Cregan's wedding

Well they've only been and gone and done it. Megan & Craig were married on the beach at Tofino this afternoon: the weather was perfect, everyone turned up who should have (i.e. bride, groom) and there were tears at both the ceremony and the reception (mainly from me). Location was amazing, speeches were emotional, food was fabulous. More importantly, I was able to be there when two of the loveliest (and funniest) people I know got
married, so that was perfect. The sea and wind meant that it was hard to hear what was being said at times, so when Megan said her own specially-written vows to Craig, no one could but Craig could hear what she said to him - though we could see it made them both cry! - which seemed apt somehow. It felt a bit like the end of Lost in Translation.

More photos here.

And in a tremendous stroke of luck for myself, I am now in Megan & Craig's recently-vacated bed in one of the Cottages at the Long Beach Lodge which they were sharing with Joelle & Tyler (having now moved to a room of their own to get a little more, ahem, privacy). The bed itself is about the same size as the entire room at the hostel - I'm considering sleeping on it sideways just because I can. Can't say I'm sorry to leave the hostel; I find sleeping in a room with three strangers a little like the aftermath of a particularly uncomfortable four-way...with no actual sex as a benefit.

Whale of a time

I know you probably won't believe me, but the picture on the right is actually of a grey whale. Honestly. I mean, how close did you think we were going to get?!? Actually, we got a lot closer than my pictures seem to suggest. I even got a picture of a whale upping tail and taking a dive, but I swear to god you'd have to max out your furtive imagination to work out that the tiny black dot on that photo was a whale's tail, so I thought I'd go with this one, even though it is hardly much better. Ah well, we saw 2 grey whales, a bunch of sea lions and a few sea otters to boot, so I'm certainly not complaining. We also managed not to look remotely ridiculous in our red floater suits* and had a cool time bookin' it across the waves catching tons of sweet air**, so a damn good day all round. I did, however, neglect to wear waterproof mascara (a good tip for any of you who plan to do this in future***) and so ended up looking like I was off to an Alice Cooper tribute evening, but hey ho.


*no, really, we didn't. You're wrong.
**can you tell I hang out with teenagers alot?
***yes Silas, I do mean you

Jet setting once again

A quick jolly over to Vancouver Island (which from Ontario, time-wise, is roughly equivalent to flying back to the UK, so hardly a short hop!) for the wedding of Megan & Craig, a.k.a. Cregan, is this week's news. The wedding is this Thursday, but I flew in today to go whale watching with the wedding party tomorrow. The Vancouver to Vancouver Island leg of the journey was taken on the diddiest plane I've ever been on, where having a window seat was your only option, since there was only one row of seats either side of the plane with a very narrow gap in the middle. There was nowhere to put the small suitcase I had as hand luggage - no overhead storage - so I asked the man standing at the bottom of the stairs, who I assumed was cabin crew, what I should do with it. "Do you have a laptop or anything valuable in it?" he asked "Not really" I replied. "I'll just pop it in the back then" he responded and promptly disappeared under the wing to put it in the 'boot' for me. Then he climbed into the plane and made his pre-flight announcements, sans tannoy, while wandering up and down the aisle. Given that there were only 9 rows, this hardly strained his voice. He then settled down in the front of the plane and proceeded to fly the damn thing too. Now THAT'S multi-tasking.

I am the only member of the wedding party not staying at the gorgeous resort where the wedding is taking place. The $260 per night price tag was a little prohibitive for me, so I opted instead for the Clayoquot Field Station hostel, which is just round the corner and somewhat lighter on the wallet. It's clean and new, very nice indeed for a hostel, but still has 3 strangers in my room which I always find a bit, well, odd. And slightly unpleasant. Oh well. I have free internet so all is good really. And this evening I drove into town in my hire car, bought fish & chips and drove down to eat it while watching the sun set over the pacific. Vancouver Island, I should point out, is exceedingly beautiful.

Fingers crossed that the whales behave themselves and make an appearance tomorrow please.

Musings on mosquitoes

Back home in the UK, we do have mosquitoes. Particularly where I live, right next to a lake, we can sometimes feel like they're invading. They come out in as dusk hits, and occasionally we even have one or two that get into the house, and every few days you might get a bite. I thought this was annoying. Ha.

Here in Canada, mosquitoes are a way of life. All windows in all houses have screens on them so you can open them without letting in the bugs. No matter what time of the day or night, they're there. The moment I step outside of my front door, I'm attacked. Hundreds of the buggers descend on me like they've never seen an English person before (and indeed, they probably haven't). You can almost hear them buzzing 'fresh meat, fresh meat, fresh meat'. Working in the trees doesn't help. 'Off', or equivalent bug repellent spray is not an option but a necessity. Despite this, a day does not go by when I don't get one or two new mosquito bites, usually on my legs or arms but sometimes in awkward places like the middle of my forehead. They are ridiculously itchy. I put antihistamine stuff on them and it makes no difference. When we go back into the bush behind our cabin, I swear to God I look like Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoon with hundreds and hundreds of the buggers buzzing round my head. Even with long trousers, long sleeves, my hood up and throwing my arms around like a windmill I still get bitten several times. As many of you may know, I have an across the board 'no-kill' policy when it comes to animals and insects - I won't even kill a fruit fly - but the mosquito is a notable exception. I will squish them on sight whenever possible.

It has left me pondering as to the biological advantage that leaving itchy poison in their victims has given to the mosquito. I mean, if they didn't itch me, I wouldn't be that bothered if they bit me. Surely, then, they'd get more to feed on? And if we weren't always trying to kill them, they'd live longer? Is it to do with population control do you think? Suggestions in my comments box please...

Creepy crawlies

Finally had a chance to bring my laptop into town and am sitting in a cafe, using their free wi-fi. Thought I'd give you an update while I'm here:

Isaac & I now have leopard geckos. Their names are Zoe - though we call her Zozza in tribute to my friend Zoe/Zozza back home (hi Zozza!) - and Mungo. That one was my idea. They're really cool, they sit on your shoulder quite happily while we potter around the house, though Zozza does have a habit of climbing up your hair and sitting on the top of your head. We fed them yesterday and watching them demolish a bag full of live crickets is far better entertainment than telly, I can tell you. Everyone loves them, except Isaac's mum who isn't too keen. Her thoughts on the matter were: 'I thought you two would have better looking children'.

I've now qualified as an aerial guide for the Treetop Trekking park and love my work.
Well, you can hardly call it work, I climb trees for a living! The guys I work with are fabulous and we have plenty of get-togethers planned over the next couple of weeks. Every day I get into my harness, put my helmet on, strap on my walkie-talkie and bugger about in trees all day. The insects can be brutal, but it's worth it. And hey, life is never dull when you have a veritable assortment of mosquito bites to scratch.

On the subject of insects, we have an ant infestation at the cabin at the moment and I have been advised by my friend Lisa that if I want to get rid of them, I have to ask them to leave. Hmmm. Well, the RAID doesn't seem to be working, and I'm getting desperate, so when I get home I'm planning to sit down for a little pow-wow with my anty friends and ask them if they wouldn't mind visiting someone else for a bit. The other night, just before I went to bed, I had a glass of iced tea (my new favourite drink). I didn't quite finish it so I put the remaining drink next to my bed in case I was thirsty in the morning. I got up at 6.15am, when Isaac gets up for work, to go to the loo and before I got back into bed, took a big swig of iced tea. A couple of hours later when I got up for work and it was now light, I glanced at the glass only to see about 30 ants swimming in it. Now, much as I'd love to imagine that they'd only just crawled in there, I think it's unrealistic to assume so; I could have freaked out at drinking ant-juice, but instead decided to think of it as a small protein shot. Still, I was sure I could feel wriggling in my stomach all morning.

T'interweb withdrawal

Firstly, let me apologise. I feel as though I'm letting you guys down a bit recently, with my very intermittent blogging, but the problem is without wireless for my laptop, I'm having to use Isaac's parent's computer, still on dial up (yes! it still exists!) and will only connect when it jolly well feels like it thank you very much. I have so much to tell you, and yet it's so difficult for me to do so goddamnit.

So rest assured, I'm more than fine and dandy. I now live in a cabin in the woods, with no television and water that comes straight from a stream. I love it. Isaac & I are having a ball, getting on like a house on fire; we've been bush driving, preparing our fishing tackle, socialising and generally making our own entertainment.

In yet another preconceived notion-shattering event, we had our first dinner party in the house the other day. Me, and three teenage boys. And what, do you suppose, did we have for this dinner? Pizza? Burger and chips? No no no my friend. Reilly prepared a
hot oil fondue AND a hot stone, with steak, giant prawns and calamari, potatoes & mushrooms. It was incredible. Then he insisted on washing up too. What a superstar. Then yesterday, we had our first barbecue. Me, and 10 teenage boys. We had moose, naturally. Isaac & busied ourselves being consummate hosts and cleaning up around people, so by the time everyone left (which was before midnight, despite today being Canada Day and therefore a public holiday) you'd never have known we had had a party.

I'm so proud of my boys. Life is good.