Notes from BC

After spending the majority of Christmas and Boxing Day indoors we decided to go out yesterday to get some fresh air and also experiment with our new camera. We prepared a picnic and took a drive north of where we live to Burnaby Mountain Park which is close to the Simon Fraser University campus. It only took us about 20 minutes to get there and it was relatively quiet on the roads too. We opted to eat our lunch in the car instead once we arrived though as it was a bit too cold to sit outside for Lou!

The mountain itself is lower than many of the surrounding ones but it still gave us a great view of the Burrard Inlet. Had it not been foggy over the city then we would have been able to see downtown Vancouver clearly too but on this occasion we could only just see certain buildings and structures. The place was really nice and definitely a place we'll be going back to as there are plenty of hikes to go on around the area. We just need to some proper walking shoes now.

                             

We started Saturday by having brunch at the iHop located in Brentwood Mall. I probably had too much coffee after having 3 cups there on top of the 2 I'd had before I left the apartment, at least I knew I wouldn't be falling asleep in the afternoon! After having brunch we had a quick look around the mall during which we stumbled upon a lot of people dressed up as Santa which was quite surreal. There were literally hundreds of people walking / dancing around wishing merry christmas to everyone whilst in costume. I presume it was a 'flash mob'  organized over the internet but I never did find out for sure, the kids in the mall loved it regardless! 

             

Weird moments have occurred around me over the past three days, but maybe it's because I'm paying more attention to the little things in my self-titled "last few days of freedom" (violin please). Firstly I went to Metrotown mall with Lou yesterday and *shock, horror* somebody held the door open for us as we walked in behind them, no honestly they really did! Usually you're lucky if it doesn't swing back and hit you in the face so that was definitely most welcome. Maybe manners are not completely extinct from that place after all. Also, as an added bonus, no flies or bugs were inhaled during the time it took us both to pick up our jaws off the floor.

Today I bumped into my neighbour in the apartment lobby for the first time in a while, we've spoke before and he seemed like a cool guy. I politely said hello and asked him how he was, he paused, looked at me as if I'd just told him I'd committed armed robbery, uttered a barely audible grunt / "alright" and walked off pretty quickly! "Yeah, you have a good day too mate!" was my response as he turned his back to walk out of the door. I would have put it down to the fact he might not have understood my accent, which happens from time to time, but he's British! Very weird indeed, we couldn't possibly have given him any reason for him to have a problem with us so I guess he must have just been having a crappy day or maybe he didn't recognize me as I was wearing a hat. I don't really know why (and certainly don't really care) but nonetheless it was a bizarre moment.

I went back to Metrotown this afternoon and again someone held the door open for me, unbelievable! I'm not sure if it's a rapidly spreading habit, but I sure hope it is - that place certainly needs some politeness (it seems very "un-canadian" there when it comes to etiquette). Having said that I still had to avoid numerous people suffering from 'merchandise-enduced zombieism' who would have otherwise walked straight into me. I can't have it all straight away I guess. 

When I nipped out to the shops to get a few things, I left it late and I got mixed up with the rush hour crowd aka "sardine party". After nearly suffocating amongst the stench of fart and body odour on the short SkyTrain journey it's not surprising that I wasn't looking forward to the return trip (oh well, best get used to it as soon it will be a daily experience to enjoy). Even though I'm tall and hence don't suffer as much as others in a packed out carriage I do still find it a bit unpleasant. Especially so when the train heating is on too because it transforms the carriage into one big germ incubator. Fortunately when I made my way back to the station some guys (God bless them) where handing out hugo boss sampler packs and the public were taking them with great enthusiasm. Judging by the smell most people were immediately applying them too. Was it co-incidental place to be handing them out? I think not, that was a great idea! Fantastically, my journey back was very different from the way there. It was almost like I was backstage at a male model fashion show (not that I've ever wanted too / will experience that may I add). The strong cologne was really starting to sting the insides of my nose but I'll take that over the smell of poo and onion armpits any day! I'm not sure why some people refuse to wash properly, sure they'll probably save a few dollars over the month but they're also punishing hundreds of other people taking public transit. However, I must add that despite things like this I do genuinely still really like the SkyTrain...I just wish it was exclusive to me!

I've ate too much candy tonight as you may be able to tell. We bought $20 worth of stuff from the store in anticipation of trick or treaters last week (not really knowing if we'd get in from within the apartment complex) but as predicted none came around. So, we've been munching our way through the huge bags ever since but I swear there are way too many additives in this stuff. Football was cancelled too this week so I think I haven't burn't off anywhere near as much excess energy that I should have. I should really go the gym but that leads me to another story. We've both been put off a little bit recently by the gymnasium troll who seems to live in there. He's always there when we go down and he just drinks fizzy ginger ale (why?) whilst profusely sweating (and I mean beyond what is normal). The guy's always burping loudly and they are those smelly type of burps too! Y'know, the type we'd know are ginger ale burps even if we hadn't see the bottle he was drinking from - it's all very strange!

Anyway, there's not much else to tell about this week. In short, I've been buying a few clothes for work, Lou is on evening shifts this week, and I've just finished watching the Canucks lose to Dallas. I'll leave it there for now, maybe things will be back to 'normal' soon...whatever that is!

Have a good weekend :-)

Yesterday Lou managed to take her BC driving licence test and I'm pleased to say she passed it without any problems! It's great news for us, she can now drive to and from work and it means she won't have to get up so early in the mornings now. Getting to work on the SkyTrain wasn't too bad but it was just so much more time consuming, now she only has to leave home half an hour before she's about to start as opposed to and hour and 15 minutes. Also she will be working the evening shift soon which finishes at 11pm so it's nice that she doesn't have to use public transport at that time.

We feel like we have more 'freedom' again now as we'd only briefly had a chance to sample it before our UK licences expired. I have only driven 4 or 5 times so far as Lou has the car with her at work most of the time during the day but now I can carry on getting some practice too because Lou can be classed as my 'supervisor'! Once I feel like I've got enough experience I'll then take the test myself but the good thing is I can still drive everywhere and we can share long distances trips (even on the highway) as long as we are both in the car.

It was an early start to get to the test centre yesterday morning. We had looked at booking a normal test but the earliest appointment we could get was at the end of November so we decided to go on standby which meant sitting and waiting for a cancellation at the Burnaby ICBC office. We had planned to do this all week but we never mentioned it to anybody else as we wanted there to be as little pressure as possible. We were determined to get the first spot on the list so we got up at 4:45am (fortunately we'd been used to doing it all week) and we arrived down there at 5:50am with the doors opening at 7:30am. Luckily we got the first spot but it wasn't long before many others arrived so we timed it well. We could tell that the other people had anticipated to be the first themselves as it was still very early and they had a slight look of disappointment on their faces to see us two already there. We gave ourselves a pat on the back too for being the most organized out of everyone! We took our beach chairs, blankets, and coffee thermos's and set-up right outside the front door, we must have looked like right happy campers! It may have looked slightly over the top but we didn't mind as we had a seat, we were warm and we had drinks unlike anyone else, others even noted that we were well prepared!

As soon as the doors opened we got registered on the list and then we waited, waited and then waited some more. Finally at 11:45am Lou's name was shouted out and off she went to take the test. It was an awful wait for me back at the office, I couldn't stay still with nerves. I'd tried to reassure and calm Lou all morning to make it seem really easy going but once she was out there I could feel butterflies in my own stomach. Lou had left behind her leopard print handbag for me to look after whilst she was out but because I couldn't sit down I had to hold it in my hand. I must have looked so ridiculous, picture it : me pacing up and down the office back and forth, holding this bloody leopard print handbag, sweating away with a panicked look on my face!

After about 45 minutes I caught a glimpse of our car out of the window, they were back in the car park and the examiner was making Lou reverse into a parking stall. I knew from reading about other people's experiences that this was the final part of the test. It was looking good and to me this meant she must have done ok on the test overall otherwise they'd have just made her drive into the spot. I watched her from a distance (being sure not to catch her eye) perform the best reverse park I have ever seen her do in my life, it was practically perfect. I felt so relieved but then she turned off the engine and the doors opened but they continued to talk. They sat in the car talking for a few minutes and I did start to worry but I couldn't wait any longer (I've never felt to impatient) so I made my way outside, handbag and everything! As I got to the car she was just getting out, she turned to look at me with the most rosy red cheeks she's ever had and before she spoke I seen her relieved smile, I knew right then that she had passed! We were both ecstatic, to others we probably looked like we'd won the lotto! Lou said the test had been ok and that the examiner was really easy going, they were more thorough then what we'd been led to believe they were but everything had gone well.

We were so happy we decided to go out and celebrate! At 5pm (which felt really late to our bodies as it had been such a long day) we made our way into downtown Vancouver on the SkyTrain. We had a meal at Whitespot (which is a low price but decent chain restaurant) and Lou had a few glasses of wine and I had a few beers. It was a really nice end to the day but we started to feel really tired so we made our way home at 7:30pm and we were asleep before 10pm again!

Another week has passed by in September and the last one has mimicked the previous two (at least during the day) hence the lack of daily blog posts. Lou has been on training for work all week whilst I've spent the most of it searching for jobs again. After a weekend of good weather we had rain again during the first part of the week and it's been coming and going ever since then. On Tuesday evening we went for a walk up to Burnaby Central Park to get some fresh air as we'd both been indoors all day. We decided to cash in some of our recycling on the way thinking that we'd probably have enough to maybe at least grab a coffee at Starbucks or something afterwards. Bottles and cans have been building up and progressively taking up more and more space under the sink so it was time to get rid of them all. As it turns out we only got $1.60 back, it was so not worth the effort of carrying them all up there so we'll probably just stick them in the apartment block recycling bins now! We are getting used to recycling a lot more now and in the short time since we've been here we've been converted to that way of thinking (my Mum will be proud!). I'd feel guilty about putting everything in one bin and forgetting about it now but there is the odd occasion when I do genuinely forget and then Lou usually picks up on it and reminds me.

     

Ever since we've moved to Canada one thing we've missed is watching live football and with the English Leagues recently starting too it has really made us think about it. So last night we went with some friends to watch the Vancouver Whitecaps play at Swangard Stadium which is only about a 15 minute walk away from our home next to Central Park. The Vancouver Whitecaps currently play in the USL but they will become part of the MLS expansion in 2011. When they join the MLS they will also move to new home which is going to be the BC Place Stadium (where we went to watch the BC Lions play). Last night the Whitecaps were playing the Carolina Railhawks, I'd never even heard of the team let alone any of their players but I was familiar with a few players on the Whitecaps team. 

               

This morning Lou got the phone call she'd been waiting ages for. It was confirmation that her nursing registration with the governing board out here (CRPNBC) is now complete, this meaning that she is now eligible to start her job. Lou will still need to sit a test but she has 2 years to complete this and it doesn't effect her being able to start working. Lou aims at getting the test done as soon as possible though to get it out of the way. The relief for both of us is hard to put in words, but lets just say we're delighted. The whole thing has been a bit of nightmare, she actually found the job after 3 weeks of searching and enquiring, got the work permit sorted after 12 weeks but the actual registration with the CRPNBC has been going on since last year! All the patience and perseverance has finally paid off, I'm sure without all the effort she's put into this we would still be sitting here probably years later twiddling our thumbs waiting for it to be sorted out. I'm not going to moan too much about it though, it's sorted now and we're very happy!

 This afternoon we were about to head downtown on the SkyTrain but when we got to the station at Joyce all the trains were stationary, doors open and the platforms were starting to get busy. Messages were being blurted out over the intercom system about long delays due to a police incident in Metrotown (two stops away). After waiting around for a few minutes wondering what was going we decided our journey was not worth the hassle / potential problems so we left the station and headed to the shops on Kingsway (one of the main roads) to get the things we needed (including $10 Ribena cordial!). When we got home we watched the news to find out more details, and we could see from our apartment larger crowds than normal were gathering outside of the station and at bus stops. Apparently some people who were also trying to get on the train at the same time as us didn't get to their destination until a couple of hours later so I'm glad we abandoned our plans. Now if only we had a car...

On Saturday we discovered Burnaby Central Park which is only about a 10 minute walk away from where we live. It is also next to The Swangard Stadium  which is the home of the Vancouver Whitecaps (at least until 2011). We had a nice walk around and spent nearly the whole afternoon there. Here are some photos we took whilst there. 

                     

I'm wide awake at 6am this morning. Maybe it's because of the excitement of our first home viewing at 10am, or perhaps it's because I've still not adjusted to pacific time just yet I'm not too sure.
 
Yesterday morning we went to the ICBC office (DVLA equivant) to get a copy of roadsense which is like the highway code but a bit more in depth than what you get back home. We also used this to double check that our research was right in terms of our eligibility to drive out here. At the moment we can drive for 3 months on our UK licence but we'll need to take a BC driving test before the 3 month grace period expires. Lou is already feeling confident about driving here, I have to admit I find it a little bit intimidating myself but I'm hoping that feeling will go once I've had a few hours experience. We've not began to look at buying a car yet, except for the occasional glance on craigslist, and will wait until we've got a home sorted first.
 
Late yesterday morning we went back into downtown and went to the Service Canada office with all our documents to get our SIN number (national insurance / social security equivalent). There computers were down (no, I didn't offer to fix them!) so we had to go back after an hour but once we did we were seen to straight away and walked out with the numbers after about 10 minutes. Now that Lou had her SIN we went back to future shop and she got accepted successfully for a phone contract too (though we have to wait for the iPhone stock to arrive). It will be great once we both have phones, we might actually be prepared to walk somewhere without each other! We were going to go for a PAYG sim initally but the deals are that crap we'd have spent a fortune going down that route.
 
 In the afternoon we walked around a few neighborhoods that we had spotted whist riding the skytrain and that we liked the look of, taking numbers of places and ringing potential landlords as we found them. We have a viewing set up for a townhouse at 10am and we are going to try and book a few more for the afternoon too (in the Collingwood / Patterson) area.
 
In the evening we went out for our first proper meal (we'd been either too full or too tired in the 2 previous days). We went to the Cactus Club Cafe about two blocks away from the hotel. I wasn't expecting anything special as the name of the place made me imagine something else but as we got closer to it we realized it actually looked really nice. I had a great rack of ribs with vegetables (oh vegetables, I've never missed you so much!) and Lou had one of her favorites chicken fajitas. I also got to have my first beer since moving here, I went for the Granville Island Honey Lager (which I'd remembered well from our research trip in 2005) and it went down a treat - maybe a bit too easy!