CSI Kelowna!

No, not Crime Scene Investigator unfortunately, but Centre for the Southern Interior - a part of British Columbia's Cancer Agency. As I settle into a semblance of a life, most of you who know me know that I am not one to twiddle my thumbs... So here I am volunteering at CSI Kelowna with fellow volunteer, Ron . It's great because I get to meet fun people like Ron, and also feel like I'm doing something worthwhile too. Most of our chores consist of dishing out tea and coffee and big smiles to patients waiting for treatment. I have been doing enough shifts now (about 2-3 per week, each shift is 3-4 hours) that I recognise the patients and have fun - at least with some of them. As you can imagine it is a tough place to be for cancer patients, but on the whole, I think it succeeds in being a very welcoming and upbeat place considering the circumstances. Our job as volunteers is to make a difference and hopefully make the cancer clinic a nicer place to visit.

One of my other regular shifts at the Cancer Agency is working in ACU - the Ambulatory Care Unit - basically where patients come and visit their oncologists before, during and after their chemo treatment. I essentially act as a middleman between the patient and the doctor/nurse (whomever they are seeing). So I keep all the rooms tidy and ready for patients, I greet them, weigh them, show them to their consult room and then inform the doctor they have arrived. I enjoy it because it is challenging and keeps my organisational skills in shape - I have to juggle the logistics of 5 or 6 doctors all seeing their patients every 20 minutes. It's also quite different to what I used to do ... seeing cancer from a different perspective: I've gone from the intellectual challenge of trying to find a cure for cancer - to seeing patients get their treatment - the results of hard work (and blood, sweat and tears) of scientists, like myself! * Mush

It's Alive!!!

Well, one of my possessions left in the Kelowna area is of course, my Toyota Landcruiser. It was living up at Phil McNeil's for over 4 years, and it was tucked away in a back field with the weeds. I went out to see it, taking a battery in tow and some gas. After getting the bees nests out of it (many), and as many spider webs as I could, I threw the battery and gas in, and to my amazement, it started FIRST TIME!!! Sweet!!
So, it is now back on the road again. It needs plenty of TLC now as it is dirty and has a few more holes (rust) than it did 4 years ago. Still a tank though, and reliable.
After the truck, I managed to make it to another housewarming party. Keith and Amy from Site360 had the group from work over to show off their new place. Great times, good food and a special appearance from Tracey's 6 week old Great Dane (very cute) made for a great night and a late night - arrived home at 3AM!! *Stub

Back on the Water

Well, after almost 3 years of being away from the water, I am afloat again! As most of you know I need to be near/on water - and I don't just mean the bath tub or a creek or something - I mean sailing on a boat on a large body of water, like the Columbia river or the ocean. Okanagan Lake is not, of course, the sea, but it is pretty big. When the wind picks up the waves feel and sound just like the ocean. I had been planning to park myself outside the yacht club and try and find a boat to crew on, but just by fluke I found out that a new friend's husband owns a Hobie 33 and he needed crew! So now every Wednesday night I race on the lake and have lots of fun. We generally come first - which turns out to be second after our handicap is taken into consideration. Oh well. Beer flows well, of course, and I am loving being out on the water again. The girls of my crew are a great bunch and we all get on well.

Our first weekend Regatta was in Summerland - about an hour south of Kelowna. By boat under motor-sail, however, it's 4-5 hours. We sailed in convoy with a few other boats to get there. We hit big waves and hailstorms, followed by hot temperatures and gorgeous sunny skies - perfect for cooling off in the water, and of course, obligatory water fights with the other boats. On arrival at Summerland Yacht Club, there were free Pina Coladas, and the delivery crews had more than their fair share of yummy cocktails. Giants Head Regatta, as it is known, was to start the next day so we had to pace ourselves. Needless to say, some were more successful than others!

Onboard our boat 'Celerity' was (left to right) Greg, whom we borrowed from a local Summerland boat, Skipper and owner Peter, Narissa, Leah, and Kristen. The long distance race around Rattle Snake Island was relaxed and enjoyable. The shorter races on Sunday were a little more intense and eventful, including shackles snapping open and sails flapping, capped off with running aground! Despite this we carried on racing and were surprised when we placed third overall!!! So it turned out to be a successful regatta after all! * Mush

Our Place

So here we are finally in our new place. Been here almost 6 weeks now. Most of that time seemed to be preoccupied with unpacking, sorting and purging / getting rid of stuff - something I am not very good at. It is a brand new carriage house - an apartment above the garage, and separate from the main house you can see here in the background. It's a one bedroom and not that big, so hence why we needed to have a good sort out!

The two main windows that you see are our living room (right) and dining area (left). The window towards the back far right, is our bedroom. Our dining room also has french doors (which you can't see here) around the left hand side. They open out onto a great view of the lake over the neighbours low single-story house. In fact, you can see the lake and hills between the cedars and the main house here. As you will have seen already from previous blogs, we have been enjoying the beach when the landlord is away. As you can guess, we're really enjoying our place and the great view, but more than anything, just having a place of our own at loooong laaaaast! *Mush