A Day In The Life... wild fridays

This update contains:
Jordan's possibly going to Japan and the Pacific for almost 2 months in the New Year,
Application form adventures,
The Delivery Quest.
+ a sweet PS da resistance!

So my possibly going to Japan and more? Well when I was in Egmont last weekend my friend Mr.T sent me information on an interesting program. It's called Ship For World Youth and it's aims/objectives are

· To foster the spirit and practice of international cooperation
· To promote friendship and mutual understanding between the youth of Japan and the youth of other parts of the world
· To broaden the international awareness of participants
· To develop youth capable of playing leading roles in various sectors of their societies and in turn contribute to the sound development of youth in their respective countries

It's funded by the Japanese Gov't. It's for people aged 18-30. Canada gets to send 10 delegates. And the application was due today by 4:30pm in Vancouver. But lets not get ahead of ourselves yet....

Application form adventures
So you have to send in a filled out application. But you can only fill the application out on the computer. And you can't save it. And we don't have a printer here. So... I typed up my answers to the questions the other night and attempted to find access to a computer with a printer. First I went to my step sister's house. Cause they have those things. But not only does the computer have a printer and internet connection. It also has loads of malware causing it to frequently freeze up and run incredibly slowly! So after attempting twice last night to get it done there, I sorrowfully said sayonara. I then called up my old friends the de Jongs and used their computer. Success! Printed out well and part 1 was done.

Now at this junction some of you may be wondering.. Jordan Jordan why wait until the day before to do this crucial step? Well.. I still needed a reference. Shortly after receiving the first email from Mr.T, I responded with a request for him to fill out the reference form for me. Which he did very promptly, after his return from vacation. ;) So that was sent to my gmailbox this morning by 7:30am when I checked. Of course now I needed to find a printer again. My mother, who is so knowledgable, told me to go to the Sechelt Library cause you can print stuff there cheap. So I went there. They opened at 10am. I was in and out. 4 minutes and 20 cents and it was done. Lick envelope and send it off to Vancouver. Except how? Well I'd thought a courier would work. So I went to where the courier used to be. Where the internet said one would be. It was no longer there. Hmmmm. So I went to my step-sister's in-law's buisness (cause we're like family right?) and enquired upon couriers. They told me there was one (Purolator) across the street and one (DHL) up across from Big Mac's. So I crossed the street. My enquiry upon possible courieage was going well when he said "it'll be there by monday". Not good. Was there anyway it could get sent there for today by 4:30 pm? "Nope" Ok. So I was driving home when I thought.. I'm not going to give up yet. I should go check the other place. The one across from Big Mac's. DHL. I asked there. They laughed. Not a chance. Unless you want to take it there yourself. Hmmm. His tone seemed to say "you silly man-child with poor planning skills, you are So Outta Luck" (also known as S.O.L.). Hey my planning skills are good. The circumstances left me in this situation. So I went to my even better skills. Adaptability. And flying by the seat of my worn our North Face shorts which are starting to come apart in the crotch.. and the seat.. and there's already a hole in one pocket.... anyhoo... back to the narrative already in progress.


The Delivery Quest


Homeward I came. Mind spinning with the challenge that lay before me. I came home and informed my mom of the good and bad news. Good news. Free 1/2hr of internet usage at the library and only 20cents a page for printing. Bad news. Can't courier it into town for today. So I looked around and used what was on hand. My mom's friend Jimmy. $10 later and I was on my way towards Langdale and the 12:20pm ferry (ok it's a pic from the spring). My Mom's lovely mexican carrying cotton bag across my shoulded jammed full with books, thermos of hot water, guampa, bombillia, mate, and hoody (in case of inclement weather). And the envelope. I caught that ferry and rode it to Horseshoe bay. I caught that bus (Horseshoe Bay Express) and rode it downtown. I walked 3 blocks (or 4) and waited 1/2 an hour (there was a line up and I didn't mind waiting). I handed in my completed application at 2:30ish. I still had 18 minutes on my transfer. So I walked another 3 blocks and hopped on the Sea Bus to the Londsdale Quay (pronouced Key for those that don't know). I sat out in the sun on the wooden decking perched over top the surging seas alongside the numerous tug boats and their bawdy operators (whom looked to be having quite the fun). I filled up my guampa, and I drank deeply of the yerba. I read. I watched the people scurry about. I watched the 2 cute germans who decided to sun tan 7 feet from me on the deck. And it was good. Job done and chillaxing in North Van. Then my friend Jen showed up (whom I'd contacted earlier... clever eh?) and we hung out for a couple hours before she gave me a rapid ride to the 5:40ish boat. Caught ferry. Caught bus on other side. Got dropped off at top of road. Darkened the doorway at 7:40ish to an awaiting bowl of my mom's fabulous clam chowder and home made biscuits.


Then I typed this up.

So that was this days adventure. So maybe I'll make it to round 2. The Phone Interviews... Finalists will be emailed Sept 12th to confirm for phone interview on Sept 16 or 17th. So I should find out about this by the 12th. So that would be.. Tuesday!


Finis.

PS Oh and a tribute picture to Mr.T who sent me the info in the first place.... cause I gots skills. I call it Ronny T. And he's INVINCIBLE. I pity the foo who tries to get 'tween this sucka and the net! (All I have on this comp is paint)

(And may I draw your attention to the new link on the right that goes to my new blog site.. basically just a place to put my doctored photos)

Lots of kms, prawns, and ocean

In this installment of CTFD (Coastal Temperate Forest Dweller) I invite you to learn of my past looong weekend. This edition contains....

Going to the old family stomping grounds (Egmont)
Meeting new old family members and associates
Unintended Pub Performance
Mom (of FishingForCod) Likes Her Fishing...


So.. on with the show

Going to the old family stomping grounds (Egmont)

Thursday morning I drove my brother to the Langdale ferry and stopped in to say hi to my grampa. I was going to pop in for a brief visit however I ended up staying until almost 5pm (I dropped my brother off for the 12pm) and instead of returning to pick him up the next morning or having him drive up to Sechelt we just left together that night. The next day we drove up to Egmont and met up at the old house with my mom and Tom who'd brought the boat up from Sechelt. It's been many years since I was last at the old Egmont house. It's owned by my mom's cousins cause it's their old house. The house my mom grew up in is next door. Other people live there now. In fact, as we were returning along the coast from one of our fishing trips my mom started naming off all of the relatives who used to live in which house. It was pretty cool.


Meeting new old family members and associates

So my mom, Tom, and grandpa went to visit a guy down the beach and I was left to watch the dog. I sat down and cracked open my book to read but Kato (the coolest dog) wanted to go for a walk. I resisted the beast for a few minutes.. but then I took him for a walk. We went for almost an hour and a half. I don't think Kato is used to walking that far.. the tongue was hanging out. He was no longer trying to drag me up the hills. It was a great walk and I was expecting to return to my mom and Tom waiting for us. Instead I returned to see some people I didn't know unloading stuff. But they'd moved on into one of the buildings there so I went back down to the dock to unclip Kato, let him drink some water, and read. Well these guys turned out to be my mother's cousin's husband's brother's sons. I think that's right. So hey we're related and I hopped into their boat to go drop some prawn traps and drink some beers. We then went into Egmont proper to hang out with some other guys from around there. They had this "Salmon Ginger" stuff. After investigative tasting some doubt had been cast upon the contention that the canning contained any salmon. No doubt that it had ginger! It was quite lovely, excellent, ginger tasting, but the salmon? No clue. I don't even think there was really salmon, and if there was? They've committed one of the greatest offences in my books. Mistreating eating salmon. Salmon tastes so good as salmon. Don't be too aggresive with the flavouring! Hello! Feel free to accentuate if you must. A little lemon on it on the BBQ? Beauty! A little pepper? No problem. Totally dominate the taste with some cream spread? Some ginger concoction? Blasphemy. I'm not a violent man. But dominating the salmon gets me right riled. So be forewarned. Treat the fish right.

Anyhoo.. so I met the brothers, and other family. One bro (we'll call him D) went down early with the excuse of "Jet Lag" as he'd recently returned from a trip to Turkey. That was ok. But the rest of us hung out with a little fire on the patio, some fresh cod (lemon, a little dusting of bread, corn meal, and whatever else my mom uses to accentuate the experience) some red wine, white wine, beer, some of us did these wonderful shooters with Sambuca, Tequila, and Irish Cream. So good. (please remember to drink responsibily) and it was a good evening of chillaxation.

Saturday was much like Friday. We did some yardwork, kicked around the hacky sack (ok I did... as the youngest present it was important that I did some zany things) and I was going to drive Gramps home and stay in Sechelt. Till Uncle Bob (Wilson) not Uncle Bob (Gill) told me I had to be back for dinner. So I drove Gramps back to Gibsons (he of course had to go plunk around the garden and return with several cucumbers to take back up ;) ) then cruised back to Egmont. Saturday night after we ate dinner we watched some of my Africa experience DVD. And then tried to wake up "jet lag" brother. He'd been up that day earlier and had decided to lay down after dinner (8:30-9pm?). Of course his brother and I were going to head over to the Backeddy Pub to check out the live music and see what was happening. We tried to wake him up but he said he'd stay at home. Of course this sleepyness had alot more to do with the tequila they'd been drinking earlier that day up the inlet at a guys place they knew up there. And apparently there was a rather fetching french-canadian girl up there too. But I didn't inquire too heavily and we left D on the couch and headed for the Backeddy

Unintended Pub Performance

So we arrived around 10:40 to find out that Niel MacKenzie, who was that evening's performer, had already packed up as it was fairly dead. Basically there was my ?cousin?, the chef, his fiance, Niel, Iris (the waitress), and myself. So we were having some more soda pops and Niel decided to take out his guitar and give us a little performance. We were talking around the table and figuring out who was who when the ?cousin? mentioned that my grandfather was Ben Vaughan. Well it turns out that when Colleen (chef's fiance) was a little girl they got their kitten from my grandpa and named it Ben Vaughan. Small world when in idle conversation you discover that this person you've never met had a cat named after your grandfather... ;) So then the chef, Kelly, made some comment and Niel offered the guitar but Kelly turned it down. So I figured "what the hell" and asked if I could have a go. Well I did and even though I didn't have my song book or really remember a whole lot they were all pretty impressed (to my suprise). It was quite the rocking fun though. And Kelly asked me if I'd be interested in playing at their wedding. Well I don't know about that, but it was a nice offer. Well at 1pm we shut it down and were gonna head back when a fellow who'd turned up near the end by the name of Mushroom Mark invited us to his place for a couple more beers. So we walked to his sweet set up. He's a waiter up at the fancyish wilderness resort there in town and they let him set up his little casa down by the water. It was mostly just framed up with scrap wood and some lower sheets of wood for the bottom half of the wall and then surrounded with mosquito netting and stuff like that. It was very cool, very neat. It almost had an arabic tent feel to it. Very roomy and with a hammock to sit on and some stools. I think Mushroom Mark would get along with my friend Troy pretty well. They're both pretty ingenius when it comes to accomodations. Then in conversation with Mark I discovered that he knew another friend of mine who lived a bunch of years in Whistler (Pemberton). So we got back to the house around 2:30. It was a good day and I hit the pillow thankful for a good nights sleep. Until....

Mom (of FishingForCod) Likes Her Fishing...

On account of Tom's starting work early in the morning him and my mom are both rather earlyish risers. So they got up Sunday morning and went out fishing. And she'll probably write about it on her blog, but the short of it is that she caught a decently huge cod (18lbs) and was so excited that she of course had to come and wake me up and drag me down to the float to see it before Tom cleaned it. It was a pretty sweet fish. And I was awake.


So yah.. all in all it was a great weekend. Lots of family, cod, prawns, beer, wine, laughs, and great weather.

Funny Quote comes from the older of the brothers after we got back from the first pub night "I totally misjudged you, I thought you were like a boyscout leader, but you can really hold your liquor !" I'm not too sure what that all is sposed to mean but I found it amusing and complimentary I suppose. Be carefuly with judgements.. they can bite you in the arse. ;)

Gotta jet,
Ciao for now,
Jordan