Rule Brittania

Arriving in England at 11am after a very smooth flight over Hudson Bay, Iqualuit, Greenland, Iceland and then onto Heathrow, we found ourselves very jetlagged. Although we popped our Melatonin...they did not work. Thankfully British Airways has a fantastic entertainment system and we watched a lot of tv.....a highlight was watching the "best exotic marigold hotel" a great movie and to make it even more real, we bumped into Bill Knightly today on Regent Street. Sorry no pix.

Auntie Bedge

We have spent a great 7 days here in England, visiting with relatives including my 84 year old "Auntie Bedge", my dad's sister. It was great reliving old memories from that side of the family and confirming lies and other stories...ha ha.....

England is an enigma for me.....the people all seem to be very happy and are all active and moving around and yet the cost of living here is astronomical.....Breakfast at this rather shoddy hotel we are staying at is $16.00 each, gasoline is almost twice the cost than in Vancouver, simple chocolate bars etc are around $5 each and more........But to more upbeat items......Pubs are very much alive and kicking here and Lois and I just came back from one up the road where we had a pleasant pint and a great Vindaloo. Today, we mastered the underground and hotel bus systems and made the trek into London to see the sights....the weather co-operated and we did not get rained on......much. We took the tube to Picadilly and then walked all over that part of London, across the river to the south bank and then back over to see the H of P , Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace ( the queen was NOT at home....and I phoned ahead) and then onto the insanity of regent street and the "exclusive stores". We looked for a tablet, but they were all at least 100 pounds more than what they are in Canada....another disappointment. But here are a few pix of where we were today;

Lois at Picadilly

Keeping an EYE on Derrick

waiting for 12 noon to strike

Hmmmm No one home.....where is tea?

 

 

 

But earlier in the week, we were exploring the region around Southampton, Gosport and Portsmouth and thanks to our great cousins, Pat and Dave Carter, we saw a lot and had a great time. They gave us the run of the house and drove us all over the place for which we were most grateful...Even picking us up from the hotel on day two in England. On Tuesday evening, we went over to their daughter Debbie's house and had a fun evening with hubby Steve and daughter Samantha....who had joined us earlier at Grandma and Grandads house. On the last day we had with them we went into Portsmouth and had a walk around. I went to the hospital where my mum died a few years ago while she was on a trip to England. The hospital is now closed, but I gave a few thanks to the staff who looked after her in those final few difficult days.

From there, we took the train up to London.

 

So tonight, we are spending a quiet evening in front of the telly doing some goggleboxing and watching Coronation Street and other intellectual pursuits. Our plane for Dar Es Salaam leaves Heathrow tomorrow in the early evening, so we will repack our bags in the morning, go down for our last "Full English" and then grab a nap before we encounter our second 9 hour overnight flight in a week. So until we hit Tanzania, thanks for tuning in and here are a few more pix of our trip so far.

 

Debbie...listening to Steve .....or not

Lois and Pat taking in the sailboats

Lymington on a sunny day

 

 

Last sleep in Canada for a while

So it is an hour or so before we catch the ferry to vancouver that will lead us to our British Airways flight to Heathrow. This last week has been a flurry of last minute adjustments to our bags....trying to figure out what we need to wear for a week in England and then on to Tanzania. We have moved our furniture and stored the Jetta, cleaned the carpets and managed to have dinner and lunch and coffee with friends to say a 'ciao' and then get on with the last minute details.

We stayed with friends Joe and Anne for the last two nights in Comox and then moved down to the kids house in Nanaimo for another early morning visit by the grandkids and the endless ' lets play a game'. We are going to miss them, they are at that great age where they come up with all sorts of incredible child wisdom.

Yesterday, we went sailing for the day, with little wind and then the dinghy dock for lunch, it was a great way to spend a sunny saturday in the fall. Lunch was huge, so our dinner plans went awry and we ended up having a simple dinner at home....

And so....today, we are catching the morning ferry and then bussing it to the airport for our 6 pm departure and 9 hour flight over the pole to England. Pat and Dave our cousins will be meeing us on Tuesday morning to visit Auntie Beryl  and other cousins, as well we are promised a few pubs in the meantime.....sounds great to us.

We will blog again from London and hopefully post some pix
cheers for now

lois and derrick

Murphys law

AS you can imagine, the last few weeks have been nothing but an exercise in buying boxes from Home Depot, filling them, moving them and stacking them......and to be honest its just about done...we have about a third of a 12x20 storage unit full to the rafters...stuff we have accumulated over the past 40 odd years and more.....
In some respects, this process is carthartic in that you really look at the stuff you have collected and have to decide which is really essential to keep and which is not......a lot of "stuff" went on its way...including at least 25 Kodak Carousel slide trays.....I kept the contents...We found items that we had given up for lost and some that were not supposed to be stored and clothes that reminded us of flower power and madras....(remember that).

So here we are about 10 days from departure and we are down to cancelling power and telephone. Gathering information about storing the car and scooter for two years. Introducing our renter to their new home for 24 months, reinuslating the attic and generally trying to remember all the things we need to do....which is where Murphy comes in.....we both know that sitting in row 25 seats d and e on BA flight to Heathrow a week from sunday, we are going to remember the one thing that we did not do.....such is life...and who knows what that will be right now...the other part of Murphy is all the things that are happening right now...other opportunities that we have wanted to accept and now find that we cannot.....its disapointing and really bad timing...but once again.....such is life and we have to look at the big picture and think on the fact that our next two years will be a gigantic life experience and who knows what knowledge we will come back with that we can share here...

So thanks for dropping in on the blog....I promise it will start to get more interesting in a couple of weeks time as we sit in hotels in London and Dar Es Salaam and with the addition of some pix...it might be worth reading....cheers for now and tune in next week
derrick and lois

the two who we will miss the most, but in two years...Disneyland yeah!!!!!!!!!!!

PACKING....UGH!!

For those of you who are following our trip to Zanzibar with CUSO international, the next few postings are going to be somewhat selfish in that it will be us complaining about what has to be done before you can take off and separate from Canadian society for a while....

Remember all those little jobs you promised yourself you would do....well they all come to roost when you have rented the house out and they still need to be done.....Today for the first and definitely I hope for the last time....I blew in insulation in the attic of the house...to increase the R factor....what a dirty, messy, dusty job...but it was also relatively easy...with a friend feeding the hopper and me in the attic.....we had it done in about 3 hours......

Also decided not to sell the car...as I could not get the value out of it...and the only inquiry I had..the guy wanted me to go down about $3000...NOT going to happen....so we will store it and pay about $660 for the two years....and be ahead of the game....its a diesel...so it will not hurt it too much to store....plus the kids will go down and start it every two or three months to keep the rats out of the engine......

So most of the packing is done....we have contracted with a mover to come and take the big stuff to the storage place..they will pack the mattresses, sofas, big chairs in bags to protect against dirt and damp to a certain extent. We also have carpet cleaners and stretchers coming...and we still have a few weeks left to go....so we are now in a bit more of a relaxed mode.....

Our passports arrived back today with our entry visas for the Republic of Tanzania duly affixed.....that will get us into the country...now all we have to do is to get the next ones..that will allow us to stay for more than three months and will also allow us to work.....

So thats where we are today, August 29th....and we can have the long labour day weekend to play with the grandkids.....yahoo......

more later

Well hi there.....our second posting to our blog.....still cannot figure out how to put in pix...that will come I suppose...and in any case...we dont have any pix yet....I guess we could always put in some from Guatemala for the time being.....its now about  4 weeks away until we leave Canada for England and a week with the relatives there....we were just talking tonight about how nice it will be to land at heathrow...go to the hotel, have a shower and a nap and then go out to a pub and have a nice $16 pint of beer......hmmmmmm so much for the budget...

We have done our shots and are in the process of taking the two oral vaccinations that are needed....the last one we will do is Dukoral for Cholera and coincidentally travellers stomach ailments....and its good for about 3 months on that aspect.....bonus....

Our house is now rented to a nice family and we hope that will last for the entire 2 years we are away...Derrick is now struggling to find a place to store the jetta in nanaimo, so the kids can keep an eye on it....today we built some big shelves in the storage unit to hold the sofa, love seat and easy chairs up high....and we can pack the smaller furniture down below....what a pain this packing...we had a garage sale on Saturday and while Derrick worked on the dock...Lois sold the family heirlooms....we are worth a lot...ha ha....

so the prep is continuing and we will post again in a few days to bring you all up to speed on our boring transition from nort americanos to Africanos.......its all going to be a blast....

nuf said for now...more later, keep checking back with us....
derrick and lois

The Beginning

The Beginning

Over the past 6 days, Lois and I have been in Ottawa at CUSO HQ to undergo training in the fine art of cultural awareness and understanding. A jampacked agenda, saw us working from about 8 am each day with a breakfast session to allow for networking with other volunteers. People from all over Canada and one token American were all brought together to learn more about other cultures, how to cope with issues such as gender equality and equity, perceptions of corruption, understanding that there is more than one story to analyze and so much more.

Each day was different and one to certainly look forward too as we ploughed though the works of well known social authors and their take on cultures and how we adapt and grow within them.

We came away from this weekend dog tired, jet lagged and yet more optimistic than we have been about our upcoming posting to Stonetown, Zanzibar in Tanzania, East Africa. We will be there for the next two years of our lives, absorbing a new and fascinating kaleidoscope of new cultures, languages, customs and peoples. We are looking forward to this as we do with any of our travels.

This is just a brief first blog and we will add to it each week as our adventure plays out before us. We leave Canada on the 23rd of September and will spend a week in England visiting relatives we have not see since we were evacuated out of Cambodia in the 90's. We have to arrive in Dar Es Salaam on the 30th to start in-country awareness and language training. So stay tuned..this is going to be an adventure from the edge.