Forgive me family and friends, for it has been 8 months since my last blog entry.

Firstly, for those of you who have been checking our blog for updates, I'm sorry it has taken us so long. We truly have been busy and frankly quite lazy when it comes to "using our words" but as usual our pictures were up on flickr promptly ;)

In a nutshell

Jarek's parents visited us in April and we took the Rocky Mountaineer to explore the Canadian Rockies for a week which was awesome. We got to celebrate our last "Celebration of Lights" with our dear friends and Jarek got terribly sun burnt at the Gay Pride Parade (he told me to add it was just the arms and face thank-you!!). Jarek had an amazing time climbing Mt. Alpha with his buddies Ed & Mike and we finally got to visit San Francisco.
After our great adventure there we set off to Nova Scotia to attend the wedding of our good mates Tom & Bronwen. The wedding took place in Bronwens home town by the sea, Margretsville where we finally got to sleep in our new tent. During the 10 days on the east coast we clocked 3,800km exploring beautiful Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec City and finally Montreal. One of the many highlights being The Cabot Trail, Canada's own Great Ocean Road complete with the odd Moose on the side of the road.
Upon our return, Jarek and I thought we hadn't seen enough of BC and took a lovely day hike at Joffre lakes north of Whistler. Just stunning!!!!

But before I go on...I have to add Jarek's little entry about the Mt Alpha hike which he enjoyed so much and I'm grateful he came back from alive....

Jareks 2 cents..

Firstly we have been keeping our flickr site largely up to date, and as the saying goes a picture can speak a thousand words... and you won't have to read my rambling.

In my last blog entry I went on about how hard the Mt Baker hike was and how it was the most difficult one I ever did.... well I've out done myself! Since then (as my final BC hike) I along with Ed and Mike climbed (mountaineering style) Mt Alpha in the Tantalus Range. Not counting the 5 hour climb to the base camp at Lake Lovely Water, the Mt Alpha accent and decent took 24 hours... and my heels were thoroughly blistered. I'm quite proud of myself as I achieved many firsts on the hike; first time to wear a climbing harness, first time to rope climb !ever! (rated 5-7 with a 2 pitch accent for those interested), first time to climb in the dark... and the first time to take a shit on the top of a mountain :D

Well that was nice Jarek!....taking a shit on the top of a mountain is definitely a commendable achievement!!

So back to us getting ready to move to ye olde Scotland (at this point I'd like to add the irony of us visiting Nova Scotia which in Polish translates to 'New Scotland' before our move to Scotland itself....believe me when I say we did not click on this fact for quite a while). Anyway, after our trip from the east coast I had a couple more weeks to get rid of all our shit and prepare for our trip to Mexico and our big move to Edinburgh. As usual Jarek kept working and the big move became my full time job.

Dot!, Dottola!, Dottie!, Dottski!, Little Bitch!

It's one thing to leave a country and say good-bye to friends, but another to leave behind a pet. As grateful as I am to the lovely family that adopted our cat Dot, I miss her terribly at times.
It truly isn't until you loose a pet that you notice what an impact they have on your life.




MEXICO!!

Don't get us started on Mexico.
WE FUCKIN LOVE MEXICO!!! We took almost 2000 pics over our 2 weeks there and narrowed it down to a brief 340 ( it was hard) I won't go into any detail here as I painstakingly labelled all the pics with the necessary info. We spent 15 days traveling from Mexico City to Playa del Carmen
Our Stops; Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca, San Cristóbal, climbing Mayan temples, Palenque, Mérida, Chichén Itzá, swimming in cenotes, Playa del Carmen.
We met some awesome people, had some fab mexican food and beer, swam in some of the bluest (and warmest) water we've ever seen and learned a lot about mexican history and culture. We recommend Mexico to everyone.



HAGGIS!!!

48 hours after swimming in the Caribeann we found ourselves in Edinburgh, Scotland. We literally had only 6 hours in Vancouver when we arrived from Mexico to unpack and re-sort our worldly posessions before we headed off to our new home. It was a bit of a whirlwind experience but
it all turned out fine. We were worried we would tip the scales with our luggage but ended up just within the limit for weight and volume with British Airways. As you can see in the pics, Edinburgh is an old city. For Jarek and myself it is quite impressive to drink in a pub that is older than Australian Settlement (1788). We look forward to exploring this beautiful country (despite its grey weather) more in the new year. We have already rekindled our love for pies, something we got used to not having in Vancouver and Jarek is having a love affair with haggis (for those of you wondering...it tastes like black pudding) I don't eat it I just prepare it for him, its very high in iron.
I recently found us a place to rent in the new year so we look forward to moving into our own place in Jan but until then we leave on Sunday for a 3 week trip to the homeland.

POLAND (the Homeland)

Well, for me its been 13 years since my last visit and before then I was 3 years old when my folks immigrated to Australia so its going to be interesting to go back as an adult and see all of my extended family. Jarek was there just last year so its much fresher in his memory.
We leave on Sunday and won't be back till Jan 3rd so I will write when I get back ( I promise!!)

Until then, Jarek and I wish you all a happy and safe Christmas and New Year and as usual we'll have a wee drink ( or 2) for you all to mark the occasion!!!