A while ago I wrote about going to try sushi for the first time at Shabusen Restaurant in Kitsilano. I hadn't eaten any since then despite contemplating it a few times but tonight we decided to change that and try some takeaway sushi. We went to Shiosai Sushi on Joyce Street in Collingwood.

Shiosai is just around the corner from where we live (literally 2 minutes walk away if that) and when we first moved in we joked that we'd probably never eat there as we weren't keen on sushi. However since we went out with our friends and tried it properly we've walked by this place a few times saying to ourselves we should try it sometime. So this evening as we walked by it yet again we decided to finally try some takeout from there and we were really impressed with it.

We played it safe and went for a Vegetable combo, it only cost $6.30 too. I've been warned that bad sushi places are really terrible and not being a connoisseur myself I didn't want to risk having anything that would be gross but we'll be definitely willing to try more now that we know it's good. It's a very small place inside and ran by two elderly Japanese people, it's immaculately clean and everything is very fresh. With it being in close proximity to our home I'm sure we'll be visiting again soon.

   

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For the past couple of weeks we've noticed the water hasn't been getting as hot as normal in our apartment in the early morning when we get up for work. However it's always been fine around 8am when we've tried it at weekends. Assuming it was probably just a case of the water heating in our building not coming on early enough Lou emailed our residential office to see what they could do. They acknowledged the email by saying "thank you for the maintenance request" and that (we thought) was it.

This morning after I left for work Lou returned home from her night shift and jumped into bed for some well deserved sleep. However she was woken at midday (after only 4 hours sleep) by a noise outside. After waking up she went to use the bathroom only to find a big bunch tools strewn all over the floor, the hallway light on and the sound of water rushing out of the bath tap. With no notice or permission at all a maintenance man had been given a key to our place, let himself into our apartment and had began work on the shower whilst Lou was asleep in the bedroom! We didn't even know they would need to come in to our home to fix the issue we complained about and we certainly were not given a 24 hour warning that they are required to do by law (which they are usually good at doing).

Luckily the maintenance man was on his lunch break when Lou woke, but it was still a big shock to her and needless to say she wasn't best pleased and it scared her a little bit because initially she thought we might have been burgled. Lou got on the phone straight away and complained to the office who immediately came over to see what was happening, and although they apologized for screwing up it still didn't really stop us from being annoyed about it. Apparently somebody new had started in their office and had not managed to handle our request and the subsequent maintenance action properly meaning that we never got notified with a slip under the door like usual. Apparently we're expected to accept this as a reasonable excuse, or so it seems! We were then doubly annoyed when we then realized it was not a one day job and we would be out of hot water and a shower until they have got this fixed!

For the rest of the afternoon work carried on in the bathroom, and they made plenty of noise whilst they smashed away tiles and fiddled with the piping (and yes of course, they didn't have the part they needed to fit). This stopped Lou from being able to use the bathroom or getting any further sleep - not the best thing when you're not expecting it and you have another night shift to do! Eventually by 3pm they left and they were going to leave us with no water at all until Lou complained and they agreed that leaving the cold water on would actually be ok. When Lou queried them about how we were supposed to wash ourselves their answer was to give us access to another apartment which was empty - except it was in the apartment building next door to the one we live in! They even left our bathroom in a mess and didn't tidy up, triple and quadruple annoyances!

By the time I got back from work Lou was pretty worked up and frustrated - understandably so after only having 4 hours sleep, not being able to have a wash or even use the bathroom at all. I convinced her to phone work and let them know she wouldn't be able to make it for the night shift tonight because she was in no state to go in. This also means we will now lose out on some money too (annoyance number 5 if you're still counting!).

With little choice but to accept their offer of the spare apartment Lou took the key to this other place and finally at 5pm we went to go for a shower in the apartment in the building next door. I went along with her so that I would know where to go tomorrow morning. We put the key in the door to this 'empty' apartment to only then open the door and be in the middle of somebody's home amongst all their personal belongings (kids toys were all over the floor etc). After mere seconds we dashed back out and didn't stay in their long enough to know if someone was in (but we think there was no one home at the time)! How bad is that? I would not be happy if some random neighbour was given the key to my place and decided to let themselves in, even if they were unaware of it's occupancy! It's just a good job for them I guess that we're trustworthy people! We ran over to the residential office to tell them what had happened and the lady there explained it was an apartment with the same number but in our own building that they should have given us the key to - what a joke (yep that's the 6th annoyance)!

I like the fact most people in BC are chilled out and laid back but when it comes to things like this it's not always a good thing. Disorganization is rife in so many ways out here and often I have to admit I find it amusing but not this time when it's directly affected us (karma?). Everyone wants their home to be secure, safe and access to it managed properly. Until now we haven't had a great deal of concerns or problems with the apartment management but this is all a little bit disturbing, let's hope they at least fix the bloody shower tomorrow! 

I've spent the majority of this week following up on some of the conversations I had towards the end of last week at the Barcamp pre-party and event. Some of the follow ups have been social but most have been professional, it really was a good event for networking. Rather than try and work out which contacts are the best ones to pursue I'm using an open mind and pursuing them all and not ruling anything out, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Lou has been back at work and I've been playing 'bodyguard' again, we're getting used to the 5am wake ups now and we have even been going to sleep before 10pm the night before, something which is pretty much alien to me! We've now purchased thermal coffee cups too so we can make a big warm drink to take with us in the mornings! Even though the days are still reasonably clear and warm-ish the mornings are very foggy and cold though the crisp air helps to wake us up.

From what Lou's been saying she seems to be settling in at her job a bit more now which is nice to hear, a lot of things initially came as quite a surprise to her (and me upon hearing some of the stories) but she is adjusting well now. Lou's also trying to take some of her qualities to the job too now that she is more settled. She has a lot of good knowledge and ideas which aren't practiced over here so hopefully she can open a few eyes and make things better for everyone whilst continuing to pick up on things which are innate to most of her colleagues.

I've also been significantly re-working my resume. I thought I had sufficiently 'canadianized' it but it turns out that it wasn't quite as complete as what I thought. A fresh pair of eyes is always of benefit and I've been in touch with a really helpful person who has reviewed my existing one and advised me on what to change, improve and reword (she gets to see a lot of them in her job so she definitely knows what is good and bad etc). I've now followed her advice and have come up with a more concise resume which I hope will bring me more luck on the job search (sorry, I'm trying no to mention it as I know it's boring but it's dominating my life right now!).

Once Lou has got back from work this week we've been taking it easy and apart from a couple of local walks and grocery shopping we haven't done anything too extravagant. It's amazing how much we miss the car now and it's a chore carrying the stuff back from the shops again but we're getting by fine, it just means we have to make more frequent visits! We already have a couple of places in the back of our mind that we want to visit once we are back on the road. One of them is the Punjabi Market which is apparently not too far away from us. We were saying the other day how we missed good ol' "English" (!) food like samosas, bhajis, and pakoras and that's when we found out there is this place not too far away. You can still buy things like samosas in the supermarkets here but they're not the same and they are also expensive ($5.99 for two) so we look forward to visiting that market. We have still yet to start eating seafood out here too, it's widely available and very popular (hardly a surprise since we are right next to the Pacific Ocean) but it really doesn't appeal to us as we've both never really been used to eating it. Maybe we'll feel brave one day and try it, I'm sure it could lead to a funny blog post if nothing else.

The NHL Hockey season is now in full effect and the whole of Canada (bar a few bored housewives) seem to be delighted that the season has restarted. The Canucks only started last Thursday but have already played 4 games, it's literally every other night. I've watched all but one on the tv so far (tickets are too expensive) and I'm really getting into it, it makes a change to watch them at normal times as when I was in the UK I had to stay up into the early house of the morning to see the play-off games. The Canucks didn't start the season in the best way, losing three games in a row but they got their first win in style last night thrashing the Montreal Canadiens 7-1, it was a great game.

Below are a few random photos taken over the past few days. I didn't always include photos with my posts but now I try to as often as possible as I've been told by a few people that even the lame ones help people get a better idea of what I'm talking about, so here they are...

         

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