faced with fear

i have always been a big fan of the water but i NEVER had an inkling of a want to scuba dive. when planning the big trip to oz one of the major expeditions for my travel companions was to scuba dive the great barrier reef. for me, a person who had never snorkelled before, i couldn't understood why. as a kid, i hated my swimming lessons~ back and forth, back and forth throughout the length of the pool. why would i want to do that underwater?

here is the story of my first open water dive:

the day before
tense
couldn't speak
silent.
when spoken too i would break into tears
too much anxiety/pressure/everything!
secretly hoped/wished/willed that i would be unable to go
wanting to fail the medical
get stuck in another place
sleep in
but to no avail.
i was on the boat!

our first dive,
put air in my pfd
put the regulator in my mouth
jumped
let out the air out of my pfd
my body would not go underwater.
i willed it not to
definite hypervenilation
underwater now
i took a breath
then two
three, four, and many after!
it was okay
fantastic
fell in love

JAWS: the clownfish

their home

okay so this is not real although we did see a shark but it was night, so picture is unavailable. looks pretty realistic though hey???

ladies and gentlemen i would like to introduce...

...WALTER THE WOLF SPIDER!!!!

set scene: a fun filled day of shopping and attempting to learn to boogie board; three girls needed a night of relaxation in a local pub, with great food and drinks.

what happened?: Cheeky Monkeys! a backpacker's bar where competitions include "the dirtiest positions", where you win pitchers of beer for nickels, and end up dancing on tables.

cut to Walter: met him in the bathroom! the biggest living creature that crawls on walls that i have ever seen. he also just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! knowing that some person under the influence of quite a bit of liquor may not feel the same love we felt for the spider, we retrieved the bouncer (hey it's a big spider, a bouncer is the only one that could handle that kind of job!). he followed us to the bathroom and retrieved the little/big guy in a cup, and released him into the wilderness of byron bay (or a sidewalk).

so walter lived happily ever after (in my eyes) from that day forward!

THE END

THANK YOU MONTANA!

okay all i have to say at this moment on great falls, montana is KAROAKE!

i am not really a karoake-er and as i write this i know the company i was with would disagree but i blame it all on montana baby!!

total girl road trip lead us down to the states and into a very empty karoake bar [4 girls (us), and two elder ladies and an elder gentlemen]. when free drinks are offered if you just sing one song, you don't disappoint! a couple of cheap beers, some shots, and a stumble that will lead to a scar (that one will have to explain to their grandchildren years later), you couldn't drag some of us (throat clear) from the microphone.

...and really who has ever seen a karoake joint increase in crowd as the night goes on...not only that but have people dancing to the songs that you sing (okay maybe not the ones i sang but whatever...not the point!)

some memorable songs that were sung:

• baby got back-sir mix alot
• bad moon arising-ccr
• thriller-micheal jackson
• vain-carly simon
• boots are made for walking-nancy sinatra
• teddy bear-elvis presley

i wanna soak up the sun

soooo i should be going for a run right now but my excuses are as follows:

~pizza is on its way and who wants to work out and then eat pizza....
~after eating the pizza, who wants to work out! AND...

~it is amazingly hot out and a great day to just soak up the sun...

...just like this other amazing day i soaked up the sun in cancun, mexico (nice segway, hey?)

mexico was my way of opposing new years celebrations...as my strong feelings about new years is as follows:
~it is such an overrated holiday

~saying good bye to christmas is always so hard

so i fled the the country! unfortunately it was right after the hurricane hit but had absolutely no impact on my happiness as i had a fabulous time enjoying people, dancing, the sights and the weather!

so enjoy soaking in the sun today (atleast if you are in edmonton)! atleast it's cheaper as you don't have to fly away!

lord of the rings

so do you remember the scene in lord of the rings where frodo got stabbed and arwen had to get him to rivendell as fast as she could...then she met up with the ringwraiths trying to cross the river...
...i was there! :)

i did it!

so, when i was 21 years old i made a list of things i would like to accomplish before i turned 26. it was a small list, with things that i just wanted to do. one of them was to go skydiving. in 2004, when i was 24 i got the opportunity to go...or so i thought!

so tired from all the backpacking, my travel companions and i decided on a contiki tour of the southern island of new zealand. meals, accomodations, and fun was virtually set up for us with zero planning involved. queensland, a place that three days were spent, was where my skydiving journey was to happen. three days of rain, wind, and (slight) upset cancelled my plane ride before it could even happened.

however i was not a total spoiled brat wallowing in self-pity. i was in a beautiful country, i have never been and i relished in the mountain air, enjoyed the hiking trails, and the people from the tour were excellent.

new zealand was wonderful...and just when i packed up my list as i figured skydiving would happen in canada, my wonderful tourguide, jo, fixed up a trip for me on the day i was to leave for canada, in christchurch (i think it was three hours before take-off!!!).

not only was the skydive a thrill of a lifetime (was i out of my mind jumping out of a excellent plane that could land me safely to the ground???) i couldn't believe how nice everyone was from jo setting it up (she was a doll) to the guys that made the dive a blast and assuring me in some panicky moments!!

home in a foreign place

1998

spring break

tour of italy

picture taken in:

venice

picture of:

casey

found this place:

walking around

...we found a bit of home...

hotel canada

wtf mate?

sooo, you know when you go travelling and you get suckered into things. you spend too much money on a tour, or you are told you are getting something and end up getting nothing. those experiences haven't eluded me either.

went on a three day tour of the outback.

stopped at this ranch looked over and saw what looked to be llamas.



"tour guide will, are those llamas?"

(think aussie accent)"oooo no, in the outback they breed sheep and camels together, those are shamels."

"what are you talking about?" (fits of laugher) "why would you want to do that, what would be the purpose???"

tour guide will, "no purpose, just something to do."

two weeks later, another country, another tour guide, another ranch and more shamels...

"tourguide jo, you have shamels too? wtf? why why why?"

"wtf? what are you talking about, those are llamas, what the hell are shamels?"

(fits of hysterical laughter) "sucker sucker sucker"

the worst is the fixation on this subject for two weeks...the combos that came out~crocaroo (crocodile and kangaroo), kowallabee (koala and wallaby), and on and on....

a tale of two stories

TRACEY'S STORY
in 1996 the robertson family made the big trip to disneyworld. tracey had wanted to go to disneyworld for as long as she could remember. she loved anything disney: the animation, the magical aspect the place promised and especially LOVED LOVED LOVED the rides (you know the ones...the fast moving, upside down with your stomach in your throat ~ giving you that butterfly feeling ~ finishing off with the really big drop). luckily, tracey's father loved the same thrills. tracey and her dad went on all the jaw dropping, finger clenching, adrenaline rushing rides while tracey's mother stode contently on the sidelines.

however there was this one ride that tracey knew her mother would love: it was a show involving the adventures of brer rabbit with a little zip a dee doo dah day in the end. i mean it had a little bit of musical theatre in it, what's not to love? oooo it also had a 5 story drop. there was no line-up whatsoever as they rushed near the closing hours through the maze to get to the floating log. as they stepped onto the tarmack tracey's mom hestitated; she did not want to be in the front row as she did not want to get wet. the ride hosts completely understood. a log cart was pulled out for just the robertson ladies. the ride started and tracey pointed out all the fun things to see. tracey's mom seemed a little nervous but overall looked like she enjoyed it. as they came to the drop the ultimate irony hit them. the ladies did not want to get wet so maybe next time they needed more people on the ride to shield them?

JANE'S STORY

I am in total agreement with Tracey about the excitement of Disneyworld. Everywhere you turned there was something going on. As far as a vacation with my dear family goes this was a 10 plus on the fun scale...except for one thing. Miss Tracey likes hilly rides. Her mom does not. She loved loved loved splash mountain and (to my relief) got her Dad to go on it 2 times. However, she desperately wanted to share this delight with me. "No no no no " I kept saying. "Please please please please" was her response. We were going to another place the next day so if it was to happen it had to happen immediately. Finally to stop her from bugging me I gave in.

Secretly I thought I was quite smart as I fiqured it was 8:50 and the ride closed at 9. We would never make it. Unfortunately, Tracey was thrilled and did a power walk thing to get there. We arrived at the gate 2 min to nine with me very thankful as we were the only customers there and the ride seemed to be closing up. Old Walt would have been pleased with his workers. "No problem," said the crew, they would let us ride. I should have known~this is Disneyworld after all~where all your dreams come true. Darn Darn Darn, my head was saying. Ok, I thought, if I had to go on this stupid ride to please my daughter we must sit in the back so I don't get wet. Not the best plan~with no one in front we were in direct line of a whole lot of water. As the ride strolled along all I thought about was the big drop. Tracey was in happy mode yapping about all the neat things happening around us. I was in stress mode thinking at any minute I was going to drop from this mountain. Gritting my teeth and grinning to excited Tracey I saw it...THE FLASH OF THE CAMERA. This was it...the dreaded moment. I screamed so loud that I don't think it was possible to open my mouth any larger. When we dropped it felt like I was floating above my seat. Tracey was thrilled and so was I...it was finally over.

where's the snow, marmot?

so last year i went skiing A LOT. well maybe not that much, but more than i had ever before as i managed to make it to the mountains six times. this trip was the last one i made (i think it was close to the end of march) in attendance jeaninne, dj, sarah (with still to be born baby liam), brian, and jeremy. woke up at 4:30am left by 5 and home that night (very extreme...smirk).

so do you notice anything lacking?? as we drove up to marmot, a slight panic rose to my throat as there was zip/zero/nilch/nadda snow at the bottom of the hill. i think the suggestion of driving to banff was pleaded many times...i am so glad the driver (brain) did not listen as it was a fantastic day of skiing!! no exaggeration, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, no wind, and the snow was fantastic on the top. i mean so awesome that i skied till my knees started knocking and my skis were crossing left right and center...or the snow got really slushy and heavy because of the sun contributing to the knee knocking and ski crossing (yeah yeah, excuses excuses).

the best feeling was at the end of the day when you are at the point of exhaustion (but not yet cranky), your face feels wind/sun burn, you smell like fresh air, you are regaining feeling in your toes and you are in a supreme good mood after kicking the mountain's a#$ and having it kick you back!

girls gone wild

casey's birthday, stagette, and just all around camping fun, happened 2006 during the july long weekend.

we were all in need of a getaway and this was the perfect opportunity. in truthness, when you compare your stag to this one it was probably tame (i truthfully don't know as i have attended a total of 2 and both involved camping). however i bet on your stag you didn't have an electric fence??

we roadtripped to lake louise, alberta. fun tunes (golddigger by kayne west and diamond on the soles of her shoes by ladysmith black mamboza), fun walkie talkies (tiffany~"mama bear paging papa bear") good games (i mean there was the best judge in scattgories ever~wink wink) AND AN ELECTRIC FENCE (touch it...TOUCH IT or cook on it?!!) not to mention excellent weather to go with all those things.

...really it was a bunch of girls hanging out, laughing, walking, hiking (in sandles), "gaming", eating large quantities of food & drinking just a bit.

in terms of lake louise it is a pretty touristy area, especially during the summer...but when you have views like this with a fabulous group of friends, the buzz of the area doesn't seem to get to you...

i was on the amazing race...

...okay so not really but it sure felt like it. i went to australia in 2004 with two friends i used to work with. it was a specutacular trip, full of laughter, tears, fun, with a mixture of extraordinary sights. byron bay was one of the best places on that trip. the age i was, the mentality i had and the atmosphere byron had worked well together. it had a hippie, relaxed feel to it, yet all those good tourist things i wanted were at my feet.

cut to the amazing race...the most easterly point on the mainland of australia was in byron bay (it already sounds like a destination that contestants would have to go to, right?). we decided to rent some bikes from our hostel, trek up to the lighthouse and then down the path to the point.

THE CATCH: the bikes had to be back before sunset (more on that later) all of us, having done so much walking at this point thought this should be a cakewalk, or not...

now comes the excuse portion of this story: our bikes ONLY had three gears as we rode up the hill...no no let me rephrase that: MOUNTAIN. that with the combination of the extreme humidity, one water bottle between the three of us, we were just slightly underprepared.

THE RESULT: one of us could go no farther up the hill/mountain. really it is just a point after all...it can be seen from a distance, right? the other two were stubborn, bound and determined to go to the actual point. i mean one million dollars was at stake!!! past the lighthouse, jumped off the bikes and running down the path towards the destination...weird from this angle it kind of looks like the sun is setting doesn't it??

needless to say we did not make it before sundown...and i think the importance on why we needed to be back before dark was the ride back down. one of us got accosted by a bush turkey. life flashed before her eyes as she was shocked that she would go out of this life by a bird eaten on thanksgiving day. swerved away just in time, life back on track. another, i cannot speak for how she felt, but by the blood curdling screams i think her bike lacked brakes (who needs brakes down a monstourous deathtrap of a hill~i mean mountain??) three girls, in the dark, on a winding road leading us to our end, screaming who knows what...

...we definitely deserved the million!

a little sentimental about stanley

so the first place i want to write about is stanley. i love new brunswick and one of my favourite places is stanley. its the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else... my grandparents lived there all my life. there is a barn just beside the house that i was always told to avoid as it will fall down any minute (it still stands).


there is also a woodlot that used to be a maple tree/christmas tree farm where before my grampie passed away he would mail us a christmas tree every year from new brunswick to alberta so that we could have a little peice of home with us during the holidays (my grammie still upholds the tradition). mainly i love this place for the memories like:

-down the hill is a high school where, in my recent stay i would wake up to the singing of "o canada"
-walks with my dad through the woods or collecting wild flowers with my cousins and brother.
-sitting on the veranda at night looking at the stars with my grampie listening to his moosecalls and having long talks
-catching fireflies and playing in the park with my cousins
-i even love how the floorboards creaked when my parents and grandparents went to bed
...so many more memories and i love them all! :)

first post after 1.5 years!!

so i have had this blog since june 2005. it started when my friend casey unvieled her blog and in order for me to comment i thought i needed my own. i instantly got hooked onto the "blog universe" and was added on as a user to case's blog. however, i still had this empty page that needed to be filled! ideas came to me but i really wanted to write about travelling. i am obsessed/love every aspect of travelling...because i pretty much express my ideas, opinions and everything else on casey's blog i figure this one can revolve around the good, bad and ugly experiences/events, that have happened in my past travels (and hopefully future ones?) eventually it may evolve into something else but till then, i hope you enjoy mine (and hopefully my friends) fun adventures! :)