Climbing Mountains

As promised this month, entry number two- complete with some exciting news other than the marriage of Willie and Kate.

A question that kept coming up when I was in Edmonton earlier this month was 'Are people in England excited about the Royal Wedding?', and my answer at the time, was uncertain. There has been a lot of publicity and controversy around the event, and most of the people about me seemed to be happy for the couple, not so bothered about watching it on TV or having a great British street party. I felt somewhat similar... excited about the hype; uncertain if I should make a trek to London to join in the festivities. That was until the few days before the actual wedding... and a lot of my colleagues in particular seemed to feel the same. I actually felt a bit regretful, envious, and panicked that I hadn't planned anything, or even bought a commemorative tea set to show the grand kids one day. Nonetheless, I stayed in Brum, spoke with my Mom up until the ceremony, and watched a solid 2 hours of events on television with Craig's Mum (again, contemplating if I should take photos of the TV events for my grand kids to see one day... I didn't). So to answer your questions, Yes, people in England were excited about the Royal Wedding; it just took some time to get it into their heads.

One reason why I didn't make the trek to London was that we had gone to Wales the weekend before to climb the 'mountain': and I can confess, it was a mountain at about 1100 meters. Not comparable to the Rockies, but still a challenging climb. We arrived in Betswy-coed on the Friday with beautiful sunny weather, which was perfect for some footie, Frisbee, cricket, and cans, and a good forecast for the next few days. On Saturday 17 of us (including Josh (4) and Ellie (7)) climbed up Snowdon for Tracy's (21 again) big birthday. Unfortunately it was misty and heavily cloud-covered, but a good day all in all. Josh and Ellie were the youngest we saw climbing the mountain and made it up without much help. Sunday we were graced with lovely weather again and went walking to see a waterfall and to have lunch in the ruined Denbigh Castle. By ruined, it wasn't horrible. It was a picturesque place to have a spot of lunch and view the Welsh hills. So picturesque, that it doubled as the photo-background for three heavily made-up, short-shorts, tied-top 16 year olds who were getting some cheesy glamour shots done, complete with a smarmy, fat, middle-aged male photographer. There must not be much to do in the Welsh villages except build portfolios to become a page-3 model. Yikes!

Some structure, perhaps the miner's quarters, along the path up to the top of Snowdon.

Winning for Canada near the top of Snowdon

An Edgey Craig on a Craigy EdgeLunch views from Denbigh Castle

The Clan at Denbigh Castle

Reason two that I didn't make it to London, is that we are making progress with the other mountain Craig and I are climbing at the moment, called our house! The remodelling of our kitchen is well underway and we needed this weekend to go kitchen shopping. I hope to have some pictures for you in next month's report. In the meantime, we have been repainting the wood panelling in our bathroom and intend to put the finishing touches on this weekend.

Well, off to get some finishing touches and perhaps a half-price commemorative tea set if I can find one.

Same-same; not different

Some of you know that I made an impromptu visit to e-town due to unfortunate circumstances- such is life, but it has been wonderful to be back with my family, especially my sisters. I have generally thought the adage 'you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family' to ring true retrospectively; however, I have really enjoyed each day that I have been home, even to the extent that I put off seeing other people in favour of my fam (sorry to those of you I didn't see). As much as I enjoy being away and doing my own thing, it feels like I have refueled my connection with those I care about most. I suppose that my 2011 Horoscope Annual is somewhat correct in saying 'Home and family are central to your life, providing you with a sense of connection and continuity'... but, not to the extent that I will be moving back any time soon, so don't be getting any crazy ideas!

And if anything else has been reinforced in the past two weeks, it is that I am certainly glad not to be living here full time. Flying in, I forgot how flat this place really is. I also wasn't very excited about the presence of snow in April where Craig was reminding me on a daily basis that it was sunny and in the high teens in Brum (uncharacteristically warm for April, though). And as I sit and write this entry, it is nearly blizzarding with a total of 15 cm of snow fallen from 8am - 3pm. No Alberta, you may be trying to make me stay, but you certainly aren't doing a very good job of convincing me. Edmonton is also brown, dead, and mouldy where I was admiring the crocuses and daffodils just as I left England. There is no aesthetic motivation for me to want to look out my window, let alone set out of the house. Same streets, same buildings, same trucks, same mullets, same bums begging for cans. Nothing has changed.

I did venture out with my sisters to a spot of shopping, some restaurants, and to get perma-stamped, but only to find that even in the city centre, or on Whyte, or in WEM it's all still the same dead/robotic feeling. I am assuming that some of this is due to the long winter you have had this year; however it was sunny for the majority of my time here, and nobody was looking particularly twitterpated to me- there was a lack of spring in people's step. Or maybe this dead feeling is because everything is so open and spacious in Edmonton. Perhaps, if things were a bit more cozy, then we could feel the energy of each other a bit more.

It seems to me that everything feels a bit more vibrant and energetic in England, but then again, maybe I get this feeling because it's still newish to me. Maybe some of you should come to visit me and let me know what you think for yourself ;)