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.

     

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