Australia Day!

Every year at school we used to get asked what Australia Day meant to us, this year I couldn't be much further from Australia, there's none of the things that make a typical Australia Day celebration out here, no sunshine, beach, no taking the day off or BBQ but this year I really can say I'm proud to be an Aussie! And also how great it feels to have the support of the country behind me!

I've still got a lot of the world to see (a lot of Australia too actually!) but the things that are special about Oz to me (other than all the cool scenery!) is our relaxed positive attitude and 'can do' approach! I'd like to think that we're a county that's capable of coming together to tackle challenges, one that's capable of showing the world that we can achieve the things that we believe in.

So how am I celebrating? Well last night I was pretty thrilled to get a call on the sat phone from Kevin Rudd who offered to pass on a Happy Australia Day message to everyone from me! That's about all I needed to make my day!

In other news, I'm pleased to report that the dunny is all back together (thank goodness!) and that the stove fired up again (yessss!!!) after drying out a little. Can I just say that, after enduring a few days without a stove my respect for James and Justin (the guys who kayaked the Tasman) and any other sailor or adventurer who's main food source was self-heating freeze dried meals has just gone up about a million notches!

So getting Ella's Pink Lady back into shape after our little battering has been going well, not helped by another front that passed yesterday but luckily it didn't give us any more than 40 knots of wind. I'm currently waiting for the wind to ease a little more so that I can finish patching the main sail and pull it right up again. Ella's Pink Lady looks a little worse for a few battle scars but more importantly is still as strong as ever.I shouldn't really be surprised as this is what we set her up to take and why we picked the S&S 34. Still it's nice to know.

I certainty can't complain about the miles we've been covering lately, we're flying across the Atlantic, I'm starting to worry that it's all going to be over and we're going to be home before I'm ready!

Well I'm going to sign off and have a go at making meat patties with tinned mince for a hamburger. Then maybe even some cake or muffins just because I'm so thrilled about the stove working!

Happy Australia Day!

Jesse

P.S. Congratulations times a million to Abby Sunderland for departing on her voyage last Saturday, I know what a challenge it is, just to get to the start line. Despite the fact that there seems to be a lot of adults determined to see Abby and I pitted against each other as rivals, I only wish her the best of luck and am totally thrilled that there's another girl going for the record!

The ManVan

The story of the ManVan goes something like this...

Wes desperately wanted a car in Fernie so that we could maximise our time here, do roadtrips and generally live like kings. Claire absolutely did not want a car in Fernie because Fernie is a small town where most regular people rely on walking or hitching. The size of this town really doesn't warrant a car.

After a few days of lengthy discussion Claire gave in, and within 2 hours of giving in, we became the (semi) proud owners of a Green Dodge caravan sport!

Claire found out that during the discussion process Wes was doing a fair amount of car research on the side so that when the agreement was reached there would be no time wasted in making the purchase.

Wes is absolutely thrilled and everytime we jump in our ManVan he sings the little tune "On the road again..."

I'm gradually getting used to it, and despite telling Wes that we cannot possibly use the Van as an excuse to be lazy, have been caught driving to the gym (of all places), which is a total of 450m from our house - whoops!

The good news is that in the first week the Van has only broken down once with a flat battery. But we aren't being put off, because on 10 Feb we are doing a 2 day road trip to Vegas, so hopefully it lives long enough to see us safely to Vegas and back.

In other news, Claire is now a qualified ski instructor after passing the 4 day CSIA level 1 instructor's course. I don't really have any intention of teaching but it did wonders for my skiing.

Wes jumped on skis for the first time in 10 years and proved to be quite the maestro. On run number 2 he made his way nicely down a black run, weaving in and out of trees, carving up the crusty powder, and later on he even hiked up in his size 13 ski boots to the very top of the Lizard Bowl to try out the powder. Very very impressive Wes!!

A trip to "Cran-hole"

A lot has been happing since my last post, so here is a day in the life from early on in our stay.

A trip to "Cran=hole"

Canada is a very friendly place. I think part of the reason for this is that Canada is designed to function in person. You get lots of chances to practice you friendliness when you do everything in person, like going to the bank to setup an appointment to open a bank account in person, and collecting your physical pay check in person from work, and then banking your pay check in person at the bank ("direct deposit? sounds like a good idea, but how would you know when you have been paid?"), and then paying your rent in person at the real estate agency and so on. However, things do run very smoothly here in person. I can now understand why my Canadian friends in Sydney couldn't get over there first trip to the RTA. Unfortunatly things dont run as smooth if you are trying to accomplish something by phone or internet (or should I say fax).

To work in Canada, you need a SIN (like a tax file number) and to get a SIN you need to apply at Service Canada. Now Claire did this 6 weeks before we arrived by mail, and all I needed to do was re-activate mine from when I last worked in Canada, despite this, our SINs were not forthcomming. We were told our options were to resend applications (with our passports) and wait 6-18 weeks, or drop in to Service Canada and have them issued on the spot. The problem was Service Canada was in Cranbrook (aka Cran-hole) which is 1.5 hours away and this was before we had our new wheels. So we caught the twice a week medical bus for $2.50 that takes Fernie patients to Cranbrook hospital.

The medical bus was lots of fun, and we were lucky to get a seat. The highlight for me was when the middle aged female driver pulled off the road and explained she wont be a minute, and we watched her duck into the toilets at a truckstop. Sure enough a few minutes later we were back on the road, and 10 minutes after that we were in Cran-hole.

Personally I think the name Cran-hole is a bit harsh, as it was a pretty cool town. It even has a Wal Mart. Sure enough we were in and out of Service Canada in 15minutes with SIN in hand, and then filled the next 4 hours looking at ski gear and sampling some of North America's finest fast food. I also had a business meeting with Interior Health about setting up a street vending cart (sausage sizzle) before getting the medical bus back to town.

Here's a pic of some of our mates at the bar...