Experience #43

Theme: social- Fundraiser

In a moment of great affection and appreciation for Jack, my choir director, I vowed to organise a fund raising event for Choir Kids, an after school music education program. Jack was most gracious in allowing me to sing a whole song solo at our year end concerts. It was a very special thing he did for me. He spent time during practise with me and encouraged me to find my voice.

So I felt I should give back. Jack organised Choir Kids in 2006 with five members of the Arbutus singers choir. The idea was to provide kids, in communities that might not offer after school programs, a chance to sing in a choir-just for fun. It received charitable status in 2008. At our year end concerts the kids come and perform with us. To see their enthusiasm, and the pride in their parents eyes is heart warming.

I thought-lets make a carnival style afternoon at a park. Beckwith is a great venue for families. There is a water park and lots of room to run and play. I booked a part of the fields for my event. I chose bocce for the adults, and pit spitting and carnival games for the kids. I also put forth the idea for a bake sale. Creating the games was fun. Did you know: that watermelon's don't have pits anymore? and that there is a helium shortage? For my pit spitting I had to use Spitz, and the balloons were air filled.
But the big challenge for me was to promote it. I am not that person who can be forceful-even for a good cause. I am very uncomfortable with asking for help. Lucky for me, I know Shirley, who has done this sort of thing before-a lot! I should have called on her long before I did. But she helped me so much with the little time we had left. She got Tim Horton's to lend us an awning, and provide us with coffee and Tim Bits. Thrifties offered us water and juice boxes. She also got a few friends to come out to help. Wow! She is amazing!

The weather could not have been better, and I had received lots of baked goodies from friends, clients, and choir members. My friends were there to hang-out and help. All that was missing were they families. A few folks came by, plaid some games, or bought our baked goods. They were most generous with their support. But I should have advertised much more than I did. The paper adds, and choir invites and community recreation parks where I posted my event weren't enough to get people out.

I learnt a lot doing this event. I was amazed and so touched by all the folks who so willingly came to help and support me. I get emotional just thinking about their kind gestures, their love. I will be forever in their dept.

Experience #41

Theme: Air: Sleeping in the spheres

Thanks Celeste for suggesting this experience. The Free Spirit spheres are located in Qualicum Beach area. Tom Chudleigh built them of local woods using sailboat technologies. His concept was to harness the healing qualities of the old growth forest and create a habitat that is in harmony with it's surroundings without causing harm to it. The spheres are hung from a series of cables and no nails go into their support trees. You enter the floating orbs by a spiral stair case which wraps around a tree. The Erin sphere has a double bed, a dinette, kitchenette, and a loft single bed. The morning light streams into the round windows, the breeze gently rocks the orb. It is truly a relaxing and healing experience.
Our host Tom showed us the facilities: the 3 orbs, the compost toilet and shared shower facility. All very clean and well maintained. His partner, Rosey, had prepared a basket of goodies and champagne for us to enjoy. Their story is worth noting. Rosey came to stay, in 2009, for 2 months to recover from an illness. They fell in love and she ended up staying. Very romantic...
We arrived Friday night and stayed Saturday. The feeling of being cradled in this suspended tree house was magical. The suspension rocked away the stresses of the last few weeks. It was a week-end just for the two of us. Let's just say that the orb got 'a rockin'...

Experience #42

Theme: Earth: Spelunking

Horn Lake caves offers 3, 4, and 5 hour tours. Our guide was a young man named Myles. He explained that the caves were created many millions of years ago through the erosion process of glaciation. Limestone dissolves under the action of water charged with carbonic acid. The dissolution process produces a distinctive landforms known as karst, characterised by sinkholes, and underground drainage. Limestone caves are often adorned with calcium carbonate formations produced through slow precipitation. These include flowstones, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, soda straws and columns. These secondary mineral deposits in caves are called speleothems.
Our tour took us through narrow tunnels where we had to crawl on our hands and knees and sometimes on our bellies. We down climbed into the deeper caves where we saw some of the largest flowstones and stalactites. One of these resembled the Buddha sitting by the water, others resembled animals such as elephants, crocodiles and wolves. It was a very exciting day of discovery. We both ended up very dirty-great fun!

Experience #38
Theme: Water: Surfing the wave in Tofino

Our nephew, Augustin, arrived just in time to join us on our long week-end in Tofino. The weather was spectacular! We did some whale watching on our first day, but-been there-done that so it can't be marked as a "new experience" for us. We were booked with Endless Ride, out of Ucluelet, for both the surfing and the SUP. Jay was great. He got us geared up and into the surf safely. He showed us how to read the beach and surf. Lesson # 1: stay away from the yahoo's (AKA the idiots who don't know what they're doing) and the rip tides. Augustin is in track and field and young (18) so he did very well. Simon and I were a bit more slow getting up onto the board, but we all had a blast! The waves were great and for most of the morning we had lots of space to practise.

Experience #39
Theme: Water: SUP-stand-up paddle board
Early start to the day. We met Kat at the boat launch at 7am. The skies were clear, but the water was a bit choppy. The SUP board is broader and thicker than a surf board. Balance is only a bit easier on this board. I could feel all my stabilising muscles working hard to keep me balanced. We set off along the inlet and across to a fish hatchery. Coming back the winds picked up and we had to work hard to paddle our way to the boat launch. The next day we all commented on how stiff we were-it's a great core work-out!





Experience #40
Theme: Air: zip-line
This was an easy one. On the way back from Tofino, we stopped at the Wild at Play park in Nanaimo and did their zip-line course. The guides set you up and you zip across the Nanaimo river canyon. It was great fun but a bit short.