Saturday, November 03, 2012

Another Homecoming

So it's my 3rd visit to Vancouver since I started travelling in 2005. Crazy to think that I've been in and out of several countries (Netherlands, Germany, Philippines, Malaysia) as many or more times than Canada in the same time frame. Sorry I haven't updated since being back but it's been busy at time and just completely uncertain the rest.
I got back in the beginning of September, with mom and Savannah arriving a few days later. Vancouver was in the middle of a very long sunny stretch which lasted another month or so and it's really hard to argue against Vancouver being one of the most beautiful cities when the sun is shining.
Within a week of returning I had to renew my driver's license or lose it completely (you can only let it expire for 3 years, and I'd been using an Australian license the last couple years). I also had to get my knee looked at as I could barely walk through the airport upon my return. In the absence of an MRI (which take a very long time to get or are expensive privately) I was diagnosed with an aggravated case of patellofemoral pain syndrome. I've been doing what I can, which is rest and physiotherapy, and while it is slowly getting better, I'm still not able to do anything strenuous with it at all, meaning I have no idea when I'll be able to get away again. It's a kind of torture to be stuck in limbo on the travel front. The main reason that Savannah and mom returned at the same time was to attend Sandra's wedding with me (and Bre and grandma). Sandra has graced this blog and been part of our adventures many times now, having made guest appearances in Hong Kong, India, Turkey, Egypt and Australia. I'd last seen her in Melbourne in May 2011 as I was leaving Australia. It was where I finally met Ernie, her fiance and now husband, though they'd been together for years.
It was a beautiful wedding and we are very happy for them. I just hope it doesn't tie them down too much so that they can't come join me again somewhere else in the world...

Best of friends.

A beautiful couple.


Mom and Savannah planned to stay only a month and it was a very busy month for us as a group with a lot to try to accomplish before they left again. One of the major jobs was to finish off and ship 2 old Suburbans to Holland. Dad has started a company in the Netherlands that will import them for resale there. It's a way for them to qualify for a temporary residency permit for the country. Last year they'd bought 2 Suburbans but hadn't sent them as they needed a little bit of work restoring them first. They were being stored in Gold Bar, Washington with friends so we made a weekend trip of it and finally got them done and sent. One of them is a true monster and I can't imagine how it can possibly be street legal in the Netherlands. It's almost bigger than the apartment there.

Fixing up the "monster".

The smaller suburban.

Finished and happy!


And of course, last but not least was the release of Savannah's book in paperback. It's an exciting time for all of us, but Savannah was kept incredibly busy meeting with friends, promoting the book and generally trying to deal with all the little things involved. We did an interview about our trip with the local newspaper as well which was fun.
I won't go into the details of the book's success other than to say that the reviews have all been very positive and if you haven't picked one up yet you are missing out. I won't be updating on the status of the book as that is Savannah's department and her website is devoted to that. It also has a lot of the photos of the first part of our trip too in case you were wondering. www.sihpromatum.com While here, mom's visa developed some problems and she wasn't able to return to the Netherlands right away so Savannah returned to Alkmaar alone. She is now promoting her book there and starting to write the next one in the series. The rest of us here in Vancouver are doing our part on this end to continue to sell the book amongst our other activities.

A book about us!

The happy author with her first printed copy.

Delivery of the first 2000 books from the printer.


Ammon

1 Comments:

At 10:01 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

WOOOT!!! WOOT!! TO OUR JOURNEY OF LIFE!!

Perfectly Random

Bree!!

 

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