Letter from Iona - 3

Hi All:

So this has been a week of minor challenges and exciting times. But don't worry, we're still speaking!:)

Dan's hair had taken on the look of a chia pet, so we decided it was time to pull out the shears. I went to the farmer next door and asked to borrow his sheep shears, but he would have none of it.....NOT!! We asked our boss and she had her mom bring down their clippers. Then, the fun began! Katie got home from work around 9:30 and Dan was anxiously awaiting her arrival, and hopped off the couch when she walked through the door. He'd been looking forward to this all week! So, after Katie read the instructions and completely prepared herself for this task, Dan says, "oh don't use the instructions, here's what we're going to do. Put the longest clipper on and just start at the back. That will give you practice and then we can get shorter. Oh, and can I have it longer on the top and shorter on the sides, and tapered on the edges and and and........" Katie said, NO! We'll do it like the instructions say. Anyway to make a long, painful story short, the hair has been cut and is beautiful (plus he still has both ears and is still talking to me....2 bonuses!). We'll have a pic soon which leads us to the next challenge of this week.

I am sad to tell you all that the battery charger has passed away. Unfortunately, it has ceased its operations and will no longer be providing its services. So, now we have a decision to make, whether to purchase a new charger or just use batteries for the camera. Thank goodness the IPOD doesn't take batteries too! :(

However, we did take a lovely walk last week up behind the house (on the Hill of the Frog, Dad P) and over to the Atlantic side of the island. From there, Dan yelled "Hello Canada" as this was the closest we have been to home, but alas, there was no reply other than crazy oyster catcher calls (these ones are kinder than those in N.Z.!) and the relentless gulls (Katie's mortal enemy!). We explored this area and the golf course, see attached pics and then walked through the middle of the island via the village. For all of you birders (Pergau's and Comfort's), there is a mysterious bird here called the corncrate. It has a very raspy call and is extremely hard to spot. We have yet to see one (although we are only casually looking). Someone came into the bar the other day and said that they spotted 31 over their time here. It is a sanctuary for them here and apparently Dan now has the inside scoop of where to spot them. More to come on that!

The wildflowers, buttercups, and daisies are all in bloom here now and make for beautiful fields on nice sunny days. Yesterday the temperature was probably between 25-28 celsius, but with the ever blowing wind it made it quite nice to walk in. Very little humidity here which is interesting as we are so close to the water.

The coolest incident this week happened on Saturday. We had over 150 people in the restaurant (tour groups) and Katie was serving food like crazy while Dan was super busy in the bar. All of the sudden, people stood up from their tables and started looking and pointing out the windows towards the Sound. Out there in the sunlight, you could see a motorboat toodling around in the water, seemingly just wasting time, fishing. Suddenly, out of the water came three fins, leaping out of the water around the boat.....DOLPHINS!! Katie and the serving staff were so excited that all food serving stopped as all watched them playing with the boat. Sadly nobody got to the bar in time with the news to let Dan know what was happening, but apparantely once they are here, they come back often.

Anyway, I think that's all that there is to let you know about this week. Again, we hope that you are all safe and happy back home, miss you all bunches, and love you all very much.

Letter from Iona - 2

Hi Again All:

So, it looks like Wednesdays are now our regular day off. It's nice to have something to look forward to!!

Things here are going along quite nicely in this sleepy little island. We have two new roommates, one from Fife (Eastern Scotland) and the other is the sister of Agni from Lithuania. So we now have 4 housemates which is interesting with only 1 bathroom, but we seem to manage ok. Sadly, we had a death in the household this week as one of the girls broke the washing machine by putting in a huge duvet that was way to big for the machine to handle. So, Dan, being the man of the house, took the machine apart, found the broken belt and gave the sad news to our bosses' husband. Soon, we will have either a new belt or a new washing machine, but regardless, there will be no more washing of duvets!!

Let's see, what else.....I will pause and ponder....oh! Katie was attacked by a seagull on Sunday when we went outside to eat our lunch. She had made a beautiful stuffed roll (for us North American types, that's a sandwich!) with chips and a square, when out of the blue, this attack gull went on a kamikaze mission and dove for her sandwich, snatching it off of her plate before she'd even taken a bite! Thankfully nobody was injured in this event, but the seagull almost died when Dan threatened to take it out by throwing rocks at it. We didn't think that would go over well with the guests sitting there watching, but the staff would have been happy!:)

One story that should be told about Edinburgh was our haunted walk that we took. We were told by one of our Irish roommates at the hostel that it's fun to take a haunted walk in the dark. Because it doesn't get dark up here until 10 or 10:30 pm and we were going to do a lot of walking the next day, we chose to do this around 7:00 pm when it was still light. In the end it didn't matter because they took us into the underground streets of Edinburgh where it is basically pitch black anyway. There was an entire city that existed under there in the 1600's, and now they say it is haunted by this or that ghost. All of the underground part of the tour was lit only by the guide's flashlight. Katie's hand might have been turning a different shade of blue due to the squeezing that Dan was doing of it, but she was holding his pretty tight as well. We toured through different rooms, seeing witches sacred pentagrams and circles of stones until we reached the final room. (There were only 5 of us on the tour, by the way). Here, she split up the two guys and the three girls and put them on opposite sides of the room. Then she started talking about this poltergeist that lived in the room and after talking it up a lot, she turned off the light. The next thing we knew, somebody came running in from the hall, grabbed one of the girls from behind, scared the beejesus out of all of us (somebody screamed like a little girl, but I won't say who........Dan!) and ran out of the room. With that the tour was over and we headed back up to civilization. Dan had a good shot of straight whisky to calm his nerves and we took off for the hostel.

So, that's it for today. We hope that you're all doing well and we'll write again next week.

For now, so long!

Letter from Iona - 1

Hello all!

So, here it is....we've been here for almost a week and had lots of fun. Our first 3 days were absolutely gorgeous with sunshine and warm weather. The last few days have left a bit to be desired. It's funny though, even when it is raining outside, the area is still beautiful. We've had a few close encounters with some sheep as they snuck through the gate in the back yard and came bawling up to our window before taking off for the front yard where the gate was open and onto the road! Dan and I watched, sure that one would meet its doom with a passing car (yes there are cars on the island, but only for local residents and delivery trucks), but thankfully a collie came along and scared them back into the yard. The next day, the back gate was fixed and the front gate closed, so they are no longer our close neighbours, but we still see them from a distance and can certainly hear them well into the night. Speaking of night, it doesn't get dark here until 11:30 pm and morning dawns as early as 4:30 am!! Makes it a little difficult to sleep sometimes, but also makes it nice for walking home from work late at night.

There are no locks on anything here as it is a very close knit and friendly community of people. We've now met all of the staff and each one of them is interesting in their own way. As Dan told you earlier, Vicki and Danielle are from Canada. We've also met Jess from Queenstown, NZ; Sian from Glasgow; Agni from Lithuania; Donna from Yorkshire; Shauna from Iona; and a couple of girls from Mull who work in the kitchen but don't speak much. The restaurant and the Spar are owned by the same family with the three girls, Sheila, Dan, and Eilee working in the kitchen and the shop. Their brother also operates the boat to Staffa to see the Puffins and their Dad is known as the local rich guy celebrity on the island.

Katie is working in the kitchen mostly, but has been put onto the night shift to help with taking orders, serving food and drinks and clearing tables. She's also been helping with the food prep of making sandwiches in the mornings, peeling potatoes and carrots, and making salads. Dad, thanks for always making me set the table properly as the knowledge has come in handy here a lot!

Dan has become Bar Man Joe.....you can ask him for pretty much any kind of shot, mixed drink, lager, dark or light ale, coffee, tea, cappuccino, espesso, you name it, he can make it. No one's died yet, so he must be doing ok:) The first day, they had him peeling carrots and potatoes, but then saw his other talents for making drinks and ever since, he's been behind the bar.....or at least cleaning it.

Our house is a special kind of house. We've added a link here so that you can see it.
http://www.tobermory.co.uk/panorama/aerialimages/iona/memi.jpg
It's the fourth house from the left in the picture.
First of all, it has been scheduled for demolition for about three years now according to Sheila, but they just haven't gotten around to doing that yet. There is no central heating in the house, but they've given us large space heaters and after we stole one for our room, we were okay. We also have large duvets for each bed and linens that they've provided, which was nice. One morning we woke up to no electricty because the meter had run out, so Dan nicely got up at 5:30 am, took a £ (pound), stuck it into the meter and turned the crank. Now don't worry because it doesn't cost us a cent. As soon as you turn the crank, the £ comes flying back out at you and you can reuse it over and over.
The microwave works quite nicely as long as you bang it hard enough in just the right place which goes for the living room light as well. Our two housemates are having a war about cleaning right now and have nightly arguments with Donna yelling at Agni in highpitched Yorkshire english and Agni saying back in her Lithuanian accent..."I don't want to talk to you right now Donna..." We just lay down and laugh into our pillows.
All in all, it is truly an experience.....we're slightly sorry that we didn't get into the Spar shop housing where the rest of the girls are as they have wooden cabinets, skylights, seperate bathrooms, and personal tv's. In the end it doesn't really matter because we aren't home enough to worry about it. We've both been working for 4 days now and have already worked 35 hours each....money money money!

Anyway, we miss you all bunches and will keep you updated with our "Letters from the Isle of Iona" (Anybody who has heard Wingfield CD's will appreciate that)

Love to you all,
Dan & Katie

Safe on Iona!

Hi all,

Katie is doing some food shopping so I've snuck up to check the hotel here in Iona. It is the only place with Internet access. We arrived safe and sound from a whirlwind travel adventure yesterday. We went by rail, water, road, water (again!) and by road (again!) and got to Iona earlier then planned. We're living in a small cottage which is a 5 minute walk out of town. So far the weather has been gorgeous with no hint of rain and just a few clouds. Iona is spectacular with gorgeous hills, lots of sheep (in fact they are some of our neighbours) and all sorts of visitors. We've met most of our co-workers. Our fellow canucks are: Vicki, who is from Saskatchewan and Danielle is from Nova Scotia.

We are safe and enjoying our adventures. We've put internet cafe in our budget so we'll have 15 minutes to check email/update the blog each week.

It looks like we'll be 'floaters' so we may both be working in the restaurant, cafe, bar and spar shop.

Edinburgh was amazing... we'll have heaps to tell everyone soon.

My time is short so I'm signing off.

Love,
Dan & Katie

We made it!!

Hi all,

Just checking in... we arrived in Glasgow at appx. 11pm Eastern Time on June 7th. We made our way with two other canucks (Julie and Andrea) to Edinburgh. We are now using the internet "cafe" PC at the Castle Rock Hostel to send this update to you!

Love and hugs to all

Dan & Katie

One sleep to go!

As Katie would say 'One sleep to go'. Wow, tomorrow at this time we should be over Newfoundland! We've been camping out in Peterborough for the last 3 days having a great time with friends and family. For our last evening of Canadian living for some time we went to the superb (and free!) Peterborough Zoo. The cougars were certainly living a dream life as they were hiding out in their enclosure enjoying the cool breeze of the evening. One cougar even had his/her head on the door frame appearing to have a snooze! One day I'll be doing that but in a hammock!

Off to re-pack the 80 litre bag! Our next posting will be from Scotland! For those who like to track flights we're flying on Zoom 276 (ICAO code: OOM276). The aircraft type is a 767-300ER.

A link for a photo of one of Zoom's 767s can be found here:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/853204/L/

All the best - Dan

More details about the proposal...

Once the ring was ready (I had done so much research on that my brain hurt) I laid out the plan for the proposal.

I should start with a story that our friend Fred Pattison told me. His great Aunt Isabella and her beloved soldier friend were dating when he was called to war. He left her a farewell present and then departed. She was so heart-broken that he did not propose before he left that she never opened the present! She died of a broken heart years later. Meanwhile our soldier friend, never having heard from his beloved Isabella, was tragically killed in the war. Isabella's family were clearing her stuff and found this package. It was opened and it was a pair of gloves with a suspicious bulge in the left glove's ring finger. It was indeed a ring and it was the soldier's way of proposing!

So the plan was set... A rose arrived at Katie's work asking her to meet me at the War Memorial at 6pm. I met her there and after discussing about how we could wait for a bit before eating (phew) we started on our walk. Katie offered to put my jacket (which I was carrying) into my backpack and proceeded to open the bag... Wait! There's a gift for you (oops, well I can't keep a secret to save my skin) So our walk started with Katie's curiousity in full tilt. Major Hill's Park was blocked off for the Tulip Festival so a walk along the Ottawa River below Parliament Hill was decided.

I finally saw a bench that was empty and suggested we sit down. Out came the package and Katie was happy to open it. Toe Socks (they came with the gloves) emerged and she just loved this. A few minutes later I suggested that she should keep looking in the box, and so emerged the gloves (which matched the toe socks). A wrapped ring emerged from the left glove and tears were flowing. Katie unwrapped the ring which I promptly borrowed. I got on my knee and said: "This is the part when I get on my knee... I love you; You are the best thing to ever happen to me; Will you marry me?" While I uttered these words I was putting the ring on the wrong hand... oops! I corrected that nervously and with a bit of an embarassed look.

There was a brief stunned silence and finally she said Yes! Many more tears and 5 minutes later she was on the cellphone to her parents with the news. Now secretly I had made reservations at the Courtyard restaurant per a suggestion from Katie's Mom. We made it on time and of course the entire staff there knew about this. Bill and Barb (Katie's parents) had sent a card and a bottle of champagne to start off our meal! I had no idea and I really appreciated the surprise!!

A lot of people knew I was going to propose but I only really decided how just a few hours before the big event. As my Dad asked a few days prior: "Who doesn't know about all this (meaning the proposal)" I thought for a few seconds and replied "Just Katie!" Thank you everyone for keeping a great secret! - Dan

Checking in from London, Ontario

The first part of our journey has been accomplished. Katie, myself and the 24' truck we rented are safe and sound in London. We decided to move all of our belongings to my Grandmother's farm house which has a very large basement space which will be ideal for storage. Driving the 24' truck on the 417/416/401 was interesting to say the least!

We definitely made the rounds before leaving Ottawa last week. We had dinner with our friends Charles and Valerie and their family, dropped in with my Uncle John and Aunt Danielle (in fact crashed at their house on May 31!) and made good bye calls to others that unfortunately we ran out of time to visit.

We had a great sendoff from Ottawa thanks to the handbell festival committee and our great friend Nicole Jeffrey. I managed to stuff in a 'Bells over Ottawa' T-Shirt into my 80 litre trekking bag so it will be making appearances over in the UK and Europe.

As our reward for getting everything ready to be moved by the end of May 30th we set a goal to take Nicole to see the latest Star Wars movie, which was excellent. We are going to miss you 'Scooter'!

While we're in London for a few days I'll be taking the time to help out around the farm and my parent's house. The grass is quite long so you can guess on my mission for the day!

Have a great day all! Our next journey is a bus ride to Peterborough. We will catch the 4am bus on June 4th - Dan