connecting

Tonight, my friend Tess and I saw the Syringa Tree play performed by Pamela Gien. Incredible.

A one-woman act who plays various characters in a complex story of childhood innocence, racial tension, and lifelong discovery.

It has been a long time since i've been so thoroughly impressed by a performance such as this one. A rare gift and a must see!

Yesterday i had the delight of meeting Mr. Grimsey, the father of one of my longtime childhood friends. He was here on the Island on business and had the evening free.

I picked him up in his posh resort and we went to Little Qualicum Falls for a lovely hike.

We then had a nice dinner on the beachfront. We chatted the entire time and it was really the first time that i can remember having had such a long conversation with him. We would only ever really exchange pleasantries, and growing up, it would be "Oh, Bonnie's here!" or "It's Bonnie on the phone!"

So what a pleasure it was to share some time with him and listen to some thoughtful wisdom from someone who has been a part of my life, if only on the periphery, but who has seen me grow up. Thank you.

It has been a strange week without Matt.

After his last exam, he took the opportunity to be with his family on a narrowboat canal holiday in England. From what I've heard and the few pictures I've seen, it looks like quite the relaxing kind of holiday, slow-paced and serene.

Our home was quiet at first with just me in it, but when i look around me, I see how we have filled it with our memories and joy and it is just simply brimming with loud declarations of our love.

Matt returns to Canada on Sunday and I will be waiting anxiously at Victoria airport, arms wide open.

my birthday already?

What a great sunny birthday weekend!

Matt gave me a reconstructed print of our Taklamakan rally picture (the original one that was given to us by the rally guys for our wedding was ruined by the bubbles in the print and some leaky ink)... it looks amazing, just like new!

He was so excited to give it to me that just a little past midnight Friday night (while i was doing my reading-and-falling-asleep-in-

bed routine) he woke me up so i could open it :)

He had some professional photographer take a picture of the picture and then commissioned Anice

to do some magic with it on photoshop. Thanks Sis, you did a great job!

Friday night we played rec soccer at the community centre behind our building.. we go every Friday usually and that night i scored my first goal - yeah, it surprised me too!

To continue the scoring theme, i scored in the hockey game during Saturday's class. Matt scored his first in Wednesday's class! Dare i say we're improving..?

We went for a motorbike ride yesterday after I got two new tires changed, a new chain put on, a couple of new spark plugs and a general maintenance tune-up.

I can't believe how much i love riding, more than i thought i would actually. What a feeling!

We even got our walkie-talkies working so we can talk to each other while we're riding. Now i want some headphones too to listen to some music!

Now full of chocolate birthday cake and chocolate ice cream, it's time for bed.

Work for me tomorrow and Matt's off to Vancouver to get his medical checkup done, and then he can finally send off his Permanent Resident Application off!!! What a process it's been! I'll spare you all the details, I don't even want to think back to what it took to get the whole package together!

I'm dropping him off for the 6:30am ferry so goodnight for now!!