The Six-Pack Together Again, Fernie, BC

It was back in 1989 when Mark and Jeff Neilson, Sacha Singh, Rob Irwin, Mike Henderson and I went on our first big ski trip out West to Panorama. Well, this was the Six-Pack Reunion tour to Fernie. Now of course, there were a few extras (like a 12-Pack) and some minis.
It was great to get the group together again and have all the significant others (although we missed Cathy) with us, along with the kids Abby Irwin, Rhianna and newborn Callum Singh.
And what a week for skiing. Big dumps of snow and a magical powder day. Of course, there were no friends on a powder day and we all just charged, skiing with whoever could keep up. A small group of us had a dream run, as we arrived at the top of the lift just as the ski patrol was dropping the rope to an entire bowl full of unbelievable, untouched snow (25cm+). The elbows were flying as the rope dropped and it was a gong show of speed and lack of control!! * Stub

Surrounded by Visa Applications, Kelowna BC

January and February was also a busy time for getting Canadian visa applications done. First priority was the extension of my current status as a Visitor which was due to expire in March: meaning, if I didn't get this done, I would have to leave!

Well, if I thought gathering documents and filling the ambiguous forms for the extension application was challenging, it was nothing compared to the Common-law Permanent Resident application! To prove Common-law for a normal couple is relatively easy - you have a house together, you have bills, bank accounts, credit cards, blah, blah, blah. I said 'normal'! Well, as you know... we're not! How do you prove Common-law when you've been traveling in 15 different countries for the good part of the last two years?! No houses, no rent, no mortgage, no bills, no statements. Just tons of stamps in our passports and 20,000 pictures to show for it! With so many photos and emails to sift through it was a tough task. If it hadn't been for the generosity (... and printers/scanners/photocopiers!) of friends Nicole and Don, I don't know what we would have done! To boot, medicals, fingerprints, and police checks needed to be done. Not to mention the forms themselves which for me -- not being normal -- were a nightmare! Here's an example:

"Print the information requested for each address you have had in the last 10 years. You must put down every address no matter how short a period of time you stayed there. Forms will be returned if there is any period of time which you have not shown an address."

Can you imagine compiling a list of your own addresses for the last 10 years - no matter how short a period of time you stayed there? Then imagine not having a fixed address, on the move every 2-3 days and 'staying' in as many countries and places as we have!! Well, an impossible task - we have no idea of the address of most places we stayed in! So all in all, compiling the application was right up there next to writing research grant applications and my PhD thesis! In fact, by the time I was finished, the whole thing looked like a thesis! It was very very painful. Imagine my sigh of relief when we FINALLY got it sent off in the post! Phheeeewww! * Mush