12th - 14th September 1997

Friday 12th September

Slept in until 10am only interrupted at 6:30am by Claire getting up for work.  I had a shower and walked to the pod.  Claire took Aaron's car to work as it was pouring with rain.  After about an hour she noticed the tyre was completely flat.  So then we had to think about how to sort it out.  I had a sausage sandwich with brown sauce for breakfast!  and then hitched to Aaron's at 12:30.  We borrowed his bosses truck and went back to the pod, he couldn't change the tyre so he drove it on the rim and did it at the garage, he then drove it back and I followed him in it back to the shack.  We then went into town for Post Office and Ralph the Veggie man.  He made Claire and I a stir-fry for dinner which was very nice.  I went to work which was pretty uneventful.  I have to keep checking Aaron's tyres. Claire filled them at 8pm and if I can I'll do them again at 11:30pm.  I have to call the Whale-watching people tomorrow to see if we can still go, either at 1 or 1:30pm.

Saturday 13th September

I got up at 10am and called both Sea-Trek and the Whale-centre.  They both still needed people so I said I'd call back later.  We went back at 12:45pm when Aaron went to the Laundromat.  Sea-Trek only had 2 people booked and the Whale-Centre needed 4 to go, so even when they combine efforts we still couldn't go.  We decided to hitch down to the Wickaninnish centre, something we've been meaning to do since we first arrived.  It took six rides to get there and the last lot that picked us up were from Bedfordshire and as we turned into the car-park we/I realised that this was where Dave dropped his chickens off on the first day.  The centre was good and we did on of the shorter trails then hitched home.

Sunday 14th September

Had a really nice lie in until midday.  I was in trouble because I was supposed to call Claire about the hot springs but there was a mix-up and I didn't call her.  She phoned me though!

Aaron made me pancakes for breakfast, real English ones!  We then went and picked up his tyre and the guy said that there was a knife top stuck in it! It was rusty and could have been in there for 3 weeks, i.e. the first time Aaron went to Courtenay! Spooky!

It was foul weather so we decided to watch videos.  We got Heads and Tin Cup.  Heads was kind of strange but quite funny and filmed totally in Manitoba! Tin Cup was your usual Hollywood, hero, feel-good movie but kind of heart-warming.  Aaron was going to study while the movies were on but he had some beers instead.  Then when the films finished I was supposed to go home and he was going to study and go to bed early as he had to work at 6:30am Monday morning but the beers kicked in and he decided to have more beer and more videos. So we rented "2 days in the Valley" and "Secrets and Lies". All in all I had a really good day, we may not have done anything exciting but just spending time with Aaron was nice. 

<these are extracts from my diaries written whilst travelling and working in Canada and the US in '97-'98>