I mailed GB jr to my sister in Fiji today. I seem to have lost my camera for the moment, but I took some pictures with my phone. I’m sure the fellows at Kinkos thought I was completely bonkers. I asked them: What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever been asked to send? They said they were once asked to send meat–raw meat–from the butcher. That was the weirdest. One fellow motioned with his arms outstretched, like he was placing a side of beef on the counter or something. They had to tell the fellow that there would probably be issues with sending raw meat in the FedEx. In that context, the guy shrugged: GB jr??–Not so odd.

He doesn’t even suspect…	…nestled inside…
“…all comfy cozy are we…”	He’s off and away!!

So. Today, GB jr starts his big adventure. Off to the Fiji Islands for a bit. He’ll travel with my sister on her escapades. When she is finished in Fiji, her friend Catherine will take him on her backpacking travels. I think she’ll be visiting exotic places like Easter Island and sorts. How exciting. My plan–although, Catherine doesn’t know it yet–is that she finds another traveller before she goes back to Canada. She’ll hand him off to some other traveller who’ll take pictures and send them back for me to post. And that person will hand him off to the next, and so on.

Isn’t that a rather random idea? GB jr will travel the world. He will be Yukon Jen’s official correspondent. We’ll get stories from around the globe. Original stories. Real stories. That’s the most important part–that the stories are real. You have to say who you are and where you are and you have to tell us stories about what you see. Whoever you are out there–see the original entry for guidelines about the bear. I’m sure I’ll be updating them.

Redd, his tracking number is 8494 9252 4451 at fedex.com. He’s due to arrive Tuesday, 29 August 2006. Keep us posted.

She has arrived. She is sipping tall, fruity drinks with small umbrellas!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bula Folks,

Just wanted to let you all know we arrived safe and sound. We are now
sitting on the deck looking at the ocean, sipping tall fruity drinks with
umbrellas in them. Believe it or not I am working. I’ve spent the past 2
hours sending out e-mails – all work related.

We are waiting to meet our Fijian contact to go view the office space, the
set, the other hotel and not sure what else.

I’ll be in touch.

Redd
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me know your address Redd. I have to send you GB jr.

My sister Redd is going to be on location for a film in Fiji for the next five months. She’s offered to take GB jr for an adventure. Whoopee!!! I’m excited. I hope GB jr is excited. He doesn’t know yet though, because he’s somewhere in John’s storage.

John. You’re a party pooper.

Redd. The same rules apply though:

• Take interesting pictures of the bear.
• Take pictures with no humans in them–just props and the bear.
• Every so often, please send updates of the bear.
• Do not loose the bear. Please return the bear safe and sound.
• No pornographic pictures with the bear, SVP. This project is purely G-rated.
• And finally, do not–I repeat–do not, let Chris Danton take pornographic pictures of the bear.

First, I’ll have to get GB jr back from John. I’ll send him to you when you get an established address in Fiji.

I was right. John decided taking pictures of the wee bear thing wasn’t going to work for him.

As things stand, GB jr is being stored in a safe place until I can retrieve him. I guess I’ll just make up a story and take the pictures myself over the summer. That will be an interesting project.

Stay tuned to the Valis blog though. It could be interesting.

I went out last with a few colleagues from work last Friday evening. There ended up being a group of us from various companies. One person I met was just about to fly to Hawaii and return on a sail boat. Interesting adventure, I thought. I asked if it were a planned trip or adventure trip. He said his friend had a boat that was returning from Hawaii (the sailing vessel Valis to be correct). He was going along for the ride. I thought it would be funny and interesting to enlist GB jr (my wee teddy bear–yes, I have teddy bears and I’m not embarrassed to admit it. Because there is also a story behind the bears!!) go along for an adventure.

I think John (the real crewman) is slightly more than embarrassed to be carrying along a wee brown bear–especially since he doesn’t even know me. However, he was sheepishly game (but that was probably the beer). I think his pals will surely take the piss for awhile–but whatever–anything for blogging material. This ought to be interesting.

I’ve thought of a few simple rules for this project too.

• Take interesting pictures of the bear.
• Take pictures with no humans in them–just props and the bear.
• Every so often, please send updates of the bear.
• Don’t loose the bear.
• No pornographic pictures with the bear, SVP. This project is purely G rated.

I had a lot of fun with my Little People Project last year when I went home the Yukon for my parents wedding anniversary. I took pictures of the Little People everywhere. I even took them over the Chilkoot Trail.

That’s it. That’s all I can think of right now. I hope John has fun, takes the ribbing from his mates, and takes some good pictures. We’ll have to see.