14 April, 2006 (Good Friday)

Happy Easter my friendly bunnies. No chocolate eggs here, but we seem to have found plenty of snow to keep us busy.


Comment away!
For those interested, (at Jae's savvy prompting) I've changed the settings so that ANYBODY can post comments on the blog, not just members. Apologies, I didn't realise that the defaults were so restrictive. So, that being done - get in there and let me know what you're thinking.


Red, Blue or Green
A road trip is in the offing. Sean and I have acquired a Jeep Cherokee, and with it we plan to drive across the North American continent; coast-to-coast. The idea was first floated on a Monday night at Raakel's, but since then it's taken a life of it's own.

Somewhere along the way Jae aired his intentions to perhaps join us in our expedition. With his Vancouver work plans now up in the air, he could be free to travel on the road for a month, following on from his family tour of the East Coast. While his membership was still under discussion, with his interest has come a whole new level of planning. (Picture: I've written them, I just need to send them)

Born of his enthusiasm were the Red, Blue and Green travel routes, complete with .jpg etched maps and travel calculations.

• RED: Red is the longest route, tracing the continent from West Coast, down to the deep south to Miami, then up to the Big Apple.
• BLUE: Blue crosses from Vegas to DC, avoiding America's middle country.
• GREEN: The Green route cuts back up through the Rockies, to cross middle Canada before falling into the East coast.

To assist in discussion an online forum was created, complete with map references, purchase lists and a flurry
of emails.

For a few days trip planning seemed more akin to Covert Intelligence mission planning. Dollar estimate followed time approximations. Heated trip rationales travelled the email highways. It was frantic. It was organised. It was a bit too intense for my original ideals of a laid-back "Have a basic route and see where the road takes us" mentality. Swept up in the passion and the fury I submitted a master spreadsheet providing high level comparisons of route times. It was a masterpiece, but a far cry from my current lifestyle.

In the last week intensity has waned however, as more immediate end of season issues have arisen. But subtle stirrings are beginning again as our day of departure draw near. We only have days left of the season, and while most things will be sure to fall into place, there is still that niggling fear in the background that we don't have enough spreadsheets or forum pages to support an adventure of this magnitude.

I think it's time to close our eyes, take the leap and see how we fly.


Synthetico Coffee
I have succumbed. I have fallen. I admit it before you all - I am a synthetic coffee addict. I have taken to drinking the sugared syrup and now it has a hold of me.

Even now I can hear it's siren's call; the promise of sugared sweetness, artificial energy and hot relief. I can practically taste it on my tongue. I yearn for it's seductive warmth.

Once upon a time I would have denied any association. Once upon a time (and rightly so) I would have cast dispersions on the brain melting, gut rotting stuff. But today I can make no such claims. Today, I am a synthetic coffee fiend. (Picture: Run back to the village)

I can't remember when it happened. You'd think that the scalded tongue would be warning enough. Yet, as soon as I could taste again I was back at the stuff. It comforted me when it was cold and miserable. It heartened me when the customers were lined up beyond the doorway. I drank the watery brew and I was happy.

I know that it isn't real coffee. I know that the artificial flavours of 'English Toffee' and 'French Vanilla' are more akin to candy than anything naturally produced. I acknowledge that it's thin, machine produced swill that comes out of a suspicious looking nozzle. But I'm still drinking it.

"It's cheap", I tell myself. "It's warming in the sub-zero", "I'll stop when I'm off of this rock", "It's only $1 for a large". But I'm not sure how I'll cope without, or what I'll do to take my mind off it. I can hear it now, calling. How long until my next dose? (Picture: Ridge coffee).