Almost a week has passed since the start of my cold and I'm finally feeling close to full health, all that remains is a slight cough and a partially bunged up nose (there's a lovely thought for you). Unfortunately it seems like Lou is coming down with the same cold just as I'm getting better *guilt*. We're still hoping she'll fight it off before it comes out properly and that soon we'll both be 100% back to normal and out exploring again. Fortunately there have been plenty of Canucks games on cable to entertain us whilst we've been spending a lot of time in the apartment. They've now won three in a row and are starting to pick up some good form after an indifferent start to the season. I'm really starting to get into it and so is Lou slowly but I think she's shocked by how many games are played in a week. Some of the hockey fights are epic too, it's so funny to watch a sport where it's more applauded than frowned upon. I used to find it hard to follow them in the UK with some games not starting until 1am or 3am so it's better now that we're in the same time zone.

The last few days have been relatively quiet for us except for Friday when I went out to meet up with my friend Sam (who opted to risk possible infection)! I just wanted to fully recover in time for this week and recently Lou has been more tired than usual after finishing work so she's needed some extra rest. This is partly due to her only getting one day off last week because of her exams (which seem to have gone well). I guess we are also getting into 'winter mode' too, but we don't intend on staying indoors as much as we did in the UK during the wintertime. There is already snow forming at the very tops of the mountains that we can see from our apartment, it's been making us think about learning to ski or snowboard sometime in the future.

Lou has again found another drink she likes this time it is hot apple cider (non-alcholic). It seems like a good alternative to coffee which we already drink plenty of now after the purchase of the coffee machine! Yes...It's "a slow news week". What else? Erm, well we were saying to each other recently that we haven't seen any bears, mouse, racoons, wolves or cougars since we've been here (because we've not really been too far out of the urban areas). Then on Saturday Lou saw a coyote for the first time in the car park of her workplace right next to our car. As far as she could see there were no flying anvils or road runners around though!

The rainy days are also in full-effect now and they're due to stay like this for the next few months judging by what everyone has told us. I don't think we've had a dry day for a week now. I have to say I'm not really hating the rain that much to be honest (...just yet). We knew before we came here that it rained a lot from October to April and I think it's not really bothered us because we'd already expected it. We do need to get some good gortex jackets and some decent umbrellas for sure, I'm already on my second one as the first one literally fell apart! It's all part of living here so we'll have to learn to love it, and I'd prefer there to be more rain then snow at least (we'll see if I'm still saying the same in a few months hey?). One thing we've read in books is that although this place allegedly gets plenty of rain the locals never complain about it - that's so not true as we've met lots of people who do! Vancouver is one of the mildest parts of Canada but we're still likely to see a cooler winter here then we ever did in the UK. However It'll be nothing like the winter they'll experience in the eastern cities like Toronto or Montreal (although last year they had an exceptionally colder one than usual here).

This morning I got up as Lou left for work at 6:15am and headed into downtown Vancouver just after 7am. I'm trying to get back into the habit of getting up early after a few days of recovery lye-ins. I'd intended to take some photos and a video but the rain and wind made it an impossible task so there's no photos this time I'm afraid. This afternoon the Reading Vs Leicester match was on the tv and it was great to see them play live again, the fact they won has really made my day too! Lou has the next two days off work so if she doesn't feel too bad we may make the most of it but we're going to wait and see how she feels on Tuesday morning first.