Exploring, in a much smaller radius

Not nearly as many interesting things to report nowadays, but at least Vancouver Island is an even better fit for us than we had hoped! Mike’s electrical engineering studies are keeping him focused and he’s doing really well…much better than he would have 12 years ago! And he was hired this week by a professor to be a Research Assistant to open the Physics Department Research Facility to grow carbon nanotubes! One day I will learn what that means, but he is excited, especially to go to Victoria & Vancouver to check out their electron microscopes. I’m getting him to look into what kind of work co-op project locations there could be for his third year. Maybe here, or Vancouver or Montreal or abroad somewhere. He's still being mistaken for a 17 year-old as so many of his classmates are. That’s two years still before they can even show him around to the better pubs in town! The university is picturesquely tiny; his biggest class is Physics with 25 students, and his Electrical Engineering lab only has 5 of them in there. There’s tame rabbits leaping all over the campus and now the island’s woods are turning brilliant autumn colours (mostly oak, maple, and there’s fir, cedar, hemlock, balsam), and it is exhilarating to see Whistler’s mountain range 60km across the sea on the mainland from Mike’s Physics building.

Lots of adventuring opportunities around here, especially now that we’re getting connected through campus rec. We’re set to go sea kayaking (but we'll have to challenge the float planes in the busy harbour!), white water rafting, snowshoeing, and spelunking over the next few months. We’ve decided to save the cash and the atmosphere and not put our car back on the road for now, but I can feel the limitations as there is so much nearby but just out of reach unless we are being very creative about transportation, so that’s why I’m glad to discover how many uni trips are organized. I’m trying to convince Mike to hitchhike with me up to Coombs tomorrow to see Butterfly World. He’d rather stay home and read about carbon nanotubes…. We did go hiking of one of the many islands (Newcastle) in Nanaimo’s harbour, and take the “pickle boat” on a harbour tour past seals sunning themselves on a flotilla of logs on their way to the pulp mill. I’m wobbling around on a pair of old school roller skates, and hoping to get my wall climbing belaying certificate with a friend from work. And we attended a barn raising, and cheered on a Clippers match (local ice hockey team) to round off our Nanaimo experience. Our favourite pub is the Dinghy Dock pub, the country’s only floating pub, served from the harbour by a tiny passenger ferry boat. And there’s supposed to be some… “invigorating” scuba diving round here now that we’re certified. Ice cold waters, but tons of sea life, and a downed Boeing 737 to explore. I’m on a mission to see killer whales over the next few months, and Mike’s already pondering his submission for Nanaimo’s Annual Bathtub Race. (my sister, Lisa and brother-in-law, Tom ended up lending us their car for this rainy day excursion up-island. Butterfly World was closed for the season when we arrived, but we did visit the goats on the roof of Coombs Country Market.)

I’ve got Lisa to go to the college gym and yoga with, and I’m really happy that I’ve found an Iyengar yoga studio near our place that I adore, and we’ve started running. I try to run down to the seawall to see the ocean everyday, but sometimes I only make it to Bocca, my local soy latte supplier. And if Lisa’s not around to keep me company on my run, I’ve got the enthusiasm of Jasper, their giant polar bear of a dog who guards our patio and bikes for us when he’s not out with me. Lisa and I went down to Victoria a few weekends ago to see Naomi Klein speak, and to do (just the 8KM road race) of the Royal Victoria Marathon. It was bizarre to be swept up in the marathon culture momentarily.

I’ve been working now at the Boys & Girls Club doing their recreation program for 10 to 13 year olds, and I am opening up their Teen Centre recreation program too this week. It’s a very creative and stimulating, and noisy job: 80 kids when they all pile in after school, from kindergarten to 12 years old, racing around throwing Lego and crayons at each other till I can tease my kids out of the mob to focus on activities. I really appreciate that the programming is up to me, so it’s as fun or as boring as I make it. We went for an SPCA visit on our Cat Day, we’ve had Mexican Day, 1970’s Day, we go swimming and watch movies and bake. I just have to figure out what 11 to 18 year olds are going to want to do for the evening program, but at least we have a pool table and 4 TV’s in case of an emergency lapse in imagination. I took them to the Bug Zoo in Victoria last week, and did let the scorpion scuttle across my sweaty palm, just for them. I’m just struggling through the manual to get my Commercial Vehicle Driver’s license to chauffeur the kids around, but with that I can also drive limousines and taxis and ambulances if the bottom falls out of the recreation job market.

And we’re quite happily all set up in the suite in the walk-out basement of Lisa and Tom’s house. Mike’s helping Tom out with gardening and renovations, and we’re within walking distance of the college, my work, the old city quarter and the harbour of this old coal mining town. Like Ireland, Nanaimoites give directions by pub landmarks (well, shopping centres first, pubs second). We’re far enough away from the big box stores to feel like we’re in a small town, but Nanaimo’s population (90,000) is sufficient to support 6 Tim Horton’s donut shops. The most noticeable highway signage reports how full each ferry sailing to the mainland is, and the event of the week is seeing the cruise ships lodged between two of the harbour islands and the tourists spilling out into little boats to scamper up on the shores to shop and photograph the totem poles. The First Nations Salish name for the area was Sne-Ny-Most.

My first week before starting work was quite blissful: sitting in the sun at the picnic table with Jasper, and picking blackberries beside the brook in our backyard. After a handful of bramble slivers, I can see why no one else was joining me. The brook is a bit more wild and less idyllic than it sounds, mostly it’s a mess of brambles but it has salmonoids in it, so the sign says. There’s no grizzlies on the island, but there are black bears and cougars, bald eagles, no skunks but I’ve seen a racoon bounding down our lane.

The move 1200 kms over the mountains from the prairies to the island was a bit of a mission. We were thrilled that our car started fine after being parked for 3 years, and the only surprise was that all our stuff was in good shape in the shipping container it had been squished into and stored on a farmer’s field through 3 winters. It took sick-with-the-flu-Mike 15 hours to drive the moving truck towing our car over the Rocky Mountains, and we slept in the car at the Coquihalla Summit. Poor Mike couldn’t even clear his ears through the 2000 meter mountain passes. In Vancouver, Mike had disconnected the car from the beast of a moving truck which I manoeuvred through downtown, and as I pulled the truck onto the ferry, the car stalled and he nearly missed the boat. But judging from the speed the ferrymen jumped on the problem, this probably wasn’t the first mechanical failure that had encountered.

Once we were island bound, I was delighted to pull out my sewing machine, cookbooks, sprouter, bike trailer, and art supplies, and especially to have my own desk and computer now that we have the laptop. It brought tears to Mike’s eyes to crack out his tools, the bread maker, and his wine and beer making gear. His first batch of Gewürztraminer and ale were fine products, and he made his first batch of stout, and a sharp and highly potent jug of ginger beer, inspired by you Aussies! He’s even started making me soy yogurt, which is much easier than I imagined. And of course we made up a tray of Nanaimo bars in our first week, we had to.

So, we’re more content than we’ve ever been, I’ve just gotta stay focused on not immersing myself too much in romantic visions of countries we can’t visit for the next 5 years till Mike’s an engineer and released from the institution. At least we can always ferry over to Vancouver to get a dose of urban relief and see gigs, and we get Seattle radio stations, so that reminds me how close we are. But I’ve got creative work to focus on, and maybe one day we’ll learn to surf. We are thrilled to be back in a country that gives free coffee refills (even if its crappy quality), created the Caesar cocktail (recipe below, I had the tastiest one in my life this afternoon in a seaside pub), and appreciates all the energy we pour into making Halloween costumes! (Mike’s going as Joey Ramone, and I’m Stormer of the Misfits, nemesis to 1985’s cartoon Jem and the Holograms rockstar)

Nanaimo Bar Recipe

Bottom Layer
½ cup unsalted butter (European style cultured)
¼ cup sugar
5 tbsp. cocoa
1 egg beaten
1 ¼ cups graham wafer crumbs
½ c. finely chopped almonds
1 cup coconut
Melt first 3 ingredients in top of double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut, and nuts. Press firmly into an ungreased 8" x 8" pan.

Second Layer
½ cup unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. and 2 Tsp. cream
2 Tbsp. vanilla custard powder
2 cups icing sugar
Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light. Spread over bottom layer.

Third Layer
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz. each)
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Melt chocolate and butter overlow heat. Cool. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator.

CLASSIC CAESAR RECIPE

4 oz Clamato* Juice (A robust tomato clam cocktail, seasoned with secret spices)
1 oz. vodka
Celery stalk or pickled asparagus or today I had a pickled bean with dill
2 tsp. Lime juice
pepper to taste
salt to taste
1 Dash Hot Pepper Sauce 2 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce