Hello everyone	General
30/04/2006 09:18:27 pm by Cate Jackson
'Hi guys! Sorry I haven't updated for a while, but here I am, in Australia, and of course I've already almost planned my next trip, I'm going to San Fransisco to visit friends. Cate
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We're Home	General
17/01/2006 04:37:08 pm by Doug Jackson
YAY!!! We are home. It took about a million hours, but were home now. We were met at the airport by Mum and Dad, Lachlain and Conner, and Maggie came up from Numurkah. Thanks guys. From spending way too many years travelling in my life, nothing beats being met at the Airport by the ones you love. Cool.. The house was still there, and the pool was terefic! Even still had beer in the fridge. In all, it was a wonderfull holiday, and we'll be going to the USA in a couple of years... Take Care, Doug
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Time to go home	General
15/01/2006 04:41:55 am by Megan Jackson
Almost everything is packed - Doug is just waiting for me to finish typing so that he can pack up all the cables etc. I am ready to go home now - one month of travelling is quite enough. I suspect if it had been one month in France I still wouldn't be ready to go, but that's a different story. What have we learned during our time away? 1. When travelling to extremely cold places, always carry your jacket with you on the plane, rather than putting it in a suitcase. 2. Beavers are much bigger than platypii. 3. Ontario phone cards don't work in British Columbia. 4. There is never enough time in Paris to see anything approaching everything. 5. Experiencing new countries & places is great fun. Long distance plane travel is not. We are preparing for two long haul flights now. One of 13 hours from Vancouver to Hong Kong, and then another from Hong Kong to Sydney. We have a few hours in Hong Kong, and another few hours in Sydney, before we get home at about 3.30pm on the 17th. Looking forward to seeing everyone once we have been home long enough to sleep in our own beds!
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GOING HOME!!	General
14/01/2006 04:56:29 pm by Cate Jackson
We are flying home tommorow, I look foward to it. So, I left home with two pairs of shoes and I am coming home with FIVE!!! My dream... The seaplane today was awesome, it really showed you the beauty of Canada, we flew over places that could only be accessed by boat. Waterfalls on mountains, snow, rivers, the city... it was amazing. So, I have had loads of fun going around the world, but, I am always happy to be going home. Cate
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Last chance to see Vancouver	General
14/01/2006 04:48:36 pm by Megan Jackson
And I'm actually making a blog entry on the day it happened! First time since we got to Canada I think... Observations for today: Canadian bacon is incredibly fatty! However, it does crisp up quicker than the bacon at home. I cooked about 400gms of bacon for the family for breakfast this morning. A bacon sandwhich is a wonderful thing, but I can feel my arteries hardening. Licensing laws here in Vancouver are very strange, as Doug has already mentioned. Opening hours for cafes are equally strange. We attempted three different cafes along the waterfront before we found something that was open for lunch on a Saturday. I'm obviously missing some important information ... There are some houses in Vancouver that you can only get to by boat or sea plane. I imagine they cost a #$%@$load of money, but they do look very pretty. (If Cate lets Doug have enough computer time, he might be able to load up a picture or two from our flight around Vancouver.) Sometimes when travelling with children, you need to give them downtime. We did that today in the cinema. I took Sian to 'Hoodwinked' - an animation involving a nice twist on the Little Red Riding Hood story. Some good adult humour in the script, some of which Sian picked up. I should stop procrastinating and start packing now. Dammit!!
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Aquariums and towers	General
14/01/2006 04:38:33 pm by Megan Jackson
Another beautiful but damp day in Vancouver. It's so lovely to be able to move around in a cool light drizzle - it feels like years since we had that at home... The Aquarium was good fun. I don't think I'd rate the actual fish displays as any better than the Sydney or Melbourne Aquariums, but the extra stuff was wonderful. We have now seen Beluga whales up close, plus watched a presentation on birds of prey including a falconer with a Red Hawk, and attended the obligatory dolphin show. The dolphins here are grey with white stripes & white tummies, which takes a bit of getting used to. And Beluga whales are butt ugly! The sea otters here are huge, particularly when compared with the little otters that we have in Australian zoos & aquariums. (Just by the way, is the plural of aquarium aquaria?) Lunch at the Aquarium was generally standard zoo food, but I did get seafood chowder in a bread bowl. Very tasty, and I got to eat the bowl when I was finished. Sadly, it was just too wet to take a stroll around Stanley Park, so we took a taxi back to Gastown. I made an effort to find some more Benjamin Chee Chee prints. (Many of you will know the pictures of Snow Geese that we have in the lounge & dining room, created by Chee Chee.) One of the indigenous arts stores in Gastown carried Chee Chee works, but only as 'art cards'. Apparently the large prints are basically impossible to get anymore. While it's nice to know that I've got some seriously valuable art on my walls, I'm saddened that I won't be able to get anymore. (Chee Chee committed suicide some years ago, so he's not producing any more either.) After that let down, it was off to find ourselves a shoe store, as Sian has been functioning on only one pair of shoes since the loss of her luggage. We found our way to Sears, where both girls ended up with new shoes. I'm having trouble dealing with Sian's new sneakers - the current fashion in sneakers means that the shoes look about 2 sizes too big, even though they actually fit. Cate's new pixie boots however, I could cheerfully snaffle for myself! Dinner at a Japanese restaurant that Cate spotted as we were roaming the city trying to find a shoe store that stocked children's shoes. Top marks for observation & memory for that child there. Bento boxes all round - mmmm Teryiaki salmon, stacks of sushi & also some tempura in my box. Final stop for today was the observation deck at the tower. It's a very little tower, even if you only compare it to Telstra tower! We won't even begin to compare it to the CN tower. But the view was still beautiful - so many pretty lights.
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Gross tasting medication	General
14/01/2006 04:14:49 pm by Megan Jackson
Just a side note about a new medication that I'm trying out.. While I was curled up on the couch waiting for the migraine medication to kick in, Doug & the girls went out for a walk. One of their tasks was to try and get some Ponstan or similar 'period pain' relief medication for me. Bzzzzttt - fail. Ponstan and all similar medications are prescription only here. However, they struck up a conversation with the pharmasist, who also ran a Chinese traditional medicine line along side the Western line. So, I'm now taking some absolutely foul tasting drops twice/day, which I have to take for the 3 days before a period starts and the first three days of a period. The theory goes that this medication is going to fix the hormone imbalance that is causing the migraines (and also works on period pain.). Hey, I'm game. There's very little worse than vomiting up your toes every 28 days and being unable to function at work for the next 48 hours thereafter.
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Last day - Coming Home	General
14/01/2006 03:48:54 pm by Doug Jackson
Bummer, Today was our last day here. Wow, did we have a great day. Firstly, some housekeeping for Mum and Dad: We get back on 17Jan06 at approx 1530hrs, on QF1429 - Almost certainly a bugsplatter. I have spoken to Grahame next door and he will be leaving a message for Rodney about the Ford. Worst case, he will have a Ford key with him. We haven't been able to speak to Rodney, but Grahame should be nailing a note to the door. It is currently 8.30pm here, and we are packing up. OMG where do we start? Today, we went up in a seaplane for half an hour. Cool. Then we tried to have lunch at a pub. Bzzt... Fail... British Columbia have some bizarre laws that say that childern under 19 are not even allowed into a pub, even if it is to have a counter meal. The basic cornerstone of an Australian upbringing, and my kids were denied it.... Well... Off we went, and discovered a brewery-pub-resturant (an interesting loophole) who where more than happy to take some money off me to provide a great lunch (from 1.30pm till 3.30pm). Mmmmm. We then walked to Chinatown and had a stroll around the oldest Chineese garden (not in China), and went to the movies. Had dinner at Golden Arches, and caught a Taxi back to the flat. In all a great day. Cool While waiting for the plane flight, I saw some really crappy video footage about what the North Koreans are doing. I won't include it here, as Megans site is not politically motivated, but I will have a rant on my blog shortly. That way, Megan stays clean, and I get a little more tarnished. [It is all fun and games, as this is all hosted on a Canadian Server in any case] Take care, God Bless, and it will be great to fall into our pool in a couple of hours (about 30-40 of them)
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Migraine - 4x4	General
14/01/2006 06:07:25 am by Megan Jackson
Four migraines, each one 28 days apart. Does this a pattern make? Day two in Vancouver starts out with a migraine for me. Fortunately I got the medication in quickly enough and was vaguely functional again by midday. I chose not to do the flight similuator at the space centre though. There was heaps of good stuff at the Space Centre, but the highlight of the visit for me was probably the lump of meteorite. Damn it was heavy! We had Greek food delivered for tea - very yummy, also good for us! I particularly enjoyed the souvlaki, though the marinated ribs were also very nice. The red wine from Argentina went down very nicely too.....
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I wonder where	General
14/01/2006 05:59:37 am by Siân Jackson
I wonder where that fish has gone? A fish! A fish! A fishy fish! I went to the Aquarium. There were fish! I saw a person in the tank with the sting-ray in it, They were cleaning the tank. I saw a dolphin show and they were cute. I know it was suppossed to be an Aquarium but there were birds and monkeys and snakes(come my pretties!) It was weird. Tomorrow we are coming home to australia We had a great time. We are going in a sea plane today.
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Mwahaa haa haa	General
13/01/2006 04:07:17 pm by Cate Jackson
Hello all. To everybody in Canberra, we are in Vancouver and they are going to beat the record of continous rain for twenty something days. eexxellent... It was cold and wet, great. I was writing some stories last night and had complete writers block, so I just gave up, the woke at 5:47 AM and wrote until eight something. It was good. Really good... We went to the Aquarium and saw amazing animals you can't see in Australia. Cute little pygmy marmosets (little tiny monkeys)... they are so cute!!! Then we had lunch and went Gastown, to the only ATM that accepts our card. And then went shopping, I was trying so hard not to spend money, but then I saw some amazing shoes, they're like 1800's - 1920's style and instead of being really uncomfortable, they have sneaker material on the top, THEY ARE SO COOL and only $28.49 SWEET!!!
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Shoes are not booring	General
12/01/2006 03:52:20 pm by Doug Jackson
Wow, As you may have read earlier, we went to the shoe museum in Toronto. I was not expecting to have fun. Till I saw this: A training shoe from the Apollo program. Cool, I suspect that Cate will probably complain that I didn't put up one of the 'girlie' shoes...
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Sian and I touched the Moon	General
12/01/2006 11:36:20 pm by Doug Jackson
While there has been much mention of various disasters, (reasonably so!). I feel that we may not be focusing on the good stuff, so here goes. This morning arives after our great day yesterday at Gastown, and we rise. It is a little drizly, but the kids and I decide to explore our local area, leaving Megs to have a quiet snooze. The suburb is clean, and logically layed out. We strolled down 4th ave, where the shops are, and saw some cool telescopes. We went down to the river, and it was a little industrial, we found some of the missing massive logs that they used to float down the river that they have lost. Brought some sausage rolls etc for lunch, and went back to the apartment. Megs was just rising, so we waited till about 12.30 for lunch. Yum. Simple, but there is little nicer than sausage rolls for lunch on a rainy day. It's raining, but the environment is peacefull enough that it doesn't matter. After lunch, we have a quite time on the sofa. Sian was starting to get a little restless, so Megs and I took her to the Mcmillan Space Centre for the afternoon. In all, a great idea. Sian and I both touched one of the 4 available moon rocks worldwide that may be touched by the public, and learnt a lot about Canada's innovative additions to the space programs. I suspect that one of the other rocks is at Tidbinbilla. I may have a plan to visit each of them..... Caught a cab back to the apartment, and relaxed for an hour or so prior to opening the door to go out to the local pub, and discovered it was raining a little too heavily for the walk, so we rang the local greek takeaway that provided a delivery service. $58 later, we hae a feast here, and the family is happy, and fed. Tomorrow, we will checkout the aquarium, and I'll spring the money on Saturday for everybody to take a light plane flight over the city. They have sea-planes here, so that will be fun. There is a reasturant called "The Spotted Prawn". I think we will be there on Saturday night. I'm kind of looking forward to coming home. A month away is a long time, and I already have a couple of jobs I want to do in our bathrooms, such as installing shower heads with hoses, and heated towel rails. That will be simple and fun to do in the last week of my holiday. In a couple of years, we have to drop over to LA to visit Catherine and Mikal, so we may come back to Canada for a couple of weeks. That will do more justice to the place than 4 days here and there. It's 8.30pm now, and I am feeling my new book "Dan Brown - Digital Fortress" calling me. Sleep will come soon. Take care, and God bless.
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Vancouver is damp, but cool	General
12/01/2006 09:26:33 pm by Megan Jackson
2.5 hours sleep does not a truly joyful Megan make, but that which doesn't break us makes us strong. Doug entered into discussions with Chris in Kitsilano, and discovered that Chris thought we were arriving for the night of the 11th, not at 1am the morning of the 11th. Oh well, never mind. At least we found out that we have accommodation for the rest of the stay. The hotel was also happy to look after the luggage until we were ready to move across the river. When the sun joined me in being awake, we ventured out into Vancouver in search of breakfast. About a block from the hotel we found a great cafe: nicely cooked eggs, crispy bacon, great wholegrain thick sliced toast, huge glasses of orange juice and wide range of coffee. Why would anyone go to Maccas for breakfast? We also had a lovely chat with one of the locals, who gave us some great suggestions for things to do which would avoid the rain. Following up on these suggestions we wandered down to Gastown. Here we drank more caffine, and then went to Storyeum, which is a live theatre interactive presentation of the history of British Columbia. Beautifully done, very informative and good fun too. Sian managed to win a prize for being the most enthusiastic of our small audience, which gave us a $10 discount at the Old Spagetti Factory. This is a converted warehouse with funky decor which serves yummy Italian food. With the discount, we managed to feed everyone two courses for less than $50 - probably the cheapest restaurant meal we've had in Canada so far. From Gastown, we went in search of an ATM which would talk to us (see previous discussions...). We found one in the train station just around the corner from the entrance to Gastown. And then, off to Kitsilano. Our new apartment is beautiful! There are original artworks on the walls, great kitchen facilities, very comfortable beds and in house laundry facilities that are completely functional. When we arrived Chris (apart from being really apologetic about the arrival stuff up) was ready & welcoming. There was a bowl of organic fruit, some fresh organic bread, a container of fresh baked cinnamon scrolls & cranberry scones, red wine, chocolate & various drinks in the fridge.
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The night from hell	General
12/01/2006 12:57:25 pm by Megan Jackson
Yes, we encounter new and interesting variations on travelling hell! I have already had a subtle whinge about the joys of the US customs/immigration system as we were leaving Toronto. The standing in lines in overheated buildings does get more than a little wearing. But in terms of the perils of the rest of the evening, it was actually quite mild. The flight from Toronto to JFK was uneventful. Soft drink is free on American Airlines, but food & alcohol cost money. The flight attendant didn't have the correct change for us though, so we got our Heiniken and South American Merlot for free!! (Cue evil laugh...) Once again, our flight out of JFK was delayed. The Cathay Pacific Airbus seemed absolutely packed - it was going to Vancouver and then on to Hong Kong. There was certainly a huge number of young families on board, and all of the babies were crying as we eventually left JFK. The parents/carers of the small baby behind us had mild fits if we tried to recline our seats, so we did the six hours to Vancouver sitting bolt upright listening to screaming babies. Exiting the plane in Vancouver was remarkably easy, as was finding a big enough taxi, even in the pissing rain at 1.30am. Our taxi driver was very chatty, and sang a Muslim blessing on us before he dropped us off at the B&B. Everything is looking good, until we discover that the B&B is occupied by someone else! After calling Australia to get phone numbers (we love you so much Graham!!) we discover that Chris (our host) isn't answering the phone. As the mobile starts telling us that we are running low on credit, we manage to book a taxi. The taxi driver was somewhat bemused by being given instructions along the lines of "Just take us to a decent hotel somewhere nearby". However, he complied nicely, and delivered us to Robson St. We ended up paying about $127 CAD and fell into bed at 3am.
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Last Day in Toronto	General
12/01/2006 12:28:33 pm by Megan Jackson
After leaving Starbucks we moved on to the Science Centre, which was another massive public transit exercise. Sian has already mentioned the BodyWorlds exhibition and the plasicinated people. A extremely bizarre experience. While I found the opportunity to view healthy and diseased organs fascinating, I found the 'artistic' displays of the human body somewhat disturbing. The rest of the Science centre was very hands on and not dissimilar to Questacon. Different topics, but the same style of presentation. Taxi back from the Science Centre to the apartment - arrived back 10 minutes before the taxi was due to arrive to get us to the airport. Both taxi drives were unpleasant to say the least. The first driver drove very poorly & left us all nauseous. The second trip was horribly overcrowded, even though when we booked the taxi we told them how many people and how much luggage there would be. Cate ended up with a suitcase between her legs in the back seat, & Doug was pushed so far forward in the front passenger seat to fit the suitcase behind him that he was actually unable to sit upright. The moral of that story - when moving 4 people & luggage in Toronto, get a van! Off to stand in lines at the airport. About an hour in the check in line for American Airlines, and over 40 minutes in the US customs queue so that we could transit through JFK. (Don't start me ranting again. Just let it be said - we will do anything to avoid travelling American Airlines ever again, and we also don't ever want to fly through JFK again.) Another learning experience - when flying through America, give yourself 3 hours to get through the administrative processes, rather than the 2 hours needed in Australia.
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Toronto Zoo and ATMS	General
11/01/2006 05:00:00 am by Megan Jackson
Big adventure - using the public transit system to get to the zoo. We went the wrong direction the first time, and then had to retrace our steps and travel to the end of the line in the other direction. Then onto a bus, which we also took to the end of the line. Finally, we arrive at the zoo! Partway there, we realised that we had forgotten to go to the ATM near home that worked with overseas cards, and started praying for ATMs that worked. Sadly, the answer to the prayers was no! We had our tickets for the zoo, and about $18 to our names. It was midday, and about 3 degrees, and the children were hungry. So the children had burgers & chips while the parents had a hot cuppa, and we roamed the zoo until the energy ran out. Lots of cool & groovy animals at the zoo. The higlights would have to be the beavers (which surprised the children, who were expecting something the size of a platypus); the prairie dogs (which sat up and played with Sian through the glass); the numerous little monkeys and finally the orangutan family. This last group had us spellbound for an extended period. We got on the bus at just after 5pm, and arrived home just after 6pm. Doug & I ate chocolate, before picking up girls & dirty laundry & heading up to the laundromat. Fortunately, the laundromat is located next to the pub, where we ate dinner in between washing & drying cycles. Doug's first Guinness didn't touch the sides, and when you think about the fact that he hadn't eaten lunch, you can imagine how happy he was for the rest of the evening.
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Finishing off Toronto	General
12/01/2006 11:53:24 am by Megan Jackson
So, I gave a brief synopsis of our last two days in Toronto. To expand: Bloor St United Church is a beautiful old bluestone building. They spot their newcomers/visitors by giving them yellow rose badges to wear. This meant that Sian was identified for Sunday School before the service started. The service itself was very liturgical - choir processionals, sung responses etc. The sound of the choir harmonies resounding through the vaulted auditorium - very dramatic! Communion through the intincture method, with the option of either grape juice or wine. (The uniting process must have been the Methodists & somebody else! Do Pressies use wine for communion?) The Shoe Museum - what a wonderful concept! Bravo to the person who first thought that one up. So many amazing shoes - I'd be hard pressed to decide on a favourite pair. There were of course shoes from the last century that I wouldn't be seen dead wearing, and shoes from the medieval period that I'd wear to an SCA event with joy. (They wouldn't be comfortable, but I'd wear them anyway. That's the nature of the female mind for you.) The Art Gallery was undergoing renovations, so much of it was closed. That which we saw was well worth the visit. The Henry Moore gallery contained many of the plaster originals for the final pieces. We joined with the creator in preferring his plasters to the actual final works. Some other brilliant offerings at the gallery - a couple of Monet's, (which Doug would really like on the wall at home - and is ranting about reproductions simply not being good enough!), many interactive opportunities for Sian where the gallery encouraged written and drawn responses, and an overwhelming number of works which Cate and I loved.
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Toronto and Vancouver	General
11/01/2006 03:46:43 pm by Siân Jackson
In toronto we went to the science centre(so me) There were plasticised people, they were dead. We went to the Storyeum and saw a show about Canada. After that we went to a dinosaur Dan show. I met a Tyrannasauras rex named Sparky (seriously) I got to pet his tail. At the show about Canada I got a $10 off coupon at the old spaghetti factory for my "enthusiam". At the spaghetti factory we ate lunch. There was a little quiz about it so I had to explore a little. The airline still hasn't found my luggage.
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We're Back	General
11/01/2006 01:25:23 pm by Doug Jackson
We have Internet! The nice, cable based type... We're in Vancouver. I'll let Megs update you on the saga of the last day.... Byt we have most of our luggage, and are now happily entrenched in out apartment for the last couple of days of our holiday. Cool.
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