James Nolon McCamey

and

Michelle Suzanne Masefield

Are pleased to announce the engagement of...

Themselves...

To each other.

The event happened on the 30th August 2002 at 4:00pm Canadian Pacific Time on the Terra Nova Banks, Lulu Island.

The happy couple are overjoyed!

Lots of Love Mich and James

Last Monday, 5th August (also known as BC Day), James and Michelle's adventure took a Lord of the Rings turn (for a change). The local Future Shop had a free DVD release party with a huge 500 person tent, screening of the film, free food, Xbox stuff and pictures with some real LOTR characters. A nice time was had by all (both of us), the film was great as per usual (yes, it does get better after seeing it 5 times), but the highlight must have been meeting Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom. They were so down to earth and friendly, you could feel the love flowing from them. Never again will i diss a movie star, they have proved to me that you can be on the cover of Teen Party magazine and still have a brain. Anyway, we were lucky enough to get a photo with the guys, this one will be enlarged and put on the wall forever.

In other news, we are both now fruitpicking and loving it.

Michelle is selling homewares.

James is blueberry picking.

Hope to visit Grand Rapids MI, Fayetteville AR and Omaha NE in October.

There is no special significance of the ham.

Have a nice day.

James, a man of many words.

good afternoon all, We now have a combined age of 53 and hence moving into old age!! we have a new game called rocks and rats. at dusk near our home, there are train lines which transport grain, an absolute feast for the vermin, so we have become vicious and throw rocks at the them.Thinking about getting a BB gun (or potato gun). Please no emails about cruelty to animals and stuff. Its 100 points for a direct hit, plus it is in self defence! Don't worry, we have none of the pests in our farmhouse.

Have been exploring the numerous trails around Lulu Island and spotted a beaver near home in the the north arm of the Fraser. We are of to an over 40's International Cricket Tournament at Stanley Park today. Hoping to see Carl Rackemann hehehe. Maybe get a chance to have a hit if possible.

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes.
Love Michelle and james

Morning everyone. Since the last post, we have had a few interesting things happen to us. But before i get to that, we have something much more interesting to tell you. We saw a SEAL. It was just swimming through the harbour, does anyone know what sort of bait you need to catch a seal?? i reckon it'd look cool back in the pool at home.

Ok, we both have jobs now. We are working for Princess Cruises (the ones that go to Alaska). It was a 3 minute interview, then we were sent out back to get fitted for our uniforms. Weird. It was 2 days a week, but after one day, we dropped Mondays. Basically, we get people on and off the oversized tug boats, be polite to them, convince them that they are special, help with immigration, security, crowd control .. the whole lot. Sounds good eh? then comes the downside. $8 an hour. That is no typo, Apparently it's legal to hire someone over here for that much money. Oh yeah, and it's 11 hour days .... with ONE 15 minute break. Again .. this is apparently legal. So after our first day at work, we both nearly quit in digust, but will still work till we find other jobs.

On our way back from the interview, we nearly DIED!!!! well, we were in a bus crash. actually, the bus was ok, but i think some kid is going to be killed by his parents when they find out he wrote off their brand new BMW. So that was interesting. Lucky for us it crashed at our stop, so we just walked off the bus and home.

And some background news on our shack in richmond. The Trailer trash moved out into a trailer, so it's alot quieter now. The bad thing is that the landlord appears to have moved in downstairs. Now i'm not sure what the laws are here, but in australia a landlord has to give 2 days notice that they're coming over ... this woman just turns up and knocks on the door and yells at you. It's quite funny actually. She also has had a truckful of garbage in her car for the last week, i think she may also be of the trailer clan. Our little house used to be a ... how would you say ... pot house. The reason why downstairs was so damp, is because hydroponics ned alot of moisture (funny that). We thought it was funny, but our flatmate Wally gets annoyed cause the cops seem to think he was involved and follow him around.

I think that's all the news for now. Keep on emailing us, we really appreciate it. Apparently there is a phone card out there that lets you call canada for 8c a minute, even to mobiles with no connection fee. all aussies ... go get one and give us a call!

Take care now eh?

James - using michelle's login.

Hello everyone,

Yesterday was Canada Day and joined in the local festivities. We are blending in well with the natives eh! Felt sooo patriotic and glad to be part of this great nation ! The maple leaf is really a good icon. You can wear it and not look like a fool. Imagine wearing the Aussie flag.. I think not.
Also just a quick Happy Birthday and Congratulations to the following people for the folowing week(apologies if I have missed anyone-going of my memory here).
29th HB Jasper -the kelpie
29th HB Laraine - don't have your email address so if anyone does...
29th Radji and Tamara- hope your big day went really well. we had a moments silence to commemorate your wedding.
1st Happy birthday Canada
3rd HB Cameron- hope Manchester is treating you well.
4th HB Aunt Sherine -Have a good day
4th HB Andrew C when is Harry Potter coming out (I want to meet Kenneth Branagh -I think he's in it...)
6th HB Aunty Joyce- 79 and still spritely.
7th HB RYan - get that grant so you can come visit

other news.We walked 16kms yesterday to an intertidal region called Iona beach. James thinks he's hot because two girls pinched his butt last night. Never seen him grin so much.

Lots of Love
M + J

Hello everyone, Just an update on the situation in downtown Richmond. This place is awesome for food. We found an asian shop that stocks all the Sri lankan curry powders, godamba rotis etc. I have an interview with a home ware shop called Pier One Imports next Wednesday. Fingers crossed as it is only a 10 minute walk from home.. Also signed up as a volunteer for a theatre group called The Fringe. They run a huge Fringe Festival every year in Vancouver with about 700 performers in September. I will be working with a girl called Corinne (quebec chick-going to get her to teach me French) doing Volunteer Recruitment..( I had a full job interview just to volunteer). Will also be assisting Marketing and the Publicity areas on Mondays and Fridays 10-3pm. Should be very cool. The place is based in the arts area of Vancouver - Granville Island. I'm excited. We have been planespotting just near the run way at Sea Island and have discovered a beach near our home. Bit dubious about fishing in the Fraser but have found a fishing village on the south part of Lulu Island called Steveston. Really nice place. We are surviving the ghetto and making it more homely. We don't see out flatmate much so we pretty much do our own thing. The trailer trash are moving out this week -to the trailers. but will miss their dog called Rosco who is like Jasper (hello Jasper pooty). Oh well. We are both busy job hunting and discovering new parts of the neighbourhood. Our arses look really good( i have calf muscles -not seen them before) with all the walking we are doing and are considering trying Trailwalker next year...Love to you all.M + J

Another day, another change of plans.

We move back into wally's place in richmond in a few days. it's the cheapest, and there's a bus line direct to the city from there. Don't be decieved if you're coming to Vancouver. Vancouver DOWNTOWN is quite small, the suburb called VANCOUVER is as big as sydney city to HOMEBUSH, so dont think you can just walk downtown from the hotel. We have knocked richmond in the past, but it's quite practical, we;re going to take a different room though, one without birds in the window, maybe earplugs. This time we wont be jetlagged, so who knows? We might enjoy this place. Wally likes games workshop, so we should get on fine :)

Animals we forgot to mention or need updating.

SKUNK, again, roadkill, we didn't stop to give it a good smell.
BEAR, this was a baby one on the side of the road at whistler. again, we didn;t stop because there are warnings everywhere saying beware the bear.

Have a nice day. Give us a call if you want to. We're 7 hours ahead of sydney, less a day.

Evening all. We are back from our rocky escapade, and ALL of you have to see those big rocks sometime. They are quite impressive. Me good wit word, so i stop there. Found the wine growing region of BC, called the Okanagan, but didn't taste any wine. We gave some wierdo a lift from Penticton (the ELVIS capital of Canada, they also had a bridge convention) to Vancouver. Don't thinkwe'll be doing that again ... it's all new age maaaaaaaaaaaaaan, get in touch with your spiritual side ... every animal you see has a meaning. Plus he was stoned. Strange. ALso went up to disney world. ... no ,,, whistler. The views were great (pics coming soon), i'm sure the town is more interesting with snow on the ground. Stayed in an awesome hostel called Altalake, which is chockers with aussies. They are everywhere.

Animals we have seen:

ELK
BEAR
BALD EAGLE
SALMON JUMPING (admittedly in a salmon hatchery)
RACOON (roadkill, no pics)
SQUIRREL
CHIPMUNK, mating last time we looked. Bloody annoying little scavengers, but very cute. I called the big on Alfie.
HUMMINGBIRDS at Beauty Creek. These were awesome, they are tiny, about the size of my thumb, and they are loud (like a really loud bee)_and were attacking us cause we were in their territory.
BLUEJAY
CANADIAN GEESE, these were a little too tame
BEAVER
MUSK RAT
and a lot more birds at a bird sanctuary at Valemont.

Having fun, hopefully we will have a permananet place to live next time we write.

WE HAVE A PHONE NUMBER!! We bought a mobile so we can apply for jobs,., our number is 604 318 8620, plus all the usual jazzbefore that for intl calling.

see ya

Have been having the most amazing few days. traveling extensively through British Columbia. Yesterday we were in Kootenay Country which was spectacular (as is everything that is here). Stayed in a hostel calledth Dancing Bear Inn in Nelson. Great atmosphere and very much like the Blue Mountains scene. now in the pocket desert of canada (yes they have one). place called Penticton in the Okanagan Valley. Hope everyone is well. Love M + J