LA Airport

Well here I am in the Star Alliance Lounge in LA airport waiting in style for my flight to Seoul and onto Saigon. It has been a busy few days. Hard to think that I was in Edinburgh at the weekend visiting family. I found my 91 year old father in law healthy, entertaining family, driving his car and excited about his up and coming trip to Vietnam. What an inspiration!

It was great to meet my nephew Paul, his wife Leigh and their little busy 8 month old Zac. Then I was surprised to hear that my neice Jane is 16 weeks pregnant. So this was very exciting news on top of spending 5 days with my neice Amy and her 3 month old baby Daniel and her husband Ross in London. It is very touching to see my neices and nephew taking care of the next generation. Very life affirming.

The weather was wild in Scotland but calmed down on Sunday as I sat in a train travelling south following rainbows bright against the electic-grey clouds.

I remembered it was 30 years ago in 1978 that Clive and I decided to leave London and head to New Zealand. What a different life we might have had if we had stayed in London. I certainly did not feel any regrets about the decision that we made all those years ago.

Monday it was back to Canmore for a day - repack, clean, and even time for a yoga class. The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny. Clive and I left at 4 am, Orion bright in the southern sky, his limbs stretched out about the Three Sisters. I was reminded how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place and for the convoluted journey that brought me here.

Meanwhile I talked to Chris out in Revelstoke BC. He had just been to Kelona to pick up the wood for his hard wood floor. His long basement renovation is falling into place as they rush to finish before the snow flies and the ski season sets in. He sure has learned a lot this summer and used his seemingly unlimited determination and persistance. Everything he needed to learn he found it on the internet.

Shona is in Toronto for an Alpine Canada gala and will pick up our car that we left at the airport for her. We talked to her and was happy that her latest sponsor Panasonic had given all the team members a new camera. She will be in Canmore for a bit and then off to Finland for 5 days for a slalom race.

For anyone reading this in Calgary - the calgary launch of the story that brought me here is on Nov 21 at Pages. I am really sorry that I will miss it.

Well time to go and hit the fruit tray again before our long flight over the Pacific

over and out

Wilma

World of grand nephew Daniel

Here I am in London reveling in the joy of my neice loving her baby-boy Daniel. It has been a few days of domesticity, cooking, washing dishes, going to the clinic,shopping the nuts and bolts of babyworld. He is cooing away quite happily in his cot and I barely remember my own kids being this well behaved! It is always fun to come to a big city like London and see people go about their daily life in such an orderly manner, planes fly on time, trains run, mums walk through the streets pushing their strollers, people cheerful as they do their routine jobs. It seems far from the drama of credit crunches, newspapers and politics. This is a diverse multicultural world. \all very fascinating.

I found a yoga class in a church hall and it felt good to stretch out some of my jet lag. I had been awake what felt like most of the night! Jet Lag.

In another few days I head up to Edinburgh to see 91 year old granpa at the opposite end of the spectrum

An hour to departure time for London for 9 days then back to Canmore for the night and on to Vietnam. Whoopteedo! I am excited but then need to have a shower etc before I embark on my next adventure. The sun is glinting off the valley cloud, the three sister peak through the luminous cloud promising good things to come. Always rainbows and clearing after the storm. It rained all night although the weather forecast said No precipitation between friday evening and saturday evening.
Watch this space for further blogs on my adventures.
Wilma