Notes from BC

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...

         

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.

     

Today we were woke up early to banging and clattering outside, it was window cleaning day for the whole apartment block meaning we had to keep our windows closed from 9am -5pm. It wasn't exactly really what we wanted on a hot Vancouver Wednesday but we had been given advance notice so we couldn't complain. I got up, had some breakfast and then went to try the gym facilities on my own. Lou had a valid excuse to be fair - she hasn't got any trainers (sorry, sneakers!) yet and she was just getting up as I headed out the door. The gym is free to use for all residents but is only big enough for about 8 people or so at a time. When I went down there wasn't many people there so it was all good. Embarrassingly I had to ask one of the other people working out how to actually turn on the equipment after trying to suss it out, failing and looking stupid for 5 minutes. The lady explained in her broken english how it all worked and I was soon sweating away on the cross trainer. I did an hour work out and then headed back for a shower, I might get into the habit of this as Lou was all dressed and ready by the time I got back and I didn't have to wait around for her to get ready! On the way back I remembered to check out mail for the first time and we had a home welcoming card from Lou's mum (Thank you!) [Lou - "thanks Mum"]. It's mad how little things like this actually do make you feel more homely but it really does.
 
In the early afternoon we went and sorted out private medical insurance as our travel insurance cover had just ran out. There is a national medical insurance (which you still have to pay) called Medicare but it takes 3 months for the application to complete in BC so in the meantime we've had to take out something private just in case we end up needing it. We are covered up to $50,000 now, it sounds great but considering one night in hospital can be $1,500 it's not so brilliant! Our insurance cost us $336 and we may never need it but we didn't want to run the risk of not being covered if anything happened (touch wood it won't!).
 
I had read in one of the neighborhood papers that Collingwood Neighborhood House (sort of like a local community centre) offered drop-in soccer evenings twice a week so I went in and got further details. It is on Wednesday and Thursday nights so I made a note of the times informed them I'd be there later and then darted off to Safeway to buy the Canadian equivalent to 'Deep Heat' in advance! It feels wrong to be calling it soccer but it saves having to have those awkward conversations with people when they start talking to you about NFL or the CFL if you mention "football". At 7pm I made my way down there to play (in my Leicester shirt), not quite knowing what to expect. I offered Lou the chance to come and watch me make my Canadian debut but she opted to stay in and watch Dragons Den (Canadian version) instead! When I arrived down there I paid my subs, $4.25, and made my way into the indoor sports hall where other players where already warming up. I was walking in there with the 'typical new guy' feeling and nobody approached me to say anything so to avoid the awkwardness I just shook everyones hand and just introduced myself instead, remembering 2 of the 18 names people told me! It was a real mixture of people in there I noted Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Canadian, Russian, Fiji, and American players. The format was basically 6-a-side with no real rules except for no fouling and the format was basically 'winner stays on'. I got to play in 5 games in total, not scoring a single goal as they used hockey nets and they're tiny (I couldn't help but think "What the hell?"). The sports hall we played in was basically just big room with a wooden surfaced floor, with no fans or air con. I was absolutely soaking wet after one game alone, it was so hot it was unreal. I honestly felt short of breath because of the heat, but the 3 weeks of not playing and the junk food I've ate since I've been here no doubt played a significant part too! It was definitely a lot different to playing football, sorry soccer, in the UK. Even the style of play was different, players constantly linking up with short lay-offs and only shooting when about 2 yards from the goal, almost like ice hockey players do (maybe they play that also?). I did enjoy it though and will be going again to keep fit more than anything.

Tuesday was another day of rain, this time shower spells were a little more common than Monday. It wasn't heavy rain though but we had purchased umbrella's well in advance as that's a well known essential for living in Vancouver! It's no longer possible to see the tops of the mountains as they have now been covered by fog, and from the weather reports it looks like the weather will be like this for a few days. A few locals have been complaining about the weather, as you do, but it still isn't annoying us that much. We're really appreciating the cool weather and having a break from the heat to be honest, it's just like the UK at the moment.
 
Mid-morning we headed back to Collingwood on the Skytrain, going past our new apartment on the way (whilst wishing we could move in right then, oh well only 2 more sleeps until we can). We walked to our new bank to pick up some temporary cheques as a full cheque book will take a while to receive. We'll need these for paying our rent as they don't seem to be keen on debit payments for some reason and prefer pre-dated cheques. After visiting the bank we then explored the area a little further and discovered there are lots of Chinese and Korean stores, takeaways a supermarket and a couple of beauty salons much to Lou's relief. After more walking around we headed to a insurance broker (very common) to sort out home contents cover ($300) which we needed to have before we're allowed to move into the apartment. Whilst we were there we also got an estimate for some car insurance - $3,300 or £2,100 if we have a letter to prove we have no claims built up in the UK, luckily we did expect it to be pretty steep but it still is pretty shocking! We're just glad we already planned on getting one car and sharing it.
 
In the evening we stayed in the hotel just watching TV and doing some further research on our laptops whilst watching local news. There's been a bit of drama in BC over the last couple of days, there was a assault on a young girl in Surrey, an armed robbery in Stanley Park (very uncommon, and on the same day we intended to be there!), a racial attack in Courtenay and some protesting by homeless people in False Creek. When you hear of these things it seems quite strange because when you are walking around it visually seems pretty safe, I guess it's like any big place though and you always have to be wary, alert and aware of your surroundings. Talking of TV we're not really missing much at the moment, we've realized most of the programs we watch are American anyway and are just as easily accessible in Canada, probably more so. The only thing I'm missing TV-wise is Sky Sports News and Real Madrid TV especially during the Cristiano Ronaldo presentation the other day, it wasn't the same following it online. I've signed up for cable TV from Shaw and when they install it next week I will have TSN, Sportsnet and Gol TV which I'm led to believe will show plenty of football. Waking up for kick-offs at 8am will certainly be unique and it'll be cool in a way because the rest of the day will be left clear.

We've found our new home after 6 days of searching, yesterday we signed on a years lease for a 2 bedroom apartment with it's own laundry and gym facilities. I'm glad we have it for a year as this means we can't get turfed out before the winter olympics in February! We also have the option of upgrading or downgrading after the first 6 months, which may be quite handy too. Our new home is in Collingwood Village (the place I mentioned before) 5 minutes from the Joyce Skytrain station. We had agreed to take the place on Thursday but we didn't say anything until things were signed and sealed and the deposit was paid which we did yesterday morning. It seems like a nice place to live and hopefully it will all work out well for us, it will be quick for me to get the train downtown (15 minutes) and about a 25 minute drive for Lou to get to work (going against the majority of traffic). There are lots of little shops nearby too and also a good café literally just up the road. We don't move in until next Friday, in the meantime we have started to buy a few items that we'll need, but nothing too major as there's only so much we can fit into our hotel room!
 
In the afternoon we also signed up for our Canadian bank accounts. The process was a little different from the UK, we had a sit down appointment which lasted way over an hour whilst they discussed all the options available to us. At the end of the appointment we even got introduced to the bank manager (never done that before in the UK) and we even got the ATM cards printed, embossed and activated for us at the same time. There was no need to wait for the cards to come in the post (which I thought was standard worldwide) and we could use them instantly, that really impressed us and was totally unexpected.
 
Today we are having another relaxing day after we've visited a couple of shops to price up furniture etc, we don't want this new lifestyle to be all hard work y'know ;-)