Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Story of Stuff

A must see... seriously, watch it

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

CHIA

I popped off base this afternoon to a cute little town nearby called Alliston.  It is quite quaint, it has a lot of useful stores to shop in when I need to make a purchase and most importantly a Bulk Barn!  I first discovered this lovely shoppe in Ottawa, with Alex - we were off to a movie and made a stopoff in Bulk Barn to load up on fun candies... and I was hooked (on the store, not the candy sadly)!

Today I brought my self restraint with me, I only picked up 2 things - almonds and my newest addiction, Chia seeds... I plan on sneaking them into the galley in the mornings so I can add them to my morning oatmeal - yum!  The best part though was the price - I scooped out almost 1/2 lb of chia seeds and paid less than $6!  Unbelievable!

In the news

Why sometimes I think I would have been quite happy if I 
was born, or lived in Sweden... it's amazing what they have 
created.. In a world where (thankfully) people seem to be 
taking notice of our impact on the environment, it's so 
nice to see that a big city, with a climate much like our 
own here in Canada can create such an effective and efficient 
system. Well, that and the fact that Ikea is like a 
wonderland for me.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Bon Voyage

So I've moved cross country - I got the call that I had a contract in Borden on my birthday and had to wrap up my visit home. I had thought it was going to be a year long visit but just as I was getting into the Calgary groove I was moved elsewhere. Everyone that knew where I was headed all gave me the same advice - "Drive there, do not fly, bring your car, for the love of GOD bring your car" Nevermind the 3400 km commute....

It wasn't the worst thing I have ever done, but it tried my patience....
From Calgary to Brandon was about 1100 km. I did this in one day... I figured I could drive for 7 hours to Regina or push it to Brandon and be done almost 1/3 of the trip in the first day. It got a bit tedious with the endless fields, but at least there was more civilization than in western Ontario. The gas was cheaper too... As I progressed through each province I noticed that the speed limit decreased by 10km/hr and the price of gas rose by $.10....
The hotel in Brandon was awesome... they gave a government discount, the bed and linen were divine, they toiletries were from Bath & Body Works and the continental breakfast was fantastic.  I departed Brandon at 6:30 the next morning and headed through Winnipeg to Thunder Bay.  Overall the drive was pretty decent, I lunched in Kenora and continued on to see the sleeping giant.  Thunder Bay was a bit disappointing, the hotel was scary and full of unsavoury characters, the room was grungy and the breakfast was pretty sad - and it was the nicest hotel I could find :( 
Anyways, the next day I headed off to Sault Ste Marie.  The drive was brutal.  There was quite a bit of fog but that wasn't the bad part.  It was the trees!  Normally I'm a big tree person but if that is all you see for 6-7 hours and nothing else you might go a little loopy - luckily it was only like that for one day.
My last day was a quick one, Sault Ste Marie to Pete's parent's house near Newmarket.  The scenery between SSM and Sudbury was a lot like what you see when you get off the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver - how weird!

So there we go, my poor little car has now driven from Calgary to Victoria and back, then all the way out here - next year it will make the return trip and with any luck I'll have someone to keep me company.

So far here my life has been pretty normal - I get to eat in a galley (oops - it's called a Mess on an army base) again, get to wear a different uniform (Army Cadpat this time, no navy gear for at least 6 months), and get to commute across 3 provinces to visit Pete - pretty normal for my life.  The great thing is that I have some awesome people to work with, I get to learn a lot on the job with my new supervisor and am able to take loads of important courses - Unit Environmental Officer, Resolving Conflict Effectively, First Responders, First Aid Instructor, plus more office based excel courses (exactly what a junior Logistics Officer needs).