Good Bye Calgary, I mean Canada

Now I am finally waiting to board my flight to London some interesting occurrences has already taken place.

1. When I made it into the line to check-in the lady at the front of the line asked if I would like to volunteer for a possible better spot on the flight (first class premium no less) The stipulation was that they had over booked the flight I was taking and in hopes to fit everyone or move them onto the later flight to London Heathrow via Air Canada.

So her proposal was that I don't check in now and hope to get one of these first class seats on the same flight. OR if they don't have room on the Transtat flight that I would get bumped to a later flight via AC and I would get a bonus 400CAD travel voucher for future flights but I would arrive 4 hours later.

It was very tempting since first class is pretty darn awesome from my last experience riding near the cockpit. The last thing I would want to do is make Danny pick me up four hours later at a totally different airport. I hope that someone got to take advantage of this potential deal.

2. I have to make note when I did finally get to check in (20kg max/luggage) I was 6lbs over and the lady at the counter didn't charge me anything.

3. From there I headed to security after saying good bye to my two dear friends that kept me entertained with the addition of room and board. Everyone from the first person I dealt with to the very last were absolutely fantastic. Friendly, cheerful and smiling. This gives me a great feeling to be at this airport.

Was Edmonton airport always so dreary in comparison?

4. Now with my duty free bought I just have to wait to pick it up I didn't know that we weren't allowed to walk it to the gate but that is cool it isn't like I wanted to carry much more. Like I don't have enough stuff already. I don't ever recall not being about to take your duty free purchase on your persons.

5. Free WIFI, not this isn't just for Calgary airport everywhere in Calgary I got wifi signal almost everywhere I found that most of the places that I ended up leeching off of was usually a Starbucks but since there are so many everywhere there was no lack of internet access. Again, Canada takes the gold for wifi availability.

I am not much of a writer as you who know me already are aware of but writing in my travel blog once again makes me excited. Since I know that this will be a beginning of a wonderful chapter.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned.
Much love. <3

Calgary Visit

I didn't realize how long ago the last post was and not only that it was weeks before I packed up my things and left Edmonton. Lots of things have happened since then but the summary it felt like the home that I had always wanted. It just took a bit of soul searching to figure this out.

Mental Note: Do not ride the Greyhound, take the Red Arrow when available. Thank yourself later.

After having a chance to catch up with friends and more to come. I went off on a beautiful walk to and through downtown Calgary, straying from the path I realized two things 1. There is no shortage of hills. 2. Geese are really loud. I got some nice pictures from Prince's Island Park

Yay street art!Stop to take a sip out of my water bottle bam there it was across the street from me on the side of a house.

Later that evening after my very long haul back to the house we relaxed for a bit until Niky was on her way home, nuked some shepherds pie for dinner.

The next day: I spent some time smooshing the rest of my things in my bag, baked some cookies ate some dinner watched South Park wine in hand with Katie a very nice relaxing evening.

Off to Cora's before heading to the airport!

Good-bye Edmonton

There are no words that I could write down to express how much I have come to love my life here in Edmonton. Rebuilt with all the good people surrounding me, a good job, I finally know what is another side of the coin.

Alright, I don't know what it is but I <3 my bike. A lot. I wish I could take it with me.

Alberta, how much flatter can you get?

The thought of Edmonton used to scare me and would have me shuddering in a theatrical manner. Fear of never moving away from home, fear of becoming complacent with my life, fear of never expanding my idealistic horizons. On top of that I thought it was the unfortunate memories this city had held and the horrid things that have happened in the past that has made me shun this city....We all have to let go eventually.

Learning some valuable lessons upon my return and not only that, I am in a good place to reflect on the things that I have learned from my Asian travels. I truly am a different person than when I left.

When I speak of travel it is more than going to a resort or a camping trip within the Continent but my true way of living. It differs from place to place changing who I am consistently. My beliefs, diet, routine, goals, friends, language: everything. Building up my strengths, minimizing the unnecessary, being thankful for things I thought were never possible. Embracing landscapes that wrap around us when I stand in that place I know I am meant to be. Whether that is at sunset/sunrise in a foreign country from the mountain top, listening to the sounds of the ocean ebb and flow, dinner on a patio at restaurant on a street I have never been down before. Making new friends on the island of smiles.

Memorable moments:

• Eating Korean BBQ with Heather and Travis in Victoria and poking slugs!
• Singing along to A Perfect Circle LIVE outside!
• Lopping off Teddy Gram Heads and adding four different kinds of cheese to every meal at Boonstock.
• Dancing to Stuck in the middle with you at Wunderbar with Karrie and laughing at the most endearing "Charlie 'Adolf' Chaplin"
• Singing along to "What I got" covered by Dub FX.
• Dancing to The Pretender by Foo Fighters the dnb remix Infected Mushroom's LIVE cover at Motion Notion. 
• Drinking a bottle of wine with the wife listening to Newton Faulkner.
• All the house parties! Bonfires!
• Every single bike ride on my BMX. <3
• Sitting on the swing in the backyard with friends under the warmth of the sun whilst drawing.
• Seeing Tyler's creation (Diary of a True Man) at the fringe.
• Eating ice cream cake while watching anime after a good night of drum and bass with Justyna.
• Every single smile I have seen since I have been back.
• SASQUATCH, enuff said.

Last showing of Tyler's play

 Oh Halloween, I sure do love you.
I got rocking friends, you know who you are.

Dub FX

I had to look up what his real name was Benjamin Stanford (DUB FX) from Australia who started as a regular street preformer. After joining a band he eventually struck out solo and moving to Europe.

His magic comes from an effects petals, beat boxing, live looping of his own voice and singing. <3 His sound is made from his soul making it organic but giving it the touch of synthetics that we all love and crave. We also cannot forget his Flower Fairy (his fiancee) you could see how much she loves him and creates even more energy on stage singing and dancing.

It was at the Empire which I haven't been to since they changed the name and renovated the venue.

 The line up to get into the venue was mighty slow even though it seemed organized, there was only two people searching everyone coming into the show. If they weren't so thorough people would have gotten through faster. They even checked the inside of my wallet! After we made it in you were free to come and go with ease. There are a couple of the things that I have to make note of which I have already started telling people was that I love the fact that there a fans pointing the dance floor. It was so well ventilated I didn't feel like I was going to over heat once. On the other side of the coin though water was $4.50 I don't even want to know how much an alcoholic drink would burn my wallet. The videos that I did get of him on stage were not of the best quality so I will find one via youtube.

Love me or not by Dub FX ( My favourite)

 

He sang "What I got" <3 enff said.

If you ever get a chance to see DUB FX, DO IT. You will be happy that you did.

Animethon 18

Today I headed down to Animethon to catch the costume contest but in the end I didn't make it in since I am currently trying to keep all my paper nuggets in the bank.

So instead wandered about inside, outside, upstairs, back downstairs taking pictures of wonderful costumes. In turn I learned a lot about my own self criticizing self about my art. Whilst meandering through 'Artists Alley' I found that every vendor had someone drawing amazing art. Something that I think I should really be focusing on if I ever want to sell my art form within an actual community of enthusiasts. In the past I have passed through hundreds of genres of art and never really picking a particular genre to send me energy towards. Now making all my art very atypical. Leaving my ego a little broken knowing that I could be drawing something along the lines of that stature. Instead I am not. Enough whining onto the wonderful photos.

 Vash, Kakashi Hatake
, Dynasty Warrior and many more appeared.

There were many things to see besides the costumes and vendors. Animethon has an extensive list of popular animes playing in many of the classrooms on the big screen. Speeches, improv, cosplay, dances, performances, Photoshop tutorials and even Japanese classes. There were even events into the later part of the evening about 1am. I didn't think that it was going to be so expensive 170 for an x-pass but that is three days of fan-bubbling excitement of never ending fun.

Through out the after I ran into a number of famous celebrities come to live, what a great time we live in when it is okay to bring animated characters into the real world. Live action for the win.

The Power Rangers even showed up!

Soul Eater.

As you can see Vash the stampede socializing with everyone.With musical legends and voice over actors/resses there was lots to converse about on top of that there were many panels of awesomeness.

Lelouch Lamperouge and Suzaku Kururugi

Darth Vader talking to the rangers, I think he wants them to come to the dark side.

So to end the afternoon off we watched the game 'Red Rover' where they would call out the characters of the name instead of their real name since everyone's seen it list is so diverse they can pull this game off with little to no introductions.