On Thursday the weather had really cooled down and was a nice 22c, we didn't do a great deal as I had hurt my ankle playing football the night before and I couldn't walk too far. We ended up just going to get a bucket and brush to help us clean our balcony floor and then for a quick coffee in Starbucks, nothing terribly exciting! On Friday I spent most of the day job searching and Lou went back to the beauty salon that she had been too a few weeks previous and she had her nails done again. In the late afternoon I watched Real Madrid Vs Toronto on the TV in a pre-season friendly, it was good to see Toronto get thrashed 5-1! Even though it was only a friendly you could see the gap in talent between the two teams. The Vancouver Whitecaps join the MLS in 2011 so I'm hoping that when they become higher profile then they might be able to attract big teams here for friendly games too, it would awesome to see Real Madrid in BC. 

In the evening we had arranged to meet a couple for drinks in an Irish bar downtown. We made our way on the SkyTrain which was incredibly packed for the time of night then we realized that the BC Lions were playing again that evening, it got a bit sweaty on there! We made mental note not to go home on the SkyTrain around 10:30pm - 11pm as we remembered how busy it was a few weeks back when we went to a game ourselves. We met our new friends in an Irish bar named Doolins just off Granville St and Nelson and I decided to sample more of the local beer that I hadn't tried yet, this time going for "Keith's". We had a great time that night and really enjoyed the company, we haven't laughed that much since we got here and the time flew by. By the time we left I think it was getting on for 1am (though I have no idea to be honest) and we all rode the SkyTrain home together, Me and Lou leaving a few stops before our new buddies. We more or less went to sleep as soon as we got home!

At 6:50am I was woke up by my alarm clock and I was feeling rather worse for wear. However nothing was going to stop me from listening to Leicester City's first game of the season against Swansea! 3pm Kick-Offs in the UK start at 7am here because of the time difference, I hadn't anticipated it being much of a problem but then I also hadn't anticipated drinking beer the night before either. I dragged myself out of bed and into the study and plonked myself on the chair and booted up my Macbook. Looking at the screen was severely hurting my eyes, I then realized I probably drank more the night before than I originally thought. I logged into the official Leicester website, set up the radio stream and sat back cradling my glass of water and feeling slightly less excited then I thought I would have been. A combination of a hangover and tiredness meant the first 15 minutes flew by without me really paying attention, then in the 17th minute I was woken up out of my semi-daydream with news I didn't want to hear, Swansea had gone 1-0 up. I managed to last until half-time but the lack of excitement in the game really wasn't helping, I knew I had to do something. Off I went into the bathroom and splashed my face with cold water and then I made a really strong coffee, hoping this would help me get through the 2nd half!  When the match restarted I was feeling slightly better, the team also started to improve and the commentary picked up in excitement which kept my absorbed in the match. In the 69th minute Leicester equalized and I was silently dancing around trying not to wake Lou and then 3 minutes later we scored again to put us into the lead, I couldn't help but shout "Yeeeeesssss", Lou was able to guess from the comfort of our bed that we were now winning. I then sweated out the last 18 minutes (literally, though mine were beer sweats!) and felt ecstatic when the referee blew the final whistle. It might sound strange to a non-football fan but listening to the Blue Army in the background singing and celebrating really made me feel emotional, I really missed being there in person. It was the first time I hadn't been to the opening game of the season in a long time and it felt very strange listening to it in the morning 4,400 miles away. I also really missed my Saturday routine of going to see Grandad before the match, catching the bus into town, walking to the Stadium, watching the game then going back to Grandad's for a nice chat, cup of tea and a couple of custard creams.

I was still feeling rather tired after the game so I jumped back in bed at 9am and went back to sleep until 1pm! When I finally woke up again we just had a lazy afternoon and chilled out and rehydrated ourselves. In the evening we headed to The Real Canadian Superstore  for our groceries and like proper shoppers we now have our reusable cloth bags (are you proud Mum? ha ha). We still haven't decided which place we like best out of Superstore, Save-on-foods and Safeway so we keep trying them all out. Whilst we were packing our bags a rastafarian guy (who was super friendly) started randomly talking to us. He told us that he predicted when Lou gets pregnant (and no she isn't before you ask!) she will have a baby boy, we're not to rush things and that we will also find out that we are in Vancouver for reason and that it's a really good thing. We both found it a bit bizarre but he was smiling and really friendly so we didn't feel totally weirded out, it was just a bit strange. I guess if it all comes true one day then we will know he was right with his predictions anyway!