Merry Christmas for 2015

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Perhaps somewhat unusual for a Travel Blog but while doing Christmas cards Heather suggested "why not post a Christmas letter on the blog ?". My initial reaction was W H A T ? ? ! It's a Travel blog, but then why not ? So if you have been eagerly awaiting another dreaded Christmas letter you have logged in to take a look. A bonus is that there might at least be some pictures.

A quick summary. We moved. Summer was sunny, blue skies, and gorgeous. No real travel. Seasons seemed to change overnite and suddenly here we are entering the windy, wet, winter, or "the rainy season" as I call it.

Next, what you've been searching for, the letter.



Well, it’s that time of year again so Merry Christmas and
best wishes for a Happy, Prosperous, and most importantly, a Healthy New Year.

No one gets off that easy so let’s get this dreaded annual
Christmas letter done.

It’s been quite a year for not just us but for Jesse and Robb
too. Some really BIG changes, and some
not so big, some happy times and some a little less so. No international travel this year, (we don’t
count cross boarder shopping hopping from White Rock to Bellingham). For the past couple of years there had always
been some thought that at the end of the Holidays Kane might not return to work
and instead just drift off into retirement.
So it was this year that it started to seem more and more that sometime
in the fall, the pin would be pulled, and retirement would become the new
lifestyle for Kane. Heather would
probably follow in the Spring.

We all know what Robbie Burns had to say To A Mouse about
“the best laid plans” and that line still holds true today. Sometimes opportunity knocks though and one
should at least open the door. It seemed
that perhaps the moon and stars had aligned perfectly and it was our turn when
a generous unsolicited offer to purchase our home arrived on the doorstep. It was one of those, “quick, where do we
sign” before someone comes to their senses moments. Suddenly we were homeless but got to stay in
our home of over 20 years until the end of May.

We had been looking at properties in Victoria for about a
year but now, potentially being homeless, there was some added urgency and
incentive. We had been thinking of
buying an older home and undertaking a major renovation project. The idea of living amid a renovation was not
appealing so we decided to see what the market had to offer in the range of our
budget for an old home purchase and renovation.
One weekend we looked at a couple of properties we had viewed on line
and one that our realtor showed us. Our
choices got a thumbs down when physically seen and the realtors suggestion,
beautiful as it was, was overbudget.
With nothing to lose Heather made one of her low-ball offers that was
rejected. So much for that idea. But
perhaps the vendor wanted to sell because over the weekend we received several
counter-offers until Heather’s initial offer was accepted.

Kane left work May 15^th and moved to Victoria a
few days later. The official retirement date, (off payroll) was to be
mid-June. Heather submitted her
retirement notice but had to do a little commuting and couch surfing until the
end of June. It’s all very nice ! The new home is just 5 years old, a stunning
architectural design, and sits somewhat above street level which just makes it
look more dramatic. Located in the Fairfield
district of Victoria we are able to walk just about everywhere. Downtown and the Inner Harbour area are about
a 10 minute walk.

Moving day from Surrey was May 25^th and there was
some concern about how Max, the cat, would handle the move. A visit to the vet, a little valium, and he
arrived in Victoria with Heather and Beth and settled in easily. In fact, he seemed to recognize the changes
and seemed to go into retirement mode too, enjoying his new patio and laying in
the sunshine. Unfortunately he had a
stroke one night that paralyzed his hindquarters. So, we had to make that difficult decision
and say “goodbye” to Max. A sad day.

In late spring Robb moved from the ranks of carpenter with
Ellis-Don and joined the management team. In August he was off to Glasgow with
his band to compete in the World Piping Championships and after the competition
he spent 3 or 4 weeks touring a little bit of the Netherlands, Spain, and
Portugal. When he returned to work he
was moved from a construction site at the Brentwood Mall in Burnaby, to a site
in downtown Vancouver where he is doing his part in the construction of a new
casino and hotel complex.

In the fall, Jesse moved from our condo that she had been
renting to get a place of her own, without roommates. She remains in the horticultural /
landscaping field and was sought after by another larger firm for a supervisory
position with improved pay and benefits.
So she made two significant moves this year. One her living arrangements and the other
employment related.

Now that we had moved to Victoria and settled in we now had
to deal with a vacant condo. We decided
not to look for a new tenant right away and instead carry the costs until the
spring / tourist season and see about renting the condo short-term, as a
vacation property, through Airbnb. The
property “went live” on the Airbnb website in late October and surprisingly we
had our first booking within 2 hours.
Even more suprising is that “off season” we have been booked about 90%
of the time and are now booked with confirmed reservations until mid-March just
in time for Spring Break, Easter, then the “high” tourist season. It seems we have both embarked on new careers
in the Hospitality Industry although Heather says that she did not see
chambermaid as a career option.

We are both now fully immersed in the retirement lifestyle and
wondering how we had time in the past for work.
Heather has joined a choir, does yoga regularly, and we both participate
in pub nights, lunches, and outdoor activities with the Victoria new-comers
club. At the beginning of the year Kane
decided to lose a little weight in anticipation of a fall retirement and
wanting to extend the “best before” date.
There has been some success requiring a complete new wardrobe for “the
new Kane”. He may be somewhat
unrecognizable. In retirement he engaged
the services of a personal trainer, goes to the gym every second day, and has
taken up learning to play, of all things, an accordion.

This is our first Christmas in our new home and both Robb
& Jesse will be able to be with us Christmas morning. We will have our usual traditional Christmas
dinner with about 8 around the table as we are being joined by Lindy, (an old
roommate of Jesse’s who Kane calls his ‘other’ daughter) and her
boyfriend. We are also expecting that
one of Heather’s choral friends and her brother may join us as well.

So retirement is good.
We enjoy our new home, basking in the summer sun on the patio, walking
all over Victoria, and being more active than work ever allowed us to be. We are loving our new life style, and it’s
all very nice !

We are truly blessed to be so fortunate ! So, sharing our happiness and good fortune we
want to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year. May you have good heath, good
fortune, and happiness throughout 2016 !



And about that career change to the hospitality industy ? Here is the link to our condo listing. Share it around.

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/7772546?s=V4ioDzpd

(sorry, you'll have to copy and paste)













































font-family: 'Script MT Bold';">Kane & Heather

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Comments

[kerry bjarnason]

thank you
Hi Kane & Heather, what a great Christmas letter. Good to hear about both of you along with Jesse and Rob. Merry Christmas back to you all. I haven't got much out for cards this year, seem consumed with keeping up in my kundalini teacher training course. That's been a game changer, a real challenge but a necessary and helpful one. Picking up Tom this morning who is returning from a 3 week trip to Columbia, Chile & Argentina. Merry, merry and Happy, happy to all 4 of you. Kerry