Chinese food anyone?

The Good

Beijing
There are some amazing sights here. The greatest of course is the, well, er, great wall. It is truly astounding. Looking at it stretch into teh distance, and not around the mountains....but over them (the crazy buggers, they invented gunpowder after all!) and the fact that they have stood for thousands of years, and are still standing...it's really, well great is an understatement. In my young life the great wall is certainly something that is truly amazing.

Leo Hostel was almost an experience in itself, it was full of great people, friendly staff, offered free internet via one computer upstairs, or internet by the hour via 3 downstairs, had a guitar (which I accidentally destroyed the strings on while trying to tune it...sorry Simon!) and was a 5 min walk to Tiananman Square, and subway stops. For more information visit their website on www.leohostel.com

One night we made our way to a night market where Jake (Ozzie Jake) and I had a gymnastics throwdown in the middle of the street, we had a small crowd of chinese gather around as the rest of the hostel crew with us scored us on our handstands, front flips, cartwheels and other shenanigans.....it was a close one that ended in a draw and some puzzled looks from the locals. When we got to the market, there were some interesting choices of grub on display. There were scorpions on skewers, poor we buggers were still alive and squirming.....until they dropped the wee souls into the deep fryer and fried their little scorpion arses. So being a vegetarian and all I tried one. Smokey was the flavour, and crunchy was the texture. What else did I try?

• A wasp that was about the size of a baby mouse....it was crunchy and kinda spicy.
• A Pupa, was about the same size and was absolutely disgusting, it was kinda smokey too I think, but the texture almost made me gag. It was kinda hard and rubbery on the outside, but soft and squishy...almost liquid on the inside....bleugh.
• A chicken heart....which just tasted like spicy chicken meat
• A grasshopper that was huge! About 4 inches long and two hight, It almost needed two bites, head and all. It was the crunchiest of them all, but spices make it taste tolerable

They had all sorts of crazy things there, sea horses, star fish, gecko's, sparrows, snake and even bigger scorpions. Bizarre, but the worst was the puir wee scorpions wriggling on their skewer.

We also went to the Summer Palace and saw the incredible grounds that housed parks, walkways, temples and a lake. Incredible. A real sense of tranquility on the grounds. We also saw a number of other temples and pagodas, all beautiful in their own way, but the summer palace really stands out.

I didn't get to see Mao or the Forbidden City, not that it's forbidden anymore but I guess it wasn't a high enough priority for me to see either?

Datong
We can proudly say we've been to the most polluted city in China...or so they say. We weren't going to argue. The smog was so bad we had to put ropes around each other to keep together. Ok not that bad, but let's just say for pretty fit fellows we were suffering. I now know what Ashma is like! We went to see the Hanging Temple (or monastary) and it was awesome. It was constructed in the side of a cliff about 150 feet above the ground around 500AD. It was rebuilt and maintained again around 1400, and is built of wood with crossbeams embedded in the side of the cliff. It really is an incredible feat, and something to see.

While we were waiting to get to Xian, we had an hour and a few beer to kill, so I pulled out the hackey sack. We were in the main square, and I'm pretty bad at hackey, but still managed to draw about 100+ people at one point to watch, surprise......they were all Chinese. Jake and Dereck were standing on a low wall, looking over the crowd while I was in front of the wall hackeying away. I got an old boy into the game, he must have been about 50 or 60 and the crowd loved that, but the police didn't, the police kept coming over to make sure everything was okay and when they did, the old boy would sit down and not play. When they left, he'd sneak back into the game! What a bizarre experience!

Xian
Xian allowed us to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. Many of you may have heard of them and wondered what they'd be like in real life. Even though it is very commercial with a large hangar protecting the warriors, they are still impressive. Again a good couple of thousand years old, and each one carved to represent an individual warrior in the kings army. Awesome. We also rode the city wall. It is a wall that goes about 13 kms around the city wall and we rented a couple of bikes (we being Deke, Myself and an Ozzie bloke named Jake that we kinda picked up along the way!) and spent an hour cycling around, up, down and over the city walls. Good day out!

The Bad
As awesome as those things were to see there were a few things that weren't so good to see. The merchants in Beijing continually hassle you to buy their wares. Very quickly we learned "Bu Yao" which is "don't want". Also the spitting over here is out of control. 70 year old ladies fire up and let loose with phlegm wads to rival the youngest and fittest men, and you can't go 20 feet without seeing someone let loose. On the train, in the streets, apparantly anywhere is game. On top of all that is the pollution. There is some seriously bad pollution over here, in fact one wonders about all the tourists for the Olympic games. Maybe they'll just ship out the old air, and import the new?

Lastly the same as any country there are the poor. Whether it's picking rubbish out of a bin, or people with deformities, they're around, and although you're heart goes out to them you as a tourist can't give to everyone you see, or solve the problem...that's for another debate....not here. The smells in the streets of Beijing can be bad, sewage I think. Apparantly Hong Kong, Shanghai are much cleaner and totally different from Beijing. Another amusing Beijingism is the crotchless pants/trousers for the kids. They just don't have a crotch so the kids just waterfall or drop biscuits (if you know what I mean) anywhere. Bizarre, but saves a fortune on diapers I suppose!

The Ugly
The Scotsman defended his right to drink on our first night here in Beijing with a drinking game that left him somewhat paralyetic, but with a few respect points on his belt. The same again the second, third and in fact most nights he was here. The hostel natives were a bit in awe of his drunken, alcoholic, stupidity, and those of us who know him best could all but laugh. No harm done.

As for the Canadian contingent, there was a night where he discovered the "rice wine" that Dereck had discovered a few nights before. Within two hours he had consumed enough to inspire him to practice his out of practice stunt moves and roll down two flights of stairs in the hostel. All was good and the plonker was in good steed until he reached the bottom of the stairs and crashed right into a print of an ancient Chinese painting. The resounding crash of shattered glass left the 15 or so occupants of the common area somewhat stunned and concerned. Although as the plonker stood up he was rewarded with a round of applause and laughter....can I just point out that he doesn't need to be encouraged by an international contingent. The frame was paid for, and all was good and the two boys have been secured in the legends and lore of Leo Youth Hostel here in Beijing. What follies have been had.

Summary

China was just a place we were passing through, but we extended our stay two 2 weeks to see more than just Beijing, and I'm glad we did. There are so many cultural experiences, and if you can put up with the dirty side of things, you'll probably enjoy the history, landscape, and shopping. There is so much to see that you really need a good few months, but it is a good jumping point to Nepal/Tibet, Russia, and South-East Asia. Good stop!

Sushi says to me....

So we spent a whirlwind 2 nights in Tokyo. Great city!

Day 1

When Dereck and I made it to the city our hostel was in we didn't know how to find it, and asked a couple of people who weren't sure. Then a businessman came up and asked if we needed help. We explained the situation and he called the hostel on his cell phone, spoke some Japanese, ah soooo, hai, ah soooo and said "Follow me!" He walked us to the hostel which was about 4 blocks away. What an amazing experience, he just said there you go and went on his merry way! We checked in and the guy behind the counter ran over to a keyboard and put on some cheesy synthesiser music to welcome us, checked us in and asked us to take off our shoes! There were guest slippers that we had to wear! We put our stuff in our room, made some noodles in the kitchen and headed out to explore the city! I can't remember the name of the city, but it was mad! There was neon lights on every inche of building, and all the shops sold the same things, electronics, fruit, electronics, and cds, as well as electronics! Oh, and they had a Mister Donut!! They also have vending machines outside everywhere that sell everything from Herbal Tea and Beer to Snacks and small food dishes!! I tried a couple of the drinks and they were all pretty bad....but I was surprised to get a warm bottle of herbal tea! We wandered about and headed back exhausted from a pretty long day.

Day Two

We met two girls the next morning, Penny from Oz and Debbie from the US. We all decided to explore Tokyo together! Every time we stopped and opened a map we had half a dozen Japanese over to see if they could help at all....such friendly people!! We saw a few temples and shrines, visited the imperial palace, and went for Sushi. It was all pretty cool, certainly very different from Stirling, Falkirk or Georgetown!! We went for Sushi for lunch. I tried a small bit of it, a bit of Salmon in a rice and seaweed wrap. Dereck opted to go for an entire platter of about 7 or 8 types of Sushi. Penny did the same, and Debbie opted not to try the Sushi on this occasion! I loaded mine up with Wasabi and managed to eat it, but my eyes watered like a little girl from the Sushi! Dereck ate some seriously crazy sh!t. He had some sort of caviar, raw tuna, raw oyster type stuff....and his face was certainly not saying hmmmm give me more!! He reckons that some of it he would try again, and others not so much. Penny was a Sushi Machine and got through most of hers while Dereck still had most of his on his plate! Interesting experience, but not for me!

We went up an observatory in a tall tower building and watched the sun set over Mount Fuji. Awesome. After that we headed back to our hostel and stopped in for a few beer to celebrate a great day! We ordered a few Saki as it seemed wrong not to try it....and it tasted like a softer version of Vodka. I ordered 2 Sapporo (Japanese Beer) for Deke and I and it never showed up. So I went back up and asked for them again...this time they showed up, and about 5 mins later two noodle dishes showed up. Apparantly Sapporo, and Sakatoro sound the same, one being a beer and the other being a beef noodle dish. Eek. I did my best, but just couldn't finish them. We headed back to the Hostel....and our slippers, and had a few more beer before we all hit the sack.

Leaving Japan

Yeah, so Deke and I got up in the morning, jumped on the Subway, we had a pretty tight deadline and realised we were on the wrong subway....going the wrong way!! Eek, we opted to jump off as quickly as we could and managed to just make it to the airport....I'd rather not do that again.

In Summary Great city. Very friendly, amazing history, pretty easy to get around...when you know where you're going, and I'd definetely go back!!

Tokyo we ain't in Kansas anymore

Deke, Debbie, Penny and Scotty the dog
Sunset over the city and Fuji
Scott and Deke tower over Tokyo
Deke a little lost
Crazy trees

Deke the Sushi eaterThe tango became a way of life for them
Warrior Headress Circa - very old
Japanese Ceremonial Lanterns
Japanese are little people!
Grab the rail and get to work
Japanese Grave
Where's Bill?
600 year old wooden statue

Temple of the Deke

Another Temple

More Ha wa ii

Scott got lei'd
Wave goodbye to Hawaii
Evening Paradise
Hawaiin Bird
Hang Loose Dude
Hawaiin Sunset.....
Hanama Bay

The crazy rapper dude
Say Sea Spray

Lovin the sun, it is your friend!

Hawaii Pics... ooohhh purty

Lighthouse on a beach....ooooh
Hawaiin flower...ahhhh
Diamond Head Crater at dusk...ooooh
Deke and Raj in front of a weird tree....ahhhh
More Hawaiin flowers...
Deke and Fiona, check out the surfer dude!
Dereck struggles with the Famous Pipeline
Dereck Kung Fu's my ass
Scott savours a quiet moment at Diamond Head

Deke and Ozzie Fi

Where are you? We're in Oahu

Arriving
Oahu is the main Hawaiin Island, and we landed in Honolulu to a balmy 25 degrees. A lovely contrast to Vancouvers 8 degrees! Landing was awesome, the water was coloured with different shades of blue, green, and everything in between. We found a hostel that had advertised in the airport, and made our way over there. It was a great hostel....it's near the Marriot hotel, and I can't remember for the life of me what it's called, but it's minutes from Waikiki beach and right beside another hostel...if one doesn't have room the other should! I think it was The Beachside Hostel or something like that. Well Deke and I got in to find out we were sharing an 8 person dorm with 4 women and a fellow from Nepal named Raj. The girls were Fiona from Oz, Adrielle from the States, and Una and Sharon from Ireland. They were all really cool, and we all got on well.

First half of the trip
Well Deke and I dropped off our stuff and headed to the beach for a wee play about in the lovely Hawaiin water. Dereck reckons the sea is saltier in Hawaii, I reckon he's a big Jessie. We just went back to the hostel and sunk a few beer with the folk in the hostel. The next day was a classic, a day in paradise and we didn't see feck all cuz it rained non stop the whole day! So we stayed in and drank beer. Deke and I eventually wandered out as we were fed up being in the hostel all day so we found an indoor market and a wee bar that let us have a few beer and a game or two of pool. It was good. We got back and went down to the common room where we played a few games of crazy 8's with some of the other residents including this lovely but genuinely insane american chick who just randomly burst into song. Deke wasn't feeling well, so he up to bed, and Raj and I played a few more games of crazy 8's with the crazy chick. Then we chatted to the Irish girls as they were at the next table for a bit....and I hit the sack!

Second half of the trip
Surfing! Deke and I hired a surfboard for half a day, and man was it fun...but we got punished by the ocean. Dumped on our asses a few times, Deke had one particular one that left him feeling a little worse for wear as he ended up upside down and in a bit of a state not knowing which way was up or down as he was dumped underwater after a particularly big wave knocked him off his board. After the surfing we went back, got a bike to eat and decided to walk to Diamond Head crater which is an extinct volcanic eruption, man was it hot! We decided to go at 12:00 and walked an hour up the road, then an hour up and down the crater, and an hour back. Can anyone say lobster boy? If the surfing didn't fry me, the walking did. I ended up redder than a cherry, and man was it sore. The crater was tres cool though. Dereck opted to do the whole Diamond Head walk in Sandals....the plonker. Then he wondered why his foot was sore the rest of the trip. Tit. That night we went for a walk with Fiona and Adrielle as the Irish girls had left Hawaii and Raj had met up with his Hawaiin girlfriend (don't ask!). We went down to the beach to watch fireworks, however that didn't work out, then went shopping in the market to find Adrielle's boyfriend a Hawaiin shirt, and Deke and I got shell necklaces for a buck...how touristy, but cool! Adrielle left that night shortly after. Then we went for a smoothie and headed back to the hostel. The next day Deke and I joined Fiona and took a bus up to the North Shore to see Pipeline which is a famous surfing beach with waves up to 50 feet high. Yeah, apparantly not at this time of year. So we were a bit disappointed, but the beaches were beautiful. We got back and Deke and I went to the beach to catch the sunset.....not the world's greatest but it was pretty. Then we met the rapper dude. Well didn't really meet him...more observed him. He was this white guy who was skinny as a rake, with long blonde hair. He was standing on these rocks and rapping to music on his headphones. He was giving it all that with his hands and it was really quite weird. Deke and I headed back, had a few.......beer (surprise) and found out that we had new roomates, they were 4 french canadian guys! Nice guys who were doing a road trip around the states, they left Montreal and seemed to be having a great time! They were a little surprised when one guy grabbed my beer instead of his and I said in French "Hey dude, easy...that's my beer" they all kinda looked at each other and said "hey...he speaks french"...kinduh a funny moment.

The last day boooo
The last day Dereck and Raj went to Pearl Harbour and I went to Hanama Bay, which was a nature reserve. Dereck said it was strange seeing how poorly prepared the US was for an attack, but that it was pretty cool to see Pearl Harbour, especially as we were going to Japan next. Hanama bay was beautiful, as you'll see in the pics, but it was $5 to swim/snorkel, and I figured I'd save my money for Thailand. We all met up later that night and Deke and I went to watch a Hawaiin Parade, where we met surprise....more Ozzies! We met Melinda and Stacy who were in Hawaii for a week, and watched the parade with them, it was cool as there was hula dancers, and some dudes who were doing some sort of martial art while drumming on some seriously big and loud drums...then Deke went back to the hostel and I went for a bite to eat with the girls...who kindly left us a list of top ten things to see in Oz! I got back after our Subway and had a wee chat with Bozzie, and a beer then we hit the sack as we were leaving in the morning.

Hawaii was awesome, and I'll definetely be back at some point. It would be good to stay longer, but maybe next time!!

More Vancouver Pics

Scott riding a rail!
In a BC pub, havin a beer or 5
Jay, Deke, Shawn, Me, and Deaner in the pub
Me with a half ass 180 attempt

Dereck losing the plot and diving in the snow

Me and Skeebie on Whistler
A look of pain as I finish the Dirty Duo adventure race
Deke on the North Shore
Deke with a proper Ten Rapid

Me riding a North Shore skinny and descent
I nailed that bad boy, 8 feet to the transition
Deke riding the shore, with the protection of the purple helmet
Me doing more shore
Dean and Scott conquer the world


Dekester cotton tail

Whistler, the guys

Spokes, Wax, People, and Snow part III

Whistler!!
Okay so the last week consisted of two days in Whistler for Deke, and one day for me. The second day for Deke seemed to be a bit more interesting. We opted to go for Fresh Trax, you basically pay $15 and get to be one of the first people down the mountain on fresh powder, you also get an all you can eat breakfast....it was awesome getting to nail all that powder first thing in the morning, so many sections didn't have any tracks at all....virgin, and waiting for us! We got about 4 runs in before the slopes got really busy. One of the highlights of the day was this one section that needed us to bomb downhill in order to get enough speed to make it up the other side of the hill. Otherwise we'd be walking up with our boards. So I was hammering downhill when I noticed that there was a rope across the section. The rope was about 2 feet up off the snow....and it was there to prevent people launching off a 4 foot drop/cliff. Ooops, so only having a split decision to react I tried to jump it. No dice. The front of my board caught under the rope and sent me, without a word of a lie, about 8 feet through the air and my puir wee body dropped about 6 feet onto the snow. I landed on my hip and smashed my back off the snow which knocked all the wind outta me. I couldn't breathe let alone speak, scary moment. I've still got the bruise on my hip a week later. So, after getting up I realised I was feeling a bit dizzy, so opted to take it easy the rest of the day. Something Deke should've done. Instead he decided on what would amount to his last run of the day to fly past me and started straightlining past me. Unfortunately at this moment in time a woman who couldn't have been more than 130 lbs, and about 5" decided to cut left....and big Bozman in a very gentlemanly fashion took her out with an American Football like tackle...of course Bozzie weighs about 210 lbs and is 6"3....somehow she didn't get driven 5 feet into the snow, but she was pretty shaken.....not as shaken as Bozzie. I heard his first scream as he hit her, and thought it was her scream....the big jessie. The second was a much more manly grunt of pain. It turns out he'd somehow tweaked his knee.....it wasn't pretty. I kept asking him if he was okay, and he just didn't answer me. Not good! So he took it easy at the top of the Ski Hill with a cup of tea and a muffin, the jessie. Dean and I hit the board park and did a few rails and jumps....good day though!

Dirty Duo
So after having the runs and puking my brains out, practically giving myself a concussion in the first hour of snowboarding, now it was time to cycle a 30 km race having only been on a bike ride with Bill before I left Scotland, and my bike ride on Vancouver Island with Chris. That's two bike rides in 5 months since I seperated my clavicle from my sternum at Carron Valley. Can anyone say masochist? Well the deal is that the Dirty Duo is an Adventure race, where one person runs 25 km's and the other cycles 30kms. In theory there are inhumans who do both, but I tried not to see them, or think of them. The 30kms nearly killed me as it was. Thirty km cycle? Does taking the piss mean anything? Basically it turned out to be a 15km cycle, and a 15 km run up North Shore Mountains, all while running up and over roots and the odd set of stairs with your bike on your shoulder kinda ride. It was just mean. Well let's put it this way, my brother left half an hour after me, got lost and did an extra 7km and still finished only 10 mins behind me. So yeah, it hurt. It was fun though, and I don't think Dean and I came last...mostly due to a pretty good run by him!

Friends
Well the rest of my time was pretty much spent catching up with friends, I went for a walk through Lyn Canyon with Sarah, went for a meal with Kerrie, Camille and Vanessa, participated in a games night where boys beat the girls 3 games to none!!, and had a few beer with Bernard.....it was great just catching up with everyone! I was supposed to go for a bike ride with Chris and Paul on Burnaby mountain...but my body definetely thought otherwise....I also definetely drank too much beer, and have been pretty good at drinking less in Hawaii...kind of. There should hopefully be pictures up shortly that show a few more photos of Vancouver......that's it for now. Should be able to update you on Hawaii and Japan in a week or so when we get to Beijing and I can afford internet access!

Lighthouse Breweries
Special thanks to the guys at Lighthouse Breweries on Vancouver Island for the supply of beer during our stay, it definetely contributed to a more pleasant stay in BC! If you haven't tried their beer....do it! Race Rocks was pretty damn good!

Ciao, I'm off to catch a wave, crack a brew, and chill.

Spokes, Wax, People, and Snow Part I & 2

We have been in Vancouver for almost 3 weeks. So I'll break this down into weeks as it will be easier. So to start here is week 1 & 2

Week 1
We arrived in BC to a barrage of smiles! My mate Dean came to pick us up with my brother Jay, and friend Vanessa. It was great to see them! We went to the Foggy Dew for a pint to have a quick catch up. It was a great first two hours in BC!!

The next day Dereck and I went to the North Shore Mountains for some downhill biking. It was Derecks first time. To say he was nervous was an understatement. He was there with guys decked out in full body armour looking like they were going to war, and he was in shorts and a t-shirt with a groovy purple helmet. The "Shore" was good, we managed to visit a few times on Dean and Shawn's bikes. I managed to nail a 6-8 foot drop which scared the crap outta me on the way in, but what a feeling when I hit the transition about 4 feet out from the drop! Dereck did pretty well for his first time, and also managed to try his first see saw/teeter totter with tragic results as he burst his knee open!

Hiking! My brother Dereck and I joined my brother for a small hike from Lyn Canyon to Deep Cove along the Baden Powell Trail. It was a 13 km hike, and the plan was to camp over night and then descend to Deep Cove in the morning. It was a beautiful hike through some incredible forest scenery. It took us about 3 hours to get to Deep Cove, and we found a cool campsite and set up the tents, and made a wee fire to warm us. It was about 2 degrees when we set up, but must have dropped below zero cuz we woke up to snow on the tents and the ground! We pulled down the tents and headed down the last section of the trail into Deep Cove, got some hot drinks and wrapped up the adventure! Great couple of days!

We went for bubble tea with Shawn, Dean's girlfriend. If you've never had Bubble Tea, you need to try it! It's good, but the bubbles are kinda slimey and take a bit of getting used to...and it's cold, not hot! Try it! I went to the Na'am to catch up with a few friends, the Na'am is a great vegetarian restaurant, even if you're not veggie, it's great food! My mate Dean run's an adventure race called the Suburban Rush, it's an 8km run and a 20km cycle through forest trails. He needed a hand promoting it at the Vancouver Outdoors show, so Dereck and I helped out by trying to recruit racers for the race! It was a good laugh.

THE CHIEF!! This was definetely one of the highlights of the trip for me. The whole week was full of sunshine. The day we did the Chief was no different. About 10 of us and two dogs all trekked up the Chief to enjoy a great view, some funny stories, and a lot of fresh air and sunshine. Dereck and my brother managed to get up to one of the 3 cliffs, race down and make it back up to the other cliff we were on. I'm sure Dereck would've tackled the third even if it left his knees popping out their sockets. Afterwards we went to the Howe Sound Brewery for some beer and well earned grub! Great day!

We also went to see a hockey game, which was Derecks first live ice hockey game, he kept wanting to jump the ice and throw some body checks himself...he got a little excited. We went to Victoria which is a pretty little city on Vancouver Island. We met up with Chris, got a brewery tour, Chris (Vanessa's husband, but a great human in his own right) took me to "the dump" which is a series of cycle tracks, it was good cycling. Chris also took us on a brewery tour of his brewery "Lighthouse Breweries" and it was gooood. Thanks for the free beer dude! All I can say is drink lighthouse beer, my favourite beer -Race Rocks rocks!

Week 2

I went to see my cousins in Maple Ridge, Tommy and Patsy, as well as their kids, and their grandkid James. I'd never met him, but he's a pretty cute kid. We just caught up and had a few beer. The next day they took me for lunch in a restaurant with a microbrewery, it was some of the most unique beer I've ever had.....thanks Tommy! At the same time Dereck went snowshoeing on Seymour Mountain with Dean and a few other folk. I've never been snowshoeing, so a little envious. Sounds like he had a good time! I also got to catch up with a bunch of friends I used to work with at Teldon. It was great to see them all, and no-one has changed a bit. They're all as much trouble now as they were then.

So you're thinking where's the token Scott story? Well here it is. I went over to Sarah's one night to catch up, and after some pizza and wine I started to feel a little sick, so decided to lay off the wine. We were chatting away having a great wee blether when I started to feel a little worse, so I lay down on the sofa for about 5 minutes before bolting for the toilet. At this point my body had decided to overule my brain's decision to consume wine and pizza. It proceeded to eject the said substances into the toilet bowl. So uh Sarah, where were we? Conversation resumed....doh, I'll be......back......in a.....oh no. Ejection through upper portal imminent. Okay so this went on for a few hours until there was a slight change in the gameplan, my body decided the evacuation process could be accelerated by using the lower portal as well. So as my body decided to multi-task my life became a misery. Conversation was virtually impossible, all I could do was hope that my body wouldn't decide to evacuate the offending substances through both portals at the same time, and would continue to offer warning of any planned evacuations. The next time I was in the toilet I was a little worried about a double evacuation, and me being the planner that I am I saw that there was a kitty litter box in the closet....now known as plan B. Fortunately, plan B was not required.

The long and the short of it was that I was based on Sarah's sofa most of the night cuz it was 10 feet from the toilet, and I was in and out of the toilet from 7 that night to about 7 in the morning. 12 hours of not so much fun. The next morning I thought I was okay to get a lift back to my place, that wasn't quite the case, and as a result Sarah had to pull over in a construction site where I demonstrated my prowess in the art of projectile vomitting. Not exactly an Olympic Sport, but those construction boys gave me an 8.5. I pretty much slept the whole of the day and felt like a Taco Bell Chicken Soft Taco going two rounds in the ring with Mike Tyson. Not a good night!

I was supposed to be going up to Whistler for a couple of days for some snowboarding, however due to my current state, that wasn't an option. Dereck and my brother went up and Dean and I headed up the following day. More on that in the next segment!

Vancouver Photos

Dean, Sarah, Coen, and Jade on the Chief
Scott's got cabin fever
The Campsite in the morning
Chris, Dean, Vanessa and Scott on the way up the Chief

Scott and Deke in Victoria on Vancouver Island


The top of the Chief again and Chris
Chris and Deke in front of the historic Empress Hotel

Scott on the Lyn canyon bridge over the canyon (80 ft?)

Shannon Falls in Squamish
The Suburban Rush Outdoors Show Team

Serious Jay

On our way to the campsite in Deep Cove
The Giants Hockey Game....whoo hoo, hit him!

Tara and Dereck on Seymour mountain (snowshoeing)
Big Deke getting his ass kicked on snowshoes
After the camping, the walk into Deep Cove, very foggy
Deke playing the magical flute of Toubkal, get me outta here!
One of the other cliffs on the Chief, Deke is in there somewhere
Happy Travellers at Dean and Shawn's
The famous bubble tea, not for the squeemish
IT Geek hard at work in our bedroom!