Electric blue mascara

My friend Robin has recently lost a lot of weight and can now fit into the clothes she wore 20 years ago. So she chose a retro theme for her birthday party next weekend in Sydney. Guests are asked to wear something from their past. I’ve been checking out the local thrift shops to try to put together an outfit from the 80s. First, though I had to do some searching online to try to jog my memory as to exactly what was popular back then. Found some great websites and had fun remembering things like coloured mascara, banana hair clips, asymetrical haircuts, crimped hair, anything neon, polo shirts with the collar turned up, rubber bracelets, jelly shoes, friendship pins, fingerless gloves, and Swatch watches.

For those of you who didn’t know me 20 years ago, well, I wasn’t even close to being trendy. So anything I pick out to wear won’t really be in strict keeping with Robin’s theme of wearing something from my past. Thanks to the Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul and some cheapie shops, I have an oversized shirt with a belt to go over it, neon pink plastic earrings, and multiple rubber bracelets. I still need black leggings, but I did manage to find lipstick in that shade of pink that Bonne Belle made popular, and the real prize - electric blue mascara. Who thought they made that any more? Why do they make that any more? And for only three bucks, not bad.

And of course, I have the advantage that, if I can’t manage to get the look exactly right no one will know that my outfit wasn't the height of 80s fashion in Canada.

Cleland Wildlife Park, Adelaide

It's cold here in Adelaide, compared to Sydney. Yesterday Helen and Richard took me to the Cleland Wildlife Park and we got to walk amongst kangaroos, wallabies, emus and lots of ducks. There were other animals that you could see but not touch, like dingos and wombats (which to me look like giant hamsters). My favourite Australian animal, the echidnas were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they were hiding in the long grass or hollow logs, laughing at us as we searched fruitlessly.

We came across a group of emus. One female was being harrassed by the others - she had three chicks and two eggs. One of the chicks looked like it had just been hatched as the shell from the egg was still on the ground. The other two looked much older. One of the adult emus picked up the new hatchling and tossed it on the grass. So Helen wades in, mother-instinct aroused, and starts shooing off the adult emus and puts the little one back in the nest. The adults continued to try to get to the little one, so Helen starts whacking them on the rump to get them to move away. I took photos in case we had to explain things to the police later after the emus ganged up on Helen and tossed her on the grass.


Helen and the emus

driverless cars

In Australia they drive on the left side of the road, the opposite of what we do in Canada and the driver sits on the right hand side of the car. Naturally, everyone warns tourists to look both ways more than once to avoid getting squashed while attempting to cross the road. I've been going various places in the car with my friend Robin while in Sydney (she's driving) and I repeatedly experience moments where I'm about to shout at her that she's turning into the wrong lane (I have learned to bite my tongue as to not continually embarrass myself). But the other phenomenon occurs when I look at the other cars driving towards us. There's no one in the left hand side of the car where the driver "should" be - to my North American-trained mind, there is no one driving the car. It provides me with endless amusement to watch these driverless cars, barrelling merrily on their way down Sydney streets.


Today I'm on my way to Adelaide to visit relatives. My grandmother and her sister were born in Britain. My grandmother married my grandfather and came to Canada and then to the States. Her sister Joyce, my great-aunt, immigrated to Australia. They didn't see each other for forty-nine and a half years until Joyce and her daughter Helen came to Canada about nine years ago. I'll be staying with Helen and her husband Richard. They have two grown children Matt and Emma. Matt has a wife also named Emma. Joyce also has a son Roy who recently married. I've never been to Adelaide so I'm looking forward to it.

Victoria to Sydney

I arrived in Sydney two days ago and have spent the time recovering and only now do I have enough energy to update the blog.

In order to get to the airport in Vancouver in time to check in for my flight I had to catch the 6 a.m. bus from Victoria. As some of you know I am not a morning person so you can imagine how thrilled I was at that. The bus actually drives on to the ferry and everyone gets off and goes to the upper decks for the one and a half hour crossing. They have a couple of cafes, a buffet restaurant and even an arcade on board. Since it was 7 a.m. and kind of cold, I spent the trip inside reading a book. The ferry ride to Victoria last week was in the afternoon and the weather was great so I sat outside and watched the islands go by.

The first flight was to Singapore, via Seoul Korea - 18 hours 45 minutes! I've never flown on Singapore Airlines before and what a treat it was. Each seat, even in economy class, has its own tv screen. There's a controller attached to your arm rest that you use to select what you want it to do. In addition to music you have a choice of 80 movies, tv programs, documentaries, information on your destination, and even video games. I played Super Mario for the first time in years. And the on-demand movies meant I didn't have to watch what everyone else was and I could pause it when I wanted to have a washroom or stretch break. Singapore Airlines could definitely teach Air Canada a few things - although I guess with competition for market shares, the other airlines may be forced to make similar luxuries available. And the flight attendants gave great service - actually I felt bad for them as they were run off their feet carrying single glasses of water or tea to fulfil individual requests. We got off the plane in Seoul for an hour while they cleaned and restocked the plane - I didn't expect to have to get off, so unfortunately I had taken a sleeping pill shortly before and was rather incoherent. I do remember that there was a heritage group running an booth where travellers were invited to sit down and paint a fan in a traditional Korean pattern.

I changed planes in Singapore for the flight to Sydney - also Singapore Airline. The flight was practically empty so I had three seats to myself to lie down. Arrived in Sydney at 9:20 a.m. local time and took a train to North Sydney to where my friend Robin was picking me up. The train system in Sydney is run more like the subway in Toronto than like the GO Train. Trains come along very regularly and there are lots of stops. The routes are quite extensive.

Total travelling time = 36 hours.

easing into it

I'm in Victoria, British Columbia right now. The flight from Toronto to Vancouver was uneventful. The airlines are still serious about not bringing liquids or gels in your carry-on baggage. I thought that, perhaps, once I got cleared through security there would be the opportunity to purchase bottled water or juice to take on the plane. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of paying airport prices and I had also brought an empty water bottle, figuring I'd fill it at a water fountain before boarding - no such luck. All the little gift shops and news stands had their coolers taped shut and had signs saying that the sale of bottled liquids was prohibited. You could buy stuff at the restaurants and bars, but nothing for the plane. And you couldn't buy bottled water on the plane either. They were good about distributing drinks on the plane, so it wasn't too bad. But I admit, I did sneak some Chapstick in my pocket.

Victoria is as beautiful as ever. I've been lucky enough to have visited here a number of times. Right now, I am staying with my friend Andrea's parents. Andrea is a very good friend of mine from university and she moved to Costa Rica about 8 years ago (she's been living in Panama since July). Andrea is an absolutely amazing person. Visiting her and seeing how rewarding she and other expatriot Canadians have found living and working in another country was part of the inspiration to undertake this adventure. Andi is fluent in Spanish and has more than once started a life in a new city or country. I'm not ready yet for something quite as adventurous. For all its geographical distance from Canada, New Zealand is actually quite a lot closer to Canada than Latin America is.

And could somebody, please, cue the loon?

It was one of those quintessential Canadian end-of-summer things. Tonight is my last night at the lake so I made a point of spending some time tonight sitting down by the water. My dog on my lap, the smell of a campfire, the putt-putt of a boat trolling for pickerel. Nature was kind enough to cooperate with a decent sunset, pretty clouds, the sound of waves lapping gently against the shore, the moon rising, the whole nine yards, really. Except the loon didn't show up.