Sunday, October 30, 2011

Tofino Family Getaway (one year later)

So I was arranging all the files and footage on my computer the other day and realized I had over 100 gigabytes of footage on my computer that I had never really finished editing. Last year my family and I rented a minivan and decided to head out to Tofino for a weekend to reconnect and get back to nature. It was a fantastic trip and I was even able to drag both my brothers out surfing for a bit. Fortunately I also managed to drag along my go pro camera and capture all of the action as well! Anyways I apologize to my parents for taking so long, but I finally managed to find the time to edit it all up and I think it turned out nicely!

Song: "Bourgeois Shangi-La" by "Miss Li"


Monday, October 10, 2011

The Day Winter Finally Caught Up With Dubrovnik...

So over the last two months, I've got to say I've had relatively little to complain about weather wise. On my igoogle homepage, I've installed side by side webcam apps so I can simultaneously watch Vancouver and Dubrovnik weather. Needless to say in comparison Vancouver has got the shitty end of the weather stick this season with it's few precious weeks of summer. Aside from the occasional hour long shower, Dubrovnik hasn't really seen rain since May. With temperatures hovering in the 25 to 30C mark consistently for the last five months, my mixed feelings of leaving Vancouver have been reinforced by the warm water, sunny days and beautiful temperatures.

There was a lot of talk the other day about the weather as it seemed summer was really about to come to an end. Temperatures were forecast to drop 15 degrees, snow was forecast in Zagreb and the locals were making a last ditch effort to solidify their sesonal tan by spending the last sunny hours on a beach. I myself joined in on the action with some last minute snorkeling and a last attempt to spot an octopus in it's natural habitat. I never saw the octopus, but I did manage to find an eel... a very colourful yellow and grey one which I stalked for many minutes while it hit between some rocks. As it turns out, 24 hours later, summer really would be over in spectacular fashion.

The following day was a mixture of sun and cloud when I woke up. There was a nice onshore breeze but you could tell something was different. Over the last week I have been house sitting at Jon and Sanja's house, looking after the dog and taking care of the Launderette. As I woke up and walked out onto their beautiful balcony, I looked out on the horizon and had to do a double take. As I wiped the sleep from my eyes, I couldn't believe what I was looking at. Off in the distance was a TORNADO! Well to be perfectly honest, when it's on the water it is a "water spout" but it really was a full on cyclone whipping up the water and sucking it up a thousand feet into the clouds. I watched as it started off in the distance, but was slowly coming towards shore in my exact direction! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I was only able to snap some lousy quality iphone photos.




I can only imagine what the captain of that cruise ship was thinking as the water spout was coming closer and closer to the ship. There's no point raising the anchor cause it means you are now at the mercy of the winds, you can't run away as it would take too long... you can only really sit there and pray that it doesn't bowl you over, suck up all your passengers and destroy the ship. Luckily for him, as the spout came closer to land it also dissipated in strength and eventually made contact with land and vanished. Life in Dubrovnik returned to normal.


Then later in the evening the clouds rolled in, the air became sour with ozone and you could feel the electricity in the atmosphere. I had to make a serious attempt to run for the launderette, close it up just in the nick of time and then run home on the scooter to close up the windows and shutter just as the storm hit. Wind, sideways rain and massive lightning bolts illuminated the sky. Once the initial rain subsided I was able to duck out on the balcony with my tripod and snap this photo of lightning hitting behind Lokrum Island.


Thankfully the storm was over just as quickly as it had arrived leaving behind clean fresh air and a much cooler temperature. Summer was officially over. Away with the flip flops, shorts and t-shirts and time for winter jackets, jeans and gloves. Ugh. At least it will be a good way to get to the temperatures in the Ukraine...