A Busy October

October has been a month of quite mixed emotions.  Great visit with Reece and Marcus, both here for 16 days from the 8th.  It's very gratifying when your kids reach adulthood having flourished on the journey.  At 19 and 18 respectively these two grown men; with grown men needs; arrived and quickly set out their stall in respect of the relationship with their father and patently wicked step mother Kimberley.  Gone the need for fatherly guidance and instruction and heralded in a new era of kinship on more even terms.

Incidentally, at this early point I retract the wicked step mother statement on health grounds........

The boys are have distinctly different characters but who wants two identical peas out of the pod.  They both make their father very proud and sharing their company was hilarious fun.  Even Tommy Cooper got an extended outing during the first couple of days as we exhausted the "I went to a sea food disco and pulled  a muscle" repertoire and wept uncontrollably.....I love the Franklin sense of humour but also realise it might be an acquired taste.........Don't care anyway.

We enjoyed our hot tub on day one and shared a few beers together.  Nine months apart is a long time and plenty of catching up to do.  Next few days involved target shooting; fire pit; plenty of good food and all leading up to an extended weekend at Hi Hium in the British Columbian interior.

Two pick ups in convoy left Mission at 5 in the morning and arrived in Cache Creek at 8.30 for breakfast at Chums.  Chums is just breakfast no the place will do.  9.30 and on the road again driving uphill continuously to about 4400 feet and above the snow line.  Off tarmac for the last 30 kilometres or so and we entered a new world....One without power except between 6pm and 7 pm each night and no drinking water.  The main purpose of the trip was rainbow trout fishing and two boats spent most of the daylight hours trolling Hi Hium lake.  The ranklin fish count was impressive but only if your name was Marcus.  Nine Rainbow Trout all together.....Dad (Zero) Reece (Zero) Marcus (the other nine).  I won't get into the language that rippled across the water; suffice to say it was a bit ripe.....Bit like the ripe that was the great unwashed after four days.....The shower at home after the trip among the best.  We had the best time and without breaking too many laws!!!

The last week was a little quieter but still punctuated with events....Poor old Chas called it quits on the Tuesday.  He had a fantastic weekend at Hi Hium; one of his favourite places but he had been progressively switching off for a few days and took a serious turn for the worse while away.  He persevered but could not eat; nor could he poop.  Tests showed a catalogue of ills and we had little choice but to let the old boy sleep and he sits in the picture above where he always sat in our family.....Where you had to step over him.  I have no doubt he now sits right in the middle of rainbow bridge.....

For the boys the remaining time involved a shopping trip at Coquitlam and a trip across the border into the US and a trip to Mount Baker and a lukewarm chilli burger.  Could so easily have been special if the microwave had been left on for another minute!!!  Marcus and Dad watched RED at the cinema....well worth a watch for anyone interested....

We wrapped up our time together with a fantastic Steak meal at Mr Mikes Steak restaurant.  No veg on the menu; hack off the horns and wipe its behind and bring a sizeable beer along to boot.....Nice finish to our time together; no questions over drinking age and fun all round.  Tough waving the guys off at Vancouver Airport but we part with a different and more special relationship.  We are buddies without Dad becoming Mike; we shared hugs and voiced our affections and this all through the stay.  It was special but like all things special; its time to go home and home becomes attractive.

Standing on little glacial deposit with Mount Baker Washington State USA in the background.  My lads Reece and Marcus.  Signing off now as I'm watching England versus the All Blacks on Setanta.  See you soon.  Tarraaaa.

Lads in Town

A very short update which just says we are only 24 hours into the visit and having a ball.  Hot tubbing, beer chugging, rifle shooting general fun.  Our animals are just loving the lads and they are still dropping from jet lag; so signing off with a plea for some sunshine tomorrow as to day late afternoon onwards has been a monsoon!!!! Come see us, and soon xxxxx

Impending Arrivals

As I sit contemplating my navel, which isn't easy after a lifetime of ale and general debauchery, I find myself 'bouyed'.  Or even perhaps bouyant which better describes my frontal expansion and abdominal flotation device.  I have just taken a call from Reece, who just to be safe has already arrived at Gatwick Airport at 0315am GMT.  With him Marcus, and both set fair for travel with their flight leaving at 1010am with check in probably around 0710am.  Like impetuous kids we try to wait patiently for their arrival and barely succeed.  Kim has just trotted off to Abbotsford General Hospital for a night shift in the tertiary ward (mix of palliative and medical patients).  New casual role and where the greatest potential for a permanent position lies going forward.  Challenging environment and right at the sharp end of medicine.  Gregory House old buddy...watch out, because despite your attempts to hide your 101 Dalmations cockney accent, and the fact that for many a year you were the butt of Edmund Blackadder's taunts, I know you chunter a rare old Oxfordshire accent....

So having digressed back on subject.  The boys arrive midday tomorrow and will enjoy a 32 hour Friday; they will be knackered but will rally in the sunshine as midday replaces 2000 hours in the evening.  When will the day ever end?  Well not until there's a reasonable dent in the beer fridge I venture to suggest.  But, we'll play it by ear.

So what do we have planned?  The highlight will be the four days in the wilderness at Hi Hium.  The boys both fished there five years ago but it will be an entirely different proposition this time around.  We have booked two cabins and they are 'basic'.  No water or electricity; forty kilometres from a tarmac road and at 5000' on the bank of a rainbow trout fishing lake, we could see some snow.  For certain it will be 'long john cold'.  Not to be confused with 'long john baldry', as the latter may take offence at being held personally responsible for keeping your meat and two veg warm.....

We also plan to visit the United States, mainly because the palava at the border with the US Border Officials is as testing as the demoralisation training in received in the RAF at Hereford.  These guys are just spoiling for a fight and instant deportation.  Polite, yes sir, no sir, responses, are the only option if you want to spend a 'Greenback' in Washington State.  We will visit the US City of Bellingham and also Mount Baker.  Mount Baker I see every day as I go about my business, domestic or otherwise.  Its a fairly large mountain at about 13,000' that makes it a third of the height of Everest....At just 30 kilometres from Mission it's time to go visit.  I like Dee Baker have a mountain fixation.  It's too hard to explain.

Our final formal/informal plan is to do a southern BC circuit that takes in Whistler (2010 Olympics), and the Sea to Sky highway.....The views are reported to be spectacular, particularly across to Vancouver Island....(being so busy haven't got to see this yet, so new experience for boys and father).  On the Father front, Moriarty sailed from Portsmouth seven months ago and plans to meet us for a Shandy in Pemberton.  Extraordinary insight as the trip was only planned two months back; perhaps a divine intervention.  I hear he dropped in on Guernsey for an ale or two with King Richard en route and that held him up by three weeks.  For those less well versed in the strong family attachment to Father Moriarty it is perhaps easiest to describe him as the crutch that has allowed the Franklin family males and latterly females to imbibe of alcoholic beverage with spiritual sanction.  Amen.  Dominum Vobiscum et cum spirito to tuo.  Roughly translated, three pints of your best landlord and don't spare the horses!!

So, halloween preparations are in full flow here and believe it or not there is a school of thought that says it will only be a matter of a few years before this becomes more popular than Christmas....My sincere apologies Moriarty, it was never my intention to cause you to spill your double Laphroaig, what was I thinking of?  The fact that Michael Myers sits young children on his knee and gives away body parts in the local toy store is perhaps a testament* to change.  (*not to be confused with either the old or new testaments already existing in literary works).

So again to get back off track even further...the great Billy Connolly arrives in Vancouver November 25th and 26th and is doing two shows.  We hope that Michael 'job secured' permitting we can get to see this truly great man in the flesh.  On the job front a move in the right direction today...I think?  Call from security company I applied to and instand cold interview on the phone......Passed muster I believe and Kim approved but 'Oh my Gourd'...Incidentally here's a shot of our Halloween gourds and a passing small pumpkin, which, incidentally cannot hold a candle to our home grown monster going bananas and on the right.

Well 2045 now and just about to sign off and go down into the basement and watch Iron Man 2...A glass of Paddy Whack* in hand. (Rather pleasant organic brew from Nelson BC which at 6.5% is more about quality than quantity).  Last evening Kim and I watched the Karate Kid with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan....No, they did not share the couch, they were in it!  This we did in the loft....You must come visit. our home is your home, and tomorrow it is home for Reece and Marcus, and the basement becomes theirs with just one parental access right...Yes you've guessed it..the beer fridge!

Much love and movie beckons xxx 

My Brother Mark

There is not one day goes by when I don't think of Mark, and then Ann and James.  To Ann and James Kim and I send our love.  Anniversaries are very tough and even the passing of time only seems to numb the feeling.  But then I am also bouyed because I know that Mark will live on through James and he is a fine young man. 
In putting together the birthday scrap book for Marcus I visited hundreds of photo's and some great ones of Mark.  I included the one where he was with both Reece and Marcus at our wedding in 2004.  If anyone didn't see the album I put together in memory of Mark I have reposted it to facebook.  It cheers me to see his sense of humour play out especially when we visited Tralee in November 2005 which is where a number of these shots were taken.  The infamous Dinguin will be with me for all time..

Inspired by for the music

My grateful thanks to Cousin Nikki for the lead.  Blog is a far more refreshing way of sharing news and keeping in touch compared to my bloody email missives...a little splash of colour here and there; gotta be good so pardon my 'nicking' your idea.

So why Mission Accomplished?  Well, Mission is where we live and our home is pictured above.  Accomplished infers completed so perhaps the blog should be Mission Accomplishing.  We are still on a journey. 

I still have far too much time on my hands and continue to search for gainful employment.  Own business venture suffering from both lack of marketing, recession and uptake.  Canadians not quite so safety and security needy as the Brits and don't seem to have the same savvy.  I think thats why my 'light years ahead' concepts scared my previous employer, the City of Surrey.  In any event I am better detached from that municipality; far too political an arena for objective operation.  I press on optimistically and can always don an apron and work at KFC if needs must.  Kim, bless her little cotton socks, is helping us keep our heads above water along with Canadian Employment Insurance.

Reece and Marcus fly into Vancouver next Friday and we have them for two and a half weeks.  So looking forward to seeing them.  Family separation is the toughest part of being half a globe away...Got three day fishing trip planned at a remote log cabin location about 4 hours north of here.  The great Hi Hium, well known to Cherie and Diane.  We also plan a round trip over two days to Whistler; a trek into the States and maybe catch the Ferry across to Vancouver Island and visit Mike and Sue Kirkland, so we'll be busy.  Hot tub ready; if not of quite the same quality as Cherie and Diane's, and fire pit also primed and barbecue ready.

Monday October 11th is Canadian Thanksgiving so we'll be doing the full Turkey and all the trimmings followed by pumpkin pie; good to have the boys share that event as well.  The basement is set aside for the lads and the beer fridge is both tried and tested and will be stocked.

Just getting the last pickings out of the vegetable garden but the first year has been a good one and we have learned a great deal.  Right at the end of peaches and cream corn season but will have fresh corn for the boys and i've never tasted sweeter.

I'll sign off now with an invite to family and friends to come and visit us and this place.