Hi everyone

Well I arrived Saturday 45 minutes late after staying awake all Friday night packing, I didn't start until 2am. So much for just one quick drink at Ethels. The airways transit picked me up at 5am. I got about an hours sleep on the shuttle and three hours on the plane. Poor Uli wasn't going to park at the airport and drove around until I came out, an hour late. Needless to say the first order of business was a nap.

I'm leaving in four hours for a 15 hour flight to New Zealand. All the time here it's been gloomy and raining. The tempertaure got up to 10c yesterday. Did a little bit of touring around the town over the days but not much. Hard to believe this place is only about 115 years old.

Rode the skytrain today. They also have a boat called the sea bus that crosses the harbour every half hour. That makes all three subways in Canada I've ridden on. Last night we went out and toured Gastown a bit before dinner.

Ross and Mona are doing well. Mona is preggers again and her Mom is up for a visit. Sophie, their three year old, is pretty bubbly. They just bought a house a month ago on the East side. There is a neighbour pub a couple of blocks away with a fire place and "off sales" where Ross and I went to catch up on old and new times. Mona works as a professor at UBC in the Education department, while Ross is a technician at CBC, where he does get his voice on the air sometimes. His long term (financial) plans are to stay married and
to teach Sophie how to change diapers so she can help with the new kid. For Sophie's first year Ross was a stay at home Dad until he started to become the house Troop Leader. Mona had to inist he back to work for his own sanity.

Uli and Connie bought a nice three story house about five months ago. It is also on the East side and is about 10 blocks away from Ross and Mona. Uli is an assistant Professor at UBC and Connie is an environmental consultant.
I'll take pictures.

Well, got to go. I'm thinking of renting a car in New Zealand for the week and camping at night. Later

Martin

PS. Mike save these messages and also print them off if anyone wants to read them.
PS. Ken, pass these on to Mark, Doug and my sister if they wish to read them. I'm too lazy to type in everyone in the To: field
PS. There is no spell checker, Paul feel free to correct