Neck, back and low blood pressure problems be damned, today we went to playland. My childhood amusement park still has one of the few original wooden rollercoasters…you know, the ones that look like they’re about to fall down at any moment. I had a serious fear of the coaster as a child and only ever went on it a couple times as a adult. Jaime coaxed me onto it again and it was just as terrifying as I remembered. It doesn’t have any of those well-fitting harness-type bars the modern rollercoasters have, but the generic straight bar across the car which doesn’t help keep you in car (holding on for dear life does that). The bar’s only purpose seems to be bruising your ribs as your thrown forward on the upward track after a massive drop. And there are some serious drops on the Coaster. I haven’t screamed like that in years…it was great.

We also went on a bunch of less terrifying but very fun rides, played minigolf and air hockey and ate those 12 for 3$ mini cinnamon donuts. It was Fun-tastic!

Well its been almost a week since we waved Oz goodbye and arrived in the city of glass. Now looking at our time here I can make a few reflections.

1. I sound a lot more Australian than I thought I did. While the lot downunder may think I sound super-Canadian, I really don’t. Talking to the Vancouverites, I can hear myself sounding so aussie. Maybe I should stop saying things like “flat out like a lizard drinking” and “chuck a sickie this arvo”. I wonder how long it will take for my accent to acclimatize? (< - note the “z”

2. Australians really are tall. While living in Sydney I found myself feeling short for the first time in my life. Even some of my best aussie friends refer to me a as a hobbit. I thought maybe I had just never noticed being short before. But now that I’m back, I really am average height again. Jaime’s noticed (and enjoying) the lack of giants in Canada. Must come from having to duck down to enter the igloos.

3. The air is beautiful. According to the news the air here is currently at “bad” levels of airborn particles. Vancouver on a bad day is so much clearer than Sydney on a good day. Walking home tonight I could smell flowers, grass and the beach (the good beach, not that low-tide smell). Of course, this is in between the great wofts of air that smell like pot.

4. Slow news days. Thanks to a culture of crime and serious sensationalisation, Aussie news is always very serious with massive crime and horror to report. Vancouver does not have any equivalents of “Today Tonight”. While there is a small amount of crime, accidents and annoying politicians doing stupid things here, they still have to fill the news with human interest stories. One day they had a story about how a grizzly bear in a Golden (an interior town) animal reserve had managed to escape his enclosure twice. The first time he was recaptured near a wild female bear. Apparently, the keepers at the animal reserve felt he was getting a bit frisky, so they decided to neuter this bear named “Boo”. Well Boo wasn’t having any of this, so he escaped the second time and is still at large (hopefully getting a little action). What makes it so amusing, was that this made the news for a second night in a row. On the second night they had a indepth look at how Boo had escaped. Apparently he lifted a 400 pound door, shorted out and then scaled a 12 foot electric fence. I guess the thought of having his cajones removed was motivation enough to Boo.

5. Eating out = downfall. Jaime and I had grand plans to eat healthy and get fit when we got here. But that plan is being thwarted by the fantastic food here. So many good, inexpensive restuarants. I think we’re going to have to use some serious willpower not to put on weight. But then again, the scales should go up a bit, we’ve both just gotten taller.

Today is Canada’s national day of celebrating being Canadian. Unlike so many Canada Days of the past, it was warm and sunny, rather than pissing with rain. We spent the day down at the Vancouver rowing club in Stanley Park enjoying a few cold bevvies.

Wildlife spotted: 1 x Harbour seal, many canada geese, 1 X raccoon, 3 x Blue Herons and a very clever crow.

Well we made it safe and sound but very exhausted to Vancouver. We arrived to beautiful sunny 25 degree weather. Vancouver is just gorgeous and everyone is so friendly and we are so happy to be here.

Unfortunately, Air Canada did not televise the game, and so when we arrived we found out the horrible news that Australia had been knocked out of the world cup playoffs by Italy’s last second penalty kick. How sad, how disappointing! Having now seen the “penalty” I can only guess that the ref must have had money on Italy to make such a blantantly bad call. Still, my hat goes off to the socceroos: They played world class football, and have nothing to be ashamed of.

As you have to have someone to root for, I’m now throwing my support behind Ukraine: the other “underdog” at the cup.

This past weekend we went down to Canberra to spend time with Dad and the family before we fly off to Canada. And while I have to say that I love my family, I HATE CANBERRA. From the moment I arrive I always feel the same: I develop a nagging headache, and sick feeling in my stomach that just doesn’t abate. Its like the town (I refuse to call it a city) is some kind of anamoly in physics. Gravity feels too heavy, the light is blinding, and it always manages to be too hot and too cold at the same time. The air is drier than an airline cookie. Its like the whole place is dead. The buildings all have this hollow look, like skulls. Half the trees are dead due to drought. And at nighttime the place is deserted.

And we did the things you do in Canberra: bushwalking, admiring people’s new kitchens, talking about water restrictions and discussing how John Howard is a dick.

We did this time however check out the zoo - its not bad. Its small, but has quite a few animals for its size.

Anyway, as we our coach sped away from the Jolimont Centre and began the three hour journey back to the Big Smoke, my headache and nausea started to ease. I hope the next time I see my Dad’s family, it’ll be in Canada.

Well I am now without a home and without a job. Its great! However it’s hard to stop thinking about all the projects I had on the go. “It’s not my problem anymore” is easy to say but hard to implement.

Its also so strange in my apartment now that all our belongings have gone. Its no longer “our home” but a space we use to live in. It seems to cold and serile, and yet it was so cosy and homey with all our stuff in it.

As a taurus with pretty ingrained security issues, I thought I would be more scared and stressed about leaving my home. But I am feeling pretty liberated. And very excited about our upcoming adventure to Canada. I guess having a fantastic hubby by your side means you always have a home.

Weather is an interesting topic. Particularly of late. Perhaps its the way Sydney changes from Summer to Winter overnight (or as Evelyn says “extreme summer to summer”), or the fact that quite a few of our friends (us included) are making the big move to the Northern Half of this amazing blue planet. But the other night while having dinner with my cousin George, he said “I imagine Vancouver will be a nice place to live despite the weather” . I tried to explain to him that the temperate weather was one of the significant factors in moving in there. He couldn’t comprehend that people would live in a cooler climate by choice. He kept saying “all things being equal, you’d wanna live somewhere hot”, like stinking hot summers were everyone’s choice. Now he is biased, as he’s firmly in the “Australia is God’s country” corner. But people I know who have similar reservations to Australia as myself (John Howard is a dick, putting refugees in jail is a crime, invading Iraq was a big-ass mistake) enjoy the uber-hotness that is a Sydney summer. They also can’t understand our enjoyment of cooler weather.

I feel perhaps most of this is coming from a geniune misunderstanding of Vancouver weather. Its really not that cold in the winter. Sure it rains a lot, and its cool, but it hardly ever snows. Snow is so rare in Vancouver that when it does snow, none of the drivers know what to do. The province usually has 50% of car accidents on the few days its snows (apparently is advisable to ignore your brakes in the snow - but I wouldn’t know). And summer in Vancouver is warm. Nice mid-20s temperatures. Temperatures you can actually enjoy and do things in, rather than hiding in dark cold places like shopping centres and movie theatres. When I was home last it was so hot I had to buy mum a fan. It was a really hot day - it got up to 30! Vancouver’s not like Toronto. Vancouver is warm in the summer and cool in the winter: Toronto is stinking hot in summer and sub-artic in the winter.

But then again, there is the “grass is always greener” argument. But in this case its true. Did I mention that it rains a lot in Vancouver? A LOT. Its posted the record for most continuous days of rain last year (29). Lets see how long we like the wet weather - then again, after six years of drought here in Sydney, I’m looking forward to cool sea breezes.

But don’t take my word for it, from the Vancouver Airport Fact Sheet:

Known as Rain City, Vancouver has a very wet reputation. Yet, the city itself does not actually receive that much rain, most of it falling in the surrounding areas, such as North Vancouver. The climate is fair and consistent year-around, with generally more rain in the winter (end November to March) than summer months (July to September). Summer in Vancouver is spectacular, with the many accessible beaches and warm days, at times reaching above 30 degrees celsius. In winter, Vancouver rarely sees snow on the ground, yet the surrounding mountains on Vancouver ’s North Shore receive healthy doses of snow to keep the skiers and snowboarders happy.

Doesn’t that sound nice?

Its a funny thing when something that has been hypothetical for so long becomes reality. Yes, its true, we’re moving to Canada. We’ve been thinking of doing it for years, but now that we’ve bought the tickets and handed in our notice, its really happening!!! At least I’ll have lots of exciting stuff to blog about. And once I get my new digital camera, I’ll definately be posting more on my flickr account.

So starts the countdown…49 sleeps!!! Time to get packing.

How an offhand joke on labchat managed to spur on this event is a miracle. But somehow us usyd computer geeks (and a couple of their long-suffering partners) managed to put together an ice hockey game. This is no mean feat, especially as some of the group have never ice-skated before.

So last Saturday, we travelled out to Blacktown Ice Arena to don some pretty smelly gear and try our little hearts out at Canada’s national winter sport (summer sport: Lacrosse). I have to say that I was amazed by the quality of the hockey. The skating was generally shit, but the hockey was great. Our goalie, Surly Jo, managed to fall down pretty much every time someone came near the net, but he managed to stop shot after shot. Eugene managed to stage epic falls that would have concussed mere mortals, but came out giggling every time. Alas, a group cannot collide with the ice over and over again without having a casualty. Our casualty was Bez. In a relatively benign fall, the poor guy twisted his ankle and ended up with a broken foot!!! (Dear Bez, I’m really sorry!). But even with this sad event, everyone had a good time, and there’s rumours of a follow-up game or even, dare I say it, putting together a team for the local league.

As in the tradition of a proper NHL game, at the end of the game, three VIPs (Very Important Players) are named.

1. Jo “Ice Ice Baby” Chee: This girl was on fire! Definately the most keen for the game of all the geeks, it was later revealed that she use to play roller hockey! That would explain the 4+ goals she scored and rings she skated around everyone else.

2. Jaime “I’m almost Canadian” Fenton: For his first ever hockey game, he certainly looked confortable out there and had the look down pat. He helped his team out with a critical goal, and demonstrated that not knowing how to stop shouldn’t prevent you from going as fast as you can.

3. Shannon “have my own skates” Byrne: Yeah, I know I’m blowing my own trumpet, but hey, theres not many opportunities for me to be good at sport. I scored a hatrick (three goals!) and managed to not fall down even once. Which explains why I seem to be a lot less sore two days later than my team mates are.

A big thank you to everyone that came and played. And a special thank you to Veronique, our team manager, who stood there in the freezing cold taking photos of our shenanigans.

So I just had my first, and hopefully my last MRI. Due to a severe migraine storm, and the constant sound of my own pulse in my ears, combined with five years of fatigue, the docs thought they’d have a look inside my head. So they sent me off to have a Magnetic Resonance Image. I’d never had one before, so I thought, “hey, this will be interesting”.

I was prepared to be put in a small space in a large machine, but I was underestimating things a bit. The machine was the size of a room, and the space was a tiny tube i could barely squeeze into. I was shoved in with instructions not too move, and given headphones that didn’t fit my ear very well. They were suppose to pipe in music from a cd I brought and to filter out the loud noise of The Machine - they did neither. And the sound that The Machine made. It wasn’t just loud, it was scary. Every horrible siren and alien sound you’ve heard, combined with loud tappings. And it wasn’t constant - that would have been alright. It would go for a while, and then a different noise would come in, both different in timbre, rythme and velocity.

I tried to go my happy places - memories of Jaime and I cuddling in bed on a lazy sunday morning, or floating in the salt water pool on a holiday in Queensland. I even tried the old “Hail Mary”s. Anything to stop the impulse my brain was throwing at me to scream my head off and worm my way out The Machine. I finally took solice in that fact that I might of been uncomfortable in a squishy, very loud place but I wasn’t really in pain. After what seemed like ages, the techie slid me out of the machine. Finally, I thought, its over. Then he leans over to me and says “The doctor is just going to come down and inject you with a contrast agent”. And sure enough a doctor comes down and injected me with some rare isotope and they shoved me back into the machine for another aoen in The Machine (I was smart this time - I shoved my earphones as far into my ears as possible so that I could just drown out The Machine enough to hear a small amount of the Vivaldi Cello Sonatas).

Eventually it ended. I now have a bunch of photos of the inside of my head - Weird, Weird, Weird. I now get to play the waiting game. Waiting to see the doctor again in a week to find out if the inside of my head is supposed to look like it does.

I’m officially over this heat. Its just too damn hot! having suffered through six Australian Summers, I have to say that this is the worst. Maybe its because the humidity is back - the drought kept it a “dry heat”. Or maybe its because my usual places of refuge (the office, movie theatres, shopping centres) can no longer keep up with heat. I’ve never seen so many air conditoners fail in my life. My office is currently a balmy 29 degrees. How on earth I’m expected to think or create stuff is beyond me.

I suppose if I was on holidays it’d be ok. If I was sitting on the edge of a swimming pool, wearing nothing but my cossie, legs cooling in the beautiful water, a pina colada with tons of ice in my hand, then I’d say “lovely weather were having today”. But as I’m at work slaving over a hot computer, I say “its too damn hot”!!!

Last night I got so desparate I had to watch a doco on Penguins just to cool down!

I read the most disheartening article in the Globe and Mail the other day about how Stephen Harper is the new John Howard. I’m terrified that this horrible man, who looks to be the next Prime Minister of Canada, will change Canada from a socialist and egalitarian society towards a bigoted, self-serving, environment-munching society like the US is and how Australia is becoming. At a time when many people round the globe admire Canada for its tolerance, many, what I can only describe as absolute ass-heads, are thinking of voting for the conservatives in the upcoming Canadian election because of the machinations of the former spin-doctor for Howard. He plays on people’s fears and greed, and obviously weak-willed people must be blind to how they are being manipulated.

I take heart in hope that what makes Canada such a great place is in the very nature of its people. Canadians created Medicare, Green Peace, Chocolate bars, bras and BC bud. They’re without a doubt the most honestly polite people in the world. I’m sure they withstand Harper; I only wonder how long it will take to undo the damage he will do.

44 degrees on New Years Day!!! It was sure a hot one. We escaped to the cinema to avoid the heat. We took in “Good Night and Good Luck”, which was very good. An American film that makes the audience think.

But at this time of year, one is encouraged to make some resolutions. Though this is not my new year (shanathalas years run from November 1 - October 31) I figured I’d make a few resolutions:

Lose weight

Get to bed on time

and clear up all the clutter at home

Oh, and my new calendar for 2006 … The Pop-Up Dinosaurs 2006 Calendar