......BecBlog - your comments are very welcome

2009-04-05T21:27:00.012-04:00

And the winner is Sy-den-ey! OK, so it might seem quite arrogant to equate my moving back to Sydney with Sydney's successful bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games but I thought it would be a fun way to announce it on my blog :)

Yes, I am moving back to Sydney in the 2nd week of September. Work-wise, the option is open to continue here in Canada but I feel that that the timing is right for the move back to Aus. I am glad that it's not until September though. It will give me time for a few more adventures and enable me to finish well here instead of in a big rush.

So here are the plans for the last 6 Canadian months (of which only 3 full months will actually be spent in Canada!):

April and May I'll be here in Toronto. For a couple of weeks in June I'll be making a brief trip back to Aus for Mum's 70th (with a fun weekend in New York City, on the way back, with my Canadian friend Natasha),

the 2nd half of July will include a visit to Portugal to see Nathan, Kathy, Abby and Noah (friends from Sydney now living in Portugal), a week in London (maaaybe getting to see some of The Ashes at Lords) and a week in France with my Mum, brother and others as we follow the Tour de France from Lyon to Paris!!

In August I'll be working as much as possible and squeezing in a goodbye visit to camp as well as downsizing, packing and getting ready to come back to Sydney via a visit with Daniel, Jessie and bub in Indianapolis, in September. I'll be back just in time for Kate and Lindsey's wedding: yay!

Here's some photos from recent Winter adventures (even though right now, everyone is completely over snow here - it actually snowed this week (well, they call it 'flurries' as it was light snow) - crazy! (watch as is or click on the slideshow for a larger view)

See you soon (whichever country you're reading this from!) :)

Bec

2009-02-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

Hmmm.....

2009-01-02T03:56:00.027-05:00

Wow! I didn't mean to leave the blog for this long (the longest non-blogging since I started this thing!) but after a few hints from Thomas, here I am again :)

It's been a nearly 4 month period divided between 3 countries and 2 weather seasons. From the highs of spending time with friends and family that I haven't seen in nearly 2 years, to the lows of Australia losing the cricket to South Africa, it's been a great and busy time. Firstly, for my North American friends (and also any Aussies who want to see something cute) here's a video of my niece Rochelle and my nephew Josh singing the Aussie version of Jingle Bells on Christmas Day 2008 (let me know if you need a translation!):

After being in Toronto for near record snowfalls last winter it's been great to have a summery Christmas and New Years this year and I've been making the most of Sydney and northern NSW beaches while I'm here.

I've been able to catch up with friends from Bible Study, the Musical Society, church, uni, my godson Hamish and his family, SGCS (where I used to teach), the lovely ladies who were in my last Yr 12 Drama class at SGCS and Jenn (who I used to rent with in Sydney) and Liz - friends from uni. I had a great New Years with good friends and also got to go the the Sydney cricket test match. While I've been here I've been working (in my Canada job) and getting ready to conduct the musical Guys&Dolls when I go back to Canada.

Here are some highlights of my summer downunder (and in New York ;) ) - watch as is or click on the slideshow for a larger view:

So it's a pretty busy 3 weeks until I go back to Canada (to minus temps!) and I'm going to pack in as much as I can!

xoxo

Bec

PS One more crazy thing I've done was a Trapeze class with my niece. Here's me doing the catch on the trapeze!

2008-09-16T18:24:00.030-04:00

Well, it's been a while (not one of those boring 'it's been a while' blog entries! ;) )....

About a week ago I got back from some fun travels with Donna in Italy, and the UK (and a few days with Mon&Fred in Lyon, France).

Here are a few of highlights:

Best pizza ever in Positano! The island of Capri The Pump Room in Bath

'Hamlet' at Stratford, Stanage Edge - The Peak District, 'Mr Darcy' at Chatsworth!

Aaaahh, Pemberley (ie Lyme Park)!, Alnwick Castle (ie Hogwarts)

Yummy Lyon + Beautiful Annecy with Mon, Fred and the Brodies

More Europe pix are here

The other highlight was catching up with my Mum's cousin, Janelle, and her family: why didn't we get any photos?! XO

So I'm now back in Toronto which is doing it's best to hold onto some nice weather despite being hit with the tail end of Hurricane Ike. I'm continuing my work with Tim, focussed on Central Asia. In November I'll be back in Sydney for the summer (but still doing my job online) and looking forward to Christmas with my family, celebrating my niece, Rochelle's 10th birthday and catching up with friends and new babies. I'll be back in Toronto at the end of Jan and hopefully visiting Em out in B.C in February. Then onto figuring out the rest of 2009 (which will include another trip (?) back to Aus for Mum's big birthday in June).

Keep in touch! xoxo Bec

2008-08-22T15:32:00.002-04:00

Sorry, can't blog: eating ;)

2008-06-27T11:29:00.002-04:00

Chuckie and I finally at camp together at the same time

(even if it was only for 24 hours :) )

2008-05-23T10:48:00.009-04:00

Today is the last day before the craziness begins, so I thought I'd blog and give an overview of what's in store for the next few weeks&months - God-willing :)

Our production of Oliver begins on Tuesday 27th May, so this weekend has 2 rehearsals, then moving our set to the venue for our Tech rehearsal on Monday - whoa! I'm conducting the show and it's been a great experience with a wonderful cast, crew and orchestra.

Then, on Saturday, the day after the show finishes, I'm off to Central Asia (Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan) for 10 days with my colleague, Tim. I'll be seeing new places and meeting lots of Central Asia staff, who, until now, I've only known over email.

When I get back to Toronto (hopefully summer will really have arrived by then ;) ), I'll have some preparation for camp (where I'm teaching the F.I.C.S course at Leaders In Training) and a fun weekend with Natasha watching our favourite Shakespeare movies.

Then in the last week of June I'll move up to camp until the middle of August (with a quick trip to Ottawa for Canada Day :) ). I'm looking forward to LIT and to being back in the Muskokas.

On the 18th of August I fly to Italy (I've never got to say "I fly to Italy" before :) ) to meet up with Donna (from Sydney) and Jennifer (from Ireland). After some travel around Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii and the Amalfi coast we head to the UK for lots of Jane Austen-esque landscapes and castles (as well as seeing Spamalot in London :) ). Then, I'll be seeing Monique and Fred for a quick visit in Lyon, France.

I'll then be back for a couple of months of normality in Toronto for 'Fall' before I'm off to Sydney (via New York for a few days) for a good old Aussie summer, from mid-November to the end of January - yay!!!!!! I'll be back in Toronto after that (for hopefully the last bits of Winter) until June (back to Sydney then, for Mum's 70th (!!)).

It will then be decision time again. By June 2009 I need to figure out if the trip back to Aus is the big move back or just a visit. Hmmmmm.....we'll see.

I'll be blogging as much as possilbe and posting pix of these next steps, so stay tuned :)

xoxo Bec

2008-05-08T21:44:00.022-04:00

OK, so the latest two things: touristy in Toronto and Crowded House :)

Lena is from Kazakhstan and we both work with IFES Central Asia (although, right now she is studying at Regent in British Columbia). We got to have a fun touristy day in Toronto together and here are a few pix.

And on the 7th of May, for the first time ever I got to see Crowded House (here in Toronto)!!

It was such a brilliant show and lots of fun to share it with Scott, Jaime and Bart (a Canadian, a Kiwi and an Aussie). Some pix and slightly shaky videos are here.

Speaking of things Aussie&Kiwi, I went to an ANZAC Day ceremony (on ANZAC Day, of course) at the Canadian Military College. The ceremony was run by Aussie soldiers and was very moving, particularly when the president of the Canadian Turkish Association read part of Ataturk's speech about the ANZACS: "Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side, here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries... Wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom And are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."

Get's me every time.

2008-05-02T19:12:00.003-04:00

OK, so Kirl (AKA Killery or Kirrily) has tagged me: the first time this has happened to me on my blog. So,

The rules are...

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog .

SO 7 random and weird facts.....

1. I'm related (by marriage (not my own ;) )) to John Deeks, the voiceover guy for Wheel of Fortune etc
2. I dislike the words moist, phlegm, muscus and others I don't even want to type (ie, they're not offensive words, I just hate them :) )
3. 4 students in the first Year 12 class I taught, are now married (and one has a baby!) - whoah!
4. I am currently music directing a production of Oliver, where also, as an Australian, I'm helping Canadians to speak in a cockney accent.
5. Before (long before), my godson was born, I danced with his father at the Year 8 Cheltenham dance: 3 years before he (the guy I danced with) met my godson's mother (get your head around that!)!
6. I have only once been upgraded to business class on a flight - and the flight was only 45mins long! I'm hoping for this to happen on a decent length flight one day :)
7. 5 of my favourite people are my nieces and nephews Rochelle, Joshua, Ella, Cody and Ryan (and don't even get me started on all my friends kids: love them too!!)

Now to tag 'on'....hmmmm....not sure which of my blogger friends would be keen on this (and I don't think I have 7 friends with blogs...I'll have to keep thinking).

2008-04-24T18:48:00.003-04:00

Spring is HERE!!!!

2008-04-12T01:08:00.001-04:00

11/4/07

Born into Heaven

2008-04-05T21:32:00.009-04:00

So, I thought, "Where would I get the best view in Toronto of all the lights being switched off for Earth Hour at 8pm on Saturday March 29th (apart from going up in a helicopter :) )?" The Toronto Islands, of course. It was a beautiful evening but a little too bright (because of Daylight Saving) to see the full effect but you couldn't certainly see later that the glow the Toronto night sky usually has, was not there - and I saw some stars: a real rarity!

2008-03-22T14:41:00.004-04:00

"Crucify Him!" they shouted so loud

The angry death wish from the rabble crowd

"We want Barabbas set free".

The choice had ben made

The hands had been washed

The death of one man is all his freedom cost

But I can't help thinking Barabbas is me

And Jesus set me free

So call me Barabbas

'cause that's who I am

All I deserve has been given to Him

The guilty set free, the innocent must die

A lifetime of sin is all that I know

I should've been killed

but Jesus let me go

And I can't forget the death of that Man

It set free Barabbas, and that's who I am

Nathan Tasker: Life This Side of Heaven, 1996

2008-03-18T21:57:00.006-04:00

Tough choice: two beautiful places

2008-02-21T22:27:00.000-05:00

3 of the main reasons I'm staying longer in Canada....

2008-02-19T18:00:00.005-05:00

Apparently my last blog entry did not contain enough information ;) So, here's the Honduras and Belize wrap-up (although I got home only 3 weeks ago, it seems like a long time). Honduras was certainly an eye-opener for me as I've only really been to western, wealthy countries (except a couple of days in Turkey, parts of which were similar to Honduras). It was a great experience to stay in the little, dusty, non-touristy town of La Esperanza with our lovely host family. I still haven't managed to process it all: what do you do with the experience of seeing so many kids (at the childcare centre I worked at) so obviously under-nourished and lacking in so much, and seeing so much rubbish beside the road and any rubbish that was dealt with, being burned? I certainly don't want that to sound like a 'we're better than them' statement but more a 'what on earth is the government of Honduras doing?!!!' kind of statement. Much is written about goverment corruption in Honduras and it is evident by the way people have to live and the state of the centre we worked at. I'm all for people living simply (by choice) but not struggling to be healthy. Now, all I need to do is figure out what to do with this point-of-view of mine, rather than just lapse into doing nothing out of helplessness.

OK, off my soapbox for the next little bit :) One of the best things about my La Esperanza experience was sharing it with my friend Jane from Sydney and the other volunteers involved in the 3 projects in the town. There were 4 of us from Australia, 1 from Canada, 1 from Denmark, 2 from the UK(/Portugal/Brazil/France :) ) and 2 from the U.S. It was so fun getting to know them, catching up for lunch each day and having some other adventures at some birthday parties and on the weekends. The kids at IHNFA were sweet if exhausting (they confirmed for me why I trained as a high school teacher rather than in Early Childhood :) ) and patient with my pretty crap Spanish. They didn't really accept my responses of 'no entiendo' and would repeat their requests louder and louder!. Here is Luis singing a song about Señor Jesús -love the trumpet solo!

From the culture shock (I guess?) of Honduras to the gorgeousness of Belize. We were in awe when we arrived at Jaguar Reef near Hopkins. It was sooooo beautiful! The first photo here shows how close our room was to the beach (the Caribbean Sea!): our room was near the staircase on the right and the sea is that blue patch on the left!

Mostly, we just chilled out on the beach (or by one of the pools), read books, watched The Chaser, Summer Heights High and some movies or ate! We did do one adventure of snorkelling and we checked out the nearby town of Hopkins and had a drum lesson! It was such a great time - I can't wait to go back to Belize!

And now I'm back to freezing cold Toronto: it was strange, coming back from Belize, to go from 28°C to -10°C in the space of 24hours! The weekend after I got back I made the climate switch even more bizarre by going to the big Winterlude festival in Ottawa (including skating on the world's largest skating rink). More Honduras and Belize pix are here and more Winterlude pix are here .

2008-01-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

Wow

2008-01-15T17:25:00.000-05:00

Again, I'm ripping off someone else's online pix (because I can't upload mine 'til I get back to Canada). Last weekend we ventured to the west of Honduras to see the Copan Ruins (the remains of an ancient Mayan civilisation). They were very striking and interesting but the most adventurous part of our trip was the return journey: 4 buses and one ute (for non-Australians, translation: pick-up truck). 3 of the buses were old American school buses (for non-North Americans think: Ferris Bueler's Day off and The Wonder Years :) ) and one was a fairly dodgy old coach. The ute was the most fun (and I'll post a video of part of the journey, later).

Jane and I have 3 days left at the IHNFA childcare centre and then a touristy weekend here in La Esperanza and then we're off to Belize (via the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa where we stay over night on Monday). It will be quite different to what we've seen here and I think it will be a good time for a change (and less brain strain as we won't need any Spanish in Belize :) ).

xoxox, Bec

2008-01-09T17:50:00.000-05:00

Silly me, I didn't bring my cable for uploading pix from my camera, so here is the Honduras flag instead :) Some of you may have already read some of this in an email (to conserve my internet time, I cut and pasted a few bits ;) )

I'm here in Honduras with my good friend Jane (which is wonderful partly because her Spanish is waaaayy better than mine). We are staying with a very friendly family (who don't speak English) and we appear to be among the fortunate of those also here on other i-to-i projects, as we have running water (including hot water). Everyone has been very friendly including Elisa and Nick (a married couple: Nick is British and Elisa is Honduran) who run i-to-i in Honduras (that's the organisation that runs these sort of volunteer projects around the world). They picked us up from the airport and made us feel very welcome. We stayed in a little town near Tegucigalpa (the capital city) for our first night and orientation the next morning.

The one bummer so far is that my bag hasn't made it to Honduras yet (full vindication for me re: taking as much carry on stuff (including toiletries) as possible :) ). I flew via Atlanta to El Salvador and then changed airlines so I thought I had to get my bags myself and check them onto my next flight (a few hours later). I was then told that I didn't have to do that and that the airlines would do this for me. Well, they didn't (even though they had 3 hours!!! :) ) Anyway, hopefully it will come in the next few days and Elisa will put it on the bus (that we also took yesterday) to La Esperanza (where we are now). Apparently this happens all the time...... :P

But, I have to say, what I've seen here today does rather put delayed baggage into perspective. We're volunteering at a government funded childcare centre (it isn't an orphanage as we'd thought: all the kids have at least one parent). It is very basic and I have found it very sad how undernourished and unwell many of the kids are (although IHNFA (that's the name of the centre) does give them 3 meals a day). It's certainly a very new thing to me especially as I have flashes of the brand new child care centre that my sister-in-law opened this year in Ryde, Sydney. I feel pretty helpless (a combination of the kids situations and my crappy Spanish) but it is only day one and I know God has a bigger perpective than me.

More updates later (and some pix when I get back in a few weeks :)

2007-12-17T22:17:00.000-05:00

* The weather outside is frightful..............................
Yes, it certainly is winter here! And like I've never seen it before (apart from brief trips to skifields in Australia and the U.S). More wintery pix are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/WinterInToronto0708

2007-11-28T21:04:00.000-05:00

* Things Canadienne....................................

Canadians (especially Ontarians) love their cottages, and last month I got to have my first cottage weekend when Morgan, Emily and me, and other friends went to Em's cottage on Four Mile Lake. It was great to be cosy in the cottage with the lovely wood stove, and great company and food.

Extreme Bocce and Drinking Jenga were also entertaining :) (I managed to pick all the easy ones and only take small sips ;) ).

I've also enjoyed a few other North American events. The LIT Reunion was a great time catching up and hanging out (including a game of Broomball (basically Ice Hockey without the padding or the skates) - I scored a goal!!). More recently was that very interesting tradition of Halloween. I got to go Trick or Treating with two very sweet 2 year olds dressed as monkeys (they got a big haul of 'candy' that I got to help out with too ;) ). Morgan, Emily and I also checked out the big party happening in downtown Toronto - an amazing array of dress-ups :) And just this past weekend I experienced my first American Thanksgiving (in Canada!) - Noah cooked up a storm and we ate - how good is that?!

And yes, for those who've asked, it is getting cold - we even got some snow last week:

Not really skiing conditions yet though :) (don't ask me why the formatting has just disappeared in the rest of this post.... ;) )

Also, in the last couple of weeks, two gorgeous little ones have come into the world (bubs of 2 couples I know): Maddox and Miriam. Lots of love and prayers to their Mum's and Dad's :) I can't wait to see more pix!

It's been a bit mind boggling but now I'm into the excitement phase of planning my January trip with my friend Jane (from Sydney). We're meeting in Honduras and we'll be part of a volunteer program for a couple of weeks http://www.i-to-i.com/volunteer-projects/work-with-children-in-honduras.html and then we'll do some serious relaxing in Belize (my break from the freezing cold winter of Canada). So, time to learn some Spanish! Rápido!

But before all that, I'm going to be at the IVCF Staff Conference. I'll be part of the Drama team - can't wait!

And meanwhile, big change is happening back in Aus, new party in power, new Prime Minister (I got to vote at the Australian Consulate the other week. And there was a guy there wearing a 'Kevin '07' T-shirt, handing out Labor 'how-to-vote' cards! I couldn't believe the commitment! Well, apparently it paid off!) - I think it's time for a change, it will be interesting to see how things go. In a very shallow way, I've been enjoying it all through the eyes of 'The Chaser' (one more vodcast to watch!) - they are so hilarious! In other things entertainment related it's been sad to have 'Get This' finish (my fave radio show from Aus) but at least I have the podcasts to listen to (and my new first ipod to listen them on!): "this is dizzy stuff, folks" (sorry, 'Get This' 'in' joke ;) )

Well, we finally have a home phone line now so: talk/skype/email/facebook with you soon!

(more snow, Halloween and cottage pix are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/FirstSnowInToronto0708_221107 and here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/HalloweenCottagesCanadian)

2007-10-05T12:25:00.000-04:00

*Travelling and thoughts of home.......... .

Maybe I haven't blogged in a bit because I couldn't get my head around everything.....? Well, here's what I've been up to anyway:

Mum and I travelled between 10th September and 4th October: Montreal, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Nova Scotia, Niagara Falls, Stratford, Sault Ste Marie and the Agawa Canyon, and then Toronto - man, that was a lot to pack in to a few weeks!

I think the best parts were Prince Edward Island (if it was right near Sydney and only had winter for 1 month of the year I think I could live there!) and the plays we saw at the Shaw and Stratford Festival - and of course, spending the time with my Mum.

During the first week or so I was reading a book I picked up in Bracebridge (near the camp I was working at between April and August) called 'The Snow Geese' by William Fiennes. It's a kind of biography of his trip when he decided to leave England for a bit and follow the migration of the snow geese from southern U.S.A to the very north part of Canada. Now, I've never really been much in to ornothology but I thought it would be good to read something that was partly about the country I'd be travelling in. It was an amazing book - just as much about people as it was about the birds. And then there were all these reflections of his re: homesickness - wow, that certainly struck a chord (don't worry, I'm fine, but the 'being away from home' is ever present). Some of his comments: "When I'd set out, going back had been too far off to contemplate, beyond the horizon, not visible for the curve of the sphere....I was restless again, restless for the known. I felt the draw of the familiar, as if I'd entered a field of gravity. I wanted deep attachments instead of fleeting encounters. I wanted the things I saw and heard to accord with the things I remembered." Wow! I certainly couldn't have put that into words myself!

Having said all of that, my next chapter is a blessing from God and He will determine for how long it goes: Yesterday I moved in with two lovely girls, Morgan and Emily (they both are involved at Ontario Pioneer Camp where I worked). We are living in a townhouse in Toronto - about 10mins on streetcar from the heart of the city. It will be good to be settled for at least the next 5 months. During that time I'll be working with Tim (who supports student Christian groups in Central Asia), assisting him with a number of projects. Tim and I worked together at OPC in the summer.

Here are some pix from my travels: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/SeptemberTravelling

And, here's my first video within the blog (oooohh!!! Don't you love technology?! ;) ) It's of the beach at Cavendish on PEI where I had my first swim in the ocean since January!

2007-09-11T20:17:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone - sorry it's been so long!

The quick update is that I've finished working at Ontario Pioneer Camp (I'm currently finalising the details of my next job in Toronto). I left there on Tuesday 5th September and was in Toronto chilling and being touristy until Monday.

On Monday I flew to Montreal and met my Mum (who flew in just after me from London, UK where she's been travelling). We've been doing some exploring of Montreal for the last couple of days and we'll head off to Prince Edward Island (home of 'Anne of Green Gables'!!!!) on Thursday and a number of other places after that - we'll keep you posted!

The leaves are starting to change colours here but fortunately it hasn't got too cold yet (I don't care what the temperature is in PEI, I'm going to swim in the ocean for the first time since January!!!).

Will blog more soon :)

2007-07-31T00:19:00.000-04:00

* This week marked 6 months since leaving Australia so I thought I should do an update on some recent happenings. For my last couple of days off (from working in the office here at Ontario Pioneer Camp) I've gone to 'the beach' (sorry, I still can't stop putting 'the beach' in ' ' as it's really the shore of the lake) at Port Sydney and Pitman's Bay - both on Mary Lake. It's been very warm here (sorry Sydney-siders!) which is great :)

........................Port Sydney beach on Mary Lake

A spot on the Muskoka river in Port Sydney - gorgeous tree, hey?

Chapel Point is a beautiful spot at OPC (where, funnily enough, we have Chapel :) )

Devine Lake at OPC

So, things are pretty busy at the moment but I'm really looking forward to doing 2 weeks full-time with the Leaders In Training (LIT) camp starting this Sunday.

More recent pics are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/SummerInCanada and a funny little film is here: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/SummerInCanada/photo#5094318507996591138

2007-07-04T21:08:00.000-04:00

* Funny, silly, weird, cool....

2 year old Jake tackles some light reading...

Brandon&Jakey show off their Canadian Couture - bug shirts :)

Brandon&Jakey show off their Canadian Coture - bug shirts :)

Canada Day Fireworks at Bracebridge.

Are the sundaes a little pricey here or what?

Ouch!

Jess and I can't get enough pix of each other :) Super-nice! :P

2007-07-02T19:35:00.000-04:00

* O Canada!
Fireworks at Bracebridge with the Susans (the two gorgeous girls in the pic with me), Noah, Graham, Megan and Susie's family was a great way to end Canada Day '07. I even got myself a little (paper) Canadian flag (and managed to squeeze it into a pic of the fireworks!) It was fun to be a bit of a tourist again :)

Happy Canada Day!

2007-06-24T14:51:00.000-04:00

* 5 months since I left Australia...................
In 1 week it will be 5 months since I left Australia - wow! That's the longest I've ever been away. I sit here in my cute little room with my Australian flag on the wall and a tacky kangaroo mobile hanging in the bay window (I didn't bring the kangaroos - they were already here in Yukon) and ponder life and the world. I still get weird sensations of 'what is this that I'm doing?', this time away from home, meeting new people, seeing new places. God has his purposes and he lets me see little glimpses as I go.

It's good to get a dose of reality (that we actually don't know what is to come in the next day/week/month/years even though we sometimes think that we do (when we're in a long term job or living situation)) as I really don't have a clear vision of what happens in my entire life post October 4th 2007 (the day my Mum goes home after we do a few weeks of Canada travel together, following my summer here at camp). I do know that God will give me all I need, say no to some things that I don't need and do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21). It was great to be reminded of that at the first OPC Chapel at Chapel Point for the summer, as we sang 'Blessed Be Your Name' http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/m/mattredman20504/blessedbeyourname542492.html

To see this cute little fella (they're everywhere here at OPC!) on film, click on the link below: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/OntarioPioneerCamp_headingTowardsSummer/photo#5079710639726945490

Oh, and can I just say: I'm addicted to Facebook :)

2007-06-11T21:53:00.001-04:00

* Why Sony? Why?! Question for you: why is it that every Sony website in the world has free downloads of drivers for laptops EXCEPT the Australian website (and of course my model is only recognised on the Australian website)? This little rant may give you a clue as to why I haven't blogged in a month. Well I'm back but my laptop has bandaids on it (metaphorically speaking, of course) rather than being fully recovered. Maybe someone will take pity on me from one of the online IT forums that I've posted my problem on - anyone else got any brilliant ideas (and no, I don't have Sony recovery disks because apparently I was supposed to make my own before I had a problem! :) )?

Anyway, back to the good stuff: life in Canada. Here's a vocab lesson for all you non-Canadians:

Everything is 'perfect' (pronounced 'purrrfect'), 'awesome' and 'neat', 'for sure'. Unless things are difficult and then they're 'brutal'. Apparently I do a decent Canadian accent and Andrew White (one of the Outdoor Ed. staff) has taught me to say "Look, buddy!" convincingly. Although Jon apparently has troubles understanding my Australian accent in emails (unless I'm quoting 'The Castle' to him) ;)

For anyone musical, I discovered that calling 1 count notes crotchets, 2 count notes minims and 4 count notes semibreves is apparently hilarious (not to mention quavers, semi-quavers and hemi-demi-semi quavers!). They call them quarter notes, half notes etc.

And speaking of 'musical'. I was involved in a musical in late May/early June. Yes, I know you are shocked and surprised at that little announcement! But, check this out: I was the conductor (hence the all black outfit, the baton in my hand (what a unique Canadian souvenir!) and the music stand). And isn't God's timing amazing (or should I say 'amayzing') as this was a production of 'Seussical' (the same show I directed at school last year)?! It was a fund and awareness raiser for one of the camps that will be on here in the summer and lots of the staff from that camp were in the cast, band and crew (including the camp's Director, Kate, as Amayzing Mayzie (Kate also brilliantly directed the show)). Being the conductor was a steep learning curve (as it was my first time in that role and I got involved with 3 weeks of rehearsals left) but the orchestra were fantastic and it was such a fantastic experience to be part of. We even made the local newspaper! http://www.mississauga.com/article/3468

Well, I really need to update on some other stuff too, like my first basball game, the change of seasons here at camp and even my trip to Ottawa that I haven't blogged about (that was way back over Easter!) so, more to come soon!

2007-05-05T19:42:00.000-04:00

* Well, the Aussie's did it: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/wc2007/content/image/292764.html

Well, the Aussie's did it: World Cup Cricket champions again (even if the game did become a little odd there at the end). Last weekend I stayed in Toronto with my new friends Hugh&Leanne and Jen&Jon (and their little girls Jubilene and Grace). They've put up with my cricket-madness and even helped me find a pub that was showing it (I also asked on a CBC blog for a location (and got published! ;) My entry is about the last of the 25th April ones: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourview/sports/2007/03/2007_cricket_world_cup.html )). So on Saturday morning I went to the pub (Scallywags) but play had not begun in the cricket due to rain so I did some wandering around Toronto including checking out the Bata Shoe Museum. How would you like to pop down to the corner shop for some milk in these? The museum was very cleverly done and was really interesting (and amazingly didn't make me crave some shoe shopping :) ).

Later I went back to Scallywags and watched the last few overs of the Australian Innings (unfortunately I missed Gilchrist's brilliant century but it was still great to see some of the game up on the big screen with fellow Aussie's cheering each four and six etc).

It's been great to get back to a big city (but not as crazy big as NYC) and Sunday was particularly nice, with some good weather and a walk to the beach (no, not a surf beach but you could have sworn it was summer already with all the shirts off and beach volleyball being played!). It was also cool to go to Hugh&Leanne's church and get involved in the bible reading (before Hugh preached the sermon) done in the style of F.I.C.S (see the F.I.C.S explanation here: http://pioneercamp.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=90&Itemid=214 . It's part of the Leaders In Training program here at Pioneer that I was part of when it ran in Australia last year).

I've been very blessed by all the wonderful people that have welcomed me to their homes and families over the past few months (and this was reinforced by my stay with the Harris/Wild-Brewster's this weekend): a great example of Matthew 25:35: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025:35-40;&version=31

This was a quote from the shoe museum which resonated onated This was a quote from the shoe museum which resonated with me:

More Toronto pix are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/Toronto_27294_07

2007-04-25T20:27:00.000-04:00

* I miss my cricket! http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/content/image/292381.html

This is what I like to see! Aussies beating (well, anyone really) South Africa on their way to the World Cup Cricket final! Unfortunately this is the best view I have as I can't watch it on TV (although I'm seeing what I can do about that for this weekend for the final, when I'll be in Toronto). The best I could do today was have my www.baggygreen.com.au desktop scorecard on my computer at work.

Hey, for anyone remotely interested in cricket (or just something funny), this is a link to a discussion on cricket by Canadians and expats from major cricketing nations (the participants in the discussion range from those who don't have a clue but are interested to those that really know their stuff): http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourview/sports/2007/03/2007_cricket_world_cup.html
I love Louis Lemieux's description of cricket using baseball terms (for the cricket novice) - it's about a third of the way down the page.

Bring on Saturday and bring home the World Cup!

2007-04-22T22:53:00.000-04:00

* Love to TnT+Ez:
"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:14

2007-03-28T17:21:00.000-04:00

* It finally had to happen: I got a job. I'm here working at Ontario Pioneer Camp in Muskoka, a beautiful part of Ontario. After work (Wow! That sounds weird :) ) today I took some pics to show you around a little. I'm staying in Yukon Hall in between Lake Clearwater and Devine Lake. The weather hasn't been as cold as I'd expected: I even walked around without a coat for the first day or so but today was beautiful and sunny and quite cold so there's still some wintery weather to come I think.

If you click on this link you can see the hike that I have to go on to get to work each day: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/OntarioPioneerCamp_March/photo#5047087685759336690 (If you don't view the link you won't get my sarcasm :) )

Oh! And I need to update my collection of Canadian Winter Touristy Things with this one: on the weekend when I was staying in Guelph I got to get involved in a Maple Sugarbush activity. This is where they collect the sap from Maple trees and turn into Maple Syrup (eventually: it takes 40L of sap to make 1L of syrup). You can see some of the process here (and Ruth and I helping out :) ):

More Pioneer pix are (and will be) here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/OntarioPioneerCamp_March

2007-03-23T08:28:00.000-04:00

* Well, this truly shows that I'm addicted to my laptop - I've just connected to wireless internet on a train - but (I protest!) only to tell you about the beautiful scenery I'm looking at (I'm not only looking at my laptop (I can touch type :) ), I promise).

Here, I'll try to take a pic even though the windows are a bit grimy.....

The train has just stopped in Stratford (which, just like the English version is renowned for it's Shakespeare festival) which seems like a lovely town which I will have to come back to.

Today, I'm on my way to Guelph to stay for the weekend with Lisa&Campbell and their kids. I haven't met them yet, only talked to Lisa on the phone (which is why I have my enormous, bright red scarf with me today so that Lisa can know who I am :) ). They're friends of Mike&Katie's (who I've been staying with). There are just so many lovely, friendly, welcoming people over here - I'm very blessed.

On Monday I'm heading further north up to Pioneer Camp for a job interview so I'll give an update when I know my next move.

Back to the scenery........ :)

2007-03-19T19:05:00.000-04:00

* Today is officially the last day of winter here in North America (heard that on the news this morning :) ) and it was snowing this morning which I thought was quite fitting. I did some filming of snowfall out the back and front of Mike&Katie's house (and then quickly shut the door because it was cold!!!). You can see the films by clicking on this link (then just click on the right arrow above the video to scroll to the other film): http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/LondonOntario_March07/photo#5043777772565144994

Now to the subject of this blog: What I Love About Canada (don't worry, it's not like I want them to win the World Cup Cricket or anything (although I was really hoping they'd beat England the other day):
1. The flag: it was so nice seeing that maple leaf flag when I landed in Toronto a couple of weeks ago,

2. The accent, especially the way they say 'sorry' here in Ontario - it is so 'Gilbert from the 'Anne of Green Gables' mini series'! And yes, I know they hate the cliche but so many of the people here do say 'eh' at the end of lots of sentences - I like it ;)

3. The beautiful fir trees especially when they've got a dusting of snow on them,

4. Tim Horton's - kind of like the Canadian equivalent of the U.S's Starbucks or the Australian 'Gloria Jeans' - yummy hot chocolate, not to mention the 'Roll Up The Rim To Win' competition: http://www.timhortons.com/en/menu/2007-rutw-about.html (at which I won a donut the other day (well, it is rightfully Katie's as she bought me the hot chocolate ;) ). A guy has even invented a contraption to help you roll up the rim more easily: http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_8629.aspx

I'm sure there'll be many more 'What I love about Canada' blogs to come but one other thing I wanted to tell you about was the fact that I found out that my favourite play 'Our Town' was being performed here in London (and the minister from Mike&Katie's church just happened to be playing the main role). We went to see it on Saturday night and I loved it. It is a really simple play (which can be ruined by crowding the stage with set and props and special effects) about valuing life everyday. They did a beautiful job.

There is one part where the young character of Rebecca tells her brother George (while they're both looking out at the stars one night): "I never told you about that letter Jane Crofut got from her minister when she was sick. He wrote Jane a letter and on the envelope the address was like this: It said, Jane Crofut, the Crofut Farm, Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America; continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; The Universe; the mind of God - that’s what it said on the envelope. And the postman brought it just the same."

It's a beautiful moment (and hard to describe in a blog) that resonated differently for me this time re: the "North America" part. It really ties in with Thorton Wilder's whole idea of the universality of human experience and taking time to notice life as you live it.

More London pix: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/LondonOntario_March07

2007-03-16T23:48:00.000-04:00

* Today included some quirky and classic winter moments. What I though was quirky is apparently the norm here - barbequeing throughout the winter. Mike very kindly went outside to BBQ our steaks for dinner - while it was snowing! Well it wasn't very heavy snow but I still found that pretty unusual (but they tasted fantastic - thanks Mike!).

This next pic is for all you gingerbread house makers. The light dusting of snow reminded me of your beautiful icing sugar artworks on the gingerbread houses.

And then Mike and I (while Katie had to do some PhD work) went ice skating. Outside! At night! While it was snowing! (The latter 3 things being firsts for me). Thanks for the skates, Katie! You can see a video if you click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/LondonOntario_March07/photo#5042737887968339042

Other London pics are here (or just click on View Album near the top left hand corner of the video): http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/LondonOntario_March07

2007-03-12T00:28:00.000-04:00

* Of course you recognise this famous river. Well, I'm in London, so of course it's the Thames! Yes, there's a Thames in London, Ontario and today I went for a walk by the river which was lovely (but still quite chilly (around 4C)). Apart from exploring London I've been given a few lessons in Curling and Ice Hockey (watching not playing :) ) which Mike and his Dad are pretty passionate about.

And now I'm in the planning phase working out my next move in terms of location and work. Will keep you posted :)

2007-03-06T14:30:00.000-05:00

* I've said goodbye to New York but before that I squeezed in a few more things. On Saturday it was a beautiful spring day and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and explored Brooklyn a little. It was so warm (well, for over here at this time of year anyway) that I had to take off my gloves, scarf and coat! Then I met up with Nicole who I met at New York Church International last Sunday. She showed me around Union Square and Greenwhich Village - it was lovely to hang out with her.

Of course I just had to see another Broadway show and this time it was Grey Gardens: http://www.greygardensthemusical.com/ a brilliant show about the cousin and aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It really was one of those shows that stands up as a piece of theatre and also happened to be a beautiful musical.

On my last day in New York I went to church at the Brooklyn Tabernacle - they have an amazing choir. The whole service was great: joyful worship, great singing and one of those messages that just seems to be aimed right at you specifically. I really related to the pastor asking if we were tired of being stirred by a talk/sermon but not changed - definitely something to work on.

I also went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I was really glad to go the the statue and go up to the observation deck but for me the Ellis Island Immigration Museum was really special. It was amazing to be in the place where so many people arrived with dreams and hopes for a new life. The audio guide was great as you could listen to commentry from immigrants who came through Ellis Island on their way to America.
"And now for something completely different!" On Sunday night I went to 'Spamalot', the Monty Python musical. It was so funny including such Monty Python greats as The Knights Who Say 'Ni!', the Fisch Schlapping Dance, 'Always Look On The Bright Side of Life' and heaps of musical theatre injokes. It was so hilarious!

On Monday I flew to Toronto where Katie picked me up. What is normally a 2 hour drive south to London, Ontario took 4 hours because of a number of road closures and accidents - lots of wind and snow (well, mostly snow being blown off the ground). Katie did a great job as we followed an amazingly friendly truck driver who showed us a bit of a detour around the problems.

It is so great to be here: Mike and Katie are so lovely and lots of fun. It's great to be able to put my bags down in one place for a while. And they really know how to do winter here. Right now as I type this it's -13c (but the weather forecasts always say what it feels like (due to the windchill factor) and right now it 'feels like' -19c). More to come soon as I explore London.

If you want to see anymore New York pix, here's an updated link: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/NewYorkCity

2007-03-02T12:17:00.000-05:00

* It's a good thing I don't live here in New York: the pull of all the amazing Broadway shows would just be too much for me! So far I've been to 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee', 'Avenue Q', 'The Apple Tree' and 'The Drowsy Chaperone' (for anyone who's interested:
http://www.spellingbeethemusical.com/about.htm

http://www.avenueq.com/about.html

(The Apple Tree: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/studio54.htm )

http://www.drowsychaperone.com/thestory.php )

They were all so different and I loved them. It was fantastic to see Kristen Chenoweth in 'The Apple Tree'. She's amazing! And to see Kecia Lewis-Evans (who was Asaka in 'Once On This Island' (I was in a production of it at EUCMS)) in 'The Drowsy Chaperone' was great - just a small part but what a voice! Georgia Engel was also very funny in the same show (for anyone who's watched 'Everybody Loves Raymond' she was Robbie's mother-in-law). So these are photos of inside and outside the theatre for 'The Apple Tree'. The theatre is the famous Studio 54 - pretty incredible inside.

But I haven't been in theatres the whole time. I've also gone on the Staten Island ferry (past the Statue of Liberty (I will go to the statue itself in the next couple of days)),

up the Empire State Building,

to the tennis centre where the U.S Open is played and to Shea Stadium nearby (where the Beatles did the first big stadium rock performance).

I've walked in Central Park and been to Strawberry Fields (the part of Central Park dedicated to John Lennon (it's just near the Dakota building where he was killed)).

I've also done a couple of 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' sites (although not THE site yet: Tiffany's on 5th Avenue) including Holly Golightly's appartment!

And yesterday I also went to the United Nations - hey! Australia got a mention! We walked through the General Assembly Chamber and there was some youth event on and a woman was speaking to them about global warming. She used the example of Australia having introduced reusable bags at supermarkets (you know, the green ones - I didn't actual realise that was so novel til I got here and they try to give you a plastic bag for everything!) - go Australia! She also mentioned that paper bags are not much better than plastic, in fact, they're worse - they pollute 4 times as much as plastic bags do. I didn't know that.

The other day I also went to the World Trade Centre site - aka Ground Zero. That was very strange. It's still a huge whole in the ground (although now a construction site, not rubble). I wonder what that is like for people who work nearby and who were there on 9/11. It was really sad reading all the details of the day and seeing photos and especially some artworks done by children who'd lost parents on the day.

The other much more fun but still political thing I have done is go to a taping of 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart' (it is on sometimes on SBS in Australia but more on pay TV). I met some friendly people in the queue (there's a lot of queueing for stuff here in New York (imagine what it must be like in summer!)) and the show was great including a hilarious (but stupid) clip of the First Lady Laura Bush lamenting that pesky one bombing a day in Iraq that the media keep focussing on that apparently distorts the view of an otherwise peaceful situation (I paraphrase quite a bit but, really, what was she thinking!?)........................................................................................

When I queued up for theatre tickets yesterday afternoon a guy I chatted to told me about this latest George Bush joke (sorry! But he's such an easy target): http://www.imgag.com/product/full/ap/3067907/graphic1.swf.......................................................

Anyway, there are plenty more New York pix if you're intrested. Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/NewYorkCity

2007-02-25T13:24:00.000-05:00

* It's very strange to come to a place after you've seen so much of it on TV and the Movies and thought about it and read about it. Here I am in New York City. Of course, as the first days I've had on my own since I left Australia, being here has coincided with some homesickness. I have enjoyed doing the New York things too but am missing people from home quite a bit.

Last night I saw my first Broadway show: 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' which was great - very funny and clever.

I've also been to Rockerfeller Plaza and the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA was incredible: Picassos, Matisses, Pollocks, Van Goghs, Warhols and Monets everywhere you look!

I'm going to head of to Central Park now (have to rug up though - it's quite wintery today!).

xoxoxo

2007-02-21T18:22:00.000-05:00

* Hi from Indianapolis where it's apparently considered warm these days if it gets above 5C (Jessie has used the word 'heatwave' a few times today). It certainly is warmer than when I arrived (see the photo in the previous post of snow on the runway after I landed at the airport) and it hasn't snowed for a few days.

When I got here I was amazed to see the amount of snow. This is Jessie&Daniel's street last weekend:

Jessie and I (and Daniel when he wasn't working) have been very cultured, visiting the Indiana World War Memorial (see pic below), the Indianapolis Children's Museum and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art as well as sampling real American food like Chilli and Macaroni&Cheese. And you can't go far before you get reminded again that the Indianapolis Colts recently won the superbowl (apparently that makes them World Champions (Jessie&I find that interesting considering American football is only played by American teams....)) :)

The Children's Museum (see below) had a beautiful enormous glass sculpture and also a kind of revolving lounge chair thing that you could lie on and look up at a glass floor above that had the bottom section of the sculpture on it. This is us looking up and then what we were looking at. There was also cool (literally!) sculpture out the front.

This was a photo from the American Indian museum we went to today. I thought it was a really interesting reflection on the different perspectives of time for different cultures.

So, tomorrow I head off to New York. It's been great to hang out with Daniel, Jessie, Sydney and Shmoody (and they've put up with my coughing and sniffling admirably). I'm sure I'll be back to visit again.

Bye Sydney! Bye Shmoody!

2007-02-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

* OK, well, it's been an interesting 24hours (THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED).

I drove from Mammoth to Reno which was a great drive and I was reeeeeeaaaaaaalllllyy early for my flight (I know that some of you were impressed with that ;) ). Unfortunately U.S Airways was not so early - my flight was delayed by approx. 1hour (the plane hadn't turned up yet). Anyway, we boarded and headed for Phoenix (I had to go via there to get to Indianapolis) - just before we got to Phoenix there was an electrical storm right over the airport so we hung around for a while and then didn't have enought fuel to wait any longer so we had to go to Tucson (it's also in Arizona). We sat on the plane at Tucson for an hour or so and then flew back to Phoenix (fortunately despite this awful head cold I have, I had no sinus problems as we were landing each time - yay!).

Of course by the time I got back to Phoenix my flight to Indy had left and I couldn't get on another one until the same scheduled flight the next night (ie 7.22pm which is in about 4 hours from now). I looked into going via other places but there are concerns about weather in some of them also. I also looked into another airline (yes, a bit like the 'Amazing Race' but I wasn't feeling so amazing by this time) but it was ridiculously expensive. So I was going to have to call a number and hopefully get a hotel room (at a discounted rate). Anyway, a large group of people who were travelling together obviously made enough of a complaint (because although it wasn't American Airlines fault re:the weather, we would have avoided the weather if they'd been on time initially) and I overheard an American Airlines worker getting them free hotel accomodation. So I jumped on the bandwagon and ended up at the Clarion Hotel which was not bad at all (actually I wish that I'd been here in summer, the pool and spa look great)!

Anyway, I'm just about to go back to the airport and get on a plane to finally get to Indy (am praying for decent weather in Indy 'cause it's looking fine here in Phoenix). I've spent most of the day in bed trying to sleep and get over this cold. Poor Jessie&Daniel! I hope I don't sniffle round their house all week!

Will put some pix up soon of my beautiful drive from Mammoth to Reno. xoxox.

Update: yes, I made it to Indianapolis - it was amazing to fly in and see snow piled up beside the runway (I took this dodgy photo out of the window after we'd stopped) :

And here are a couple of pix of my drive from Mammoth to Reno:

2007-02-11T19:26:00.000-05:00

* OK, I can't pretend I'm in summer any more. I drove here to Mammoth Lakes on Thursday 8th Feb via South Lake Tahoe - what a beautiful drive. It's amazing how quickly the scenery became moutainous. The above pix are my first view of South Lake Tahoe.

I'm staying in Crowley Lake (a bit of a lower elevation than Mammoth (Mammoth is where the skiing is) which is lovely. I'm staying in a lodge owned by the church that my friends Matt&Abby (and their gorgeous little 6 week old baby Nissi) go to.

I got to do a short amount of skiing (making sure I took it easy and didn't re-injure my knee) which is fine as my lift ticket was free (Matt does some volunteering ski instructing here) and the ski hire is pretty cheap and have also bought my first real north american winter jacket while shopping in Mammoth (while it was snowing outside!)

And last night it absolutely bucketed down snow in Crowley Lake (well, from my Australian perspective!). This was the balcony outside my room after all the snow overnight!

I walked to church (just a 5/10min walk) in light snow this morning which was gorgeous. It's been fantastic to see this beautiful part of God's creation in rain, snow and sunshine (the sunshine came during church).

Church was fantastic too - only one song I knew: 'How Great Is Our God' http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/c/christomlin5864/howgreatisourgod864975.html (which was the same 'one song' I knew at church last week in Davis - it's also one of my favourites (thanks Matt T from SGCS for teaching it to me!)) - it was great to worship with other christians and to be really challenged by the preaching to not have a hard heart - there was heaps more to it than just that one idea but I'm still processing.

Here's some more wintery pix: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/MammothCalifornia_8142_07

2007-02-07T01:53:00.000-05:00

* My time here in Davis is nearly up but I've had time for a few more adventures. Alex and I took the kids for a walk to the park down the street where one of the attractions is a giant slide (well, it's pretty wide and about twice as long as a normal slippery dip - and it's made out of cement!) Basically just a big cement hill that kids slide down - with or without a cardboard box to slide on. Surprise, surprise, while we were there (but on the the other side of the park) 2 fire trucks and an ambulance arrived as a kid had broken his leg on the slide. Once he was taken care of the fireman gave Stu&Catriona (Alex's kids) a plastic fireman's hat so it was all a big adventure for them.

I also got to check out where Rob does his Vet work at UC Davis. How do you get a large animal (eg a horse) onto this for an operation? You use this: (the hydrolics are amazing).

Today we also took a walk through the Arboretum at the university http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/ - like a botanic gardens really.

It was lovely and provided all the cliche North American winter pics (ie squirrels

and fir trees (although I hope no-one too horticultural is reading this because I'm not too good on my identification of trees - there was a Sycamore tree though (it had a label) so I sang a few lines from 'Dream A Little Dream Of Me': http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/paul/lyrics/mamasandpapas/dream.html)
- I also sung the appropriate references from 'Little Known Facts' from 'You're A Good Man Charlie Brown': http://www.allthelyrics.com/song/226047/ - Rosie should appreciate that :) )

One last pic for this post: the view from Rob&Alex's house - I thought it was a typical American scene (ie the huge cars and the basketball hoop on a quite little suburban street).

You can see more pix at: http://picasaweb.google.com/bec.kimpton/SanFranDavisCalifornia_1207

2007-02-04T00:52:00.000-05:00

* Today was exploring Davis day: breakfast down at the posh Nugget supermarket with Steph, Rob&Alex, Stu and Catriona. After lunch Steph, Al and I got on the push bikes (no helmets required - very freeing!) and rode into Davis.

This whole area reminds me of many seemingly conflicting things: Canberra (ie the grid style, very planned layout of the suburbs + mostly single storey houses. Oh, + the cold!), Movies&TV like 'Stand By Me', 'The Wonder Years' and 'The Brady Bunch' (ie the cycling through the neat little streets, the standard sloping driveways and typical American style house architecture) - what a confusing melting pot of memories, hey? It really is a lovely place.

Al&Steph had foot massages while I walked around and got reasonably (but not permanently) lost, despite the very ordered layout of downtown Davis streets (ie a grid of letternames (ie A,B,C,D,E etc) and numbers (ie 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc)). I had a yummy hot chocolate while reading my new book that Chuckie bought me before I left Aus and then met up with Al&Steph for a visit to Borders.
Steph showed off her ability to ride 'no hands' on the way home (and I got some 'Hershey Kisses' - my fave American chocolate)!

Tonight I put in some time online looking into New York options (re: theatre and accomodation (what else would I need in New York?!) for later this month.

2007-02-02T18:13:00.000-05:00

* After 2 years of God preparing me for some changes in my life, 1 year planning this specific change, here I am at the start of this 'next thing'! (Check the itinerary here: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/BecSItinerary/photo#5027523744344956754 )

It's been fairly emotional saying goodbye to people (and places: see the pic of my fave Sydney beach Tamarama) for the last month or so but also wonderful to spend the time with friends and family.

And on Thursday the 1st of February 2007 it finally came: the final packing of the bags (and suprise, suprise, some of it was still happening on the morning of the flight) and the trip to the airport. I had a pretty good flight (here's a tip: on the sides the last couple of rows of the plane there are only 2 seats (instead of the normal 3) and extra leg room if you have the window seat (which I did) - it was great!). I sat next to a fellow Monty Python/Musical theatre/TV fan (funny since I was reading some Monty Python that Erin had printed out for me) so we got on well.

And at the end of it all were Alex&Steph (friends from Sydney), waiting to pick me up at San Francisco. We had a great day (which forced me to stay awake - very helpful in changing time zones) seeing Fisherman's Wharf (including heaps of seals and a view of Alcatraz),

buying a new digital camera, a cable car ride through the steep streets of San Fran and a little sleep in the car on the way back to Rob&Alex's place. Most pix here are self explanatory but I just had to take a pic of the 'Shoe Pavillion' sign - most of you know my 'thing' for shoes - I managed not to go in - aren't I strong! You can see more pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bec.kimpton/SanFranDavisCalifornia_1207

2007-01-13T20:02:00.000-05:00

* OK. Here's December all in one go: hobbling around as the foot injury finally started to heal (yes, I'm a bit impatient after all that's gone on this past year - I've never had so many medical appointments in my life!!), packing up as I was finishing up my job after 7 years (and meeting with the new Drama teacher, Sonia - she's great!), packing up my house (after sharing 3 different places with Jenn over nearly 6 years), moving temporarily back to Epping with most of my life packed into boxes, doing some planning and list making re: going O.S at the start of February (and booking flights etc), Christmas and my eldest niece Rochelle's 8th birthday, flying to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test and then coming back to co-host a NYE party - yep it's been fairly nuts.

Highlights were Christmas Day with the whole family together at the beach for the first time in years, the Boxing Day Test (seeing Warney's 700th wicket (and 701st, 702nd, 703rd, 704th and 705th) and Andrew Symonds getting his maiden test century (and then going onto 153), and NYE - a great night with good food and friends.

Hope you enjoy some pix :) Feel free to leave your comments/messages.

2006-11-22T18:08:00.000-05:00

* What a weekend! Beautiful spot (The Basin near Pittwater), great food and fantastic friends (Thomas, Tara, Ez and Jess). We were rushed off out feet.....
Had to do something with that non-washed beach hair :)

2006-11-22T18:06:00.000-05:00

* Gil working hard to keep me company while my foot is up :)

2006-11-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

* So this is where I went snorkelling and stepped on a sea urchin in Hawaii (fortunately not until after the snorkelling and after having dolphins swim a few metres in front of me :) ) This led to my foot still having bits of sea urchin in it one month later (here it is marked up ready for surgery) And here it is having had the surgery with a few stitches under all that bandaging. All part of the Hawaii adventure, I guess?!

2006-09-25T01:59:00.000-04:00

* Clare and me at my 30th - not sure what the joke was (or perhaps we're just brilliant actresses ;)