Okay, this was the body of an email I sent someone, but I edited it a bit so everyone could read! It basically outlines the first part of my trip....

I left Winnipeg Monday at about 1pm, and flying was brilliant, such a smooth ride. No annoying kidlets kicking the back of my seat either. Had a gorgeous panorama of the Rockies with fog on top, and of the city coming into Vancouver. I love scenery. I want a camera that can take a picture the size of my vision, so nothing gets left out. Did some crying on the plane.... I was listening to emotional songs about distress and sadness and crap, and it all just hit home. I have an image of my grandfather burned into my head, and it's hard to change that schema to incorporate a dead person. He still seems so alive to me. I guess because I don't see him on a regular basis it doesn't seem odd that he isn't here with me. Death is a fucking weird thing. He seemed so healthy! Apparently he was having soup and talking to the nurse and he just closed his eyes. And that was it. I feel like I could reach out and shake him, and wake him up, instead of having his heart fail. I think once I see him at the showing I'll more grasp the lack of his being (to put it bluntly).

Ugh, okay, TOTALLY went off subject..... okay, so the lay over in Vancouver was a good five hours - damn long. Except I made friends with a little blond boy named Leo. He was squealing around the waiting area, so I decided to chase him for a while. Was definitely good exercise for both of us. :P Other than that I read and slept on the couch. This creepy old dude kept on walking past me while I was napping. I got the feeling he wanted to start poking my eyes or something.

Then to Hawaii where there was a school of Australian boys going home from a ski trip sat near us..... wow cuties! Anyway, once they started playing with the chewing gum, and giving each other noogies, I decided the age gap was far too great. So I slept. And ate. And slept some more. A little more eating and some sleeping pretty much rounded out the trip. And the whole time the sky was dark so no fun window lookingness.

Stop over in Hawaii - god it was SO lovely and warm! Amazing! I wanted to call it a day and stay there. Lots of tropicalness. Anyway, bummed around that airport and called family to let them know we hadn't died yet or anything.

Then to Sydney where it took a good two hours to get through customs and duty free shopping (my idea) to my very annoyed sister who'd been waiting for quite a while! Oh, and the view coming into Sydney was marvelous - I love big cities. And it's so wonderful and busy! Great place - you'll have to go!

So, we got in and went to my sister's condo and flaked on the couch. Oh right, met the life of her life, the wonderful and amazing pug named Matilda (after the song Waltzing Matilda). We fawned over her for about two hours, which got somewhat tedious. Then we phoned up my uncle and met up with him, my great cousin Victor and his daughter Jasmine in Circular Quay in Sydney, where all the main public transportation is run out of. We caught the train (like the Metro) there, which was really cool. It was like a double-decker thing - and the second had air conditioning, a god send! And I learnt that an Australian had invented the maps for train systems like the Metro, so I had private toast to my fellow country man. So we got to the tourist trap that is downtown Sydney, and everyone drunk like fucking fishes. That's about all I remember. Catching up and booze. OH, and that's where I got my first sun burn, because my back was facing the sun and my neck got bright red.

After that we picked up and took the ferry (yay boats!) back to my sister's area. And we headed to a quaint Vietnamese place for a feast! Great food. Some a little too spicy for me, but people seemed to enjoy it. The dude kept on forgetting our order though - very impressive customer service *rolls eyes*.

I got weary however, so I went home and crashed on the couch. Then everyone else came home, loud as all hell, so I went upstairs and I was probably asleep before I'd even walked through the bed room door.

I woke up the next morning feeling like a wrecking ball had gone through me all night, and stumbled downstairs to a GREAT cup of coffee and frosted flakes. This is Christmas day so we saw Victor, Jasmine and my uncle off to the airport and then opened presents! Yay presents! Nothing very exciting at all. But still, 'twas nice. Then we fart-assed around for a while, and my sister and her boyfriend went to her dad's place for Christmas lunch. My mum and I had pasta for our Christmas lunch, watched Dogma, had showers and did laundry. Overall, extremely exciting! :P

Then we headed to Canberra in the late afternoon. It was awesome driving through the city to get to our house - I'd didn't know I'd remember so much. Canberra is a REALLY tree-y city, and it was awesome to see all the flora flourishing. It's a really gorgeous city. Incredibly scenic.

And since then we've been cleaning a bit, just generally settling in and getting calm before this three bedroom house is inhabited with 10+ people!

And...... the end. I'll hopefully do more updating as time allows

Miss you all!

js