Tag: vacation Posts

I have less than a month to go before I return everything to my storage locker and hit the open skies again. Last time I departed I headed south and ended up in Argentina. This time I’m flying west and hitting a little island off the coast of Thailand called Ko Samui One of the aspects discussed in the book Vagabonding that seemed was relavant to me this summer was the concept of reintegration. The author claims in the book that after an extended trip it becomes difficult to find a way to fit yourself back into your old life. That was definitely the case for me this time around, and lately I’ve felt like I’ve been stuck in a bit of limbo. Given that I’m living out in a new area of Vancouver and that the majority of my belongings are still in storage, I imagine feeling a bit […]

It’s strange living in my apartment right now. I have half of the place boxed up, and am slowly selling the rest of it off. Even though my bed is still set up, it doesn’t really feel like home anymore, so I’ve been sleeping on my couch in the living room. That couch was one I bought back in 2001 in Ottawa, and we’ve been through a lot together. When I leave this place it’s going to its final resting place at my sister’s house, but it’s been a comfy companion for the last ten years. My bar stools sold tonight, as did my entertainment unit. In terms of large furniture, that leaves my bedroom suite, my kitchen table set, my coffee table, and everything in my office. I’m not too worried about those items, since I suspect most of them will sell rather quickly on Craigslist. But, after I […]

I spent most of this weekend chilling out around the house. I took a bit of time out on Saturday to hit a few legs of the circle farm tour with Raeleigh and Eileen. One of these days I’ll manage to hit the rest of the places on the tour, but I’m slowly nailing them, a month at a time. I’ve been meaning to take a weekend trip somewhere, but with the rain I haven’t been motivated enough to get in the car lately. I want to get rid of my travel VISA soon, since it has a yearly fee attached to it, but before I do that I need to blow off a pile of points on it, and I plan to rent a pretty nice cabin or hotel somewhere for a weekend to use them up. I have a few spots in mind, I just need a bit […]

It won’t be much longer now until things start heating up around here. It seems like just a few days ago that Christmas was here (or possibly it only seems that way because my tree is still up). I for one am getting pretty excited about enjoying the sun again when it comes. This summer I’m hoping to do quite a bit of camping and hiking. The campground reservation system for the lower mainland isn’t open yet, but I found out that the one in Tofino actually opened the other day. So I decided to whip out my credit card and book three days of camping on the Island in July. I’m going to probably take the whole week off and spend my time exploring Vancouver Island, and hopefully also visit a few friends. Years ago I camped in Goldstream Provincial Park near Victoria, and I thought it was pretty […]

Well, maybe not *above*, but at least *at* Starbucks. Feels weird being back into the groove again to be honest. I have never been on a two week vacation before, and it’s strange coming back again and trying to fire the engines up again, especially when the engines have been soaked in beer for two weeks. I’m down at my local Starbucks in Vedder Crossing here trying to get everything in order so that I can hit everything hard again starting tomorrow. I started the evening with 400 messages in my inbox, and am down to around 15 now, which is a nice improvement. Once my inbox gets past about 50 messages, I start losing track of things I’ve replied to, so I like having it down to a more manageable level. Dale and I planned out a six month strategy for BraveNewCode over the holidays, and tomorrow we’re going […]

One on the aspects of vacation that I always enjoy is getting time to reflect on things without the noise of the real world interfering. A couple of times I sat by the pool, staring through my book and thinking about things back home, about the last year, about my life, about the future. It’s really hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since I packed up my things in Vancouver and headed back to Chilliwack. I spent eight out of the last fourteen years in university. While I had some really great times back in school, and met some really great friends, most of those eight years were spent doing late nights in dorm rooms, pretending my little house was really a little home. And despite being out of school for about four years now, part of me continues to live like a student for some weird […]

Today is day #13 down here in the Caribbean, and I noticed that the date was December 1st this morning. I gotta say, it’s pretty hard to take December seriously when the humidex is 40C and there’s not a cloud in the sky. This is probably the first December where I’ve ever been away on vacation, and it’s a bit surreal to be honest. After two weeks here, my clothes are starting to smell a bit like ass. I was hoping to use the laundry service here (where they pick stuff up in your room and bring it back, hopefully within a few days), but I just didn’t trust it enough. So today I filled the bathtub up with some water and soap and tried washing a few shirts so I’d have something clean to wear for the next few days. Dale and I are going to go for a […]

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been down in the Caribbean for 11 days now, but that’s how the math works out. I woke up this morning and spent a few moments trying to figure out what day of the week it was, since it’s pretty easy to lose track. Sara made it home ok, and Dale and I have been working on some BraveNewCode stuff since she left. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the room, Dale designing away and me coding away. We’re keeping the lid on most of the things we’re working on, but lots of cool things should be coming down the pipe. The wireless here has proven to be a pretty large disaster. We managed to hack into the administration page for the WRT router they have supplying the wireless, and we tweaked a few settings which has helped a bit, but in […]

About half-way through my flight the other day I went to the bathroom and really wasn’t feeling good. I really have no idea what it was, but my stomach was pretty upset and I was feeling a bit achy. Shortly after writing my blog posting yesterday, I ended up feeling pretty worse, and went to my room to curl up in bed. I passed out around 8pm or so, and slept until almost noon this morning (unfortunately, a rather unrestful sleep since my stomach was keeping me up). So I’m not sure if I caught something on the plane, or possibly ate something that didn’t agree with me (which I kind of doubt, since I was feeling a bit sick before landing in Punta Cana), but I spent the last 24 hours feeling pretty crappy. I forced myself to get out of bed around noon and down to the pool. […]

First off, Seattle was a lot of fun, and it was great seeing Dave and Lauren tie the knot. The ceremony was really well done, and the venue was spectacular. I had a really great time there with my friend Lynn and everyone else we met on the dance floor. I haven’t been all suited up in a while, so it was nice to dress up for a change. The Alexis Hotel fireplace suite was really posh as well, and it was super nice of them to put me up in it for the weekend. This morning has been a bit of a bumpy ride. I had a longstanding photography client issue I’ve been dealing with that I thought was resolved that unfortunately reared up again. Thankfully it appears solved, and I’m hoping I can finally put the last nail in that coffin. I also got a call this morning […]