Welcome to My World - What a Trip

Welcome to my World? Ok that just sounds stupid.


You may have found this by searching the words "spronk adaptor" or "left handed cinnamon bun to garden sprinkler" on Google, or maybe I provided you with a link. In any case, my name is Dan and it's been a long strange trip.
I will try to get everyone up to speed and have some photos here so you can see what's going on. I think I have to do this blog in reverse order or something.


So much has happened in the past six years that I don't know where to begin. Perhaps I'll start in Edmonton, where I used to live and work. I worked in electronics making submersible motor controllers and related controls for the oil and gas industry.




In 1997, after 10 years, took my gold watch and left the company. In 1996 I had started my own web design business and business was good. Whilst watching the Olympics from Sydney in the autmn of 2000, I fell in love with a woman whom I had met on the Internet. She lived in New Zealand and had two lovely girls aged 5 and 7.



In May 2001, I sold everything, packed up and flew to Auckland where she met me at the airport. In late 2001 we moved to Dunedin and fixed up her house there. We got married in January 2002 and sold the house later that year. Life was good and these were very happy times.

But this is just the beginning of my adventures!




More to come...



Dan

P.S Of course I am putting words like 'peruptic zam' in here so that if Gerry searches he'll find this :-)

What Happened from 2001 to 2006?

What a long strange trip, eh?

A great many things happened between May 2001 and June 2005 that changed my life for good. We moved from Dunedin and settled in a great little town called Geraldine in Canterbury on New Zealand's South Island. We bought a car and sold a house.


We rented and saved in Geraldine. The kids were happy at school and yours truly was a Scout leader in the little town.

All was good until my wife started getting headaches in 2004. After many trips to the doctor and finally a MRI scan we found out that she had a brain tumor. Three days later she had brain surgery to remove a high-grade tumor in her left temporal lobe.

The months following were a blur. The tumor was a grade 4 glioblastoma. The prospects were not good and by all reports six months was the mean survival time. Daily trips for radiation therapy, looking after the kids, cooking and being all things domestic, paternal and spiritual were taking their toll. Eleven months was challenging and draining. She died in June of 2005 in her sleep.


The kids stayed with me and stayed in school and with their friends and Scouts. We stuck together and stayed a family unit during the adjustment period. The kids were great and are very strong and well adjusted kids. Friends, family and community pulled together to provide us all the help we needed.



I worked on projects on the computer, kept the business alive and did my best to raise two girls by myself. I'd go into the bush a cut firewood with my dog, take my Scouts on camps, make birthday cakes and just about everything else that comes with running a family. The kids always had friends around and the teachers at the schools were absolutely wonderful.

Like all things, life moves on.



In 2006, I met a lovely Filipina lady on the Internet. She was single, professional accountant and living in Manila and working at a bank. I invited her to come and visit in New Zealand which she did in December and into January 2007. Unfortunately, after a month, she had to go back home and that was the hardest thing we ever had to do.


In the coming months I tried to bring her to New Zealand, but snags in immigration prevented this from happening. After writing letters to ministers, visiting MPs, getting letters of support from friends and family, I finally gave up. There was no way that we were going to be together in New Zealand.





So we made a plan for me to go to the Philippines. Over the next five months the kids got to accept the idea of living with their father. It was a time of lots of consultation and communications with their dad, uncles, aunties and grandparents. The fact remained that I was going to be leaving and they were going to live with their dad. Our little Foxy/Jack Russell doggy was found a good home on a lifestyle home with a huge family.




We'll were almost here. You won't have to wait too much longer.



Dan

Photos Uploaded

Hi all,

I just uploaded about 100 pictures to my Picasa account.
http://picasaweb.google.com/homebrew22

There are some photos from the past six years in various places.

Enjoy and don't laugh. We're all getting older eh?

Peace,

Dan

Here In The Philippines

So fast forward to 2007 if you will.

We're in a cute little Spanish styled house in a rural subdivision on the island of Panay, in the Western Visayas. There are about 500 homes in this phase of the subdivision, like a little village. It's a 20 minute ride to the city on a jeepney and we have everything we need here. In January we planted a small garden with ampalaya (bitter melon), squash and talbos (like spinach). Life is quiet and clean compared to a lot of places in the Philippines. We are planning on retiring here. It's certainly cheap enough to live here and buying real estate is super cheap, like this house is about $25,000.



Carol and I are making plans to go to Canada this year. Perhaps for summer, but that will depend on paperwork and the house. Worst case will be dropping Carol into the deep-freeze in December. So we hope to see you then.

If you email me, I'll catch you up on what's happening.

Cheers,

Dan

A Post of Many Keywords

Greetings Earthings!

I thought that I would create this post to add much valued keywords and person's names into the blog. This way, people may accidentally run into me whilst Googling their names or strange phrases. Most of these are people I used to know from work or school in earlier days. Please email me if you think that you are on the list. On the list would mean that you know one or two others on the list. Otherwise, it's not you; it is your doppelgänger.

Sorry if I cannot remember so many names and details, but some of this is going back 30 years or more. I hope the words are sufficient enough to grab a query or two. In no particular order...

So, without further adieu...

Dan Travers - Electronics Technologist, Edmonton, Oilfield
Gerry May - Electronics Technologist, Edmonton, Oilfield
Rhona MacDonald - Comptroller, Accounting, Tofield,Alberta
Mike Jensen - CAD, drafting, Tofield, Alberta
Kelly Moore - AV Technician, Calgary, Alberta, Classical Guitar
Merle Elgert - Electronics Technologist, Alberta, Bittern Lake, Soup Dragons, Cycling
Eric Vrba - Special Effects Co-ordinator, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Paramount, Abbotsford, White Rock, Guitar, The Core.
Mike Kruk - Electronics Technologist, Edmonton, Sales
Bernie Caouette - Business Management, Blue Ridge, Alberta, Guitar, Vern, Two Guys From Calmar
Ron 'Raymond' Kinasewich - Musician, Edmonton, Alberta, Green Bananas, Guitar, Violin
Martino DeLuigi - Electrical Engineer, Edmonton, Alberta, D0911
'Super' Bob Lyons - Electrical Engineer, Edmonton, Alberta, AMC, U of A, L881
Randy Lemke - Electronics Technologist, Edmonton, Alberta, Mill Woods, Sandy
Mark Radetzky - Electronics Technologist, Edmonton
W. Don Wilson - Electrical Engineer, Software, Edmonton, Alberta, Cantronic, Wellview
Wendy Cameron - Edmonton, Inventory, Alberta
Chris Dewar - Manufacturing, Edmonton, Alberta, Sturgis, tattoos, music head
Perry Michetti - Chef, Edmonton, NAIT, Instructor, Culinary Arts
Pat Savage - St. Albert, NIART, Intrex Traffic Controls, Assembler, 1985-1986
Dwight Alfrey - Electrical Engineer & Race Car Driver, Cuda, Edmonton, Alberta
Rene Laperle - St. Albert, Alberta. 1984 - 1987.

Macs, Akinsdale, St Albert High, Paul Kane High School, Riel Park, Ice skating, Melodies, Red Rooster, Splooge, St. Albert Inn, Johnny C's, MJ's Roadhouse Londonderry, Sherwood Park, Mill Woods, K095, Les Kosic, Gerald Lempre, Castledowns, Superstore, Traffic Control, Engineering, Submersible Motor Controller, Alberta, Guitar, White Rock BC, Recording, Nucleus, Voltmeter, Bush Bash, Molson, The Ranch, Blue Ridge Lumber, Snowmobile, Bocce, BBQ, Oilers, Star Trek, Village Tree Mall, Steve McKenna, Dave Mack, Kevin Douglas, Aspen Crescent, Allan Greenslade, Quoc Su Duy, conformal coating, MC68HC11F1, Loop1, Loop2, VFD, Stanley Cup Finals 1980's, Downtown Edmonton, party, riot, Mike Lauden, Steve Forten, Robyn O'Brien, Tanya Walton, Dave McGregor, Coldicutt Ave., Andrew Gibson, Crescent Park, Semiahmoo, White Rock Jr. High, Ray Shepherd Elementary, Hermit's Trail, Ocean Park, John Deerman and Jeff Ruskowski.

Bye for now.

Dan