The adventures of rooibaard and sexy legs: Between here and there

So we're on the go again. At the precise moment a few thousand feet over somewhere in between Phoenix and Maui. Our epic December holiday has begun and so far has been pretty fantastic.

There's not really much to tell yet. We're in one of those crazy travel periods that seem to precede about half of our holidays.

Last night after work we finished our packing and last minute errands and we drove from Lethbridge to Calgary, arrived at about 9 pm, went to bed at 12ish, woke up at 3:30 am to travel to the airport, waited for a delayed flight to Phoenix and then caught this flight.

So in actual fact we might be a little less than fantastic; a bit tired, hungry (considering that they don't serve food on any of the flights without a fee) and full of that feeling you get when you realize that the flight you're on is 3 hours longer than you thought (oops). It might sound like I'm griping but I'm enjoying the situation as we always do – the payout is always worth a bit of pain along the way.

Also no work for the next month, get to see my family, we're going to be in Hawaii in +- 5 hours from now and I've just finished my first book since our New Zealand holiday. All in all life is pretty good.

So that's the now. Will keep you appraised of the future as we go along.

This week is all about relaxing so anticipate a bit of time to blog and chat – might even be sipping a pink drink (that might or might not match my tan), wearing one of those terrible floral shirts you see on TV and feeling dandy the next time we communicate.

As to the past.

Have had a very busy few weeks since the last blog.

We have been doing a lot of fun, social stuff with our friends in Lethbridge. Met a few of Duncan's friends and have been doing whisky tastings in one of the local bottle stores. The tasting is always free and always manages to free my wallet of some extra weight – very crafty.

Have also been looking at houses again. We tend to wax and wane when it comes to buying a house and I think if we find the right house then we'll probably go for it. Will have to see what happens.

Got an e-mail back with a reference number for permanent residence so we're finally in the system. Also took a day of work to go and do our permanent residence medicals. That was last Wednesday so we took another drive to and back from Calgary. The South African doctor who did our medical spent 40 minutes chatting before doing the quick physical. Shame, I think he really enjoyed speaking Afrikaans to us. He spent a lot of time telling us how wonderful South Africa is and how much he'd like to go home which is a bit disconcerting from the doctor doing your immigration medical, but oh well.

Spent the rest of the day getting labs and X-Rays done.

The X-Ray was particularly wonderful. The X-Ray tech made us strip off our tops and apply a ball bearing in a square piece of sticky tape to our nipples as markers. Obviously we had gowns but being topless with my nipples covered make me feel like we were in a Lady Gaga video. Took a lot of restraint not to get the giggles, that is until the sticky tape removed most of my hair in that area and part of my areolar.

Adele threw a baby shower for our friend Jess and did a really good job. Jess is at 36 weeks and I think we might be almost as excited as they are. She's due on the 8th of January and Adele has threatened me with all sorts of forms of castration if she goes into labor before we're back from our holiday on the 6th of Jan.

On that topic we've had a really good 2 weeks with friends. Have done a lot and hung out with Jess and Steve, Duncan and Chantal, Lowell and Julie, Duncan's motley crew, and our awesome neighbours.

Have been ice skating, snowboarding, watched hockey, out to great dinners and have just had a lekker time.

I have to mention our awesome neighbours again because they are, simply, awesome! They invited us to their son's birthday the other night and had a great party again (My liver is a little scared when I leave the house in the direction of next door :) ) It might sound silly but one of the big reasons we might not buy is that they are great friends and have treated us like family. When you're in a foreign country without your regular support it's pretty awesome to have a great bunch of friends to rely on and they're great as are all our other Lethbridge friends.

In the same vein Jess and Steve brought us dinner the other night when we were packing and they came to stay when a fire threatened part of the West side of Lethbridge.

What I'm saying, all be it a bit long winded, is that we have a sense of place now.

It's also really good to have my buddy Duncan back at work.

Before I finish this first holiday blog I just have 3 more things to talk about.

1. Just wanted to say how lucky and happy I am to work with Dorothy and Deb at the clinic. Since I arrived they have been my rock and have kept me sane at work and always smiling. They are awesome.

2. It might be the hunger and lack of sleep but I'm finding this whole blogging while flying thing pretty trippy. Firstly I'm typing thoughts into a plastic and metal thing which is very kindly displaying them in a form my eyes find pleasing, thank you. But at the same time we're flying, yes I said it, flying through the air in another metal and plastic thing that would sink faster than the Titanic and make an incredibly good paper weight if needed. How crazy is that! I know that science is not magic but holy cow, it kind of is.

3. 3 kind of follows on from 2. We live in a strange age with technology and twitter and facebook and silly blogs etc. In a way the argument has taken a knock because google or wiki are usually one of the smart asses at the table to quickly point out that your facts are wrong. Also I think we've lost the art of good conversation sometimes. At some point in the evening the youtube videos come out – you know what I mean. I suppose that in the past it could have been come look at my horse or guns or nicely bailed stack of hay. Anyway I digress and the point of this long winded point number 3 is that when we get to this part of the evening, please, please, please do not let me choose the youtube video.
I usually end up playing something inappropriate, having to deal with that awkward silence and then the other awkward silence after my awkward laughter that usually follows.
Clips like the ferret song and salad fingers come to mind. The other night I was hanging out with Duncan's friends and we were watching some comedy. I remembered a clip that Neal had told me was funny/crazy and proceeded to play it. Now I'm trying to impress on this new group of people that I'm a pretty good guy to hang out with when this clips starts playing. Duncan looked at me with a look of wtf. This was followed by an awkward silence, some awkward laughter and another awkward silence.

My battery is pretty flat, my kindle is almost dead and there are 4 more hours to go so I'm going to transfer my attention to Adele, lucky girl :)

Until we chat again

All our love from somewhere between here and there

Ryan and Adele

And that was supposed to be the end of the blog but . . . . . you can't load a blog from a plane (Well you can but not for free) and we're 1 day down in Hawaii so I might as well share our fantastic day and a bit.

So we arrived in Hawaii incredibly tired but happy to finally be off the plane. The first thing that struck us was that, although it was overcast, all the ground crew where wearing shorts and t-shirts. A big difference from the jackets, gloves and beanies in Calgary.

The coolest thing about arriving in Hawaii however was that we got laid. That is to say that Lowell, Julie, Fraser, Betty and Pete met us at the airport (in no specific order of coolness, age or any other rating system – although the one in the middle is the cutest). How cool is that! Arrived in a foreign country to see familiar and friendly faces – was a fantastic gesture and I feel that it has set the mood for a wonderful holiday.

Getting laid in Maui

Anyhow, picked up our old-school ford focus from the rental agency and took a scenic drive to the Safeway in Lahaina and then to our condominium.

We were tired and hungry so made some sandwiches, had some wine and prepared to have an early night. It was at this time that we realized that we'd forgotten to change our clocks and it was actually only 7 pm.

Decided that it was too early to go to sleep and so went down to the bar and had a quick drink and a hedonistically, awesome ice-cream type indulgence called a Hula pie. Nom nom nom!

Went to be bed happy and full and really excited to be here!

That takes us to today. Today was a really, really good day. Have spent most of the day being thankful for the wonderful life that we live and the amazing things that we are lucky enough to do!

I think that a resolution of mine in the new year will definitely be to share some of that love with people who don't have as much in their lives.

But back to today.

We woke up early – I think our bodies are still set to mountain standard time. So at 7 am we got up, watched some TV and got ready for the day.

At 8 am we went down to the restaurant and had a fantastic breakfast right on the beach at our hotel. Was super nice.

From there we took a long walk to the Whalers village in Lahaina. Enjoyed seeing cardinals, egrets, sand pipers, night herons and all sorts of cool birds. Also enjoyed watching the joggers, swimmers, scuba divers, paddlers and other beach activities.

Was a fun walk and, although overcast, the temperature was perfect – not too hot or cold but just right :)

Beach near our hotel

After spending part of the day relaxing in our room we drove down to Kihei and then to Little beach with Lowell, Julie, Fraser, Pete, Betty, Marc, Ty and Kylie.

Little beach was pretty busy. Seems to be very popular. We arrived at big beach and scrambled up and over a small mound separating the big from the little beach.

On the other side was a very picturesque and awesome “little” beach.

Now this beach warrants a little more attention for a number of reasons:

1. Apparently it is one of the primo spots for body/boogie boarding. Was awesome. Spent a few hours swimming and body boarding and generally enjoying being in the sea again. Velly, velly nice.

2. On Sundays there is a party on the beach. Arrived to a fairly full beach which got busier and busier. A few people drank beer, there was definitely the smell of dope in the air and when we arrived we were offered weed cookies or chocolate mushrooms. So definitely a party type beach with a side of hippies.

There were definitely a few interesting people wandering around and as it got dark people pulled out drums and flutes and started to dance and party. Was a fun and very cool vibe.

There was a very strange man running up and down and stretching.

3. 3 again is probably the most important point. Reread 1 and 2 after you read 3. The beach we went to is a clothing optional beach. So the crazy guy running around in 2 was not nude but chose to wear a butt-less speedo. Going to steal this photo of the guy mentioned from our friends blog – apparently he was there last Sunday and switched between a white and black butt-less speedo. OK!

Borrowed photo of man in butt-less speedo

There were a lot of very naked people and nobody was stressed so made it a little less weird but I wasn't prepared to free willy and so stayed comfortably covered.

There were 1 or 2 things that where quite alarming though.

1. Watching somebody boogie boarding with their tanned cheeks in the air is pretty alarming. Watching him catch a wave, and turn into a barrel as he passes you and indirectly flashes you as he turns – not ayoba!

2. It's bizarre to watch naked people dancing.

Anyhow was fun and interesting. Had a great time with friends and was really good to be in the sea. Saw a full moon even though it was overcast and watched an amazing sunset.

Bodyboarding Little beach

Great waves

Great company

Very pretty

After our wickedly fun day Adele and I made our way back up to Lahaina.

Had a few really tasty pink drinks and a great dinner at Bubba Gumps on the beach and now find ourselves safely back in our room.

Adele has fallen asleep and I'm drinking Pineapple beer chatting to you!

So again, chow for now from your friends and family here in wonderful Maui. Aloha!

Wish you were here. Will post this in the morrow

Love

Ryan and Adele

Yet again this was supposed to be the end. I think all 3 parts of this have been written in the present tense. Obviously this is the most up to date part. Don't feel right posting this blog without including today so here are the rest of our exploits up to the night of the 12th December 2011, aiit!

Today was yet another wonderful day I passed the MCCQE1 – Yay!

Will probably do part 2 in April next year.

Had a delicious celebratory breakfast of french toast and bacon. Nomalicious!

Weather was looking a bit grey this side today so drove down to Southern Maui again to Black beach in Makena.

Beach was pretty cool with black volcanic sand.

Weather was better with no wind or rain and went swimming for about an hour. Saw lots of delicious multi-coloured fish. Lots of flute fish, puffers, angel fish,wrasse, angel fish etc. Very pretty.

Think that my favourite fish are the tiny puffer fish.

The highlight must have been swimming with 2 green see turtles. The first sea turtle was at arms length and was so chilled. He came up for a look around above water and just swam off very slowly and with no worries. He was awesome.

The second turtle was massive. Managed to get a bit of him on video. Had a few barnacles attached to his shell and his fins. Was very special. My only wish for Hawaii was to swim with a turtle so incredibly giddy about this one.