Jenny & I will be staying with Nathan and Lisa and their three boys at the end of this month. Two week with our grandsons in McDowall, Brisbane! And running bliss, around Bunyaville next door to McDowall!
Meanwhile Emma and her husband and her three boys have made it to Vancouver.
Emma writes
Well, here we are in Richmond. Am yet to have a decent coffee. Still jetlagged, or just fatigued, which is why you are getting a group email...sorry.....especially with 3 restless boys when we have been doing such wonderful things as 5 hours spent getting mobile phones and setting up a bank account! We caught the bus to Steveston today to get a feel of the area, the boys were not thrilled as they wanted to sit in front of TV again......and were probably afraid of another queue.
Richmond is a great place to live I think. So far I am seeing a great lifestyle, but don't really feel a part of it. No friends and no work yet....more like a tourist so far. People seem friendly and ready to engage, so it probably won't be too bad. But I am thinking "why did we do this?" a lot of the time. I had a "life" in Canberra. Hopefully by being here, will enrich what a "life" is. It made sense when I was running this morning.
The floathome community is very cute.....a mishmash of diy homes and additions...for example a verandah is another float tied onto the house, lots of rearranged and recyled house parts, flowerboxes and painted patterns. Our home has no balconies or outside areas...which is good with 3 boys, two of whom are being quite silly, as I am very anxious about them falling in. They aren't allowed outside without us.....so far it is going well. We have a big 3 storey float home and they are content with racing around the upper two storeys.
Out the window they can see white swans and geese, and I am sure I have seen a sea otter! Each day we walk along the riverbank and pick blackberries and found an apple-tree with delicious apples (nothing like fresh apples from the tree).
I can hear my neighbours talking.....maybe it is that they are houseboat (seafaring) people, or the Canadian accent, but they sound like pirates to me with their "rrrr"s and "OO"s...such as oot and aboot. and a boat is "boot".
There is a huge asian (chinese mainly, where we are) population, and the grocery stores and restaurants......never seen anything like it! There is an obsession with moon cakes, about 20 different types, all beautifully boxed and wrapped. In the meat section, my knowledge of anatomy failed me! There are several shops that seem to be devoted to ginseng. Other shops include a silk bedding store (sound decadent), nice chinese bamboo furniture etc etc. There is also a lot of light industry where we are on the boathouse so it is a bit like living in Fyshwick, but is good to know that we can get most things done locally.
Steveston is like a cross between Glenelg in Adelaide and WIsteria Lane a` la Desparate housewives. Lots of seaside goings on....huge seagulls and sea air and fish and chips and icecream. Lots of gelato coloured weatherboard houses, lots of parks and green spaces and very kid friendly. I am sure the boys will like it, cos I do. This is where we plan to live and will be talking to the real estate agent and banks early next week.
The alternative could be mainland Vancouver, if we won the lottery, I ran to Downtown today to pick up a race package. Manicured lawns, gigantic shady trees and Queen Anne style wooden houses with 3 storeys and lots of turrets. Very cute. It was a lovely sunny summer day, there seemed to be a park every couple of blocks and people were out and about. Unfortunately I got lost and ended up running 20km on pavement!
Yesterday I participated in the Nike worldwide fun run. Overall, I am glad I did it....even though they seemed to have left out my time and placing. My time said 42.35 (which I thought was pretty good considering how little I have been running due to being sick and having run 20km the day before). My chip time would have been less, and that would have got me in the top10 ....... someone said I was 6th female. Ist female got 39.59, so it wasn't a high calibre race. I'll be over it in a day, but I see it less as silly whinging, as being "invested" in the sport!
At the start I was thinking, if I was in Canberra, I would see all my buddies here, and be having the usual pre-race fun and chatting. I felt more than a little lost and lonely. However, I borrowed a marker pen and wrote "wanted: running buddies" on the back of my t-shirt and got talking to some people.
And it worked, I was put onto a running club in Richmond!
At the start, I looked for Jim (as I do), to get a good spot (as he picks prime real estate) and to keep an eye on him (because if he sees me first, then I'm done)....then realised he wasn't there! And no Borat's either. And Katie wasn't there to draft off either!
However, I overtook a few east Africans....they are not all fast!
Towards the end, a really kind runner (a young guy who was also an immigrant like me, from Venezuela), ran with me and encouraged (nagged) me to keep the pace up. This fellowship really made an impression on me. I think this is why I miss all of you.
Re-discovering running and then meeting with Maria and Geoff's group occurred at a time in my life when my horizons and confidence were quite low. Just having had my 3rd child and being out of shape, and really not understanding what "time for myself" was. As well as discovering a "thing" about running, I discovered a bunch of really fabulous friends, and people who share the same fellowship, supportive nature and are self-motivated and punctual.
The drawback of this increased confidence was that I decided to give moving to Canada a burl....and it worked! I'll go into work on Wednesday to meet everyone, but will not start until after my exam which is on the 11th September.
The boys are coping....although there is a bit of silliness. Things will improve when they start school, they are all looking forward to it. Jasper is still not very happy about having to move, but exciting things are afoot.
We looked at houses today with a realtor who drove us around. Rob and I agreed on one house that we both like very much. We'll take another look Wednesday. Then we can get the lads to school.
I miss you all.
Love Emma
PS The grey place is where we are living.
