A Slap on the Wrist for Murder?

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30 June

It’s a slow start after last night’s celebrations, but we eventually stir and head across to the venue to survey the damage. The errant frisbee’s still stuck firmly in the bottom of the flower pot, and it looks like someone’s had a go at watering it, which is a bit worrying. Other than that everything seems to be in tact. Emma looked exhausted well before the end of proceedings last night, and she still looks very tired. It seems they had an undisturbed interlude, which is more than Issy and I could say about our wedding night. We spent it in a room on the 35th floor of a Melbourne city hotel. I was having a shower in the morning when I heard Issy pounding on the bathroom door in panic. It seems that someone had decided that Sunday morning was as good a time as any to clean the outside of the windows, and she suddenly found herself confronted by a guy hanging from ropes staring in at her ….

We head back to Lethbridge and enjoy a very pleasant final meal with LeeAnne and Steve before they head back to Hanna tomorrow morning. The happy couple is of course also in attendance. It seems that last night’s party was very tame compared to LeeAnne and Steve’s wedding, which LeeAnne describes as a “train wreck”. She tells us that they were very young “childhood sweethearts”. It was supposed to be a traditional small town rural Alberta affair, in a church, and all was going to plan until the Maid of Honour decided it would be a good idea to spend the night before in a bar and then go home with a random stranger. It seems the random stranger lived a long way out of town, and all attempts to retrieve said Maid of Honour proved fruitless. So it was over to Plan B. Potential Maid of Honour Mark 2 was at work at a downtown store when LeeAnne and Steve casually wandered in and asked her if she wouldn’t mind being in the wedding party in a few hours time … and the original choice … well LeeAnne never saw or heard from her again.

It’s another late-ish night and we’re exhausted, but there’s no rest for the wicked. It seems Troy’s flight back to Australia leaves Calgary at 11am tomorrow morning, and we’ve foolishly agreed to drive him there without being fully appraised of the details. He’s got to be at the airport three hours before it takes off, and it’s a three hour drive, so we’ll need to get up a bit after 4am. Groan, groan, groan and more groans. We explore alternative options. His travel agent tells him he can’t change the flight within a day of departure, so there’s Plan A gone. There’s a bus from Lethbridge that goes right to Calgary Airport, but the earliest that would get him there is 11.30am so that’s gone too. A taxi would cost about $800 which must be approaching the price of the airfare, so it seems we’re back to square one. So it’s reluctantly off to bed for a couple of hours of precious sleep.



1 July

It’s a bit after 5am when we pile into the car for the tedious drive - long, flat, straight and boring. But we’re dutiful parents, and Scott’s a dutiful brother, so we console ourselves with the fact that we’re doing the right thing; putting ourselves out for another family member. We arrive at the airport and look for Troy’s flight on one of the screens. Hmmm. Where is it? Well it seems that it’s not there … yet … because our beloved youngest son has misread his ticket .… it wasn‘t ever scheduled to leave until 4pm. Now I’m sure Canada has murder laws in line with most other civilised countries, but given these circumstances I’m sure even the harshest of judges would send us all on our way with little more than a slap on the wrist …..

Back in Lethbridge again, it’s Canada Day, so Emma, Michael and Scott head out to Henderson Lake to watch the fireworks.



2 July

It’s a very slow start courtesy of an almost completely sleepless night the night before. Thanks Troy. We’re never going to let you live that one down.

We eventually stir and meet up with Emma and Michael for a visit to the very cute Nika Yukko Japanese Garden back at Henderson Lake. Emma and Michael bought us here when we first visited Lethbridge back in 2019. The young Canadian at the entrance gets very excited when he hears our accents, and launches into an enthusiastic diatribe in an almost perfect Aussie accent of his own. He tells us he went to school in the Melbourne suburb of Frankston for a year when he was in Grade 5. He says he loved Melbourne, particularly going “to the footy at the G (that’s the Melbourne Cricket Ground) and havin’ a pine (that’s Aussie for “pie and”) sauce”. He was having a serious conversation about the garden with an elderly Indian trio when we just happened to wander past. They’ve now been totally ignored which is feeling a bit awkward. Next up is a stroll along the edge of the Lake and then down Parkside Drive, which looks to be the local version of millionaires row. It’s turning out to be a Japanese themed day as we round off proceedings with a meal at a nearby sushi bar.

Back at the Airbnb and it seems the gate attendant at the Japanese Garden isn’t the only person in Lethbridge with a talent for Aussie accents. Michael tells us about the time he went on a tour when he lived in Melbourne and ended up in a late night session with the guide. Guide man told him about the time he went to Banff in the middle of winter when it was minus 30. It seems he couldn’t quite get his head around the fact that if you went outside with wet hair in those sorts of temperatures you then needed to spend a long session with a hair drier or run the risk of it all snapping off…. Michael’s telling the story from the guide’s perspective and he’s got the Aussie accent down pat. Now there’s a talent he’s kept well hidden until now.

We’ve got an early start in the morning as we head back to Calgary to fly our separate ways - Scott back home to Oz, and Issy and I over east to Montreal. So comes that inevitable sad time when we need to farewell Emma and Michael. We’ve been to Canada three times now and this never gets any easier or less emotional.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Japanese Gardens
I"m always drawn to Japanese Gardens. We are going to Japan next year.

[DaveandIssy]

Japan
If you haven’t been to Japan before I think you’re probably going to live, and particularly the gardens. I think our favourite city was Kyoto. Nara was also great.