Oh, Canada

I definitely feel like I've been away for a while. Everything here is familiar, yet I feel a bit removed from it. Mostly, Canada's cracking me up. We're such a bunch of jokers. Has anyone ever undertaken a study of bumper stickers or T-shirt slogans in this country? I drove behind this sticker yesterday: All men are created equal -- poor things. (Then again, I noticed only later that the bumper on my brother's truck -- in which Beatrix and I were transported from Vancouver to the Okanagan last week -- invites other motorists to Follow me to Hooters! Good lord.)

The Canadian Olympic coverage, too, is so Canadian. A friend was joking about a new slogan: "Silver: it's Canada's gold!" Or maybe "Canada: our athletes are good enough for us!"

So I've been here in Ontario for several days now. Today is my third day in my newly adopted town; I have a zippy red rental car, I'm staying in motels, and the apartment hunt continues. I'm happy to find lots of different kinds of restaurants here (African, Indian, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, and Thai, that I've noticed). I've seen women in headscarves and heard people speaking Portuguese. These are all good signs, as I was expecting a very white, homogeneous community. Eastern Canada also cracks me up, in a way that is, I think, specific to me having grown up in the West: over the last few days, for example, I've crossed the Thames River a few times. Jolly good!

Oh, you'll appreciate this! I got an e-mail from my mom today, and Bea is doing fine there, but, my mother reports, "We have to keep the BR door closed at night due to an episode of shredding toilet paper!" That's my girl. :)

OK, as much as I'd love to sit here for hours, I have to go and find a pay phone to set up a couple of apartment-viewing appointments. I want this to be over with soon. I can't wait to unpack. In the last month, I've been on ten different flights and spent time in eight different airports. It's time I had a home again, don't you think? I'm ready for this new life to begin.

Scatterbrain-y lady

Just as I'm getting used to Pacific Standard Time, I've got to cross three time zones tomorrow! I'm heading to Ontario in the morning, but to cut the stress level a bit I'm not bringing Bea with me now. I'm going to leave her here with my parents (whom she has completely charmed), and once I have a place to live, they will send her out on a plane.

I have some very exciting yarn news! But I'm not going to share it yet. Photos must accompany this particular news, so it will have to wait a week or two. I'm just being a tease.

I may not be able to blog for a week. I assume I'll be moving in somewhere on September 1, and then I can only hope Internet access can be set up quickly. Once I'm moved in, I'll be able to return to normal life (which means blogging and reading blogs) and figure out a routine. Then I'll really be back. Wish me luck. I'll talk to you soon. xo

A Dear Yarn letter

Dear Polka Purl Dots,

I don't know quite how to say this without hurting your feelings, so I'm just going to come right out and say it: I don't think we should see each other anymore -- at least for a while.

It's not you; it's me. I made a mistake when I chose to make you with yarn that I didn't really love. As a result, I haven't really been enjoying our time together. Frankly, well, I want to knit something else.

I still find you very attractive. I love your subtle texture and sexy shaping. Perhaps one day I will return to you with better yarn and we can find true happiness together. In the meantime, though, I need to be free of you. I hope you understand.

Regretfully yours,
Alison

Brainy got back

At this moment, I'm sitting in my old bedroom in my parents' house. Beatrix is climbing around, sniffing everything -- this is what she has been doing since we arrived on Thursday afternoon. The flight was fine, but I really, really don't ever want to do that again with a cat. Too stressful for both of us. But we made it and we're here.

I'm completely unable to answer simple questions like "Are you happy to be back?" and "Do you miss Taiwan?" I'm just so in-the-moment right now, and it will take some time to process what I've just done. All I know for sure is that I wish Bill were here (we'll be apart for about six months). And that it was awesome to walk into the local bookstore yesterday and just grab the fall issues of IK and VK off the magazine rack!

I won't be able to show you any photos for a little while. While I'm here in B.C. I'm on my mom's iMac, but she doesn't have Photoshop. I think it'll be September before I can deal with photos again -- by then, you'll be thinking "Malaysia? That's, like, so last month."

Anyhoo, I'm off to have coffee with a friend I've known for nearly all my life, so that's a good thing about being here. Oh, and I went for a swim in the lake yesterday morning -- my parents and aunt go several times a week, weather permitting -- and I was such a wimp! The water was way too cold for me. I lasted about five minutes. It was definitely odd to sit on the beach under an evergreen looking out at the lake of my childhood, having been on a beach last week, under palms and jungle trees, looking at the South China Sea. Oh, what a zany world.

Just a few

It's my last night in Taiwan. Mixed feelings, of course, because I'm returning to Canada without Bill. No mixed feelings about leaving Taipei, though: happy, happy, happy.

I'll put lots of Malaysia photos on my photo page eventually, but for now I'll just show you a few. First, here is a picture of true bliss: me in a hammock on a tropical beach (check out that sand!):



Do you love monkeys? I love monkeys. They are so bizarrely human-looking. In Sarawak, we went to the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in the hopes of seeing some of its semi-wild orangutans. At one point, a mama orangutan came wandering out of the forest with her baby:



Isn't she beautiful? The orangutans were fabulous. At the same park, there was a very friendly little gibbon. Bill and I arrived when no one else was around, and this gibbon came and hung out with us for a while:



Spending most of that last two weeks outdoors was wonderful. I knew I'd missed nature, but I had no idea how much. Of course, I also went to the cat museum in Kuching. It was hilarious. Pure kitsch. Mostly it was filled with cat figurines -- everything you can think of, made of every material, in every pose. The walls were covered with cat posters, cat paintings, and cat photos. There were even taxidermy cats and a mummified cat. Craaazy. I took lots of photos, but now I'll just give you one. I should win a prize for posting this, I think:



OK, I have to run. Packing calls. Next time I write, I'll likely be in North America. See you then. xo

Hellooooo!

I'm back! I'm back!

We came back a day early (lots to take care of in Taipei before I leave on Thursday morning), so we got in very late last night. What a wonderful holiday. I will tell you more about it, and I will definitely show you photos, but I'm not that organized yet. Still dealing with heaps of smelly laundry and a very needy and vocal cat.

Since my last post, yes, we did see orangutans, and we also saw proboscis monkeys, macaques, and gibbons. We hiked in the jungle and swam in the sea again. We got lots of sunshine and fresh air. We bought a couple of beautiful objects. I read Perfume and The Da Vinci Code. And then yesterday we took three separate flights to get back. Aiyo!

I'm sleepy. Thank goodness for pizza delivery. ("No corn! Wo bu yao corn!") I'll write again soon. I'm back!

Cat City

I can't believe I'm on the island of Borneo. Borneo! We arrived in Kuching last night, the capital city of the state of Sarawak; its name is Malay for "cat" and it's full of cat-love. Yes, there will be photos! Bill took one this morning of me in front of a big cat statue in the middle of a traffic roundabout.

We're taking it easy today, wandering along the lovely Kuching waterfront and in and out of craft shops. There's a really good feeling about this place.

Our last few days on Perhentian Island were good: I went on three more dives. Would you believe that I was stung by a jellyfish on the other ankle? Yep. I skipped one dive for that, but it was fine after a few hours. I know it seems crazy, but we were actually ready to leave the island on Tuesday -- dare I say we were ever so slightly bored? It was great, and we loved being in the water, but there was nothing else. It's good to be in a new place now.

So over the next five days we'll head into Bako National Park, to the cat museum, and to a few more tourist spots. Ahhhhhh.

Talk to you again soon. Happy knitting to all, and to all, a good afternoon. (And thanks for comments, my lifeline to the good knitters of the world!) xo

"Ahhhhhh."

I'm saying that a lot: "Ahhhhhh." Hello from tropical Malaysia!

It's midday on Friday, and there are so many things to tell you! Most exciting is that Billy and I are certified scuba divers! Crazy. We finished the Open Water Diver course last night. We've been on four open-water dives in the past three days, and people, it is awesome. We can go down to 18 meters, and the dives were 40 to 45 minutes. There is so much going on down there! It's brilliant. We saw a big hawksbill turtle; I could've stayed and watched it all day.

The weird thing is that I still feel like I'm on a boat. Gentle waves, up and down. It's not bad, but I'm not on a boat, so it's a little curious.

My ankle didn't bother me as much as I feared that it might. Seems to be healing fine. What a relief.

We did hook up with our friends at the airport in KL and spent about four hours together before Bill and I jetted off up the Malaysian coast. It was really fun to see them. Since they're at the end of a two-month trek through Southeast Asia, they were brown as nuts. I still had my office pallor. But I'm working on it! Wearing SPF15, but I'm getting some sun and looking like I do indeed spend time outside from time to time. If I'd gone directly home from Taipei, no one would believe I'd spent the last couple of years in hot and sunny Asia.

Today is a full-on do-nothing day -- my first in ages. I've got my eye on a hammock down at the beach. There will be reading, there will be knitting, there may be card games and naps. It's all just good. (This is where we're staying, if you're interested.) Tomorrow and Sunday we'll dive. Monday or Tuesday we'll head to Sarawak, where we'll probably set up base in the city of Kuching and make day trips into the jungle. Definitely a day at the cat museum there. At least an hour in the museum gift shop.

OK, I've gotta run -- for a couple of reasons, actually. (Oh, come on, we're all friends here.) I'll probably get back online in three or four days. I don't have time (or, can't afford the time) to check blogs, so I just hope everyone is well. Leave me a comment so I know what's going on! I miss my daily blogs, but boy, I really don't miss spending all my days at a computer.

Not that I'm totally free of responsibility and decision making. Now, shall I have fresh pineapple juice or a mango shake with my fried rice for lunch...?

xo