The Day After

Geese Know How to Travel Light

We've noticed that high-altitude Canadian geese are neither assembling nor flying overhead in southerly formations any longer. Additionally, much of the foliage has been knocked off deciduous trees by recent torrential rains and high winds.  Lastly, it's getting colder.  During today's clear-weather respite, jackets were required when venturing outdoors.

 

Yup, it'll soon be time to move on.  The preparations are just about set and have gone exceedingly smoothly.  It won't be long before our winter with time in the Middle East, east Africa, Indian Ocean islands, and South Africa.

33 - 15 = 18

An opportunity presented itself. Before packing, I found the chance to go through my short-sleeved shirt collection in order to weed them out. A full 98% of the shirts I own have short sleeves and the majority are colorful. For a decade we've been spending summers in BC but leaving for warm locations during the coldest months. This situation calls for an extensive collection of lightweight clothes. 

However, I counted 33 short-sleeved shirts in the closet. That was clearly overkill as some were too large for me now. Also, some had been in far too many photographs! In addition, if the material is not quite right for hot weather, sweat can show. So, I felt confident in trying to get rid of half of what was staring back at me from the coat hangers.

   

I managed to find 15 that had to move on. All of them were of good enough quality for donation. While going through them, I was also able to sort into the ones I want to stay here unused this winter and those from which to choose to take along. I already got rid of some pants and shorts which were larger than what I require now. So now, I'll be much more prepared to start packing later in the week.

Wrapping Things Up

We have the whole, entire week to pack our luggage. Still, today being a Sunday seemed like the beginning of the end. We easily cleaned up after last night's dinner, even while the guests were still here. Today, we did continue to slowly tick off errands and obligations we have to complete before we leave for the winter. 

There were a lot of little things; for example, I ordered some USB memory sticks from Amazon. Jay finished cleaning out the onions from the balcony plant pots. He also turned off the newspapers until our return. (Yes, we still have a printed paper delivered to the apartment!)  

It simply feels as though we are churning through the steps necessary before we depart.  The Internet stop and start have already been set.  I pre-paid many of the reoccurring bills.  Some like the electricity dwindle a lot when everything in the apartment is shut off.  It seems our fridge only has to run 7 or 8/12s of a year.  We did organize some packing but didn't actually pick items or put them in a suitcase.

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We even got our Christmas gift cards from Walmart for our apartment building's staff members. I was thinking how either one or both of us end up in that store at least four times a week. It's most always convenient, although probably a little less so on the weekends because of the crowds.  Yet, occasionally, I do enjoy feeling like part of a mob.

We're pros at wrapping things up for the season.  We've been doing this for more than decade.

Duck Swap and Going Away Dinner

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FORWARD

This summer has been a bit difficult for our traditional 'duck dinners'.  No, they're not the kind where anyone eats duck.  It's our quirky routine whereby three couples hand over rubber duckies to signify the receivers will host the next dinner.  It's been going on for most of the millennium. Now, however, retirements seem to have made getting together more difficult!

We ended the 2023 swap season with an October Canadian Thanksgiving in Richmond. The ducks were handed over to the downtown gents. However, after getting back in March 2024, Jay and I had the gang over for a movie night as one member was not back in town.  Then, after we we noticed the potential, future scheduling difficulties, we tried to have a duck dinner a bit out of turn so we could all meet before the summer was half over. The gang had a number of overlapping trips. Unfortunately, on May 11th, Jiwan was sick after getting back from Nepal.

The first official swap occurred on June 30th when we accepted the ducks from Tim and Jiwan. Schedules kept conflicting to prevent a meet up for the remainder of the summer. So, the ducks were still in New Westminster when Ed and Shinji put on their magnificent Thanksgiving dinner again. All that work always counts as a duck swap, even though we still had the ducks. We made a deal that the ducks could 'catch up' today.

After tonight's meal at our place, we temporary passed the ducks to Ed and Shinji and they, in turn, ensured the ducks moved to their rightful keepers in Vancouver's West End. The yellow quackers made the loop just once during 2024!  

This does mean we'll get to kick things off in 2025 in downtown Vancouver.

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It was nice having the guys over for a final time this year.  We talked, used the hot tub and sauna downstairs, and eventually had dinner and dessert.  The dinner consisted of just vegetable-fried rice, chicken curry and fish salad.  Desert was pumpkin-spice Swiss roll pudding with cherry ice cream.

We got rid of the ducks and they eventually ended up with Tim and Jiwan as shown above.

Even though the clocks will go back, everyone left rather early.

New Plane Tickets for a Future Trip

Jay and I have four, plastic, colour-coded, file folders on a shelf under the coffee table. They usually contain paperwork for future travels and trips. Over the course of this summer, most have been emptied. Only our yellow one was full until the other evening. The yellow one has all the plans for our upcoming winter. That will begin with flights, in just eight days, to Dubai where we'll meet up with Jay's sisters and a friend from Sri Lanka. 

Now, it seems that most of our winters have been shortened by a month to be around four. That is what will happen as we return in mid-March in 2025 from South Africa. However, for several years now, we've started trips of exploration during each June. In 2023 we spent our time based in Nice, France. This year, we wandered slowly from Berlin through Poland and Lithuania to Latvia.

   

Next year we have decided to take our time discovering some of southeastern Europe. We are one step closer to realizing this goal with air tickets now. Jay found a great deal flying into Venice, Italy with return flights from Bucharest, Romania.  There's something in the blue folder now.  We have lots of time to fill in the rest of the details.

Rapid Changes in Our City

Today, Jay and I stopped at our fruit and vegetable shop, the bank, and Walmart in the uptown mall.  However, I think I'll add a photo taken yesterday.

 

I walked near the apartment we rented when we arrived in the area in 1996.  To the right of this picture, there are three smaller towers.  We had a one-bedroom apartment in the building near the end of the crane's cables.  

 

At the time, there were absolutely no other towers in that end of downtown New Westminster, BC.  Our apartment #901 was in the south-west corner of the building.  So, we saw great, unimpeded views of the original SkyTrain Station, Fraser River, and Douglas college.  It must have no open views now.  There will be less to see when the present construction work gets built.

Some areas don't change a lot in 28 years.  However, I can say we picked a place that'd grow greatly.  The new crane will be part of several new residential towers.  In the strip-type mall on the other side of those former towers, the whole end of the city is slated for re-development.