Globabl Odessey Postcard #2 - Hey now hey now dont dream its over

ok so i have been a bit slack but here it is. Postcard number two. looks like i am going to sum up two and a bit months of my life in this posting.

well since my last post we had Christmas. this involved a very different routine to what i am used to but i say thanks to the Sheppard's and the Dar Woon Families for welcoming me and including me in their Christmas celebrations. basically it was spent at Kit's Mothers with a small gathering at her mums place, then it was onto a boat, and over to the island where i met adams family and spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with them. this inculded a drive from one end to the other, as most of the family is in Victoria and they live up near Nanimo, but it was quite a nice drive and gave me a chance to reflect on things. then on boxing day it was back onto the ferry (which was alot busier) and back to Vancouver. and then to top it off we had the extended family gathering for Kit's mum's family, which is a very very large gathering.


the Rovers had decided to go snow camping and that i had to come as well. now i wasnt instantly thrilled at the propect of goinig camping in snow, parcitalry in a cave, but i agreeded to the trip. so we spent a number of hours cooking the food and freezing it all ready to take with us. so we were set to go, snow shoes and all. and we hiked in at Mt Seymour and out into the back country. unfortunately for me this is when home sickness came crashing down on me. well i soldered on and after digging a number of rather large holes in the ground (one to sit in and one to sleep in) we settled down had dinner and in the morning got up to discover that our food supply had been compromised. so we returned to civilization a day earlier than planned but it was still quite an experience.

New years was celebrated at one of the rovers places, and with me cooking a BBQ for a number of hours, which was very therapeutic and one of the best home sickness cures. it was odd watching for fire works from other cities in other bits of the world besides the city i was in. having spent last year watching them on Sydney harbor it was quite odd, and knowing that often we would be either in the city or at some ones place celebrating in the back yard it was a big difference. and the following moring it was up and attit for the new years tradion in vancuover of the polar bear swim!!! to say the least it was cold.

mid january brought on my second snow camping experince, and this time i have to thank Nick P and his group for taking me and the Bairds for cooking for me and looking after me up at the snow. at ROVENT i was quite supprised to discover how warm it was, particularly after i was told i wasn't allowed to attend if i had not attended cold talk. so i had been to cold talk, and here i was in the snow, having dug out a space again but this time for a tent to go. i had alot of fun at rovent and got to meet a heap of new people and enjoyed the activities. but the Miss Strawberry Flats pageant was a bit odd and i don't think i need to experience that again. i spent most of my days in shorts and it was quite warm so i was quite ok. had to layer up in the evenings because it got cold but it was alot of fun.

for australia day i sorced aussie beer and enjoyed it with a few mates, quietly enjoying some coopers and some boags. so that was a nice way for me to welcome my national day!

my entire month of febuary was spent doing one thing. working for Vanvouer 2010. yes i was employed by the olympic games. Located at Canada place, other wise known as the MMC (main media centre) i was one of the small army of EVS (event services) staff located down there. what did i do? well i gave directions, i kept people out, i let people in, i chatted to the media and my collegues, met people and had a lot of fun. part of my job was assiting the general public and directing them to where the Olympic Cauldron is located, as it was located in the area near the venue.
through out the olympics i didnt go to any events but did experince the madness that was the games, as Vancouver went absolutly MENTAL (there is no other phrase for it). i manged to visit most of the Provincial Displays/Houses, epxerinced a large ammount of great music, good performances, got to the 7 fingers yet again.... (HA HA @ my younger brother). it was just extrodanary to see. people cued for hours to be involved. so i can but say it was amazing.

now its over and the city has one helluva hangover..... and now it try's to get the motivation up for the paralympics. i am off to the opening on friday and am realy looking foward to it.

so planning for europe and asia progresses and it seems to all be coming together. now i just need to find a bit more work and i am set for the rest of this trip. oh and on a side note, i have been keeping up my fitness and diet challegnes. i have not drunk any Cola drinks in 2 months now....

Well as i like to say, Dont do anything i wouldnt and keep watching the Skiies......

and as always links to photo albums are at the bottom

Richard "Gonzo" McCoy

March 2010 (still going obvisouly)

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games

Scout Camp called Rovent

January 2010

Snow Camping

Christmass Time

Post Card from Vancouver December 22

G'Day

the weather is cold, i still wear shorts and still havn't been skiing but am exploring. well that is what a postcard would say. i have done some cool stuff and have been a few interesting places.

so the flight to Canada was uneventful and not a lot to say. this time my baggage made it all the away to Canada without incident, mind you i did have to stuff around in Sydney for a while.

so canada, i have secured work for the duration and the set up and pack down of the olympic games so that is pretty exciting. i am still trying to find some work for the time leading up to January (expected start). i have spent alot of time exploring arround the city and figuring out how all of the transit networks are linked and work. its all fairly simple but its about geting arround the city and geting used to all of it.

for fun the other day i decided to see how long it would take to travel the entire rail network and sea bus (ITS A FERRY PEOPLE) that exists here in vancouver. the answer, with stuffing arround and actuly stoping places - 4 hours!!!!!

i have done alot of walking arround and exploring and have got a good idea of where things are and how to get places. i am living in a basement room in vancouver in the Collingwood area, not far from the skytrain station. its nothign fancy buts its a place for me to sleep and thats about it.

i have got involved with scouts over here and have been attending rovers at 1st south vancouver, having allready attended Rain Bucket the weekend after i arrive (got out of my tent and could see the snow line....) and there are plans for going cmaping in the snow during the middle of winter.............. me thinks it might be a bit cold.

i have explored some of the hisotry of the place and have a better understaning of the country i currently reside in. coming from a nation that was founded on Convicts and Gold, to now being in a country that was established in Trade and gold....... but some key diffrence but also alot of similarities in the way this place feels.

i have attached a few of my more pretty photos that i have taken so far and links to see more of the photos that i have taken are listed below.

well thats it, i have to go do some chirssy shopping today and other stuff, probs get some more food so i will take care of that and am looking foward to the next few weeks. i will send annother "postcard" in the next few weeks. if you want to pass this on to some other that might want to know what i am up to feel free and if you want to let me know whats crakin in your life just drop me a line!

Richard "Gonzo" McCoy
a not so cold aussie in Vancouver (thank god im not in the interior)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=165920&id=759231084&l=067767e40c
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=170110&id=759231084&l=30f3767aab
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162528&id=759231084&l=944ed718d6

Sooo i guess we better walk............ Welcome to Sydney

So day 1 is now complete with day two about to get underway.

i commenced my day at 7:30 am with a bus to mt waverley station, and then training it in to the city. then it was on another train from Flinders to Lillydalde. whilst on board a number of traveling companions joined me at Box Hill & at Blackburn. it was then on to croydon where we disembarked and jumped on the bus that would take us to wonga park. intersting thing about this bus is that it was a tele bus. you pay a few more dollars and the bus picks you up from your door............ a curious thing.
after arriving and wonga park, we saddled up and walked from there out to clifford park (approx 2kms) along the hilly terrain. once there we were joined by the fourth member of the travleing party. then it was on the the commando course which was taken in great humor and in good spirits.

then back to wonga park and into the city to visit the eureka sky deck for the magnifcent views of the city. then it was down to the James squires brew house for some light refreshments and then it was on to sydney.

after traplising arround sydney for the best part of an hour trying to find a place for us to stash our bags we found a back pakers in pitt street. (big ups to the wanders) then came the task of bringing in the new years. so we went down to one of the viewing areas & watched the fire works. just a tip, get a view of teh bridge.... it is the centre of the fire works and is quite important..

finaly it was back to pick up our bags and we got our selves out to North rocks to our accomdation. we boarded a train for carlingford (transfering services at Clyde) got off the train and having trusted google maps thought there would be a 3 or so km walk
well i was wrong. now confimrmed as approximatly 5kms

after a very long day alot of walking and some very tired boys we had completed day one

So what am i doing

Ok so here are the details

i am visitng a scouting and civic land mark in 4 states in 4 days with a few of my mates.

Day 1 - Victoria - Clifford Park (Scouting) Eureka Tower (Civic). Fly to Sydney
Day 2- New South Wales - Newington Armory (Scouting), Centre Point (Civic)
Day 3- Fly to Adelaide - South Australia - Woodhouse Activity Centre (Scouting), Rundle Mall /adeliade oval(Civic)
Day 4- Fly to perth - the war memorial in kings park (Scouting), bell tower/Freemantle (Civic

to explain where the challnge is............. we arnt allowed to use cars, unless there is no other option.

i will be posting logs when i am able.

cheers

Gonzo

The Latest Trek

Gday all

Full details posted later but this is Post 1 telling you that i will be on the road again come the 31st.

details posted tomrrow night.

Gonzo

The Next trip

ok. so my next trip wont be any where near as cool as my last effort. i am going for the weekend up to sydney. so as this blog was created for whenever i went away, i am going to let you know what goes down.

i am going up to see my family (YAY) and for an egnagment party!!! dont know where i am staying yet. i know it will be with family some where

any ways

the itenary for this trip

Friday -Work untill 6:30 - drive to Tulla - fly out on virgin blue at 7:45
arrive SYDNEY 9ish
Saturday - what ever for the day - party in the evingin
Sunday - what ever for the day - dep sydney on virgin blue arround 9:30
arrive melbourne 11ish

should be a bit of fun. i wont realy be doing any touristy stuff because i have done alot of it before. sydney - a nice place to vist but not where i would want to live

The Colusion of Odessey 1

Greetings one and all.

for those of you who like pretty things, you may like to look at my photos of the trip. in the end i took arroudn 800 photos but i have only posted 500 of them. they are avaiabe at Face book (if you are my friend you can see them all!!!)

but for those of you who do not have face book, i still love you and here is the acess you so desire to my pictures.
PJ - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10418&id=759231084&op=6
Vancouver - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10419&id=759231084&op=6
Touring 1/2/3/4 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10424&id=759231084&op=6 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10425&id=759231084&op=6 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10427&id=759231084&op=6 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10428&id=759231084
CJ - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10305&id=759231084
Ottowa - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10558&id=759231084
Montreal 1/2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10430&id=759231084 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10557&id=759231084
and the rest - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10660&id=759231084

so its time to close the chapter of the diary. but this will become the place to find out what i am up to when i travel, be it to regional victoria, interstate or over seas.

time for the final comments. i hate this bit, feels so sappy.

losing my bags kinda sucked. Pj Rocked and CJ was good. i got to see alot of the country (BC, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario) and got to experince life with some candians.

people have asked me what my highlights were from the trip. well i tell them it was the friends and exerpicnes that i brought home that made the trip tops. i will rember so many of the great people i met, and the country i got to see and experince. i can only say how welcome i felt and openly recived. i have grown alot out of the trip and shrunk a bit - i came home at least 6kgs lighter. to all those who showed me arround, fed me, helped me get my bags back, put a roof over my head and all that, i thank you. without all of the wonderful people the experince would not have been the same. the photos i took and the trinkets are one thing, but friendships and a desire to return (yes i want to go back there some day) are truly the greatest things i got from the trip.

so for the final time for the Log of Gonzo's Odessey To Canada

Adios Amigos

and Keep Smiling