Vancouver

Sometimes love comes suddenly and unexpectedly. This love hit me when I was down in Vancouver the first time around. Charles and Terry! Here´s the story in brief. I went down to be by my brothers side and we just happend to go for dinner with a collegue of his and his boyfriend. We had such a good time and when they offered me to stay at their place I just couldn´t say no. So all of a sudden I´m installed at Terrys place in Vancouver and it feels like the most natural thing in the world. If it wasn´t for the fact that my money was running out I probably would have stayed forever!



This is how happy I felt with them!





Well, all my friends seem to have emigrated to Vancouver. I didn't think I would, but I found a whole bunch of them. Manjinder deserves a special mentioning here. Hmmm, what can I say about the worlds most wonderful man? After not seeing eachother for 10 years you start wondering if it was all in your head and he couldn´t possibly be as good as you remember. But yes, he still rocks my world.

A classical Melinda/Manjinder pose. I humour myself by thinking that we haven´t changed at all. Well, it certainly didn't feel that way. I will have to look back at the the photos from 1992, 1994, 1996



Crystal, she's still radiant! Well, she is giving birth in three weeks, but she´s always had a glow about her. I took a day to visit her in Nanaimo. One day was not nearly enough time... I will have to come back again soon. Funny, I lived in Nanaimo for over a year but I know nobody there except my old friend from the Fort who moved there years after I had already left.


So grown up! Brook remembers me from my visit 5 years ago, Dane was way too young to rember.


Loretta, Carolyn and I used to cruise the three streets of Fort St. James. Now we´re all grown up and all the cruising that gets done is going to work, buy groceries and the kids activeties. Well... the last one doesn´t apply to me. Loretta married the boy next door and they now live in Vancouver with a lovely little Bella and another little one on the way.



Hmmm, too bad I don´t have photos of the others I got to see in Vancouver. Robyn, Mike, Rob, Perry... yeah, will definately have to revisit soon again.

Having problems...

Okej, I was never really able to capture the feeling of being circled by mountains... but from the air you can see it quite clear. If you ever forget how little man kind is then check this out. And we all know what men do when they feel inferior to something... hmm... should I choose the environmentalist discourse here? Heck yeah, let's not destroy our beautiful nature!





Well, we'll see if these configurations work... I keep on getting spit out from the blogger so I don't know what picture's I've posted so it's going a bit bazurk I guess.

bye bye CANADA

Melinda's map of Canada

Well, a lot of names of places that mean absolutely nothing to anyone who doesn't have a reason to know them... but this is my map of Canada. Click on it to see it bigger. Most of the time I've lived in British Columbia (BC). It's really quite boring, but you guys tend to get confused when I try explaining where and when I've lived places, now I can tell you to look here and we can go on talking about more interesting things. He!

It all started 30 years ago :-(
1976 - Fort Nelson close to the North West Terretories... it was 40 degrees below that week
1979 - 1989 Stockholm, Sweden
1989 - 1993 Fort St. James (& Prince George)
1994 - Prince Rupert
1995 - Nanaimo & Vancouver
1996 - 2005 Stockholm & Uppsala, Sweden & 1 year in Spain
2006 - Latin America and Montreal
2007 - Stockholm?

Prince Rupert, City of Rainbows

This is beautiful, it looks grey and all, but it has a definite charm to it.

Well, the weather wasn't too bad in Prince Rupert, we had a couple of days with almost no rain.


I only lived in Prince Rupert for one year of high school. I didn't know many people, and most of them have moved away. But my brother still lives here with his family. Him and Teresa moved here after getting married 14 years ago, they have three charismatic and buisy children.

Sean 15 (yeah, you do the math)

Devon 12

Linnea 7

There's nothing like three little stars to make you feel like a couch potatoe.

Devon in HockeyKeep your eyes open for #8: Devon Scores!!

Linnea in ballet

Sean and Devon in wrestling
Linnea in gymnastics Sean composing his own songs on the piano. He also plays the saxophone... never got to hear it though.

Teresa, she was the freshest fashion queen our high school ever saw. I remember Teresa cruizing around Fort St. James in a little Honda Civic from the stone ages. Teresa defeated all the icy slopes towards the ski hill with that big fluffy neon pink stearing wheel.
Well, there's never snow in Rupert so me and Linnea built Mrs. P inside.
Thses kids are always on the go!
And making faces at auntie!

I got to Rupert in Time to do Halloween!!!! (again)
I have the fluffy pink slippers to match the hat! (see me in my other halloween outfit)

Beautiful British Columbia

Beautiful, indeed. Yet I get Talking Heads on my mind when I see this scenery...

I'm on a road to nowhere...

On my way up to Davide's I stopped in Prince George to visit my old roomate (I lived with her 15 years ago!!!!) I've always been 2 heads taller than her... people would call us Mutt and Jeff. Then I got a boyfriend called Jeff and we were called Jeff and his Mutt. It's crude but I find it sort of funny.

Yvonne has a beautiful baby boy, Mason

He's as cute as a button... or a loaf of bread as his Halloween outfit will have it. Her hubby Lane is still a fearce Harley Davidson dude, I didn't dare pose on his chopper this time!

The colours and shapes of northern BC. I really miss being surrounded by mountains.

I'm tempted not to say this was a halloween party. It could actually be just a regulare party...

And this is what we looked like that evening, by far the most dressed up...
It really took us no time to fall into co living. Cooking and stuff. I couldn't leave... literally. I tried flying to Vancouver but flew right back up, I tried taking the bus but I got snowed in...







So I turned right back around and got a head start on halloween. We never took that trip to the heart of darkness... Fort St. James. Yvonne's sis Nicole has recently moved back there as have many others. Most of the businesses have gone under, even the only cafe... what is left is ONE grocery store, Fields and the bakery. But all the bars and cold beer and wine stores are still doing good business!
Jenni Jones, her name alone makes her a ledgend. It's as cool as Jesus Jones (which surprisingly enough was the only music from way back then that wasn't playing on the radio). Here with her 12 year old daughter .... I'm really falling behind.So I borrowed Mason to see what it would feel like.






The sign says Second Last Chance. No kidding!

Well, this was what defined me once upon a time