Mega Post
I didn't post during our trip, sometimes because we were busy, sometimes because we weren't near a computer for long enough, but mostly because I put it off when the time for it came around. I think you know what I mean.
As such, here it is.
1) The flight to Australia
We hit turbulence about three hours out of Vancouver; nothing too major, but definitely uncomfortable and unpleasant. The captain then announced that some passangers had become very ill, and we would have to make an emergency landing in Honolulu. We dumped fuel and landed, and it was close to 2 hours before we were airborne again. This made us extremely late, and kept Peta's dad waiting for us. Other than that, though, an uneventful trip. We had those new little LCD screen TV's built into our chairs, and could select our own movies to watch, which is nice. One piece of advice, though: bring your own headphones (which we had). Air Canada's headphones are crap, and can't hear the movies.
2) Arrival
We stayed the first few days with Peta's parents, but spent a lot of time hanging out with Ally and Matt. New Years was spent at Ally's apartment, drinking wine and watching episodes of Black Book, which is hysterical, especially while drinking. We also went to visit Peta's sister and neices, and her grandparents.
3) Engagement party
January 5th was a big party to celebrate our engagement. We had a very nice fruit cake. I met Peta's aunt Sharon, uncle Owen, her cousins Daniel and Kelsie, as well as her friends Teagan, Dan, and Alex. Nathan and Halina also came. We took lots of pictures, talked late into the night, and went for a walk in the dark (an experience somewhat marred by the presence of spider webs).
4) Bowling
I had never been 10 pin bowling before. Squamish only has 5 pin, and our attempt to go on my previous visit didn't work because the bowling alley was closed for renovations or bankrupcy or something. We went with Ally and Matt, Michael (known as Shoey), his girlfriend Kirsten, and Matt's friend Adam. I discovered I'm okay at 10 pin bowling, although it took a bit of getting used to. My scores sucked, but were quite good within our group. We then went to Adam's house to play Guitar Hero 3, until we crashed on his floor.
5) Reptiles
We saw an ad on TV for the Australian Reptile Park, which happened to be relatively nearby, so Peta's parents took us to see it. The name is misleading - although you start off with several pens of reptiles, you very quickly come across wallabies (small kangaroos), insectrs, koalas, birds, etc. There's an open part in which you can pat animals, and we managed to pet a wallaby that ignored us completely. We also watched an alligator feeding (American alligators, not Aussie crocodiles), and a reptile domonstration in which a park ranger stabbed a small boy with a small alligator. I'm happy to report that the alligator is fine and coping with its ordeal nicely.
6) Packing
Much of the last week was spent sorting through Peta's stuff to determine what could come with us, what could be sold, and what would best be just thrown out. I often had to play the part of the jerk for this, saying stuff like "you don't need this," "this is far too heavy to pack," and "do you really think you'll ever use this?" We ended us getting a lot more back to Canada than I expected, so I think Peta will eventually forgive me. We also discovered that sea mail isn't too expensive, so another box will be coming to us by ship once we've got somewhere to put it.
7) Return to Canada
The flight back was mostly uneventful, aside from a few hiccups with the LCD screens. It was long and boring, and I don't want to do that again for a good long while. We need to either invent a faster way to fly, or teleportation. Poor Peta was back to work the morning after we got back, while I had the day to attempt to recover from the jet lag.
8) Current plans
First and foremost, I need to find work. I'm still waiting to start substitute teaching, but that may be a while. I'm at least certified now. Until teaching happens, I'm looking for something else, so let me know if you have any leads.
We're also going to start looking into a place of our own before we get married. We don't have anything in mind just yet, but it'll be nice to get ourselves on our own two feet, with a home of our very own.
Now that I've typed that, I'm enjoying the taste of it. A home of our own. Our home. That's nice.
Some Christmas presents we'd hoped would arrive before the end of December have finally gotten here, so Christmas is not yet over. More on that later.