Monday, October 23rd (part 2)
We went to the “Metal Monday” at the Exchange, which is just a relaxed night out for the metal fans at the bar, usually with burgers and karaoke. Tonight the Scrabble board was pulled out by Naiomi, so a group of people ended up playing that for the whole evening. No karaoke fortunately haha!
It was fun chatting with a bunch of Saskmetal people again (I finally met Janet!) and we stayed until 1am!
Tuesday, October 24th
Our last day in Regina, waaaah!!! 🙁 Time for some last visits and meetings. We met with my buddy Mark and his girlfriend Yvonne for breakfast, we went for a drive on our own to the Wascana Park and the Southend Mall (we drove back through some neighbourhoods) and then Danny’s dad Ken came to pick us up to visit them. We chatted with Ken and Danny for a while and at the end of the afternoon Carol and Lisa got home too. Carol gave me one of their pillows (because Danny had told her that I like it), it says: “People who don’t like cats were probably rats in an earlier life”. Ain’t that sweet?!
Tim and Cortney came to pick us up for supper at 6.15, so it was time to say our goodbyes to the Stephensons. It’s hard leaving Danny behind and not being able to support him like I would like to (to be there for him in person, instead of just over email or phone), but what can you do. Carol again told us that they would be there for us and we’d always be welcome if we’d move there. They are such an amazing family!
We met with Marlin (he wanted to take us out for supper) at the Red Lobster where we had “shrimps all you can eat” 🙂
With a big garlic cloud hanging around us, we then went to the jam spot of The Orchard – Jeff (Into Eternity’s “new” touring guitarist) had asked us to come by. They played a bunch of songs and we really liked it. Nice people too, also the two Activate guys we met there as well. Back at Tim’s we packed a bit and did our laundry.
Wednesday, October 25th
Reluctantly we left Regina (around 10) after Sandy came by for a goodbye hug. It took us 2 hours to drive to Gravelbourg to visit Cees and his family. We only know them from a Dutch forum about emigrating to Canada (and their own personal site), but they welcomed us in their home and asked us to join them for a sandwich for lunch. We had some great chats too, thanks guys! We stayed much longer than we intended, so at 2 it was time to continue our trip. We wanted to make it to Medicine Hat before dark.
The prairie we saw today was very beautiful, around Regina it’s fairly flat, but around Moose Jaw the rolling hills started and we had some great scenery almost everywhere. We arrived in Medicine Hat at 6, grabbed a burger and a salad at McDonalds and went to find the Groves B&B outside of town. It was dark by then, so we couldn’t see their view, but the room was very nice and we spent the evening watching TV, drinking tea and organizing our suitcases.
Thursday, October 26th
After a nice hot breakfast, some chats with the B&B hosts Gary and Joy and enjoying the amazing view over the South Saskatchewan river and its coulees, we left for Calgary. The scenery (and with that the trip) wasn’t too exciting until we got close to Calgary, so the 3 or so hours seemed much longer.
Finally we got to see the Rockies again in the distance and the skyline of Calgary! We drove to downtown and went into the Calgary Tower for the great views. Around 4 we were at Derek’s house in the North East (Falconridge) and waited for him to arrive from work. Together with his roommates Roque and Janelle (both also from Regina) we went to eat at the nearby Boston Pizza. Good times! Afterwards we hung out and watched the DVDs (some live recordings of metal shows that Nico filmed in the 80s) we copied for Derek.
Friday, October 27th
We did some final shopping in some shopping malls close to Derek’s and left for the airport around 6pm. We left the car at the car rental office and went to the check in. We went to eat at Kelsey’s and met up with Brenda, Marc and the kids (time to catch up!) and unfortunately just briefly with Kees, Marlies and Sophie when we boarded the plane. Beside the tight seats, the length of the flight, an hour delay (because maintenance found a little oil leak they had to repair) and some thirst (no bottles of drinks allowed), the flight went well.
Saturday, October 28th
When we arrived at Schiphol (Amsterdam Airport) it was already Saturday afternoon in Holland. I phoned my brother Ton, who picked us up. After a shower we had some good food, drinks and chats with them and viewed part of our pictures. We hadn’t slept much on the plane, but managed to stay awake until 11pm or so.
Sunday, October 29th
We slept very well, luckily!! After a good breakfast, we looked at the rest of the pics and some of our filmed footage. We also watched the film Ton compiled from the footage of their impressive Vietnam vacation. Before driving home we wanted to stop by Agnes and Colinda for a bit, because they live only a few kilometres from Ton and Rita. But I checked the mail a bit late and found out too late that they’d be at home until 1pm but it was already later. Sorry!
We just drove home instead. Ton had filled up the car and washed it while we were away, wow, thanks! For a moment it was a bit weird for Nico to drive in a small, stick-shift car without power steering again, but it wasn’t as bad as he expected. Thanks to our good rest we even had the energy to immediately unpack, do laundry etc. once we got home. Thanks to Ton, Rita, Martijn and Sander for everything! Staying there for a night was the best thing that could’ve happened to us – a perfect start to deal with the jet lag!
So what’s going to happen next? We both still have the next week off. We have to sort everything out and hopefully come to a decision. Then we’ll have to see what exactly is possible with which procedures and find out answers to a lot more questions! Keep an eye on our journal for updates on our plans, as well as how things go with Danny…