22nd - 25th June 1998

Monday 22nd June
Claire went to work after only 3 hours sleep.  I slept as the coffee pod for another 5 hours.  At midday the England match was on so I went to the bar and watched that.  We lost 2 - 1 to Romania - but I had the whole range of emotions from pure joy plus goose pimples to a slight bit of anger when Romania scored and some guys cheered.
After Claire finished work she went whale-watching and I went to Aaron's for a shower. He wasn't there but I know I could find him at the laundromat.
I went to work a bit early and changed in the bars washroom.

Tuesday 23rd June
Matt said he can't fork out enough cash for the van so we're not selling it to him.  Danielle is giving us $1900 for Calvin and she seems like she'll look after him.
Went to the bar after work for Chaf and Mica's leaving do.  Dom was all over Claire and Graeme was talking to me again.  The football highlights were on so I watched them and fell asleep.

Wednesday 24th June
I was at the Coffee Pod most of the morning and just as Claire was finished Liz turned up and wandered if anyone fancied a trip to Ukee.  So I went with him - it was quite good fun.
Claire felt really ill so she went to bed after work.  I went to Liz's and showered.  Then Doug and Al showed up to whisk us off to Nanaimo. Of course they'd already been to the Liquor Store.  24 of Corona, 15 of Bud.  We all piled in  - Claire, me, Doug, Al and some other guy and of course Sister.  We even went and picked up Brad.  So we made it Nanaimo - drinking the whole way.  We went to a bar called the Combie - a pretty scary looking place.  We had whiskey with whiskey.  Claire and I had a few beers.  I had to fight off  Doug's advances yet again.  Claire was still feeling ill so we went back to the van.  About an hour or so later Doug arrived and plonked himself between us.  Then Brad contorted himself around the front seats and gear stick.  Then Al arrived and slotted in nicely next to Claire, until he rolled over and then we didn't have much room at all.  I got up and fashioned myself a bed on the floor - using the beer as a pillow.  I eventually got to sleep.

Thursday 25th June
I woke up to Sister sitting on my head and Doug tickling my feet.  He hauled me onto the bed where I thought I could doze a bit more. But we all had to get up because charges started at 8am.  So we made our way to Burger King for breakfast not until Al had had a Corona of course.  He made a fool of himself in BK and I had had enough.  I was looking forward to leaving him in Port.  We picked up Oleta and Talon and made our way back to Port.  We stopped at Englishman River Falls and Butterfly World on the way - which was cool as we hadn't been there yet.  Then Al kept saying he was invited to Liz's and he said he was coming.  I was not at all happy with this.  First of all because I did not want to spend another night with the drunken bum and secondly I didn't want him showing us up in front of Liz's family.
I had Liz's number on me all day until it came time to call her and then of course I lost it.  So we called directory enquiries and called the number that they gave me - there was no one there.  We went to the travel agent and asked about our options to get to Toronto - Plane, Train or Automobile?  We lounged for a bit and called Liz again.  She came and picked us up in a rush as she had to get back to work.  So we went home with her and she immediately went out to work.  Al went with her sister and friend as "licenced driver".  Claire and I watched a lot of tv.  Al and Jenny came back after trashing Liz's car on back roads and getting air! Liz wasn't long at work and she came home with her friend Joe who was very curious about mine and Claire's travels and situation.  We eventually went out to "Buck a Beer" but there was a bug line-up so we went to the Arly instead.  Definitely a small town bar!  We had a good time just chatting especially to Joe.  We left and went to take Joe home.  When we got to his apartment there were some of Liz's friends there so we got out and chatted to them.  I got out in the end and spoke some of my lovely accent to their friends.  Then we went up to Joe's apartment to go to the loo.  I went - then Liz and Joe had put the tv on so we started watching it.  Claire and Al were asleep in the car.  Liz went down to turn the radio and engine off.  Al and Claire looked cosy enough so she left them.  Darryl turned up - but no one knows about him so I had to keep my mouth shut.  Al appeared and we told him where we were and he and Claire were welcome up.  Al left and we didn't see him again.  Joe and I got closed and closer with much encouragement from Liz!  Claire poked her head around the door very upset and angry.  She was freezing cold, tired and ill  Joe was great.  He gave them his bed and calmed them down and they went to sleep.  Liz and Darryl were on the floor and I snuggled up on the couch with Joe.  He may be young but he's very sweet and exactly what I needed, although I'm quite cynical now about compliments as Matt said enough of them and look at how many lies he told!  Joe said he's come and visit Tofino and now he wants to come to England - scary eh!?

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