i'm in adelaide

wooo

taking off again

ben lifts off in about four hours lands in london six hours after that takes off for sweden nine hours after that lands in sweden two hours after that stays there for a few days goes back to london on the 30th stays there until the 8th then takes off for adelaide via bankok. true story that.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

so there.

Pics!!

118 william st
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Woot! Pics are up of the new house. Enjoy!

do you ever miss your friends?

well it's been a year since I left home ... it's gone pretty fast ... i've thought a lot, learnt a lot and felt a lot ... the one thing i miss the most are those people who know me ... the people i can sit down on the couch with and talk about anything and not have to explain anything ... because we just know each other ... we have that advantage of time and history ... old friends are so much better than new friends ... i look forward to seeing them soon.

If you're reading this ...

A very happy birthday to Becky, sincerely wishing you the best. Love, Ben.

tickertape parade announced.

after eleventy billion hours on the phone with various airlines and ticketing companies after being told i had to fly out of montreal in four days (or be stuck forever) then on into bangkok where i would most definately would be stuck forever, I managed to organise my departure from Canada the subsequent flurry through Europe before flying on home to enjoy a lovely Adelaide winter. What that largely convoluted sentence comes down to is this: YOUR ITINERARY AND TRAVEL DETAILS: BRITISH AIRWAYS BA94 ECONOMY CLASS (O) CONFIRMED DEPART 24APR06 MONTREAL/P TRUDEAU INTL 2135 ARRIVE 25APR06 LONDON/HEATHROW 0905 ARRIVES AT TERMINAL 4 6:30 DURATION AIRCRAFT : BOEING 777-200/300 NON SMOKING ---------------------------------------------------------------- QANTAS AIRWAYS QF2 ECONOMY CLASS (O) CONFIRMED DEPART 08MAY06 LONDON/HEATHROW 2215 ARRIVE 09MAY06 BANGKOK/BANGKOK INTL 1535 DEPARTS FROM TERMINAL 4 ARRIVES AT TERMINAL 2 11:20 DURATION AIRCRAFT : BOEING 747-400 NON SMOKING ---------------------------------------------------------------- QANTAS AIRWAYS QF2 ECONOMY CLASS (O) CONFIRMED DEPART 09MAY06 BANGKOK/BANGKOK INTL 1810 ARRIVE 10MAY06 SYDNEY/KINGSFORDSMITH 0605 DEPARTS FROM TERMINAL 2 ARRIVES AT TERMINAL 1 8:55 DURATION AIRCRAFT : BOEING 747-400 NON SMOKING ---------------------------------------------------------------- QANTAS AIRWAYS QF751 ECONOMY CLASS (O) CONFIRMED DEPART 10MAY06 SYDNEY/KINGSFORDSMITH 1225 ARRIVE 10MAY06 ADELAIDE/ 1405 DEPARTS FROM TERMINAL 3 ARRIVES AT DOM TERMINAL 2:10 DURATION AIRCRAFT : BOEING 737-800 NON SMOKING ---------------------------------------------------------------- What that largely convoluted bunch of information comes down to is this: Hi Trudy! Hi Peter! Hi Dad! Hi anyone else in Europe/UK who wants me sleeping on their floor!

HAP HAP HAP

PEEEEEE BIRTHDAAAY! Jaan ... i always forget exactly which day is your birthday - either the 20th of the 21st i'm pretty sure ... so i'll put it down to time zone differences and hope that it looks like that i published this blog on the right day for you (or me if i was wrong) how old are you these days? what do you do? what did you get? there's a little something winging it's way to you as we speak. have fun big birthday hugs Ben.

Happy birthday Benny!

Well well well. Isn't Ben getting old and wise. 24. That's only 1 year away from half of a half a century. Better start getting the nursing home sorted... and the wills. And the lame arse dad jokes... Yes. Even though none of us are with you in person, no doubt you would have been annoyed at us one way or another through spirit (or the net) so from everyone (well, me and Alley anyway) have a fantabulous bday and at least you can have a winter one this year. And next. But we'll wait until that one comes along. Hmm, I wonder if this post could have been any more disjointed or awkward. Possibly if I could have been bothered. But I'm slack. Yes. Woot.

just reporting in

nothing much to say - doing homework - attending lectures - still trying to learn french - i'll be making a film about the homeless this semester - a mix between experimental, documentary and fiction - that should be fun - i'm going to buy some ice skates once i've saved up enough and keep myself fit and amused with them - possibly skating - i haven't decided yet - i'll be going back home to adelaide hopefully in early/mid april - looking for some work for a few months - enjoying an aussie winter - then coming back here to finish off the next and final year of school - then the big wide world needs conquering - what is everyone else up to? - many hugs and loveliness to you all - ben.

Happy Belated New Year

beach fun
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Well, as I thought I would, since coming back home I have become rather slack. But oh well, go suck an egg. Let's see if I can do a brief re-cap of what's been happening...

We arrived back in Adelaide, which you all know about, and one of my first outings was to the Grace Emily to see The Audreys play, and it was friggen amazing. I tell ya what - those guys certainly know their stuff. AND they got a 3 record deal with ABC music. Pretty wick I must say. I bought their cd and it's an awesome buy. Very happy with it.

Then of course it was Christmas. That was not too bad. Usual family stuff, food, friends, more food, and of course presents. Woot! And I can't remember what took place between then and New Years, so I'll just jump straigh to there...

So Alley and I decided to accompany Holly to her parents place at York Peninsula (they have a lovely big property there about 10 mins away from Point Turton). So we drove down on a stinking 42 degree day, unpacked our stuff and headed straight for the beach. Oooh yeah! I can't remember the beach name, but it was awesome. Lotsa rips and some big waves. Good stuff! So we swam, played cricket, frisbee, all the usual stuff and headed back for a huge dinner and then the countdown. There wasn't that many of us, only Holly, me, Alice, Andy, Mahla and Leron, as well as Holly's parents and some of their friends. But it was just perfect. So after the countdown we played some batonk on the front lawn and went to bed around 3 or so.

The next morning we had a massive bbq breakfast full of goodness, but since it was quite a rainy day, we all spent it relaxing, watching dvd's, reading and sleeping. Very relaxing.

The final day it was just absolutely stunning, so we once again decided the beach was the way to go. We went to Point Turton and, well, as you can imagine, went for a swim. The rest is quite boring - we packed our stuff and headed home.

So since then, not alot has been happening. Last night Holly played at the Grace and asked me to record it, so that's what I did. There's quite a lot of new material there, and it's sounding very nice indeed. I think that's about it. No doubt I've forgotten something, but I guess that's what you get for letting me be so slack huh?

Oh, I just remembered something. Alice is having an exhibition tomorrow night at FAD, so I guess that's some news. It should be a great night and I have to serve drinks, so it gives me something to do.

Health wise I'm not doing that great, but it's not too bad either. I mean, I'll be honest, I've found it really hard to get back into the swing of doing physio regularly and I'm paying the price for it now. If I don't get better too soon, then I think I'll have to book myself in for an admission. But I'll have a clinic in the next couple of weeks and see what my lung function is to determine whether I need IV's or not. I'll definitely keep you all posted on that.

So there ya go. Another story from the life of Jaan. Don't you all wish you were me??

What I'm listening to: Turin Brakes - Live @ The Palladium

p.s. I forgot to mention that there are a tonne of new pics, so have a browse when you get some free time.

merry christmas to all!

hey guys - yes it's belated and it should be a personal phone call to you all but i'm stuck out in the country with no fancy internet and no phone credit - surrounded by ice and snow. I hope the christmas day was suitably christmassy for you all and the spirit of giving was in the air and all the best for the rest of the holidays and the changing of the old boring year into a new and shiny one. love ben.

Home sweet home!

home sweet home
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hi all! Yes, it has been a while since I got back, and I have been a bit slack, so here is the 'back at home' entry.

Firstly, I have finally updated all the photos from London, Edinburgh and Thailand, so when you get time, theres something over a hundred to browse throgh. But don't feel pressured to do it...

So yes, the flight home was nothing interesting. I still hate flying, and the flight home didn't do anything to make it better. Not that it was a bad flight, just didn't do anything good for me. However, it was kinda exciting because as we flew over Alice Springs there was a huge thunderstorm next to us, so we got some nice viewing pleasure at 2 am. Arrived in Sydney at 8 am or something, with more thunderstorms all around us, and had to wait around for a few hours before the flight to Adelaide. The anticipation was starting to build...

Finally got on the plane, and lucky its only a 2 hour flight so it wasn't long before I could see the Adelaide Hills and knew I was home. I got off the plane, saw mum and Dana, they had a nice laugh at my beard, got my luggage, and headed home.

Mitzu (my dog) is still kicking, despite being over 100 years old, and displayed about 2 mins of excitement when seeing me. That's all I could ask for. Went to my room, started to unpack a little, then decided I had done enough, so I ate some food and before I knew it it was time to go into town to the Eggs to see some people with Alley.

Even though it was only Holly and Maestro, it was so good to be out with friends again. I also forgot what it's like to walk down the street and see so many people you know. Man I missed that! So had a nice time at the Eggs, then headed off to FAD, where it was more seeing people and shocking them with my biker look.

Since then, I haven't done alot really. I haven't started working yet, which is fine, but it means that I feel like I'm just kinda wandering through life again. But I'm not complaining... I'll prob start work soon enough then I'll be bitching about how I want to not work again. So we won't pay attention to that. But the weather has been soo nice, mid 30's and sunshine. Can't ask for anymore than that. I've already given the pool a try out, and it was fiine!

Last night went to the Grace and saw yet more people, and got to see The Audreys perform. Man are they good. And go them - they got a 3 record deal with ABC music, so that's just totally awesome.

And there's of course all the Christmas shopping I've been doing the last 2 days. Stupid last minute shopping... but funny story. Town is so dead (well, by normal Christmas standards anyway) and I think the reason is because everyone's going to the other malls (Marion, Tea Tree etc) so they didn't have to go to town. I thought it was amusing anyway... Shut up!

Health - well, since I wasn't doing alot in Thailand, it's not surprising that I'm not that crash hot. However, I've started another dose of Cipro (cheers for that Janka!) and am doing alot more treatment, which has made a great improvement already. So in a couple of weeks I should be as right as rain.

Phew, that was long and long overdue, but it's done now. I don't really know how updated I'll keep this now, but I'll try my hardest to let you all know what's going on in my life. I can guarantee you it won't be as exciting as the past 4 months have been, but I'll give it my best shot.

What I'm listening to: The Audreys - Between Last Night and Us

Apocalypse Imminent

Just typical ... the day I've got to walk to the other side of town to drop off some forms to the Italian Consualte and it's the end of the world ... absolutely typical In about four hours 40cm of snow landed ... I saw a bus slide off the road and come to rest against a light pole - blocking an entire intersection ... There is apparently ski-jumping in hell ... It was nice knowing you all ...

Bye bye Bangkok

Yes, as sad as it is, the time has come. Alice and I are flying out of Bangkok tonight; destination home. It's been a lovely 4 or so months keeping you all in the know of what crazy shenanigans I've been getting upto, so I thank you all those who could be bothered reading. And thanks to all those who wrote me abusive comments to help me get through those lonely nights. I will cherish them forever... But now onto what's been happening this week. We left Koh Chang at around 9:30am to get to the ferry so we could catch our private VIP bus to Bangkok on time. Lucky we left as early as we did. The speed boat that takes 10 mins to get to the mainland took around 40 because the seas were so rough. It made for a fun ride though, especially when Alley was filming me and we hit a huge wave and she was thrown up in the air and landed back down and smashed her head on the side of the boat. Yes, it was fun. Pity she didn't actually have the record button pressed, so she didn't actually record any of it. I only got the aftermath. Oh well... So we finally got to Bangkok around 6:30pm, but it was a strange drop off. The bus decided to stop on the side of the road on some random street and proceeded to unload all the baggage in the middle of the road. But not to worry. None of our stuff was damaged, just in case you were all wondering... Since this was going to be our last two nights here, we decided to splurge out and get a nice fancy hotel room. When we arrived we were told that the price had gone up quite alot, more than double in fact. But we were too exhausted to care, so we still checked in and made the most of it. They also said that the price they quoted was for a standard room, but they upgraded us to the delux sweet. Better bloody have I say! Now now Jaan, let's not get stroppy. It was a very nice room. Cable TV, king size bed, robes and slippers, and a buffet breakfast for both mornings. Can't really complain about that. Yesterday we went to the MBK center, which is this friggen huge mall. 7 floors with so much crap. One floor is just chockas with stalls selling silk scarves, chopsticks, tiny elephants, clothes, watches, just about everything. There's a floor that basically just sells mobile phones. And the floors are friggen huge. There's even a bowling alley! We treated ourselves to a couple of games last night (I won't go on about how I creamed Alley's pants [ooh, er, that sounds a bit rude]). AND there's a floor just full of DVD's, which I am about to go and have a browse through now. Oh, and I just remembered: while I was looking at some cool mini Harley Davidson's yesterday, some guy approached me about my fabtastic beard, and asked if I was staying in Bangkok. I said I was leaving the next day and he was annoyed because they need a model for some commercial or something, and one of the requirements was a beard. Man, I could have been famous! What a spew... Oh well. Argh, time is about up. Health - same as the last few posts. I could be doing more, but eh. Whatevs. What I'm listening to: Sia - Colour the Small One Gross white men chasing young Thai women: 96 (so close to the big one o o) P.S. For those who are going to be in the southern hemisphere area on Saturday night at around 8pm, Alley and I are having a few welcome home drinks at the Eggs (Exeter), so if you can be bothered coming down, it sure would be great to see you all eh.

Not so sunny Koh Chang

What a spew. We arrived in Koh Chang last night, found out that the bungalow we wanted to stay in isn't any longer there, so we found a place, went to bed, and got up today to find that we have windy, cloudy and quite cool weather (keep in mind that Ko Chang is an island that has white sand, crystal clear blue water and palm trees everywhere). And it's the only full day we're going to be here! We have to leave tomorrow morning for Bangkok, so we are a bit pissed. But we decided that we are going to go swimming anyway, despite the coldness. We left Ko Lanta on Saturday and spent the day on a bus and a train to get to Hua Hin (a town about half way up to Bangkok). We arrived at 4:30 in the am, and caught a cab to the hotel that our friends at Fisherman's Cottage booked for us. However, he took us to the wrong hotel, and at 4:30 in the morning, there aren't too many people around to give you directions. So we drove around for about half an hour, and then he turned down this dark side street, crossed some railway lines, and we were convinced he'd had enough of us and decided to finish us off. So we banged on the window, told him to take us to this other place we had read about in the Lonely Planet, for him to reply with "We are here". Phew! So we checked in, went up to our room, put on the AC, and watched tellie for a few hours before passing out from tiredness. We awoke to a beautiful sunny day (prob the first one we've had since coming to Thailand) and deiced to go for a stroll down to the beach. Not bad - very busy with older people and not the nicest looking beach, but because of the head we didn't care and proceeded to splash around in the waves like 10 year olds. Fun. We also went to some markets (where I found a way cool watch), ate some dinner (where we needed to walk down the side street at 10pm, which was quite scary) and slept some more. We were up at 6am so we could get to Bangkok at a decent hour before more bussing to Tran (where we needed to catch a ferry to Koh Chang). So we got to Bangkok and caught a cab to the Eastern Terminal, which was about half an hour away. Man, was this the craziest cab ride I've ever been in. I stupidly sat in the front, so I could see all the mayem that was unfolding. We were going down the main streets at over 90 kmh. Bloody insane. We had so many near misses that I lost count, and by the end I needed to change my pants. But the excitement didn't end there. We got to the bus station, and found out that the express bus to Trang was leaving in 15 mins. I hear you thinking "what's the big deal? 15 minutes is heaps of time". Well, yeah, normally it would have been. Except that the boot wouldn't open, and all my stuff was in it. We were quite a hit with all the officials, so at least it was entertaining. Anyway, they were trying everything to get it open, but in the end they had to just keep pulling at it until it broke the whole boot and ripped the lock out of the car. Poor guy... but we ran onto the bus at 10:59am (the bus was leaving at 11am). Good story huh? The rest is pretty boring. Caught a speed boat to the island, just to be cooler than the others, and found a bungalow to stay in, did some shopping, and now telling you all my crazy adventures. Again, the island here is picturesque. White sandy beaches, perfect blue water, just the way you expect Thailand to be. So we'll make the most of it by doing something to make the most of it by. Health - I haven't been doing as much as I should, so no surprise I'm not the best I could be. But I figure I'm home in a few days, so not alot to worry about. Alley is feeling quite a bit better, and she thanks all of you for your well wishes. It's weird having a beard - everyone is staring at me. I feel like a Western girl in Morocco wearing only a bikini top and a mini skirt. The woman at the airport in Bangkok said I looked like a monkey. Not that that has anything to do with Western girls in Morocco, but it was another random fact that I thought you all needed to know. I'm off now. I've said too much. Or not enough... I haven't decided yet. Rating - 5.9 What I'm listening to: System of a Down - Hypnotize Gross white men chasing young Thai women: 62

hands up who wants chicken milk?

well yesterday has to be the winteryest day ever .... i went to the woods ... chased down and killed my own christmas tree ... dragged it home ... found an old sled and slid down a little hill ... built a snow man ... well more of a snow egg with sticks for arms ... the snow isn't the right consistency yet for whole men ... the only thing lacking was an ugly sweater and some chicken milk (written as "egg nog" on the sane side of the carton) bruck bruck bruck

ษน ศฟืฟ รห ดพรแ ฟไหนทำ

ฟะ ไฟหใ... sorry, I was trying out my Thai. The title reads "Ko Lanta is fricken awesome". Anyway, enough of me showing off. As you all now know, Alley and I are in Ko Lanta, which is an island off the coast way down south. We were originally going to leave a day earlier than we did, but we couldn't find where the bus stop was, it was hot, we were frustrated and just not in the mood. So we stayed an extra night and then made our way down the next day. We caught a sleeper train from Bangkok to Surat Thani, which wasn't the most enjoyable experience. For me it wasn't too bad, but poor Alley wasn't feeling the best, and it just continued to get worse. Once we got to Surat Thani, we needed to catch a bus to Krabi, but that had a stop where we needed to change busses. Again, Alley wasn't in top shape... We then had to get a van to Krabi, which took a couple of hours. Once there, we had to hop on a ferry to get to Ko Lanta, where we were VERY happy to be greeted by O, one of the guys from the place we were staying at. We got showed to our hut, ate a bit of food, then pretty much slept for the remainder of the day and night. The place we're staying at is called Fisherman's Cottage, and it's right on the beach. Sooo nice. The hut we are in is all concrete floors and walls, so it's not too warm, with a palm thatched roof and a big bed. It's taken a few nights to get used to the, shall we say, firm bed. But it's getting easier each night. But that first night - woah, not the best I've had. Since I went to sleep at around 6:30pm, I woke at 9:30pm and thought I should get some dinner. But Alley was still sleeping, and I couldn't really be bothered. Then I woke up around 2:30am and couldn't get back to sleep because I had already slept so much. I finally managed to drift off at around 5am... sorry, I got distracted but the monkey outside torturing a tiny kitty. Quite amusing. Now, where was I? Then the next day, I thought I would give 'stupid Jaan' a go and didn't put on any sunscreen, and got completely burnt and suffered some fun heat stroke, which included feeling sick as, headaches, dizziness, and just unpleasant feeings. But I went for another swim, ate some food and have since made a full recovery despite the scorched skin on my shoulders. Since then, there's been plenty walks along the beach, loads of delicious meals (there's tiny resorts all along the beach so you just take your pick of where you want to eat), tonnes of relaxing, some physio, swimming, and typing on this stupid keyboard. Health - well, I haven't been that diligent with treatment, so you can imagine I'm suffering a wee bit. Nothing to worry about though. Well, so me thinks anyways. I've started it up again, and hope to be in full health very soon. It's just a bit hard when there's so much relaxing to do. You wouldn't understand... But tomorrow we are leaving here and catching a train up to Ko Chang, with a stop in some city along the way. I will write more when we get there. I've prob missed out on heaps of important info, but who cares. Rating - 5.6 What I'm listening to: Nothing, since my Ipod ran out of power... Gross white men chasing young Thai women - 42 (and that's only in Bangkok)

almost holidays!

well those who've been talking to me in the past week will know that i'm doing an essay .... wooooooooo it's 3500 words ..... and i wrote 9000 of notes .... woops i hand it in tomorrow, then skip along to the iron and wine concert .... woooooooo then it's a month of sundays and hopefully a white christmas ... all the snow has currently melted .... boooooooooo i screened my first 16mm effort a few nights ago at the school projection ... none too shabby ... on to the next one ... oooooooohh but for now enough procrastinating and back to the essay ..... booooooooo what are youse guyses writing essays about?

Tantalizing Thailand...

My my, I'm getting so creative with my titles eh? I'm copyrighting all of them so none of youse buggers can go and claim credit for my genius work. Hmm, I think the heat is starting to affect me, and I LOVE IT! So, as you can see, or have figured out, I have arrived in Thailand. After Peter and Trudy left me there for their roast dinner (hehe), Becky and Janka were nice enough to keep me company for another hour talking about random stuff while sipping iced tea and eating brownies. I then thought I would have to run to catch my plane, as it was only 20 mins left till the gate shut, and I still had to get through the bag checks and stuff, but my plane was delayed for about an hour (couldn't expect anything less from London could you?) and ended up sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Yeah, that was fun. And so is this entry so far... So the flight was alright. Not too bad, not that crash hot. Watched a few movies (Batman Begins, 40 Year Old Virgin, Charlie and Chocolate Factory), listened to some music, and then hopped off the plane to a stinking hot Thailand afternoon. 32 and coudy. Fantastic! It's so good to be in a warm place again. So I got ripped off getting to the hostel because I couldn't be arsed trying to figure out how to catch a shuttle (remember, I am REALLY slack) so I paid 700 baht for a private car to take me there. I later found out that a taxi costs about 150 baht, so I was a bit pized. Anyway, after mistaking another room for my own, and locking my belongings in there, I had a nice shower, met a nice Irish girl called Catherine (I think)and had a very nice dinner in the little restaurent next to the hostel. Quite quaint. At around 9:30pm I caught a cab to get to the airport to met Alley. After being taken to the wrong terminal, I found my to the arrivals part, and luckily, just as I was walking in, I saw her walking out of the door. Ahh, to see her face again. Ok, I'm going to stop going on about that, otherwise it will turn into a big love fest, which I'm sure you don't really want to read... but I will say that it is so unbelievably good to see her again, and I've made sure to give her hugs from all of you that requested. So we are leaving today for Koh Lanta, which is a very nice little island just off Krabi. For those who know, you know where it is. For those who don't, one word - google. So, yes, until then we are going to walk around for a few hours, then catch the bus tonight and hopefully get there tomorrow. I have no idea if there's net there, so if not, you won't be hearing from me for about a week. If there is, well, haha, sucks to be you. But to summarise my last week in London - pretty average. Not to say that Peter and Trudy are bad hosts or anything, but I just really don't like London. However, there were a few highlights. Mars Volta concert was on Wednesday at Birmingham. Pretty nice show. Although it took forever to get there, even more forever to find the venue, an even bigger line (which we managed to miss out on by sneaking in the front, and a late night drive home. But all in all a fun day out. Then on Thursday I met up with Janka, a German cf girl who is just totally awesome. Hung out with her during the day and had a nice Chinese dinner along with Peter, Trudy and Becky. Then yesterday caught up with her again and did an interview, packed my stuff, and hopped on a tube for 2 hours to get to the stupid airport. I think that just about covers everything... The heat and humidity here is definitely something I have to get used to, and it's making breathing a little bit difficult, but I think I'm adjusting nicely. Give me a week on a beach and I should be peachy keen. But I think I'm going to head off now. That's enough rambling from me for today. I'll try and keep in touch with everyone, but if there's no net then tough luck. What I'm listening to: Buckethead - Enter the Chicken P.S. One last word of note - it was quite disturbing at first, but now I find it quite amusing, the number of middle age white men hanging around with young Thai women. Alley and I have decided to keep a tab of the couples we see. I am now at 10. And we only started an hour ago...

poop sticks!

didn't get that scholarship i applied for ... the better candidate won in the end ... the $12500 goes to Sara Waters who will be studying needlework in Surry, England ... !!!!! good work kate - that's totally great and weird news just ate the massivist sandwich i ever saw ... phew ... gotta go ... digest ... sleep ... down ... ugh ... legs ... bed.

shocking developments in anglo-franco lexicon!

well i mostly seem to talk about french and snow ... yep ... so here's more of it ... i was quite shocked to discover today that "mmhhmmm" has no translation into french ... you know that up-and-downy sound you make in place of the words "i don't know" as you shrug your shoulders ... how could something so naturally simple and obvious not translate!!! the stupid wheather has been bouncing about between plus something and minus something ... so instead of making snow or rain ... it makes craploads of ice! (stay tuned for stacks entry after today's walk to and from school) how is everybody? kate was your dancing talent adequate? wayne is kate's dancing talent adequate? jaan what bbc stuff have you seen? becky where is your next voyage to? peter and trudy (ha ha ha - you are now forever considered as one!) how's the married life? alice i'm lacking info for my alley journal ... i'm waiting for this week when i find out if i got some money from SAYAB to help me pay for uni - so some prayers/happy thoughts/threats of violence upon SAYAB employees would be most appreciated i don't know who else was searching the blogs for adelaide stuff, so this may be old news, but here is a great site that reminds me of home and has some great pics http://alleywaysandsidestreets.blogspot.com/ living a merry old life in canadia, love, love, love benny, benni, ben-E P.S. what's everyone doing for Christmas ... who is where? ... this will be my first away from home ... i think ... well with snow anyway ... P.P.S. why on earth did I P.S. on a blog!?! that's even worse than in an email! P.P.S. in regards to the previous post script .... now that's just getting silly

Stacks Blog

i see alice totally ignored my change of blog theme to white stuff ... and got all selfish and travelly on us ... so i'm changing it again ... people falling over ... it's way funnier than white ... who likes white anyway ... the ice was covered by snow all of today so i had to develop my "snow-step" and quickly forgot my "ice-step" and slipped on my arse in the middle of the street all by myself ... no body laughed at me ... what is wrong with people? .... they just don't know what's funny and what's not! i got lost for an hour in the whiteness today when i got off at an unusal metro stop then followed the street south instead of north the snow has turned to brown mush on the sidewalks so there goes the white snow thing anyway please post the most recent stacks you've had ... love benny p.s. alice - i'm such a sarcastic bastard - i apologize - great to hear from you - look forward to hearing of thailandish adventures and the eight short days leading up to them.

up up and away

only 9 days and i get to jet set like everyone cooler than me! wow! i can be part of the cool club! so yeah. hello sky. fun fun. and singapore airlines have those little tv screens in the backs of chairs with the game boys and stuff, so i wont have to miss out on my tetris whil eim in the air. phew! how could i go 6 hours without my tetris!!! shock. horror. ok, so does everyone agree that jaan should shave off his beard? ok good. no... jaan... just kidding. you look good however you are. even with the weird 3 coloured beard. so scruffy! so cute! ben. make films peter. you're totlaly the office now. are you tim or gareth? its gareth isnt it...? haha! trudes - you're looking so good! how is life in the cold and cold and colder? is it march that you and pete are returning? we have to totally go for a "holiday" whie you're back here! so much fun. even if its just a weekend it will be soemthing relaxing to do! yay! kate. you go so soon too! look at us alll! so fly-y and plane-y and other country-y! you'll love the canada. not that i would know personally... cough cough... but yeah. we must do lunch darling before we part. or even when we get back... or both! o-lay! becky - sounds like you're having a good time in london! fast pace is good and bad i feel. but hey. each to their own. good cos it makes one go faster and bad cos it makes one go faster! haha! how was seeing jaan? give him a big fat hg for me? thats my girl! its good to see you've found your footing in london. its a uge place and can easily be daunting and poo, but you seem happy and grounded. good to see my sweetness! jaan. you are a poo. and i love you lots ok. enough from me. i will totally see everyone with sun in my eyes. woot woot thailand! love love love

White Winter Blog

Official name change everyone! The blog is now about winter and snow and whiteness. Today I walked 45 minutes to school on ice, you develop the "ice step", as i like to call it since two seconds ago, pretty quickly ... but when you hit a patch of dry concrete its like stepping off of a travelator and you look like a bit of a dick head. Winter is going to be great ... people stacking it everywhere ... a guy in front of me had a little slip ... nothing at all dangerous but just a little twitch that made me giggle my ass off when i realised that everyone is going to be slapsticking it all winter. I like to read when I walk - so that makes it all the more challenging, and surely comical when i hit the pavement - almost got hit by a car crossing the lights - will have to pause the nerdosity even if the little man says walk ... you can't trust those guys. I've finally seen my first snowfall (although I'm assured by locals that it was crap) ... snow moves very strangely, like nothing i've seen before ... except maybe ashes. The wind blows from one direction and snow sticks to the sides of trees - it looks like some weird reverse white shadow stuck to the object. Now it's gotten colder it's impossible to see anyone's faces since they're so rugged up - so the people who you never really notice on the street are now harder to notice. I was also rugged up on my hike to school and I learnt a new thing ... when you get a wedgie ten minutes into a forty five minute walk you realise what a pain in the arse (ho ho) layers of clothing and mittens are. Well that's that for the winter update ... you thought I was joking didn't you?

Back in London

Yes, it has been a while. Even after a week, I still think Edinburgh was so amazing I still haven't got sick of reminiscing about it. So much so that I actually got another ticket to go there this weekend. Woot! Really looking forward to that. But now I've almost got the problem of not having enough time in London to do all the things I want, which is quite a change from originally hating the place. Don't get me wrong, I still don't really like it here, but I finally had some ideas to do some stuff and now I might not be able to do all of it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me briefly recap what's been going on the last week or so... I got back from Edinburgh and stayed at Peter and Trudy's for one night before moving my bag to Becky's for the next 5 days. She lives in a very nice place in Hammersmith with some other lovely girls. So staying there was quite nice. The couch was extremely comfy! While there we spent a couple nights out on the town, getting late Italian dinner and wandering the streets. We also went to a birthday/going away party for one of Becky's friends that was definitely the highlight of my time over there. The bar was quite trendy, with pictures of trees in frames. Classy. The music started off with boring dance stuff, but before we knew it we had Bon Jovi and Guns 'N Roses blaring through the speakers! Just awesome! So as you can imagine there was dorky dancing a plenty to be had by me and Pete. And last night, actually, not last night, but my last night there, we went to a Thai place for dinner near her house, and man, it was friggen fantastic. The best Thai food I've had since I can remember. But I'm sure I'll be treated to something of equal niceness when I actually go there in a couple of weeks. Only 12 days to go! Oooh yeah baby! So yes, back at Pete and Trudys. As comfy as the couch was, it's nice to have a bed again. But back to what I was saying at the start. My time here is going to be really busy now. Today is actually not going to be so hectic. I'm going to Becky's tonight to interview her, as well as get my diggie camera which I left there. So quite relaxing really. Then tomorrow I'm going to try and get some shopping done, maybe in Camden Markets again, and then have curry with Becky and a work friend of hers at Brickworks, which should be quite nice. Then on Thursday I've got the Jonathan Ross rehearsal run through, where I'll be treated to the behind the scenes stuff. Friday morning I leave for Edinburgh for the weekend. Come back Tuesday morning, Then on Wednesday night I have the Mars Volta concert. Thursday I'm going to hopefully get together with a German cf friend of mine who is coming to London for a bit. Then I leave on Saturday. Phew! See? From bitching about not having anything to do for ages to having so much in so little time, it's a bit annoying. Oh well, whatevs. The only other thing worthy of note, well, it's not that worthy, but I want to mention it anyway, is that it's friggen cold here now. We've been having day highs of about 5 or so, and the frost in the morning is hanging around in some areas until lunch time. It's been completely clear and sunny days, which is quite nice to be out in, except for the fact that it makes it that much colder. They say there could even be snow on Friday. Now that's cold. It would be great to see some snow though. All this cold thought has really got me hanging out for some sun (warm sun) and the beach. Where am I going to get that?? Hey, wait a minute, I'm going to Thailand. Yeah, that'll do. Health is going pretty nicely. Not too much change there. I've finished the Cipro, so it's back to just phyiso and general looking after myself. But so far nothing too bad has happened, which is very nice. Except for the polyps in my nose (basically a pea size growth that grows in the sinuses - quite common in cf). It's in my left nostril at the moment, and completely blocks the airflow there. However, I've discovered when I lie down on my right side, it miraculously clears up. So at least there is a remedy for the time being. I just have to walk around with my head cocked at a 90 degree angle. Not too bad... I'm going to get Alice to bring my nose spray to Thailand so I can try and control the growth of it there. But I'm thinking the most it will do is slow down the growth, not acutally get rid of it, and eventually I'll need to get them removed again. The only way is surgery, and it involves a general anesthetic. Now, normally that doesn't cause too much trouble. But I've had polyps removed at least 10 times, which means at least 10 anesthetics, and they really aren't the best thing for you (anesthetics). Especially if you have a lung condition. On average it takes me about 10 months to get over a general anesthetic - for my lung function to return to normal. So as you can see, I'm not that keen on getting another one since the last one I had was only a couple of years ago. But we'll just have to wait and see how that progresses... So that's about all I think. Hope everyone is well, and I'll try and be a bit more frequent with the updates.

Hey Hey, how is everyone?

haven't posted for quite some time ... but that's because i'm doing nothing but going to school eight hours a day five days a week and living on twenty bucks a week ... not much time for anything interesting (school is interesting but i'm not going to start writing down my lecture notes) ... i also get the impression that very few people are reading this thing (only the people that write on it ... which are fewer and fewer) waa waa full stop. just thought i'd write to tell everyone that after three months of film festivals ... i finally got to go to one! it was a short film fest with some absolutely amaaaazing stuff ... i managed to find a link to my favourite www.735am.com other than that ... back to school it snowed for a day then returned to a scorching 5 degrees - will update on the wheather when it gets whiter. how is everyone out there? it's not a rhetorical question ... you can answer by clicking on the comment button and let us all know how life is love to you all

Black pudding, haggis and whiskey - Hello Edinburgh! - Updated

Well, after looking forward to going to Scotland all week, I'm glad to say that I wasn't disappointed. Man, that place rocks! So much so, that I'm hoping to get there again before I leave the UK. But let's get back to the story... So on Thursday night I hopped on the sleeper train for Edinburgh at 11:30pm. I managed to get two seats to myself so I could squeeze into an uncomfortable sleeping position. I arrived on a crisp morning, without any rain or drizzle. so I was quite pleased with that. I was meeting Tamara at a cafe at 9:45, so I walked around the city for a few hours to pass the time. I was just so impressed with the buildings and everything there. Such an awesome looking city. After waiting around for Tamara to meet me, we went for a walk about and went back to her place. A very nice apartment next to some parklands. For dinner, I was treated to the fine food of haggis. Man, that stuff is good! It's kinda like a really salty mince meat. Kinda. Not really, but it's all I can think of to compare it to. Anyway, mix it with mash potato and gravy, and it's one fine feed! Anyway, so after that we went to a pub and I got to meet some of her friends and we stayed there until the wee hours of the morning. Saturday was spent sleeping in till 2pm, hanging around the house and then catching the bus to Glasgow for the night. Again, I got to meet some of Tam's friends, who were nice enough to let me crash there for the night. We went to a pub to start the night off, then went to a kidna dingy social club for some dancing. It was really funny - when we arrived there was a band playing. Now, I hear you all laughing, but hold on to your hats. I haven't even got to the funny part yet. They were quite young - prob no older than early 20's. It was kinda crap British punk rock, complete with tone deaf singer. It was really funny - here were these kids rocking their hearts out, sounding quite averagely, and the audience was a mix of old people, young people and middle age people sitting at tables talking to each other. I don't know if I'm managing to get across this image, but suffice to say it made me giggle. After the band finished, a DJ started pumping out tunes from the 80's and 90's. It was a lot of fun. Lots of dancing. Not by me though - not because I'm too cool for such an activity. Far from it. I just wasn't really in the mood. Yep, that's it. Pretty exciting hey? Yeah, anyway... The next morning we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and went for a walk in the park. Had a nice breakfast/lunch, and hopped on the bus back home to Edinburgh. While on the bus, Tam got a call from her friend saying that I had left something there. Then it hit me - my stupid neb. Ah dear, how appropriate. Jaan forgets something else. Then when we got off the bus, I realised I left my beanie on board. Just so typical... The neb was organised to be shipped to London by today, but it still hasn't arrived yet, so I don't know what's going on there... hopefully soon it will come. So yesterday, since it was a Monday, I had the day to myself to explore some more of the city of Edinburgh. I walked around the old city for a couple of hours, then decided to do a spot of shopping and go up to the castle. It has a pretty impressive view of the city from up there. So I managed to get some filming done, and did some exercise in the process. The night was finished off with a fine stir fry, then a quick run out the door to the taxi to get me to the train station. I need a shower so this next part is going to be brief. The train was delayed for about 20 mins, since my carriage didn't have any electricity for some reason. We started off for London in pitch black, except for the glow sticks used along the aisle. But then the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and we were told to make our way up the train. I was quite tired and grumpy, but then my mood lightened up suddenly when I was shown to my own private sleeper room. How cool is that?? We got to have a bed each. As we were walking through the dining cart people were getting really shitty that we were getting sleepers. He he, suckers. So I had a nice sleep on the train, got to rainy London at 7am, and managed to find my way to Peter and Trudy's after much running around London Bridge station getting lost. Lots of fun. As I said at the start, I loved Edinburgh so much that I'm trying to get there again before I leave England. Maybe next weekend... but until then I've also got the Mars Volta on the 29th, so that should be alright. But for now, I'm off to have a shower, relax and do some physio. Considering I haven't had any nebs for a couple of days and I've finished my course of Cipro, I'm not feeling too bad but I have a feeling that I'll need to keep on top of things so make sure I don't get any sicker. But so far not too bad. Not as good as I was a week ago, but no where near as bad as I was when I first arrived in London. Woot! I also have a new goal for my remaining time in London - to try and get to as many free things as possible, which includes lots of BBC shows, like Countdown and various radio shows. It will pass the time and could be entertaining... It should be mentioned that I didn't actually try any black pudding or whiskey, but since they are associated with Scotland, I thought it would make for a nice title for the entry... Yes, this is updated. You read correctly. Just thought you should all know that this morning at a bright and early 10:30am the postie came past and delivered my nicely packed neb! So none of you have to worry anymore about me not being able to breathe in the goodness of tobrimycin and pulmozyme!

A bit of something exciting to report...

I guess you're all wondering "what's this guy on about?". Well, I'll tell you. Last night, Pete and I had the privilege of going to a recording of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (thanks Ange and Karen!), who is basically England's version of Rove, but he's actually funny. Well, it started with me having to find my own way to the BBC studio's as Pete was working, so that was a bit of a journey in itself. I had to catch a train, then two tubes to get there. I won't excite you all with the details as I think you just may wet your pantaloons, but suffice to say it was exhilarating! Anyway, we got there, got our tickets and made our way to the green room for pre-show drinks. That was a bit of alright. Then we got shown to the studio and got our seats. Pretty good ones too - only about 4 rows back and centre. Now I had no idea who was going to be on the show, but from guests he's had in the past, I was quietly confident that there would be at least SOMEONE that we would have been excited to see. And boy was I right! First up, there was Shane Ritchie, who is an actor here in a soapie. Nothing to complain about. Then came Jimmy Carr, who is a British comedian for those who don't know. Quite a funny guy. Then came the two biggest guests of the night, Cameron Diaz and our very own Toni Collette, who were there promoting their new movie which the title escapes me. I have to admit that I was a bit star struck. Ah, what the hell - I was in the same room, only about 10 metres away from some very famous people! Woot! Alright, now that's out of my system, on with the story. They were really funny to watch, and the interview was quite laid back. Jonathan Ross somehow got on to them talking about how they can burp really well, and halfway through the interview got them to start drinking champagne to try and help those burps out. So by the end they were quite on their way to getting pised, which was very funny for all! They were on for at least half an hour, pretty much just chatting away. It was very cool. Then to finish the night off Green Day treated us to one of their numbers. Now, while I'm only a Green Day fan of old, I'll admit that they played very well and by about halfway through the song, my feet were a tappin'. But yeah, enough of me trying to be a tv critic. It was just damn fun alright?? Get off my case! So again, since we were production guests, we got to go to the green room for post-show drinks. Only Jimmy Carr came in to talk with some people, but that was alright. I didn't really expect the others to come wandering in. But Pete and I got a chance to talk to Karen, who's a producer on the show (she's the one who got us tickets). She was such a lovely lady, and even gave me 4 bottles of beer and a bottle of wine to take home with me. She also said to me that I could come back to the studio to have a look behind the scenes while they do a rehearsal run, which would be friggen awesome! Watching the show really got me thinking that I would love to be involved in something like that. So at the moment I've got a new goal in life to work on a tv show. Movies are fun, but this just looked much more like my cup of tea. But knowing me, this is probably just another fad I'm going through. The only bad thing about the night was that there was absolutely NO photography of any kind. Otherwise I would have gone mad. I was quite tempted though to bring out the diggie and switch it to video... So yes, we ended up getting out of the studio around midnight, caught the tube to Chinatown and got some dinner. Then I realised on the way home I managed to lose Pete's keys, so once again typical hopeless Jaan has made an appearance. But we got home, went to bed, and today I spent doing my washing and watching tv. Hmm, that was quite a anti-climax. Who cares... So health is still going good. I've just about finished my course of Cipro, so I'm hoping I'll keep good once I'm off them. I'm going to Scotland tomorrow night, so looking forward to spending the weekend there and catching up with Tamara, a wicked girl I met in Montreal during the Kino Kabaret. So yes, that's all from me for now. I think that's quite long enough anyway...

Another update from London

at picadilly
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Believe it or not, but I've actually been doing some stuff (all the credit go to Pete and Truds for getting me out of the house), so I thought I would let you all know about it. Yesterday I was treated to a... well, a treat. You see, at the same time every night, without fail, there is the ceremony of the keys, which is where they lock up the place where the Crown Jewels are kept. So at 10 o'clock every night, they go through the same ceremony as they have been for the last 400 or so years. It's pretty impressive. And to make the night even more perfect, there were fireworks going off all over the place because it's Guy Forks night, which is a celebration of a guy kinda like the English Ned Kelly. So every year its celebrated by blowing lots of shit up. Heaps of fun! So imagine being in the castle, watching these guards in ye olde clothes and what-not passing the keys and locking up the huge doors, and hearing all this explosions and bangs. It really felt like it was back in war times. Very cool.

So yes, we did that. Then today we went to Hampden Court to have a walk and look around. Now, this being my first palace, I was quite impressed. I'm sure there are many more impressive ones, but I loved it. I'm also sure after seeing a few they will all lose their novelty, but for the moment, it's pretty cool stuff. So hopped on a train, drove there, walked around for a while, then came home. Wow, that sounded much dumber than I thought in my head. Anyway, I put a couple of photos up from today and when I went to that circus place.

I guess the only other thing worthy of mention is that I'm still improving in health, which I can't tell you how happy I am. However, today was a bit crapper, as I had a late night last night, and I haven't done too much physio the last couple of days. My bad. But I promise I will get back on top of it this week. So yes, lungs are getting much better and I'm not feeling nearly as crap as I was before.

The weather is also starting to get a bit colder now as well. Today was filled with clouds and drizzle. Not the most happy weather, but I guess it's what to expect from London. I'm still trying to figure out the cheapest way to get to Edinburgh, it may have to be a combination of bus and train. I don't know why I just said that, but I'm too lazy to delete it (and I am aware of the irony of it taking me more effort to type all that out rather than delete it, so don't point that out to me!).

Pommy land

someone's cathedral
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hey all,

How ya all been? Well I'm coming to you live from London, England. I haven't been doing a whole lot since arriving, but I will let you all know what that nothing has been since it's been a while.

My last day in Toronto was pretty cool. I went to the Human Body exhibition at the Toronto Science Centre. It's an exhibition where there are all these models of people's insides that have been made with real organs from dead people. Pretty impressive stuff! So there are all these manaquins that are made from real people: some sliced up, some stripped back to muscles, some with nothing but bones. Very interesting. So I had to leave there at 3 to make sure I could get to the airport by 6 or so. Man it sucks living in a big city - so much organising for things like flying. Nothing like lil' ol' Adelaide! Oh, how I miss that place...

Anyway, so I got to the airport, and to my surprise I wasn't allowed to check in with the luggage I had. Apparantly my suitcase that had all my meds in it was too heavy. So I had to try and repack all my stuff so that the suitcase was reduced to 6kg from 12kg. I took out all of my books as well as everything else that was in the suitcase apart from the meds. It still came to over 8kg, and I was starting to stress. But luckily the lady said that would be alright and let me on. Only thing is that Paul had to take home a huge collection of books and crap which he'll have to post me. So annoying.

So then the plane was delayed - more fun. But finally we left and were on our way to London. It was only a 6 and a half hour flight, so not too long. However, it was one of the crappiest flights. Not turbulent or anything like that, but the air condition really affected me something chronic. My throat was so dry, as was my nose, even though I was drinking like a fish. Was quite uncomfortable. And I've come to another conclusion - I can NOT sleep on planes, no matter how tired I am. I was watching tv on there, was falling asleep, but then as soon as I actually tried sleeping, I was just stuck in this semi-conscious state where I was aware of my surroundings but felt totally out of it.

Finally landed - now for the next hassle. Because I didn't have Peter's address, no proof of how much money I had in the bank, and couldn't convince the customs people that I just wanted to travel around here for about a month, I was held back in customs for about 2 hours trying to get checked in. They had to go through ALL of my luggage, which meant unpacking my gear that took me half an hour to pack in Toronto airport, then for them to just say "Yeah, that's alright." Oooh, so annoying! But eventually I got through and met Peter with a very pissed off look (I had the look, Peter just laughed).

This is where it kinda gets boring, so I'll be quick. Went back to his place, went on a train to see some of the city, including some palace, some cathedral, some square, some grass, etc etc. Since then I've spent most of my days in front of the tv watching either Chappelle's Show, Family Guy, Simpsons, Extras (a new show by The Office guys) and entire seasons of Scrubs. VERY fun! And I think because of it my health is getting quite better. My cough has certainly dried up a bit, and I don't feel so sick on the inside. But still a bit of a way to go...

The weather here also is heaps warmer than Canada. Man, that place was cold! I couldn't believe it! But anyway, things here are alright. It's cool to see London after hearing and seeing so much about it on tv and movies and stuff, but I don't really think it's my kinda city. I think because I knew nothing about Canada, it was all so new that I just loved every minute of it. Whereas here, especially since I'm staying with more friends, it's reminding me more of home and making me miss it even more. That's alright though.

I have conformation that I have a bed in Scotland, so I'll be sure to take that up sometime soon, as well as catching up with Becky, a friend who moved over here quite a few months ago. But apart from that, I don't think I have too much planned.

I have a few more pics, but not many as I haven't had a chance to reduce the size. That may not happen until I get home... so you guys will just have to wait.

Toronto, the falls and everything in between

horseshoe falls from skylon tower
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Ahh, back in sunny Toronto. Well, not quite sunny. But definately not as humid! Man, I loved Montreal, but honestly, the humidity there! Brrr. And it's even worse when it's cold. Something you can't describe - you just have to experience it to know what I'm talking about. And it's not even winter yet! Good luck Ben!

Anyway, so yes, the end if kino. Man, was that a week to remember! It has so far been the most exciting thing I've been a part of in AGES. I'm soo pumped about the kabaret in Adelaide in March. So all of you - come along to that! Also, on the first Thursday of every month is a kino screening at the Garage from about 7:30pm. Make sure you get along to next months because they will be showing some stuff from the kabaret in Montreal, so you can get a taste of what we were upto. And I guarantee you, some quality stuff there! So yes, Saturday was the final screening, and by far the most enjoyable. The quality of work was outstanding, and then we had a huge night of partying afterwards. We left the venue at around 3 I think (I really can't remember, but it sounds good) and then went back to the kino lab to drink more and dance more and have fun more. Ben and I ended up getting home around 6, but had a decent 6 hour sleep to recouperate. Not too shabby!

Ben then had work at 1, so I lazed around doing physio and the like for a couple of hours and went to breakfast at 4pm with a few of the kino kids. Bagels. So good. With bacon and cream cheese. Yum. After that went back to the lab, fell asleep, then went to a final dinner with everyone. There was about 40 or so, and the poor waitress was on her own for the entire evening. But the food was fantastic, and then we went out again and danced some more until about 2 am, from which I then went home and slept for around 6 hours before getting up having to catch the bus. It was really sad to leave Montreal, I had such a fun time over the last 10 days or so and it really was like leaving home again. Made some great friends that I'll hopefully keep in touch with, even greater if some of them come down to Adelaide for our kabaret like they said that would! But again, due to the crap smokey places, it didn't do too much for my lungs. But surprisingly, I don't feel too much worse than I have been for the last few days.

So yes, caught the subway from Montreal at around 9am, then caught the Greyhound to Ottawa, was there for an hour, during which I was approached by a French hating Haiti man. Was quite funny. Then caught the 5 hour bus ride to Toronto, sleepily bummed around and went to bed.

Next morning - was lucky enough to be picked up from the front door by Susan and Chris (parents of the people I'm staying with in Toronto) to spend the night in St Catharines, which is right near Niagara Falls. Talk about a luxurious house! Man, it was like a 5 star resort! So good. So spent the night taking it easy and not doing too much. This morning we left for the falls, and I have to admit that it was pretty cool, despite the tourismness of it. It was so surreal to actually see it from only a metre or so away. It wasn't as big as I thought, but then again it was. Weird. I got some photos, but I still haven't been able to upload them on a computer. Lucky though Chris took some with his camera so I can share them with youse. One thing though I have to say is that autumn here is really something to be seen. It's weird - back at home, all autumn really means is leaves falling off trees and the weather becoming a bit milder and easier to cope with. But here - the colours are just amazing! So vibrant! The pictures just don't do it justice. It's so annoying. But yes, they are definately something to be said about (if that makes any sense).

So the falls were pretty cool, and then we drove around some more and eventually I caught the train back to Toronto where upon I had a delicious dinner of fish and chips. Thanks guys! Superb! We also went shopping for halloween gear (not for me, but Heather and Paul have a party to go to) but I managed to find a scarfe, which is very useful since I seemed to have lost mine today. Prob near the falls. Oh well. Ooh, halloween - my first night back here I carved pumpkins with Heather and Paul. I'll make sure to take a pic.

Phew! Talk about a long drawn out entry. But a lot has happened so I didn't want to leave you guys out of the loop. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a very special young lady who does alot of fundraising stuff for cf, and then playing video games all night. Friday is hopefully going to be spent going to that science exhibition where they have real human organs put into this cast stuff to make models out of it. Kinda hard to explain, but should be pretty cool!

Bloody Hell It's Snowing!!!

yep ... it really is ... just walked through my first ever snowfall!! Thanks to weird hurricane action Montreal has become unusually cold ... Dave and I stood raptured out on the sidewalk for half an hour while the nonplussed locals tried to sleep inside ... IT'S SNOWING OUT THE FRONT OF MY HOUSE! Weird to think that I'll be living in snow soon, in my mind snow is just something you go to play in for a few weeks then go back home .... IT'S SNOWING OUT THE BACK TOO! soon I'll be trudging through the stuff cursing it to buggery IT'S EVEN SNOWING JUST OUTSIDE MY WINDOW!!! I'm going to go outside and make a grubby puddle angel!

Slight change of plans...

After being involved with all the kino stuff and making loads of new friends, I couldn't bring myself to leave Montreal on Friday when I was scheduled to go to Ottawa. I just couldn't. So here I am, Friday night at 1:46am writing in this entry to say that I'm staying here until Monday. The last screening is tomorrow night, and with all the action that will be going on with it, I just thought to myself it would be stupid to leave now before it was over and after all the work I've put in (by that I mean alot of watching and going out with people who are doing the actual work). So my plans are to leave Monday for Toronto, then Tuesday hopefully make it down to Niagra Falls for a night, then back to Toronto from where I'll fly out to England on Friday the 28th. So what's been going on here? Well, mainly kino stuff. It's weird - it's almost as if time doesn't exist when the kabaret is happening. Days turn into nights and all you are thinking about is making films. It's pretty cool stuff. But that also means that there have been numerous screenings in pubs where it is smokey as anything. Pretty disgusting and hard to handle. So each screening has ended up with me having to pike out on all the fun to go back home to do physio and nebs. But that's alright - I couldn't physically stay out anyway because the smoke just hurt my throat too much anyway. But due to that I'm still quite sick and haven't improved a great deal. I'm really scarting to consider my options actually - about what I should do when I get to London. I'll definately go to the hospital there and maybe try and get another course of oral antibiotics. I just don't want things to get too out of control before I take some action... But yeah, apart from that not a great deal has been happening sorry to say. Made quite a few new friends, which is always good, and have a few more places of accomodation in various parts of the globe, so I'm laughing there. But for now it's trying to stay as healthy as possible so I can actually enjoy what's going on around me.

Kino, poutine and sore throats galore

the adelaide crew (kate, ben, dave, cj, me)
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hi all. The last few days have been so manic, but so cool as well. The Kino Cabaret has started, which is a week long film festival where everyone has to make a film and screen it in 2 days. Pretty cool. And what makes it even better is that there are 5 people here from Adelaide. Just for this. Now that's dedication! So yeah, I've attended the first screening, and the quality of the films are really something. It's even stirred up the film maker in me. So that's kinda cool. There's a Kino group in Adelaide, so that's definately something I'll have to be a part of when I get back. And while I'm on the subject, the Kino Cabaret in Adelaide is during the Fringe next year, so you all make sure you come along to that!

Also I've managed to get a picture of some great poutine on my pics page. Now you have your crappy 3am poutine, but the one I took a picture of is the best. This place has every type of poutine you can think of. Meat, vegge, mexican, everything! And it's damn tasty. So good!

But one bad thing is that I have managed to get quite a sore throat and it's affecting me healthwise. The first Kino screening was in a pub place, which was really nice, but it was so smokey in there. That's one thing that sucks about here - the rest of Canada is smoke free everywhere, but Montreal isn't, so its smoke galore. Usually I don't get too affected by smoke, well, I do, but not a great deal. But that night I could feel my throat getting so raw and by the next day I couldn't really talk. So bad. Now the throat is slowly getting a bit better, but the lungs have caught up and I'm now really phlegmy and quite short of breath. It's really annoying. And what sucks even more is that I want to do physio to clear it all up, but because my throat is still sucky it hurts like buggery to do. So hopefully once that clears up I'll be able to get back on top of things.

So that's about all that's been happening. Got more filming to do today, so looking forward to that. But another Kino screening tonight. Let's hope that it's not as smokey...

Montreal is getting cold!

me dressed up country style
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

It's been another week I think so I guess it's time again to let you all know how little Jaanie is getting along in frenchy town. Well, last week the unseasonal warm weather followed me to Montreal so I tried to make the most of it by getting around the city and trying to see all I could be bothered seeing. I went for a ride up the mountain (well, it's a hill, but apparantly you can't call it a hill around here) and it has a great view of the city. But it also lets you see just how smoggy it is here, so its not that pretty. But nevertheless, a good view.

So other than that, I have done various walking around with Ben and Claude, letting them show me just what's around here. I went to a 8mm screening night, which was alright, but nothing too special. Also went to a Kino screening, which was pretty cool, except the host was speaking French so I had to make up what was being said in my head. Was quite entertaining.

I've also been sampling some of the food here. If you didn't know, one of Montreal's attractions is it's food (well, for me anyway). I've had some poutine (chips, gravy and cheese curds) here, which is just to die for. There is also a little place where you get the BEST meat sandwhiches. You can chose your meat - fatty, not so fatty and hardly fatty. So good.

Friday night we went for a couple hour drive to Claudes parents' house in the country to spend the weekend there. Was soo nice. Except that on Friday the weather took a turn for the worse and it's true Autumn weather now. About 12 during the day and the nights are quite chilly. But it doesn't matter, we still went for a walk in the country and I kept imagining how cool it would look in winter when there's snow everywhere. Unfortunately I won't get to see that this time...

So now being back in Montreal I'm taking it easy today. Ben's computer cacked it on the weekend so I had to find a net cafe to write to you all, so you better feel privalleged! Another thing I wanted to tell you all is that I've managed to put up all the pics from the last few weeks. So make sure you go to the web page that they're on to check em all out (http://flickr.com/photos/27142778@N00/). There's quite a few, and it's a bit jumbled up because I only realised about my other memory stick after I posted the recent ones on there. Anywho, so it jumps from Winnipeg, to Toronto, to Montreal and then back to Toronto. It's all good. Don't fret.

So yeah, I think that's all to report. Tomorrow I'm going to the cf clinic here to meet up with a doctor and a nurse, so that should be pretty cool for some interviews. Then next week I'm meeting with a cf who has had a transplant, as well as a cf who is on the waiting list.

Wick!

Bonjour Montreal

Ah, another day another city. I hate to disappoint you all who were waiting to hear about my midnight vigil in the death row part of the gaol. But nothing really happened. However, I didn't really stay up there long at all. I went out for a drink earlier in the night, and then got back to the hostel around 12:30 or so. I went up there with a couple people from my room and the guy working there was taking some people up and telling a couple of stories about the place. That was pretty cool. But it wasn't really scary with all these people there. Anyway, once they all went to bed I decided to go up with the camera and sit up there for a bit. For some reason, probably because I'm a wimp, I couldn't make myself go into the cell where the famous ghost once stayed in. It's meant to be the most haunted cell in the gaol. I was only up there for not even 10 minutes then decided to leave. I didn't hear or see anything, but I couldn't go into the room, and I was tired, so I just went to bed. But don't worry, when I go back there after Montreal I'll make sure to stay up there for a decent amount of time. I promise! Anyway, so I got up this morning kinda early to catch the bus to Montreal. Arrived around 12:30 pm and was greeted by the one and only Benny T. Came back to his place and have been hanging around since. I did make it out to the park since the weather is so nice out, and caught some Dungeons and Dragons nerds dressing up and fighting each other in a mock battle. Pretty funny... I'ts really weird with all the French stuff. I know it's to be expected here, but it's just something I haven't ever encountered. At least they can speak English if they have to, but I'm determined to learn at least something to get me by. So far my vocabulary includes 'bonjour' and 'merci'. Pretty spiffy eh? Anywho, I'm off now. Take it easy all and keep those emails a comin'!

Update on death row...

Hey all. Just a quick update. I was interviewing the guy who works here and he said that if I was interested on going up there tonight, he could go with me and tell me a couple stories. Yay! AND, I told him about the big bang I heard, and he said that is one of the most common noises heard up there. So it coulda been something... Apparantly this building is the most haunted in Canada, and get this everyone, it (as a jail) was closed due to inhumane conditions. And they turned it into a hostel. Classic! Anywho, I'm off. Oooh, tonight is going to be wick!

Oh Ottawa

Well, Toronto turned out to be a VERY cool place to be. Much better than I anticipated. Lots of time was spent trying to see all of downtown. But failed miserably... it's so friggen big. But the subway system is pretty cool and helps alot when trying to get around town. Went out to some fabulous places for food and bevvies. Tried quite alot of local (Canada) brew and have found some that I like. Can't remember for the life of me what they are, but nonetheless good stuff. I just let whomever I'm with choose for me. So it was kinda sad to leave the place. But there was another instalment of Jaan's stupidness to come. You see, I had planned to catch the sub and be at the bus depot by around 11 so I could catch the 11:30am bus to Ottawa. But for some reason, and I really don't know why because I was given specific instructions by Heather, I caught the subway north and got off at totally the wrong stop. So I had to back track and by the time I got to the depot it was 12. Bummer. So I had to wait around for 2 hours for the next bus. Excitement plus! Although something cool was that there was a family of Amish people at the depot. I had never seen them before in real life. Very cool. But a huge thanks again to Heather and Paul for making my Toronto visit sooo cool and I can't wait to get back there in a few weeks! Arriving in Ottawa, all I wanted to do was get to the hostel. The walk would have taken about an hour apparantly, but I could not be bothered with all my stuff since I walked around for AGES in Toronto. So instead of trying to be a smart person and figure out how to get there by bus, I just caught a cab. Only about $12, so not too bad. AND I got dropped off right at the front door. Man, the hostel here is soooo cool! It's the old gaol. Very wick. Today I discovered the death row block, and I went in there at noon and it was kinda creepy then. I've decided to go back tonight around midnight and do a little vigil there with the camera. And the scary thing was today as I was leaving, I heard this huge bang coming from the death row hall. Now, it was most probably something very easily explainable, but it made me crap myself. So I'm getting quite excited about tonight. Wish me luck! The weather gods have been smiling on me again as today is a friggen fantastic 20-something day with no clouds and basically no wind. Perfect! Today was spent walking down the main shopping street, the markets, and the parliament buildings. Everyone told me that the buildings here are amazing, but I thought "How good can buildings be?". Boy was I wrong. They are soo cool. Like old castles. It's given me a taste of what England must be like so I can't wait to get there. Unfortunately the computer here isn't letting me connect my camera up, so I can't upload any picures just yet. But I'll make sure to do so when I get to Montreal tomorrow. I know you're all just DYING to see what I've been seeing. Anyway, that's about it. I can't be bothered typing any more so I'll leave it here. Peace out eh!

Tantalizing Toronto!

Ahh, the big city. What an eventful way to enter the city of Toronto. Here we go: I had to get up at 5 am to get to the airport at 5:30am for the plane at 6. Got there are 5:40 so had to quickly rush to get on the plane in time. Not too bad there. Got to watch a very impressive sunrise which I took a couple of pictures, but will have to wait to get them on the computer. From there arrived in the Toronto airport at around 9:30. I wanted to find an internet so I could look up the details of the people I'm staying with. Now, Toronto airport is friggen huge. There are 3 terminals, and I was in terminal 3. I asked around and they said that there wasn't any internet in this terminal and to go to terminal 2. So I hopped on a shuttle to terminal 2. Started walking around and still couldn't find any internet. I asked someone there if there was any places to get on the net, and she said no. So, I caught a shuttle back to terminal 3 because I knew that there was a place to get some food there, so did that and thought I would take one more chance asking the information centre if there was an internet place anywhere in the airport. She said that there was a place in terminal 1. Ugh, so again on the shuttle to terminal 1. Except for the fact that my brain does stupid things with numbers and I got on the shuttle that took me to terminal 2. Waited another 10 minutes and finally found myself on the shuttle to the correct terminal. After a bit of walking around I found the net. $2 for 10 minutes and the keyboard was a piece of crap that made it so hard to type on. But it was long enough for me to get the information I needed. Then with one last question at the info place I found myself on a bus to the start of the subway. Met a girl on the bus from New Foundland and she was heading downtown so I thought I would tag along with her. After all, it's better to get lost with someone else to keep you company. So we aimlessly walked onto the subway and chatted for the ride into town. Once there, we spent the next few hours walking around the city and looking in various shops. The city is so friggen huge! Quite nice though. Very nice as a matter of fact. I like it quite alot, which is a surprise considering I had been building up in my mind that I was going to hate it - just because it's a huge city and you know me, I like my lil' ol' Adelaide. But yeah, for some reason I didn't mind it at all. So at around 4:00 pm I thought I would try and get in contact with Paul, one of the cool people I was going to be staying with. However, since I have a non-existant memory and I didn't write down his name in my little book, I had no idea what I was going to do when I rang his office looking for him. Tried to find an internet cafe or something downtown, but do you think I could find one? Nup. So i thought I would risk it and ring anyway. Now, you'd think it would be relatively easy to find a payphone yeah? Well, I had to go into a subway station to find one. Did so, but only got his answering machine. Hmm, what to do? Well, I was told that he finished work at 4:30 so I thought I would just wait outside work for him. 4:30 came and he didn't - so I went into the building to his office trying to find him. Ran into a woman there who tried to find him for me. He left at 4. Great. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I had their address written down in my little book, but not the directions how to get there. But luckily their street name is the same as the subway station name, so i assumed it wouldn't be too hard to get there. Did so, caught the subway again, and found myself on their street walking down to their house. All this on a very sunny 20-something degree day with full sunshine, lugging around a huge backpack and carring more bags, while on Cipro and being very photosensitive. Not a good combination. Oh well, let's just say that I was VERY relieved to be at the house and sitting down with a nice cool glass of water. So Heather and Paul (the people I'm staying with here) are just the awesomest. Definately the best people to be in Toronto with (thanks Bonney for the suggestion!). For brunch (because I took so long to get my act together and get out of the house) I was treated to Grumbles, a very lovely bakery that serves some damn fine food. Had probably the most authentic steak pie I've ever had in my life. Good stuff! Then went walking to an op-shop that was huge and I found some nice purchases, for a very decent price. Then tonight was treated again to a fantastic dinner with some local brews thrown in. Very good stuff! Phew! All that in two days. I'm pooped.

Coming to you live from the Peg

My last night is good ol' Winnipeg. Man, it's really cool here. Lotsa fun. But I guess it makes it better when you can hang out with some locals. Yesterday I was hanging out with a cf guy from here and just spent the night hanging out with his friends. Was pretty cool. Winnipeg is REALLY similar to Adelaide, so I guess it feels like home a bit. Today went to the Forks and into the French quarters, but that wasn't too interesting. The weather has been superb here as well. Sunny and hitting 20. Beautiful... But yeah, have to leave tomorrow morning at 6am for Toronto, so I'll try and make sure everything's packed tonight. I'm sure you really wanted to know that. The doco is coming along. It's such a big part of the trip that I no longer know what's good or what's not, so I'm just trying to film everything and hope that I can edit something together. I don't personally think it's anything exciting, but I guess I'm not the best person to judge it... Anywho, better be off. Washing is getting done and I'm getting to be quite the expert at it. Woot!

Jaaaaaan!

"where's jaan?" everybody says. "what's jaan doing?" they ask. you're in higher demand than poochie ever was ... so what are the answers?

Not enough time!

Man, am I peeved. It's always the way - you find somewhere nice to stay and you don't have enough time to spend there. I've been in Saskatoon for a few days and I have to leave tomorrow for Winnipeg. Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to going there, but I just started getting settled here. The city is really nice actually. I was getting so much flack for coming here - everyone saying how flat the praries are and how boring it is here. But I've found it great. Maybe it's because being from Adelaide you're used to cities that aren't "fun" or whatever the term is. But Sask seems like a very cool city, and a great place to live. I met up with Sheryl today, a 34 year old CF'er who had a transplant a year ago. She's great. Did a nice little interview with her and got some interesting feedback about the CF situation here (in Saskatoon anyway). But yeah, the weather has also been fantastic. Mid twenties and sunshine. Apparantly it's unusually nice here too, so it seems like the good weather is following me around the country. Not complaining, but it's building a false idea of what the cities here are like weather wise. I don't know how good it will be in winter though when it gets to -40c and below. But would still be interesting... So yeah, head out tomorrow for Winnipeg and staying there till Friday. Should be good - apparantly Winnipeg is really into the local arts and stuff. So looking forward to that. Then Toronto on Friday for about a week and attend the CF conference there. But I think that's about it all up.

Hello Toon Town

jah #2
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

After many dramas with me missing the bus and stuff, I finally arrived in Saskatoon this afternoon at 3:30. It's funny - I originally wanted to see either Calgary or Edmonton, but ran out of time so I couldn't do either. But with me missing the bus, it turned out that I actually got to see both. Cool ey?

So the bus ride is nothing to rave about, as anyone would know catching a bus for 13 hours. The people I'm staying with here are fantastic, even though I'll be staying for one night. The rest of my time here I'll hopefully be with Unkey Charlie.

But since I only updated everything last night at the stupid bus depot, not much else to add, except that I have now updated my photo page, so when you got time, head on over and have a squizz. There are HEAPS on there, so make sure you look through a few pages until you get to the old ones.

That is all!

Calgary bus depots are boring

Sadly I had to leave the beautiful rockies to start my trek toward Toronto, first stop Saskatoon. Everyone I tell this to still pisses themselves laughing at me. Should be great! I can't wait - to see nothing. Seriously, the thought really appeals to me. But yeah, feeling quite a bit better today. Must be because I did a big dose of physio last night and this morning. But no doubt the bus ride tonight will do nothing good for me. I'll just have to try and get back on top of things once I arrive. I'm really annoyed that I couldn't stay in Banff longer. I didn't even do a spot of hiking! Pathetic! I tried today, but ran out of time and had to record a piece for the CF Ball. So all those attending will get to see a bit of Jaan on the night... But yeah, the bus terminal here in Calgary is SOOO boring. There is no music on the speakers, there is no clowns, and everyone here is either in their 40's of a total hick. So I think it's too much to expect a cool person to talk to on the bus. Oh well, such is life. I'm really noticing the difference between B.C. and Alberta though. Not that they're ruder, well, maybe they are, but people in general definately aren't as friendly here as in Vancouver. It makes a bit harder when trying to make friends. But enough whinging. My time is about up, so I'll leave it here. Everyone keep the emails coming. Even if I don't reply it's cool to read something from home.

Goodbye B.C. Hello Banff

I'm sitting here in the hostel in Banff at 20 to 8 in the p.m. and it's quite loverly. The mountains surrounding Banff (quite commonly referred to as the Rockies) are certainly a site. Everyone says the same thing, but I have to agree and say that the Rockies are DEFINATELY worth seeing. It's truly amazing. The bus ride here was pretty cool. If it were Greyhound I can imagine it would be quite dull, but the Moose travel thing definately make it worth while. You get a rad driver who does cool stops and tells you lots of trivia, in a bus that sits about 24 with all like-minded backpackers. Definately the way to travel. And quite cheap too. So did that from Vancouver. First stop was Shuswap Lake. Got there in the evening, had dinner and went to bed. Left early the next morning and did a couple of spots at various places (as you can tell I'm not in the mood for long explanations) including a lake where you get challenged to stand in there bare foot. I lasted not even a minute I think. Cold stuff! So arrived in Banff yesterday afternoon, went to a f-ing fantastic dinner at the Spaghetti Factory and then had a night on the town. Wasn't too bad, but for the last couple of days physio has been limited and I've been feeling not the best at all. In fact, tonight I was seriously thinking about skipping the whole of the middle and flying straight to Toronto. But I've decided to bus to Saskatoon, fly then to Winnipeg after a few days, then fly to Toronto. If things are still dodgy, then I might go early to Ben's (I'm assuming that's still cool?) and try and rest up for a bit. I've already started a course of oral antibiotics to try and jump on the sickness early. We'll see if that helps... So yeah, Banff is really nice and definately worth a look, even if it is quite expensive. Will post pics once I can find a place to get them on comp. And trust me, there are some goodies there!

Lots of stuffs going on...

One happy family at the hostel
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Well, since I hadn't posted anything for about a week, I think I'm due don't you? Let's see if my memory can serve me good enough to enlighten you...

Ok, so I stayed back in Nanaimo for another night because I didn't book a ticket for the ferry back to Vancouver. I got there bright and early Tuesday morning around 8 am and struggled to find a taxi to take me back to the hostel. Eventually I had to go into a hostel and ask them to phone me one.

Now, for some reason, my brain has decided to merge Tuesday and Wednesday together, so I can't remember what I did on each day. Hence I'll just write all the stuff I did...

Finally did some touristy stuff and went to Stanley Park. Very nice. I hired a bike and rode around the park which is about 8 km's long and took just over an hour (since I was stopping alot on the way to film various crap). I went to the UBC (University of British Columbia) which is near the hostel. Talk about a big campus. It was just like the movies - everyone walking around wearing their frat tshirts and carrying cases of beer. Looks like good study to me. Now my memory is coming back to me - this all happened Tuesday. By the end of the day my feet were absolutely killing me from all the walking and stuff. Just a little side note for you.

Then Wednesday I met up with Frances Herzer, who is the President for the B.C. cf chapter. We had a very pleasant talk on the beach and it was really good to get some perspective on the cf scene here in Vancouver. Then I went to post my suitcase full of mediciny goodness to Ben in Montreal so that I didn't have to carry it around with me. Talk about hassles - the bus didn't come because there was a section that was blocked off by police because of an accident, so luckily someone from the hostel gave me a lift. Then I had to get a lock before I could send the suitcase off, but the hardward store had decided to be closed that day for some reason, and at the hiking place, the computer crashed for about half an hour. Lotsa fun!

Finally posted it, got back to the hostel and didn't do too much for the rest of that night. Had a nice conversation with Verghese (an Australian) and Laura (a German) in the cafe at the hostel about travelling and where we would like to go etc etc etc.

On Thursday I accompanied Verghese on an expedition to the aquarium in Stanley Park. Apart from Stanley Park itself, it's the only touristy thing I've done since being here, so I'm very greatful for the invitation. The aquarium was alright, not as big as I thought it was going to be. But they had some brilliant animals there, including the beluga whales. Then we went into Chinatown, which is one of the biggest in the world. It's friggen huge! So good though... Had so many grocery shops and restaurants. And not to mention the worlds narrowist building...

On the way back we decided to swing through the dodgy part of town that runs alongside Chinatown. Everyone said that it was pretty bad and to be careful, but it was 3 pm and we were curious. It's so strange - the moment you cross the road and head down the street it completely changes. And I mean straight away - you can still see the 'nice' strees 10 metres away when you're freaking out about getting robbed. We passed 'suicide alley' just after turning into the road and saw 2 people shooting up right there. Talk about scary. We lasted a block before turning back to the 'nice' road. An experience definately!

Then that night we all decided to go downtown to check out the night life (that's me, Verghese, Laura and Catie, an English gal who arrived that day). It was a pretty good night all up. Didn't really find a good Adelaide-esque pub which I've definately been missing, but some good places nonetheless. However, once 2 am struck, the lights came on and the order for everyone to clear out was given. Stupid Canada. Stupid Vancouver. The city shuts down at 2 am everywhere. Hoards of people were spewing into the street when we walked out, and it was quite a site (by spewing I mean walking out and not literally throwing up). So we just caught a cab back to the hostel and chatted.

Today I didn't do too much at all. Packed my stuff, caught the ferry to Nanaimo (after booking a ticket) and then being treated to a hockey game tonight. I think I've found my new sport. It's friggen awesome. Guys being smashed into the wall and being decked in the middle of the ice. And it's really exciting to watch and figure out all the plays and stuff. Well, I enjoyed it anyway.

Holy toleto, talk about a long entry. Sorry guys. I guess alot has happened (for a change).

Goodbye Nanaimo (sort of...)

Alright. I was supposed to be back in Vancouver tonight but because it's the last day of holidays and Labour Day, that meant that the ferries back were completetly full so I couldn't get back. Instead I'm here again at the house in Nanaimo, and I played hockey on the computer for 5 hours. Good stuff! And I've made plans to get back here on Friday so I can go to a real life hockey game. Should be grand! I haven't really done too much else since last time. I've been to the movies, been out to dinner, and been for a few walks, but that's really it I'm sorry to say. I'm feeling a bit rotten at the moment because I went on a really long walk today, so I didn't do physio in the morning, and then when we got back I had to pack and leave for the ferry, but then I missed it so I'm only doing it now, and I'm quite phlegmy. Plus I've got a really bad headache, which I think is due to the coughing. But not to worry, I'm sure a good sleep will cure that. I have to be at the ferry place at 6:30am! Ugh, but that serves me right for leaving everything to the last minute. Will try and write something more interesting next time...

Take that Young Ones!

this week i've prepared 30-40 meals for 25 bucks! i have carrot soup, potato and carrot soup, potato soup, leek and potato soup, tomato and leek soup and tomato sauce! next week come the lentils! mmmmmmm.

Hey Jaan! How's your film going?

i have thought of a few questions you should address for your audience ... what is nanaimo style? what is a chucky tee?

my number one shopping stop!