The Roost of Turkadactyl

Hello, my name is Alexander, or Turkadactyl if you prefer and this is my Roost. The origins of Turkadactyl comes from Tyson and I discussing a very important matter- who will be the ultimate animal kingdom fighter if we combined two animals together. Our research concluded with two finalists: the vicious combination of the penguin and gorilla for the ultimate Pengwilla and the merger of the turkey and pteradactyl for the legendary Turkadactyl. Now begins the tale of Turkadactyl.

Michelle is my beautiful wife. We will be married for five years this August. Michelle has, for some time now, desired to be immersed and participant in another culture. Last summer in 2007 Michelle found out about the Iona Community and more specifically the Camas Centre (for more information click on the Iona Community in the links section). Now fast forward one year and here we are ready to depart to Scotland on a 14 week volunteer experience. This will be an unique moment for us since we will be introduced to a lifestyle, which does not contain many of the luxuries we take for granted today; luxuries such as a seemingly endless source to electricity, an easy trip to the supermarket for a food craving and 24/7 media access. We are looking forward to living a simpler lifestyle and it will be interesting to see how the Camas experience transfers into our lives afterwards.

Michelle and I will also have to opportunity to visit family and vacation while we are in Europe. For those who are interested here are some places we will be seeing and who knows what other places we will be visiting:

• Scotland– Ben Nevis, Cairngorms, Isle of Skye, Edinburgh, Oban, Isle of Iona, The Camas Centre located on the Isle of Mull
• England– Alexander’s family
• France– Normandy and the D-Day beaches
• Italy– Tuscanny, maybe Rome
• Greece– we’re not too sure where or what we will be visiting yet
• Austria– Vienna, Mauthausen (Nazi WWII concentration camp), Michelle’s family
• Toronto– Michelle’s family

Without having to resort to facebook I have decided to keep a blog for our friends and family to participate with us in our trip. This site will probably look different as the trip progress’s as Emmylou Caldwell will help me out with the construction of the site. I hope to post pictures and start some special features where I am free to display my extremely dry and oddball sense of humour. One example of my humour will be ‘The Moustache Letters’. This is where a moustache that I will grow will be pen pals with Mark Rounding.

If you wish to contact Michelle or myself here is how you will be able to get personal touch with us. We will be at the Camas Centre from July 19-October 23.

1. E-mail– alexandmichelle@hotmail.com
2. Mail–
   Camas Centre
   Ardfenaig
   Bunessan
   Isle of Mull
   PA67 6DX   Great Britain
3. Telephone– from Canada to the Camas Centre- 011-44-681-700367 (The 011 is code for dialing international from Canada. The 44 is international code for dialing to the United Kingdom. ) Keep in mind that from Mountain Standard Time we will be 7 hours ahead meaning your noon will be 7 PM for us.

We look forward to reuniting with our loved ones back home. Thank you to our wonderful neighbours upstairs who will be looking after our place and enjoying the coolness of our basment suite during the hot summer. Michelle and I begin a new chapter today.