Busy busy week coming up. So much to do and so little time to do it in. I start my Leave of absence in just under 5 days and then Kate and I will be on the road again.

Tomorrow is packed with a museum trip – Something I have been really looking forward to for a bit now. I have heard nothing but good things about the Royal BC Museum, and it has been something we have put off seeing for a long time. We will also be seeing the 2 latest IMAX films – We figure we might as well see them all before our trip.

Thursday we plan on going to Parksville and Qualicum for the day. We have been up there twice since we have been on the island, and I find it stunning. Before moving to the island, I have only experianced lakes, and rocky beaches. I love having the opportunity to walk along the sandy shores, that strech for miles.

On Friday Rhian and Alan will be flying out. I am looking forward to seeing them again.

I find myself continually intrigued by Canada. I know the hype-we’re large and empty and it snows most of the year. We live in igloos, we skate or ski to work, or take dog sleds, (even in the summer) we have bad touque-hair. But I’m finding out Canada is a subtler country than that, with many more layers than I first thought. Especially for such a relatively “young” country. Looking for interesting facts, sometimes I find it frustrating; people remember the Hudson’s Bay fur traders, the coureur de bois, the rough rugged pioneers who found the country huge and cold, and strange when it was new, and no one seems to have updated their views of Canada since the 1800′s. But one fact stood out to me. Canada has pretty much always had a strong musical culture. A lot of Canadian musicians, singers, songwriters have international acclaim, and it’s easy to see why. Our musicians are popular, perform with a high degree of skill and integrity, and are always pushing the envelope.

Closely linked is the tidbit that apparently Canadians have always loved to dance.

This is just a brief, sort of little river of thoughts instead of a nice thick thought-torrent. There’s not a lot of detail in this post, and I expect it will be expanded later, but I just wanted to jot some quick impressions about music in Canada.

West coast music tends to be gentle, an easy walk on the beach with the tide lapping your toes. East coast-Maritime-music tends to have in the beat the memory of waves crashing onto tall rocky shores, harsh seas and constant motion. Music from the plains is mixed, sometimes it’s pretty industrial, concrete cities stretching against big stormy skies, sometimes I feel a sway of wheat and grass in a strong wind. I think generally speaking, a lot of distinct music comes from the coasts, where people cluster and inspiration seems to be more directly influenced by the surrounding landscapes.

Victoria’s SKA fest is one of my favourites-there’s a lot of good mixing of musical styles, great jam sessions, and I can clearly see the influences in some bands; whereas other groups’ musical roots are more directly defined by what individual members bring to the gig.

Just a blurb, I will define this post better later.

~H

It has been a busy last few months, lots of work, lots of work at home too. After several weeks, we have finally managed to get both bikes up and on the road – it was quite the task. We had mine repaired, and not 2 days after getting it back, the tire died on it again. Luckily the bike shop replaced it again at no charge–damned faulty inner tubes. They were quite good despite the issue of the tire.

Today we finally had the chance to go out and enjoy the bikes. I am glad to find that we didn’t lose to much of what we had gained from the bikes last summer. We had little issue with the hills. This time last year we would have never been able to ride like we did today.

We were out biking for close to 4 hours. we ended up going down to the rocky beach down in Oak Bay and sat on the beach for about half an hour, before continuing down the scenic rout down to Ogden Point (where the cruise ship launch from) We ended up down on Fisherman’s Wharf and having this wonderful meal of fresh local fish and chips, while the harbour seals played just bellow us.

The Wharf itself is an interesting sight, wonderful fresh local fish can be bought to take home, or eaten right on site, whale watching and harbour tours launch from there as well. The character of the building at the wharf was amazing. there were some 30 “floating homes” of all different colour, size and shap. Some ranging from little bachelor sizes homes to a massive 2 floor home with the roff as a large balcony. Definitely a sight to see.

All and all, we spent about 4 hours in the lovely 32 degree weather biking around this beautiful island. It was a wonderful day, and a real treat.