On the Go

Well, after we leave on Monday we have about a week and a half to get settled before I begin work again. We will be spending one week staying at quaint old village on the west side of the Isle of Lewis in a house that used to be in our family (my great grandparents I believe). The house is now a holiday let and as a 60th birthday gift for my mum, a big bunch of us in Canada rented it for a week for her so she can relive some fond childhood memories…take a look if you are interested…

Can’t wait to go walking …. !

Callum the Canuck

Well in honour of our departure, Callum’s Grandma has kitted him out in Canucks stuff. Here he is in all his Canucks glory….

One Week To Go

The movers came today (a day earlier than expected) and things went surprisingly well. Today they packed and tomorrow they move things. To escape from the apartment, mum and I took Callum for a walk since it was such a beautiful day. It also gave us an excuse to try out Callum’s new shades. We have to get him used to them before Malta. Shannon gave these to us and they are fantastic. He even let us keep them on him once he realized he could still see with them on. I got sad about leaving and had to take a few obligatory shots of our apartment – we will miss it and our neighbours alot. Take a look. This time next week we will be on a plane, so it will likely be awhile before my next post.

Saying Goodbye to Family

Well on March 10th, we had a good bye dinner with my family and the week before we had a similar dinner with Michael’s family. We are soo going to miss everyone and want to send a big thank you out to all of you for coming and saying goodbye.

A Day at the Aquarium

Well, now that we are leaving….Laura and I decided to take the kids to the aquarium. Callum had never been before and it was one vancouver thing I wanted to squeeze in before we left. Here are some pics of a great afternoon!

Things I will miss about Vancouver….

Moving makes you think, think, think all the time about what you are giving up and what you are hoping to find in your new place that you don’t have here. Some things that I am already missing about Vancouver include:

• the trees, the mountains, and the mist,
• the fab restaurants – especially Go Fish, Papaya Hut, and my Indian takeway place at Granville Island,
• Spanish Banks,
• free nights at the Museaum of Anthropology and Vancouver Art Gallery,
• yearly camping at Galiano Island,
• sushi,
• more sushi,
• belcarra park,
• buntzen lake,
• the Georgia Straight and Vancouver Courier,
• the endless seawall,
• the west end,
• the rain,
• the forums and cultural events,
• the vancouver library,
• commercial drive,
• the craft markets at christmas,
• the outdoor swimming pool at Stanley Park,
• Whytecliff Park,
• the camping and hiking,
• the endless amount of activities for kids (that I haven’t even had a chance to explore yet),
• Dining Out event in Feb,
• the kayaking potential,
• Mountain Equipment Co-op, and
• Tofino (okay, not really vancouver but great all the same).

And I’m sure more will come to me. The things that I will not miss about Vancouver, include:

• the traffic and commuting to the tri-cities to see grandparents,
• our two main newspapers,
• the insane housing market,
• the fact that everything is busy all the time (the camping spots, the parks, the restaurants),
• paying for parking virtually everywhere, and
• the crazy pace of life (self-imposed I’m sure).

The things I look forward to in my new home include:

• the ability to see more of Europe,
• the lack of commuting,
• exploring the western isles and scotland on my weekends,
• spending more time with my hubby and son,
• hopefully bagging some munroes,
• hopefully planting a garden and becoming a better cook,
• ensuring more down time if I don’t get around to hiking munroes, planting veggies and becoming a better cook right away,
• exploring my roots,
• learning about “planning” in the UK, and
• coming back to Vancouver as a tourist.

Chaos Ensues

Well Michael and I officially feel like students again as we come to the end of decluttering and selling off all the things we`ve worked so hard to accumulate in the last three years. Boy-did we have alot of junk. I feel like I have been on an never ending episode of one of those decluttering reality shows. Everything in the apartment has been given the same amount of attn as to whether it should be saved, shipped or stored, from the heirloom dining room tablecloth that never gets used to that big box of paperclips that we thought would be so useful to have in our office but has not been touched in 3 years. As always your time is not spent as wisely as it should. I have been spending too much time buying and selling things on craiglist, researching the endless ins and outs of umbrella strollers (and failing to just bite the bullet and buy one), and harrassing Michael about the endless list of things that need to get done. Michael is spending far too much time playing with his new Mac and fretting over Callum`s mealtimes as I`ve progressed him into very big chunky foods and this scares Michael silly. I imagine as the next two weeks draws to a close, alot of things will get dropped of the to-do list, including posting here. But we`ll resume when we get over to the other side. I personally am interested to see how Callum and I fare with our upcoming travel. I`ve been doing my own research and buying little gidgets and gadgets that probably aren`t worth the money but I am desperately hoping will make our travels go smoother. Callum with be on and off something like 10 planes in two months – so we are definately about to learn from experience. Anyways that is it for now – will keep you posted. Back to decluttering I go.