Return to Cyprus

We love being back in Cyprus. Got here late yesterday afternoon. We haven't got any electric in the flat at the moment (it was cut off by the last tenant) but really sitting around by candelight is quite romantic! (except we can't have a shower either with no hot water). Anyway it's all small things and we won't be spending much time there anyhow. Went straight out to our favourite Meze restaurant 'The Meze Taverna' on St Andrews street - it really is as awesome as we remembered and the owener has added a few more new dishes to the exisiting 25 or so that are served up! - all absolutely delicious! He posted a closing time of 11pm but we didn't walk out of there till 12.45am! and by that time it was more of a stagger than a walk back to the flat!
Even Starbucks has made it to Cyprus during our absence - handy coz it means we can get on line and there's a cafe just around the corner from the flat.
The weather is great too - sunny out and quite warm (definately no coats needed yet)

It feels like home....and it's GREAT to be back!

Time Out in UK

Been back in the UK for the last 5 days. It's certainly a lot less rainy than we're used to in BC - although most are telling us it's been unusually dry here this winter. It's been great to see family and friends but already it seems like we've not been gone for so long! It's been wonderful driving our baby car again, although sad coz I think now we really do have to say goodbye and sell - with no plans to be coming back in the very near future :-(

Off on our travels again!

Less than 24 hours to go till we're on our travels again - this time back to the UK. Looking forward to catching up with as many family and friends as possible but it's a busy, busy month ahead. Looking forward to it nevertheless. Treated Harvey to a good scrub today so he can sit in the rain back here in BC and get dirty again! Think we're all packed and sorted....!!!

Awesome Skiing up Grouse & the RV show

Back at the campsite now - after a couple of busy days. Yesterday got up early and drove into Vancouver. Parked up near the Walmart (note that I don't say 'in' - they've put up signs saying 4 hours max parking AND no overnight parking - the horrors! - so that's cramped our style - it was our favourite spot when travelling into Vancouver). Within 1/2 hour of parking up we were up on Grouse Mountain and on the slopes. The weather was gorgeous and we had fabulous views of the whole city - and of the slopes (a bit of a change from last time we went!) The place takes on a whole new perspective when you can actually see where your're going! There's about 25 runs and 2 express lifts. For us it's great - plenty to keep us busy and forever practicing our techniques. Sometime mid afternoon the weather did deteriorate and our last few runs were getting quite foggy and snow-storm like, we left the slopes about 4pm.


Drove back to Chilliwack and met up with some friends in 'The Vault' pub for the evening - great pizza, martinis and a very expensive brick wall apparently from Al Capone's house(?!) Stayed the night where we'd parked - we weren't driving anywhere!

Today we did some chores - bought our bus tickets for Monday to get to the airport and did some last minute shopping. Headed down the highway to Abbotsford and the RV show going on at the Tradex exhhibtion centre. After several hours of milling around and up and down steps into numerous RV's, 5th wheels, travel trailers and truck campers we have just reminded ourselves how darn lucky we are. HARVEY IS THE GREATEST! Of all the interior layouts we saw I have to say I just love the layout we have, the features we have, the furnishings we have. Granted it's all a little worn, but RV interior design doesn't seem to date that much so it certianly isn't old fashioned. We looked inside a $600,000 rig - puh - they can keep it! We both agreed if we had that kind of money we'd rather design our own - and in fact if it wasn't for the old chassis design on this we'd just as soon have Harvey refitted and refurnished!

Torrential rain and howling winds whipped up back along the highway to Cultus lake and another cosy night back at 'home'.

When it rains it POURS!!

Well that goes for the weather but also for RV repairs. Brought Harvey into town yesterday for a simple $90 transmission service. They found problems and we agreed to pay $465 to have the gear box out and investigate. This morning, following the discovery of LOTS of problems the bill is now up to $4300 to have the whole gear box re-conditioned and parts replaced. Ho-hum...So we spent a delightful night parked in their fore-court in town being kept awake by a howling wind storm and traffic passing by!

We had also planned to go to Vernon today for their Winter carnival and some skiing. Sadly that had to be cancelled - I think the plan is to go back into the city tomorrow and have a day up on Grouse Mountain instead.

And if you ever find yourself in Chilliwack, BC then DON'T go to a restaurant called 'Dakota's' We went last night - lousy! And I had 2 steak madallions that I asked to be bagged to bring home - we got back and found that the pikey waitress had NICKED one of them!! (Good job we were typical tight Brits and had left a rubbish tip!)

So, currently we're still waiting for the RV repairs to be finished....