Tinkerblue

See You Soon Vancouver. When It's Warmer!

It's that time again already. Time to say goodbye to my Vancouver friends and head back to work. Tomorrow (or technically later today) I fly to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Then on Sunday, I'll sign on Carnival Freedom.

I have had a great month in Vancouver.  The highlights in no particular order:

• Spending time with Erin, Paul, Mackenzie and Ailis. Trying shots of Baileys in toasted marshmallows.

 

• A month with Michelle and Jamie. Wine. A new pair of mitts knitted for me by Michelle. Wine. French onion soup. Meat pies. Ribs with limed asparagus and roasted yams. Toobs even got to meet some family. Nights curled up in front of the fire with Bella purring on my lap.

 

• Mockingjay Part 1 at the VIP cinema with Erin. Deep fried pickles.
• Staying with Andrea, Sean, Noah and Logan. Cupcakes. Shopping at the outlets. Dinner at Olive Garden.
• Coffee and cake with Andrea C and meeting Oliver for the first time. He's such a cutie. I didn't want to give him back.
• Watching a Canucks game at my old local with Loraine and Trevor. I even won two prizes!

 

• Gluwein at the Christmas Market with Judith
• Dinner and cocktails and wine with Marla, Shannon, Max and Michelle. Thanks Jamie for driving us.
• 4 days at Disneyland with Tate.  

 

• Dinner with Joanna and Merdeka and lunch with Joanna. So happy to hear everyone is healthy. Missed seeing Kim.
• Working in the Kaethe Wohlfahrt store at the Vancouver Christmas Market again.  Some familiar faces - Steve from Minnesota and Tricia from Vancouver.

 

• Lunch and a pint of Blitzen with Goose at Steamworks
• Macaroni and cheese made by Michelle's mum, Susan
• Mac and Cheese made by Andrea O. Are you sensing a theme?

I'm sure there's more.  But at 2am that's all I can think of.  I'm sad that I didn't get to meet up with Susan or Kyla or even get to talk to Carlea and Andreas or Steph and Scott or Jacqui and Sean. I wasn't able to get to Kelowna to see Heather, Yves and Isabelle or to the Sunshine Coast to see kayaking friends, or to Whistler etc.  A month seems like a long time, but then it just flies by and it's time to leave again.

 

 

 

 

Aquarium of the Pacific - Long Beach, CA

Woohoo it's always fun to spend a day with friends. Morag lives in London (UK) and no she did not come all this way just to spend the day with me!  She was visiting another friend in San Diego for two weeks, and was able to come up to Long Beach on the same day we were in port. 

 

 

The Aquarium of the Pacific is not far from where the ship docks and I've been past it many times on the bus.  Morag and I both love being tourists so it was an easy decision as to how to spend our day. The Aquarium is not overly big, but there was more than enough to keep a busy for a few hours. We didn't even see all the exhibits.

 

 

We paid a little extra to do a behind the scenes tour which lasted an hour or so and was well worth it.  It was Sunday of the Memorial Day long weekend, so the Aquarium was crowded.  The behind the scenes tour got us away from that hoard for a little bit.

 

 

This is a piece of artwork that hangs above the entrance to the museum.  It's created from junk that ends up in the ocean. As a piece of artwork it's really cool, but it sucks that all that crap is just floating out there. 

 

 

During the tour we got to go above the tropical reef.  It's the largest exhibit in the Aquarium.   One of the first animals we saw was the turtle.  Usually he's sleeping on the bottom of the reef, but today hwe was looking right at us.  Can you believe he's actually a confiscated animal? Someone tried to smuggle him in from Central America somewhere, and customs caught the smuggler.  So now he lives at the Aquarium.  (The turtle, not the smuggler).

 

 

 

The tank below houses fish that are in quarantine.  Once they have been declared fit and healthy they will be added to the exhibits.

 

 

Watching the fish from above the tropical reef.  There are two divers in the reef giving a demonstration, it was odd to watch from above the reef rather than from the otherside of the plexiglass.

 

 

 

While we were above the reef we fed the fish some seaweed.  They were almost jumping out of the water to get the food, and they were fighting for it.  

 

 

 

During the tour we had to disinfect our shoes before going in and out of all the tank rooms.  My shoes were quite wet but very clean by the end.  Remember Jacques the shrimp from Finding Nemo? He's a cleaner shrimp.  We got to put our hand in a tank with a cleaner shrimp and have him clean our hand.  My hand was either very clean or he was very full.

 

 

We also chatted to two of the divers who had just come out of one of the tanks. The divers at the Aquarium are all volunteers, have over 50 hours of diving and are all rescue dive trained.  As a bonus one of them was really cute - nice eye candy for the day.

 

 

There was a lot more to the tour...we saw shark eggs incubating, baby sea horses that are smaller than the nail on my little finger, gold fish and guppies being raised as food for the bigger animals, sea monkeys (remember those kits from the 80's and 90's), food being prepared for the otters and sharks and coral that had been confiscated by customs from stupid people at the border.

 

 

After the tour we wandered through the aquarium for a bit long.  Some of my favourite things to see were the sea dragons. Not to be confused with sea horses, sea dragons are found in the southern waters off the coast of Australia, especially around Tasmania.  I'm pretty sure I've never seen a sea dragon of the coast of Tassie, only ever in aquariums in North America, but then I've never snorkelled or scuba dived at home. Sea dragons are considered an endangered species. 

 

 

I love the jelly fish.  At least when they are in a tank with a thick plexiglass wall between them and me.  I could sit and watch them for ages.

 

 

But I could spend even longer watching the sea otters. How adorable is this little guy sitting in the sun?

 

 

And the penguins?  When can I have a pet sea otter and a penguin?  The fairy penguins at Philip Island are cuter, but these guys are still very handsome.  Although that one at the front left could do with a bath.

 

 

After the Aquarium, Morag and I had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, grabbed an icecream and walked back to the ship along the foreshore.  I've always caught the bus from the dock to downtown Long Beach, but the seawall walk to the Aquarium area only took about 20 minutes and it was picturesque.  I might have to walk it again, or even go for a run.  Beats running round in circles on deck 12.

 

 

Thanks Morag for coming to visit for the day, and for the donuts they were very much appreciated by the shoppies.  Who is going to come and visit me next?

10 Random Things That Make Me Smile

I just finished a week of port manning.  I've said it many times before, I dislike port manning. I do not like having to stay on the ship all day every day for a week.  I get cabin fever.  But here are some of things that made me smile this last week...

One:

A new perfume. For years I've worn Daisy by Marc Jacobs or Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana or Acqua Di Gio by Armani.  Siele, the beauty specialist onboard, has been trying to help me find a new fragrance. Apparently my skin does not like fragrances.  It's not like I break out in a rash or anything but pefectly nice smelling perfumes smell like cow piss when sprayed on my skin.  Seriously.  Awful.  We finally found one. Dolce by Dolce & Gabbana.  The pretty bottle is a bonus. 

 

Two:

The purple ballerina that Jo gave me while I was in Hobart on vacation.  Jo, Claire, Cristy and Jo all have one too.  She hangs from my cabin ceiling and dances when the ship moves.  I think she needs a name. Any suggestions?

 

Three:

A small lamp that I bought in Mexico.  I have one a LED tea light in it. It makes pretty patterns on my cabin wall. One day when I have a home of my own again I'd like to have it made into a proper light fixture.  But for now this will do.

 

Four:

The ring my Nanna (my grandmother) gave me for by birthday. It was custom made by a Tasmanian artist Lynda Salmon and we picked it up the night before I flew back to Canada.  I wear it all the time and it reminds be of my Nan.  But also of the day I spent at Salamanca with Narelle and a day in Richmond with Narelle, Jo and my Mum.  Lots of good memories attached to one piece of jewellery.  

 

Five:

Tasmanian Devil socks.  No further explanation needed.

 

Six:

Mail from friends.  I was so excited to pick up three packages from the staff office.  Yeah for my wonder friends.

 

There were birthday cards from Barb and Stew, Kath and Garin and Hayley, Sharyn and Tony and Meg and Hannah and Josie, and from Michelle and Justin.  Thank you!!!

 

Seven:

Chocolates (and BBQ shapes) from the Lawrence/Hutchins/Dadson/Cook gang.  I even shared the TimTams.  But not the Black Forest, I am not sharing that with anyone.  

 

Eight:

A sock monster from Michelle.  He makes me laugh.  This is how the cabin steward left him on my bed. I think sock monster will be my new flat Stanley. He'll have to come along on my adventures and have lots of photos taken.  What do you think?  I do think he needs a name.  Sock?  Theodore? 

 

Nine:

Frozen, Arrow and Game of Thrones.  Frozen I first watched with Andrea the night before I came to Imagination.  I know it's a kids movie but it makes me laugh.  I love Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer.  I've watched it each time I've port manned.

Arrow is a TV series filmed in Vancouver.  My friend Kim is the Director of Photography on it.  Erin convinced me I'd like it and she gave me season 1 and 1/2 of season 2.  I had a few sleepless nights as I marathon watched a bunch of episodes.  Now I have to wait for the rest of season 2.  Argh.  I want to watch it NOW. That means I liked it.  

Game of Thrones everyone knows. I'm the last person in the world to watch it. Not sure why I waited so long. It's awesome.  I'm all caught up on Season 1 and 2.   I need Season 3 and 4. I think my favourite character is Tyrion Lannister played by Peter Dinklage and I am so not fond of the idiot King Joffrey. I want to read the books now as well - Erin had offered to lend them to me when I get home. I'm looking forward to reading them.

 

 

Ten:

Going for a run.  When I'm port manning and can't get off the ship I go for a run up on deck 12 in the City Sports Park. I'm not really all that keen on running round and round in circles.  The track isn't very long.  It takes 9 laps to run a kilometre and I keep losing track of how many laps I have run. And I have to dodge wayward golf balls from the mini golf, but at least it gets me outside.  

 

Home, Here, There, Everywhere

A friend recently asked me..."Where is home now?"

That is the question of the moment.

Right this very minute home is a tiny cabin on deck 1 of a big cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean. It's home for exactly one more week.

Then what? I will go home, yes home to Vancouver. I have called Vancouver (or various suburbs of it) home for the last 17 years. But after 2-3 weeks in Vancouver I will then fly home to Australia. I am Australian and Australia will always be my home. Try and tell me any different.

I am Australian but I haven't really lived in Australia as an adult. I left when I was 20. I'm now 43, I'll be 44 in 3 months. I've almost lived longer outside of Australia than in it.

Right now I don't have a house anywhere. I have a PO Box and a storage locker in Vancouver. In Australia I have mum and dads house - the house where I grew up. It's a bit odd to know that next week I finish my contract on the ship and I don't have a home to go to. I have friends who have offered me places to stay. Thank you Michelle, Erin, Andrea, Shannon and Loraine. But I don't have anywhere that I can call my own. And wherever I stay I'll be living out of a suitcase. It's all a bit surreal.

Part of why I decided to work on a cruise ship was because I couldn't and still can't answer the whole Australia vs Canada question.

When Dave first left, I (and just about everyone else around me) thought I would pack up and move back to Australia. After all for years I said the only thing keeping me in Canada was Dave.

But once I was on my own, I stayed. I started a new job, moved to the Sunshine Coast and made new friends. Then I packed all that up, moved to a cruise ship and made more new friends.

Now I'm even further from answering where is home now. I don't know. A big part of me wants to move back to Australia. My mum and dad are still there, my grandmother is there and my brother Shaun and his girlfriend Kelly are there.

Not to mention friends. Friends who I've known since I was 4! Friends who I think of daily, friends who I miss dearly, friends who I don't see for two years at a time yet our conversation picks up without a break.

But I have friends in Canada too. Friendships that have grown over the last 17 years. Friends who were there for me when I needed them, friends who stepped up big time when I couldn't look after myself, friends who held me while I cried at all hours of the night, friends who took me in at Christmas, friends who gave me places to stay, friends who encouraged me to go work on a ship.

Family versus friends? No one wins that battle. So instead I choose the easy way out. The stick my head in the sand option. I choose to live on a cruise ship far from both my family and friends in either country.

Here I have made new friends. Making friends in a cruise ship is an interesting experience. You are together almost 24 hours a day, and you develop quick and intense friendships. Bonds that would normally take years to build, form in days. Will those friendships last? That remains to be seen. I hope so. I have made some great friends who I miss already. Friends, who again I of daily. Friends who I hope to see again whether it be in Canada, Australia, their home country, on another ship or somewhere else in the world.

So where in the world is home? In all honesty, I don't really know. For now it's in both in Canada and in Australia. I know that's not really answer but it's all I have.

Local Artists - Sa Boothroyd - Changing the Guard

This is an old and a long story....

20 years ago Jo and I lived in London.  One Christmas my parents came to visit and do the touristy thing. I had to work so they took Jo with them to watch the Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace.  It was Christmas, and it was cold. Two things Jo does not like.

Changing the Guard is an iconic London attraction. Off went the three of them to Buckingham Palace.  They arrived early to get a good viewing spot.  They had quite the wait in the cold.  Jo bores easily. By the time Changing the Guard started, Jo had had enough.   Not sure what she was expecting, but the actual ceremony did not meet expectations.  She saw it once, and does not need to see it again.  She did however keep my parents and those around them highly entertained.  I wish I had been there.

When I met them after work, my Mum and Dad could not wait to tell me Jo's running commentary throughout the ceremony.  They saw and did a bunch of stuff in the three weeks they were in London, but I think listening to Jo at Changing of Guards was the highlight of their trip! 20 years later my Mum still tells the story.

 A couple of years back I was in small local gift store in Maple Ridge - The Little Cricket Gallery. I was looking for a gift to send to, I don't actually remember who. One of the first things I saw was this piece of artwork...

 

 

It made me a laugh out loud.  I bought it one the spot without even thinking about it.  I don't remember who I was shopping for, I'm guessing whoever it was never actually received a gift, Jo got this instead.

Fast forward to the summer of 2012, I was hanging out in Gibsons for the day with Andrea and her boys, and I walked past a small gift shop that had a the same artwork as a woodblock in the window.  Turns out the window I was looking in was the artist's gallery - Sa Boothroyd.  I didn't buy it at the time.  But it kept bugging me, so I had to go back a month or two later and buy it.  I sent it home to Mum and Dad as part of their Christmas gift.

 

 

Jo thought it was hilarious. Mum thought I should have sent it to Jo instead.  Mum didn't realise I'd already sent it to Jo years ago.

 

Without realising it I had already bought a couple other pieces of Sa's work from Fresh from the Coast in Sechelt to send to other friends as gifts. A bike tea towel, a never enough shoes trivet and a cat magnet. At least I'm consistent!

 

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Local Artists - D'Arcy Margesson of WM Terracotta Pottery

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

It was a friend's birthday on Thursday.  Much earlier in the summer he had mentioned that his favourite cookie is white chocolate macadamia nut.

 

 

Creaming the butter and sugar by hand. Where is my electric mixer?

 

 

I had the brilliant idea to make some for his birthday. Yeah, great idea. Until I couldn't find any plain macadamia nuts on the Sunshine Coast. Extra Foods, London Drugs and IGA didn't carry them and Claytons was out of stock. Mark suggested buying chocolate coated ones and sucking the chocolate off. Tempting.

 

 

A friend from Vancouver volunteered to mail some over, which she did. Express mail. Woohoo.

 

 

Waiting not so patiently for eggs to reach room temperature.

 

 

I gifted 59 cookies, there were 60 but I had to test one to make sure they were giftable! I also gave him a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread and 4 cans of beer. There were 6 cans, but I drank one while baking the banana bread and one while baking the cookies. He'll never know.

 

 

I used this recipe from Cooking on the Side.  http://cookingontheside.com/white-chocolate-macadamia-cookies/

 

 

First batch was a little brown, the rest of the batches were perfect.

 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups unsifted flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (11 oz. bag) white chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups Macadamia nuts, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Cream the butter and sugars until fluffy. 
3. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, and beat well. 
4. Blend in the flour, baking soda and salt. 
5. Stir in the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
6. Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets (or lined with parchment). 
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

 

 

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Homemade Baklava

Skookumchuk Narrows

 

I've been trying to get up to Skookumchuk Narrows all summer. Michelle and I planned to go in May, but run out of daylight.  I was going to go with Andrea C and Sean, but had guests in house.

 

 

Finally Michelle and I made it up there on the September long weekend.  We checked the tide charts, and although we would have liked to have seen the flood tide (waves), it was at the crack of dawn. With a 45 minute drive from here to there, and a hike in from the parking lot, the crack of dawn was not happening. So we went in time for a large ebb tide. 

 

 

 

Skookumchuck is a Chinook word that basically means strong water. Strong water it is.  Skookumchuk Narrows is a narrow opening between Georgia Strait and Sechelt Inlet. The difference in water levels between the two sides can be over 2 metres in height. The speed of the rapids can exceed 30 km/hour.

 

 

 

On a flood tide it's a playground for whitewater kayakers. Not for me. I ain't paddling in there.

 

 

 

From the parking lot there is a 4km hiking trail into the Narrows. There are two viewing points.  North Point for the ebb tides (whirlpools) and Roland Point for the flood tides (waves). You don't have to be there right at the exact best viewing time, there is a 30 minute window on either side. The best viewing times are here.

 

 

It was well worth the walk.  I'd like to go back and see a large or XL flood tide.

Hanging Out in Halfmoon Bay

A couple of week ago Andrea C and Sean came to visit for the weekend. Well they were camping in Porpoise Bay, but that's close enough I managed to see them a few times.  Saturday morning they hiked to Skookumchuk Narrows and I met them afterwards in Halfmoon Bay.

 

Halfmoon Bay, like it's name suggests is a curving coastline between Sechelt and Pender Harbour. I met Andrea and Sean at Upper Crust, where we treated ourselves to icecream. I ordered one scoop of raspberry cheesecake icecream, and ended up with 3 huge scoops. It was melting quicker than I could eat it. But it was so good.

 

 

We ate our icecreams while sitting on the beach. It got pretty hot pretty quick, so Andrea and I ended up wading into the water to cool off. If I'd had my swimsuit I'd have gone for a swim.

 

 

From the bay we could see out to Anchor Rock and Whale Island and along to Coopers Green. I'd like to kayak out to Anchor Rock - it has a bloody big anchor on it.

 

After we finished our icecreams we wandered back up to the Heritage General Store to buy some local (Powell River) beer to drink on the deck at home. 

 

Banana Boats

 

 

Remember those? I haven't had a banana boat since I was in Guides some 30+ years ago. Maybe as a Ranger, but I think it was way back in Guides.

 

Andrea and Sean are in Sechelt this weekend, camping on the inlet. Yesterday we were talking about smores, hot dogs, marshmallows, all that fun stuff you eat when you're camping and banana boats came up. Sean had never had one. So tonight I met them at their campsite and we had banana boats. Gourment banana boats.

 

Ingredients:

• Bananas (1 per person)
• Chocolate squares - Andrea had fancy Taj Masala chocolate from Mink, hence the gourmet
• Mini marshmallows (we only had regular size ones, but mini work better

 

 

Method:

• Slit banana (with peel still on) lengthwise
• Stuff chocolate squares and mini marshmallows between banana and banana peel and down the middle of the banana
• Close peel up and wrap in tinfoil
• Place in coals of campfire and cook until chocolate and marshmallows are all melted and gooey
• Eat with a spoon

 

Chirp, Chirp, My New Pet Birds

Recently I received a parcel. From Jo. It's my birthday present. My belated birthday present. I love when my May birthday carries into July.

Jo always sends great gifts. So what did she send? Series 1 of Phryne Fisher on DVD, I've read the books and am looking forward to the TV series. Coconut ice and rocky road treats both of which are long gone.

And? And two pet birds. Not real ones. That would be too much work.

Pets - need watering
Garden - needs weeding
Guests - need feeding

My new pet birds? Need none of the above. Also, they don't argue with you.

They sit in their little myrtle tree on my bedside table and make me smile. I think they need names.

They are designed and made in Tasmania by Otekah. www.otekah.com.au