Life After India

I returned home from India a week and a half ago now, and have quickly been thrown back into normal life. Back to work, a job interview, got the job (senior position, same office), presenting my masters project in a week. Phew!

I have been putting off writing a post about India because there is so much to say, most of it I'm not sure how to put into words, and I don't know where to start. We spent about half of the time travelling like regular tourists, Christine and I, and the rest of the time with our friends' families and at their wedding. I think that the most memorable, and most impactful times were those with the family. We were welcomed with open arms, and everyone was so generous to us from lending a mobile phone to have when travelling on our own, to arranging accommodation, driving us around, taking us shopping, and generally treating us like one of the family and making us feel very welcome and loved. Below is a picture of us with the bride, and our friend from Victoria, Pratibha in the middle, and her cousins Sanchita and Vrinda.


Now that I'm back to my quiet little house on my quiet little island I have plenty of time to contemplate India, all that I learned about it when I was there, and what it all means. I feel like it's kind of a parallel universe. At least, that's how I put it into words. Things are so different there, yet also so the same. Well, not really the same, but the same very superficially. Like, there are roads and hospitals and shops and people have jobs and families and many speak English. I guess a microcosm of my parallel universe idea might be Bollywood. What other country has developed such a distinctly different tradition of film making? Well I'm not a film expert, maybe there is one, but am I making sense?

What else? Religion, and traditions. We were mostly exposed to Hinduism since that's the religion of our friends and their wedding was a Hindu wedding, of course. So totally different. And so fascinating to me. I wish I had learned more about it before going there. A lot of things might have made more sense.

Hm, it feels good to write this all down. I will write more posts about India, I promise.

For now, for your entertainment, some photos of our adventures: The wedding, and highlights from our other travels.

The Abominable Snowman Closes His Mouth

Before I run down to the ferry to catch the bus to Victoria, here are a few more pictures. The swoop of snow from the roof, which from inside looks a lot like I'm in the mouth of an abominable snowman with icicles for teeth, continues to close.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and safe travels if you're going anywhere (and I hope you don't have to).

The Snow Out Here

It's been below zero for 10 days now, and snowed a couple of feet. This is totally unusual for the west coast, and so beautiful! I am at the point of laughing each time it begins to snow again. It's like I'm in some sort of groundhog day-like time warp, or a record that's skipping. Are the days really going by and it is snowing again and not melting?

The power went out on Friday evening and didn't come back on until 2pm the next day. During that time my pipes froze along with many other Gabriolans (their pipes I mean, not the Gabriolans themselves, of course). The pump house had no heat and the filter froze and cracked. I think the cistern might also be frozen. With a sigh of relief I am glad to be renting. And thrilled to be saved by the wood stove!

There are other stories to tell, involving shoveling, shoveling, and shoveling to extricate my truck from a snowbank, only get it stuck in my driveway (which I DID shovel). For now, here are some photos.

The snow swooping from the roof (Saturday)

By this morning the snow had migrated downwards (sorry for the dark picture, but I am at work during all daylight hours this time of year). It continues to migrate, and I plan to take another photo tomorrow.

A snowy Saturday scene looking out from beside the wood stove.

Cozy inside

This is fun!

The Kerplunks Rock!

A shout out to the Kerplunks and congratulations for winning a Western Canada Music Award and (as of this weekend) a Canadian Folk Music Award! Fellow Gabriolans, friends (and one is a former roommate), Tina and Dinah are fantastic and well deserve all of the recognition they are getting.

For any of you who have kids, know kids, or have any other reason to be looking for great kids music, check them out. You can listen to snippets of all of their songs on the website, and they are awesome. I like them all, and I don't know what is my favourite. "Beebs" is pretty great because the dog Beebs is real and is the best dog in the world.

Mystery Project Revealed

It's been shrouded in secrecy and I know you have been on the edge of your seats to find out what I have been knitting... Well I'm sorry to let you down but it really just an ordinary pair of socks in a beautiful, yet manly, colour scheme.

The socks are for Jake, my English friend who I met in Guatemala and became instant friends with when it was discovered that we both knew of the same purple house in Ucluelet. It's true. Jake moved to Victoria, and we were going to be roommates last summer, but then I got this job on Gabriola, backed out on him, and agreed to knit a pair of socks in return for him being okay with it all.

I was off work yesterday and at home all day working on this blasted project. In the morning I took the socks for a walk and photo session at the beach to get the blood pumping and visit the ocean.

Enroute to the beach we encountered a couple varieties of Gabriolan fauna: these ducks that seriously freak me out (they come at you honking like this and I think they will bite me one day)...

...and the peacocks, that I can get along with much better.

Feeling like I imagine it feels to be a new parent with a digital camera, I positioned the socks against various backgrounds and experimented. Now, the seasoned blogger or photographer would just choose the best and post only one, but I kind of like all of these. So here you go:

Socks on fucus

Socks on sandstone

Socks on assorted seaweed and stones

It wasn't all socks. I also took pictures of rocks (and if there had been a fox I'm sure I would have snapped a photo as well). Here are a couple of shots of the beautiful Gabriola sandstone.

First Solo Canning

A box of pears for $3 finally gave me the final push to try canning. I bought two. There's still one left, and I have 8 beautiful jars of canned pears. All have sealed, the dishes are done, and it took just under two hours start to finish. What fun!


Now I'm the type of person who is happy to do things like this for the pure joy of it, and for the satisfaction of learning a new skill (and perhaps a little for the knowledge that if the world as we know it collapses, I have one more skill under my belt to feed myself). I'm the type of person who will knit a pair of socks that, if I were to take into account the hours of work and the cost of the yarn, would be worth $100. And I won't mind. I will enjoy it, and I will do it again.

However, I am curious about the economics of these pears. Lets do some calculations:

Jars: $0.75 at GIRO
Lids: $3.50
Pears: $3.00
Labour: $20.00 (2 hours at $10/hour)

Total: $27.25
Divide by 8 = $3.40 per jar

Not bad! Aside from the joy of it, I think it's economically worth it too. Perhaps not a savings, but definitely less ridiculous than the socks.

Experiments with Granola Bars

I've been easing into a wheat-free and refined sugar-free diet over the last several weeks. So far it seems to have eased my chronic and mysterious joint problems and I think it's worth sticking with.

I've adapted a granola bar recipe with some great success and I thought I would share it with you. As long as you keep the gooey/sticky proportions roughly the same you can experiment with substitutions, which is how I came up with this:

1/2 c. pumpkin puree (best homemade so there aren't any weird things added)
2/3 c. peanut butter
1/3 c. molasses
1/3 c. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. oats
1/2 c. unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 c. unsalted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
1/3 c. raisins, chopped dried apricots, or dried cranberries
1/3 c. wheat germ (optional, if you aren't worried about eating wheat)
1 TBSP sesame seeds
1 TBSP flax seeds
1/2 c. carob chips.

Mix in order given. Press into 9x13 baking pan (you can use a cookie sheet but I think they bake more evenly in a pan that you'd make brownies in). Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, or until it starts to brown around the edges. Cut into squares while still warm.

Does anyone else have delicious wheat-free and refined sugar-free recipes to share with me?