Jamboree Life (pt 5)

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3    Part 4

Well here we are, almost done this blogging adventure! This is the fifth installment of my trip, and I think it may be the second last. If you've come with me this far - holy shit, you're still here?

On the right here you'll see the entrance to Excalibur subcamp, which was where Offer Of Service stayed. The OOS subcamp comprised of Ventrurer Scouts, Rover Scouts and Scouters from all across Canada and even some people from beyond!

Offer Of Service is when someone goes to camp to volunteer and "work" camp. You get placed in a work detail which could be in food services, site services, medical services, transportation, programming, security etc. The list goes on and on, it takes a lot of volunteers to run a high scare jamboree like this. I believe there was around 700 staff at the jamboree.

Each subcamp runs with the theme of the camp, this year it was Myths and Legands. As you see here, this is the entrance to Saga subcamp and they had this amazing ship built there. Each subcamp has its own team of OOS to help organize, set up, tear down, and be there for the participants whenever needed.

I've added some photos of some of the OOS food and the food line up that was the staff feeding area. We were very well fed, but it's needed when so many of us were working very hard burning calories, I did lose about 10 lbs when I returned home.

Next up is opening ceremonies. I don't have a whole lot to say about that, it went about as normal as any opening I've ever been to in my life. They did hold back OOS, then made a joke about us being late - I'm guessing that was on purpose. We waited in line to enter the field for about 45 minutes.

On my travels I found the fuel prices a lot higher than I expected. I figured that they're closer to the source of oil that the price would be better, but boy was I wrong! When I left home I think the price was $1.08 per liter for regular fuel.

Well, I think that's about it for this one, if you're still sticking around, there will be one more to finish  installment of this story that will consist of our final day in Vancouver before boarding the plane and heading home on our overnight flight.. I'm glad I'm writing this down so that I can remember it later when my memories fail me.

I'll leave you here with a picture of a deer I saw during one my shuttle shifts to Sooke, BC to and from camp. We did a last minute shuttle daily so people could visit a nearby town and access stores, transit to Victoria, and all the town had to offer. Anyway, I was astounded at how many deer we saw, they were everywhere! They'd just waltz right into town and walk up on peoples lawns and eat their gardens. To the point that deer were bordering on being local pests. I don't know if there's just so many of them or if they have nowhere else to go, but it was very strange seeing them so up close all the time.

Canada Day in Vancouver (pt. 3)

This is Part 1
This is Part 2

This is actually going to be quite difficult because there was so much to see at the aquarium so I took hundreds of photos!

On Canada Day we started the day with Crepe's at a nice place called Cafe Crepe. We then spent the morning at the Vancouver Aquarium.

One of the first things I saw that I thought was really cool was the jellyfish. They had so many different kinds and the presentation was amazing.

shark above me

There was a tank that had a huge turtle in it, stingrays and some sharks but the really neat part was the tank went up and over your head so it was like they were sometimes swimming right above you.



There was a rain forest type room with lots of butterflies and birds and frogs and stingrays in the stream.

dubbed "Big Chonker" by the teenagers

Outside they had some seals and penguins and dolphins, and you could see them from the top or the underwater which was pretty neat.

We rented bikes and rode the seawall in Stanley Park. I think I would have actually liked to spend more time in Stanley Park.

After all that we went to check out the festivities at Canada Place. There were vendors so I definitely got myself a tornado potato! The kids mostly spent their time inside at the military exhibits and new and upcoming inventions thing. There was also a stage and live music, but after a short while the kids decided they wanted to go back to the hostel and rest before coming back to see fireworks.

Next up will be PART 4 Grouse Mountain and the trek to Camp Barnard on Vancouver Island.

Tiny Garden VLOG - Heatwave

I came back in the middle of a heat wave.

Let's take a look at the Tiny Garden and see how it's doing after being away for two weeks!

I'm not coming up in searches yet and would be really helpful if you subscribed to my channel!!

Vancouver Jet Lagged (pt. 2)

 Click here for part one

We started off jet-lagged as fuck. The first night it was like 10pm and I was passing the fuck out. Then to wake up at 5am not able to sleep any longer because my body's all like "selfdude it's like 8am, you're late for work and have slept wayyyy in, get the fuck up already."

Chinatown

So I wait around because we planned on meeting at 7am. Then finally we meet and decide to go for breakfast, which I covered in the last blog, when I found the garden. So by the time we walked to this place (with teenagers leading the way) and ate our bodies were like oh thankfuck food because it thinks we missed breakfast.

Canal framed by Mountains

We honestly never really got to eating at normal times there until probably the last few days before we came back. Upon waking our stomachs were growling in disappointment with missing the normal food time, by the time we fed ourselves it was lunchtime in Ontario. When it was lunchtime in BC, we wouldn't eat. We might eat or sometimes just snack around 2-3pm and then again at like 8-9pm.

The kids didn't plan this trip, as in what to do once we arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia. So we just had to find things to do within the budget day to day and it didn't turn out horribly. We spent a lot of time just walking to destinations or navigating the transit system there.

The first place we went was Granville Island. There was a pretty cool market there and we spent the morning getting there, the afternoon there then heading back and having some food. We ate a lot of sushi while there, luckily most of the group liked sushi lol.

Next up : Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium!

Where Does The Time Go?

I spent only 15 days in the east coast, but by the time we got home and settled it felt like half my summer was gone. Now, only weeks away from the beginning of the school year I look back a little and boy was it fun!

Coming back home and getting back into the routine of (summer) life was unfortunate. I say summer life because I am only working one job for July and August. Only days after being home I was thinking of camping again already. Only a few weeks after being back we went to our annual Show n Shine and Race event where we camped over at the track for the night. I am now considering buying a small tent trailer for our family.

Back to work, has been a slower pace compared to last summer. Where I started working late July and we were crazy busy most of the summer. I like this summer better.

Tomorrow we're going couch shopping. I am excited to actually buy a couch set *new*. If you can't tell, it's a first for me and I hope nobody ruins my new couches too soon lol

There was no real point to this post, I only felt like writing something, so if you're reading this, sorry for time waster lol

New Stuff

Last year (even though it was only like a week ago...) I met a guy. He shall now be known as The Ole Man. Although it's really not been that long (March last year to be a little more precise), it's felt like a lot longer. It feels right, and good and too much sometimes for me to comprehend lol

Since starting this relationship, and wasting yet more time working at a place that doesn't give two shits about its employees (with hiring a single parent and making them work mostly evenings and every second weekend, paying them the bottom of the barrel wage but putting them on a job that everyone else gets paid more to do, etc) and wasting the summer working weekends and long hours when there is so much more I could have done... I finally quit. I gave my notice and headed for the light at the end of the tunnel.

So far the replacement job has been good, I get up really early in the morning and I upgraded my license so I could be a school bus driver. I get home after the morning run and take a nap if I need to. I visit The Ole Man on his lunch break, and I get EVERY weekend off. Which is glorious. I still am getting used to it and have all this time, to DO things. It's really amazing. I'm glad now our work schedules can be more alike, it certainly makes life easier.

I got two weeks off for Christmas, I'll have a week off in March, and I'll be off for the summer, and oh the possibilities that leads to. It leaves me more time with the kids, more time to work on welding things and more time to go camping and car shows. I'm very excited to see how much I can do when I don't have to work for two months during the best time of the year.

Short and sweet, there you have it.

Jane's Makeover

After a long wait, I finally got around to getting something done I'd wanted done for a long time.

The paint on Jane has been battered and bruised, and being over 20 years old since the factory laid it, I thought it was high time she gets some new gloss. Previously I had laid plasti-dip after I had done a lot of the prep for paint. Repaired dings and scratches, filled with bondo when needed, and sanded. That was a terrible idea. I'm pretty sure, although nobody says so, that plasti-dip was made to go over a gloss coat. If it's not on a gloss, it does not peel off like it advertises.

It took quite a bit of time to get it all off. Here's where we picked up from last years repairs.

Beginning to sand

Shout out to my amazing sponsor Vinyl By Trevor. Please look him up and follow him on facebook and twitter. He's been amazing to not only me but my car club.

 After all the plasti-dip was off the car we had to sand everything down again, and again with multiple different grit of sand paper.

Mopar or no car

 I found this on the door near the window while sanding and thought it was cool.

Taping

 There are some parts of the car you don't want to paint. I got this plastic shield stuff that we used to cover all the carbon fiber elements of the car so they didn't get painted.

getting ready for paint

almost there

Here we are in the booth after some paint has been laid.

paint booth

 Another shout out to my sponsor KMB Auto Service in Midland for letting me use their shop to paint my car.

KMB Auto Service

 Jane on the beach, soaking up the sun.

beach shot

The finished product is a white pearl paint. It shimmers slightly in the sun.

bridge shot

Although it's not perfect, she's still got a soft spot in my heart.

Lips Are Movin

So, as you may have (not) noticed my absence. Well, that would be me, road blocking. So stuck in my own head to think of anything else.

So here's a song that's kind of new and kind of fun.

Edgefest - Short and Sweet

For the first time in my life, I finally was able to see Our Lady Peace in concert. It feels pretty amazing to have finally done something that I've been wishing to do for the better part of my life. And it was fan-fucking-tastic.

I planned to stay at a friends house the night before and hung out with her beforehand. It was calling for rain the entire day, but luck was on my side and I didn't have to use the poncho I purchased.

Finally arriving to the place and after circling around for what seemed like 5 hours (read: 20 minutes), I finally just chose a parking spot which happened to be almost beside my friend I was looking for.

Time to ROCK

Just inside the gate, and with drinks

I decided I wanted to remember this forever so I took a photo sphere lol its much cooler when you view it on my phone because as you move around, and look into your phone, its like you're there.

Photo Sphere

Lastly, although I took a great many videos, this one is my favourite. Raine Maida said that they weren't going to do an encore, because there was a curfew on how late they could play, they were going to play until the absolute latest. The last song was Clumsy, the best end to an amazing set list. I had body surfed to get the front of the crowd, and was only inches away when Raine came out into the crowd. unfortunately I don't know how to upload the actual video, so this is what you get.

Clumsy