SURPRSISE!

My Room, New Zealand. 8:24 PM, 13th of September, 2010.

I'm not gone yet- and neither is this blog! I figured instead of creating a new blog for my trip to the South Island, I'd just keep posting here. ;) Yes, you heard right. I'm back home for two weeks, and then Dad's dragging me down South for my brother's speed skating competitions. At least Mum and Dad agree with me I get the area on top of the camper van. ^_^ So yep, I'm flying on Thursday, the 16th. Mum and I are coming back on the 28th, whereas Yoshi and Dad are going over to Australia for the competitions over there. The competitions here in NZ are only a couple days I think, but Dad's arranged for us to travel around the south island for a bit over a week. If you've seen the Narnia movies, or Lord of the Rings, a large amount of that was the south island of New Zealand.

But yeah- just a quick update for now to let y'all know what's going on. That I'm still here and all...
But until next time, this is Icey, disappearing through the screen layer. :p

Rarotonga.

Muri Beachcomber, Rarotonga. 11:36 AM, 22nd of August, 2010.

Kia Orana! :p Sorry, had to. >.<

We arrived dark and early on Monday the 16th. Customs here in Raro are really relaxed. They’re probably the only airport that will let you take a bottle of water from the plane. The line to get through wasn’t nearly as long as our departure from Calgary. Not even a fifth of the length. Granted, that was departure, this was arrival. When the Sun came up I as ready on the beach to catch it rising behind a small island. We went for a snorkel after the sunny high of the day a bit before noon. The sun seemed to be at it’s peak at around ten in the morning. Sea Cucumbers and sea weed is all there is to look at right where we are on the beach. Evening came and we headed to the resort office to find out what there was to eat nearby as our place didn’t have a restaurant at it like most of the other places do. Four-Hundred meters out the driveway is Miro’s, a small burger joint. So we head there for dinner... Clockwise around the island. I don’t recommend following their instructions at the office to find Miro’s. They had two signs: Four-hundred meters right outside the drive, and four-hundred meters left outside the drive. headed left, Clockwise, disregarding the ‘right’ as meaning ‘close-by...’. So the sign saying left needs to be corrected from four-hundred meters to thirty-one-and-a-half kilometers to the left. We eventually gave up on the left and walked all the way back to the resort, checked the sign(s) again, and tried going right (Anti-Clockwise) this time and found it in four-hundred meters.

Tuesday (17th) was a fairly quiet day for the main part. I didn’t go for a swim, as we ran out of sunblock......... And you really do need it here. Later in the evening, we went to an “Island Night” where we got to eat a bunch of the island food (I was obviously still hungry come the time we headed back to the resort; I’m a picky eater, and braces don’t help any.) there were some people that performed songs and dances and right at the end, they tried to get a few people from the audience to try and dance; they held a competition. (I videoed it.) We headed back to the resort and went to bed... Then course, Yoshi’s ankle pains kicked in. Always count on Yoshi’s ankle pains to keep me up late. I ended up grabbing a pair of headphones and my ipod which only had two songs on it to help me ignore him until he fell asleep. (‘Requiem for a dream’, a well known epic piece of music. And the end section of ‘Kameo Medley 1’, which I cut to the right length because I like it and don’t want to have to listen to a half hour of music before it. :p FG knows what part I’m talking about. ;))

The next morning (18th, Wednesday) we awake to find a notice that the reef-sub-boat we booked to go on, on the 18th, was canceled that day due to stormy weather. That day was the most windy day of our whole trip here I think... Yoshi and Dad hired a sail boat for the day to go around the lagoon that Muri beach is. Mum and I went into town to get fudge. Nom. We needed fudge/chocolate, so yeah. Then we went out to Crown Beach Resort to have indian food for dinner. They have one night a week -wednesdays- where they have asian and indian food. ^_^ However, the butter chicken was probably the blandest butter chicken I’ve ever had... And it didn’t help that night that Yoshi had anc\kle pains and started throwing up at 3 AM. I was up from two AM until five AM then.

19th, Thursday, after hardly any sleep from Yoshi gagging up the bland butter chicken, we found ANOTHER notice that the reef-sub had been canceled. Apparently the weather was even worse than the day before. So it was another quiet day. Until lunch time at least when Tippie and I had a quick little video call. ^_^ *waves* Hopefully next time we can do a longer one. After the call, I ran off to have lunch with the rest of the family, and managed to make it there before the food came out. Later that evening Mum and I took a kayak right out to the reef that divides the lagoon from the ocean. It kinda serves as a protective barrier for the smaller fish, ad it keeps sharks out of the bay and a large portion of the island. We had italian for dinner that night, and thankfully, it wasn’t over-loaded with tomatoes like I realized it could be after I ordered my food.

Friday the 20th HAD to be our most busy and bustling day of the lot. I say this because the reef sub WAS on, and we’d already booked to go on a glass-bottom-boat, lagoon cruise with snorkeling at a marine reserve. 10 AM four hour cruise, 4 PM reef sub. The Cruise was great, a few of crew on the boat brought ukuleles and played island music on the way to the reserve, then we got to see a couple eels, a few blue sea stars, and loads of pretty fish. ^_^ After snorkeling, we all went to an island and they made an island lunch for us. Then they had a coconut show, explaining all the uses of coconuts. Seriously, they let no part of it go to waste. >.<

On Saturday (21st), I woke up to hear the sound of a party being set up at the sailing club next to us. They’d started testing their audio systems. Thankfully I’m not deaf, though Yoshi will say otherwise- (actually, he’d claim I’ve always been. I have selective hearing. It works fairly well when he pesters me, until he gets mad and starts blaming me for all his problems. <_<)>.< $15 per person buffet is pretty good though. :p

Now we have today, Sunday. The entire island shuts down on sunday it seems. A bit like New Zealand at the end of the year with Christmas. We went out driving for a long time to find somewhere that was actually open for breakfast. After a long time, we managed to find somewhere.... somewhere with cold french toast that’s hard to chew. <_<

But until next time, this is Icey, disappearing through the screen layer. ;)

Why I hate flying.

Las Angeles Airport, California, United States. 5:11 PM, 15th of August, 2010.

Las Angeles Airport, California, United States. 5:11 PM, 15th of August, 2010.

Why I hate flying.

Well, that was a rush. We had every imaginable delay at the Calgary airport. We even got there two hours early and we still ended up delaying the flight. Let’s go back to the start of today, when I got up and had breakfast. Milk with Milo and Strawberry Jam on bread. (For those who don’t know what Milo is, it’s a chocolaty type drink-mix that you have with milk. better than nesquik(sp?) or chocolate milk. :p) So yep, I ate breakfast, and got packed. My Auntie stayed the night with us out at Grandma and Grandpa’s last night, and she was the last one up this morning amazingly. So we got ready to go, and she drove us into the city to the Calgary airport... It wasn’t until I got out of the car at teh airport after an hour long drive, I’d left the book I was reading back at Grandma and Grandpa’s. I’ve been kicking myself for hours and hours now and am still furious with myself by the way. mum said we could check the store at the airport- which took not even five minutes, and they didn’t have the book there... Then we got in line and it was three times longer than when we’d gone to find the bookstore. Stupid stupid stupid me again! ARGH!

So after a long time- over an hour and a half of standing in a queue to get through customs- that only really was meant to take twenty minutes by the estimate they gave us... Apparently they’d taken pretty much everyone EXCEPT US out of the queue and jumped them ahead to get them to the plane on time. We got to the carry on bag scans with five minutes until our plane was about to take off, and everyone else was already on board. Then turns out Mum accidentally put some Sunscreen in one of the carry on’s... Ten minutes later we’re SPRINTING through the long hallway of gates to get to the last one where everyone was waiting for us. >.<>.<>

Hey DioMers in Cali, I’m in you state now.

(And really- right now, I can’t wait to get out of it. LAX is too crowded, and not big enough, and the ‘bookstore’ here is a small magazine stand that should be burnt for multiple reasons. (content) So yeah...) Hopefulyl things get better when I’m at Raro, if not, then probably won’t until I’m home- home properly, not only home for a month. I WANT NOVEMBER!

I’ll keep on posting when in Raro; Dad says the place we’re staying has internet. So until next time, this is Icey disappearing through the screen layer.

I note the disclaimer in my previous post.

Grandma and Grandpa's house, Canada. 10:52 PM, 12th of August, 2010.

I said whenever my next post might be- so I guess it's now whenever. It's Thursday, the 12th of August now as I write this. I had to get Mum to help me keep track of days for this post. Deary me, my memory must be failing me! Good news though, I don't have to re-type this post to put it up online- my grandparent's got a new computer! I'll explain that in a bit. ;) Just to quickly note, the 4th (day after my previous post) was a fairly quiet; we stayed around here. I've gotten quite a bit of reading done in these quieter days, that's for sure. I've read two of the star wars books I bought while being here, and have started a third. I've also read all the five Mangas I've gotten so far- the last one is still shipping............. 'Still' being the operative word. We talked to someone at Chapters, and they expect that it'll get in on Saturday, and to talk to the manager in tomorrow to get more info. We talked to the Manager tonight, and she tried to get the info for us on the shipping- but the help desk closed a half hour earlier, so we got the info for tomorrow. Meh, hopefully all this can be sorted out in time.

Soooooooooo, back onto my calendar update! On Thursday the fifth, I went to see my Mum's school friend's daughter again. ^_^ Still don't know what to call her online; I forgot to ask the question again. By the way Kitty, SHE PLAYS THE GAME TOO! :p Bwahahaha! So yeah- We went Berry picking, as her grandmother lives three blocks away and has a ton of Raspberry bushes. ^_^ Nom. I, uh, ended up with a red face from all the berries we ate. :p Yoshi was at off-ice training that day, to it gave me a great excuse to head into the city to visit. ^_^ I also got to find out a bit about her story, which was pretty cool. She's got some well developed characters. *hopes she sends more to read soon* Me'thinks she writes in a notebook first, then types it, hence why the chapters are only a few hundred words long. [insert innocent whistling here] I also invited her to come to the lake with us on Monday, as we were going back there to help my Auntie's friend finish the extra hamburgers from her party a few days back that I mentioned. ^_^ We managed to get her on the list to go.

Also on Thursday: Breaking news! Okay- well, broken. It's happened already, so switch to past tense already Icey! *pokes self over and over to do so* *can't be bother to correct last sentence in asterisks to past tense, or this one either.* No longer are my grandparents confined to a old, dying, Windows 98! THE IMAC IS HERE! However, getting dial-up set up on it was a real pain. >.<>.<>

Sunday the eighth, we (Mum, Yoshi and I) went out and had breakfast at a restaurant with my Auntie, her mother-in-law and my Auntie's husband, and her sister.... Hopefully that made sense. :p After that we (Mum, Yoshi, my Auntie and I) headed to Heritage park. I've never been a fan of museums or anything of the sort, but I've gotta say, Heritage park is really great, if for at least the reason I felt like I fit in wearing a high-neck top like all the staff. :p But no, seriously, the people that worked there and were demonstrating all the things people did back in the days show there were enthusiastic about what they were talking about, they didn't mind being asked questions, and were all friendly people that made the whole place a load of fun. I note, I did not go on either of the Ferris wheels there: I'm afraid of heights, even if the short one is only five meter tall... After that, we (same lot in brackets mentioned above. Mum, Yoshi, Auntie and I) Went back to the same restaurant we had breakfast at, and had dinner. >.<

Monday finally came. Lake time! We went to pick up [long explanation of friend's relation goes here] (Oh dear, I can only imagine that laugh you'll get when you read this. Running from the laptop to the door laughing is one thing, but running down stairs and to the door is another. :p) and arrived at the lake slightly early. Yoshi quizzed us on things related to ATLA, (She'd seen the TV show too.) and then we helped carry the food down to the table we'd be using for the picnic at the lake. Unfortunately, a pipe had burst so the water pack area wasn't going, however the lake was still full thankfully. We went swimming. For a long time. I have a sunburn on my back. Typical Icey; loves the water too much. T'was great fun. ^_^ unnamed-due-to-lack-of-online-name (Crazy Canadian Girl? You talked about maybe going onto a chat room as that one day. >.<>

Tuesday. Another quiet day. Another reading period. Another loss of The Game.

So I got to CCG's around 3PM'ish. Fun'ness. ^_^ We watched The Thirteenth Year (Old Disney movie about a boy whom when he turns thirteen, starts changing into a merman. Real funny movie.) And WOW, I've never seen someone laugh so hard! *pokes CCG* She ran all the way from the dining table where I had the laptop set up with the movie, five meters to teh door, jumping up and down laughing, then run back, several times! I ended up pushing the pause button whenever she did that. I pushed the button many times within the movie, probably adding around ten more minutes in length to it. Heehee, great fun. We also went through each-others drawing books and stories. She drew THE most adorable cartoon puppy picture I've ever seen. She's an amazing artist. ^_^ And Her story was great too! *still pokes for slightly longer chapters though, and more typed story* Heehee. ;)

And so I shall move onto today! Quiet day for the most part, except I got Grandpa's X-ray and MRI scan images going on their computer (which no one else has been able to figure out before. :p I'm a genius. Their Mac wouldn't load windows files, and laptop no got disc drive- put disc in Mac, use USB drive to copy disc files, read files on laptop via USB, convert to Mac-readable-format, USB back to Mac, Taa-daa! I spent half of today looking at the inside of my grandpa's knee over four years of images! >.<>

This is Icey, disappearing through the screen layer! ;)

Long time no post.

Grandma and Grandpa's House, Canada. 4:10 PM, 3rd of July. 2010.

Sorry, but what can I say? The city turned out to be quite boring... I find myself both surprised and not surprised at the same time as to how the week went there. To sum it up: Yoshi speed Skating. I am severally limiting my complaining here, as the whole trip seems to have become all about Yoshi.... Deja Vu:

1. Get up at 7 AM
2. Eat Breakfast
3. Goto rink to drop off Yoshi
4. Return to hotel
5. Call dad over Skype (That wasn't so bad though. :p)
6. Ruch back to pick up Yoshi at 4 PM
7. Go have dinner
8. Yoshi goes in pool around 8 PM so he 'won't have anckle problems'
9. Yoshi ends up having anckle problems anyway and has ibuprofen
10. Yoshi gets Mum to read a book to "us" (I'm usualy exhausted by this point which no one really realised, so I've missed half of what was being read, really.)
11. Yoshi pesters Mum for a second chapter to be read to "us" (by this stage, I'm ready to thow pillows at them both, mainly Yoshi.)
12. Finally try and fall aasleep while Yoshi moans about his anckles anyway and Mum starts to snore slightly
13. Go back to beginnign of the list for the next day

That sums up the 26th, 27th and 30th. There were a few differences on the 28th, 29th and 31st though. All the same until step seven. On the 28th was my Gandparent's 50th wedding anniversary sinner. It was pretty good, although I despise Chinese food. I made an effot though to eat something and I think I set a self record for digesting chinese food! But since I don't live here in Canada, I didn't have much of a clue what even hald the family members 9that I barely even knew) were talking about... Now that I think about it, it's strange that I have pretty much nothign in common with the other side of my Family... and the other half is here in Canada on teh otehr side of the world... Doesn't help my case at 'family dinners' ...I often feel like I'm in a room with a ton of strangers... Which is often really, the case...

Moving on as I really don't want to rant... On the 29th, Thursday, we went to meet up with an old school friend of my Mum's. He and his wife have one daughter who's a bit younger than I am, and they also have an Arf dog. (Rescued Dogs often seem to be rather friendly I've noticed. ^_^) My Mum's friend's daughter (Not sure what she'd like to be called online. [insert innocent whistling here] :p) told me about a great prank she and a couple friends pulled on a new kid at her school once. (That new kid tried to pull it on the next new kid after him... and failed epicly. I won't attempt to re-tell the story, because she does it so much better, and I'd totally kill it. Heh.) We hopped on youtube and swapped favourite funny videos. Darth Vader the Musical was heard by the parents downstairs three times. (Mum's Friend's Daughter (:p) sings in a chior, and I know the song really well, so what better pair is there to sing a Phantom-of-the-Opera/Star-Wars ripoff song than us? :p I did Vader, and she did Luke. >.<>.<>.< And on Dial-Up, it'd take to long to find and downlaod the drivers to make it worth doing. Oh well, my Mum, Auntie and Uncle are talking my Grandparents into gettign a Mac, so that's good.)

But yeah, finally enough news to make it worth my while posting. Hopefully I didn't bore you with any of my complaining too much. Part of me really does want to get home where I actually KNOW what's going on instead of finding out a few mere seconds before whatever happens...
Well, until next time- whenever that may be, this is icey disappearing through the screen layer.

Whoops, I doomed the world.

Hotel, Canada. 9:21 AM, 24th of July, 2010.

Hey Y’all! (SOUTHERNISM!) Finally I’m posting again. Triple topic this time: The Last Airbender (Which I saw on Thursday), Calgary Zoo (went on Friday) and then also what happened yesterday. (Saturday):p So let’s get started shall we?

“The Last Airbender”, the recently released movie based on the Nickelodeon TV show, “Avatar the last Airbender”. Most comments or reviews I’ve heard about it seem very biased- they either praise it more than it deserves, or bash it down and put it in the movie junk-pile. While the movie has it’s ups and downs, I’d like to try and not take a side, as neither extreme is correct. The following review WILL contain spoilers.

Assuming you don’t know the general plot-line of “Avatar the last Airbender”, here’s a quick (attempt at a) summery. Hunting for food in the South Pole, Siblings Katara and Sokka find an iceberg with a boy, Aang, frozen inside it and they boy’s Sky Bison, Appa. Eventually they learn that Aang is the last airbender, the only survivor of the Air Nomads since the fire nation whipped them all out a hundred years ago. Aang was frozen all that time in ice from running away, and getting caught in a storm. Aang is soon revealed also to be the Avatar who has been missing for one hundred years, making him one hundred and twelve years old! Aang, Sokka and Katara travel up to the north pole so Katara and Aang can learn water bending together, and later they travel the world so Aang can find teachers so he can learn to bend the other elements, and eventually defeat the fire lord.

The TLA movie as a stand-alone, not comparing it to the television, it works well for (really only) an action movie. Though there really didn’t seem to be much dialogue, and they didn’t really explain the plot-line at all, really requiring the viewer to have seen the TV show else be confused. Some of the bending was pretty epic though. The fight choreography is well thought out, and was performed stunningly and precise. The use of slow motion in battle scenes did get a bit over used at times, but asides from that, the camera work framed the fights well. The bending effects were rather nice- but being a 2D to 3D conversion, they weren’t as good as they could have been. If we get a sequel the director plans to start the movie development in 3D, so that’s certainly something to look forward too.

If you want to compare it to the TV show, do still give them credit for what they tried to do with this film. I know it fell short of many’s expectations, but did you really just want a carbon copy of the TV show? That’s just not possible as a live action movie. In Season one alone of the ATLA TV show, the running time (based off a 22 minute average) is 440 minutes. the TLA movie had a total running time of 103 minutes. Way less than a quarter of the time to try and do just as much. Though it’s true that the Kyoshi Warriors aren’t in the movie (They WERE in the movie-manga adaptation though I’ll point out!) and it’s true that they changed it how in episode six where Katara rallied the Earth Benders, they changed it to Aang doing that... and how Zhao died, and the name pronunciation changes (which I like, by the way)- How Aang defeated the Fire Navy, and mixing Roku and his dragon together- and the fact that Aang remains uninformed of Sozin’s comet... they tried.

I know it sounds like I’m saying ‘they tried, they tried’ a lot, but they did, and I’m glad. I won’t go and tell loads of people it’s the best film I’ve ever seen, because it’s certainly not, but it wasn’t so bad that you throw it in the junk-pile either. What the Movie did get me thinking of, was that if the Video Game follows the movie well enough, it would make for a good game... A really good game! *is interested in trying it some time...* There’s loads of people out there who love the TV series yet bash the movie, but if they were true fans, they’d appreciate the effort that was put into the movie FOR THEM and just enjoy it anyway like it was made for.

I’ll note quickly I saw the Eragon Movie and then read the books- And I’ll also admit I like the movie more than the books. (No arguing about Eragon please), and I’m aware of many of the changes from book-to-movie, like how TLA has been a TV show-to-movie. I’ve heard many complaints about the changes between the book and movie of Eragon, and I’ve also heard some for TLA. But from my own veiw, (since I liked the Eragon movie) The Last Airbender is a lot like Eragon in adaptations. Sure, there may be many changes, but it’s still the same general story we know and have come to enjoy over time.

If you’re wanting to go and watch The Last Airbender in the theaters, don’t bother goign to it in 3D if that costs extra. It’s a 2D to 3D conversion, and it’s no where near as good as true 3D. (keep an eye out for the sequel though.) So in theaters, 2D is the way to go, or you can just wait for it on DVD, because that will be worth it. (The Movie Music is beautiful too I might add and am SOOOOOOOO looking for the soundtrack while I’m here!)

Also, if you do see it- there is a funny scene where they’re trying to rally the earth benders, and there’s a group of ten or so, bending, and it looks like they only move one rock. (However, when the camera rotates around enough, you can see one guy bending who’s moves look more fitting to the action and movement of the rock, so I think he’s really the one bending it.) But it looks funny. :p And I am glad Sokka accidentally got waterbended at by Katara a couple times. ;)

From a standalone movie rating perspective, I’d give it a 6/10. I know, but it leaves the viewer plot-confused, and really requires them to have seen the TV show. However ‘the effects were decent’ to quote Sokka. (in true 3D it’d have been epic...) The actors didn’t do a great job, but it was... excusable... The music was amazing, and the scenery was great though.

From the point of view of comparing to the TV show, I’d give it a 2.5/10.

They sort-just-kina followed the plot, but they changed a lot. I mentioned a few of the changes above. I gave them a quarter of the full mark, because that’s how the movie is. It’s fitting also because they had a quarter of the time, so it fullfilled my expectations.

------

On Friday, we went to the Calgary Zoo.

Sorry, *posts sign* Sorry, I’m not here right now.

...Auckland Zoo is better... Even just from memory from ages ago. Honestly, there’s not much to say about the Calgary Zoo... Half the animals had signs in their enclosures saying, “Sorry, I’m not here right now.” And my favorite animal there was the otter. >.<>.<>

So yesterday (Saturday) I was at my Auntie’s house. They have seven dogs at the moment. (two are actually theirs, and the other five are foster puppies.)

Tasha and Cobi are my Auntie’s dogs. Boy, Girl who looks like the Boy (nick-named: Girl), Tippie, Red and Blondie. the five playful pups are adorable. How you can tell them apart is:

Boy: He’s the darkest colored one, and he’s the only boy.

Girl: She looks a lot like Boy, but a bit lighter, she’s a girl, and she has this raccoon-looking pattern around her eyes.

Tippie: (Not the DioMer. :p) She’s got the same coloring as Boy, only a few shades lighter, and has a white tipped tail. (Boy has a white tipped tail too, but Tippie is a lighter coloring to Boy.)

Red: No obvious markings, she’s the same shading of fur as Tippie, but she has no tail tip, or raccoon-ring eyes.

Blondie: Like her name suggests, she’s a blondie. :p She’s got by FAR the lightest coloring of the pups.

If you saw the photo of one of the puppies before I linked to in my previous post (which has had more photos added to it- so bookmark the link and check back often.), that was Red I was petting. She just came up to me and I scratched her belly a little, and she decided to collapse sideways and just fall asleep then and there. ;) When they’re all awake though, it’s chaos. They remind me of Dreagons (Yes, Dreagons.) when they play-fight. They climb all over each-other, try pin each-other down, nip at each-other, try and chew on each-other’s feet or tails... All they’re missing is the appearance, mind you, both Baby Dreagons, and Baby Puppies can be cute. :p

Later in the day, we went with my Auntie to one of he friend’s birthday party by a lake (it was shallow though mind you- probably for little kids safety). There was a water park too. All in all, it was pretty cool. :p

And, don’t ask about the blog post topic. ;) If you read a certain comment on a previous post, you’ll get it. Whoops! :p

Until next time, this is Icey disappearing through the screen layer.

Photos!

Hotel, Canada. 9:34 AM, 23rd of July, 2010.

Just a quick update! I've uploaded a few of my photos, and captioned them.

Check them out here!

Until next time, this is Icey disappearing through the screen layer. I'm off to the Zoo! I'll write about the The Last Airbender movie and that in my next post. ;)

Another delayed update.

Grandma and Grandpa's house, Canada. 8:13 AM, 22nd of July, 2010.

I seem to be on a one post every two-oor-three days schedule... Well here's another post. :p Yesturday we went to Elbow falls, long car drive, short walk. I did get quite a few pictures though. :p On the car ride back, we took a different route that had a lot of signs warning of winding roads for the next four kilometers/miles (I can't remember what the sign said... XD) and it was fitting, as the roads were about as windy as normal new Zealand roads! (Are the spellings for those two words- windy -the same? XD I'm not talking about wind, but the side-to-side and up-and-down motion.) Afterwards, we were expecting my Auntie to come around for lunch- but she ended up being a couple hours late, so we had dinner instead. Curry Kumera Soup- without the Kumera, and instead, Yams. Strangly I think I prefer it that way; not quite as spicy.

Yesturday not as much happened- I went on a walk with Mum around the property, and thankfully she could find her way back. XD I got blisterd on the backs of my feet (I was forced to wear gumboots that were wayyy to small..... Owwwwww.... The Blister on my left foot was around an inch across, the othe was only a centimeter.) I took lots of pictures of my grandparent's cat yesturday, Zaphy. Absolutely gorgeous coloring. :p I got one photo of he doing one of her stretches, it was cute/funny. She's a few months alder than I am.

I'm not sure what time we're leaving for the city today, but check-in is around three PM or four PM I think. We might stop in at the bookstore that I've got my books orderd to, to see if they're in yet. We got an email sayign that three of four of them have shipped. (The first three: Spring, Summer, Autum. We don't know if they've arrived yet. :p) We're waitign for a call from my Auntie who lives in the city- We were talkign about going and doing somethign this evening... I mightget to see The Last Airbender tonight! *quickly hops of the computer to go hyper, then returns after* Ahem. ^_^ (Update at 10 AM, my Auntie called, and yes we will go see it! :D :D :D)

Kitty, you just lost the game AGAIN, HA! >.<

I got a photo of the Confused Corn Chips ready to upload when I get to the hotel, but since everything here is written twice- in English, then French -I've also gotten my Mum (She knows French) to help translate what the french o nthe packet says. This packet of corn chips truly got lost in translation to BOTH English AND French. :p
Until next time, this is Icey dissappearing through the screen layer. ;)

Don't blink! Wal-Mart has been invaded!

Grandma and Grandpa's house, Canada. 6:23 PM, 19th of July, 2010.

Whew, sorry about the delay! Busy busy busy here! So let's go back a few days to the seventeenth, shall we? Saturday. It was finally time to get out of the house, and off the property. We went to Bow Valley. (Yes, the same Bow Valley that if any of you saw the news here recently- you'd have heard that human bones were found on the campground the day after we were there. I promis you, it wasn't me!) So we went for a little walk of around one and a half hours on the Many Springs trail. I took the camera with me and got some AWESOME photos. :p (I'll be uploading photos when we're in Calgary for the week my brother is speed skating- we leave here for there on Thursday. It's currently Monday.)

on Sunday... I slept in... Until midday... >.<>.< We also set a new record for not losing "The Game" that day! It wasn't until some time around 6 PM that Mum announced that she lost.

KittyMarie, Insanity, you both just lost The Game. :p *glomp*

As for today, I told Mum last night to make sure I was up when it was still morning, rather than sleeping until noon again. We went to two Chapters book stores, one Indigo book store, one craft store, and a couple grocery stores- and a Wal-Mart.

Now, I have news for Matt and Iluvhorses:

matt, they had glowwing stuff for sale at the craft shop. Loads of glow sticks, glow neaklaces, glow bracelets, glow wands, glow swords (not quite lightsaber-like though... not long enough and a normal sword hilt wit ha wide hand guard. <_<), and pretty much just lots of glowwy stuff. "^'-'^" When I saw it, I stopped to take a photo of the stall for you. :p

Iluvhorses, (and I guess Matt could read this too due to his game in development. :p) As I was waling through Wal-Mart, we went to the far end of the store. Soon it will no longer safe to go to Wal-Mart. The Stone Angels are here on earth! I saw them and grabbed Mum's arm instantly. "DON'T BLINK!" (I think sopme people thought iIwas weird calling that out- mind you, I am weird. :p) I got a photo of it for you. :p I think that particular Wal-mart is semi safe for now though, as there was only one, and there were people constantly looking around the store, so that explained why it was stuck in place. ^_^ The Photo (And Matt's glowwy photo) will be posted when I'm in Calgary.

So after going to all those stores- we had lunch (Two doughnuts and a bottle of flavored milk each.) and headed back to the house. At Chapers I got "The Last Airbender: Zuko's Story" and "The Last Airbender" (the manga-movie adaptation) mangas, and also orderd four other mangas through the store, (they arrive in one or two weeks they said at the store.) as they wern't in any of the 'nearby' stores. (XD basically, there were none of them in all of Alberta it looked like. :p I was getting Miki Falls, by Mark Crilley. By the way, his paneling is amazing! :p)
So there's a quick summery of the past few days! And it sounds like we're going on another mini trip tomorrow, so I'll be sure to take photos! ;)
Until next time- (again. :p) this is Icey disappearing through the screen layer. ;)

The Forest.

Grandma and Grandpa's house, Canada. 4:18 PM, 16th of july, 2010.

Sorry I didn't write a post yesturday- I was a bit busy, y'know? :p So before I walk about today so far,- even though I've only been up for three and a bit hours- (Yes, I slept in until 1 PM) I'll talk about yesturday. So yesturday, the 15th of July here in Canada and our first full day here in our trip. Yoshi had the idea of building a tree house- like, a proper one... Where you find real trees, cut down real trees into logs, and then place them togeather up in other trees... Back home, our tree house is store bought wood that's all cleanly cut- this one is certainly goign to be very different. So yesturday, Yoshi and Grandpa scouted out a good site for the tree house. A while later, I went out with them to cut some wood for it- gaint hand saw. We've got the base logs for the tree house cut to eh right lenghs, and today apparently they got them up, nailed to the trees. (They have yet to tie them up with wire to make sure they won't fall.) So that's teh tree house so far. :p
Later on in the evening, Yoshi and I went for a bit of an explore around Grandma and Grandpa's property. This place is around sixty'ish acres apaprently. Tree after tree after tree acter tree after tree after slightly different tree after tree... and you get the idea. So I had a brilliantly stupid idea; I'd spin my directionally, geographically, landmark memory challenged brother around in circles, walk him around with his eyes shut a small small distance through the forest, and have him lead us back to the house. Now, in my defense, I did actually place him less than twenty meters from the most obvious landmark on the whole property: a giant, long power line that runs from one end of the property to the other, right past the house. ...I first became suspicious that we'd get lost when he came to the powerlien within a minute, looked one way, looked the other, and then walked rightpast it, into the other part of the forest that is MUCH larger... And even more repetitive. This resulted in fourty minutes of us, lost i nthe forest with hundreds of trees that all looekd the same, several re-ties of my shoe laces, and my eventual taking lead to try and find the power line again to get us back to the house. But here's a good quote I came up with on our little adventure:
(One minute after Yoshi walked us right by the power line.)
Icey: Yoshi, how sure are you this is the right way?
Yoshi: I'm about seventy percent sure.
*Icey whispering to herself, as she still kenw the direction of hte house at this stage.*
Icey: At least he's thirty percent right...
I'm glad it's summer here- as we went out to start exploring after dinner, so around 6 PM... In NZ it'd be long dark by then since it's winter there. But since it's summer here, there's still light until soem time after 9 PM. But yes,the lessons I learned from this were:
1. Don't let Yoshi lead you through a forest when he can't even lead you three corners in the city.
2. Don't let him lead you in circles until you lose track of teh way out yourself.
3. Don't let Yoshi loose on sixty acres of forest.
4. Dont' spin Yoshi around, as he loses balance easily (especially when his are are closed, and he's on a mossy hill with loads of hidden fallen trees and branches everywhere.)
...And I could go on, but basicly, don't let Yoshi show you the way back to anywhere. He doesn't really know as much as he says so.
Moving onto today. I was up from 3 AM until 5 AM... Then I fell asleep again and slept until 1 PM, which is amazing because of how bright it is here... Maybe because it's cloudy I managed to sleep... But yes, I got up afterYoshi and Grandpa had gotten the tree house base loogs up into the trees. I had breakfast, and lunch shortly after. Dad called. (Hello again, Dad whom I know is reading. :p) After I handed the phone back to Mum, it was my turn to clean dishes... Then I got on here and that's today so far. :p So I may write another post tomorrow or the day after, depending on what happens in the way of activity here. :p
Until then, this is Icey dissappearing through the screenlayer.

Air Canada.

Grandma and Grandpa's house, Canada. 10:00 PM, 14 of July, 2010

This blog post is currently unavailable.
...
But no, seariously- the Air Canada in flight 'entertainment' just, well, failed. After I finished my previous blog post, I began recalling memories from my last trip to Canada, where we also had to do a transfer in Vancouver, via Air Canada. Those were happy memories. It seems that long gone- or at least, two years gone -are the days when you didn't have to pay three dollars extra for your cheap headphones that would fall out of your ears anyway, being earbuds that would permanently wreck your hearing. Gone are the days when you didn't have to pay three dollars for a pillow and blanket for in-flight use only. Gone are the days when- Oh just forget about my reminicing. But Seriously, five dollars for a small piece of pizza that is only avalible on a ninty or more minute flight? That's just a bit sad.
However, you did get a free drink of either water, juice, milk, tea, coffee, or varrious kidns of fizzy drink. or again- as they say here, Pop. I asked for water and they had to go back to the galley to get it. So one of the plane hostesses handed the cup of water to another one and pointed at me saying: "The water is for that lady there." ... wait for it... "Here's your water, Madam." The second one handed me the cup. SERIOUSLY, SO I REALLY LOOK THAT OLD? XD I did however feel rather young when I had a little laugh about one of the snacks you got on the flight to Calgary. "Maized and Confused Corn Chips." ...This was revlutionary to me, because I never knew food could get confused! We kept the packet to take a photo of. ;)
Yoshi's havign a hard time ajustign to the lingo here. He tried to explain "Fanta" to the person at teh counter of AJ's (fast food place.) and they're like, "Orange Pop?" and he's like, "No, Fanta!" And I'm like, "Yoshi, they're the same thing." And after a while, he eventually gives in. (The same thing happend on the Air Canada fligth too, he ended up just gettign a Sprite then. XD) So after we finished our drinks, (I got a strawberry milkshake- I must say I think it was the nicest oen I've ever had. :p) my Auntie who had collected us from the airport who was with us, told my brother to "Put the glasses in the bin"... He was confused, as a bim in NZ is a rubbish bin- and these were glass cups/mugs she was taling about... She had to quickly explain that she meant the shallow 'bin like' containter beside the actual bin.
Small update tonight- as there's nto too much to say right now. We're all tiired here, but we've arrived safe and sound. ^_^ I'm off to bed, but I'll take pictures of it here soon. It's kinda of like a small forest- and to those of you that have read the prolouge of my story, Thaihaelon, the forest Aluria was running through was based of this place. ;) It's great to explore. :D
until next time, this is Icey disapperaing though the screen layer.

I took a ride in the TARDIS!

Vancouver airport, Canada. 3:00PM, 14th of July, 2010

Well, I'm back at teh start of today, sitting here at the gate for our next flight from Vancouver to Calgary. In the distance I can see a few mountains and a little snow, but it looks like early spring- Grandpa was sure right when he said Summer hadn't really come yet! The flight here was LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG! Like I think I've said before- around thirteen hours. And of course I find it extreamly hard to fall asleep on planes. I did manage to collapse onto Mum's lap with a pillow though. :p I /MAYBE/ managed three horus sleep- not sure.
As for the Movies on the airplane, I didn't get thorugh my list, as I was too tired to watch any more than one movie. However, I did glance over at Mum and Yoshi's screens from time to time and watched snippits of "How to train your Dragon" and "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs". The only movie I REALLY watched on the plane was "Alice in Wonderland"- which was a very strange movie to say the least. And it didn't help that the airplane headphones seem to get worse every year. The volumes were everywhere; loud background sounds would blare in my ears, and talking characters seemed almost mure, just barely whispering. Though I'll asmit it was a well made movie- it's just not my kidn of movie.
Another thing, why is it I always get seated behidn the people who are determined to recline in their chair's the WHOLE FLIGHT? I mean, dinner was practicly in my face without my needing to pick anythign up to eat, and the built in chair-screen was also VERY clearly in my line of sight. And did I mention the person behind me seemed determaned to kick me all the way to the airplane cockpit? My chair seemed to be in constant motion- and not just from being inside the airplane!
Also, I really do wish that they changed the way the seats in planes are arranged, or remove any movie with a higher ratign than PG. Preferably the second. With how the seats are set up in the Air New Zealand planes, you can see any person diagonal from you's screen. The person diagonal from me (I was on an isle seat) watched memerous shows. The movie "The Runaways" and TV show "Glee" for example. Now- there's nothing I can do to get that person's screen out of my view- and it didn';t help that people on other isle seats on the opposite side of the isle from me watched graphic war movies, "Harry Potter" and "The Bounty Hunter"... To deal with the problem of people diagonaly in front of you, (this won't work for people on opposing isle seats) use your in-flight blanket and put it over the tops of the chairs you can see between.
The food was typical airplane food. Mind you, I was glad to hear Butter Chicken as an option. THough- we were right at the back of the plane, so we got our food last... There's always a high chance they'll run out of what you're wanting for dinner. (Thankfully they didn't though.) It's uauly the same case with breakfast too. Yoshi almost ended up with eggs for breakfast- and Dad knows all to well what that would have meant. :p Thankfully they managed to find one last serving of pancakes for him. I had eggs however, and foudn them plastic-like-tasting... The sausage that same with the eggs wasn't that bad though. It could have been better, but it was still edible.
One of THE funniest- or conserning -things that happened during the flight was near the start of the flight when they were offering drinks to people. So when they got to me and asked what I wanted to drink, I asked what there was... XD Now, for beer, ale, spirits, wins and cocktails- all of those alcoholic beverages -you have to look over twenty five to be offerd them in New Zealand... (to legally have them you have to be eighteen or over.) So apparently either the guy serving drinks has a strange sense of humor, or I look really old. Heh, I got an L&P. (For those who don't know, an L&P is a new Zealand fizzy (or 'Pop') drink made of Lemonade and mineral water from a place in New Zealand called Paeroa)
Well, Yoshi's wanting to play Age of Empires now, so he'll probably drain the battery. I'll write another post when I can, and post the previous blog post, this one, and the new one, hopefully in one go. >.<>.<>.<>.<
This is Icey disapperaing throug the screenlayer. ;)

Waiting to Fly.

Auckland city airport, New Zealand. 6:40 PM, 14th of July, 2010

Heh, today's been CRAZY to say the least, So I ended up staying up sometime past 11PM, waiting for KOTOR to finish downloading. So I was up semi-late, and as a result, I compensated by sleeping in. Typical me. :p So I got up this morning to update Celery website for what will be my last time until I return to New Zealand. I was expecting to be able tio post this as I wrote it on my blog here- but it turns out the 'free wifi internet' at the airport here costs money. :p Ironic, huh? So this post is actually a delayed one. But anyhow, the airport here has changed a lot since I was last here- but we still managed to find our way through it. I'm surprised actually at how full it is here, waiting at teh gates to get on the airplane, mind you, it is a full flight...

I just noticed that from where I'm sitting, I can see the moon. It's a thin, yelow slither that reminds me of the Cat from Alice in Wonderland, smiling. Mum just went over to get a video of it- since she decided to put our camera into checked bagage- and she informs me that the glass is too reflective to get a good shot... Oh well. Anyway, one of the things that will be funny, is we're gogin to arrive in Canada a few hours before we leave. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but that's just how time-lines work. I like to joke that we're takign a TARDIS. SO it's almost 7 PM now, and i'm just thinking about how we have ages more to wait until we're up in the air.

The battery on the laptop only lasts around three hours- so I should probably save it for the two hour stopover in Vancouver, where my brother will probably play a game of Age of Empires. Oh well, at least I brought my drawing stuff. :p Speaking of drawing- That's somethingelse I should do on the plane: Plan a Manga. Heh, I've been slacking on so many projects lately it feels like. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon. ;) I'll write another post in Vancouver probably, talking about the movies, the flight, and the airplane food. (You KNOW you hate that food, if you claim otherwise, you are in denial. :p)
Well, until next time, this is Icey disappearing through the screenlayer.

Packing, planning, packing, planning...

My Room, New Zealand. 9:18 PM Tuesday, 13th of July, 2010

Whew- thought setting up a blog for my Canada trip would be a good idea. ^_^ Most of you reading this probably already know me, if not- well... I'm not good at introductions... But basically, I'm Icey, teenage girl who defines herself as crazy and insane, living down in New Zealand. I draw, write. My Favorite Movie(s) are Star Wars, and my favorite book series is and Dragons in our Midst / Oracles of Fire.

So, I figured that I'd start a blog to keep track of my trip to Canada- sorta like an online journal. Now, I won't have internet access the whole time I'm in Canada, so I'll probably write posts offline sometimes and post them later. So the time stamps on my posts probably won't be correct, so I'll say what time, when, and where on my posts. ;)

The Flight leaves tomorrow some time around 8 PM, and I haven't started packing yet- I know, I'm terrible. :p Right now I'm going over my mental checklist of preparation- I've charged the camera battery, I'll leave the laptop on the charger tonight and tomorrow until we have to go, I've gotta bring the webcam (Dad's gonna pester us for a week with it when we're in Calgary. :p) I've got the most recent Edits of Thaihaelon on the laptop- and the whole first draft... I've got my pen tablet to pack, and my handbag to stuff full with as much stuff as I can possibly fit in it.

Heh, that reminds me of last time I was going to Canada- And also when i went to Australia last year in March. I stuff my handbag so full, it's amazing people aren't suspicious that I have weapons in there! I mean, I know they have security scans- but it looks like I'm carrying a bomb. :p But on my last trip to Canada, in my carry on suitcase- which is actually my Ice Skate bag -I totally forgot to remove my skipping rope! It's kind of a gel like plastic- which should have been caught in the scanners. When we got back home and Mum found out- Whew, her eyes almost popped out of her head. That's when it dawned on me it could be used for strangling people. Heh, dark humor... Sorry. :p

But yes, my current issue that I face now is weather or not I try and stay up late, or just go to bed. of all the movies on the plane, I only really want to watch three of them. Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, How to train your Dragon and Alice in Wonderland.

...

On a thirteen hour flight, That's not going to fill much. And I rarely sleep on airplanes... Last time we went to Canada, I was up the WHOLE flight. So- do I try exhaust myself and stay up till the early morn, and fall asleep while packing, look almost dead and be unrecognizable compared to my passport photo? or do I try to fall asleep and end up awake the whole flight again? XD Well, considering right now I've got KOTOR (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) downloading/installing on the laptop here, I've got to wait until that's done- so it'll be some time after 10 PM... I guess I'll just stay up until then and then go to bed.

One of the things I know I'm gonna do when in Canada is something I NEVER really enjoy doing- shopping. Honestly, y'all who think shopping is a Saturday morning sport are just plain nuts. it's NOT a sport, it's TORTURE. But mind you, bookstores aren't that bad. I plan on going to a few bookstores while over there, as our stores here in comparison... Well... let's just say our largest The Warehouse, is kinda like the SMALL Walmart's or Costco's. Heh, seriously, I really do thing that in the USA and in Canada, they super-size EVERYTHING... except for Cars... We super-size cars here. XD I tell you all, Four-Wheel-Drives are NOT needed in the city except for the giant road curbs...

but there you have it for now, I guess I'll update tomorrow with how the packing goes- before this laptop ends up in my over-sized bomb-looking handbag. :p

Until next time, this has been Ice_Fire, the crazy nut-case, oxymoron and general strange person, disappearing through the screen layer. :p Yes, that was related to Thaihaelon.