Chaos with condiments

I think I have finally completed another chapter of my book - How to embarrass yourself in public. This chapter is to be titled Chaos with condiments. Around 10 years ago i was in Toronto on the last day of a two week holiday. It was a glorious summers day so Kate and I decided to go to a quite posh restaurant down on the pier over looking Lake Ontario. I ordered a cheeseburger if memory serves and when it arrived at my table i reached for the ketchup and mustard. I squeezed the mustard but none came out. I squeezed harder but still no mustard. Thinking there must've been some kind of blockage i proceeded to give the mustard a squeeze of titanic proportion! There then followed a loud POP and my meal and my shirt where then covered in yellow goo. It turned out i needed to twist the top of the mustard bottle to open it before squeezing. Oops! The waitress found it hilarious as she brought over handfuls of napkins to help me clean myself up.

Now, you would've thought i would've learned a valuable lesson there and would now show all condiments the utmost respect. I don't know why, maybe it's just a Canadian thing but i managed to one up myself yesterday. We have made our way to the quiet little seaside hamlet of Tofino on the west coast of the island. The drive across the island was extremely scenic, especially since it was dumping snow up on the mountains and hills. When we got to town it was a little too early to check in to our hostel so we parked the car and walked down to the dock to hunt for somewhere to eat lunch. We found a cute little cafe overlooking the estuary and the small islands in the inlet and ordered our food. I ordered a philly style beef sandwich and got down to soaking in the amazing view. When my sandwich arrived i reached for the ketchup bottle and gave it a good old shake to loosen its thick contents, not realising the bottle lid wasn't done up. I managed to spray red sauce all over my face, hoodie and the floor. Kate wet herself when she saw what i had done. I feverishly grabbed my napkin and tried to clean up my mess. Kate eventually calmed down and i started to see the funny side of it. I had to really try and keep a straight face though when the waitress walked past our table and slipped on some ketchup. She recovered and gave me a funny look. I turned away and tried to focus on the view.

I don't quite know why i seem to be so unlucky when it comes to these sorts of things. At least i can see the funny side of it. Our meal was made even nicer because as we were getting ready to go the waitress informed us that a pod of killer whales had just been spotted heading this way. I excitedly jumped up and ran off to the car to get my camera as Kates feeble excuse for a camera doesn't really zoom in. I sprinted back up the hill, stopped at the top to stop myself from puking up my lunch but managed to grab my camera and make my way back to the sea front. I was greeted by Kates smiling face telling me i had missed them! I must have only been gone a few minutes but i guess the whales where in a hurry. Bugger! Typical eh? Oh well, there were only 4 orca so i wasn't too gutted.

So, before all the ketchup drama and the trip over to Tofino, we went skiing again up at Mt Washington. They had had nearly 15cm of snow the day before and it really made a difference. The snow was awesome! We skied most of the day before the low cloud made it really difficult. I even lost Kate on one run. She lost the trail and got stuck in deep snow. I waited ages for her but visibility made it impossible to see anything so i skied down and jumped back on the lift up to see if i could ski down to her. We managed to meet up back at the base building and all was well. I doubt i will ever ski in snow that deep. The base is still increasing and at last check was nearly 480cm!!

So we are here in Tofino now. Our hostel turned out to be closed for the season so we decided to get a room at a nice hotel down the road. It over looks MacKenzie beach and is only about 20 feet from the sand. On our way to Tofino we noticed loads of Tsunami evacuation route signs and on further research we found that this area averages around 1200 earthquakes a year!! That said, we enjoyed a nice stroll along the beach at sunset and examined the rock pools. Imagine how we felt this morning after we heard there was an earthquake in Chile and that the pacific rim was on Tsunami alert! Perfect! Our beach got closed and we were warned by our reception to stay off the beach this afternoon. Apparently we were going to be hit by half a metres waves. However, just like the tsunami warning that was issued after the NZ earthquake we experienced, the waves were tiny and of no concern. Still, pretty cool.

We are only here until the morning before i have to drop the car back in Nanaimo. Good riddance and all! Not only has the ABS broken but the indicators decided to stop working too the other day. We get the bus down to Victoria where we stay for a couple of days before heading back to the mainland. I'll be sad to leave as it is so beautiful here on Vancouver Island. The forests are so green and lush. Moss and lichen seem to cover everything and give it an even more organic feel.

Anyway, better go. It's my turn to wave watch. Kate is worried we'll get washed away but i'm sure we'll be just fine. Hell, if we do get washed away, at least i might get a chance to see some bloody killer whales!

Peace

D

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