Moose on the Move!

We wanted to go skiing this season but the winter had been so mild in Europe that many resorts had limited or unreliable snow conditions. So, we looked to go just a little further a field – and decided on Canada.

We left for Vancouver in the last couple of days of February, just after the finish of the Animation festival. The 10 hour flight over was not a good one – no sooner had the wheels left the ground when the family in front of us all put their seats all the way back and left them there for the entire flight. Arghhh! Also, there is something terribly confusing about leaving the UK at 1:30pm, flying for 10 hours and arriving at 3:30 pm on the same day. Needless to say we were completely stuffed when we arrived and were in bed at the hostel by half past six.

The following day we caught the ferry from the mainland to Vancouver Island and were met by Elke’s Uncle Jochen. The trip over is always stunning (provided there in sufficiently little fog) - the ferry weaves in and out of the islands and the gulls hover overhead.

We spent the next week with Oma and the Dous Family of Duncan. Oma had her 87th birthday the day after we arrived – she’s a very alert older woman whose hearing and eyesight is not quite what it used to be but who nevertheless has a sharp sense of humour. We walked the dog, Gem, and looked at the alpacas on a nearby farm. They are very odd looking animals who seemed to be almost as interested in us as we were in them. At one point a group of about 10 stared stalking closer to the fence as we went by and followed along when we turned the corner. If it had been a little darker it could have been quite eerie.

We took Oma shopping for a new jacket, she had finally decided that the one she bought in the 1600s was a little daggy and that she could do better. Success was ours and she found a snazzy navy number. We were also lucky enough to get to spend a whole afternoon replacing the elastic in her new knickers. Ahhh… it was an exciting week.

Towards the end of our visit Chris and I had something happen to us that we hadn't experienced before. I did a pregnancy test in my Uncle's bathroom and we discovered that we were expecting our first child! There was jumping, smiling and tears all in the space of about two minutes. What a strange feeling it was to find out, we'd been hoping that the test would be positive but to actually see two lines in the little window was quite surreal. I think we both had to keep checking it to make sure we weren't reading it wrong (although, admittedly it is fairly hard to read one of those things wrong...) We spent the rest of the day smiling at each other and were able to last a whole 36 hours before we told the Dous Family and Oma. It was very early in the pregnancy at that point but being able to tell those we love face to face was too good an opportunity to miss. Now we just had to keep the secret for a couple more weeks before we could start telling family in Australia! The due date we worked out was the 8th November 2007.

From Vancouver Island we flew inland to go back to Silver Star – the same ski resort where we learned to ski almost exactly two years earlier. It was as beautiful as we remembered – the snow was white and sparkly and the buildings were colourful in the sunshine. In contrast to the drab English weather which our now mole-ish eyes had become used to the brilliant sun and white snow of Canada and we were forced to buy ourselves each a pair of sunglasses. I got a very trendy pair of enormous purple ones which didn't look nearly as hideous when I looked in the mirror of the shop. Of course it was quite dark in there and I was wearing sunglasses....

We had a really wonderful week, the sun shone one day, it snowed (heavily by our standards) all day on another day. We skied and skied and didn’t break any bones. It took a while on the first day to get our ski-legs back, foolishly we had assumed that we would strap the skis on and be off like we’d never been away. We were wrong and spent much of the first day in the old faithful snow-plough position - adorable on three year olds, slightly pathetic looking when you're closer to 30.

As a treat towards the end of the week we caught a horse drawn sleigh through the forest to a little hut with no electricity for a home cooked meal. It was really wonderful listening to the bells on the horses tinkle as we slid across the snow. The sleigh was pulled by two enormous Belgian horses called Fred and Barney.

We slept well on our last night knowing that the following day, and indeed the week to come, was going to be completely exhausting. We were right. In the space of seven days we made two long bus rides, four long flights, three train rides and spent a whole lotta time sitting around waiting.

The upside of all this travel though was knowing that we were heading back to Australia after two years away. Oh it was so exciting. In preparation for our visit we’d made a list of people we wanted to catch up with, places we wanted to visit, business we needed to take care of and food that we wanted to eat. The top of Chris' food list read - Browne's Coffee Chill and Chicken Treat.