EDITOR'S BLOCK!

The snow has come and gone for now and been replaced by drizzling rain. Of course this turns the roads to slush and pristine white has been replaced by dirty, black piles of banked snow. Not a very nice sight and it is the other side of the 'winter wonderland.'

We have a very steep driveway here and we were having trouble getting the van up and down the icy driveway. So the tyres on the van have now been replaced with winter tyres that will give the vehicle more grip and that means we should be able to get up and down the driveway without too many problems.

There is also some heavy winter driving trips ahead over the next few weeks, firstly to Banff and then across the Rockies to Vancouver and then down into the States to California and back. So the tyres will improve the safety of the drive.

Tomorrow we head to Vernon in BC to spend the night with friends before heading east and onto Banff.

Confession time.

This blog was primarily to promote my book about the boy, Tommy Tippett who grew up in Sydney in the 1960's. The book of some 85,000 words took six weeks to write and in the 8 weeks sincce I completed the book I have edited just 70 pages. It is something I am just not enjoying and I find any excuse to put off an edit for another day. I am not sure why as without the edit the book won't go anywhere.

I now have the excuse of travel and Christmas to further put off returning to Tommy. The solution I think is a new years resolution around Tommy Tippett and a completion date for the edit.

Good idea! That's exactly what I will do.

In the meantime I will write a bit about this and a little about that. Some blogs will be contemporary and keep you up to date with what is going on here and now whilst in other blogs I will backtrack to another time when we were all much younger, but not as wise.

So hang in there, Tommy is on his way, sooner or later, well actually a bit later than sooner but I know he will be worth the wait.

akmacca08@live.com.au

SNOW

My wish has been delivered and OK Falls has received some decent snow over the past couple of days. Even though I have been in the snow before in various places around the world I still get a buzz out of seeing pristine, white snow laying everywhere.


To Canadians the snow isn't all that special or for that matter all that heavy, but to my mind it is just great and for now I can't get enough. There is something special about waking up in the morning and looking outside to see everything coated in frosty layers of snow that has fallen overnight. Suddenly a mundane and well-known landscape is turned into a glistening and pristine environment that looks so removed from the green's and brown's I am used to.


There are some downsides though!

Even though I consider myself an experienced driver, snow-driving is a different game altogether. This morning I had to drive a little way's down the road and in that short drive I had to be aware of so many things that are foreign to driving on dry roads in Australia.


Sometimes the tyres won't grip the road and then the car's traction control kicks in with a grinding, grating noise that almost always give me a fright. You have to slow down when cornering or turning and always be aware of obstacles hidden under the snow. Of course the visibility is affected when it is snowing and you always have to be on the lookout for other drivers doing something stupid or deer wandering onto the road.


So far I have found snow-driving to be just a little stressful.


Another consideration is the amount of clothes you have to put on every time you leave the house, there are no quick runs outside in shorts and t-shirt to grab the paper or to take the dog out. Well that is for normal people, I keep forgetting where I am and tend to do those things in my 'inside' clothes of said shorts and t-shirt and then complain when my bare feet freeze in the snow.

But on the positive side cold,snowy weather is ideal for staying inside and curling up with a good book by the fire or watching a movie on TV. But it is equally as nice to go for a long walk through the snow. I just love the crunch, crunching sound of snow under my boots. The dog loves it as well and charges through the snow, often with her nose down in the snow like a snow plough.


Then again a walk in the snow does have its drawbacks when you walking companion decides, to put snow down your neck or throw a snowball at your face without a hint of declaration of war. Canadians!


So for now I love my snowy adventures though it may ware off in time.

akmacca08@live.com.au

PRINCESS PATRICIAS CANADIAN LIGHT INFANTRY

Earlier today a news story caught my eye. Within the story was a mention of a Canadian Army unit, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). That bought back memories of a time long ago when I was a young soldier stationed in Townsville with the First Battalion The Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR).

I was into my nineteenth year and was into my third year in 1 RAR and I had just been transferred to Support Company after spending almost two years in Charlie Company. 1 RAR had almost completed the re-building process after the departure of National Serviceman in the early seventies.

With Charlie Company I had completed the second rotation as the Rifle Company Butterworth and not long after that trip Charlie Company was sent to Singapore to take part in a large exercise. On our return a bunch of Charlie Company soldiers attended Support Company courses and were transferred to that Company at the completion of the course.

The timing was perfect as Support Company had been selected to take part in an exchange visit to Canada. Support Company 1 RAR would be hosted with the PPCLI in Calgary, Alberta, whilst a Company of PPCLI would be hosted by 1 RAR.

The Canadians were considered the worlds best practitioners of United Nations peacekeeping missions and the aim of our visit was to learn from the Canadians and then bring these skills back to Australia.

At the time the Australian Government were pushing to have Australian troops included in UN peacekeeping missions. The Governments aim, I believe was to have 1 RAR show the United Nations that Australian troops were capable and worthy in being considered for future UN missions.

Our first few weeks in Calgary werer taken up in learning how to be effective peacekeepers. All of our Canadian instructors had a wealth of UN peacekeeping experience, primarily in Cyprus where they were the UN mainstays. The culmination of this training was to be a three day exercise which was to replicate a 'real' peacekeeping operation that the Canadians had conducted in Cyprus.

All the training and briefings were complete and the Company Group was visited by high ranking Army officers who stressed the importance of the exercise to both the Australian Army and the Australian Government. We were told in no uncertain terms that the spotlight would be on us and we were expected to succeed.

No worries we all thought, easy.

The Canadians were experts at the UN caper so they had mock villages in place as well as a sizable contingent of civilian belligerents and innocent bystanders. It was going to be as real as it could be in a training scenario. We were given our final orders and rules of engagement and sent forth to quell the civilian unrest.

I won't go into long detail now about how peace should be maintained on UN operations but one of the main pre-requisites is not to cause more trouble by your presence or shoot too many people..........unfortunately we did both.

Support Company 1 RAR was a mixture of youth and experience with almost all of the junior and senior Non Commissioned Officers and a smattering of the officers all having served in Vietnam. Some had more than one tour and several had also served in the Borneo conflict. The Battalion's ethos was training for war, not peacekeeping. I suppose you could say that we had a gung-ho mentality and if it moved shoot it.

The exercise started okay, we moved along rowdy groups, searched vehicles and were generally nice to everyone we met, but we just couldn't maintain the civility. The first incident occurred when a group of rock throwers were fired upon by Support Company troops. The umpire declared three civilians were killed and several wounded. The 1 RAR section commander thought this was a good result.

Wrong!

Within the exercise scenario the protests escalated and Australian troops were fired upon. Up until that time all of our training had been if you were fired upon, fire back and then win the battle. So that's generally what we did, we fired back and caused havoc. Our commanders tried to get the troops to adhere to the rules of engagement but it was too late, both sides were fired up and it was open warfare.

The peacekeepers had transformed into peacetakers. Shots rang out, rocks were thrown and barricades were stormed. Our response was section fire, including a belt's of M60. We were very impressed with ourselves when an umpire informed us that we had killed over 20 'civilians.' That was until the Company Commander got hold of our Section Commander and kicked him in the backside for not following the rules of engagement. "But sir," he said, "the buggers were throwing rocks at us, what do you expect us to do, roll over?"

The exercise was called off after several such incidents. From memory we hadn't got to the halfway point, but the powers that be decided that there was no point going on as the peacekeeping exercise had degenerated into farce, especially when troops and 'civilians' at one vehicle checkpoint got involved in a brawl.

Of course at the Junior Non-Commissioned Officer and digger level we were all pretty pleased with ourselves. We had shown our mettle and that we wouldn't take a backward step. And since the exercise was over a day and a half early we could probably all get on the piss.

Unfortunately for us that wasn't the view held by the Support Company hierarchy or the Australian Army senior observers or as we were told the politicians in Canberra. We were told in no uncertain terms the we were in fact all very naughty boys.

The result of this 'Peacekeeping' fiasco was that a report went back to the UN about Australian soldiers inability to conduct peacekeeping operations. Australian soldiers were too aggressive and warlike and would not be suited to serve with UN mandated peacekeeping missions.

So if anyone reading this served in the Australian Army from say, 1975 to the nineties ever wondered why you never got a UN guernsey..... well you now know that you can blame it all on the trigger -happy soldiers of Support Company 1 RAR!

akmacca08@live.com.au

CANADIAN CRICKET

Over the past five days I have been avidly watching the progress of the Second Cricket Test, Australia v West Indies from Adelaide. A draw seemed a fair result. To someone not familiar with the noble game of cricket playing a game for five days, for six hours a day and then at the end of that time not getting a result would appear a little bizarre. But to those of us who grew up with the game, this is one of crickets attractions.

What other game can you have such quaint terminology as: leg before wicket, silly mid on, square leg, a maiden over or silly point.....well the list goes on and on.

To an Australian the dulcet tones of Richie Benaud signals summer as surely as cicada's blaring from a eucalyptus tree. For those who may not be aware, Richie is Australia's equivalent of Howard Cossell.

Thinking of cricket reminded me of a strange encounter I had about a month into my stay here in Canada.

I was driving into OK Falls and off in the distance I spied something that looked familiar. It couldn't be I thought to myself. No it couldn't be not here in OK Falls, British Columbia. I stopped the vehicle and said to my companion that that strip of green over yonder in the local park looks like a cricket pitch.

"A cricket what?" she answered with a vague look on her face.

"It looks like a cricket pitch. And look at either end there's a set of stumps!" Now she really thought I had lost it. Talk of crickets, stumps and pitches tends to do that with sweet Canadian gals.

I knew an explanation wouldn't suffice so I said lets drive to the park and have a look. She was only too happy to comply with the request of this weird Australian.

We pulled up at the park and to my amazement there were the two opening batsman going out to the pitch to take guard. One team were dressed in blue one-day garb and the other in yellow.

A cricket match was about to be played here in Okanagan Falls, population of around 1000. Go figure!

It turns out that the two teams were made up exclusively of expatriates from the sub-continent and a thriving competition is conducted in and around the Okanagan Valley.

So here I was sitting in my car watching a cricket match in OK Falls, trying to explain the convoluted rules to my companion, whilst just a short distance away a group of boys were playing an impromptu game of baseball.

Cricket being played was the last thing I expected to see here in rural Canada. Life is strange!

BUSY, BUSY

It has been a busy few days here in downtown OK Falls. It started late last week when I attended a high school basketball match in Osoyoos. Now having five kids I have done a fair amount of time going from one sporting field to another, one gym to the next so I was interested to see if the kids and the sporting ethos would be any different here in British Columbia.

Well guess what? It is exactly the same. One team wins and another loses, there are a few outstanding players and a lot of journeyman. Some of the team try their heart out regardless of the score and others just make up the numbers. The home crowd cheers and boo's depending upon who is in possession and volunteers and officials bring it all together and make it work.

Halftime comes and kids, big and small rush onto the court to shoot hoops with what seems like 100 renegade, bouncing balls. balls collide on their path to the hoop and children tumble, fall and slide across the polished floor.

In Australia the ball and sports maybe different but the kids are still the same. You can't tie them down they just want to get out there and have a go. Kids and sport are a perfect fit.

Saturday was the great Christmas tree hunt. We went up into the mountains behind where we live in search of the perfect tree. As we climbed higher the snow on the road deepened and the temperature dropped. We spied a side road, left the car and trekked into the woods. The dog was in some sort of nirvana, having never seen snow. She ran and jumped, pranced and splattered through snowdrifts, often lowering her jaw to the ground and running along and scooping up mouthfuls of snow. Dumb dog!

A tree was found and it was hauled back tot he van, but not before my companion decided to afford me a Canadian welcome by shoving a handful of snow down my shirt. Not a very nice Canadian at all !

No sooner was the tree home and off we set on a marathon shopping expedition, Canadian Tire, London Drugs, Wal Mart and Zellers all foreign name to me and intriguing in their own way. Even so a man can only stand so much Christmas shopping. Obviously I was paying penance for earlier misdeeds.

The highlight of the day was the Penticton Christmas Parade. Man was it cold standing out there! But I enjoyed it and it was great to see the community spirit at work. It was then a matter of racing back to the car and willing the car heater to warm up faster than it was really capable of.

Today was preparation for a birthday, the job that befell to me was assembling a basketball stand and hoop. Easy to assemble and no tools required said the instructions and that was basically true. What it didn't say on the instructions was that the hoop had to be assembled outdoors in the freezing cold where it was hard to even turn a screw.

Through pig-headiness alone I stayed outside, freezing my butt off, longing to be in Australia where it is early summer and around 34c every day. When I had finally finished my face and hands were blue. What makes it worse is that it was only -6c, what's it going to be like when it is -15c?

The rest of the day was spent preparing food and dressing the Xmas tree that at one time crashed in the lounge room knocking this and that asunder. Damn live tree's have a mind of their own.

I think Canadians take Christmas and everything that surrounds it much more seriously and joyously than we in Australia do and I think the reason for that is the weather and tradition. It is often hard to get serious about Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman when it is 35c and you are heading for the beach. It is high summer and the outdoors beckon whereas here in Canada it is snowy and cold and the weather encourages thoughts of a white Christmas and a raging hot fire.

Not sure which one I like the best, but I'll let you know!

akmacca08@live.com.au

MATE

Earlier today I found out that an old mate couldn't make it across to Canada for the holidays. I have known Adrian for almost 40 years (am I that old!) we met as young soldiers in the Army and had a lifetime worth of adventures in the two and a half years we spent together in the First Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR).

Not satisfied with our military antics we spent five months touring the world together, some of it in a fried out kombie, after we both discharged from the military after three years service. Once again we somehow managed to cause trouble and strife wherever we went, but boy did we have fun.

We said our goodbyes in England and didn't see each other for almost 25 years. Why we allowed that to happen I don't know. We came into contact again via the Internet and renewed our friendship, it was as though it never left us.

By chance and a stroke of good fortune both Adrian and I wound up as tour guides in China and it was Adrian who gave me the inspiration to apply for the job. He Had started leading tours some 3 months before me and when I finished my training in Melbourne he was designated as my trainer.

Once again it was an amazing stroke of luck as nobody in the organisation knew of our connection. To say that we had a blast travelling form Hong Kong to Beijing over a three week period would be a massive understatement. It was more like we were on holidays and the passengers were just along for the ride and show.

Adrian and I have a unique ability to keep each other amused as well as an implicit trust in one another. Rare commodities and something that is hard to find.

So time has moved on for us both but we keep in regular contact with one another and when Adrian found out that he had an extended leave he decided to come for a visit to Canada. Oh and to look after the dog while I went away. That is what friends are for!

Alas it is not to be as Adrian's father is about to be released from hospital and he needs someone to look after him as he can't at this stage look after himself. Without hesitation Adrian has decided to stay and look after his Dad, never mind the trip, the large sum of money he has paid or anything else. As he said to me, "it's family." Enough said.

No grumbling or poor, poor me. Just an acceptance that it is the right thing to do. There will be other opportunities to travel to Canada but perhaps only one to help out his father. It is the right decision, albeit a hard one and I am not sure if I would have made such an altruistic choice. But that's the sort of guy he is, I keep telling him he is the nice one.

akmacca08@live.com.au

BORDER CROSSING

I decided that I would skip across the border to Omak in Washington State, on Tuesday to do a hit and run shopping trip to Wal Mart. Omak is around 125k's from Okanagan Falls and the border crossing is at the Canadian border town of Osoyoos.

It is a distance to go shopping but it is worth it as most items are anything from 10%- 60% cheaper in the US.

Because of the huge hassle I had re-entering Canada in early November I checked my passport and my Canadian paperwork on the Monday before the trip just to make sure all was in order. For this entry into Canada I was given a formal piece of paper which was stapled to my passport and it lays out the conditions of my entry and stay into Canada. Part of this paperwork was folded and out of sight and when I unfolded it on Monday I received a shock as typed at the bottom of the document were the words, "THIS DOES NOT AUTHORIZE RE-ENTRY INTO CANADA."

Damn did this mean if I left Canada they wouldn't let me back in? I couldn't take that risk so I spent an hour trying to get an answer to this question. Of course all of the immigration enquiry lines were automated and I wasn't able to talk to a "real" person. All I could do was go to the border on Tuesday and ask someone there. Not a great option but the only one available to me.

It was a beautiful day on Tuesday, one of those crisp, clear cold days where it is a pleasure to drive. I arrived at the border crossing which is rather large as it houses Canadian Border Control on one side and on the other American Border Control. There were no signs anywhere to direct a person to an enquiry centre so I had to make a few guesses and park the car and walk.

I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing as I was walking across the roadway where the border control boxes are, I was half expecting siren's and gunshots but nothing happened. I went to the enquiry counter and spoke to a very young Canadian Border Control Officer who only confused me more.

She said I maybe able to re-enter Canada and maybe not. It all depends what it has on my dossier. Dossier? Yes I have a dossier and if it says I have a criminal record or if I am deemed undesirable, well re-entry maybe refused. I asked her could she checked before I crossed? She said she couldn't because that wasn't the protocol.

I said to her that it was a roll of the dice for me and I had to take my chances? She nodded sagely and said that was right. Great!

With some trepidation I decided to risk it as I have a trip to California planned for late December and I had to know before then.

So I got in the line to enter the USA. They ran a German Shepherd drug, sniffer dog over the car and in such circumstances you can't help but being a little nervous. You just pray that the dog doesn't stop and go into some sort of meltdown around your car. Thankfully it didn't.

The Homeland Security guy was nice enough, all the standard questions, where are you going in the US, why are you going there, how long are you going to stay, ect, ect. I felt pretty smug as I had a newly issued 5 year American visa in my passport but I was quickly deflated when I was told that I didn't have a "white slip" in my passport. I was told to pull over and report to the office.

The office was full of gun-toting Homeland Security officers just waiting for someone, anyone to make a false move. That wasn't going to be me so I was all yes sir and no sir's to them. They tried to tell me that it was my fault that I didn't have the white slip and my explanation just didn't cut it with them.

Thankfully this wasn't a great drama and they had to issue me with a new one to go in my passport as proof of entry into the US. For this I had to pay Uncle Sam $6. But I was through and away on Highway 97 on my way to Omak. A single lane highway all the way to Omak and I suppose this is what you call backwoods America, full of pick up trucks, good 'ol boy's and rifles.

Omak is a reasonably small town and its claim to fame is the Omak Stampede Rodeo which includes the "World Famous Suicide Race," (Their words). I was lucky enough to attend the Stampede in early August and it was a great experience and an opportunity to get a taste of the "real America." So Omak isn't all that big but it does have a Super Wal Mart. Interesting mix of people in the store, lots of old folks and an awful lot of Mexicans, enough to have many Mexican grocery lines in the store.

It was a smash and grab, get in get out trip and I achieved my aim in short time and loaded up my trolley with goodies. Withing 70 minutes I was back on the road for home.

On the way back I caught an interesting sight. A Washington State Trooper had pulled over a car going in the opposite direction, nothing strange in that but the car the State Trooper was driving was different. The car was around 15 years old, dirty, battered and beat up, no way in the world would suspect that this was a police car. It was only the red and blue lights in the grill, dashboard and rear window of the car that gave it away.

On the way back I stopped at the tiny town of Tonasket to visit an antique shop called Aussie Antiques with a picture of a kangaroo hanging out the front. I had stopped before but the store was closed. I went in, had a look around, found nothing interesting and was walking out when the owner said thanks for visiting, I gave him a standard "thanks mate" and he almost had a fit.

"You an Aussie?" he asked. "Yeah," I answered as I continued out the door with my new friend following close behind.

It turns out his name was Colin and he was from Bunbury in Western Australia and had been in Tonasket for 13 years after marrying an American girl. He looked like Michael Palin and was a real nice bloke. He said that they don't get many Australian's at all through this neck of the woods and he just wanted to chat.

As we stood outside his shop chatting he motioned to two young people in their twenties crossing the road, they were relatives of Colin from Bondi Beach. Well you know the small world thing, so here was another example I was born in Bondi and spent the first 10 years or so there. These guys even knew the street where I lived. Go figure!

I left Colin promising to call in whenever I went to Omak.

It was with some trepidation that I waited in line to cross back into Canada. Finally it was my turn and I drove to the booth and handed across my passport with a cheery g'day mate and a bright, but forced smile. Thankfully I had a happy and chatty border control guy who asked me the usual questions of where I have been, how long, what did I buy, ect, ect. He informed me that he loved Australia and that is where he was going to retire as it was too cold in Canada.

He hardly appeared to look at my passport as he spent most of the time scanning my receipt for groceries. He informed me that I had more than the allowable $20 worth of dairy but was going to let it go. He gave me back my passport and gave me a cheery goodbye.

I had done it I was back in Canada! I like the States but there is something about the place, I just feel better off in Canada, not sure what it is.

So that was Allan's really excellent Wal Mart adventure, long and convoluted but successful in the end.