Sunday, December 11, 2005
Christmas is coming...Keira's getting Fat!
Time for more sappy pictures of me. Grandma bought me a Santa suit, and got out her digital camera. Click on the picture of me for more cheesy Santa shots.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
The Streets of London...
I made it! Can't believe it, but it's already over. I jetted off to London to surprise Alastair (www.roundtheworldbybike.com) at his official homecoming just for the weekend, and we had a blast. I even managed to deviously arrange for him to pick me up at the airport without him even knowing it, and the look on his face when he saw me step out into Heathrow was priceless. We then drove for over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the M25 out to Kent, where Sarah's (his girlfriend) parents were hosting a big dinner party for him. We had a lovely meal and I met some fabulous people, then slept on the floor with pretty much everyone. The following morning we headed into London, where Alastair took me to the Royal Geographical Society to hob-nob with world explorers and researchers. Very interesting!
I then met up with Emily Brown (from Saudi) for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon watching a rugby match (England vs. the All Blacks) in a pub.
That evening was Alastair's official "End of the World" party, where I had far too much really bad wine, and met many more amazingly friendly and funny people.
The following morning, (which felt like night for me) was horribly, horribly painful-- and I awoke on Duncan's (another friend, who came to Canada last year) sofabed with a carpet in my mouth and what seemed to be a jackhammer in my head. Despite actually putting my bed away, showering, and dressing myself, I somehow managed to fall asleep on the couch again before breakfast. Classy.Alastair, Sarah and their friends Kate, Wil and Paul (I think...) took me out for the afternoon on a lovely tour of London. Alastair took full control of my camera and took some fun toursity shots, including one of me climbing on some sidewalk monument (see below). We spent a few hours in the Tate Museum, which was absolutely hilarious, and wandered down Fleet Street and saw St. Paul's. After ordering a pizza at another friend's flat, Sarah took Alastair and I out to her flat in Reading, where we spent my last night.
Suddenly it was morning (evening?!) again, and I was packing up to go to Heathrow while Al was climbing back onto his bike for the last short journey right home to Yorkshire.
I made it back to Vancouver on Monday evening and was working again Tuesday morning. Time for a weekend!
Al and me on my first night in England.
Emily and me out for lunch
Al and Sarah... back together after 4 years apart!
A fun afternoon wandering around London being tourists
The boys boosting me onto a monument in an attempt to get a cheesy tourist shot
Me not fitting onto the monument quite the way we'd envisioned...
A London sunset... it was bright and sunny all weekend!
I then met up with Emily Brown (from Saudi) for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon watching a rugby match (England vs. the All Blacks) in a pub.
That evening was Alastair's official "End of the World" party, where I had far too much really bad wine, and met many more amazingly friendly and funny people.
The following morning, (which felt like night for me) was horribly, horribly painful-- and I awoke on Duncan's (another friend, who came to Canada last year) sofabed with a carpet in my mouth and what seemed to be a jackhammer in my head. Despite actually putting my bed away, showering, and dressing myself, I somehow managed to fall asleep on the couch again before breakfast. Classy.Alastair, Sarah and their friends Kate, Wil and Paul (I think...) took me out for the afternoon on a lovely tour of London. Alastair took full control of my camera and took some fun toursity shots, including one of me climbing on some sidewalk monument (see below). We spent a few hours in the Tate Museum, which was absolutely hilarious, and wandered down Fleet Street and saw St. Paul's. After ordering a pizza at another friend's flat, Sarah took Alastair and I out to her flat in Reading, where we spent my last night.
Suddenly it was morning (evening?!) again, and I was packing up to go to Heathrow while Al was climbing back onto his bike for the last short journey right home to Yorkshire.
I made it back to Vancouver on Monday evening and was working again Tuesday morning. Time for a weekend!
Al and me on my first night in England.
Emily and me out for lunch
Al and Sarah... back together after 4 years apart!
A fun afternoon wandering around London being tourists
The boys boosting me onto a monument in an attempt to get a cheesy tourist shot
Me not fitting onto the monument quite the way we'd envisioned...
A London sunset... it was bright and sunny all weekend!
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Memorial Day
At the beginning I found all this marching around, and funny movements all rather...obsurd and stupid. However after 9 hours of training one weekend in drill and marching, I have developed quite a lot of respect for those regiments you see that do everything perfectly in sinc and on time. And it feels so good when the company pulls of a perfect 'HALT!' and you hear the BANG BANG! of everyone's boots hitting the ground at the same time! Anyway, here's my regiment at the memorial day parade saluting the officers, and marching. It went really well...unfortunately though I wasn't issued my no. 2 dress, that comes in April. Those who are are the senior members, from Rhine and Yeves Company...I'm in Waterloo Company. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures especially any good ones, Laura was taking the pictures and she arrived late...but hopefully i'll have some of xmas camp, and especially of my passing out parade in April when I'll be in full no. 2's and doing rifle drill.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
The Big Nasty Strike
For any of you who are unaware out there, the BC teachers have been on strike now for over a week. Basically we are wanting to negotiate a contract in which a variety of issues are addressed: namely class sizes, support for ESL and special needs students, increased funding for resources and books, and a salary increase. The government and the BCTF (BC Teachers' Federation) have been arguing about this for 18 months. Finally after the government addressed the issue with a "No, no and no" response, the BCTF arranged a strike and our premier (Gordon Campbell, unfortunately) decided to impose a law the night before the arranged strike that re-imposed an old contract from 2 years ago stating that teachers are an "Essential Service" and are therefore not legally allowed to strike. Well, we had an emergency vote and of those of us who voted, 90.5% of us voted in favour of holding an "illegal" wildcat strike.
Today there was a HUGE rally in Victoria. We have had tremendous support from parents, students, and other unions. It was estimated that there were up to 11,000 people marching from Centennial Square to the parliament buildings. Many other unions who supported us gave the government a taste of what a general strike would do to to the province... the city transit stopped for most of the day, even PCL coaches were off, Safeway and Save-On-Foods were closed, the libraries were closed, and many of the services at UVic and Camosun were down because the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) went on strike in support of us. We were marching with nurses, construction workers, children and engineers. It was amazing. Here are a few pics...
This is me on my first day of striking.
This is a view overlooking Centennial Square from a parkade-- it catches about a quarter of the people I could see from there.
This shot is terrible because the weather sucked and I don't have a great zoom lens... but look beyond the guy walking there, and you'll see a stream of people marching down Government Street. This went on for at *least* another 20 minutes after I'd arrived, and had probably been going on for 20 minutes before I got there. The turnout was amazing.
Around this there were 2 people walking with giant rat-heads on, wearing signs that said that the children of BC are Gordon Campbell's "lab rats". Will be interesting to see what happens next...
Today there was a HUGE rally in Victoria. We have had tremendous support from parents, students, and other unions. It was estimated that there were up to 11,000 people marching from Centennial Square to the parliament buildings. Many other unions who supported us gave the government a taste of what a general strike would do to to the province... the city transit stopped for most of the day, even PCL coaches were off, Safeway and Save-On-Foods were closed, the libraries were closed, and many of the services at UVic and Camosun were down because the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) went on strike in support of us. We were marching with nurses, construction workers, children and engineers. It was amazing. Here are a few pics...
This is me on my first day of striking.
This is a view overlooking Centennial Square from a parkade-- it catches about a quarter of the people I could see from there.
This shot is terrible because the weather sucked and I don't have a great zoom lens... but look beyond the guy walking there, and you'll see a stream of people marching down Government Street. This went on for at *least* another 20 minutes after I'd arrived, and had probably been going on for 20 minutes before I got there. The turnout was amazing.
Around this there were 2 people walking with giant rat-heads on, wearing signs that said that the children of BC are Gordon Campbell's "lab rats". Will be interesting to see what happens next...
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Friday, September 30, 2005
Skiing in SF
Check this out:
Fillmore St Ski Jump
Yes that is a cable car at the bottom of the ski jump. Full article here if you are interested
Fillmore St Ski Jump
Yes that is a cable car at the bottom of the ski jump. Full article here if you are interested
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