18 sleeps done, 8? to go.

Another day of not doing a lot.  Mostly just enjoying the absence of Johnny after he went off to visit Cortes Island without us. We have vague plans to go on the weekend, probably after he comes back. Yay for maximising Johnny-less time in Canada.....  I mean nothing, I love being sardined in with too many relatives for weeks on end.

I finished the book I was reading, it was a vast improvement of the first one I read here. I helped dad install some of the wire that I had gone on the trip to buy the day before, to reduce how many animals get into the eaves of the work shed. I finished watching the one TV show that I had downloaded in the Netflix app and brought with me.

In the late afternoon we caught up with dad’s cousin Ann, who I had met last time I was here, I should probably link the photo.   Here she and I are, in 2007.

Otherwise it is a day of lazy.

Oh, and it was a day of old people asking if I was alright and f I was better than yesterday. Last evening my body was being unhelpful and I got faint and changed colours a bunch, because I am sickly.

Weather.

For the first time in a few days, I was feeling well enough to go walking and escape my family today. So, of course, the run of fine weather that had lasted the whole time we had been here finally broke. It was just wet and miserable, so I had to make as good a job of hiding from my family in this tiny overcrowded house as I could.

In the late afternoon we all headed out as my second cousin Wendy hosted us all for a very nice dinner party in her beautiful home.  Was nice to see some more people, and I am mostly keeping track of how I am related to who but really ought have made a chart before I came.

Road tripping.

Today dad’s cousin Lynn, her husband, and her nephew, my second cousin, Mike came around and took dad, Evelyn and me to Roberts Lake to eat cinnamon buns.  They were pretty tasty, if giant walls off sugar and flour.

Then Mike and I went for a walk around the lake. Mike being the only one of the relatives I have met here so far (on either trip) that I think I could be friends with in a non-relative context.   He is an awkward nerd, maybe even more than I am.  That led to bumping into Evelyn by the lake, thus Evelyn being in all my photos.

Sunday when it is really Monday.

Today I have mostly been supervising (read: watching) my father and uncle Johnny do some repairs to grandma and Norm’s house.

Grandma keeps feeding us. My assumption that not being able to binge my feelings would lead to losing some weight is looking to be wrong.  She is basically shoveling food at us.

Also went on a building supplies run to Home Depot.  Going to businesses from TV land is weirdly fun, even if the place is really just Mitre 10.  And then went to Walmart, where Evelyn bought proper stuff and talked me into buying North American chocolate that I regretted before I had even made it out of the express lane. And trying some was not a winning experience.

There was something else that I had meant to write about, and was the actual reason for the post, but I have forgotten it entirely.

Videos of me and Aunt Ellen

Here are a couple of videos that feature me and my Aunt Ellen, among others (my dad mostly). The first is Dad and Ellen talking about nothing much in my Grandmother's kitchen. I'm ni the background beating up a small child.




The second is Dad narrating while he videos trees and Ellen, then some weirdo intrudes. Filmed at a camp ground on Buttle Lake (which is either right near or inside Strathcona Park).

Back in my time zone

Wednesday morning I got up and packed, farewells took ages and made my arrival at YBL (Campbell River Airport) late and my making my flight a closer call than it should have been. After watching Dad and a couple of his siblings waving at the plane as it took off, it was a short flight to YQQ (Comox) and then a somewhat longer (though still only about half an hour) flight to YVR (Vancouver International).
At Vancouver airport I went through US customs and in to a weird holding pen/mall, the stores took both currencies but only gave Canadian change, it counted as the US from immigration purposes but everything sold was Canadian and I'm mostly sure I was still under Canadian law, they sold prepaid Canadian Post postcards but there was no post box and the only way out of the pen was to fly to the US - so they weren't usable. The flight to SFO (San Fran) was in a much tinier plane than expected.
At San Fran I saw no customs and for the first flight all trip had no security checks at all - just a bit over three hours in another holding mall with captive audience food prices. While there were pleasantly no security checks of any sort there, the mall was depressing. Come preboarding time my passport was confiscated due to irregularities in my Returning Visa - for a couple of minutes it looked like they were going to leave me in San Fran - where I'd probably have been shipped back to Canada. Just when I started to panic a little they realised the problem was with their computer and not my passport and all was fine. I boarded the plane, this time not getting an empty sit as a neighbour, unfortunately.
The flight was long. I watched Out of the Blue and something else I will hopefully manage to recall later and then got a fair whack of sleep. I woke up with pretty much only time to watch Galaxy Quest before landing in Auckland.
New Zealand customs kept querying my accent/Canadian passport combination as if I was somehow a bit criminal to be not travelling on an NZ passport - I think they thought I was ashamed on this tinpot little country.
I got to Wellington and slept through my bus ride to Upper Hutt. I found Tina and, after ditching my luggage, headed back to Wellington with her for luch with Tasha - a friend from uni who I've had basically no contact with in the many years since. Caught up with Giffy (whose wedding-celebratory button-badge travelled with me) and then had a quiet night trying to get back into NZ sleep patterns at Tina's.
Now, Saturday morning (on a week with not Thursday) I'm lying about glad to be back in NZ, and looking forward to actually getting home.

Whaletown, Cortez Island

After getting back to Campbell River yesterday, this morning I headed to Whaletown on Cortez Island with my father. Met a first cousin on the ferry, and met the only of my father's siblings I had never met this evening.

Unexpectedly spending the night here after accidentally on purpose missing the ferry back. Grandma's party is tomorrow morning, so we will have to get the first ferry in the morning or we'll be in trouble.

This raccoon was in my uncle's yard. I'm easily amused.

Catching crabs the not fun way

This morning, after a hearty breakfast, I was taken to help with crabbing. Standing on the back of a boat getting covered in slimy sea sludge while hefting a cage up from the seabed.
The crabs themselves, not interesting. Nor the meat particularly compatible with my palate - though that could be affected by having watched it being harvested...
The tentacle monster, of which I have photos but am politely not boring you all with them, was more interesting, just.
In the afternoon I had a nose about town, for a place named in Suomi it seriously lacks Norse-ness. Apart from a couple of decrepit wooden rooved boat sheds.
Tomorrow, hopefully without dealing with seafood first (*finger crossed*), I shall head back down to Campbell River - where frightening hoards of my relatives will be assembling.

Exiled in Sointula

Yesterday I had a quiet one hanging out with my second cousin and doing little to nothing.

This morning I was woken at 3:30am local time, at four we headed off to Victoria. We had to be at the cancer clinic by nine and were being overly cautious. We got there at about quarter to eight. After breakfast in the Royal Jubilee Hospital cafe I abandoned Granma and Norm and walked down through Victoria - taking in the tourist trappings. I looked at the stupidly old buildings and the Chinatown and the waterfront. I talked to a pretty girl with reddy purple hair, who has family from New Zealand and who turned out to work at the local porn shop. Said porn shop frightened me. Maybe Canada is more open minded, or maybe the fact I'm too much of a prude to look in porn shop normally means I've never noticed how open minded things are back home. I ought investigate, but know I never will. Prudishness wins on the day. I made it back to the hospital in surprisingly good time and we loaded up and headed back. Norm having an intense aversion to cities. The whole afternoon was spent getting back up to Campbell River. Not long after getting there, just when I was considering having a nap, I was kidnapped by my cousin(well, first cousin once removed - she's a generation up from me)'s husband and drove the other way up Vancouver Island. Pretty much all the way up. On the way seeing bears (as shown) and seeing a lot of scenery. Much of which was like ours - glacial valleys and craggy mountains formed by head on collisions between continental plates - but with much pointier trees. It was as New Zealand will look when the introduced trees win. I'm now on Sointula - an island north of Vancouver Island. It's a touch colder, but otherwise not dissimilar to Campbell River, just without the people so much.

I should probably think about sleeping at some point, though I'm concerned the early wake up might have pushed me back on to Kalamazoo/Toronto time.

Good news, postcards I thought had inadequate postage appear to be making it through anyway. Hoorah.

Sleepiness is weakness of character, ask anyone

After a day being shown around town by one of dad's many, many cousins here I decided it was time to force myself in to BC time and out of Michigan/Toronto (I was sick of waking at 5am - which was useless here and even useless for catching people from home online).
The result was getting nowhere near enough sleep and waking at 6am, which I guess is a victory of sorts....
At least the manic levels of sleep deprivation are still a long way off (or possibly Kalamazoo specific - the town had vile water, there must have been something in it...).
My tour of town yesterday proved the attractions to be industry and lots of pointy trees. So very many. This seems to be dedicated forestry country - I had previously assumed they'd hidden farms away behind it, but it seems that isn't so much the case. Just pointy trees. I should upload some more of my photos, being that they are more than a week, and 3000+ km, behind where I am now. It may happen later - currently I'm too darn lazy.

Starting to meet the relatives

Yesterday I went out and met my great Aunt Mary and her husband. It was nice, though did draw attention to how long I'd been here and how little family I had met. Today, we (yet, again) failed to go visiting. Instead I had a short walk about town. At dinner one of dad's cousins and his kid popped around to visit.
My second cousin, Mike, is about my age and has a job I'm jealous of. For reasons unknown, being I'm very much not the computer geek, I am always jealous of sys-admin-ish sorts with cool companies. My second cousin does something network related with IBM. I want to work for IBM - shame I have absolutely no applicable skills or aptitudes.
But then I have no skills or aptitudes for what I do either. I do get irrationally peeved at "Word of the Day" things that don't give etymologies though, so maybe philology isn't entirely out of my reach.
While in Campbell River, I have been slowly churning my way through the book I bought to read on planes. Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and I think it has proved the contrariness of my nature. The more I read, the more my atheistic leanings are abandoning me. I'll have to avoid similarly aimed books or I may soon find myself making the weekly trek to church.