Vancouver Island

sign
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Well, I've finally put up some pictures. I'll post one here, but you can see them all on the flickr.com website. Just go to http://flickr.com/photos/27142778@N00/ and I think you can see them from there...

Well, I'm now in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and it's so nice out here. Lots of trees and good views to be had. The family I'm staying with are awesome, and I've been getting many good meals as well as a comfy comfy bed.

Now that I've sort of settled down and doing some normal living, I've been able to do alot more physio and it's definately helping. I'm not nearly as juicy as I was before, and I'm starting to feel good again. Being at the hostel is kinda hard to do all that stuff, just because there's no where really to do it in the building, and it's usually freezing outside after the sun goes down. Excuses excuses excuses...

And being typical me, I forgot to get my Pulmozyme from the fridge at the hostel before I left, so here's hoping they haven't chucked it out.

But yeah, this one isn't going to be long. Have to get to bed. But check out the piccies if you want. Or not. I really don't care. Do whatever you want.

has anyone seen a hummingbird?

... well? ... because i realised that i had never seen one in real life but knew all about them from lots of images and ideas and analogies and all that crap that we use birds for ... but i finally saw one ... and i think it changed my life ... it is easily my favourite animal in the world now ... i only caught it for a few seconds as it flew into a garden hung around for a bit then zipped out again ... i was totally mesmerized by that moment, the movement of that little bird was utterly astonishing ... i wonder what animals i have never seen and just think i have ... (p.s. do we have hummingbirds in australia?)

not much news and a website.

yep that's right ... not much news at the moment ... just in the swing of organising my visas and stuff (still!) for uni ... i'm pretty sure that the visa and immigration office only employs people who are unhappy and incompentent ... or people who lend themselves easily to having their spirits crushed ... i spent last week at a kino kabaret and now a lot of the films are up on the website www.kinomatane.org so go there and you can see two baby films done by me ... and two that i acted in (one has a picture of me as jesus and the other is "untitled" by jean-francois robichaud) ... and for those of you who don't read french .... the films are on the left hand side where it says "films" ... and there's a lot of fun stuff on there also ...

"Yarn!"

I'm so sorry everyone. I got so caught up in my own little things that I totally forgot to say how well "Yarn!" went the other night. I feel really bad... Aynwho, the night started off with a little stressing trying to get everything organised. And to totally backfire on us, our "8:30pm sharp start" made it so that we had to keep people from coming in because we weren't ready. So I apologise for that! But after that little hiccup the night went off swimmingly! By the end of the night we had about 220 people through the doors, of which I only knew about a third of them. So that was just totally amazing. LeighStarDust got the night kicking with her music the way only Leigh can. Then 2 of the 4 Dairy Brothers took to the stage with some rockin' acoustic tunes. And finally The Audreys finished with a set that had everyone cheering for more. The night as a whole though was just so overwhelming. So many people, which then meant so much money! I'm only going to announce how much was made because I want to know that the people who put in their effort definately made it worth while. We did around $3400, which was way more than I had been expecting, so again, a HUGE thank you to all those who came and helped by giving me some money! And not to forgot of course all those who helped out throughout the night, inlcuding door bitches, food stall people, raffle ticket people and general harassing people! Thanks so much again. I really couldn't have done it without you. And not to mention the wonderful Ms. Cookie Baker, which of course did most of the organising of all the important stuff. Thanks Ballsac! Well, I'm leaving it here. That's enough. Just quickly though - went swimming today at the beach, went for a huge walk, had some can soup, and tonight I'm going on a ghost tour. Oooh, scary. Ben and Alley - let's see if I can get some ghosts captured on film - "Most Haunted" style!

$1 pizza slices - heaven for Jaan

I'm sooo happy that I've found a cheap meal. There are so many places downtown that hvae $1 pizza slices, and they're pretty big. So for $3 you can get two slices and can of 'pop'. Not bad at all hey? I thought it was pretty good anyway... So things are slowly starting to setlle down. I'm used to my smallish bed, and my roommates are changing every night. I guess what you're meant to do is stay for one or two nights then move on. What am I doing staying for a whole week?! Oh well. Last night was spent in the dining area watching 3 boys from Seskatchewan chugging down beer while playing cards for aobut 5 hours. Quite amusing. They must have gone through a couple of cases. Not bad stuff. And some good news - I got my neb out of its case thingy. YAY!!! Now I can do my nebs. It's been so frustrating not being able to. But I think the exercise is helping quite a bit as I haven't done my nebs or too much physio, yet surprisingly I'm quite dry. I don't know why that is, but I'm guessing its all the walking around I've been doing. So I'm going to talk to a couple of other backpackers and see what there is to do in this crazy town. I'm still waiting on the cf rep here to meet up with her, but apart from that no other real plans. I might go to a hill or something to walk up. I went to the post office today and found out that it's pretty easy to send over the meds to Montreal. I just need to include a doc note with it. But that's going to be interesting - bringing a suitcase of drugs into town with me on the bus. Oh well, good times! Either way, ah ha. :) Stay well all, and I'm sure I'll post something again real soon. p.s. I know that I'm copping out by pasting my other post on here, but eh, what you gonna do?

Jaanie in Vancouver

I arrived at the hostel yesterday afternoon in a taxi where the driver was quite keen to tell me his knowledge of the city on camera. The hostel is very nice - beautiful building with a great view of the mountains and right on the beach. It's about 20 mins away from the city though, so I'll have to figure out how to get there today to buy some stuff. My neb is stuck in its plastic holding, so I haven't been able to to any nebs since yesterday afternoon. I'm very annoyed. Hopefully I can get it out soon, otherwise I don't know what I'll do. Let's just hope for the best on that one. The weather here is very nice too. Low twenties during the day, and nights are quite cool, which is good because the dorms get very hot during the day with the sun shining right into it. Had some crazy dreams last night, but I'm thinking that's due to the sleepness night before mixed in with a very warm room, no food in my stomach and maybe some crazy drugs thrown in. Anywawy, I should get off here and go out and see some more of loverly Canadia. Take care all and see you soon.

jaanie touches down! (in l.a. that is...)

yes, that is true. i have arrived in the city of angels. and its a loverly sunny day. about 23 i reckon. beautiful! a pity im not staying longer. my plane for vancouver leaves in about half an hour me reckons, so not long till im out of the us of a. but im already getting quite pissed off with the keyboareds they have here. horrendous! enough of that. the flight to sydney was quite rough and not the smoothest flight ive had. the one to la though was quitenice. really smooth, but i didnt get much ssleep. about 3 hours all up i rekon. not to worry, ill cath upo with that soon. la is cool - american cars everywhere, american people,some greasy greasy food. oooh, my lunch was awesome! a big fat hotdog with chili mince sauce, cheese, and a big fat coke. and i bought about 4 chocolate bars that ive seen in movies and tv shows. just to see what they taste like. health ois going quite good. i did a bit iof physio on the plane, but not too much. the porta neb o=works a treat. but in at the airport i got a good dose of physio in, outside in a little garden area. very nice .eveyone was looking at me thought like i was doing some heavy drugs. funny stuff. ive also done a bi of filming. not sure if its any good, but im slowly getting used to talking to the camera and its slowly beccoming my frind. so i guess thast good. but it could quie possibly be very boring... and the biggest thing i was worried about (my drugs) hasnt caused one little hiccup at all. sydney they wanted to have a brief look at them and a glance at my doc letter, but that was it. even in la they didnt really care. dont get me wrong, its all goood but i was kindalooking forward to getting interogated. maybe nexdt time... anywho, when i get a proper keyboard and proper net acess ill maajke sure to post something better andmaybe do aa couple of emails. but until then, will see you all in net land very soon...

People making films

Raphael the real frenchman

the guy who directed a film in which i play Jesus and am also the voice of God ... I don't think I was quite up to standard though. (the second bloody time I'm roped into acting!! only because it's easier to say "oui" in french than to craftily get out of something)

damn those deceptive french!

Half way up the mountain I asked JF who was going to play the killer with the camera in his film ... I was a little confused as there were only four of us in the car ... the two girls who are stalked ... JF the director ... and me the camera man .... oh wait .... THE CAMERA MAN! ... so here i am on the wrong side of the camera ...

well that was fun ...

right now i'm at Matane making films at a kino kabaret. last night simon the cooridnator came up to me and rambled at me in french something about Radio Canada ... I'm pretty sure he said that there was some interview in the morning and he wanted me to be on it ... solely because of my Australian celebrity status ... i said "we'll see" and forgot about it the night dragged on and i slept on the floor since i was too tired to make it back to the place where i'm supposed to be sleeping. then i woke up sticky-faced and dirty-shirted and went to take a crap... simon comes in the door and in his way mumbly french starts talking to me ... then i understood "no joke, sixty second" (read that in one of those comical heavy accents like john cleese guarding the castle in the holy grail) "find someone else i said" and continued my morning poop, took my time and then freshened up a little, trying to remove the sloth that you get from sleeping your clothes. Simon comes back in the door and says "allez, go!" and so off i went. out across the street and to the radio station, without enough time to put on any shoes. then there was an interview about kino and the kabaret this week ... all in french ... i understood most of it ... but inevitably i understood the questions that the others were asked but not the ones to me ... so nodding and grinning i sat through my first foreign language interview ... ... now i have to begin filming a film to screen tonight ... and i still haven't changed my shirt.

My REAL address ...

well by now I'm sure you've spent all your money on various biohazardous materials to send to me in the mail and can't buy any more ... they only let you buy a few before they get suspicious you know ... so now i can give my real address ... i cleverly gave everyone the incorrect postcode ... It is: 4277 St-Urbain, apt. 4 Montreal, Quebec Canada H2W 1V6 now i can sit back and wait for the presents and non-poisoned lollies to come rolling in ...

Haven't got much to say ...

G'day everybody, well it's been a little while ... I've forgotten what I've done what I've said to whom ... but it's been good ... I've found out that what is supposed to be a four year uni course can be squeezed into one to two years ... so that means less time wasting for me ... and less money to spend too ... I'm assuming it will take two years to complete (less if I'm lucky) which means I'll be skipping through europe and asia sometime after march or april ... having a little holiday if i have some cash ... then staying home in good old adelaide and earning some money before returning in august to complete my degree ... i have a house which is attached to a telephone which has a number: 011+01+(514)-842-7135 ... not too sure about that international dialling code ... but if you're going to call me you can figure it out ... tomorrow I'm leaving for a week to a town in Quebec called Matane ... THE PLACE for shrimp I'm told ... but I'm going there for a Kino Kabaret week ... so it should be a week of film-making, sleep deprivation, undernourishment and all in french only ... which is exciting and scary at the same time ... I've been learning slowly but in the last week it feels like I've hit a wall and can't get any further at the moment ... do you know how many bloody pronouns there are in the french language!!!! but i will proceed when i get back i'll be broke and it will be only a couple of weeks until i'm due to start uni ... i've applied for a scholarship to help pay for the first year of the degree ... hopefully the people at SAYAB are nice enough to want to help me ... In september mummy and daddy are coming to las vegas and i'm going over to visit them which should be fun ... what with all the gambling and strippers ... in october jaan will be here ... coinciding with the New Cinema Festival ... in which I'll hopefully be participating in another Kino Kabaret filmmaking week In november it will get cold. In december it will be my first white christmas. In january it will be really, really, really cold ... australia day just won't be the same In the mean time i'm keeping myself amused ... i'm hoping to set up a site or leech off peter ... to have a place where i can make some little films and put them on the internet for you to watch we will see ... love you one and all ... p.s. as i've said many times before ... it's boring to write about yourself ... it's much more fun to read about other people ... so if you're not writing on here ... WRITE ON HERE!

Kids say the darndest things ...

Kids are fun ... well more funny than fun ... because they're stupid ... but that's not their fault ... they're young, they're learning ... we laugh with them, not at them ... we were the same when we were younger too ... it's just the natural order of things ... but when you're on the other side of the globe, the natural order can be easily upset ... especially when you're learning a language ... when you're standing in line at a supermarket and you can't understand a bloody word that the little boy with mittens tied to his coat and snot running down his nose is saying ... not because he's talking gibberish or he's drunk ... but because he knows more French than you do ... it's embarrasing ... it makes you feel stupid ... kids can say whatever they want to you and get away with it ... because you just don't know what's going on ... it's unnatural ... it's just plain wrong ... but like with most things in nature there are scales and balances ... thank goodness there's virtually nothing that a good clip around the ear 'ole won't fix.