Across Canada via Ralston...

The photo on the left is of Sam Thomas. He's currently two months into an 8 month hike across Canada.

Last summer I was contacted by a very old friend of mine who works at BBC Radio Oxford. She knew a "really nice young guy" who was going to walk across Canada for charity and would be passing through our neck of the woods, could we do anything for him?

I offered to put him up for a couple of nights and give him a shower and a decent meal but secretly thought that there were a million obstacles that would probably get in the way before he got here. Did he for instance realise there would be snow on the ground at the start of his trip?

I heard from Sam again in March when he arrived in Vancouver and enthusiastically told me he'd see us on a couple of months ("Sure, whatever" I thought!) as the weeks went by, he touched base several times, eventually calling us last Sunday to say he'd be with us at 3pm on Wednesday.

He didn't get here at 3pm on Wednesday. He got here at twenty past three, which I think is pretty impressive!

As luck would have it, he arrived on the same day as one of my colleagues was leaving us, so he ended up joining us on a great night out in Medicine Hat. He polished off not only a 20oz steak (see right) but also most of the leftovers on our table. I think it had been a while since he'd seen a decent meal!

Sam left us this morning to head east. For the next 6 months he's going to be carrying that 30lb rucksack you see in the photo and sleeping at the side of the road. I couldn't do it for any money and I think its a pretty amazing thing to do.

If you'd like to follow Sam's journey or sponsor him, follow this link

And our next posting is...

... yes after months of wondering and waiting, we finally know where we are off to!

We are not as we expected going back to Germany (options number 1-7 on Jim's list of job choices) but are in fact going to Cyprus (option number 8!) I have to say its really taken us by surprise, but we are very excited, particularly because Jim's father lives in Cyprus.

Jim will be working in Episkopi and I am hoping BFBS might be able to find me a job at their office in Akrotiri (about 20 minutes from Epi). We have so many things to think about between now and our departure in July/August. Our possessions in Canada need to be divided up into those we sell, bin, ship on the first consignment, ship on the second consignment and keep to take on the plane.

For the last two years we have been mentally preparing for a life in Germany, putting aside things for our "cellar bar" and thinking about the cars we will have and now we are having to reconsider almost everything!

There is also the small matter of our belongings in storage in the UK. A selection of virtually new white goods and electrical equipment which has spent two years festering in boxes and now will probably be untouched for four years, unless we track down where the storage is and go and visit it and rescue the things we want. I can't even begin to think about the clothes I put in storage two years ago, I doubt I'd want them now, but in another 2 years?

So, lots to think about, but it is also a very exciting time. A sunshine posting is not to be sniffed at and I'm sure it will be every bit as fun as Canada has been.

And by the way, the photo top right was taken on last year's BFBS Cyprus catamaran cruise, if only we'd known then...

Waiting...

Another week has gone by and spring seems to have finally arrived, with the help of a few downpours the grass has turned properly green and the trees and shrubs are even starting to come out. Its been a long time coming and it's so nice to see the village looking alive again!

Unfortunately with the rain comes the mosquitoes! They are back, not yet in abundance, but there's certainly enough of them and it isn't even that warm yet!

As May progresses, we're still treading water waiting to find out where and when we are going for our next posting, which could begin as early as 6 weeks time or as late as the end of September! We expect to know for sure by the end of this week.

As you can imagine with that hanging over us it's been a bit tricky to make plans for anything. We kept a promise to ourselves to put the RV on the market as soon as the snow was off the ground and were mildly horrified when we sold it the next day - that had not been the plan! We were very sad to see it go when we handed it over to its new owners today, and we're now hoping our gamble pays off and we don't have an entire summer without it. Timing the sale of your possessions at the end of a tour is a tricky business and the last thing you want to do is spend your last few weeks trying to offload things.

Last week we had Sunday lunch up at the pub in Patricia again with our friend MaryAnne and her parents who were over visiting and we have been making the final bookings for our June road trip. We are spending two weeks on the west coast of Canada/US starting June 13th.

And finally, my Canada quilt (the longest sewing project ever!) is in real danger of being finished before we leave! The top is complete (see left) I just have to make a decision about the material to use for binding.

Snow and sunshine.. it must be April

Crikey another 10 days gone and I am falling a bit behind with the blog!

So, lets begin with the weather, an almost permanent subject of interest here! Well, over the last week or so we have had almost everything thrown at us... At one point we had 20cm of snow forecast, although fortunately the worst we got was a tenth of that (see photo of my bike below) and at the other end of the scale we have 22c forecast for Sunday!

I am hoping that with the arrival of May we are in the clear now, and on the road to summer. The grass certainly looks green and the cat is back exploring the garden and hunting with great success!

Other than that I have been keeping busy finishing an OU writing course and beginning a OU photography course. It seems once you've done one OU course, it becomes quite addictive.

The dog, who we picked up a year ago today, has finally outgrown her crate, so that's been packed away and we now have lots more room in the dining room, which most of the time has given me more room to sew! Although we did use it for the Ralston Progressive Supper party last weekend too...

The board that decides Jim's next job in the summer sat at the beginning of the week and we will know where we are off to next within the next 10 days and possibly as early as next week. Then we will await the date of our posting, the details of our quarter, the date for our shipping and on and on... there is a lot of waiting involved in this military life!

One potential spanner in the works is that Macy the Dog has managed to fail her rabies test, meaning that the vaccine hasn't taken. This means we have had to start the process all over again and she now won't be pet-passported until October. However we are hopeful she could move to Germany having been vaccinated and await the paperwork part to formalise it... just one of many bridges we'll have to cross as we get to them.

We also had a bit of a shock to the system earlier this week when the house we recently bought in the UK and are currently renovating was burgled, not once, but twice. Fortunately we could have come out of it a lot worse and the police have already managed to recover some of our possessions, but its events like this that make me wish we were a bit closer to home...

As far as our cultural exploration of Canada goes... our travels have been taking a bit of a back seat while we plot our two week east coast road trip next month. We are flying to Vancouver, spending a couple of days on the island (I have been dying to see Tofino) and then getting a train from Vancouver to Seattle and then driving on down the coast eventually ending up in LA before flying home. Because of our Canada posting our honeymoon was only 3 days long, so we owe ourselves a bit of a holiday!

Crafting and sewing...

Ten days since my last post and I don't know where the time has gone!

Last Tuesday we had our scrapbooking evening at a local farm about an hour's drive from here and in the middle of nowhere. These days I'm more interested in sewing, but the idea of spending an evening in a Canadian family home is always interesting, so I went along.

Alice & her husband have one of three farms run by brothers, they have cattle and arable on their land. Being so remote they are also pretty self-sufficient, growing a lot of their own food and home schooling their three children. The lifestyle reminds me a lot of the Falklands where the kids are educated via shortwave radio and traveling teachers.

On Thursday it was the Medicine Hat Spring Rodeo, my colleague Jenny is a rodeo fanatic and she had booked tickets for all three nights, so we went with her and a couple of others. It was definitely more fun this year, now we know a little more about the events!

Just like last year the April weather has been amazing and we've been able to sit outside in the evening, catch a few rays in the afternoon and live with the front door open, but again, just like last year, it isn't going to last! Although it was 26c yesterday, tomorrow we have snow forecast and highs of 5c.... snow in April is definitely one thing I won't miss about Canada!

And finally today... I mentioned a little while ago a grand plan to equip our village store with cloth bags made from recycled materials by members of the community. The idea is an existing scheme called morsbags.com.

Today we had the first workshop in the village school and the kids just loved it! We had boys begging us to set up a sewing club and teenagers saying how "cool" the sewing machines were and yes, we even managed to make some bags, 40 in total.

Granted a lot of them are a little aesthetically challenged with some wiggly lines of stitching and less than perfect seams, but woe betide any parent who picks up a plastic bag in preference to their child's masterpiece!

There is still lots more work to be done on our "grand plan" but we made a great start. I have lots of photos of the day, but of course I need the parents permission before putting them online, so I'll see if I can publish them later this week...

Spring has arrived

Spring has finally arrived in Canada this week. Although it has been above freezing for some time, it took until Wednesday for the very last of the snow in our garden to melt and even today with temperatures reaching 17c, looking out across the prairie you could still see snow sitting in dips in the ground.

This time last year, the weather was 23c and we were convinced summer had arrived, but only a week later we had the biggest snowstorm I have ever seen, so we aren't quite in the clear yet!

However while it lasts, we are making the most of the weather and we actually went to our first barbecue of the year today, we had a great afternoon sitting in a garden in Ralston soaking up the sun!

Blackie the cat has also been enjoying the milder weather and is back on rodent control duties, she comes home every evening with a catch, which she has to try and smuggle past the dog, with varying degrees of success!

Yesterday we did our weekly shopping trip to Medicine Hat and stopped at the Dodge garage to admire the Challenger. (see above) Jim is tempted to buy one to bring back to Europe, but we think we'd probably need to park it across 4 spaces in a supermarket!

Next week we should have a few interesting things to report on. I am going to a scrapbooking evening at a local ranch on Tuesday and we are both going to the Medicine Hat spring rodeo on Thursday.

Las Vegas

A late update this week. We are chasing our tails after a long weekend in Vegas which ended with a very late night driving back from Calgary on Monday.

The trip was a Christmas present to Jim and I must say, that when I booked it in November I didn't really realise quite what a great time of year I had picked.

When we left Canada, it was just above freezing with the last of the snow still on the ground and a two and a half hour flight later, we were in Nevada and it was +26c! After the long Albertan winter, it was just what we needed!

This was the first time either of us had been to Vegas and we were pretty blown away! From the incredible architecture of the high rise buildings on The Strip to seeing people walking down the street with alcohol (we've lived in Canada too long!) and the incredible positive atmosphere which started as soon as we got on the plane.

Amongst the highlights of the weekend, we took a helicopter trip over the Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon, landing in the canyon for a champagne picnic. Pretty expensive, but well worth it, especially when we flew over the queues of traffic driving up to the dam!

We also went to see Cirque De Soleil's Zumanity, which was good fun. Several audience members were pulled on stage to get involved in various adult themed sketches, most of which had the audience cheering and laughing, but we found out on the flight home that one of the girls who had been pulled on stage had fallen out with her boyfriend as a result of her involvement and was later seen in the foyer of her hotel with her cases! Oh dear!

We stayed at the MGM Grand, it was pot luck as I didn't know what I was booking, but it was a good choice.

It has an astonishing 5000 rooms and we were upgraded to one of the newer rooms in the West Wing with a great king-size bed and a modern bathroom which was partly open to the sleeping area.

The only flights we have taken since we arrived have been to the UK and back so it was such a novelty to fly short-haul and not arrive with jet lag. Now all we've got to do is work out if we can fit another weekend in before we leave, it seems rude not to! More photos of the weekend here