My blog - September 2006
PG, and Back Again
September 26th 2006, 2:07am
As you'll already know from regularly reading my blog, I was in Prince George over the past week, visiting Naomi's parents. We didn't do a huge number of things, but it was great to spend time with her parents and get to know them a bit better. It was a shame we couldn't have spent longer there - not only because I didn't get to shoot anything while I was there! I did get to buy some new skates though, and Naomi got me dressed up in hockey gear when we were in wal-mart. I didn't get to buy any gear though, so it looks like I'll have to wait a little longer to join the recreational hockey team in Coventry.
On Saturday we spent all day fixing up our Golf. And when I say all day, I really mean all day - and a large part of the night. We got up at six in the morning, worked throughout the day, and got to bed at half past one the next morning. We (that is, Naomi, her Dad, and I) got new bits of trim attached to the car, added a release cable for the boot, re-did the doors so the speakers looked like they were supposed to be there (instead of tacked on as an afterthought), installed the remote door openers, polised the trim, repainted the wiper arms, and Naomi's dad changed the driveshaft oil seal and refilled the gearbox with oil. Part of the driveshaft was a bit worn, so he wasn't sure how long that fix would last.
On Sunday we packed all our stuff into the car, said our farewells, and set off on the long drive back to Calgary. About eighty kilometres out of PG the engine started to get very noisy, and then it started clunking and jumping out of gear. So we pulled off into a rest area and had a look under the car. There was a lot of oil dripping from it, so I guessed that the oil seal had probably broken again - and perhaps more. So we phoned Naomi's parents, but we couldn't get much reception (and Naomi's Dad was out in the bush going hunting, so he had even worse reception). But then a guy drove out of a side road and said he'd seen us there earlier and thought that if we were still there when he got back he'd see if we needed help, and offered to give us a lift back to PG. So we accepted his offer and climbed into his truck. He'd just been hunting, so lying between the front seats was a rifle and a shotgun, and I couldn't help thinking that in the UK you'd hesitate to accept a lift from someone who had guns lying around in his car! Anyway, he gave us a lift back to Naomi's parents and wouldn't accept any money from us, and we started to look for some way to get to Calgary.
We needed to get back before 11am, because that's when the movers were coming to pack up all our stuff we were sending to the UK. The bus was reasonably cheap, but it wouldn't get us back until 12.30, so that was no good. We found a place we could hire a car, but it was expensive to rent, and didn't include unlimited milage, so it would have cost about $700 plus fuel to get to Calgary. Then we looked at flights, but they cost even more - about $850. And then one of the car companies which had said they had no cars called back and said they had a minivan (a people carrier) which we could rent for $29 a day with unlimited milage. Naomi checked twice that it was really that cheap because it sounded too good to be true, but that was the price.
So we moved all our luggage out of our Golf and into Naomi's mum's car, drove over to the airport (where the rental place was), and signed all the forms, and discovered that it was actually $22 per day, not $29, and that the person behind the desk knew Naomi. Then we went out to look for the car we'd hired, fully expecting it to be an old banger, as they were letting us rent it because it was about to be auctioned - although I didn't understand why that meant we could rent it cheap. We walked up and down the lines of vehicles but couldn't find anything really old, so Naomi pressed the 'horn' button on the remote, and a really new Chrysler Uplander responded. It's the biggest 'car' I've ever driven - it made me feel North American to be driving it! - and it had six cup holders for the front two seats, traction control, cruise control, a trip computer and electric everything. And then while we were driving home Naomi discovered that it also had a DVD player in the roof!
We took it in turns to drive home. At least, that was the plan. I started off with the first two hour shift, and drove us to Jasper, where we planned to fill up with petrol. But all the petrol stations were closed, so we had to keep going. Naomi took over at that point, and I tilted my seat right back and fell asleep for an hour or so. We stopped next to the waterfall from the previous blog entry, but it was difficult to photograph because it was too dark even for long exposures, so we had to use the car's headlights. A bit further on we stopped at another petrol station, but it was closed too. I switched back to driving since I was now feeling nice and awake, and we drove to Lake Louise. Their petrol station was also closed, so we kept going, since Banff was sure to have an open petrol station. When we got to Banff though, the car's guage was saying we had more than enough fuel to get to Calgary, and Naomi was sleeping, so I just kept going. We finally got back to Calgary (about 750km from PG) on a single tank of fuel, at about half past four in the morning.
And now the movers have packed our stuff, and I picked up our passports and Naomi's visa from the post office, so we're nearly ready to go back to the UK in three days time. I'm starting to get quite excited!
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United Kingdom, Here We Come!
September 18th 2006, 5:01pm
Good news - Naomi's visa was issued today, which means we get to fly home on the 28th. Now we just need to get all our stuff packed and shipped, and I need to book a car for driving home from Scotland, and make sure our passport numbers are correct on the flight booking, and try to sell the car... but at least I know I can fly to the UK next week. Thank you everyone who prayed for us. And thank you God. And thank you British High Commission!
This picture is of some waterfalls we encountered on the Icefield Parkway - the road between Banff and Jasper. The picture on the left is the waterfall two weeks ago and the one on the right is it two days ago. Two weeks makes quite a difference!
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Comment posted by Maret at 5:01pm on September 18th 2006
Wonderful news!!!Happy packing!
Is winter really on the way??
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Early Winter
September 18th 2006, 2:33am
This past weekend Naomi and I drove over to Prince George to visit her parents. We drove to Banff on Friday night where we met Matt, my ex-housemate, who had come over to Canada for a holiday with his brother. Two weeks ago we'd been to Jasper with Naomi's parents for the weekend, and it had been really hot and sunny. However, this time the weather went weird, and it decided to snow. It was interesting to see lots of the same scenes as before, which looked very different with a coating of snow.
On Saturday we left Matt and his brother in Banff and continued on to PG. And we discovered another difference to our last trip through the rockies. Last time our gearbox kept jumping out of gear all the time. We thought we'd need to get a new gearbox, but then found that there was a leak and we'd lost half the transmission fluid. So we topped it up, and on this journey it felt like we'd got a new car, because the gearbox worked perfectly! We're going to fix the seal this week and do a few other bits and bobs while we're at Naomi's parents' place, and then we'll try and sell it next week.
Also, here's a reminder to pray that Naomi's visa comes very soon!
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My Best Friend Melanie
September 13th 2006, 4:10pm
My mobile phone over here is on Rogers Wireless, and to add money to your account, check your balance, or pretty much anything else, you have to go through an automated system which uses voice recognition rather than key presses. So you phone up and you end up having a conversation like this:
Melanie: Welcome to Rogers pay as you go, self care customer line. (fanfare) Si vous désirez entendre ce message en français, dites français maintenant. (pause) Sign up for the evenings and weekends plan and enjoy rates as low as five cents a minute. For more information, or to sign up, say 'account changes', and then 'price plan' at the main menu. (pause) I'm Melanie, and I'm here to help you with your pay as you go account. I'm going to be asking you some questions, and whenever you know the answer you can just interrupt me, so... Can I help you add money to your account today?
Me: Yes
Melanie: I didn't get that. Would you like to add money to your account? Please say 'yes', or 'no'.
Me: Yes
Melanie: Sorry, I still didn't understand. If you'd like to add money to your pay as you go account, say 'yes', otherwise, say 'no.
Me: Yes
Melanie: Did you want to... add money to your account?
Me: Yes
Melanie: All right then, how can I help you?
Me: Add money to my account
Melanie: I didn't get that. If you need help, just say help.
Me: Just let me add money to my account, you stupid talking computer!
Melanie: Ok, what's your password?
Anyway, I've found a much faster way of adding money to my account now. It goes like this:
Melanie: Welcome to...
Me: (interrupts) Blah blah blah
Melanie: Ok, what's your password?
I also find that if I say 'français' and go through the French menus it understands me better, although if the order of the menus changes I can't do it because I can't understand her, so I just say what I think is the right thing at the right time.
I also discovered today that it is possible to add money to other people's accounts. You just enter the wrong password, and then Melanie asks you for the phone number as well as the password. So today I was able to top up Naomi's account without having her phone.
Virgin mobile are advertising over here about their great new innovation for customer support - it's called having humans answer the phone. I think I like that idea.
On an unrelated note: The British High Commission phoned today to say that our credit card had been declined (which is odd, because it has a balance of zero at the moment), so we gave them a different card number, and they said that they're just starting to process the application. So please pray that they approve it, and soon! We both want to get back to England to see everyone again. And to Scotland to go to Andrew's wedding. And we're expecting snow here at the weekend, so it'll be nice to have British weather for the winter!
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Comment posted by M at 4:10pm on September 13th 2006
maybe Melanie is a little bit deaf,you shouldn´t be too impatient!
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Stop Press
September 6th 2006, 2:22am
Our wedding photos are now online for your viewing pleasure. Also, I've put more photos from the weekend on the photos page.
And today we sent off Naomi's visa application to the British High Commission. So get praying that we get a positive decision on that quickly, as we have a flight booked to Glasgow on the 28th of this month. (We're going to Andrew's wedding, and then driving back down to Leicester and Coventry.)
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Comment posted by Maret at 2:22am on September 6th 2006
Thanks for the wedding pictures,I was longing to see how it all went.Didn`t you all look lovely!Who was that handsome bloke with the gorgeous lady?
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Jasper At Night
September 5th 2006, 5:18pm
This past weekend, Naomi and I went camping with the in-laws. Well, I was camping with my in-laws, Naomi was camping with her parents. We drove up to Jasper on Friday, and got there just after eleven to find her parents hadn't arrived yet, so we sat around waiting, and I took some photos of the sky on very long exposures.
I was going to write about the whole weekend, but I don't have time right now, so I'll post this now and come back to it later.
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