Almost like home

The other day I went grocery shopping and I found some Spekulatius. For everybody who does not know that are some kind of Christmas cookies. Usually I get German ones, but this ones were from Holland, not as good, but still yummy. Since Adeniyi loves these cookies too I brought a package for the lab. Hehe and just right now I am having vanilla tea and I dipping the cookie in my tea before I eat it, hmmmm just like heaven....

The Geese-Fence

Oh I forgot to mention in my previous post that I though it was quite amusing that the swimming area Shawnigan Lake was surrounded by a fence. This means in order to get into the water you have to go through a gate! First we thought that it is used to prevent the little kids that are playing in the water to come back to the land and disturb their parents, but apparently it is used to prevent the geese to come to the shore and get fed by the humans. But for whatever reason there was still some geese poo on the grass???

Anyways having Geese-Fences seem to be common in Canada, because when I went to Elk Lake last night after work there was a Geese Fence too. This one was even bigger....

A Day of Doing Almost Nothing

The weather in Victoria is just awesome lately and so it is hard to stay home on a weekend. That's why Jen, Rach, Raj and I pack our stuff on Saturday and went for one day camping to the Koksilah River Provincial Park, the park itself is fairly small, but super nice and only has 15 rustic campsites. Surprisingly when we arrived there on Saturday noon, there were only 3 campsites occupied. Nice, so we quickly build up our tent and went to Shawnigan Lake, where we hang out all afternoon doing nothing but lying around, sleeping, reading, taking and a bit of swimming. I don't even remember when I had my last afternoon nap but that day I had two naps in one afternoon. Just great!!! Later on in the evening we went back to the campsite, sat at the river with some wine and since it was still super warm we went for a nice swim.

I guess it is needless to say that we went for another, refreshing swim in the morning, before having breakfast. The water in the river was so clear and just nice. It was a short but super relaxing camping trip and somehow getting out of town and relaxing a bit makes me more productive. Can't wait for the next trip.

Some picture are online!

Working out!!!

Before the gym

After the gym

Splish Splash

Have you ever been tubing or water skiing? If yes, you know how much fun it is and if you have not, it's now time to put on your swim wear and a life vest and go. It's soo much FUN!!!

Jen, Darren, Fergus and I went on a small camping trip 2 weeks ago and since Darren's parents own a boat we used the chance a spend all day on the Cowichan Lake tubing, water skiing and drinking beer. It was Saturday 9:30am and I was the first one to go tubing, because I have never been tubing before I was super excited and so it didn't matter that the lake was a little cold. It didn't take long and I fell off the tub into the water. Boy, that's so much fun. Imagine a stone skipping over the water, that's what you do if you fall off the tube, you skip once and twice and maybe another time before you actually land in the water. So much fun, again again please!!! I went couple of times until I hit my head while skipping over the water, that was a sign to allow some body else to go next. So it was Jen's turn. And just watching her hanging on to the tube and falling off, is so cool.

Me on the tube before the boat started dragging me around.

Me on the tube while the boat dragged me around.

Me falling off the tube.

Later on that day I got the chance to water ski too. I was quite nervous, since I have been told that it is not that easy to get up and ski. But Darren gave me the instructions:

1. Go into the water and put the skis on, put the ski tips out of the water.

2. Then we will tighten the rope, by moving the boat a bit.

3. When you're ready say “HIT IT”

4. Stay kneed until your skis are parallel to the water.

5. Then slowly get up.

Okay, does not sound that hard. Let's see:

Skis are on! So far, so good.

HIT IT!

Somewhat kneeing...

Standing!!! Yeah!!!

(Ups, I got too excited about standing, that I right away fell into the water...)

I went water skiing couple of times and every time I got up I had the feeling I got better and better and I actually managed to stay on the skis for a while, before I fell into the water again. For sure I want to go water skiing and tubing again, it's really fun.


Fergus was the last one, who got to tube that day, since he is a though guy, Darren had his problems to make him fall off the tube and while taking a turn, he created a huge wave that swamped Jen and me in the boat, and somehow knocked out the electricity of the boat. So we're sitting in the middle of the lake, with no eletricity and no real paddles, well we could have used the water skis to paddle back to the shore, but it could have been worst, we could not have had beer :-) So everybody, including me, had a beer and we were waitng for the next boat to stop by in hope to get towed. Luckilywe didn't have to wait long.

The whole trip was awesome and I really like to go again. Next time with a new bikini and/or board shorts, since my bikini is a little too big and almost falls off when I fell into the water. What am I talking it did fall off...

More picture of the trip are posted soon on my web page.

20,92lb Of Yummy Fresh Flesh

The last 6 days I have been eating watermelon, almost with every meal. It all began when Jen and I went to Coombs and got a huge watermelon that we wanted to share with 6 other people at the beach in Parksville. But for some reason we forgot about the watermelon and took it home again, where Jen told me that she does not really like watermelon, which I don't understand, since watermelon is sooooooo yummy. So it was up to me to eat the giant thing. I started of on Sunday with my watermelon diet, which is equal to eating watermelon for breakfast, lunch as well as dinner. By Tuesday my skin turned a little pink so I decided to eat something else for a change :-) and only had watermelon for breakfast and as a desert after lunch and sometimes as midnight snack :-) This morning I finished the last piece and I found the receipt, which states that the watermelon was 20,92lb when we got it. And except of some pieces that I could distribute to Adeniyi and Jen, I ate it all. I tell you that's a lot of watermelon. But soo good, I kind of got addicted :-)

Flying Home For Christmas

I'm flying home for christmas
Oh, I cant wait to see those faces
I'm flying home for christmas, yea...

Finally I was able to change my open return flight to Berlin. So it is official I am coming home for Christmas! I will be arriving in Berlin at 12:20pm on December 24^th just in time Gluehwein, Christmas cookies and our Christmas Eve dinner carp and potato salad, yumm yumm... Kruemel, I guess you will have to decorate the Christmas Tree without me this year, but I am sure you will do an awesome job. Yeah, I am so happy right now, the day couldn't have started better :-)

I'm flying home for christmas
Oh, I cant wait to see those faces
I'm flying home for christmas, yea...

And The World Starts Shaking

The Germany-Italy soccer game is just over and Germany lost. In the last 2 min of over time Italy scored twice. How sad is that? We were watching the game here in the university pub and in the front row a bunch of Italian guys that were just happy and screaming when the first goal came (and at the second one as well). But I understand I would have done the same thing if Germany would have scored.

Anyways, during the game we had a little earthquake here in Victoria. I mean we have had couple since I am here, but that is the first one that I actually noticed. The whole building and especially the windows were shaking for about 1-2 seconds and then everything was fine again. It was kind of a strange feeling and nobody really knew what was going on. However, it was somewhat cool. Now I can say I have “survived” an earthquake :-)

2 Pieces of ID please

That's what you usually hear when you are trying to enter a club, pub or any other place that sells alcohol here in Canada, no matter whether you are 19, 25 or 40. However, on Saturday night I did NOT get IDed at all. That was the first time I didn't have to show my Ids. Does that mean that I am getting wrinkles and that I look like 40 now? Hmm I really hope not.