Well, I'm finally home again after my whirlwind tour of western Canada.
Had 6 days in each of Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary.
My visit with my parents in Victoria could tentatively be described as
successful as nothing shocking or terrible happened and we were pretty
much able to skirt around the issue of the decrepit house we are
building with no major confrontations.
I was also able to visit with all our friends in Victoria, most of whom
I've known since elementary school or high school.  I miss them a lot
but they have their own lives with kids now.  I am looking forward to
when they all get a chance to come over here for a visit.
In Vancouver we went through our stuff in storage and downsized from 12
cubic meters to 4 and shipped that stuff over here.  I hope it arrives
soon, it was like xmas seeing some of that stuff again.
We were also able to visit with another 3 sets of friends, so that was
really great too.  All of these people visited us in Thailand and are
definitely planning to visit again in Australia, so that's really cool.
In Calgary we spent time with Dennis' mom and his sister and brother in
law and their 4 kids, a 16 year old girl and 3 boys under 5.  It was
chaotic but fun.  Dennis' sister Corinna is Martha Stewart incarnate and
was able to feed us gourmet meals while still keeping all kids in line.
Dennis and I mostly sat on the couch in utter exhaustion ;-)
We also had a really great lunch with Susan M and her husband Fred.  We
had met Susan before but it was our first meeting with Fred.    We had a
really nice time with them and are sorry that they live so far away.  We
also got a chance to meet baby Andrew, a really cute little charmer, and
we played with Otis and Chester.  There was much excitement when Otis
and Chester had a little scrap complete with bunny kicking!  LOL!
On the last 2 days we went to Banff with all of Dennis' family and all
stayed in a big suite.  It was utter chaos but we managed to tire all
the kids out on the playground and in the waterslides that were part of
the resort.  Dennis' mom babysat on Friday night and we were able to get
an adult dinner with his sister and brother in law, which was most
likely as much as a treat for them as it was for us.
On Sunday morning we had to fly out.  Dennis and I were on the same
flight to Vancouver but on different flights after that.  I headed home
to Perth and Dennis went back to Yangon for work :-(
I was extremely happy to arrive home yesterday.  I immediately got in my
car and hightailed it home from the airport, it's a 3 hour drive and I
wasn't going to miss my chance to get Vino out of the cat "spa" before
they closed.  Vino and I sure were happy to see each other again!  Vino
did well the lady said, but would not go up the carpeted ramp to the 2nd
level of the enclosure.  Just like in the quarantine place!  Very weird.
In the car on the way home, Vino swore at me in 5 different cat
languages.  This is the problem with putting your cat in the public
accommodation system.  You never know what class of cat he will be
associating with ;-)
At home we had a big cuddle session but then he showed his anger by
grabbing my head with both paws and biting my lower lip.  This resulted
in a time out while I unpacked my bags.  But he was all cuddles and
purrs all night long.  I swear he purred for 8 hours straight!  Finally
at 5 am I couldn't sleep anymore (jet lag) and got up.  Vino wanted out
into the back yard but he comes in every 5-10 min for more cuddles.
Well, I'm off to the house site to see what happened in my absence.
I have 1800 messages to catch up on so that might take a while.  Hugs
and purrs to everyone who needs them!