Week 3: A Visit from The Pope

Week 3 started well with the arrival of 8 cardboard boxes from the old country. They had been 'on the road' for 12 weeks now and to be honest I had forgotten what we had packed in them, so there was an air of excitement and expectation as we tore into them with all the passion of a child on Christmas morning. The first 7 boxes contained Nix's entire shoe collection from the last 14 years, Ed (Those poor sniffer dogs at the Vancouver docks), however buried at the bottom of box 8, under 14 handbags and a set of curling tongs, lay a small container, harbouring a carefully selected and highly treasured consignment of tools, ah 'the precious'. Monday was also blessed with a ridge of high pressure and what perfect opportunity to try out our latest purchase, none other than The Weber Q220 BBQ with Stand. Our celebrity guest chef, (all the way from the Vatican) kindly agreed to do the honors and a fine meal was enjoyed by all.

Tuesday saw the boy's kayak lessons cut short by a thunder storm, "it's not so much the rain, as the lightning" explained the instructor. Ed (Big Girls Blouse) With an incredible visual and audible show, the storm signaled the arrival of autumn and overnight the temperature dropped drastically and by morning the trees displayed the beginnings of what was to be a beautiful transformation into autumn. The walk to school of a morning is now breathtaking at times, the low autumn sun shining through a forest on the turn, sun rays filtered by an early morning mist, this visual cornucopia, this assault on everyone of the senses is only marred by the odd interruption from Albert Robert Einstein Oppenheimer.....
"Daddy, how long would it take me to get to Mars if I stuck 9 nuclear missiles on a Kona Stinky and..............." I'm hoping this is a passing phase.

As we descend into autumn our thoughts are instantly turning to Winter and the prospect of skiing on our door step. Now the locals let slip that the Mount Seymour organisation ,relies heavily on an unpaid volunteer work force in exchange for FREE lift passes for the family. So a quick e-mail, followed by an application form and I'm now officially a Tot's Ski Instructors Assistant. All they require in return is 90 hours of my time over the entire season, if fact they want 90 hours from us as a family, so Nix and I can work it off between us. I can picture it now, me on the slopes, decked out in the latest kit, bronzed and hanging with the instructors, while Nix is in the car park on traffic duty............. Well!

So as the week draws to an end, I find myself, having been inspired by the boys, down at The Deep Cove Kayak school, enrolling for a level 1 and 2 trip preparation course. "have you got a wet suit" asked the nice man, "no, why" I enquired "well, you will spend most of the day in the water" he replied, "oh." But that is another story.

That's all for now but 'tune in' next week as our heroes learn to 'swim with the fishes', take a trip across the boarder to the USA and take the written part of the BC driving test, in an experiment to see if old dogs can indeed learn new tricks.

Take care and Love to all.

JNCT.