Bob and Lorraine have decided to put the house on Dalarna up for sale and move out of the city and Bob figures they will be moving next month (which makes complete sense considering the boom Calgary is in). I thought it was kind of weird that two brothers who have lived in a city for so many years, may well end up moving out of the city in the same month and in the same year (great minds think alike, I guess).

But Bob's physical move will be quite different than mine (think day and night, black and white) in every way, shape or form. I won't be bringing much stuff out ((six items or less (probably less), although I will store some boxes at a friends here at a friends)). I don't know if that is a tragedy or a comedy on my part. My guitar comes with me for sure and probably my hard drive, and I'd love to bring my bike but I don't know how I can ship a bike.

And of course our mindsets will be quite different just before we move: Bob: That was a chore, gee it will be nice to relax and get to our new place and relax and enjoy and relax. Don: I can't do this, I'm crazy, whom talked me into this, I can't afford it, maybe I should buy an open-ended return ticket, Jim's mad at me I think, I may be okay to be with in the short term but I'm sure that will wear off, etc., etc., etc.

But hopefully the end result will be the same somehow; we'll both be happier. I don't doubt that I'll be welcomed but I don't see what I've got to offer, it certainly isn't fame and riches. I'm already wealthy in some respects, having Neil e-mail me Kara's e-mails from Thailand is worth millions to me. And his pics and Robin's and Ger's and Bob's. And Shaun asking me by e-mail when I'm coming out there because he's got a bike now. And Robin e-mailing me and telling me how he is doing on the guitar.

But the next few weeks are still going to be quite terrible on me until I actually get there. It's not that I don't want to leave Toronto, it's the idea of the things I must do (cancelling cable, saying goodbye to friends, riding my bike in Toronto for one last time). But it will be done.

Embarrassing moment

Sheesh I just had an embarrassing experience on the way home from work this afternoon. I was merrily biking up Parliament Street from the beer store (since it's Friday) with 18 beer in my backpack and I got to Wellesley (the street I live on) and was about to turn right when the light changed and a horde of people started to cross Parliament and Wellesley. And so I came to a screeching halt (I wasn't paying attention because I was almost home and I was a touch tired) and as I put my foot out the backpack changed positions (because of the beer) and because of the sudden weight re-alignment, I went right down on my ass. That wasn't the worst of it. It was the horde of people trying to help me up in the busiest intersection in this area. And because I had this heavy backpack still on I was totally helpless lying on my back (I felt like a turtle) and so I needed a horde of people to help me up. The last comment made was by this old guy who was brushing me off: "that must have been quite a shock". As I slowly biked the two remaining blocks to home, I was thinking: 'no, no that wasn't a shock, I've done worse, I'm way passed being shocked by what I do'. And I always thought the old adage that 'most accidents happen close to home' only applied to automobiles. I guess I was wrong.

Another letter from Kara in Thailand

Today I am in Auythaya, the old capital of Thailand, we arrived this morning at 4:30 by night train, and I hardly slept at all because the air conditioning was SOOO cold, brutal! Im going to die when I come home! Anyways this morning we looked at some old budha relics/temples that were destroyed in the wars, its was pretty interesting, but we saw a whole pile and after a while they all kind of looked the same. Tommrow at like 7am we leave for the bus for a 4hr ride to another town where we are going to see some sort of WWII site which should be sad but good. And then the next night or that night I'm not sure were going to stay on a bambook raft. Then on sunday night we're going to be back in Bangkok to join up with 2 other people and lose 7 of our current tour friends, as we will be starting the Southern tour. I'm pretty excited, it sounds a lot more slack and a lot less travelling which will be fantastic to stay in one place for more than 1 night. A lot of beaching on the white sands and I think i'm going to buy all of my souvenirs/ gifts there as well so I have less distance to carry it.

If there are any requests please tell me before Sunday as I will probably use the free internet in Bangkok before the 2nd tour starts. Oh yeah thanks dad for the id number, I sent him an email so hopefully everything works out. To answer your questions if I can remember them all, yes its still humid here. Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai were not as bad, almost cool considering the weather here. Ayutaya though is brutally humid, not as hot as Bangkok but definately way more humid, I feel like im breathing in Water and strange scents. The trek was AMAZING, everything is absolutely gorgeous, I loved it. The first day we were hiking was intense though, I have never sweat from every limb and pore in my body before. MY Forearms were dripping! It was like having a shower, SOOO WET! when we got back we did laundry and I felt awful for whomever got stuck doing ours cause I'm sure it all reeked! Oh yeah they don't have any coin laundry here, mostly you pay to have them do it for you..so far we've paid 70 and 100 baht for our laundry. Not too bad I suppose. Sometimes its hard to tell if your getting ripped off or not. The second day of the trek it rained alll day which was not that awful because it was a lot cooler, and the third day we got to ride elephants!

I can't wait to show you the pictures, it was wonderful! Anyways I need to go. My mp3 is hopefully done charging, I hope everyone is doing well!

kara