sara.ringham@gmail.com
Posted Nov 13, 2008, 3:53 pm
Yep... that's me... what did you expect? Anything else? Well, as I said, I'm very small and very lightweight so it won't cost much to send me onto a new destination... Sara just wants to know I'll be safe with the people hosting me, she's gained a bit of an attachment to me! :-) I'm happy, it means I definitely will have a home to come home to when I'm done seeing the world!
I'd love to learn about... well, everything... also I'd love if you could put in the longitude and latitude of everywhere I go... if I go from say... Orange to Bathurst, then back to Orange, please put all that... it'll show where I've been and the distance I've traveled... if you need a sight to find those details... go to this site or just ask my mom! She'll be happy to help!
Well I'm off to Hawaii tomorrow sometime, my mom will take me and my new friend Josh and we'll be off! Hopefully the trip won't take too long... we can hope anyways, at least I'll have a travel companion! Write again soon mom! I'll miss you! <3
Posted Dec 2, 2008, 1:27 am
Posted Dec 28, 2008, 12:58 am
Rachael told me that she feels really bad about not being able to update my log until now. Her camera's been broken, and she finally got a new one. Yay! That means lots and lots of picture taking. She's only had a new and working camera for a few days, but she's already taken over 300 hundred pictures!
And tomorrow she's promised to take even more since we're going to the beach! Yay! I can't wait to go the beach. She said we're going to go snorkeling and maybe even try surfing! I can't wait!
Those two big dogs I'm pictured with are Rachael's golden retrievers and their names are Loki and Cyndir. They seem nice. I hope we can become real good friends!
I made two other friends too and their names are Bobbie and Josh. They're in the picture with me.
Posted Dec 28, 2008, 9:03 am
This is me (of course!) with Josh and Bobbie sitting with Cyndir. She was so friendly, she didn't want to stop cuddling with us!
Here I am hiding in their (Rachael & her hubby's) white Christmas Tree...
And here I am in the Christmas Tree with Josh and Bobbie. Can you see me?
And here we all are wishing everyone Happy Holidays! (Even though it's after Christmas, we're all still filled with lots and lots of Holiday spirit! No one's quite ready to let it go just yet!)
Earlier Rachael made her favorite-ist thing to eat in the whole world! Can you guess what it is? I had some too and it was absolutely delicious!
If you said Mac & Cheese, then you were right! Bobbie, Josh, and I all helped her make it!
After a nice long day of hanging out in the Christmas Tree, playing with Loki and Cyndir, and having some yummy mac & cheese, it's now my bedtime. I can't wait until tomorrow when we finally get to go to the beach!
Good night everyone!
Posted Mar 4, 2009, 10:46 pm
I arrived in Brazil. Ale, my host, said that I am very cute, I look more handsome live than in the pictures!
I met the family dog and looked through the window.
Posted Mar 6, 2009, 3:09 pm
I sent them my love too!
Posted Mar 7, 2009, 11:00 am
Yesterday Ale and her friend took me to the Pizza Hut.
I tasted a pizza flavor they created here, its called Brazilian flavor. You can see it right next to the cheese pieces! It has meat, onins, and other things I cant remember!
I also tasted the orange juice and talked about toyvoyagers with the big bear sitting next to us. I told him he is too big to be a toyvoyager!!
Posted Mar 7, 2009, 3:39 pm
Im so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here the weather is so hot, so Ale gave me this cap!
I look so handsome, and I can go out in the sun now!!!!
Posted Mar 13, 2009, 4:23 pm
Last week Ale was needing some new clothes, so she took me with her to the country's most popular clothing industry. Things there are VERY, I repeat, VERY cheap. She was carefull enough to picture me by the prices. 1 Real = app 0.5 Dolars. *
Of course, when you read it Lacoste, it is not really Lacoste... its all fake. But behind this very cheap industry lies one dark truth: most of them are made by semi-slaves from Bolivia. People who are poor there, are told there is a better life in Brazil, but when they arrive, they have to work for years to be able to pay the trip. Well, of course not all of these clothes are made like that. Some are ilegally brought from Paraguay (here you can buy 10 dollars "nike" shoes made in paraguay), or some of them are really all legal and everything, maybe 40% are legal.
I dont want you to think that who buys there is a bad person. You must remember that this is a poor country, 50 % of the people here lives with less than 1000 dollars a month. So it is not like that time when it emerged that Nike was using children to make their shoes, and everybody stopped buying from them. Here it is not a choice, people will either buy cheap clothes or will die of hunger!
In the first picture you can see the dvd seller. You can find any movie in there, they sell 2 dvds for 2 dollars. Thats why Blockbuster bankrupted here, who would rent a movie for 12 Real,s if you can buy one for 5, with the same quality ? Here everybody buys fake dvds, its no big deal. Being illegal here is just a detail, unlike in the developed world. Here anyone, any age can buy cigarettes, birth control pills, condoms, see porn movies, as long as you have the money. And believe it or not, Ale is 22 years old and in her entire life the youngest person she has ever known having a baby was a 20 year old girl. People who sell fake dvds are not bad people, they are just poor people trying to make a living.
The next one is my favorite. Here is very common people selling things in the stops. This man was selling roses. Look at his face, isnt it sad that someone his age has to work like that?
The last pictures are on the groceries store, it seems like we are in the flowers season!!
I hope you all enjoyed!!
*so devide the price you see by 2 to have the price in dollars...
Posted Apr 1, 2009, 12:03 am
Today Kazys has arrived. His mom suggested that we took some pictures by the fridge, so we did it!
Posted Apr 1, 2009, 12:12 am
Here are some pics we took a few days ago, when we went to the mall and met Karla and the TVs she is hosting.
This big rhino was so scary!
Posted Apr 9, 2009, 10:34 pm
The other day we went to a nearby town, and had lunch at this cool restaurant. Everything in there was made with peppers! I even had a drink with red berries and peppers and a pineapple with pink peppers juice. But Ale didnt let me drink to much of the first one, because it had alcohol and she didnt want me to get dizzy in the way back home.
Posted Apr 9, 2009, 10:37 pm
This is the view from Ale's kitchen window.
Posted Apr 10, 2009, 9:11 pm
Posted Apr 11, 2009, 2:59 pm
Today we had breakfast at Mcdonalds!
Posted Apr 12, 2009, 4:03 pm
Ale took us to the groceries store to see the chocolate easter eggs they have in there. They are hanging on every aisle! And yep, a man came in and told her she isnt allowed to take pics in there
so I guess she will just have to be more discrete next time with other toys! Everything is so colorful, can you find me in every picture?
She also showed me her building, the green one, and the avenue right next to it.
Posted May 5, 2009, 12:42 pm
I arrived in Porto Alegre yesterday, my travel wasn't sooo long but the mail service couldn't find Dejoara at home so I've been took to the central and she came after me!
There will be some photos soon.
Posted Jun 27, 2009, 6:15 am
Finally I've got some photos with Hedgie! I took it with my cell phone and just download it to my pc.
That's Hedgie when we first met!
Then, we did some things together... we watched some movies
Read some books
Looked thru the window
And of course, slept a little with Caquinho (he's Dejoara's teddy bear)
We've passed some time together but we couldn't take photos everywhere, because Dejoara's camera isn't working. I hope this few photos we took can be special in his journey, because for me it was.
Kisses
Posted Jul 4, 2009, 1:55 pm
I arrived in Brazil last Thursday but I still don't have any pictures =(
We are going to a park now and Marília promissed that I'll have good pictures to send to you later, okay?
I just wanted you to know that I'm safe.
Love,
Hedgie
Posted Jul 12, 2009, 2:00 pm
Marília told me that she has written to you to tell you about my travelog. She really took me to great places and updated my travelog, but we don't know what happened. It just disappeared. So, I'll tell you all the nice things I have been doing in Brazil.
I had so much fun last weekend! We went to Parque do Ibirapuera, a very famous park of São Paulo. It was very calm and relaxing, although it's the biggest park of the city!
This is us (Mortimer_, HolgiHH and me) arriving. They have some very nice paths and a big lake
There are many ducks there and they get very close to us because they know that the visitors will feed them. I didn't like them so much because they can be a little aggressive sometimes...
After walking a lot, we decided to rest, so we laid on the flowers and just watched the lake and the people playing around.
Of course Marília and Christian, her fiancé, also decided to lay, but they had a towel and didn't want to lay on the flowers.
On Sunday, we all walked almost 4 km and Marília and Christian showed us many things. We walked along this very beautiful avenue called Avenida Paulista:
There are some very nice places to stop by.
Last Wednesday, we went to a city called Ribeirão Preto, to visit Marília's friend, Rafaella. They met each other on the internet 6 years ago and became close friends.
This is the bus we took:
After traveling 4:30 hours, we saw Ribeirão for the first time:
Rafaella has 6 cats and a huge dog. Marília couldn't find them all together, but you can see some of the cats in this picture:
This is the dog, called Budy:
On Wednesday and Thursday night there was a dance festival in town. We all went to both of them and Rafaella danced on Thursday.
This is the Municipal Theater, where she danced, and then me looking forward for the festival to start:
Rafaella and her group danced very perfectly. I really enjoyed it! Marília took tons of nice pictures and I'm going to show you two of them. In the first one you can see Rafaella dancing in the front and in the second one you can see the whole group:
We also went to a small park, but Marília couldn't get nice pictures there =(
We came back home on Friday and yesterday we (Marília, Christian, Holgi, Hedgie and me) went to the movies to watch Transformers 2.
It has been rainy and cold out there. I wish the weather was better so we could hang out more. But I'm having lots of fun here, mom. You should visit Brazil!
Sorry again about my travelog.
Love,
Hedgie
Posted Jul 16, 2009, 8:13 pm
Yesterday I went with Marília and Christian to the Canadian Consulate. They applied for a visa because they're going to Canada for their honeymoon. I enjoyed going there because we saw a lot of modern buildings on our way. As you can see, the weather wasn't so great.
I also liked this bridge. It was built last year and it's already very famous in São Paulo. Its structure is so different!
Then Marília took us to her dad's place and we all took a picture with him because he looks just like Santa Claus. In fact he works as Santa Claus at Christmas time. He's very funny.
Every week, Marília studies English with her mom, Leonor. Two weeks ago, we saw Leonor planting:
And this is a picture of her plants yesterday. Isn't it nice? It's already growing =)
Finally a picture with the Brazilian flag. I really like their flag!
Well, now I have to go. We are going out with Marília and her friend.
I miss you, mom
Hedgie
Posted Jul 22, 2009, 6:48 pm
Marília is getting so busy! Her wedding day is getting closer and she still has lots of things to do. We've been helping her a lot, but I'll send you the pictures another day.
Last week, Marília took us to the top of one of the highest buildings of São Paulo. In the 35th floor (more than 160 meters high), there’s an observatory and you can see the downtown São Paulo and the surroundings. It was so nice!
Mortimer_ had already been there, so he showed us many things. You know it's not my first time in São Paulo, but I keep forgetting how big this city is.
This is me looking down. It was a little scary...
Last weekend we went to Christian's hometown, called São Carlos to visit his dad. His family has a very nice house there. We went to a huge university of the city. There are many buildings in this university and they even have a lake.
We all like this picture:
I'll come back soon, mom!
Love,
Hedgie
Posted Jul 28, 2009, 2:06 pm
I'm sorry I didn't come back earlier, but we have been doing many interesting things.
We helped Marília to finish her wedding invitations. It was a real team work: Mortimer_ wrote the names on the envelopes, HolgiHH attached the individual invitations to the bigger one and I put the invitations in the envelope.
Then we had some fun. Marília bought this tiny balls that you have to put in water for them to grow. It was so nice to watch them turn into big round balls! In this picture they are still dry and tiny:
In this one they're in water:
Some minutes after they were already growing:
And finally we had two ball pool for us to play.
At night, to relax a little, I decided to read "The Little Prince", or "O Pequeno Príncipe" in Portuguese. This is such a great book!
I think that's all. Marília is planning a trip for next week, so she has to use the computer now for her researches.
Love,
Hedgie
Posted Aug 3, 2009, 4:00 pm
Last weekend we went to São Carlos again, Christian's hometown. Getting away from São Paulo was so exciting! You will understand what I'm talking about when you take a look at this picture:
The weather in São Paulo is very bad, so it was great to watch a blue sky.
My first surprise was meeting some horses in the street. They were eating some grass very calmly, but Marília didn't allow us to get too close because they could be wild. I like the second picture: Christian made me look as if I were riding the horse.
Then Marília took us to see Christian's dad's garden. We saw a lot of interesting things. First you can see a banana plant. Did you know that the banana plant is actually the world's largest herb?
Unfortunately the bananas were still green and we couldn't eat them.
In this picture you can see a cassava (or manioc). Cassava is a root native to South America and you can prepare many dishes out of it.
This is another fruit native to Brazil (and Argentina and Paraguay). It's called jabuticaba or Brazilian Grape Tree. Marília told me that they are delicious, but they were also green so we couldn't eat them. When they get black, they are very sweet.
Then we saw some strawberries and climbed a tree.
And mom, just take a look at the size of this leaf! It's huuuuge.
Well, this was a VERY nice weekend!
We are going to travel on Wednesday morning and won't be back until Sunday night, so don't worry about me. Marília is taking good care of me.
Love,
Hedgie
Posted Aug 10, 2009, 10:19 pm
It's been a long time, huh?
I had the best week ever!
To celebrate their fourth year together, Marília and Christian decided to travel. Of course they took me, Mortimer_ and HolgiHH.
The journey was nice and we had some great views:
But there was a part of the road which was destroyed last year and we didn't know, so we got to a barrier and a guy let us go on so that we didn’t have to come all our way back to another road.
As I said, it was terrible. Just take a look at this picture and you’ll know why:
It was a relief when we finally got to Paraty, which is a historical small town in the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is a wonderful place to have some rest!
Then I saw the sea. The Atlantic Ocean, mom!!
This is our hotel room. It was very comfy.
The following day we sailed in a boat and visited a couple of islands. It was amazing!!
Look at the water’s color and all those fishes…
And this is the boat we took:
The next day we went to Trindade, a tiny, TINY town of Rio de Janeiro. There’s almost nothing in the town, but the beaches are truly gorgeous.
The weather in our first day in Trindade was a little disappointing: it was cloudy and a little cold. Anyway, we could see how beautiful the beaches were:
The following day was a lot nicer with the sun shining.
And yesterday we came back home.
What a wonderful week!
Posted Aug 12, 2009, 7:23 pm
Yesterday HolgiHH went to the USA.
We will miss him...
Love,
Hedgie
Posted Aug 18, 2009, 2:05 pm
As Marília's wedding gets closer, she gets busier. On August 29th, she'll have her bridal shower. That sounds nice, doesn't it?
Last Sunday, we went to Parque do Ibirapuera, that beautiful park we went to another day, to practice yoga.
There was an event called "Yoga pela Paz" or "Yoga for Peace". Everybody was relaxing and asking for peace. It was very interesting!
Yours,
Hedgie
Posted Oct 7, 2009, 1:38 pm
I'm finally back. Marília says she is terribly, terribly sorry. First she couldn’t update my travelog because she was a little busy. Her computer broke and she lost all the pictures she took. Then she lent her camera to her mom, who was traveling.
Now I can finally share some of the great things I’ve been doing with her. We have being mostly helping her with the arrangements to her wedding [it’s going to be next Sunday!].
In Brazil, as it can be very warm, people usually have a fake cake on their weddings. This fake one stays on a decorated table, while the real one is kept cold in a fridge. The couple just pretends to cut the fake one and then the waiters bring the cold one from the kitchen.
This cake is very expensive, so Marília asked her dad, me and Mortimer if we could help her to build a fake cake. Of course we agreed.
First we had to cover some Styrofoam with gum paste (biscuit).
We watched Marília’s dad stretching the paste
And then I said that I was ready to help.
In the end, it didn’t look that beautiful, but it was just the beginning.
After a long, long time of hard work, he had the three floors ready. We had to wait 2 more days for it to dry.
Above the fake cake, people usually put a couple’s miniature. It’s also very expensive to get one done, so Marília decided to do it herself, even though she hadn’t done anything like that before.
First Christian:
Then Marília:
And this is how the cake looks like today. Isn’t it beautiful?
Marília is very thankful so after all that hard work, she took us to Mc Donald’s and Mortimer_ and we shared a Big Mac with red fruit juice,
we visited the subway,
had a walk on a beautiful and very hot day,
Met a huge and a bit scary new friend,
And watched a great sunset through Marília’s brother’s window
I miss you, mom!
Love,
Hedgie
Posted Oct 14, 2009, 3:36 am
today I arrived in Canada, it’s so COOOOLD
. After Marilia handed Mortimer and myself over to smaug we met sammino who welcomed us in smaug’s pocket . Apparently he is a stay-at-home TV and he immediately told us that it was too cold to go straight home and we needed to gather some strength. So, first, he invited us for some drinks
And a good supper
With a full belly we felt like drinking a bit more...
...and when the pints were empty we upgraded to a jug
Maybe we exaggerated a bit...
I don’t remember much else of the night. I just know that at one point I woke up at home and met all the other TVs staying here. Lysander comes from Scotland, Ronnie from Spain, Nathalie from Germany and there is also Sully Monster, one of your TVs. How funny to meet another Aussie here in Canada
. sammino said that it was rude having been out drinking without the others, so we had a few more rounds all together at home
Posted Oct 18, 2009, 8:37 pm
Today we were all still feeling a bit lightheaded after all the drinking last night
. smaug actually noticed that Mortimer was even too lightheaded and needed urgent surgery before the head came off completely . Of course, we TVs all gathered around the surgery theatre to help.
I’ll spare you the details of the operation; luckily it was successful and when he woke up he was feeling fine
.
Later in the afternoon we thought that we might go out for a walk, but it was still cold and snowy so we decided to spend the day nice and warm at home just looking out of the window
.
Posted Oct 26, 2009, 3:33 am
It’s been a bit boring around here over the last fortnight as smaug was too busy to take us anywhere
. The only event worth mentioning is the arrival of a new guest last weekend. His name’s Henry-Bo and he is visiting from Germany. As always we all gave him a warm welcome .
Yesterday we were hoping to do something, but it was snowing again in the morning
,
...so we just spent the day planning future trips.
Eventually today the weather was good, so we went for a quick drive in the morning towards Kananaskis Country
. First we took a picture of Kananaskis Valley...
...then we stopped at this falls...
...and well. The well was really nice, but fully filled with soil so there was really no risk of falling inside
.
On the way back we stopped to take a picture at Barrier Lake. The lake is apparently famous because it served as Alkali Lake in the X-man movies
.
Later in the afternoon smaug had to do some work so we stopped at his office where, to keep us quiet, he damped us at the window with some food
. Nothing ever likely to feature on the Michelin Guide, but it was edible.
When we went home we found out that Monsters, Inc. was on TV. So Sully Monster told us something about his previous life (before becoming a TV) as a movie star
. Most of the other TVs were quite surprised to find out he is such a famous celebrity .
Posted Nov 2, 2009, 4:01 am
Today the weather was wonderful here in Calgary
, so smaug decided to take us out for a trip to the mountains, but as we left the prairies and approached Banff National Park we were greeted by a mix of rain, snow and heavy clouds . Still, as we could see some blue gaps in the sky we headed North hoping that the situation improved. To our supreme disappointment we just entered a thick snowfall with no real sign of improvements on the way. The road conditions were getting actually a bit tricky .
Eventually we just headed back trying to take some wintry picture here and there when the gaps in the clouds allowed it. Here I was at Bow Lake with Crowfoot Mountain in the background...
...and here at Hector Lake.
This is a famous bend just south of Lake Louise were road, railway and river are very close to each other and it is a typical location for a picture. Ideally there would be a train passing by and a sunny view of the mountains...neither of which was really available today
.
Later we just run from the storm and headed back home where we were greeted again by a sunny blue sky and spring-like temperatures
.
Posted Nov 4, 2009, 3:50 am
Today we said goodbye to Sully Monster who is moving to his new host. Last night we all gathered around to wish him a safe trip
...
...and, of course, we ended up spending the whole night chatting
. It was nice to spend some time here with another one of your TVs .
Posted Nov 11, 2009, 7:14 pm
today the weather here in Calgary was gorgeous so we thought we were going for some nice trip, but apparently it was snowing on the mountains
, so, to avoid ending up in another blizzard, smaug decided to just have a walk here in town along the Bow River . At one point we found a platform over the river bank where we could take a couple of pictures...looking upstream...
...and downstream.
Later on we found out that the footpath that we were supposed to follow was closed, so we went up an another small road that climbed the hill on the side of the river. It was mainly walking between the trees, but we could occasionally get a glimpse of the river below us and of downtown in the distance.
When we were amost at the top we found another gap from where we could see downtown,
But after that we ended up between some houses and, since it was getting very windy, we just decided to head back home.
Posted Nov 19, 2009, 5:37 am
This week a new guest arrived! Her name is Lucy K and she’s from Germany...and she brought some sweets for us, how kind of her
!
The rest of the week nothing really happened, but today it was my first birthday (at least first since I was reborn as a TV
) and all the other TVs gathered around to sing Happy Birthday for me .
Later in the day, instead of getting a big cake for the celebrations
, smaug decided to take us for a walk in the forest in the ElbowValley, not far from Calgary. The trail was wide and not really steep, but it was mostly within the trees.
I crossed a few frozen streams like this one...
...and occasionally had the chance to see the surrounding mountains
.
Later, we found ourselves on a bank of the Elbow River...that gives the name to the valley.
And this is the river again from the shore.
As you can see it was getting dark and we reached the car just before nightfall. I was so tired when we eventually arrived back home
.
Bye
Hedgie
Posted Nov 23, 2009, 4:46 am
Today smaug took us out for a walk. We went to Lake Minnewanka, not far from Banff. The lakeshore trail is one of smaug’s favourites in winter as even with the snow it is usually passable and safe. smaug was wondering if the lake had already started freezing...not the case as you can see.
After a bit we crossed this small canyon called Stewart Canyon. And it was frozen up
.
And in the distance you can see the lake.
Here we are back close to the shoreline looking east...
...and west.
The trail follows the lake shore up the easternmost point for more than 20km, but we just followed it for a couple of hours and turned back. We passed again close to the mouth of Stewart Canyon.
This is where the canyon’s ice meets the lake’s water
.
And here is another shot of the lake.
On the way back to the car we noticed that someone built a big inukshuk on a beach, so we took a picture with it and the lake behind us. Well, it desn't look so big in this picture
, but it is just behind Henry-Bo's head .
And finally, while already nice and warm in the car, we got a final shot of the lake from its westernmost point.
Smaug told us that in few weeks the lake will probably be frozen, but it will take a bit longer before the ice is thick enough to walk on it. Can’t wait to see that
!
Posted Dec 6, 2009, 5:14 am
It’s been a quite boring around here recently
as smaug was a bit busy. We had hope to go somewhere this weekend, but on Friday the weather played funny and during the evening commuting hour Calgary roads turned into a giant ice-rink with cars almost unable to turn or stop even at the slowest speed and pedestrians struggling to stay on their feet on the sidewalks (should have been funny to be out there ). Of course the whole city got stuck in massive gridlock and smaug took more than 2 hours to get home (compared with the usual 15min). So, when he eventually arrived home, he told us that he had already enjoyed enough driving for the whole weekend .
But today he decided that, with the real winter approaching, there were far too many useless clothes still around the wardrobe and it was time to put them away and tidy up a bit around. sammino told us that this meant that the house was going to be a total mess (even worse than the usual one
) in a matter of minutes, so we got really excited . First we helped getting out some boxes.
Then we opened them...hmmm, they looked a bit too full to get other clothes in there.
But, as sammino foretold, soon clothes started coming out of the boxes (instead of going in
) and they got scattered everywhere. We decided that the most interesting items were the cycling and football jerseys, so we started playing with them.
But after a while smaug must have decided that we were not being helpful
, so he suggested that we might had more fun surfing a bit internet and to encourage us out of the way he even offered us some ice-cream .
It sounded a bit as a polite way to get rid of us, but the ice-cream was very good
.
Posted Dec 11, 2009, 4:27 am
Today there was a big snowfall here in Calgary
. It started in the morning and became heavier during the day, with strong winds too, wow . So, since smaug was busy first at work and then trying to make his way back from work , we TVs spent most of the day chatting and looking at the snow from the comfort of the living room . Even the balcony, that is quite well sheltered, was soon white with snow.
Later we decided to rummage in the storage room and found some Christmas lights.
We particularly liked the ice-cubes lights...
...and the snowball ones (very appropriate to the current weather
)
Hopefully smaug will allow us to help him in putting them up
!
Posted Dec 14, 2009, 2:25 am
Today we told smaug that we were bored of staying at home and wanted to go out somewhere. He suggested that maybe we should have a look out of the window first...hmmm, al covered in ice...can’t see anything
.
We wondered if that was supposed to be a subtle message to discourage us, but it takes more than a frozen window to scare off some bored TVs, so out of we went
. Oh my, it was bone-rattling cold, almost -30C , it felt like being Dr Zhivago! But we have a pride, so we went on and walked along the Bow River.
In this section of the river the surface has not completely frozen yet, so the sludgy mix of ice and water is still more than 20C warmer than the surrounding air and causes this strange steamy fog
.
As you can see the footpath wasn’t really crowded... smaug pointed out that few people (unless they needed to) were insane enough to be out and about in this weather
.
A bit further downstream we reached a section of the river that was almost completely frozen.
We also decided to play a bit in the snow
. It was so powdery that even us TVs were almost sinking in it.
Eventually smaug said that his right hand was flirting with frostbite
(due to the fact that operating the camera with a glove on was kind of impossible), so he decided to head back home. About time, my nose was totally frozen and about to fall off !
Posted Dec 21, 2009, 11:58 pm
This evening smaug had to be in Banff, so we TVs accompanied him. On the way we stopped to meet this herd of Elks
.
As taking a picture focusing on both us and the elks didn’t work, smaug decided to take a zoomed version of the above photo showing only a part of the herd.
We suggested that we could get closer and meet them
, but smaug explained us that elks get a bit annoyed when people approach them and he didn’t fancy spending a few lively moments being chased down by a deer taller and massively heavier than him .
Since we were a bit early for supper, we went to have a look at Lake Minnewanka. You might rememeber that last time we have been there (about a month ago) it was still a…lake. Well, today, thanks to the cold weather, it was a massive slab of ice
.
Smaug said that the ice would probably support the weight of the TVs, but their host might not be so lucky, so it will be a few more weeks before we can walk on the ice.
On the way down to Banff we stopped taking a picture with another frozen lake and Mt. Rundle in the background.
Unfortunately, once we made it to Banff, we were not allowed to attend the supper, but we found a nice window from where we could look at the mountains while chatting all the evening
.
Posted Jan 2, 2010, 7:32 pm
today a new guest arrived
. His name’s Michel and he is a white bear from Germany. sammino went to pick him up at the airport and then introduced him to us all.
Later, since his trip apparently had been far from smooth, we helped Michel to recover with some Timbits, and, of course, we provided help in eating them
.
Posted Jan 2, 2010, 8:55 pm
Today we took Michel out for his first trip in the Mountains. As it was a bit cold we convinced smaug to take pictures from inside the car
.
Here we were entering the Bow Valley.
While here we were reaching the gate of Banff National Park.
Once in the Park we had a lovely view over Cascade Mountain.
Then we took the road to Lake Minnewanka, but we didn’t meet any elk.
And eventually we reached the Lake.
Later this evening we were allowed to taste a typical Christmas cake from northern Italy, a pandoro. Not sure how smaug managed to find one here in Canada, but it was delicious
.
Posted Jan 2, 2010, 9:36 pm
Today smaug took us out to visit a place not too far from Calgary called Elbow Falls, where the Elbow River forms some nice (guess what!?) falls
.
Here I was just downstream of the falls. (No, there are not ice falls: although it is very well hidden, there is also some “liquid” water coming down
).
And this is the river flowing away in a nice little canyon
.
Later we played a bit in the snow, but it was freezing cold and we soon make our way for the heat of the car
.
Posted Jan 3, 2010, 10:33 pm
Happy New Year
!
Today the weather was fine and it wasn’t even too cold (-15C
), hence smaug decided that it was a good idea to have a walk in the forest to try burning some of the excessive food eaten over the last couple of weeks. So we TVs went too, working as ballast in the rucksack . We spent most of the day under tree cover and it was a bit too dark to take photos, but we still found a couple of points where we could take a few decent shots .
Posted Jan 3, 2010, 11:03 pm
Today we were all a bit sad as three TVs are leaving Calgary. Ronnie and Lysander are going back home in Spain and UK, while Henry-Bo is moving to his next host in Hong Kong.
So we all gathered together to wish them a safe journey
.
Posted Jan 10, 2010, 7:56 pm
Over the last couple of days temperatures here in Calgary crept over freezing point for the first time in weeks, it was really nice and warm
! To take advantage of this unexpected spell of summerish weather, today we went for a hike around Lake Minnewanka...where temperatures were not that summerish at all .
On the way to the lake we met again the elks.
Since they are often at this spot along the road, we decided that they are probably paid by the park tourist board to attract tourists
, but they are cute, aren’t they?
As you can see the lake was nicely frozen...
...and the path wasn’t in much better condition.
At one point we had to cross this frozen stream that looked quite slippery...
...and the little bridge crossing it didn’t give us much more confidence.
But somehow we got across, and ended up at this junction where we found this sign: grizzly bears
!!!!
Smaug said that we were not entering that area today and, anyway, all the bears were likely to be asleep for winter. I hoped he was right. Eventually we reached our destination, a bend in the lake about 10km from the parking lot.
Here you can see the “beach” behind me,
The lake looking upstream...
...and downstream.
Everything was frozen or covered with snow. On the way back it was getting a bit darker so we didn’t take any more photos and, luckily, we didn’t meet any grizzly.
Posted Jan 11, 2010, 12:54 am
Today we said goodbye to one of the guests here. Nathalie is moving to her next host in Russia so we all gathered together to wish her a safe journey
.
Maybe I’ll meet her again somewhere around the world
.
Posted Jan 19, 2010, 4:53 am
Today smaug had to do some work so, since we were a bit bored, we followed him to the office. As he was busy with his stuff, we started messing around. We tried to call home but smaug didn’t tell us the code to get the external line, so we just managed to make ring every phone in the office
.
Then we played a bit with the screens and the plotter.
We even had a look at the books, but there was nothing interesting.
So we ended up sitting next to the window and chatting the whole afternoon...that was fun
.
Posted Jan 20, 2010, 8:24 pm
Today a new guest arrived here in Calgary
! Smaug didn’t tell us anything about new arrivals so we were quite surprised when he told us that there was an envelope that we might like to check. So we got very curious and gathered all around the envelope, apperently it came from the States.
As we opened it a little head peeped out of the enveope. It was a Dutch rabbit called Nijntje
.
We were all very happy to have a new friend here so we started chatting and she told us of her previous journeys, she’s even been Voyager of the Week recently
.
Posted Jan 26, 2010, 3:27 am
The “warm” spell that we enjoyed over the last few weeks is gone. We are back to cold weather and snow...perfect weather for chatting in the warmth of the house
.
So when today smaug told us that it was time to go for a walk we all wished him a nice day and recommended that he brought back some sweets
.
Alas, he meant that it was time for us to go for a walk, so he dragged us along the river path
. The river is covered with ice.
Somewhere the pressure lifted the ice and created some strange ice-ridges in the middle of the river. Maybe you can see one in the background.
Eventually we came back home where we spent the evening surfing the net...it was much nicer inside
.
Posted Feb 9, 2010, 4:24 am
Today a new TV arrived here
. Smaug mentioned (for once ) that someone was on his way but without giving us any detail, so we got really excited when the parcel arrived.
And it turn out that that our new friend is Dean, a horse from the USA
. He brought us some lovely sweets and a nice card from North Carolina .
Apparently he is just back from China, so we are very curious to hear about his trip, plenty to chat about
.
Posted Feb 27, 2010, 9:07 pm
Today we watched a bit of Winter Olympics on TV. First we followed the men downhill, the biggest event of the games
. I wanted to cheer on the Aussies but I'm afraid that they are not really good at skiing , so I just enjoyed the show .
Later we watched some cross country skiing.
In the afternoon the weather was quite nice so smaug took us out for a walk
. First we went to see the Saddledome. The arena is the home of the Calgary Flames hockey team, but it also hosts other sports, concerts and, during the stampede, you can find games with cattle and horses in there .
On the other side we could see downtown Calgary with the Calgary Tower.
Then it started getting darker and we went home where we watched some more Olympics on TV
.
Posted Feb 27, 2010, 9:55 pm
Tomorrow Lucy K will travel to her next host, she is going to Lithuania
. So tonight we gathered together to wish her a safe trip .
Posted Mar 8, 2010, 4:14 am
Today it was Mortimer_'s birthday, so this morning we all sang happy birthday for him
.
Later smaug and sammino arranged some special cheese meal for him.
It was hard work, but, with some little help
, he somehow managed to finish it .
Later we decided to watch a movie
. Smaug recently got his new zone-free DVD player so we tried to set it up....without much success .
After the failure with the DVD we sat down to chat a bit. Michel received last week a postcard from his mum and took a chance to tell us something about his hometown, Hamburg. It must be a nice place, I hope I’ll go there one day
.
Posted Mar 12, 2010, 5:01 pm
Today smaug had to drive through Banff National Park and we went with him
. He was a bit in hurry, but the day was so nice that he wanted to take some pictures of us and so stopped briefly around Banff.
Here you can see the Bow Valley behind me…
…while this is Cascade Mountain
.
Hopefully next time we pass here we’ll be able to take a few more photos
.
Posted Mar 14, 2010, 3:25 am
A new guest arrived today
. We were very curious when we saw that smaug came back home with a parcel.
And, after opening the envelope, we found out that our new friend is Etwas a ghost from Germany. He arrived directly from Russia and brought over a nice card and some lovely Russian chocolate, how nice
.
We wanted to know everything about his travels, but he is a bit tired after such a long trip, I guess we’d better let him get some rest
.
Posted Mar 19, 2010, 2:46 am
Today we said goodbye to Michel who is travelling to his next host in China, how exciting
! We all wished him a safe journey, hopefully it won’t take too long for him to get there .
Posted Mar 26, 2010, 5:39 pm
smaug told us that today we are going on holiday
, so this morning we helped him in preparing the luggage. We don’t really know where we are going yet , but we are very happy that, despite the main bag being fairly empty, we haven’t been put inside it to fill it up: we are travelling in the carry-on bag instead .
See you soon
.
Posted Mar 27, 2010, 1:37 pm
Guess what? I found out my destination: after a long, very long, and mostly uneventful trip I arrived between the mountains of Northern Italy
. Yesterday we had some excitement when, at the security controls in Calgary, they decided to have a closer look at smaug’s carry-on bag and we excitedly popped out of it earning him plenty of odd looks . One of the officers even decided that Dean was in desperate need of some grooming and brushed him with some sort of dust sweeper . The flight only highlight is that while we were crossing over Greenland we enjoyed a wonderful northern lights show . It was so cool: just like curtains of light moving in the night sky. Pity the photos we tried to take didn’t really come out any better that some dark blur .
Anyway, here in Trento we had a quick look out of the window: there’s plenty of green around and even a small river right here next to the house
.
Well, I am sure I will have a chance to explore around soon, now we are all a bit jet lagged so we are going to sleep
.
Posted Mar 27, 2010, 5:22 pm
Today we started exploring around here. First we got a good breakfast of cookies and hot chocolate to get the necessary strength
.
smaug took us to a to a little village near Trento. The village lies in a sort of balcony on the side of the mountain and on one side sits at the top of a 200m high rock wall overlooking the town
. From here you have a wonderful view of downtown Trento.
You can also see the valley heading south.
Later we went a bit higher up the mountain to a stretch of road nicknamed “7 tornanti”, that in English would sound like “7 hairpins”. It’s called like that because there are 7 hairpins in a very short stretch of road that, as you can guess, looks very “curvy”
.
From one of the hairpins you can see the valley again, heading north this time.
Posted Apr 10, 2010, 6:44 pm
Today was a gorgeous sunny day and we took a walk along the river. From here you could see the place where we were yesterday, the top of that rock wall in the background.
At one point we managed to scramble down the bank and took a picture from the middle of the river
.
Before going back home we visited the front yard of a little church built on a hill near home. The church itself is not anything interesting, but the view over the valley is really beautiful
.
Posted Apr 10, 2010, 7:54 pm
Who ever said that Italy is a sunny country? It’s been raining for the last two days
! Since we were getting a bit bored, today we explored a bit the house where we are staying. First sammino introduced us to some of his friends here. There is a big bald eagle...
...and two equally big owls. They were a bit upset that we woke them up in the middle of the day
, but they let us take a picture with them.
Later we met this interesting frog: apparently his job is to sit on the floor and croak whenever someone enters the door.
Then we found this old atlas. It must be old indeed, it still says that this part of Italy is part of the Austrian Empire
.
At the end of our exploration we found this clock: sammino told us that it’s been broken for ages and there is no plan as yet to fix it: pity, it must be creepy hearing it at midnight
.
Posted Apr 11, 2010, 3:31 am
The weather did not even slightly improve over the last couple of days so we are still stuck at home
. So, today we decided to entertain ourselves with a bit of gambling by playing the roulette . That was good fun.
Later we wanted to engage in something more challenging and we organized a checkers tournament. It was a real battle of minds and, of course, I was the best
.
After so much playing we needed some food
, so we had a typical Easter cake. It’s called colomba: that means “dove”, I guess due to a supposed to be bird-like shape...maybe with a lot of imagination . Anyway, it was delicious .
Posted Apr 12, 2010, 3:21 am
Although we are still waiting for news about the sun
, today we had good reason to celebrate: there was a special Easter egg just for us TVs .
Reaching the chocolate was a bit of a challenge: we laboured our way past the wrapping just to find another layer of it
.
But, eventually, me managed to get the egg open
.
It was delicious
!
Posted Apr 18, 2010, 11:06 pm
Today the sun reappeared in the sky after almost a week of rain
, so we decided to go out for a tour around town. First we started up the slopes on the side of the valley. Here you can see “Trento’s mountain”: it’s called Monte Bondone, and the ski slopes lying on the other side of it can be reached from town in about 20 minutes drive.
While here we were looking north up the valley.
As we drove by we saw some secondary valleys and more mountains in the background.
At one point there were only steep forested slopes and rocky peaks above our heads
.
By some kind of magic
we emerged back in the main valley a few km south of Trento. Here we could take a look at this nice castle (it doesn’t look like, but it is actually very big).
Before heading back home, smaug took us up a little road on the opposite side of the valley from which we could have a look at the vineyards on the valley floor....I wonder if we’ll have a chance to taste some of the wine
.
Posted Apr 19, 2010, 12:15 am
My (wet
) Italian holiday is coming to an end. Today we helped smaug preparing his luggage and tomorrow early in the morning (very, very, very early in the morning ) we will start heading back to Calgary.
See you soon
.
Posted May 3, 2010, 2:58 am
It was like Christmas this week
! Yesterday Pepita (one of smaug’s TVs) arrived back home to rest for a few days....and she brought a lot of lovely sweets with her .
And today a new guest arrived: Spooky, a nice dog from Japan
!
I guess we’ll have plenty to chat about for a few days
.
Posted May 3, 2010, 4:09 am
Today the weather was quite nice (after the blizzards of earlier this week
) so smaug took us out for a short walk in the woods . We spent most of the time under the trees encouraging smaug while he was labouring his way in the fresh snow .
But when he stopped to rest we played a bit in the snow by ourselves
.
At one point we found a place with a good view over the valley.
But those clouds in the distance were a bit concerning, so we decided that it was enough for the day and went back to the car.
Posted May 11, 2010, 2:16 am
Guess what? It’s been snowing again for most of the week, and we are in May
!
But today the weather was a bit better, so we went out for another short walk in the woods
. Some sections had plenty of fresh snow.
On the way we found a couple of nice spots where we could take a photo.
Posted May 11, 2010, 3:03 am
Today we said goodbye to Pepita who is travelling to her next host, so we wished her a safe journey
.
Posted May 15, 2010, 5:42 am
Today smaug came back home and told me that I have been invited to a trip to Fiji
and will leave tomorrow to make sure I don’t miss my flight. So tonight I picked up my tag and travelling hat and said goodbye to all my friends here .
After travelling together for such a long time it was a bit hard to say goodbye to Mortimer_, but maybe we'll meet again in some other part of the world
.
And sammino gave me a big goodbye hug wishing me great fun in Fiji
.
Posted May 19, 2010, 4:58 am
Posted May 24, 2010, 3:14 am
This is Waterfront Station. It used to be just a train station, but now many different methods of public transportation end here.
The inside is very pretty.
Gastown is the oldest part of Vancouver. Most of it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1886, and now it is mostly stores for tourists and the shops of independent clothing designers.
This is the statue of 'Gassy Jack', who is considered the founder of Gastown. He ran a saloon that was destroyed in the fire.
This is the famous Gastown Steamclock, a huge tourist attraction. It runs on steam and was the first of its kind in the world. It chimes every 15 minutes and steam pours out.
This is Victory Square, Vancouver's main war memorial.
This building is apparently haunted. The architect who designed it killed himself before the building was completed, and they say that his ghost haunts the central staircase.
Posted May 24, 2010, 3:15 am
A lion guards the gate on each side. Originally they each had a ball in their mouths representing prosperity, but they have been stolen.
This is the Jack Chow building, the narrowest building in the world. It was built by a man known to Vancouverites as Sam Kee. At one point he owned more land in the area, but the city demolished his building to widen the road, leaving him with a strip of land just under five feet in width. Rather than sell what remained of his property for practically nothing, Sam had another building built, one that fit into the strip of land. For years the building belonged to a silk merchant, but now it's leased by an insurance company.
This bell, called the West Han Dynasty Bell, is in Chinatown to commemorate Chinese history in Vancouver and marks the first Chinese settlement in the area. It was a gift from Vancouver's sister city, Guangzhou in China, and it was modelled after a bell found in Guangzhou.
I visited the Dr Sun Yat Sen garden.
Many animals live in or visit the garden, like these giant fish. Can you see the turtle?
SunnyHH and I played in the bamboo for a while.
Posted May 24, 2010, 3:16 am
This is the convention centre and it is huge! During the Olympics this is where most of the international media was based.
This sculpture was at the front corner of the building. It is called The Drop.
Here is Vancouver Harbour.
Stanley Park is the largest park in Vancouver.
On the other side of the convention centre was this huge orca sculpture that looked like it was made out of blocks.
This is the Olympic torch. Because the Olympics are over, it is no longer lit.
Near the convention centre is the Marine Building. At one point it was the largest building in the British Empire and it is the best example of art deco architecture on the West Coast of North America.
Posted May 24, 2010, 3:17 am
The restaurants also tend to have antiques on the walls. This one, and the one in Downtown Vancouver both have a real trolley car that has been converted so that you can sit and eat in it.
Abby's family was late, so we studied while waiting for them.
Mmmm, they sure know their stuff here! We shared the 'manager's favourite' spaghetti, which is spaghetti with your choice of two kinds of sauces. This is mizithra and butter, and clam sauce. Yum!
Posted Aug 5, 2010, 6:44 am
At the Vancouver airport, everyone met up at the Bill Reid sculpture.
Once through security, we had a beer while waiting for the boarding call.
On the plane! Abby got us a window seat.
This is about ten seconds after the plane took off. Not much to see.
Oh look! The top of Mount Baker in Washington!
There was no movie or anything, so we played a few games of cribbage.
This is what the view of the United States looked like for most of the trip.
Posted Aug 5, 2010, 6:47 am
This is the gate. There is not enough seating for everyone.
Finally we are on the plane. It is huge! We are sitting in one of the very middle seats and there are ten seats to a row, 69 rows, and also a second level.
The plane was delayed for three hours because of a mechanical error, so they served us our evening snack before we left LA.
We also watched the first half of Avatar before the plane lifted off.
After we finally got going, we got some sleep.
Posted Aug 5, 2010, 6:51 am
We watched The Princess and the Frog during breakfast.
A few more hours to go...
This is my first view of Fiji from the airport!
Posted Aug 5, 2010, 6:54 am
This is where I am staying in Suva, at the Tropic Towers motel. There are four prople to a room. This is the common area.
There is some interesting art on the wall.
The view from the balcony.
The pool (our balcony is at the very top right corner of the photo).
The roof.
Posted Aug 5, 2010, 10:15 pm
This is the view on the walk down from the hotel.
The waterfront. There are no beaches on this side of Viti Levu.
This is the old parliamentary buildings, and the sight of the 2000 coup. Now they are just used for various governmental offices. Did you know that when the coup happened, there was a field school just like ours that was there? It must have been scary.
This used to be the nicest hotel in Suva, but it has fallen into disrepair. Apparently they are looking for someone to fix it up.
This is Albert Park, next to the old parliamentary buildings. This is where a lot of rugby and cricket games are played. As you can see, cricket is being played today.
Posted Aug 5, 2010, 10:17 pm
This is the Fiji Museum, where the students of the field school did lots of research for the paper everyone had to write.
Posted Aug 5, 2010, 10:21 pm
Oh no, I am being eaten by a giant fish! Just kidding.
We had some very interesting lectures in this room over two days, about ethnobiodiversity, Fijian sociopolitical relations, and the impact of Girmit, which was the indentured labour system in place from 1879 to 1916 that brought 60000 Indians to Fiji.
It started to rain during one of the lectures. When it rains here, it really rains.
Posted Aug 7, 2010, 5:54 am
We're here!
This is the Ratu's house. You have to have your shoulders and knees covered (the proper dress is to wear a sulu, and in this day and age, a t-shirt), and you cannot wear shoes inside the houses.
This is the itinerary for the day. We didn't quite follow it, but it gives you a basic idea of what happened.
These women were in the next room making the mats that we sat on. They are made of pandanus leaves.
This is where the sevusevu happened. Sevusevu is a ceremony where guests present kava to the ratu, the ratu accepts the kava, everyone drinks kava, and then everyone is welcomed into the village and becomes a part of it.
That big bowl is where they made the kava. The roots of the kava are pounded into powder, the powder is put into a cloth, then water is poured overtop and the kava is strained through. The result is something that looks and tastes like muddy water, but it makes your mouth numb, and if you drink enough of it, you become very relaxed and lazy. During the sevusevu, Abby drank my bowl of kava for me, possibly to spare me from the taste.
After the sevusevu, the women gave everyone tea and cakes. Most of these cakes are made with cassava and they were all really good. There was also corn bread and banana bread.
Posted Aug 7, 2010, 5:57 am
The village makes their living by exporting dalo (taro). This field was planted recently.
This field is ready to be harvested.
Here, they are showing everyone how they make their houses, out of mud brick. This is the oldest house in the village (and where the unmarried teenagers hang out).
Do you see the man climbing the coconut tree? He was very fast.
They prepared coconuts for all of the guests. Yum!
A view of the village.
Some children performed a dance for us.
Posted Aug 7, 2010, 6:00 am
There are no pictures of the primary school children due to site regulations, but they performed songs for us. This is at the high school, where some people in our group gave speeches about the importance of continuing education.
Posted Aug 7, 2010, 6:02 am
Next was the entertainment portion. A lot of kava was drank, and there was music and dancing (we were too busy dancing to get any pictures).
Time to go home now. Everyone had one last bowl of kava, then we said our goodbye speeches. What a great day.
Posted Aug 8, 2010, 5:32 am
Posted Aug 8, 2010, 5:35 am
You can also buy a few other things, like flowers.
Posted Aug 8, 2010, 5:37 am
Posted Aug 8, 2010, 5:40 am
In here we had lectures on Lapita sites in Fiji (the Lapita peoples were the first inhabitants of Fiji, arriving approximately 3050 BP [Before Present, which is about 1950]), South Pacific linguistic shifts, the different types of sand dunes in the Sigatoka Delta (which is where the excavation will take place), and the archaeology of the Sigatoka Sand Dunes.
USP has a really good coffee shop. We shared an iced coffee.
Posted Aug 9, 2010, 12:13 am
...And went to the Colo-I-Suva Forest Park (pronounced Thohlo-ee-soova). It is primarily a mahogany forest.
We soon turned down a very narrow path.
There are swimming holes!
There were many more views, but the path was slippery and Abby didn't want to drop her camera.
Finally we arrived at our destination: our own private swimming hole! There's a rope swing!
Everyone went swimming and had a lot of fun.
Posted Aug 9, 2010, 1:17 am
We also made sure to grab a meal at the Old Mill Cafe, which serves really good traditional Fijian food. We shared roti, potato curry and some sort of fried okra dish. It was very tasty.
Posted Aug 9, 2010, 1:19 am
On the ferry. The weather has cleared up.
Our destination: the island called Ovalau. This is the first view of the island. Can you see the rainbow?
The tide was out, so we had to transfer to a smaller boat.
Are you sure this thing is seaworthy?
The tide was so low, they everyone had to get out and wade to shore.
Posted Aug 9, 2010, 1:38 am
We were staying with Abby in the Captain Robbie bungalow, on the left side.
Not much to see...
This is the view back toward the main building.
Inside one of the rooms of the main building. The bottom floor was all public space, and each room was different. This one looked like it came straight out of the colonial era.
The upstairs of the main building.
It was going to be dark soon, so we took a quick walk through the town. It is very quiet.
Posted Aug 9, 2010, 1:42 am
We went for another walk.
This is the local war memorial, for the White settlers that fought in the First World War.
The most interesting architecture in Levuka is the churches. For a tiny town, they had a lot of them. This is the Anglican Church, established in 1904.
This is the Methodist Church, established in 1860. the Methodists were the first missionaries in Fiji, arriving in 1835.
This is an old graveyard for White settlers. Most of the markers were moved quite a while ago so that the locals could play rugby on the field.
We walked to the end of the town.
Once you cross the bridge, you are in the original village of Levuka, which is on the right.
This is another war memorial, for the indigenous and Indo-Fijians who fought in the World Wars.
This is the old Morris & Hedstrom building, which is now the museum and library. Morris & Hedstrom is still huge in Fiji and makes up many of the supermarkets.
Town Hall.
The Masonic Lodge, which was burned during the 2000 coup. Remember the field school that was in Fiji during that coup? They were staying right near here when this happened.
This is the oldest standing church in Levuka. Most of the buildings were destroyed during a hurricane in 1895.
This is the Levuka Public School, which was established during the colonial era. Nearly every important Fijian in the past century went to this school, and now people send their children here from all over Fiji.
Posted Aug 9, 2010, 8:51 pm
Abby did not take any more pictures of the hike because she needed her hands to scramble up some of the steeper areas.
This is the top. What an amazing view! Levuka is below us. See that field near SunnyHH's ear? The white buildings in front of that are the Royal Hotel.
The next peak over looks like a monkey head. the locals call it Phantom Face.
And now a solo picture.
A flag to mark our accomplishment.
The hike back down was just as hard (worse for Abby, who doesn't like heights), and so there were no more pictures.
At the bottom. See the cliff to the left of the monkey head? That is the one we climbed. I almost can't believe it. It is so tall that you cannot even see the flag from here.
Posted Aug 9, 2010, 8:54 pm
Instead of church bells, they use a traditional method of beating a hollowed out log with sticks.
This is the monument to commemorate the release of the Lovoni people from slavery.
See the hill in the distance. The Lovoni people have an impenetrable hill fort there. They were only captured because they were tricked into leaving it and coming to Levuka.
After the village tour, we had to hike out of the crater, which took about two hours. We went through a bamboo forest...
Then an area with lots of flowers...
Saw some nice views...
...then a pine forest? Everyone said that this looked too much like Canada to be Fiji.
Everyone was very tired and muddy after the hike, but it was very beautiful.
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 7:13 am
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 7:15 am
This is the beach. I am so happy to be here.
Look how clear the water is!
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 7:17 am
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 7:20 am
They have a small market, nowhere near as big as the one in Suva, but it has a decent selection of vegetables.
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 9:09 pm
First glimpse of the dunes.
This is on the walk to the dig site.
They are building a frame so that we can have a shelter every day.
Where that group of people are standing next to each other is where the dig will be.
We had a few minutes of free time, so everyone went to the beach.
This is the top of one of the dunes, facing the Sigatoka delta.
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 9:12 pm
We took a walk to see how the burial excavations were going. The bamboo provides some shelter from the trade winds.
Very cool. The interesting thing about this skeleton, is that it is facing the wrong way. The head is pointing West, when most of the skeletons excavated previously have been facing East.
This skeleton is very fragmented and looks like it did a backflip down the dunes.
After viewing the skeletons, we got to work. This is our excavation area, which is a 2x2m unit. The unit is broken down into four 1x1m units, which are excavated seperately. Each unit is taken down 5cm at a time.
Neither SunnyHH nor I is big enough to lift a trowel, but we labeled bags for artifact collection...
...And took notes on what was found in each unit, and mapped artifacts left in situ.
At the end of the day, the first layer of all four units were excavated.
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 9:15 pm
This is the lovo and earth oven used to cook their enemies. Human flesh was considered special and only eaten during a feast, and if somebody refused to eat the flesh, they were next.
The stones mark where dwellings used to be. The round ones are in Tongan style.
The rectangular ones are Fijian style.
The view is fantastic up here. The river is the Sigatoka River.
This is the killing stone. The victim would lay face-down with their head sticking out, and their head and other body parts would be chopped off. Two small boys whould catch the blood coming from the drains (between the stones). Everything would then be carried down to the lovo and cooked.
This is a sacred stone, and before Christianity was considered the god of the hill fort people.
A view into the valley.
Posted Aug 10, 2010, 9:18 pm
Some of the men dressed up in traditional warrior dress.
Like every visit to the village, shoulders and knees must be covered, and sulus worn. Everyone was given a garland to wear. We sat on Abby's lap and looked at hers. It matches her sulu!
Making kava during the sevusevu.
This man presented kava to everyone.
They gave us a pottery demonstration. The woman on the right is making a vase.
They also showed us how they glaze their pottery. They use the sap from a tree. This is what the sap looks like.
The woman in front is demonstrating the glazing process. The pot is taken straight out of the fire, and held with a stick while the sap is melted onto it.
The vase is finished.
These are all of the wares you can buy in the village, all made the same way as was shown.
Posted Aug 11, 2010, 9:18 pm
These pottery sherds have already been cleaned, so we sorted them into pottery sherds, faunal and
rocks.
The plain sherds are sorted by size (small = >2cm, medium = 2-4cm, large = <4cm), and each size
group is weighed and recorded.
'Diagnostic' pieces (rim sherds, decorated pottery, etc) are bagged separately. These sherds are
mat-impressed, which means that before they were fired, they sat on a mat made of leaves, which left markings.
We ran out of sherds to weigh and it started to rain, so we moved inside and cleaned more bags of sherds with a toothbrush, then did the entire process again.
Posted Aug 11, 2010, 9:25 pm
(PS: Abby says she doesn't quite sound like that. But of course you knew that)
Posted Aug 11, 2010, 9:27 pm
Posted Aug 12, 2010, 3:01 am
First we walked Westward toward the village of Yanuca (ya-noo-tha) to see what we could find.
It is very pretty here.
This is what you have to look for. Even one piece of pottery can mean that there is a site in the vicinity.
Now we are walking Eastward, back across the dunes and toward the pottery village.
This is a small lovo feature (remember that a lovo is an earth oven). You can tell because there is coral, fire-cracked rock, and pottery sherds.
The dunes are very tall, but if you can scale one, the view is amazing. This is back the way we came.
This is in the direction we are heading.
This is toward the Sigatoka valley. Directly behind the dunes is Kulukulu Village (Fun fact: Kulukulu means breadfruit breadfruit), and Sigatoka town is behind the hills to the right.
As we walked toward the pottery village site, the sites became larger and more abundant. This is a large lovo and pottery scatter spread out over about 20 meters.
This is a huge pottery scatter. Can you see all of the little reddish dots in front of the vegetation? That is all pottery. This looks like it was a salt-making station in prehistoric times.
Sadly we ran out of time and had to rush the last few sites, so there is no picture of me mapping the human tooth scatter (it was mostly molars). I had a fun day though, and I'm not even tired because I got to ride in Abby's pocket!
Posted Aug 12, 2010, 3:03 am
We spent the day taking most units down one more level to look for filled-in post holes. Power troweling!
This is the end result.
Goodbye, pottery village!
Posted Aug 12, 2010, 3:12 am
After checking out the beach, we settled down to tan for a while. Don't forget sunscreen!
When we got hungry we had a papaya snack. Yum!
Posted Aug 12, 2010, 3:14 am
Bourewa is the oldest archaeological site in Fiji, dating to about 3050 years ago. It holds the first evidence of any sort of settlement in the Fiji Islands.
This is all that is left now, large shell middens. 3000 years ago the sea level was about 1.5 metres higher , which would have meant that this was underwater. They believe that the Lapita peoples who lived here lived in houses on stilts and dropped their garbage, these shells, into the water beneath their houses.
See these shells? You can tell the site is old because the animals who produce these shells only grow to be about half the size in current times.
See where the patch of sun is, above my head? That rock there is actually ancient coral bed.
There was not much to see, but I learned a lot about the first people who came to Fiji. Everyone also got a lecture on the preservation of archaeological sites. Excavations are finished here and they decided not to fill it in. Abby's professor says that within the next ten years the walls are going to collapse and then the site will be ruined.
Posted Aug 12, 2010, 6:45 pm
Our flight is early in the morning tomorrow, so we took the bus to Nadi today. Sadly this is all I saw of Nadi.
Posted Aug 12, 2010, 6:47 pm
We watched the sun rise.
There's our plane to Australia!
Goodbye, Fiji.
On the plane we watched How to Train your Dragon.
Breakfast!
Decending over Brisbane.
Posted Aug 13, 2010, 6:55 am
We were heading to this bridge. It is also known as the green bridge because it is for buses, cyclists and walkers only.
To get there we had to pass by this really cool cemetary.
On the other side of the bridge was the University of Queensland.
After exploring for a while, we walked home on the other side of the bridge. There are words and phrases all along it.
Posted Aug 13, 2010, 6:58 am
This is South Bank.
This guy was hanging out over the plaza.
One of the biggest draws to South Bank is the man-made lagoon and beach. The lagoon is a large swimming pool. Sadly it is too cold to swim in it right now.
We went for a walk along this path.
There are usually markets here with people selling handmade wares. They are busier on weekends and there were only a few stalls open today.
This is the Wheel of Brisbane, which I suppose is like the Eye of London.
This is a statue of Confucius, which China gave to Queensland to mark Queensland's 150th birthday.
This staircase leads to Picnic Island, which is aptly named. It was created with areas for picnicking.
Downtown Brisbane is across the river.
we sat near the river and enjoyed a cupcake.
On the way home we took the train.
Posted Aug 13, 2010, 7:00 am
Chinatown is nearby, but there was no time to explore.
Posted Aug 13, 2010, 6:41 pm
Orly the cat helped.
First we chopped the dates and put whem in boiling water and baking soda to soak.
Next we mixed butter, sugar and eggs together.
Then flour, vanilla extract and the date mixture.
The batter is ready to go.
We put the batter in the oven and started on the caramel. We mixed butter, brown sugar, cream and creme fraiche and let it simmer.
The pudding looks ready.
We poured some caramel on top to let it soak in.
Another minute in the oven and it was ready!
Yum!
Posted Aug 13, 2010, 6:43 pm
To get there we had to walk under some whales.
Pictures were allowed, but many of the figures were quite naked, so I didn't get my picture taken with all of them.
This is a closeup of the faces to give you an idea of how much detail there is. It's amazing.
There was a movie showing how the figures were made.
Afterwards we took a quick wander through the gallery of indigenous Australian art.
Posted Aug 13, 2010, 6:46 pm
We settled into place...
And got some breakfast.
For dinner there was a vegetarian tortellini.
Finally we arrived at Central Station in Sydney.
Posted Aug 13, 2010, 6:48 pm
Posted Aug 14, 2010, 5:31 am
This statue of Queen Victoria has only been in Sydney since 1986. It used to be in Dublin, Ireland, but in the 1920s it was dismantled and stored in a basement until it was bought by a group who moved it to Sydney.
Of course, Queen Victoria would not be complete without her dog. This statue talked for some reason.
This is St Mary's Cathedral, and in the foreground is a fountain representing Australian-French relations.
Sydney Tower
This is the barracks where the British convicts used to live when they were sent to Australia.
This is the first Anglican church in Sydney. When it was built it was the tallest building in Sydney and it also doubled as a court house for a while.
This is the Sydney Hospital, also known as the Rum Hospital. When the plans were sent to London to ask for funding and supplies they said no, so the Governor raised money through the sale of alcohol. It is still used as a hospital today.
The pig statue is the exact replica of one in Florence. Apparently if you throw a coin into the fountain, get your hand wet and rub the nose you will have good luck.
These are the Parliamentary Buildings. What is interesting about them is that the buildings used to be the psychiatric ward of the hospital.
This is the Australian Coat of Arms. The kangaroo and the emu are both animals that cannot walk backwards, meaning that Australia can only go forwards, and then on the shield are the symbols of the six Australian states, and lastly the star represents the Commonwealth.
This is the Anzac war memorial. An Australian soldier was killed in Afghanistan recently, and that is why all of the wreaths are on the memorial.
We sat with this man for a while.
Posted Aug 14, 2010, 5:33 am
The Union Jack is where they believe the original British flag was planted when the British first arrived in Australia.
Customs House
Inside Customs House is this view of the city. It is updated weekly.
This is Circular Quay. You can see Harbour Bridge at the end.
My first view of the Sydney Opera House.
This is Cadman's Cottage, the oldest standing residential building in Sydney. It belonged to a man who was a convict, but married, settled and gained his freedom.
This is The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney.
This statue shows the three types of people who lived in The Rocks: Families, Convicts and Soldiers.
This is the underside of an on-ramp to the Harbour Bridge. It was cut right out of the sandstone.
The bridge itself is 78 years old and is repainted every year.
The last stop was another view of the opera house. It was designed by a Danish architect, but when he went way over-budget the government pushed him into a corner and basically forced him to drop out of the project. To this day he has not been credited for the design.
This is the view back toward downtown.
Posted Aug 14, 2010, 5:35 am
Did you know the roof is made of tile?
The view of the harbour from next to the opera house.
We went for a walk along the sea wall.
These chairs were cut out of the sandstone and have a great view of the Opera House.
Just around the point is Mrs MacQuarie's chair, a famous lookout point.
Posted Aug 15, 2010, 1:29 am
This map shows where you can find all of the art.
Behind these curtains were wax figures of dead Communist leaders.
Wow, that was very cool. I didn't get to see every piece of art, but I saw most of them!
Back on the mainland I checked out the Museum of Contemporary Art, but it no pictures were allowed inside (and it wasn't as cool as Cockatoo Island anyway).
Posted Aug 15, 2010, 1:32 am
The first room has information about the area before European contact.
The second room has information about Sydney as a penal colony.
The third room has information about Sydney before 1900.
The last room has information about Sydney in the last century.
After the museum we went to Le Renaissance for macarons. Yum!
Posted Aug 16, 2010, 6:09 pm
Blue Mountains is West of Sydney and it is very pretty. This is Echo Point and the rocks behind me are called the Three Sisters.
This is the Leura Cascades.
This is the Explorer tree, a famous tree that was, for some reason, chopped down and filled with concrete in an attempt to 'preserve' it.
Posted Aug 16, 2010, 6:11 pm
Posted Aug 16, 2010, 6:15 pm
We did a lap of the track. This is the view from the top.
Posted Aug 17, 2010, 6:13 am
Posted Aug 17, 2010, 6:16 am
A view of the Orange area.
I call this one, The View from Mount Canobolas. Um, we are on top of a mountain, I swear!
Posted Aug 17, 2010, 6:18 am
Posted Aug 18, 2010, 1:37 am
It is summer here (about the same tempertures as Fiji, actually), and Abby's garden is in full bloom.
These gnomes are all over the garden. They are all identical and all named Smedvik.
Posted Aug 19, 2010, 10:47 pm
We got here a little late and many of the sellers were packing up for the day, but there was still live music!
Posted Aug 19, 2010, 10:54 pm
First we went to the pond to see if we could find any turtles, but we didn't see any.
We did see some tame geese, though.
There is a farmers' market here every Thursday.
The Net Loft is full of stores selling specialty crafts.
I went to a place that many people on ToyVoyagers would appreciate.
This is Burrard Bridge. It was built in an art deco style.
Many many boats dock here.
This is the Granville Street Bridge.
We went to the market next, which is filled with grocers, fish markets, candy stores and places to eat.
Next we went to Ron Basford Park to eat lunch.
Rogers Chocolates is an amazing chocolate store. Abby bought each of us a treat.
Fun Fact: This is exactly where Abby released Zeinab. Of course, she did not leave either of us behind...
As we left, we noticed a small rock art exhibition.
Posted Aug 19, 2010, 10:58 pm
Today's play is Henry V.
We were very early, so we only picked up our tickets, then decided to kill time by going for a walk. This is the planetarium/Museum of Vancouver. Cool building, no? Abby says she has always liked the crab fountain out front, but it was not turned on today.
We made our way over to Granville Island, where I was the other day.
At Granville Island we went for dinner at the yellow building in the last picture. We ate pizza.
Fun fact: This restaurant was Swiss House during the Olympics.
Rather than walk back, we decided to take the ferry down False Creek. It is called that because it is actually an inlet.
We were taken to the other side of False Creek, then had to wait for another ferry to take us back to Vanier Park. This is one of the only beaches in Vancouver. Around the corner is English Bay, and that is where they hold an international fireworks competition every summer (but we were travelling when it happened this year).
This is where we are heading. If you look closely you can see the white Bard on the Beach tents.
Our ferry arrived.
The dark line of trees is Stanley Park, the largest park in Vancouver.
We got off the ferry near the Maritime Museum. At the dock they have some replicas of famous boats. This one was my favourite. She is called Munin and is a half-size replica of the Gokstad.
This is the Maritime Museum.
Vanier Park.
This is an art piece that is part of Vancouver's Biennal.
On the other side all the signs are pink.
It was time to get in line to go inside the tents. I looked through the program while I was waiting.
Pictures are not allowed of the shows, but Henry V was really good. During intermission we ate ice cream.
Posted Aug 20, 2010, 5:54 pm
Posted Aug 20, 2010, 5:56 pm
It's Roderich!
Sadly it is also time for SunnyHH to continue his travels. We went on a great adventure together and I will really miss him.
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 6:08 am
First you mix together crushed pecans and grated chocolate.
Then you add brown sugar and mix it together.
Next, the secret ingredient: Kahlua. Just a splash will do.
Press it into a pan and that is the crust.
Next, melt some chocolate and let it cool.
Then you mix together butter, sugar, instant coffee granules and another splash of Kahlua.
Add the chocolate and some vanilla extract and mix it all together.
Next you add an egg.
You add four eggs in total, mixing for a few minutes in between each egg until it looks like this:
Pour it onto the crust.
Then you have to refrigerate it to let it set. While you are waiting, eat the leftover filling.
Remember to top your piece with whipped cream and chocolate!
If you do not want to eat raw eggs, don't ask Abby for this recipe. If you do not mind, then try it. It tastes amazing!
Posted Aug 25, 2010, 8:20 am
we showed up early to get a good seat.
There was a free bike valet and free food.
We ate some blueberries.
Also some organic chips.
Abby's sister works for the museum and had to take pictures of the event. We decided to help out until it was too dark.
Shhh! Eat Drink Man Woman is starting!
Posted Aug 25, 2010, 8:23 am
The Academic Quadrangle is where many classrooms, places to eat, lecture halls and offices are found. The raised square is two floors, and there are two floors below where I am standing.
The campus is on a mountain and on a nice day there is a good view.
Posted Aug 27, 2010, 8:50 am
There was live music.
Also speeches.
Abby's sister contributed two videos to the exhibit. Most of the footage of the videos is from Abby's back yard, like these raspberries in the spring/summer video.
This is from the fall/winter video. The wheat isn't Abby's backyard, but I didn't want my picture taken with compost.
This display is all about collecting seeds.
The canning wall showcases preserves made by the people in the Vancouver area, and people are encouraged to add to the wall. It was a bit slow to get started, so Abby's family donated six different jars of preserves.
These seeds were free to take.
Posted Aug 27, 2010, 8:53 am
There was a kids' station where you could draw your own shoes. Do you like our design?
The shoes on the left are the 'Munster' shoe, the ones in the middle are the 'Jack White' shoe, and the ones on the right are the 'Iggy' shoe.
Finally, these are some of Fluevog's favourites.
Posted Aug 27, 2010, 8:55 am
It is sockeye salmon season here and the first year in many that they have been abundant enough to fish. We bought four (Abby wouldn't touch these. Dead fish make her squeamish).
Keep watching this space because you will see more of the Fraser River very soon.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 11:01 pm
The views here are beautiful.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 11:04 pm
We stopped to look at the river and pick blackberries.
Yale used to be a very important town along the road that took miners up to the Barkerville gold rush.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 11:06 pm
Oh look, tunnels!
Our destination was Hell's Gate, called that because is is the narrowest part of the Fraser River, only 33 metres (110 ft), and is usually deeper than it is wide. Twice as much water flows through here per minute than Niagra Falls! When explorer Simon Fraser came through here in 1808 it was such a harrowing experience for him that he wrote in his journal, "surely this is the gate of hell."
You have to take an airtram down.
This is where we came from.
When Abby bought her ticket we were given a coupon for fudge. I can't wait to use it.
There is a bridge that going across the river.
The concrete structure in the water is a fish stock. When one of the railways was being built they hit a fault and the resulting avalanche blocked off most of the river. They built the fish stocks (one on each side) to help salmon get upstream to spawn.
This is a chart of the various water depths. The water level right now is about at the top of the green. In the spring it can get much higher.
I am not sure exactly why there is a giant chair here, but it is even large for humans.
This is what I look like from outside the airtram.
Another view of the fish stock.
Along the fence are various signs with information about the history of the area. Can you spot the glaring grammatical error in this one? (Hint: one of the sentences seems to be missing some words).
I took a few minutes to look at the river up close to see if I could spot any salmon.
This place isn't just a tourist destination. chipmunks live here.
Time to head back.
In the car, we ate some delicious fudge.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 11:08 pm
Roderich and I decided to make an inuksuk from some of the rocks.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 11:11 pm
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 11:13 pm
This memorial is for those who fought in wars, and also for those who worked on the railroad in the 19th century (which is why many Chinese came to Canada in the first place.
This is a giant abacus. The beads are made from jade.
Posted Sep 9, 2010, 8:14 pm
Posted Sep 9, 2010, 8:17 pm
See that 'I fly for pie!' sign? People do quite literally fly here to eat pie.
Every day they put up many different kinds and take them down as they are sold out. These are the ones available today, and inside the kitchen are the plaques for about thirty more kinds.
I got the raspberry rhubarb pie.
Posted Sep 9, 2010, 8:20 pm
We looked at the antiques first. Wouldn't this be perfect for ToyVoyagers? If only it wasn't broken.
Next, we visited the goats.
We also visited the chickens.
This farm has a large garden.
Inside one of the buildings was where coffee, pottery and garlic were being sold. This is also the pottery workshop.
Posted Sep 10, 2010, 5:43 am
It's Ewan E. Ewok!
I got to meet him when I visited home, so it is nice to know that we will be getting to know each other better.
We decided to introduce him to Lou.
Posted Sep 10, 2010, 5:44 am
We started off by grating some carrots.
I had a go.
Next we mixed sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl we mixed flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves).
We added the dry ingredients to the wet, then mixed in the carrot.
Into the liners...
And baked for 25 minutes.
Next we mixed up some cream cheese frosting. Yum.
The piping bag was heavy, so everyone helped out.
Voila!
Posted Sep 14, 2010, 8:43 am
This time we were seeing Falstaff, which is a condensed version of King Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Basically, they took out all of the dry bits.
Once again there were no pictures allowed inside, but it was a very enjoyable play.
Posted Sep 14, 2010, 8:43 am
It's Bobi!
Posted Sep 28, 2010, 7:41 am
We bought these tickets, which enabled us to try all sorts of food.
Posted Sep 28, 2010, 7:42 am
Posted Sep 28, 2010, 7:43 am
Posted Oct 7, 2010, 7:05 pm
I did get my picture taken in the theatre, but it was so dark that you couldn't tell I was there, so instead I am showing you two pictures without me in them that are slightly better quality.
After the event, I got to meet Frank!
Posted Oct 11, 2010, 3:22 am
The ceremony is held in the aptly-named Convocation Mall.
Before the ceremony, the graduands were piped in by SFU's six time world champion pipe band.
There were a number of speeches during the event. Abby was the designated photographer for her sister, so she was busy running around with a much better camera and did not have time to take more photos of me.
After the ceremony there was a reception for a special few people.
Posted Oct 11, 2010, 3:48 am
After playing for a while, Abby said that we were there to help, not supervise, and I was put to work.
It took a while, but I think we did a good job.
Posted Oct 15, 2010, 4:23 am
I took some of everything.
Posted Oct 25, 2010, 6:34 am
This monument says:
Here Vancouver Began
All was forest towering to the skies. British Royal Engineers surveyed it into lots, 1863, and named the area "Hastings Townsite" to honour Admiral Hastings, British Navy.
Everything Began At Hastings
The first post office, customs, road, bridge, hotel, stable, telegraph, dock, ferry, playing field, museum, C.P.R Offices (Canadian Pacific Railway). It was the most fashionable watering place in British Columbia.
New Brighton Park
Retains the name of a hotel built here in 1880 known as the new "Brighton House"
The park is rather large, and it has some nice views.
Posted Nov 2, 2010, 7:06 am
First we melted together butter and chocolate.
Then you add sugar...
Eggs one at a time...
Then flour and baking soda, alternating with water.
Then, we poured it into two pans.
Next, it was time to make frosting. We mixed together white and brown sugar, butter, milk and corn syrup.
Boiled it for a few minutes...
Once it cooled we added butter and whipped it up.
Onto the cake!
Next was the fun part. We lined the cake with Kit Kat bars...
Then topped it off with M&Ms! Voila! A Halloween candy-themed birthday cake!
Posted Nov 2, 2010, 7:07 am
Everybody has such good costumes this year. Roderich dressed up as the Cheshire Cat, Charlie Bear dressed up as a Care Bear, Ewan E. Ewok dressed up as Hawaiian person, Ollie Kikabeer dressed up as a witch, and I dressed up as, what else, an archaeologist!
We showed Abby's Mom our costumes and she was so impressed that she gave us candy!
Next, we helped decorate the garden in preparation for Trick-or-Treaters.
This is what it looked like at night. Spooky!
Posted Nov 4, 2010, 3:00 am
Posted Nov 8, 2010, 9:33 am
We drove to Grant Narrows Regional Park.
We went for a walk down this dike.
We didn't walk all of the way, but we did go to this look-out tower.
The views are really pretty.
Posted Nov 26, 2010, 7:30 am
Posted Dec 2, 2010, 4:10 am
Posted Dec 25, 2010, 7:53 am
Posted Dec 25, 2010, 8:18 am
All of the presents are wrapped...
See the small stocking at the end? That one is for ToyVoyagers! I hope Santa brings me something nice.
Abby baked cookies for Santa.
Because they are in the kitchen, we left a sign on the tree so Santa knows where to look.
Lastly, we checked the NORAD Santa tracker. Looks like he is almost here!
Posted Dec 25, 2010, 11:32 pm
Good news! Santa visited last night!
The stocking has something in it!
Look at all the treats!
I hope you are having a good Christmas at home.
Posted Jan 2, 2011, 9:14 pm
Posted Jan 2, 2011, 9:17 pm
The outside display is worth noting, because if you come in the evening and tune your radio to a specific station, there is a coordinating light show on the outside of the building. Unfortunately, we got there too early.
The African elephant from Night at the Museum was waiting just inside the entrance.
Lastly, we went to look at one of the Christmas displays while everyone else went shopping.
Posted Feb 22, 2011, 1:33 am
First you whisk two eggs.
Next you whisk in the sugar. For fun, we used brown sugar instead of white.
Next you pour in cream, milk, and scrape the inside of a vanilla bean...
...until it is all mixed together.
Did I mention that Little Lou was helping?
Next, pour the mixture into the ice cream mixer.
This looks really good, but it has to freeze for a while longer. We'll enjoy it tomorrow.
Posted Feb 22, 2011, 1:35 am
Even though temperatures were below freezing, it was such a nice day out that everyone decided to go for a walk across the Pitt River Bridge.
Isn't the view spectacular?
http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq85/abbystoyvoyagers/Hedgie/January-1-2011-006.jpg
If you look carefully, toward the center of the photo, you can see Mount Baker, which is in Washington State.
We walked across as the sun was starting to set.
This is what is on the other side of the bridge. The other bridge you can see is for trains.
On the way back I watched the last of the sun on the mountains. They are called Golden Ears, and you can see why.
Posted Feb 22, 2011, 1:37 am
It is a fairly nice drive...when the weather is nice.
Aha! Snow! We must be close.
There are many places to ski and snowboard in Whistler, but Blackcomb is accessible right fromWhistler Village.
Here is the village.
No visit to Whistler is complete without going to the Cows store. Everything is cow-themed here.
Here are the Olympic Rings.
The tour being complete, I went to David's Tea to warm up.
We also got some lunch. Mmmmm, crepes.
Posted Feb 22, 2011, 1:38 am
Posted Feb 22, 2011, 1:39 am
There was freshly-baked goods for sale to eat while you were listening. I bought a cookie.
Posted Mar 3, 2011, 6:34 am
Everyone decided to make snow angels.
Can you see mine?
Posted Mar 3, 2011, 6:34 am
Posted Mar 11, 2011, 8:46 am
This is the Academic Quadrangle, where many of the classrooms are. Below the ground there are two floors of lecture halls and places to study and eat.
See the construction behind the trees there? They are constructing something for the movie Underworld 4, which is partially being filmed here.
This is what it looks like.
This is the Convocation Mall, where graduation ceremonies and student gatherings are held. Earlier this week there was a clock constructed on the platform, and flags everywhere that said 'Antigen.' The library is on the right.
This is on the roof of one of the buildings, looking North toward the mountains. On a clear day the view is really pretty.
This is looking back toward the Academic Quadrangle from the roof.
This is back toward the library.
Here is some more information about the filming happening at SFU.
Here is a list of some of the other movies they have filmed at SFU.
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:31 am
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:32 am
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:32 am
Horseshoe Bay is a ferry terminal now, but underneath this park is an old village site.
We went down onto the beach to look for cultural material.
This is an example of what was found. As you can see, it is not the easiest to spot (it is right in the center).
There is not much cultural material left on the beach because people come down and collect it. Before you get any ideas, this is actually illegal. We put everything we found back on the beach.
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:34 am
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:34 am
There is an archaeological feature in this area, but due to its sensitive nature, I am not allowed to tell you what or where it is (sorry!). It does have to do with this story.
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:35 am
As you can imagine, it is very difficult to find a rock among rocks, but here is a core that Abby managed to spot (a core is a larger piece of stone where smaller flakes are broken off and turned into tools).
In this area, anywhere that there is a flat beach is probably an archaeologiacl site. I would very much like to come back and look for more lithics!
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:36 am
Posted Apr 3, 2011, 5:37 am
First you cover the wall with a thin layer of special mud, then apply more mud and texture it.
Next, you place the tiles on the wall.
This is the result of our handiwork!
It still needs grout in between the tiles, but that is a job for another night.
Posted Apr 7, 2011, 7:35 pm
Posted Apr 7, 2011, 7:35 pm
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit (180 degrees celcius).
First you mix together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of ground cardamom.
Next, you add 3/4 cup of oil. You are supposed to use corn oil, but there wasn't any, so we used a mixture of olive oil and hazelnut oil.
This is what it should look like.
Next you drop little balls onto your cookie sheet. Do not forget to cover your cookie sheet with parchment paper!
Place them in the oven for 15 minutes.
Once they are out of the oven, sprinkle them with chopped pistachios and let them cool completely.
Posted Apr 24, 2011, 11:53 pm
This chocolate is cleverly disguised as rocks.
Is this bunny reading?
I can see two hiding places here!
Do you see the egg hiding in the barometer?
How about this one in the tea strainer?
Or these on this old teapot?
This birdhouse has lots of chocolate.
I almost did not notice the one on the hummingbird feeder.
Everyone climbed the apple tree to find this egg.
Look at this tiny egg in the kettle spout!
Aww, the Easter Bunny left a yellow egg at the bee house.
The motherload! Look at the woodpile!
So much chocolate!
Posted May 20, 2011, 8:30 pm
First you take a package of pudding mix. We made pistachio and vanilla.
Next, you add margerine and boiling water.
Next you add powdered sugar.
Next you form it into balls and refrigerate it.
Lastly you dip each egg in chocolate and top with whatever you'd like!
Posted May 20, 2011, 8:31 pm
Posted May 20, 2011, 8:32 pm
