After spending more time and beers together last night I find myself sitting in the kitchen at 06:30 in the morning. Our Jet Lag preparations tactics have worked to some extend as in I didn’t wake up at 04:00. All the sounds are familiar as well as the sight of cul-de-sac and the cat and dog looking up when the trains fog horn echoes through the valley.
Just to make sure that everyone here can read what I am telling about them I have decided to continue writing in English. As the house awakens with the smell of fresh coffee the sun rises over the city of Vancouver I am slowly realising that I am back here and it still feels like home. As Marlies could join the Olympic sleeping team and take home gold whilst sleeping I go for more coffee to attack the Jet Lag.
At 08:00 I decide Marlies has slept long enough and as 6 year old on Christmas morning I start jumping on the bed and continuously informing her that we are in Canada. Thank god she thinks I am cute and I make up for it with coffee in bed. A grilled cheese sandwich and more coffee get us going and as Lee’a was so kind t lent us her car and confident as I am Lies and I took of without GPS. Only to find out that down the road a new road had appeared and apparently a lot changed over the last years. Several U turns later we were back on track and arrived at the IMFS yard to meet old colleagues and catch up.
For our next stop we’re going to pick up Lee’a from work, despite my decent attempt we had to switch to GPS in order not to keep driving in circles. Driving through this part of Surrey shows that not all is beautiful in Canada. We see poverty is a global thing as we see people living on the streets, it happens in Amsterdam as well but we tend to avoid those areas. Nevertheless it’s great to see the Oak Valley Clinic and learn more about the work Lee’a and her crew do for those who want to kick addictions. But for now the clinic closes for Christmas and we go see Hanna at work in Richmond and take use of the opportunity to go for a healthy lunch. To great satisfaction of Marlies who had started to worry that there would only be fastfood on this side of the ocean. Lunch has however caused us to lower our guard and Jet Lag took advantage of this causing Marlies to nap as soon as we got home, I chose to continue the battle with more coffee.
To stay awake I join Bob and we take Kate to Colour Guard, getting behind the wheel of the Ford F150 being another thing to complete the Canadian experience. The V8 rumbles as we cruise along. Back at the house sleeping beauty has woken up and we get back on the road to go to Granville Island for a solstice celebration, good wine and great food. Some touristy photos later we all feel sort of jet lagged and finish the night of on the couch. Tomorrow we will beat the Jet Lag.
