(Pictures to follow)
So, planting was done
for another year and we all road-tripped back down to Vancouver in
the trucks, stopping at Williams Lake along the way.
What next? Well,
everyone was hanging around Vancouver for a bit, and dinner was on
Apex that night, so me and Neil decided that we were going to treat
ourselves to a weekend of eating and being tourists in Vancouver. As a hungry tree planter it is no wonder that you spend half your time out in the bush fantasizing about all the food that you're gonna eat when you get back to the city, so we decided to act on this before we lost our appetites...
In amongst lots of
sleeping and chilling with friends, we fitted in sushi, and cheese
cake, and Italian, as well as two meals at a fantastic veggie
restaurant that I'd never got around to last time, and a trip to
science world to be geeky... And then felt kind of fat, but
satisfied.
After a couple of days
pigging out, we grabbed our stuff and got on the greyhound to
Penticton, where we already had jobs for the month at The Bike Barn.
True to the
'working-holiday' description of my visa, while we worked a full time
rota, this was more of a holiday than anything. Neil's family were
wonderfully kind to me yet again. We ate fantastic meals and drank
nice local wine, and finished a day of work with a mountain bike ride
down (well, up first... justify all that nice food later!) the
trails into the back yard. A couple of weeks in we also began an
even more exciting trend of starting the day by learning to water
ski! Which is mostly not as terrifying as it looks once you've got
the idea, and positively joyful once you've got up. Lisa (Neil's step
mum) has been doing it all her life and regularly starts the day with
either a ski or a bike ride of some sort, so she asked if we might
like to try; it's just fabulously convenient that she has a friend
with a boat to borrow... !!! (pictures to follow!)
So after a ski, a
working day with nice people in a great shop, a mountain bike ride
and some nice food or wine, you can't help but think, “well, isn't
this the life :D”. It sounds a bit like i'm making it up, but
Penticton seems to have this effect on people's lives – it's just
one of those special spots with lots of nice people in it and
fabulous opportunities to do stuff out doors. I'm hoping that
sometime this winter – either at Christmas (work permitting) or in
the new year, that I'll get a chance to go back out there, not in the
least because Neil really wants to take me skiing on Apex – their
local ski hill, generally recognised as a hidden gem (a gem that his
family happen to have a condo on... and a ski shop, for that matter,
which has it's uses... ). So we'll see.
Oh, and I forgot to
say, but I learned to golf as well :D I figure this is an important
life skill if I ever go anywhere in life – all important decisions
are made over a game of golf, so i'm told. I actually quite enjoyed it too... I
literally bounded across the course the first time I went (I think I
was being rather overly exuberant for a sombre game, but I had fun).
It turns out i'm not too bad at it either. Having had some practice
at a driving range before, we headed out to a mini 3 par golf course
round the corner, one weekend. The first time I par-ed a hole and was
pretty close with my other holes, and the second time we went I
birdied a hole. :D I was rather pleased with myself.(I only lost 1 or 2 balls over the month...)
Anyways, I guess the
month drew on in much the same way it started. The shop started
getting really busy for the Ironman Canada triathlon (same that I
helped with last year). At the end of the week, after making a meal
for all the people who'd been out doing tech support for the cycling,
I headed into town to chill out at the finish and watch people
complete their marathon, which was really good fun. It's such a nice
supportive atmosphere at the end. I really shouldn't hang around
their too long though, cos it starts to look like a good idea...
which, rationally thinking, it's not, really... but still, maybe one
day I'll take part in Ironman UK or something (although the swim for
that is not in a warm desert lake, but in the Atlantic off the hilly
coast of Wales, so, um... maybe I'll find somewhere warmer instead.
On my last full day in
Penticton, I tried one more new thing (– can never try too many new
things!),; while Neil was out golfing with his brother and
grandfather, Chris (his Dad) and Lisa lent me a very very shiny
brand new and exciting road bike to try (something like this http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/race_performance/madone_5_series/madone_5_2_wsd_h2_compact/# It was definitely the wsd Madone, but i don't remember which series - 5, 6 or 7 anyways). I realise that for all the
years I've cycled, i've never actually been on a proper road bike.
And actually, I really quite liked it! I think the bigger wheels and
different gearing make a huuuuge difference for cycling on the road,
and make it altogether more enjoyable (although, perhaps any bike worth thousands of dollars would have much the same effect!). Still not gone on the saddle
though! Anyways, we went up green mountain road, which you could
google if you're curious. Dad, you'd reeally like the riding around
Penticton – it has interesting hills that are almost mountains,
lakes and pretty trees and wildlife. You should check it out one day.
And with that, my time
in Penticton drew to a close, and the real world was looming. But not
before I'd got the train across Canada on a final adventure for this
summer. Sooo, I grabbed a lift back to Vancouver so that I could get
the train straight out of there the next day for a 4 day trip across
the wilderness :)
