I like getting paid.
I read 12 books last month. Does that officially qualify me as a bookworm?
And some pictures from the weekend:
Calgary with the mountains behind
Over the Coastal Mountains
The Pan Pacific and downtown Vancouver
Lake Louise
One of the ice sculpturesYes, I am back. Now for sure, this time, maybe, is my last flight before Offshore starts. No promises though… I had a fantastic weekend/5 days in Alberta. Started it off in Calgary then off to Canmore and Banff. Could not have asked for better weather. Seriously. Well, I wouldn’t have minded it a tad bit warmer, but hey, when it is only -5 and there are brilliant blue skies with not a cloud to be seen and the sun is reflecting off of the snow on the mountain peaks, no complaints. Amongst other things, went to a rocking jazz guitar concert at the Banff Centre, saw the ice sculpture carving at Lake Louise, got to hang out with my friend and his family and celebrated his nephew’s 2nd birthday (first two-year-old’s birthday I’ve been to where champagne was served!). Good times. Then it was down to Lethbridge where I ended up seeing lots of friend from high school days. Wandering around town with Bette doing random errands and chatting was a highlight as was dinner with Sonya and Martin and Jo and Glen. It had been far too long since I was there. The flight back was spectacular, although the Rockies were clouded over this time, the Coastals were lovely and I think I flew over Sechelt before turning back to approach Vancouver Airport. I said hi from the sky Nanc, but you probably couldn’t hear me. 😉
…pictures forthcoming whenever Blogger sees fit to allow me to post them.
I took far too many photos in Europe. Some, sadly, will never see the light of day as a result. I was going through them tonight and looking at them again. Here are some of my favourites. Click to enlarge – there are just too many to make them large-format in the post. See if you can figure out where they all are… bonus points if you can identify all the figures from the church entry-way.
A few more photos added.
I swallowed my pride today and went to Walmart. After my experiences with them last month, which were less than good, I pretty much swore I would never go there again despite the fact that they have the cheapest price for developing photos around. Last month, I walked all the way there (an hour) to get some photos developed only to find out when I got there and had already waited in line half an hour that the machine wasn’t working (although I had been assured it was before I left home). Growl. But today, I borrowed the car and drove there (had to go to Best Buy at the same time anyway to exchange a duplicate movie Christmas present and got the Marie Antoinette soundtrack which I quite enjoy) to finally get my Europe photos developed. After dropping them off I went over to Best Buy and did my thing there then headed back to Walmart on the hour they told me the photos would be ready. They weren’t. Not that I was incredibly surprised, there were 400 photos (give or take a dozen or so) in my order after all . However, I had to wait about 30min more. The lady felt bad and she gave me $9 off of my order because I had to wait so long, so I wasn’t complaining. I would have gladly waited another half and hour to save another $9. She handed over my photos and said they were very nice (I guess they look at them as the put them in envelopes) and I left feeling much better about Walmart . Cut to an hour later when I am at home sorting out the photos and I can’t find any of the photos I took in London… or Munich for that matter… or Denmark… or Sweden… or Freiburg… or Galway… hmmm. It turns out, in a Sesame Street sounding way, that Walmart neglected to give me all of the photos that had names “beginning with the letters F, G, H, K, L, and M.” So now I have to go back to Walmart tonight and get them. Suddenly Walmart is not as cool anymore. Maybe I’ll get another $9 off after all.
I’m finally getting around to uploading pictures from Europe to Flickr. I’ll do more as I get around to it and as long as my [borrowed] wireless signal doesn’t keep crapping out like it has been.
I realised that I forgot to let you know where I went in Scotland… well, be in suspense no longer! We went and found Nessie herself:
Natalie posed for a photo in Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness and the next thing we knew, Nessie showed up in the photo!
Because I love you all so much and it is easier to look at photos if they are staring you in the face, I tried again. Here are some of the many photos from Ireland, the fair isle from which we depart today:
A page from an original copy of Handel’s “Messiah”
Galway Bay
With a pint of free Guinness after the tour of the brewery in Dublin
Ireland…
Along the Ring of Kerry
Boat and lobster traps in Galway Bay
Celtic cross in a cemetary along the Ring of Kerry
40 shades of green…So blogger is being a pain in the rear and won’t let me upload pics right now for some reason. I’ve got 12 from Ireland up on flickr – link down to the right or here. Also, I’ve put up more videos on YouTube, link just given in the last post. Yay for hostels with free internet.
Just uploaded a video of the Go-Kart Grand Prix in Monaco… here
gillian's island 