate shrimp and chicken in honey at a waterfront restaurant and sat and watched the world go by. It was lovely, the street sellers, a fire-eater, a funny man doing a show using a unicycle and artists selling all sorts of crafts and wares. I bought three pictures as souvenirs. The artist told me the meaning of them and they were all based on themes of life, diversity and the coming together of all the people’s of the world. He was a very interesting man, I could have listened for hours and he was very grateful for the sale. Far too quickly, we were sat at the front of the Empress Hotel waiting for Robyn and Adam. We had to be back at the port for 5pm for the 6pm ferry. We didn’t want to miss our reservation again.

When we approached at the ferry port, there was a traffic lady flagging down all the cars, she said “what time is your reservation” Robyn said “we are on the 6 o clock boat” she said “you will have to turn around, go somewhere else and come back, otherwise they will think you are in line for the 5 o clock!” Robyn’s face was so funny, she “Where should we go, we have to be back here in 15 minutes!” she said “one minute” and got on the radio, she came back to us and said “ ok you can move forward”. Phew! That was close. The lady at the booth took our print outs of our reservations and said “you’re lucky, we have somewhere to put you, line one please”. So, you may ask yourselves, why did we reserve a place, I have no idea and neither did anyone else. The boat didn’t board until 6pm and we sailed away from the island at 6.20.

No Whales on the way back either, but the crew of the ship were watching a lady with a huge rucksack and were watching her from a distance. Martin and I could hear the radio conversations throughout the journey and we wondered what kind of trouble she was in, or had she sneaked on the boat somehow. We decided that she must have a whole suitcase full of marijuana bound for Vancouver and beyond. I suppose we will never find out the truth. The last we saw of her was two crew members following down the starboard deck as she looked over the side and a lady crew member putting on surgical gloves!

When we got back to the house Carmen was at work, she is working a 12 hour nightshift at the hospital . Steve had ordered pizza as arranged and we ate, drank more beer and wine and played scrabble. We turned at 11,30. The end of another whirlwind day, goodnight people…….Granny….to be continued.

Good evening…Granny calling…I am going to write two days at once again as it’s sometimes difficult to get time to write when there is so much to do and see. On Friday (day 14), we got up at around 09.30, Robyn and Adam were already at work and we decided to have an easy day after the trip from Edmonton which had worn us all out, especially Uncle who did all the driving. We ate toast and drank tea and Uncle went out to Tim Horton’s for the first fix of the day. We sat around and decided eventually to take a trip to IKEA as Robyn needed some door mats and tugs for her new house. We wandered around there for around 2 hours, ate lunch in the restaurant and when we left the store the day had warmed up to around 26 degrees. Aunty bought minced beef and vegetables to go with spaghetti for supper and got some veggie meatballs for Martin, she also got 2 sauces to mix as there was no garlic in the one jar.
By the time we had got lost again (because there are road works and diversions all over) it was 5.20 pm and we had to get supper soon, we were going to ‘Aussie Rules’ Piano Bar and had to leave by 7.30 to get there for 8pm. We all piled into the van like the ‘AntHill’ mob and off we went. Robyn chose the venue and Boy, were we in for a treat. As we went in we had to get a boomerang stamped on our hands to show that we had paid and we were shown to our table, in front of the bar, not far from the toilets, or ‘Blokes and Sheila’s’ as they were called and just off to the side of the stage where the 2 pianists would be performing. The waitress came and told us how it works, you choose a song/artiste write it down and also whether you were celebrating anything and if you put a tip (few dollars) you have more chance of getting your request played. She said “you can dance anywhere you like, on the floor, on the chairs, but the tables are not safe. It’s intended to be interactive so clap, scream and sing as loud as possible, this sounded like my kind of place!
We wrote down about 6 songs and said we were on holiday from the UK, threw a few dollars on top and Robyn handed them in. As soon as Bob and Keith started singing the place erupted, the singing raised the roof and every now and then they shouted out “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” we shouted “Oy, Oy,Oy” all a bit Welsh if you ask me? Someone asked for Justin Beiber and when Bob went off for his break, he downloaded the tune and tried to learn it, it was hysterical when he kept singing oohh baby, baby and the crowd were in fits of laughter.
We sang old songs, new songs, rock songs, country songs and some very naughty songs including a version of Mony Mony which included more ‘F’ words than you could shake a stick at. When he sang Summer of 69 he read out Mine and Martin’s name and said we were from the UK …well chuffed!! We had a real raucous night; we met Darlene and her husband, had lots to drink and really enjoyed it. Robyn chose well and there was lots of praise for her choice on the way home, especially as she was kind enough to drive!! We carried on talking about the night at home and eventually got to bed at around 2am….Exhausted…..
Saturday morning (day 15) started slowly as we all woke one by one, Martin and I woke at around 8am but the house was quiet so we decided to try and get another hour of sleep. When we finally got up, Robyn was already on the phone trying in vain to find me an appointment to get some in-fills for my acrylic nails, there was nothing available so we concentrated on trying to organise our raft trip down the river. Robyn and uncle went off to hire the raft and Adam went to the store for eggs for breakfast. When they got back Robyn said that they were out of 6 man rafts, (we were going to have a larger one for more space) so we had one of the last two 4 man rafts available. Then we realised that we only had one vehicle and we needed to park one at the end of the journey at ‘the bridge’ while driving another on to the start with the raft. Uncle and Aunty said they would take us on their way back to Saskatoon. Sounds like a plan and we loaded the cool-bag with a few beers, some sandwiches and snacks. We piled everything else into a bag, putting mobile phones and cameras in plastic re-sealable bags to keep them dry, ‘just in case’. We took towels, dry tee shirts and lots of sun-screen; we were going to be on the river for around 4 hours. Martin and I were excited and really looking forward to doing something different.
When we arrived at Cochrane, we pumped up the raft, we said long, emotional ‘goodbyes’ to Uncle and Aunty and thanked them for their hospitality and the lovely trips they took us on and for giving us the opportunity to see some of Canada, especially Saskatchewan which we have heard about over the years but never thought we would see. With a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat, I grabbed one of the handles on the raft and we marched briskly down the steep hill to the river. I hate Goodbyes.
When we got to the river, we pushed the raft in and Adam told me, Martin and Robyn to get in and he would push us out into the water before climbing in. We immediately got stuck on a rock and had to push with the paddle and bounce up and down on the raft until we got going.
After a few minutes, we settled into the raft and moved around a bit to even out the weight, Adam and Roby at either end with a paddle each and us two in the middle, we were going great, it would be a stroll in the park and any worries Martin and I had were quickly dispelled as the sounds of traffic disappeared and all we could hear was the water, the birds and other people in rafts….bliss!
We floated down the river for about 30 minutes, when we came to a small island in the river, we decided to go to the right but we were laughing as Robyn was having trouble paddling and I was saying that it was because of me and Martin being too heavy in the middle. We soon came to a patch of faster water and although it was probably only waist deep, it was quite fast and we were being dragged toward the bank, Robyn and Adam tried in vain to paddle away from the side and then we came around a bend and saw a huge overhanging rock jutting out into the river, we had nowhere to go, Robyn shouted “oh shit, we going to hit it” and we braced ourselves. The raft hit the point of the rock side on and I was sat in the middle straddling the seat so was facing the rock head on, I leaned back, the raft crashed into the rock and a huge surge of water hit me straight in the face as the raft shot out of the water, tipped upside down and we all went into the river.
We tried in vain to save our stuff but it was floating away from us at great speed in the flow of the water, I lost my glasses and couldn’t see, Martin was in over his head and Adam was out of sight, I panicked for a second or two as my life jacket lifted up and covered my face, the water went over my head, I hit my leg and couldn’t get my head out, I think I swallowed a pint of water as I was spluttering and trying to get my head out, then I heard Robyn shout “JULIE!” and the next thing I knew, she had hold of my life jacket and lifted me out of the water. I shot into the air like a dolphin! “I’m ok I said, I can swim across now. Where are Martin and Adam?”
I could see Martin now, even though without my glasses everything was blurred and the glare of the sun on the water didn’t help. God, I felt so helpless as we are both asthma sufferers and immediately hyper-ventilated when we hit the coldness of the water. He was ok though and had made it to the side further upstream. Robyn tried to swim after Adam and some of our belongings, but all we rescued was one paddle, 3 odd sandals a plastic bag with cucumbers for out picnic and 2 hats. Adam caught the raft and the paddle, which incidentally would have cost us $2000 if we had lost it.
When I got my breath I called to the others and although there were some minor injuries and we were all in shock and out of breath, we were ok. I waited for Martin who joined me and we stood for a minute, taking stock, we hugged for almost a minute I reckon and said how lucky we were that no-one was seriously injured or worse. I called to Robyn and asked them if they we ok “not really” said Robyn. Martin and I gingerly walked down the shoreline on the sharp stones, feet bleeding and with no shoes, it took us ages to walk 100 metres or so. We all counted our blessings and then realised that Martin and Adam both had mobile phones in their pockets…no use though they were both waterlogged. We had lost 3 cameras, my purse with $250 dollars in and my debit cards, 2 pairs of my prescription glasses and one pair of Martins and my blackberry phone. Then we realised that the keys to Uncle’s new Dodge Van were in the bag with Robyn’s camera! There were a few choice swear words from us all, until I said, “look, we can replace all these things”…no-one died. I t could have been so much worse.
We sat on the raft, which was now seriously deflated and not safe to float the rest of the way down, we shouted to a few people on the other side of the river to see if they had mobile phones to call for help but they were all too far away and couldn’t hear us. Then a couple in a small dinghy passed by and Robyn asked them if they had a cell phone, they paddled across to us and they very kindly phoned 911 and told the emergency services where we were. They offered to stay with us but we told them we were ok and that we would be fine now that we knew that the fire service would be on their way…there are some wonderful people in this world and today really restored my faith in human nature.
We were getting cold, the river was freezing and we were probably shocked, we kept hearing what we thought were motor boat engines but they were down-river, the after around 45 minutes (seemed like a hell of a lot longer) the Fire and Rescue Service arrived, I have never been so pleased to see someone in my life! They asked what happened, they were really nice and made no fuss, they said they had been called out a few times already, the river is high and fast at the moment because of all the unseasonal rain recently, we shouldn’t worry about it.
They tethered the deflated raft on the back of the boat, sat us all in and tried to pull away, the boat was grounded and difficult to get going. When we spun around in the river and headed down-stream I grabbed Robyn’s hand and we just smiled at each other, what can you say? Suddenly, one of the crew said, is that your paddle? Someone had pulled it out of the river and stood it up on the bank with our empty cool bag. Adam said, “That saved us another $20”. Those Firemen had no need to do that and went out of their way to pick it up, makes you feel humble when people are so helpful.
It took around 20 minutes to get back to ‘The Bridge’ where we were to pick up the Van and when we got there, there was an ambulance, a fire truck and a local news reporter waiting, embarrassing, but we decided, better embarrassed than drowned!
The breakdown truck came to break into the Van (Uncle had left spare keys inside, ours had sunk to the bottom of the river) Robyn and Martin went up to drive it down, we had no shoes, Adam had a broken toe and was having difficulty walking and we all had cuts and bruises and were all shaken by the experience.
I am now writing this at the kitchen table, Robyn just rang to say that she was having X .Rays and Adam was waiting to see a Dr. Martin and I have cuts and bruises and we are aching all over, we can treat those at home though. What a day! Well we did say it would be an adventure, that’s me finished for river rafting, I will stick to walking from now on! I just hope that Robyn and Adam don’t blame themselves, it was no-one’s fault and as I said earlier, all’s well that ends well……glass of red anyone?
To be continued…Granny

Granny calling….I woke this morning with a tongue like Ghandi’s flip flop! It was 10.00am and aunty was already pootling about in the kitchen, water, water, I need water! Martin was still snoring and Uncle wasn’t up yet either, we went to bed as the birds started singing, it could be a slow and easy morning of recovery I think. Aunty and I chatted on the deck and I came to life slowly.

Once everyone was up, we ate breakfast of vanilla yogurt, blueberries and toast with butter. Lots of tea and coffee flowed and we all felt a bit better. Aunty was sensible and had ‘left us to it’ with the vodka, therefore she was in much better shape than the rest of us. Kate was still in bed when we left for our visit to ‘The Western Development Museum’ a museum dedicated to the development of Saskatchewan from around 1910 and it holds lots of old farming equipment, cars and buildings set up as they were back in the day. They employ a lot of Senior Citizens who tell you all about how life was in the early years of Saskatchewan’s history and it was very interesting. We got loads of pictures including one of us sat at the Railway station in ‘Bootleg’ I wonder where that name came from?

Afterwards we went for our first fix of Tim Horton’s coffee and headed off to the ‘Taste of Saskatchewan Event in the grounds behind the “Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon. There a stalls from all the local restaurants and you buy tokens to sample the food, we had Pad Thai with chicken (veggie version for Martin), this consists on egg noodles, fried with bamboo shoots and bean sprouts, onions and chicken and topped with peanuts. We also had some ribs and topped it off with ‘Berry Barn’ Saskatoon Berry tart, pancakes and whipped cream. So much food, we failed to eat it all, we were all stuffed!

There was a live band playing a, called ‘September Long’ Kate knew the lead singer from high School and they were great, I will be watching out for an album which they promise is coming soon. We went to see the ‘Ultimate Man shed’ you could buy tickets to win it, what a shed! Inside there was a sauna, 3 TV’s DVD player, shower, bed, beer fridge, oven, dishwasher and a whole pile of tools that went with it, the only thing missing was a woman, I wonder why? It was huge and we all said we wouldn’t be able to fit it in our Garden’s. The atmosphere was lively and happy and we met some friends of Aunty and Uncle’s all nice people who wished us a happy holiday. There was one guy who was slightly odd though, he was called Wes, and wore huge biker boots, a bandana and looked like a throw back to 60’s USA. Nice guy but a bit of a fruit loop I think. Uncle is convinced that since he stopped boozing, he has gone a bit crazy!

From the Taste of Saskatchewan, we went to Kinsmen Park to watch Katy play ball, she played really well and hit a great strike that created a home run, threw a ball in that got a girl knocked of home base and did a great slide into 3rd base which resulted in grazed elbows and mud all over the front of her shirt, more washing for Aunty. It was great to watch, we plastered ourselves with Mozzie cream and weren’t bitten and Kate’s team won 7-5, a great time was had by all.

Back home, we ate toasted cheese and onion sandwiches, crisps and raw vegetables and dip. Drank lots of tea and water (we didn’t need any alcohol we were still recovering) and went to bed by 11.15 absolutely pooped!

Another great day, to be continued….Granny

Granny calling….I am a day or so behind, we have been busy, busy, busy and yesterday I decided I would type up the blog as we were driving to MooseJaw only to find that the netbook batteries were flat and we had no way of charging them up in the van. So first, to take you all back to Sunday.

We had some rain in the night and the deck was quite wet in the morning, the sun was hot though, so the water soon burned away. One by one everyone got up, slowly, after the huge supper and beer etc we all consumed at Joan and Henry’s. Katy had already left for work at Smitty’s restaurant so we had a lazy breakfast. Aunty and me discussed what we needed to buy at the store for supper and Martin and Uncle chatted about the previous night, we had great fun and ‘the boys’ (Henry and Dave) had promised to come round and help Uncle to get rid of a dead tree at the side of the house. It was 11am though and no sign of a phone call yet? I wonder what time they stayed around the fire pit until. This may have a bearing on whether or not they turned up, if they turned up at all. Sure enough at noon, there they were, the tools were out and Dave was up the ladder sawing away like a lumberjack! Henry, Uncle and Martin, holding the ladder, taking bit of wood to the truck (Henry will use the wood for the fire pit) and generally all mucking in to get the job done. It’s nice to see that Aunty and Uncle have such great friends and these people are always ready to help out if needed. Aunty and me pulled some weeds out of the flower beds and swept around a bit and before we knew, the tree was gone and the boys were all out the back on the deck drinking cold beer, which Dave had brought in a cool bag.

Aunty and I headed for the store and left them to it, we had guests coming for supper and needed pork chops, potatoes and salad etc. First stop Robertson’s Farm shop, we bought Garden Potatoes, Salad Onions and Baby cucumbers and sat and ate ice cream under the porch until a few too many Mozzies started to gather, a quick exit was called for and we got back in the car to head for the Store, on the way we passed Joan’s House and ‘the boys’ were still there, probably drinking more beer and unloading the wood into Henry’s yard. At the store, we looked for aunties sister, who works there but we couldn’t fine her, so we got the groceries and headed home. When we got there, Helen and Bill, (aunties Mother and her boyfriend) were already waiting, these two are amazing, they’re both 87 years old, still driving and they go dancing at The Legion, whenever they can. They decided as we were later than they expected, to go off dancing for a couple of hours while they waited for supper at around 7pm.

Tom arrived and had a beer on the deck and shortly after Gail (Aunties sister) with Wilbur the Pug; he was a lovely little dog with a great personality. We barbecued the chops, Grandma (Helen) had brought Perogies and Gail had brought ‘Drumstick Cake. Katy and Tom decided to prepare the rainbow Trout and there was much discussion about how to chop off his head’ Grandma knew how to do it and showed them how not to waste the fish. It was stuffed with onion, tomatoes and lemon salt, wrapped in foil and put on the barbecue. It was a feast and we were all suitably stuffed afterwards…by the way, I don’t usually eat desert, but Gail’s Drumstick Cake is to die for!’ she also makes great chocolate chip cookies, good job I don’t see Gail too often, I would not be able to resist!

After a couple of hours on the deck, we couldn’t stick to bugs any more and finished off the evening in the house, we are always going to get an early night, but it hasn’t happened yet! Holidays are great….

Monday morning, we got up earlier than we have been getting up and the plan was to leave for MooseJaw by 10, Katy had to take her car seat to the Garage to get a hole in the upholstery fixed and we got our stuff together to go the see the MooseJaw tunnels. We all piled in the van and I took up my usual perch in the back, I like this seat, I get a panoramic view, room to stretch out and I can snooze without bothering anyone else. It will take 2 hours to get there and we are going to meet Shannon at Smitty’s for lunch. Katy then joined Shannon and we all drove into town to go and visit the tunnels where Al Capone is alleged to have carried out his bootlegging and laid low when he was on the run from the law. We bought tickets for both tours; the second tour was an insight into the life of Chinese Immigrants brought to Canada to work on the railroad. In tour one, we were all bootleggers and actors took us around the tunnels and described how money changed hands, how during prohibition the booze was bought and sold on the black market and how 97% alcohol could kill you and that al Capone once had his tonsils lanced using half a bottle of bootleg whisky as an anaesthetic! The actors were great; Aunty was nicknamed Gidget for the tour and was put in charge of the ‘hush money’! We laughed all through it, it was great fun.

The second tour was led by a lovely lady called Ashley and was set in a Chinese Laundry owned by ‘Mr Burrows’. It was acted out by Ashley and she narrated the story as well as changing voice to the stern lady who dealt with us ‘coolies’, these people earned 35cents a day and paid half of it back to the owners in rent. Life was tough and a lot of people got hooked on opium to escape the misery. It was really informative, totally different from the first tour and really well done.

We got ice cream, Tim Horton’s Coffee, met up with Katy, who couldn’t get a haircut, said Bye to Shannon and Uncle drove us the 2 hours back to Saskatoon. The evening was lazy, we mooched around the kitchen, I trimmed Katy’s hair and at 11.15 it looked like we were having that early night. I said I’m having vodka and tonic before bed, Uncle said I think I’ll join you…OMG, 2 bottles of vodka (50 proof vodka) later and at 04.40 am we went to bed just as the sun came up…the night was a blur, but we laughed, we sang, we drank some more and I have videos and pictures to incriminate everyone at a later date, but not for public viewing so I may have to be choosy what I post! Another fantastic day….even if I am a tad hung-over….to be continued….Granny 

Granny calling….getting out of bed later every day, could it be due to the fact that we were late to bed again? Yesterday went by in a flash, as does every day and by the time we had sat on the deck for the morning, shopped for ‘stuff’ to take to Joan and Henry’s for supper, it was time to shower and get out of the house!

During the day we mooched around, it was quite hot and I got burned on the deck, my arms look like striped tomatoes, red, white and freckles in between. Martin has been eaten by the mozzies and we are trying new lotions and potions all the time to try and fight the bleeder off! Aunty and I have been to Body Shop and found some Satsuma Body Butter that is supposed to deter them but I think they like it!

We left for Henry and Joan’s house at around 5.30 loaded with beer, vodka and tonic in ice boxes. We also had a box with Katy’s macaroni salad (she made a veggie version for Martin), chicken wings, Caesar salad, veggie sausage and burgers and huge prawns. The boot of the van was chokka block!

Joan’s yard, is her pride and joy and it’s really pretty. She has lots of flowers, solar light everywhere and some of these lights change colour I think Uncle may be getting some of those, he has to ‘keep up with the Jones’! Hanging on the shed is a bird box and pair of sparrows is flying back and forth dutifully feeding their chicks. Joan is also growing tomatoes, peppers and corn and the grass is cut to perfection. Lot’s of talking and banter and more talk of Corrie with Henry as the beer and V&T flowed. Dave arrived and joined us at the table and then Joan got home from work to complete the party. Fire up the Barbecue and wait for supper.

The food was fabulous, the salad, the chicken, more beer and more vodka and tonic. The ‘boys’ go outside for a smoke and light the fire pit. It was difficult at first but once it was going and we all sat around the fire laughing and telling stories, it was great. Katy disappeared quite early as she said in her best ‘Australian Accent’ I’m tai-ud (that’s the best way I can write it as she says it) and she slept on the couch until we were ready to leave. We must have got home about 1ish, but I can’t swear to that having drunk way to much V&T, we ate pretzels and talked for ages and Uncle checked out the golf on ‘Sports desk’ I can’t remember going to bed, but I slept like a log! Another fabulous day full of lovely memories and really great people……..to be continued …Granny 

Granny calling….
Today we leave Calgary and head to Uncle’s house in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, where I have been warned that the mosquitoes are large enough to carry away small children. Before we leave, we are going to eat at the Mall and visit Calgary Zoo. As usual, it takes us until 11 to all get showered and ready to leave the house.
My mozzie bite finger blister, which is now starting to recover due to the antibiotics, now is the same colour as the paint in our very regal looking purple painted bedroom, with matching covers. I love this room and the colour makes it feel warm and welcoming.
Pack the bags ready for when we get back from the Zoo as we will be heading straight off for Uncle’s house when we get back. The Zoo was great, we saw Tigers, Grizzly Bears, Elephants and Gorillas, it was a nice day, we got slightly burned and we had a lovely time just wandering, which was great as would be sat for a long time, the drive to Saskatoon is six and a half hours.
After the Zoo, we went for ice cream, we had crushed raspberries, chocolate sauce and crushed nuts, it was so hot it dripped everywhere, we got covered, finger licking good.
We got back to Robyn’s, threw our stuff in the Dodge and said our cheerio’s to Robyn, (we will be back in a week) and headed out for the long drive. After an hour we stopped at Tim Horton’s for coffee for the journey (Uncle is an addict I think)!
We drove through the Badlands near Drumheller where they dig up lots of dinosaur bones, what strange land formations and rock structures but it’s pretty in a sort of pre-historic way. On the journey we saw fields of Rapeseed, which glowed bright yellow in the sun and caught sight of some deer and gofers as we hurtled along the highway towards Saskatoon.
Two hours before the end of the journey (or 4 hours in) here’s Tim’s again and we stop for a BLT Toasty, Martin had a veggie cheese toasty and we all had another coffee, God this caffeine gives you a buzz! We refuelled and set off again, as it got dark, the bugs really started to appear and within half an hour of last light, you couldn’t see through the windscreen and Uncle had to pull in and clean the screen, while fighting off the mozzies! I have never seen so many bugs in my life but they soon cleared as the lights of the city appeared and we left the country side behind.

The house is all lit up and Uncle said…oh shit, why did Katy leave the lights on in the garage, the bugs will be everywhere and will swarm in the house as soon as we open the door….he wasn’t wrong, we had to pile the bags in and in the 30 seconds the door was open, in they went and we had high-jinks trying to swat them with electronic bug zapper. Katy and her friend had made nachos and salad, it really hit the spot and we caught up on family news etc and Katy’s work news and how her job interviews had gone. We sat up until 2am chatting to Katy and her friend, zapping bugs and drinking beer and wine. A long journey but we had another great day. Martin and I are having a great time, the family are all so helpful and we are so happy that we made the effort to come to Canada……to be continued 

DAY 4
Good morning – Granny calling.
I got up early again, didn’t get a good night’s sleep as the bloody mozzie bite, which was now badly infected had swollen and was sore. Shower, downstairs to write my blog up, (I was two days behind) jet lag is over and I feel much better this morning. 4 cups of tea later I was joined by Uncle who had got up for a cigarette and was already planning his morning drive to the coffee shop 4 blocks away – Tim Horton’s coffee shop sells great coffee and with double cream, it goes down really well in the morning. I can’t get over the fact that he drives out for coffee though, even if he is on holiday, I think I’d make do with instant first thing in the morning.
The weather is fowl, high winds, black sky and raining like cats and dogs. It is 10 degrees and the temperature, according to the forecast, was set to get worse throughout the day. This was not good news; we have tickets for the stampede and the grandstand rodeo show which is outdoors this was not just a shower, it was a storm. The grandstand show hadn’t been cancelled for 46 years and the stampede for 102! Sods law that it would be when we were in town. Anyway, as we all said, “you can’t plan the weather”.
By 9am Aunty and Cousin Robyn had joined us and we sat around moaning about the weather, watching weather reports and trying to decide whether to go to stampede or not. Adam is gone to work and would join us later for the Grandstand show. The tickets for the show cost $50 and we had $300 dollars worth for 6 of us and we were not sure if we could get a refund? We rang the ticket office and they said “no way is it going to be cancelled, that’s never happened in years”! I’m not holding my breath.
09.30- quick trip to the Medi-Centre to sort out my swollen finger. $60 dollars to see the Doc and $42 dollars later, I have anti inflammatory drugs and Anti-biotic – sorted. Forget about the finger now and let the pills do their work. We all had a great breakfast. Bacon, eggs, hash-browns, loads of toast and choke cherry jam. I’ve no idea what a choke cherry is but I like it.
We pile into Uncle’s van at around 11.30 and drive off the Mall, just outside Calgary. Martin bought 4 Tee shirts, at a bargain price but would no way pay $32 (£20 approx) for a real leather belt, which is strange as he needs a belt but does not need 4 tee shirts as he has around 10 shirts with him and umpteen back at home. We had New York Fries, these are like skinny chips and you buy them covered with sour cream and chilli sauce. They were great and after a year of Weight Watchers dieting, felt really naughty, but what the hell, it’s a holiday. We also had more creamy coffee, which comes in half litre cups; it’s so strong the kick is like a mule!
The rain kept coming and coming, there were accidents on the road where cars were aqua planning and not allowing enough stopping space, Robyn and I went to Costco and bought rain coats and we decided that were going to the stampede whatever the weather. While driving to the city he news reader on the van radio was reporting the deaths of 4 horses and numerous injuries to cowboys due to the wet and muddy conditions and the people of Calgary were not happy about it. I think they’re angrier about the horses than the people as the people have a choice of whether they take part or not, the horses-well, they do as they’re told and then they die. Makes me sad and I’m not sure how myself or Martin would react if a horse or a person got hurt or even killed, while we were at the show.
The show ground was wet, deep puddles everywhere and everyone’s jeans were wet right up to the knees almost. We did the ‘stampede’ thing and wore check shirts, jeans and cowboy hats and tried to the make best of it. We had mini donuts with cinnamon and sugar and after 45minutes of wandering and watching people on the fair rides we decided to wait at the meeting place for Adam to get there from work. During stampede week at work Adam has to dress up Western Style as the whole city turns ‘country’ so he turned up in cowboy clothes and joined us in the rain. We decided to go in for a beer, get warm and sit out the 45 minutes until the grandstand show. The lady at the bar served us with a smile, 5 Alexander Keith’s Light beers and a Gin and lime $42 please and then she muttered something to Robyn which I didn’t quite hear…Robyn’s face was a picture, the show was cancelled, Adam already knew and thought we did too, they told him at the gate, so it must have been decided about half an hour after we arrived at the stampede ground, we had driven all across the city, in shitty weather, in rush hour, for Jack Shit! But the beer and the Donuts were great and I have a Calgary Stampede Tee shirt. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t have to watch a horse die, that makes me happy.
We piled in the car, us girls went shopping for wine, cheese and finger food and the men went back to dry off and drink beer, all’s well that ends well………to be continued 

DAY 1 – 10th JULY 2010
Granny calling…..Today we travel to Manchester. We were awake at 6.30 and he brought tea to bed and we actually sat there quite stunned at the fact that ‘The Day’ has actually arrived! I think we are both a bit nervous, silly really bearing in mind that we usually drive across to Europe every year in a really old VW van which is far less reliable than my car and a huge aeroplane!
Valerie, (the cat) is looking suspiciously at us both, she knows something is up and I think she suspects that she’s going to the cattery for 4 weeks. She’s been before and I am not worried about leaving her, she has always been fine before and as she adopted us, so I feel it’s only fair that she puts up with the cattery for us to go away. Besides it’s a nice place and costs a fortune! There I’ve persuaded myself.
Now, you would think that two people who travel quite a lot and tend not to plan but just go where Boris (the VW) takes us, wouldn’t be apprehensive but this is a childhood dream of mine and also of his and therefore we want it to be perfect, no pressure then. Also he is terrified of flying and that is why we normally drive. 9 hours on a flight does not have the same appeal for him, especially when the first word you see when you get to the airport is ‘terminal’ and I’ve been told that Calgary airport is a bit of a hairy place to land as the approach involves the plane tilting at 90 degrees with the ground! I won’t tell him as for me it’s a means to an end and well worth the time in a flying tin can. (Check for passports for the umpteenth time).
Oh well, back to the checking and re-checking, dollars…passports…insurance….lists of lists…take me to the ‘Travel lodge’!