Kooteny Trials and Tribulations

Not wearing a watch, I asked the check out girl in Home Depot the time. She started punching buttons on her computer and it was then I realised she did not have a watch either. But she was so slow. Surely the time is displayed on the screens of all computers?? Bottom right, right? A receipt was duly printed on the printer, grabbed, examined and then the time proudly relayed to me. My, what a palaver. I have not worn a watch for years, not since my third year of teaching back whenever, but for a youth not wearing one? And having to print out a receipt to find out the time? Oh how times have changed.

And so my Kelowna city experience continued. Natasha and I had traveled across the Monashee mountain pass on the Thursday, she on a seminar in Vancouver, me on my own with two dogs, a truck and trailer, and a tent. No one came to any harm, or damage caused, but Kelowna provided me with enough stress to fill a swimming pool with swear words. Traffic, red traffic lights, queues, rainstorms, lost dogs, no camp stove were all thrown at me whilst I shopped for slate floor tiles. Natasha flew back to an ailing Tim on the Friday night and on the Saturday we headed home with ¾ tonne of India, 150kg of floor goop, 60kg sugar, 40kg flour, 130kg of human and 60kg of dog. Plus very wet camping gear. It was a slow journey indeed! We passed and thought our thoughts at the memorial plaque where only a few weeks back the young New Denver man in his pick up died when a chip truck wiped him and his family out. It’s a strange human trait to have to try to understand what happened, but we spent the next few kilometers trying to do just that. Why can’t we just accept that it did and move on? On an opposite note, whilst in Kelowna Home Depot, I bumped into a former work colleague from Port Hardy Home Hardware days. Chris, who I always had time for, had a place in my heart as his wife’s son was very ill with a heart condition. We all moved from the Island about the same time, but what of his step-son? ‘He had a heart transplant’ said Chris. and….? ‘Last night he was playing baseball!’

My bees continue to delight, entertain and cause me stress. A former UK work colleague, also Chris, used to use the phrase ‘it’s like wrestling with jelly’. Bee keeping is a bit like that, as you never quite know what is going to happen next. I had five new bee nucs / queens, but now I have only four. All seem to be healthy, but who knows? Im not a natural at this malarkey, but it does give me a degree of satisfaction. My aim is to produce some honey which I like. ’10 honey was lupin nectar, which I did not like so much, so this year we have planted lots of bee loving flowers and hopefully pull some honey off a bit sooner than last year.

My buddy, Peter ‘Buff’, who is English is now a fully fledged Canadian. He attended his citizenship ceremony last week along with lots of other nationals, all getting their own Canadian passports. I quote:

From Australia to Zimbabwe people clapped or cheered when their country was called.  Iran, Iraq, India, all over Europe and around the world.  A very tall and very blue/black man from Sudan proudly stood when they called his country and he got an enormous cheer!  His journey was probably very different to my own.  But we were all new Canadians!

I felt very proud and humbled.

What a lovely story – it’s our turn next. Our Citizenship applications are in and the wait begins. Meanwhile, our UK passports have been surrendered for renewal. Amazingly, we had to send them to Washington, DC (Yes, America) and not here in Canada which just happens to be a fully signed up and active member of the Commonwealth. The newly we Royal couple are even visiting Calgary stampede in July. See, the UK really does have a ‘special relationship’ with the US. In the meantime, I hope I don’t have to do an emergency UK return – cos I can’t!

My marathon training started June 1^st. Rest day. Superb.

Tim