AUGUST 2001

ReUHLion 2001

The weekend of July 21 and 22 was the major event to report in this newsletter. That was when ReUHLion 2001 took place. Things actually started rolling long before then, first with Helen coming up with the idea and doing all the leg work (finger work actually - mostly e-mail and telephone dialing) to get things underway. Once we had agreed on a date and place, Diane picked up the ball and got heavily involved in the organization.

There was a lot to be organized and all was accomplished on time. On Friday afternoon several of us were at the Bulyea hall to do a bit of decorating and get tables organized, etc.

On Saturday people began arriving before noon, mostly to help with preparation. We had lots of delicious fresh fruit and vegetable and dips appetizers, along with some breads, chips, etc. The bar didn't open until 2:00 pm, which was a bit of a wait with the incredibly warm weather we had that day. Helen's name was on the liquor licence though and she said she'd be hauled off to jail if we opened sooner. Some of us had to physically restrain both Reinhold and Erwin when they heard that little bit of news because they thought it might add to the festivities to see her taken away in a police car.

We were also celebrating two other family events: it was Dave & Nancy's wedding anniversary that day, and Don's birthday. There was a cake for each of those occasions.

We had a table set up on the stage. There were old photo albums, along with several items being raffled off. Among the items were a couple of pictures of Grandpa, a commemorative cross-stitch made by Helen, commemorative patio stones made by Jackie's daughter-in-law, Jess (anyone who would like to have one made should contact Jackie), wine with commemorative labels made by Jackie & Wayne, decorative clothes hangars, a watch, golf shirts, and probably a couple of things that I can't remember. We had many old pictures on the wall around the table and these were quite popular. Some of them brought back a lot of old memories. There were also pictures of the grave stones of those who we have lost over the years. When we have reunions those people are always uppermost in our minds and hearts.

We also had some great commemorative tee-shirts available for sale for only $10.00. I believe that Diane has several that remain unsold and she'd be happy to pass them along to anyone who may have missed getting one. Either call or e-mail her, or just send me an e-mail if that's easier for you. My address is on the front of my home page.

The afternoon seemed to rush by as everyone was busy visiting and re-establishing old connections. Many of us hadn't seen each other since the last reunion, or longer. There were people there from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Forgive me if I've forgotten any other locations.

Around 5:00 it was time for us to say grace, led by Allan, then get in line for the buffet. The meal was catered by Carmen Anderson of Strasbourg and she did a wonderful job. After supper we raffled off all of the items on the table, then headed outside for a group picture. And speaking of pictures, Don was the official ReUHLion photographer and he took over 200 pictures. I have also had several pictures scanned and sent to me by Erwin, Wes and Kim. Jim took about 100 pictures on his digital camera and promises to forward them to me shortly. I have most of the pictures already on my web-site and ready for viewing. You can either go in through my home page by clicking on the "Pictures" button and following instructions, or you can go directly to the server. The address for that is http://shipping.accesscable.net/reuhlion

The party started to break up fairly early, around 8, mostly due to the intense heat. It was around 30 degrees that day and the fans in the hall didn't do much to help, unfortunately. There was lots of visiting continuing into the night with most of us breaking off into smaller groups and going to various places.

Sunday we all headed out to the Uhl homestead. Dave & Nancy did a great job of preparing the yard for everyone, with help from Reinhold who arrived a few days early and got all the grass cut. Early in the afternoon we had a sudden rain and hail storm come up. Fortunately we could see the clouds coming and most of us were able to take cover. It didn't last long and the weather was much nicer afterward, not nearly as hot. We had weinie and marshmallow roasts, squares, and of course some leftover beer and coolers.

Many old friends and neighbors dropped in to visit and we had accordion music provided by Uncle Red Currie and Hazel Schwandt. There was even some dancing going on.

I love all the stories that people tell when they are wandering around the old homestead. The place really brings back a lot of memories. I must thank Uncle Fred for telling the story about the horses they had that drowned in the lake many years ago. Prior to that, I had no idea that my brother Jim was named after a dead horse.

People started drifting off late in the afternoon and early evening. Some had long drives ahead of them, others had planes to catch. I believe that about 125 people had signed the guest book and, while that represents only a fraction of our total numbers, its still a pretty good turnout. There's no doubt that all those who attended had a great time. We are now in the beginning stages of planning the next reunion and are aiming for 2005.

DAD & EVELYN

They had a bunch of people over for Easter dinner, as usual. Some for lunch and others later for supper so they actually had 2 shifts. They spent a lot of time outside working on the garden, which was just as lush and productive as usual. They also had a bit of company during the ReUHLion in July when Jo-Anne came to stay for a week. Immediately after that they decided it was time for a new set of wheels so they headed off to Southey where Merv set them up with a brand new van.

JIM & MARYANN BRANCH

Jim & Maryann spent much of their time in the winter and early spring searching out an acreage to buy and they were finally successful with a possession date of August 1st. They attended several car shows at the end of May in St. Albert and Camrose. They took their Studebaker to one show and the Maserati to two shows. They attended the Southey car show, along with Joy & Reg, in June. Jim took the award for "Most Exotic" at that one with his Maserati.

Joy & Reg have been settling into their new place, Joy getting used to being back and Reg getting used to being out of the military. Joy is very pleased to announce that she has been promoted to Master Corporal, as of August 1st.

Sonya attended the World Figure Skating event on the day that the Canadian pairs won a gold medal. She has recently moved to a new apartment with her friend Nick. Their new address is: 511-5932 Patterson Avenue Burnaby, BC V5H 4B4.

Steven has been busy bidding on jobs within London Drugs. All of Jim's family was down to Saskatchewan for ReUHLion2001. They stayed at various places and everyone had a great time. For Sonya it was particularly convenient because her high school reunion was going on at the same time, also in Bulyea, so she was able to nip back and forth from one to the other. Sonya had to head right back to work after the weekend, but Steven & Meredith had a few days more to spend with the folks.

JEANNE & FRED BRANCH

Jeanne was quite busy with tax season, as always. In an effort to keep up with the times she's even using a computer program for all that tax stuff now. They've been busy digging in their garden again, getting ready for another full season of preparing, planting, weeding, harvesting. Jackie even provided some seeds for them. I think she was hinting.

Jeanne & Fred had a great surprise in March when Terry, Judy & Daniel drove up one day. They spent several days there and were able to visit with quite a bunch of family on both the Triffo and the Uhl sides. Jeanne & Fred drop in regularly to watch Niki at her swimming lessons in the city. They both attended all the festivities at ReUHLion 2001. They got a new car late in July, an '84 Olds Cutlass wagon.

Terry & Judy are building a large 16x20 deck onto their place with room for an 8x8 sunken hot tub. Terry is very busy at his work for the phone company because of all the upgrading they are doing. Judy is also taking on more accounting work at the newspaper and is enjoying the challenge. Daniel is still a busy boy, school was great for him this year and now he spends all his spare time on his bike or scooter.

LARRY & SHARON BRANCH

Dylan has been keeping in touch quite regularly with curling updates through the winter, then motocross updates for the summer. His curling team won their third straight district championship. They had hoped to make it to provincials this year but settled for silver medals. Next year for provincials would be more fun anyway since it will be in Strasbourg. Dylan had his first motocross race weekend on May 6 in Weyburn. He's in the beginner class and very excited about it. He was driving a 1986 Honda cr125r. He was in another race in June in Moose Jaw. Later in June he raced in Regina. He's hoping to race in 6 or 7 races this summer. At the end of July he got a new bike, a '98 Kawasaki kx125. He's pretty excited about it and has spent a lot of time "becoming one" with it.

Amber broke her arm in March when she took a fall off her horse but it healed nicely. She graduated from high school this year. Amber has a summer job with River Road Trail Rides in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. She will be a guide there with her friend Kim. From what I hear she is really enjoying it.

Larry and Dylan were both involved in ReUHLion and had a great time visiting everyone. Sharon was busy working, unfortunately. Larry has been able to take some time off this summer for a change.

JACKIE & WAYNE BRANCH

Jackie & Wayne have a brand new grand-daughter: Cairo RoseMarie Nagy was born on April 16 at 9:44 a.m. to Jess & Cory. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz. Mother and daughter are both doing fine.

Wayne is still busy driving truck most of the time and working on the house in between runs. Jackie has been back working pretty near full time at Sears.

Wayne's sister Brenda had a couple of losses in March when her mother-in-law passed away suddenly from cancer. Brenda's father-in-law died just a few days after his wife; he died of congestive heart failure.

Brandy, Cory & Denise all have new jobs. Brandy got a job that she just loves with CVA in April. She's full time until September and then will be permanent casual. She's involved with government vehicles. Some of her work is clerical and some of it is hands on with the cars. Cory was doing some work out by the refinery but is now working full time in a warehouse. His hours work out great for his family time. Denise has started working on weekends with Sarcan and expects to get 5 or 6 days a week in the summer.

JO-ANNE & ROY BRANCH

Roy & Jo-Anne continued to be rather busy with the same old computer related stuff. Roy is working on one major project to do with the shipping industry and always a few smaller projects as well. Jo-Anne spends time working in the office, keeping the administrative end of things under control, mystery shopping, doing some transcribing jobs, getting out for long walks on a regular basis and spending a lot of time keeping in touch with family and friends, and working on the newsletter. There's a little more organization involved now that it's on-line with pictures but that's part of what makes it more fun.

We moved into a new apartment in the high-rise next door late in March. The new address is Apt. #1001 - 7 Horizon Court, Dartmouth, NS B3A 4R2. We felt that since change was in the air, we must get a new vehicle to go with the new address. (our lease on the old one was up anyway) At the risk of being excommunicated from the family we are driving a (gasp!) foreign car. It's a 2001 Elantra. Come to think of it, Allan's always driving "foreign" cars and people still talk to him so maybe we'll be okay too.

I went to a Rita MacNeil concert in May with a friend. I was home for 8 days in July for ReUHLion 2001. The whole thing was great fun and I managed to see all the family that was there and many old friends as well.

Susan, Rob and kids are having a busy summer. Susan's Mom was down from Yellowknife in July. Susan, her Mom and both kids drove to Newfoundland where they stayed in the house that her Mom recently bought for her retirement. In August Rob will be taking time off and hopes to head out to a cabin owned by a friend. He plans to take Alex because it's a "guy thing". The day Susan returned to work from her vacation she was approached by another company and has accepted a position with them as "Asset Manager". It comes with a hefty pay increase and added responsibility. She will start that the first week in September.

ALLAN & CAROL BRANCH

Allan flew up to Ottawa at the end of March and spent a few days with Trev before Trev went to Bosnia for his tour of duty. They had a wonderful time - Allan got the grand tour of the base at Petawawa, met tons of people that Trev knows, toured the Parliament Buildings and the Canadian War Museum. They went to an NHL game, saw Boston at Ottawa. They even went on a good old-fashioned pub crawl.

Carol recently became Assistant Director for a men's barbershop chorus. She is enjoying the interesting challenge and finds it to be a nice change from church choir director. She also continues to be quite busy with Soltice. After Allan & Carol spent their usual week at Waskasieu right after the reunion, Carol continued on her usual vacation routine of spending several hours (or days) with various relatives on both sides of the family. They have also been planning a few changes to the yard and are turning it into a place of beauty and serenity.

Trev headed for Bosnia on April 5 for about 6 months. He took his diving gear along so he could dive in the Adriatic Sea. Prior to going overseas he had a few weeks off and managed to take a short trip down to Daytona for U.S. Spring Break. I'm guessing that whatever may have gone on there would be censored anyway, so I won't even get into it. He took an "Accident Investigator" course before he went overseas and I believe he's the only guy on base with that qualification (besides the MP's) so it should keep him busy. Look for more on Trev elsewhere in this newsletter where I will include some of the e-mail that he has sent to me.

Chris attended the ReUHLion in July and had a good time. He took a shift as bartender on Saturday. If I remember correctly he had company when it was over - Steven, Meredith and Sonya.

Kelsey finished her university courses and was pleased with the results. She started taking some rehabilitation for her back, which has been causing problems since her car accident. She has started a couple more jobs. She continues to work at Luther Tower but recently started at Luther Terrace (the complex that Allan was so involved in setting up). She also was contacted by the mystery shopping company that Jo-Anne works for and has recently become a mystery shopper herself. She finds that to be most interesting. She also attended ReUHLion with her friend Jon.

RELATIVELY SPEAKING

Wendy, Dick & Chris Eddy were all in Strasbourg a couple of times, they attended Frank's high school grad, then came back for the reunion. They flew to Ottawa later in July to attend the wedding of Dick's nephew. They hoped to get a lot of camping in during the summer as well.

Agnes recently moved back to Regina and bought a condo in the north west end.

Zoe Brewster (Evelyn's grand-daughter) reports that she has had a busy summer and so have her sisters. Gen did well in the course she was taking in Moose Jaw. For summer holidays Zoe went to a camp where she learned about riding horses. She also took swimming lessons, is playing soccer, and will be visiting Sharon & Wally in Winnipeg in August. Felicia and Melissa are very busy with their cadet activities and had several trips planned for the summer.

Michele & Steve Millett (Reinhold's daughter) had a "double reunion" of sorts. Same as the last time in 1990, Steve's parents drove out from Ontario to meet them at the Uhl reunion. They then followed them home to Alberta and spent some time with them there.

Mom's cousin, Cliff Ebenal, had open heart surgery this summer (7 bypasses!) and is recuperating well. He became a grandfather again as well and that certainly gave him a big boost. He and Mom have a cousin, George & Martha Ebenal, who live in Regina. Martha was tragically killed in a car accident on the August long weekend in Alberta.

John Schaeffer was ill in hospital for a time while the reunion was on so he didn't get to see everyone that he had hoped. He provided the music at the last reunion. For those who noticed his absence, I spoke with him recently and he is feeling much better.

There were too many other relatives, including this guy, at the reunion for me to mention all of them in this column.

DON & TRUDY BRANCH

Don & Trudy bought a brand spanking new sewer truck early in March.

Not a mile on it. They got it painted up real pretty. Trudy had an uncle pass away in March. Don & Trudy attended a car show in Saskatoon in mid-April and had a good visit with Allan & Carol while there. They also attended the Southey car show in June, heavily involved in all of the organization of it, as usual.

The Johnson family reunion was in Fort Qu'Appelle on the July 1st weekend. And speaking of Trudy, she has an e-mail address of her own now: trudyuhl@hotmail.com

Don bought a new digital camera and has been using it to modernize his business. He is building a visual file on all of his customers so that any driver he has can more easily find the customers and their tanks.

Nicole was busy in the spring with teaching Tae-kwon-do a couple of times a week, playing rugby twice a week, and getting in shape for track again. She took 4th place in the provincial track meet in the 400 meter race. She had the great fun of hosting an exchange student from Quebec in April. You will remember that Nicole was there in the winter. Her student friend who stayed with her is Sandra and they shared many new experiences with her - roasting hot dogs over an outdoor fire, riding in a convertible, seeing the stars and the Northern lights, seeing a stubble field on fire, getting to know a cow up close and personal. She actually tried her hand at milking! In July Nicole was selected to be on the Saskatchewan Girls' Rugby team. That will take her to Toronto, and possibly even Venezuela in the winter. She also attended the YAS basketball camp in Regina in July, learning a few more pointers there.

Justin has been busy doing all the usual "boy stuff" over the summer. He has an impressive portfolio of cartoon drawings to showcase his artistic talents.

Danielle is still working in the city, mostly for Shoppers, but also will be working the Fringe Festival.

DIANE & GERRY BRANCH

Diane & Gerry have been running themselves ragged at the store, as usual. They did some renovations and now are carrying fresh made subs, as well as all the other stuff. They've certainly proven that people like to buy fresh, healthy food because they sell a ton of it. They also put in a lot of time helping plan graduation.

Frank graduated and now has a new apartment in Regina as of August 1st. Frank went to a Bigwig/Gob concert at the end of March. (personally, I'll take Rita MacNeil any day) Frank got a summer job working for YAS (basketball camp) as an Assistant Coach.

Diane spent a few days in Regina in early April at a SEPA convention. (has something to do with being on town council) Niki has been back in swimming lessons again, taking her level 8. She also competed in a music festival in Raymore in April where she did very, very well and was invited back for the encore performance the next day. She got a certificate and a cheque for $25. Niki also got a very nice piano this summer and spends even more time practicing than before. She has been very busy through the summer babysitting kids and pets around town.

Diane & Gerry hosted a "seafood supper" on the Thursday prior to the reunion. Jo-Anne brought the seafood, she and Allan cooked and served it all. The folks, plus all siblings except Jim were there, along with an assortment of nieces and nephews. The 6 person hot tub was very popular! All of their family was at ReUHLion, despite the fact that Gerry was "all booked up" with golfing dates. Diane worked particularly hard at the organizational end of things. They had serious problems with their sewer system immediately after ReUHLion. Hmmm….. would that mean that Uhls are full of sh**? You have to wonder. It's the theory that Gerry's been going with.

GERMAN BRANCH

Axel was in Massachusetts on business in July for a few days. He was there promoting a product that he has helped develop. Petra is living with her parents near Heidelberg while she is on the full-time seminar portion of her tax consultant course. She and Axel get together on the weekends. Axel joined his folks on vacation in Meran, Italy for a few days in the summer. He rode his bike there, across the mountains and passes in Switzerland. He also made a few day trips around northern Italy which is beautiful countryside - harsh mountain views, mediterranean green flora on the hillsides and pristine lakes. He and a friend also did a 2500 km tour of Germany - seeing parts of eastern Germany, southern Bavaria, went into Austria, crossed over to Lake Constance, went up through the Black Forest to join with Petra near Heidelberg from where they went west, close to the French border.

Early in August Axel will be at the famous Nürburgring racetrack (that's where the also famous German Formula One driver, Nicki Lauda, almost died in a horrible fire after an also horrible crash during an F1 race) for two days of motorcycle security and racing training. (God help us all.) Pictures can be seen at: http://shipping.accesscable.net/uhl/mopped/

Immediately after that he flies to Rome where he will give a talk on his PhD topic. He may end up in Toronto in mid-September as a follow-up to the meeting he just returned from in Massachusetts.

WORDS FROM BOSNIA

As many of you probably know, Allan & Carol's son, Trev, is now in Bosnia. He has been regularly writing about his experiences and I will include the text of various e-mails here to give you an idea of what life is like there.

The last 16 days have just flown by, must be the fact that we are so busy here and not much time for sitting around. If I'm not on patrol then I'm escorting a convoy somewhere, or doing a shift at the front gate or even acting as Commander of the Quick Reaction Force. My Sergeant and I try and split things up evenly as much as possible, we even take turns running our troops into the ground. We haven't really gotten into any kind of routine here - because everything always changes and when you think you have time for the gym or a run, you don't and have to take a patrol out or something. But I really can't complain. I have been very busy with patrolling and stuff but for the most part we've been doing Physical Training twice a day for the last week. Usually running 7km in the morning and then working out or running 7km again with a 45lb rucksack. I don't mind it though because the scenery always takes my mind off how my body is feeling, and it's always good to show the young pups how it's done!

Last week I took my guys out to a place called Martin-Brod, a very small town near the Croatian border. There is a huge mountain waterfall there. It was really amazing, especially now with the spring run-off. I even took my dive gear in hopes that I could jump in and swim about but the water was moving way too fast this time of year.

I should get back and check up on the troops, we are the Quick Reaction Force today. Kind of like having 6 troops on standby to react to anything that may need an immediate response (vehicle accident, fire, shooting, helicopter coming in). Oh that reminds me, the other week when I was the QRF commander, there was a PUMA helicopter that came in and I was the one that brought him in to the Helicopter Landing Site! It was pretty cool, not my first time ever. Did a lot of that before in the Airborne, so I remembered all the hand signals.

I just got back from Komiza, Island Of Vis, Croatia! The place was absolutely beautiful! Very small town - very touristy. I highly recommend it. Did 6 dives in all. I did one wreck dive (at a depth of 109 feet!), took lots of underwater photo's of the wreck. I had 4 deep dives in total, 1 night dive, and an introductory dive - just so the local dive-master could check me out. A very relaxing time, but tiring. Never went out at night either, we would finish supper around 9:00pm and then have a bit of wine and discuss our dives. Then go back to the hotel and clean up, then down to the local Cafe/bar for 2 or 3 beer and then that was it! We were too tired to drink any more so had to go to bed! We also visited The Blue Cave - it's hard to explain, but just beautiful.

I have been really busy. Last week I was involved in a competition here involving 12 teams from the British, Cheq Repub, Holland, and another Canadian team. I was captain of my team, in which we had 8 troops in total. The course was 7km. We started out by running in our uniform, helmets and weapon about 3km to the rappel site, then had to climb up the side of a hill and then rappel 125ft down a cliff. From there we ran another 1km to a part where we would have a "casualty" and then we'd have to put him into a mountain stretcher (called a stokes litter) and then slide him across a 200meter span on a rope and then the rest of our team as well. When that was done we had to do another rappel down the side of a bridge, about 35 ft into the water and then run about another 3 km to the finish line. Our team finished with the best time of 1 hour and 20 minutes, the next best team was the British with a time of 1hr 30. So it was pretty cool!

On the 4th I was coming back from a drive with a few people - we were driving a Jeep Cherokee. On the last stretch back into camp we were coming around a corner and hit another car head on. It wasn't bad though, the other driver had such a small car so he took most of the damage. We were doing about 20 kph and he was doing about 60 kph. Now I have to investigate the accident! But I may not be able to because I was a passenger and it would be a conflict of interest.

On the 6th I went down to another camp called TSG for an Airborne Forces reunion in memory of D-Day June 06. There were about 50 people there. We hung out, had a couple steaks and beers and then drove back here for about 12:30 a.m. On the 9th I'm going back down to that same camp for a course called Machine Gun, Turret Conversion Course. Basically learning how to fire our machine guns that are mounted inside our Armored Fighting Vehicles. I'll be down there until the 13th when I come back here for a few hours to pack for my summer holidays.

I left the camp on the 13th of June and then cleared out through our camp to the south, TSG. I landed in Split, Croatia and got a room at a 3* hotel for the night. Basically just hung out, went down to the waterfront and had a very nice meal. The story behind Split: way back in the early years there was a Roman Caesar who was getting old, so he sent his guards out to all the corners of the world to find the most beautiful place in the world that offers everything, a kind of final resting place for the great Caesar. They all came back and agreed that Split was the place, so he built a huge palace and lived his remaining days there. The palace still stands down by the water front, and the cafe where I had dinner that night is right in front, overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Cool huh? The next day I hopped on the plane and flew to Buda-Pest, Hungary. Good times were had there, 4 nights in total. Did a lot of shopping and sightseeing. Then back to Split for three nights.

That's when I hooked up with a friend of mine and we then proceeded to fly to the island of Corfu, Greece. We stayed at a huge youth hostel called The Pink Palace. They also have a web site by the same name. There we spent 5 days and nights of mind numbing partying, and of course hitting the beach during the day. We also took a boat excursion trip where we hopped on a sail boat with 40 other people, mostly girls, and went down the coast. We stopped at this spot where there were two large coral rocks. The one on the left was 70 ft and on the right 40 ft. So we jumped off the boat and swam across to the rocks where I was the first one to climb up the 70 footer! And then without hesitation I leapt into the air and enjoyed the few seconds of air time before splashing into the water. Coming back up, I was welcomed back by all the lovely ladies laying about on one of the lower rocks. (I love my life!) During the rest of the diving there was a young lass from the States that hurt herself during the splash into the water. She wasn't drowning but we helped her back to shore and, well, being a qualified first-aider I had to lend my assistance. I gave her a quick assessment and reassured her to try and stop the tears that were flowing. She was ok - just a little shaken up.

Then after we were all done with the cliff diving we went further down the coast to a beautiful spot for some snorkeling and sun bathing. We were there for about 1.5 hrs and then hopped back on the boat and back down the coast. Each night had a different theme, one night was toga night and another was plate smashing night: where they come around with a bucket of ouzo, give you a shot and then smash a plate on your head! Pretty cool. I met a lot of Canuck's there. In fact we were there for St. John Batiste Day and of course we had to have a big party! There were about 20 of us down at the staff quarters just partying. On the 5th night we ran into a girl that had just came from a island called Ios. She said that it was just as crazy only with a bit more variety and much older crowd. So we went down to the travel agent and booked our tickets. Originally we were going to spend 10 days in Corfu but thought we'd have a change. I think they were quite happy to see us leaving, I don't think they've had too many soldiers there partying. The managers were always wondering what kind of work we were in. And of course they didn't believe that I was the night manager at the local McDonalds. But I stuck to the story until the end. ('Cause I didn't want to get stuck talking about work for an hour or two) It was actually the final night when I told the manager, Murphy, what my job entailed. He was quite surprised but understood why we were blowing off so much steam. He said that right from the start, from his father being in the US army he knew I wasn't an employee of the month, he was just quiet and let us do our thing. We made a lot of friends there and most likely will hook up when they return to Canada in the fall.

Ios - arrived there with about 4 days left in my leave. Absolutely beautiful, took lots of pics. All ages from 18-40, beautiful people from all over the world. We met a Greek-Canadian who owned one of the bars downtown called the Village Pub. And of course he took us in and introduced us to his staff, made up mostly of Irish girls. Then on Canada Day he even allowed us to fly our flag off the sign out front. In fact the flag attracted more Canadians and I even met a very nice looking girl from Canada. When she sat down
we talked, as it turned out she was from Saskatoon, and graduated from Walter Murray in 1996! So we had a few drinks that night and partied at the all night disco until 9 am! We exchanged phone #'s and promised to hook up at Christmas time in S'toon for the holidays. Then the next night after a few hours sleep we were off again to Athens.

We spent the night there right downtown. After checking in my friend Steve rested while I did some walking around. I wanted to go out on the town but Steve was pretty tired. The next day we were checking out and asked the guy at the desk to call us a cab to the airport. It was 10:30, our flight wasn't leaving until 13:30, so we figured we had lots of time. When he asked us about our details he just laughed and said that we will never make it. Well the cab came and we said that it was very important that we get there FAST! I asked about the price - 5000 Drachmas ( about $20 Can). I gave him 10000 Drachmas and told him he could have it if he drove it like he stole it! He drove like a bat out of hell, down the middle of the road, using his horn when he had to, running several yellow, and one red light. Doubling the speed limit in some places, cutting off other drivers and cyclists. My friend is a cop and he said that this guy could have taught him a thing or two about driving. Well we made it there with a bit to spare, grabbed the receipt and took off for Rome. We were in Rome for about 4 hours but stayed in the terminal 'cause we didn't want to chance it. While we were sitting down, there walking in front of us was this tall, beautiful blonde. She walked over and sat right next to me. I soon discovered her accent - half Italian, half Croatian. So I tried the little Croat that I knew and it kept the conversation going and put a little smile on her face from hearing me talk in her language. As it turns out she had just finished a picture shoot in Rome and was returning to Zagreb, Croatia. She had been one of Croatia's supermodels for the last 10 years and traveled the whole world. Next year she plans to retire at the age of 31!

I've been quite busy here - lots of patrolling and duties here in camp. Last week I went on a dive trip to a place called Vodice, Croatia. We did two dives. The first one I went down to 125 ft and played with some lobster (130ft is the limit for sport diving) and on the second dive went down to 32 ft and caught an octopus and played with it for a while. It was a pretty good day. Right now there aren't too many of us in camp, what with a Dutch exchange and a few other things going on.. At the moment I'm the only NCO in the Platoon so that makes me the acting Platoon Commander in command of all patrolling in our AOR. It's only for the next few days but I can hack it. I have another dive day planed for the 15th and then I'm going on leave for the 22-25th of July. Going to a place on the coast called Opatia. I was there back in 1998 for about a week, so I know the area quite well. May get some diving in. Meeting some friends from another camp. In fact, one of the girls wants to go to Venice for the day, went there last time so it will be good.