The "Eh" Team

Canadians don't deal with the same kind of health care problems and traumas we face. They have a health care system based on treating hockey injuries and curing sinus infections that come from trying to pronounce French vowels.
P. J. O'Rourke

I arrived at Vancouver airport last Friday. Laura, her niece, Arja, and Arja's 9 month-old baby, Danica (an absolute poppet...you'll know why I say that later), were there to greet me. Full of chatter we headed to the car for the 2 hour drive to her house in Harrison; a picturesque small town quite close to the US border, built on hot springs, nestled in mountains on the edge of the Vancouver river, bursting with wildlife, seals, sturgeon, bears. It was a beautiful summer’s day. They got a little lost when they picked me up, even though they had a TomTom, and ended up at the aquaplane airport a short distance from Vancouver International. Naturally there was some playful banter and ‘ribbing’ in the car, especially as on the way back we were looking for a turnoff to a place called ‘Hope’; “Ignore Arja. She got us lost last time. Ignore the TomTom. It’s still on English time. We’ll just point the car and ‘HOPE’ we get there.” Etc, etc, chuckling to ourselves thinking how amusing we were.

Precisely one and a half hours after landing in Canada, most of which had been taken up going through Immigration in Vancouver airport, I was sitting in the car looking at a sign which said ‘Welcome to the United States’. The US Immigration officer came up to the car, “Welcome to the United States ladies, may I see your passports, please…”. As I was the only person in the car who was theoretically visiting another country, you can take an educated guess as to how many passports there were in the car. I think two hours through border control under those circumstances was fairly reasonable. Had a great weekend once I got there: lovely weather, fantastic spa day, great food, too many cocktails...


Harrison, British Columbia.

We have a new addition to the ‘725’ menagerie: L'il Jack (the 10 pound dog), sitting on sofa with Emma, Miss Goody Four Paws.












Finally, I had a lovely birthday. Joanna and Justine took me out for dinner and bought me a great stash of pressies. Thanks to all of you for my cards and gifts. My dresser was bursting with monkey cards!