Humboldt Broncos

Back in April I wrote a post about the road accident that killed most of the Humboldt, Saskatchewan Broncos junior hockey team and coaching staff and injured many more. Today I read about the reformed Broncos team and their upcoming first game - a home opener. I am in no way, shape or form connected to this tragedy other than being one of millions of Canadians who were brokenhearted in the long and painful aftermath of this horrific accident.

In Canada you either play hockey, coach hockey, watch hockey or support your own child, brother, nephew, cousin and friend at 5am practises at the local arena. I guess you could say we all live and breathe hockey. As I jet over the Atlantic my thoughts will be for those remaining Humboldt players who will bravely take to the ice Wed. night. I know they will be playing their hearts out for their lost teammates.

Just by stepping out onto the ice they will be victorious. 

Apprehensions!

Greetings loved ones :) This may be my last post before heading to Scotland on Wednesday! I've repacked 3 or 4 times already and still things cross my mind as to what to smush into my suitcase/backpack/purse. Each time I repack I take things OUT trying to lighten the load. My suitcase is divided into two sections and thanks to the vacuum bags my clothes fit quite well. The other side of the suitcase is for toiletries, adaptors, socks, undies, hiking boots, extras (extra kleenex, extra bandaids etc) and quite a pile of snacks. The good thing about taking along a lot of trail mix and other assorted protein bars etc is I may not need to buy lunch saving me some money AND when eaten room is created in my suitcase for gifts and souvenirs! There's a method to my eating!

My back pack contains rain gear, hat, gloves, first aid kit, water bottles, maps and printouts of directions to all the places we want to go, a spork, rainproof backpack cover, backup pair of glasses and my small bag of gels/liquids - under 100ml of course. At our first Airbnb I will need to rejig a few things from backpack to suitcase and vice versa as some things - like insect spray - can't be in carryon luggage (my backpack) but have to be in my checked suitcase.
My purse is a small pack and holds my iPad, wallet, journal, pills, Nighty Night teabag as we are taking the aptly named red-eye... arriving in Glasgow at 9:45am.

Then we will be going via train to get our rental car in Stirling so that will lighten the load as well as I can keep my snacks in the car instead of my suitcase as well as a number of other things.

My apprehensions? Well, the obvious one is the weather which can change a dozen times a day. The joke is you can experience all 4 seasons in one day! I have good rain gear and water-proof hiking boots and at least this time around we can retreat to the car if need be. I remember one time in Ireland(?) or was it  northern England (?) when Annie and I ate our soggy sandwiches while sitting on a piece of farm machinery in a steady rain.

All you can do about the weather is be VERY prepared and GRIN AND BEAR IT:)

My other apprehension is driving in the UK. My brother doesn't have a license so I will be doing all of the driving. Yesterday I learned all about driving on a single lane road and the etiquette of "passing places". Youtube is an amazing resource!!

Today I am learning about: Roundabouts! 

Hey...this isn't so bad...HAH!

                               

Whoa!!!

I just found...a 6 page printout- that shows, with diagrams, every possible scenario of driving through a roundabout - yes...on youtube! I'm all set!

We'll be back Oct. 4th and hopefully the house will still be standing! If we can find wifi that works I'll post on Facebook!

Amazon

I just read today that Amazon has become the 2nd trillion dollar business. WOW. It's hard to get my head around that number: $1,000,000,000,000.00. I think I have that right. (Number One is Apple). Is it a coincidence that they both start with the letter A? As in A+++? (That's probably just the "teacher" in me...)

Many negative things have been said about how Amazon treats it employees but so far that hasn't stopped me from using the service. As a customer I have mostly good things to say. I have placed 12 orders in the last 6 months. I'm waiting for two items to be delivered - one is a travel diary specifically for travelling in Scotland and the other is a UK adaptor for my electronics.

There have been a couple of blips over the past few years of ordering (and I have to say convenience is a big factor for me in using Amazon in addition to being able to find just about anything I could possibly want no matter how rare or tiny)...I have twice ordered a silver sim card tray for my fairly new iPhone. The one that came with the phone was silver and broke the first time I tried to take it out of the side of the phone. I found a seller and ordered a new silver tray for just a couple of dollars. Sadly they sent me a blue one. I emailed the seller and explained I wanted silver to match my phone and I received another in the mail the following week...again it was blue. I was never charged for the second WRONG item and have given up for now. (Ironically the tray I am using is from my old iPhone which was...you guessed...BLUE!

Another thing I like about Amazon is my Amazon Prime Membership: for about $7.00/month I can stream a ton of movies and TV series in addition to getting 2 day free delivery for almost everything I order. For someone who also pays $11/monthly just to stream Netflix this is a great deal!

Do you use Amazon? How do you feel about the complaints of poor pay and benefits plus harsh working conditions from their employees?