At this point an apology is pretty useless, begging and grovelling for forgiveness probably won't work and probably half of the people who used to read this blog have given up on me. I really don't have a good excuse either, cause I have been checking my email for the last few months. It's just..........I dunno, and that right there is pretty much exactly why I haven't updated.
To start bringing everyone up to speed I'll list a few things I've been doing.
Two days after getting back from London, wait, I haven't said where I went from London or why. Ok so the whole shibang, here goes.
It was a Tuesday in London, England. I was planning to leave for Hong Kong on the way to New Zealand on Thursday. I had spent the day cruising to the travel agency and then random book stores that only had books on politics and literature with absolutely no fiction. Anyway that evening I just relaxed in the basement of the hostel watching movies with my bike locked securely right outside. I was waiting to bring it inside cause the luggage room only had enough room after the people who were touring around all day came back and took their stuff to their rooms. When I finally did go to bring it in it was gone, lock and everything. The video security camera showed some kids taking it a half hour before I went to go bring it in. There was pretty much nothing I could do so after calling the police I went to bed. I still had enough money to buy the ticket to New Zealand but not enough to get a bike at the same time which was pretty much the reason I wanted to go to a warm country like New Zealand for a few months. My arm was also still in a cast and Canada became the best looking destination so the next morning I went to the travel agent and paid an outrageous sum to fly home. Thursday morning I took the first metro train to the airport and on the way everyone was informed that any passengers flying out of Heathrow airport would not be allowed any hand luggage. Supposidly some folks were planning on blowing up ten trans-atlantic flights or something. By that time I didn't care, all I wanted was to be on a plane, going somewhere. The flight itself was kinda strange after all the crazy airport security precautions there were a few stressed out people whose only option was to watch the inflight movie, no personal devices makes it a lot quieter in a plane. I arrived in Winnipeg sometime during the late afternoon, 6 I think and decided I wanted some fresh air so I started walking to the Greyhound bus depo downtown. For those of you who know Winnipeg you know that's a long walk and I'm not the most normal person (well you should know that anyway) I made it about half-way to Polo Park. On the way I met some Americans who knew that radio announcer guy from Morden who I can't think of the name of at the moment, and two Winnipeg locals riding a mountain bike, well actually one was riding the bike and the other one was riding the poor bike rack that is definitely not meant for human transportation. I took a bus from Polo down to the depo and found out that no buses were going to Steinbach that night so I called my parents who just minutes before had heard that I might be back in Canada and after some miscommunication sat down to wait for them to pick me up.
Anyhow I hung out with Mom and Dad for two days then went to camp. I counselled some kids the first week, went home for one night at the end of the week and cut my own cast off cause the doctors were busy. The second week I was doing maintenance stuff and tested my arm in a fake (but mostly real) fist fight during pony express which is skits done for the kids with wild west themes and always involving running horses. After camp I was asked to stay for a while to help with stuff so much to the dismay of all my friends I went back to live there for a month and a half. One of the most memorable moments was Crystals' cooking which is to die for and the crazy wild animal day when I got to help catch and hold and carry and then release a rather large rather alive porcupine and then chase a really good looking and not at all bad smelling skunk followed by chasing deer in a field. I think one of these days I'll try to write something exclusively about the ranch, today is just not that day.
I left the ranch last week friday which just happened to be the 13th. That night and right up till last night I slept in my tent in my best friends Phil and Holly's back garden. They offered a room in their basement but I really wanted some fresh air and a cold weather camping experience and cheated by hanging out in the house with them and only sleeping outside. Monday I went job hunting and Tuesday I started at Keystone grain stacking bags of sunflower seeds. It's not the greatest job but for now it'll do. Tonight I went biking for like the fourth time since breaking my arm and for the first time it wasn't at all sore. Buying the bike and this fancy white foldable wonder machine has pretty much drained all my funds so for the next while I'll mostly be in Winkler living at Lou and Debbie's house saving money.
Holy was that ever an anti-climatic end to the story. I can't leave you that way.
Ummm, Ok, random grocery list from tonight
Potato Chips (Sea Salt and Pepper for on sandwiches)
Smokies (Jalepeno and Cheese)
Christmas Oranges
Wonder Bread (with 11 essential nutrients)
Cheese slices
Goodnight then
Eric
