Quiet Weekend

Lori was in town this weekend for a short visit, but it was a great weekend. We went for a long walk on Saturday morning and we stumbled onto a strange but cool little grocery store. It's a South African grocer that specializes in Nuts and Beef Jerky and it also has a huge collection of hot sauces. In my younger days I used to be adventurous when it came to spicy food, but now that I'm pushing 50, I stay away from anything that has the word "Ass" in the name, as in Ass-Kicking or Ass-Blasting. I went with an old favourite from back home.

They sell Clamato Juice as well. Of course it's ungodly expensive, because it has to imported, but it was nice to have a Caesar while sitting on the balcony.

We just recently booked our next trip back to Canada and it's going to be a much nicer experience than our last flight. Air Canada has just started direct service between Brisbane and Vancouver. Before, we had to go through either Sydney or Singapore or Hong Kong to get to Vancouver and no matter which route we took, we couldn't get to those destinations early enough in the day to avoid a layover. With a 3 hour direct flight between Brisbane and Port Moresby however, our travel time will be greatly reduced. Don't get me wrong, it is still a really long time to sit on a plane, just less time in airports and hotels.

I will arrive in Toronto on July 26 and I'll be in Southern Ontario for 2 weeks. For most of the time, I'll be at my brothers place in Cambridge until August 10 when I fly to St. John's. In late August I'm planning a road trip across Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and I hope to be in Halifax on Labour Day weekend. If anyone is going be in those areas of the country at those times and you want to grab a beer, send me a message. Lori arrives in St. John's on September 22 and we both fly back to Port Moresby on October 13.

Speaking of Canada, we have been following the wildfires in Northern Alberta. Lori hadn't seen any of the footage because of the limited internet access in PNG, so I showed her the unbelievable videos of the evacuation and the burned out neighbourhoods this weekend. I've never seen anything like it and to think it's happening in May when people are usually worried about flooding is unreal to me. Between finding some treats from back home, booking our travel and watching the coverage of the fires, I was feeling a little homesick this weekend. Well, maybe not homesick, but home just feels very far away. We've been gone for almost 3 1/2 years now. Hard to believe this all started in the fall of 2012 when Lori asked me if I wanted to go to Paris for 6 months.

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