Just to keep you updated

Short one today. Not much to report, the job I'm doing at the moment is ok if a lot more more complex that I thought it was when I first started (Day One - 'So I'm just handing out cheques?' If only...). Still that's good as it means I'm not bored. I'm pretty low on money though as there were problems with my Social Insurance Number. All sorted now, though it means I won't get paid until next Friday. Its going to be... challenging.

Andy and me are all being well going to our apartment tomorrow for a look around with the landlady and do an inventory check. There's a very slim chance that we might be able to move in a few days early, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Other than that not much has happened... Al Pachino was filming outside our hostel apparently though I didn't see him... Had an odd guy in our room but he's gone now... I'm sure its all going to be far more interesting next week. Reading about my attempts not to starve will be fun at the very least.

I promised myself I wouldn't cry

Many, many congratulations to Paul and Jenny who married last Saturday. One of the few bad things about coming to Canada has been the fact that I had to miss their wedding. Wish I could of been there guys.

Remember Paul, you promised to name the first one after me...

Started work at my second assignment at UBC. Its pretty easy work but, again, its well paid and its a cool place to work. I'm there till Friday now. Readers, please pray to whatever God you believe in and ask him/her/it to help me get more work there... Then end poverty, war, etc.

I realised today that I've got to buy a whole new wardrobe, 'business casual'. Basically I can't wear my usual clothes as they are too casual, yet my suit is a little too smart. I would much rather just wear a suit and not have to buy a load of clothes I don't particularly like. Maybe this is the first step by 'the Man' in making me 'conform'. Hah, its going to take more than that 'the Man'. Yeah!

Foolin' the man

Yesterday was tough. It felt like we had reached the natural end of hostel living yesterday, yet we had to return, move in to a new room and live out of a suitcase still. I know it got to me and I think it got to Andy as well. We're both so ready to start properly living in Canada the waiting in the hostel, and it feels like waiting, is just annoying. The end is in sight now, only 8 more nights left. So more or less a week to go, that feels do-able.

In an effort to save money (living in a hostel is stupidly expensive, mainly because you end up going out each night in order to get away from the hostel) I categorically stated at lunch time that I would not go out in the evening and would get food from the Dish (a fantastic little cafe that do great food at very reasonable prices). Problem was we ate at 6:30, and the 5 hours till bed time streched out in front of us. Urgh.

So we played Scrabble, chess and once everyone else had cracked and headed to the pub, I read my book. These crazy Canadian nights eh?

It was just what I needed though. No guilt about spending money, healthy food from the Dish not made less healthy by being followed by beer, and an evening to myself reading 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman (which is an amazing book, would thoroughly recommend it).

Anyway, today is yet another amazingly sunny day in Vancouver. Maybe it doesn't rain all the time... I have a feeling that I'll be contradicted there. I awoke refreshed and raring to go. I've been offered more work for the rest of the week at the university. Full time as well. Its till Friday but it could go on for longer. Also they are putting me forward for another even better position at UBC. I think I'm going to turn down the Airport job now, the work seems to be coming in pretty consistantly from UBC, also the money is far better and its certainly easier to get to from Kits than the Airport. Its a risk but sod it, I'm here to take risks.

Continuing my good luck I got my highest score ever on Ms Pac-Man today. Everything's coming up Ian!

Yay!

To Jerico Beach and back again

Ahoy there!

Less than 2 weeks to go now before Andy and myself can move out of the hostel and into our lovely apartment. Can. Not. Wait. Its not that the hostel is particularly bad its just... very tiring and expensive. I've gone out practically every night I've been here, and eating out most nights as well. I've turned into Jimmy Saville. He doesn't own a cooker and goes out to restaurants every night too. Ergh-ergh-ergh, how's about that then boys and girls? Now on Top of the Pops, Sha-Waddy-Waddy.

The hostel though has a policy that you can only stay in it a maximum of 21 days in a row. Andy and myself were fast coming up to our limit so we decided that for Saturday night we would stay somewhere else. A few friends of ours had already got a place though they've hardly got any furniture so to stay there would mean sleeping on the floor. We decided to keep their kind offer in mind and use it if we couldn't stay anywhere else. We checked the hostel list and found one by Jerico Beach.

Jerico Beach is a fair distance from where we currently are in Downtown. Basically it lies west of Kitsilano, which in itself is a 30 minute walk from Downtown. But it was a nice day (not raining!) and we had nothing else planned for Saturday other than find somewhere to sleep that night. So rather than bus or cab it we decided to walk...

It started off easy enough, the over night back we each carried not bothering us too much. We walked over the bridge to Kits in the bright sunshine. There was a strange holiday like feel to the trip. I guess after the sheer amount of time we had stayed in the Downtown hostel we had started to think of it as a home, albeit a home you share with 3 other strange men in your room.

40 minutes later and we had started to flag slightly, Jerico beach was still a fair distance and the bags which had seemed so light to begin with were starting to weigh us down. Still, we were almost there so what would be the point in getting a bus now.

We reached Jerico about an hour and a quarter after we left. We were pretty tired and thirsty and were looking forward to meeting our new room mates and having a nice cool lemonade in the cafe. The hostel was in a great, if slightly out of the way, location. A minute walk from Jerico beach and with stunning views of the mountains it was looking a great place to have our 'holiday'. We walked to what appeared to be the main entrance to find a padlock on the front door. 'Strange' we thought, and walked around the building looking for another way in. There wasn't and we went back to the door with the padlock. It was then we noticed the sign 'Closed for the Winter'.

Sigh.

So we went to the beach, sat down and discussed our next move. We decided to try the other HI hostel in Vancouver, called Central. This was about a 15 minute walk from where we had started.

Sigh.

So one bus journey later we reached the Central Hostel. Luckily they had two places for us though the lady behind the counter warned us that it was 'above the pub so going to be a noisy'. Well I've slept on the ground in festivals with a stereo 'pumping' dance music about three feet from my head and coped with Andy's snoring. It can't be that bad surely?

When we returned to our room after a night on the town, which included seeing the Cannucks win yet again (6-4 in a nail biting final 5 minutes), drinking a little bit too much Kokenee, singing bohemian Rhapsody in a tiny karaoke booth with five others, having a dance off on one of those dance machines with Debs (and almost giving myself a heart attack in the process) and watching Andy play on a drum machine to the great J-pop classic 'Super Shommin Car', we discovered our room was actually vibrating from the noise downstairs. It was like having a radio on in our own room, though one we couldn't turn off. Just like in the nightmare world of George Orwell's 1984. Though I don't think Winston was ever forced to listen to dance music so maybe I had it worse.

Amazingly though I fell asleep, only woken by one of our room mates being sick. Ah, isn't hostel life grand.

Still, I survived and am moving back into the Downtown hostel for the final strech today. No work for tomorrow but whatever I know I've got work for Friday onwards. Fingers crossed I have something for a couple of days next week before Friday.

To those of you who went to Paul and Jenny's wedding I hope you had a great time. I was thinking about you all but especially of the special couple. I can safely say I would of preferred to have been there rather than in the room of noise with Mr Vomit.

Finally, a big hello to one of my fans, Ms Julie Banks, mother of our pal Paul Banks. Nice to know you're reading and glad you're enjoying it. See, why can't the rest of you say nice things? And get your mums to read Chimpers?

Andy steering us to Jerico Beach... ok this was a toy for kids on the pier but he wanted to have a go.

An interlude

Today is a bit of a nothing day. Forced to take it off because of the possibility of the buses going on strike (though they didn't in the end, sigh) I've pottered around, doing a few chores and enjoying the sunshine. Yes, sunshine! Its amazing. Anyway, when packing stuff up for 3rd room change in our time at the hostel I found a CD with photos from back home on it. So with little more to report on about Vancouver than yesterday I thought I'd put up the photos of Andy, Faye and my own's leaving do. Was it really only 3 weeks ago?

Andy, Faye and myself enjoying the beginning of our party. We were the only ones there for about half an hour.

And the murderer is in this very room...

A random selection of pals, Amy, Simon, Jenny, Paul, 'Two-Phones' Jason, Harriet, Emma.

Some of Andy's friends from Uni. Sadly I don't know their names.

Poor Harriet, I think I was well on my way to drunk town by this point.

The lovely Eliza and, er, Mark.

A sweeping shot of the pub. We knew all these people! Aren't we popular? And clever? And cool? If you look closely, it appears that Harriet is climbing on to Paul's back. And him a (now) married man.

My bro Robert and me. Great thing is in this photo I still look taller than him.

That's enough for now. I think Tim emailed me some more, I'll have to track those down. Sure I burned them on to this CD...

Anyway, Friday today. Off out tonight with some people Andy met at work. Some real life Canadians. Yay! And it only took 2 weeks and a half weeks of being here to meet them. Have to move out of the hostel for a night tomorrow as well. Not sure where we are going to go. Wish me luck.

Lastly, those at Paul's wedding this weekend please can you email me photos of the big event. Thanks.

Choices, choices

A quick post today, I'll do a bigger one tomorrow. I've worked the whole day today! Tch, don't they realise I've got a hostel to go and sit around in? The reason for my extra looooong day was that there's a good possibility that there's going to be no buses tomorrow. At the moment there's a ongoing and increasingly bitter dispute between the B. C. Govt and the teaching union here. The teachers are out on an illegal strike and a few other unions are going to join in tomorrow in solidarity. Though its not certain there's going to be no buses there is a good chance. And without the buses I can't get to work. Simple as that.

So I'm having tomorrow off but in order that I don't loose too much money I offered to work the afternoon. Finished at 4:30 so only loosing an hour thankfully. I've got a few bits and bobs to do tomorrow so its pretty useful to have that day off. I'll certainly be able to fill it. I've been offered two jobs today, one for Monday and Tuesday and one for 31st of October till January. Going to see what the university have before I make any firm decisions as they would pay far more. Also the university's a nice place to work.

Finally as its what with the time difference and what not most of you won't read tomorrow's entry till Monday I just want wish young Paul and his wife to be Jenny all the very best this Saturday for the wedding. I'll be thinking of both of you. To those of you going make sure they have one of the best days of their lives. I'm sure it will be.

Workin', er, 8:30 to 12:30

Today was my first day of employment in this crazy country they call Canada. And... it was good. It didn't start particularly well. Forced to get up at 7:00 in the morning as I wanted to make sure that I had enough time to get there, I staggered into the hostel showers. Outside, it was dark. DARK! Once I was ready I had to drag all my luggage downstairs as the hostel is making us change rooms for a laugh. Sigh. Then, with no breakfast to support me as they don't serve it until 8:00 I left the hostel into the no doubt raining Downtown Vancouver...

Except that for a change it wasn't raining, it was actually sunny! Will I ever stop being surprised by this city? Yeah, probably, in about 7 months or so time. Anyway I found the bus stop and nipped into the coffee shop next to it to get some kind of breakfast. I had a Royal Tea. It was... interesting. I can't decide whether I liked it lots, or didn't like it at all. Hmmm. It was a latte Tea with a shot of vanilla. Actually, thinking about it I did like it. I boarded the bus at 5 to 8, confident that it would only take 20 minutes to get to the university. It did, well 25 minutes, but the difference between UBC and British universities is the size. I reckon if you lumped all of the Southampton campuses together you would still need to double it to get it to the same size as UBC. They have loads of land.

The upshot of this massive campus was me tearing down the road while occasionally glancing at my map to try and work out where I had to go.

I was 4 minutes late. On my first day. I taught employability skills for crying out loud and I'm late! Anyway, they were fine about it and I'm doing some basic in admin there. I'm on my own a little bit which is not ideal, but its only until Friday and I make some much needed money. Not only that I'll hopefully become a regular there as UBC pay their temps very well compared to other places. Also the campus is actually a very impressive place. Its on the sea and today the weather was really clear so you could see mountains in the background.

I also saw a film being made on campus. Heard rumors that its an Al Pachino film. Loads of of stuff is filmed here as its a very diverse city and cheaper to film in than the US. Andy, myself and a few others are heading down to an Extras agency later to sign up. Who knows, I might get in a film. How cool would that be?

Unemployment shouldn't be fun

Ah, a wet and rainy Vancouver Sunday. This was my first since being here but something tells me that its not going to be my last.

The rain poured all day Sunday. This is particularly annoying at the moment as there's bugger all to do in the hostel. Except Pool and Ms Pac-Man. And we all played far too much pool Saturday and I'm staying away from Ms Pac-Man as I'm becoming hopelessly addicted.

A few of us pondered what to do, and we struggled to come up with ideas. The bizarre thing about Vancouver is that it is very much designed for outdoors life and culture (sports, cafes, etc) yet it rains 50% of the year so you can't really do that. After some more pondering we decided to go to the Aquarium in Vancouver despite it costing $17.50 and most of us being unemployed. If I had stayed in the hostel though I think I might have spent that on Ms. Pac-Man anyway.

Despite the cost, or because of it, it was great! Very interesting and loads to see. They had streched the definition of an 'aquarium' though it practically its breaking point. They has a few parrots, a monkey, a sloth, some spiders and a few snakes as well. Thankfully they didn't just bung them in with the fish and they had their own environments.

These salty dogs are ready to brave the unknowns of the deep... Andy, Simon, Chris and Debs

Fish of some description. Sorry, I've forgotten the names.

Beautiful Jellyfish. Never thought I'd say that.

They also had some amazing Beluga whales which are about the size of large cows. If you can imagine such a thing.

Oooo Mr Beluga

There was a little stall that allowed people to eat crickets and little worms. Not sure exactly why, thinking about it they didn't give any educational reason to be feeding us insects. Andy had a cricket while Chris and myself had a worm each.

The worms tasted nutty. Maybe that's what they eat. That and dead people and dirt.

A good time was had by all. Faced with a walk home in the pouring rain we decided to cab after seeing a 5 seater cab go past. It worked out at $2 each, just under a pound, to get back so it was well worth it. Also we go the added entertainment of a crazy cab driver who, while driving us through the rainy, mist shrouded trails of Stanley Park in the dying day light remarked to us 'Y'know... a English guy died in Vancouver last month...' We we're glad to get out of the cab.

In other Ian news this morning I went to my third temp agency and was tested for the third time, which was nice. But this afternoon I got an offer of work! Its only until Friday and its only part-time (four hours a day) but the pay is very good. I'm easily earning the same as if I was working full time in a shop and hopefully it'll lead to more work. Its admin work at the University of British Columbia. I'll let you know, as always, how it turns out.

Where everybody knows your name...

Friday night had been one of excess. A group of us had fish and chips in a bar in Gastown (the most touristy part of Vancouver) then went wandering until we happened on a bar called 'Malones' (in a area... less touristy). Pitchers of Kokenee were drunk, Andy and myself had a dance off, Gavin, a lad from just outside Glasgow, tried to do an impression of a Canadian doing an impression of a Cockney and I did my now world famous impression of Mick Jagger. All good fun but the next day was a bit of a trial to say the least. Simply actions such as walking and talking seemed beyond most of us. It was decided that Saturday night would be a 'quiet' night.

So after almost going into the gayest bar I have ever seen (bless Simon, he had recommended it after only seeing it during the day) we ended up in...

I won't lie to you dear reader, the neon sign was the main thing that attracted us to Panama Jacks. Once we got inside we found a pleasant enough bar. It wasn't until I went to the loo I actually discovered that is was part of a Holiday Inn! Though the 'Inns' here seem to be different to those in the UK. For starters this place was nice. Secondly later that evening it was a having a funk/soul/R&B night, starting at 11:00 and going on to 2:00. You don't usually get that in the Alan Partridge style ones in the UK do you.

The bar was just what we were looking for being relatively quiet at that time. Not too expensive beer for the one pint or 'sleeve' (annoyingly only 3/4 of a pint, the swizzers) we decided we were going to have maximum. The best thing though was free pool. Which, after spending somewhere in the region of $2000 dollars in loonies (dollar coins) and quarters (25 cent coins) on the hostel pool table was welcome relief.

Chris, taking one his patented 'power shot specials'

Strangely, with the pool being free we soon tired of playing it. There's a message there somewhere, please write in if you can spot it.

The Pacific Ocean

On Thursday, after having a strenuous morning of temp agency tests and interviews Andy and myself decided to spend the afternoon having a wander around a few streets we thought we hadn't explored yet. Once we started to walk them we soon realised that in fact we had earlier last week, we had just forgotten. Luckily these streets led to Stanley Park, a massive, semi-wild parkland area which is practically the same size as Downtown Vancouver. Around the entire park is a path by the sea, not just any sea but the Pacific Ocean!

The Pacific Ocean, yesterday.

For some reason it is the fact that the water in Vancouver Bay is from the Pacific that makes me realise how far away from Britain. Not the mountains, or the fact that everyone talks differently or that they use a different currency but the sea. I was so excited I scrabbled down on to the beach and dipped my finger into the sea. I didn't go as far as tasting it, that would of been weird. But I can no say I touched the Pacific. Millions of people in Britain have never done that. How cool is that?

Me and my new pal the sea

Alright, I'm sure few of you share my enthusiasm, but what the hell, this is my blog and I can talk about what I like. Anyway, Andy and me had actually already gone round this path, but we had gone on bikes last time. It had taken around 40 minutes. Can be much harder to walk surely?

An hour and half later we reached the half way mark. It is actually a 10km walk. Still, we wanted something to get us out of the hostel and it was certainly doing that. The park is beautiful, especially at this time of year (the 'Fall'). When I've got some tougher footwear I'm going to take one of the trails through the park. Apparently you get lots of wildlife there (no bears thankfully). In fact, when we were on bikes I saw a couple of seals playing around in the sea! All very romantic, sadly we only had each other to share the stunning views with, no lovely ladies.

Autumn in Stanley Park

Downtown Vancouver, as seen from the park

I better go. I'm in the internet cafe that smells of fish and its starting to give me a headache. I should pop in to town and buy some shorts. Apparently I'm playing football tomorrow. Yes you read that correctly. A full account of my injuries here once I make it out of intensive care.

Loose end

I've just put a new section on my 'links' bit of the blog. Its for Canadian blogs, or so far people Brits in Canada blogs. I hope that eventually I'll actually meet some real life Canadians, and they'll have blogs, and I can say 'Hey Canadian, why don't I put a link to your blog from mine? And maybe we could grab a coffee together in one of your fine cities numerous coffee shops and become friends'. Hmmm, maybe I won't say that.

I'm at a bit of a loose end this morning. I've visited most of the agencies now and have gone for two initial interviews with them (with another to follow on Monday). I can't justify spending money on seeing the sights as I'm not sure how long that money has to last and there's bugger all to do in the hostel. I was going to post some photos here but the 'photo' computer is broken. Guess I'll do some washing...

Promise I'll add a far more interesting post later when I can get photos on here!

Jobby job job

I have now been in Canada over a week. 8 days to be exact. To my eyes that seems like a stupidly small amount of time. I'm guessing to those of you I know back home it probably doesn't seem that long ago that I left. Seems like a lifetime has whizzed passed to me this last week. The closest thing I can equate it to is the first few weeks at university. You're in a new place with new people. You spend a lot of time trying to suss people out and deciding which ones you like and which ones you don't. On the whole the fellow BUNACers I've met have been great. I never really imagined that it would be like this. I don't think Andy did either. I presumed it would be very much the two of us until we had settled a bit and started work. Instead we seem to go out in gangs of 10 or so. Its been great to have other people who are in the same position as us. Though it does mean I've spent most of my time with Brits. Hopefully once I start work I'll actually start talking to some natives.

Ah yes, a job. Now the apartment search is over (though with a frustratingly long wait time, have 20 nights to fill left... that's longer than we're allowed to stay in the hostel, hmmm) all my energy has swung into looking for a job. Compared to my last period of unemployment I'm doing amazingly well. Within two days of looking I've given my Resume to a dozen or so temp agencies, have booked 3 meetings with, er, 3 of them and have formatted my Resume in 2 different ways - one to suit office work, one to suit shop work. Every morning I go looking for work and I'm pretty confident that within 2 weeks I'll definitely have something, even if its just very temporary. Back home I was unemployed for 6 months and had one interview. I tell you, when you think there's a chance you might have no money to eat within a month it certainly gives you a kick up the arse to look.

The liberating thing about being here is that I don't care as much what type of job I get as long as it pays the rent, allows me to have a few weekends up in Whistler and leaves me with a bit to travel for a month or so at the end of the year. Where as back in London I would have to think about forwarding my 'career' here I just think 'Only here for 12 months, I'll do whatever'. A nice Admin job would suit me down to the ground. If I can't get that I'll have a look at cool shops and cafes to work in.

Course at the moment I need a job full stop so to begin with will probably do anything. But if I really don't like it I'll push myself to move on to something else sharpish. I'm only here 12 months after all. I wish I could have this drive in London. I'm hoping that when I get home I'll take a bit of it with me.

Another Cannucks game tonight, they play like every 2 to 3 days or something. The season ends in April! Going to probably pop a long and have a pint and try to understand it. It'll have to be only a pint though as have two meetings at temp agencies tomorrow. My suit is already a bit crumpled from being in the case, last thing I need is to add the faint with of alcohol.

At last, PHOTOS!

Its what you've all been waiting for I know. Some photos of Canada. Sadly now I've checked I've realised that I've taken hardly any photos of the breath-taking scenery around Vancouver, just bizarre things. Not too worry, sure there will be plenty more were this came from, though I'll probably only be able to afford to upload photos once a week, it costs $2.50 a time to do it in the cafe close by. Maybe I'll look for a cheaper cafe.

Here's me on a Vancouver Street (Granville if you're interested), as you can see, I'm very excited.


Street about a 30 second walk from my hostel. This is Davie St, or to give it its full name, 'Davie Gay Town', note the rainbows. Will those rumours never leave us be?


Our hostel room, as modeled by Andy. Somehow he got the top bunk, curses!

Kitslano Beach. This is about a 3 minute walk from where I'm going to be living.

The view from Kits Beach...


A big bunch of BUNACers. This was last night on Thanks Giving and was also Paul's (in blue in the centre) birthday. He was 25, almost as old as me. I know most of there names... just about.


And finally, a picture of a Rocky board game I saw in a shop window in Gastown. Jason, if you want this please let me know. And send Canadian dollars.

So that's that. Pretty exciting eh? I'm sure I'll be taking lots more photos as I go and will try to stick to a once a week upload. Though I'll post my ramblings more often than that, and that's why you really come here isn't it? Other than working out how to put photos on the blog, I've sent my CV... sorry 'Resume' off to lots of agencies and have an interview arranged with one of them on Thursday morning. 8:30 on Thursday morning. Damn. Still things are moving ahead which is cool. Just want to move in to my place in Kits now. Only 20 days to go...

Mr Limpy...

Information... over... load... Apologies for the lack of posts. Things are bit hectic here at the mo as I try and do a million and one things at the same time. There's been the odd ten minutes to check emails but little time to actually reply or write this damn things. I've still not worked out how to get photos on here in the internet cafe so still no pictures, hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday. You'll be pleased to know though that I wasted $2.50 trying.

So, what have I been up to in Vancouver? Settle down with a nice cup of tea (I'm stuggling to find one of those here) and read on.

The two driving concerns over the last few days have been getting a place and getting a job. After talking to Andy we decided that for the first few days we would concentrate on getting a place to live, reasoning that it would be pretty nightmarish to live in a hostel while working AND wandering the streets at night to find somewhere to live. The BUNAC/SWAP orientation gave us a few helpful hints about areas we might like to live in, and areas to aviod. On Friday we decided to hit the streets and really start looking for a place. After an hour of struggling to find anything on the internet we pretty much gave up and agreed to wait for the Vancouver Sun newspaper on Saturday which has a big listings section (its VERY different to the British Sun). Not wishing to waste the entire day we decided to take a trip down to one of the areas that had been recommended to us and check it out. So we boarded the bus to Kitslano, South of Downtown.

Kitsilano turned out to be a really cool place. Its an area popular with students and young ex-students. Its got a cool main high street called 4th Avenue with lots of bars, cafes, resturants and shops along it. Its right next to the beach and has amazing views of North Vancouver. Andy and me decided pretty much straight away we needed a place round here. Thats right, needed.

So we thought we'd have a look round a few blocks and see whats its like. Most of the area off 4th was very residentual with grand old houses, much like the ones you'd see in American movies. Think where Jamie Lee Curtis' character lives in Halloween, just like that.

I had forgotten how stressful it can be finding a place. Also Vancouver has confirmed something I've always suspected, all Landlords are mental. We've met a mad hungerian lady who understood one word in ten we said and hit Andy to stop him talking as she simply had no idea what he was saying. The worst was Mr Limpy...

We had heard rumours of Mr Limpy from others. A group of people we know went to an absolute dive of a place in Kits. They were show around by an eccentric old man, who had a limp. On Saturday morning we had bought the paper and were furiously going through the listings, me barking out numbers to Andy who was phoning to get more info. I found one advert which sounded ideal, two bed place, perfect location, good price. To good to be true we wondered? Well, yes it was. Andy called the number and a guy answered before the first ring had finished. He said it was a great place, especially for the price and he could show it to us in half an hour. Great Andy said and we arranged to meet him on 4th by a gas station. Now from the cafe Kits is about a 35 minute walk. So we ended up pretty much running to Kits to see this place.

We got to the gas station and looked for the landlord. He said he would be in a blue ski jacket. Then across the road a figure limped towards us...

Greeting us with a toothless grin he slowly took us over the the apartment block, the most run down and ugly block on 4th I would imagine. I certainly didn't see any worse. Straight away I knew this was going to be rubbish, and new it was probably Limpy himself. We walked into the lobby. On the walls were random pictures which he proudly announced he had found in bins. He took us into his office which had more crap in it than even my room had back in Lytton Rd. I fear I may grow up to be this man, hell I even have the dodgy ankle from my drunken rabbit impression last year (long story). Everything was from the trash he said, except a few bits like the letter to George Bush he had framed, and a frankly frightening clown... thing.

He then s...l..o...w...l...y took us to the apartment. It was a dump. It was dirty, it smelled, it had paint on the floors, it looked like to would suddenly collapse in on itself. It appeared there we drug dealers next door. We made polite noises and left. Though as we walked out Andy remarked that one painting from-the-trash-on-the-wall was of an area of the Lake District in the UK he had been to, Mr Limpy said 'Well, not that I'm trying to bribe you but if you take the place I'll let you have that picture'. It was not a deal breaker.

Dejected, tired from the run over there, and pissed off that we had wasted our time we went to a small park looking out to sea and sat on a bench. We then looked out to the ocean with the mountains in the background and thought 'Hey, they'll be other places' and got the paper out and started calling again. We arranged a meeting that afternoon for another place, saw it and took it!

Its a great ground floor flat, with two double rooms, partly furnished, smallish but suited to our means, just off of 4th, 5 mins from the beach, 5 mins from a safeway and even 5 mins from an Off Licence (of which there are hardly any in Vancouver, and no other shops are allowed to sell alcohol). The annoying thing is we can't move in until 1st of November. We decided to take it anyway as it was so good. Its just under $1000 dollars for both of us including all bills. Thats about 230 British pounds each per month!

Not sure where we are going to stay for the next 3 weeks. Sure we'll sort something out.

Job search on Tuesday. Today is Thanks Giving so better go and sort out where we're going to eat our turkey. HAPPY THANKS GIVING!

Gobble

Jetlag and pizza

After 6 months of pre-amble this blog finally comes into its own. Yes, since April I've been simply warming up here on Chimpers, reporting fascinating episodes from my life such as finding two 20 pence pieces in the same day and coming across a toy portaloo. Now, at last, I'm in Vancouver, Canada...

And I'm exhausted.

To recap. After an... emotional farewell to Lucy on Saturday and a wicked and bad (as great and good) leaving party at the COCK Tavern off of Oxford street (I'll post some photo's of that another day when I'm not so busy) that evening I was ready to leave little Britain and go to big Canada. Sunday I sorted out stuff at home. Monday I rushed around like a mad thing all day packing, picking up travellers cheques that had been sent to the wrong bank (thanks for that HSBC) and updating my ipod for the final time. In the evening I had a last drink in the hallowed North Star in Leytonstone with Andy and a few others. I guess those Newcastle Brown ales I drunk were the last I'll have for 12 months...

I had little time to really think about what was happening. In fact when I awoke on Tuesday morning I forgot for a few seconds that I was supposed to be leaving the country in 6 hours. So one 2 hour tube journey and a check in later Andy and me were boarding the pride of the Air Canada fleet (I'm sure) for our 10 hour trip. We met a few other BUNACers in the airport and it was nice to know that most of them had absolutely no idea what they were doing in Canada either. The flight was fine if a little trying (I had a baby next to me and a slightly confused old woman who seemed to think I was Italian... and a Doctor). Got to Vancouver, jumped on to the coach and went to the Youth Hostel.

Before I went I imagined that when I actually got to Canada getting of the plane would be a big deal, that it would immediately feel 'Canadian'. It didn't, in fact I had to keep reminding myself that this was it, the trip I had been looking forward to/fearing for the last 6 months.

The Hostel is fine. Clean and safe. On our first night Andy and me went for a wonder. Coming on to the main street by our Hostel (Davie St) we looked around with a bit of wonder and fear as we tried to get our heads round the fact we were finally here. A woman then walked up to us and said 'Is this the gay area?' I raised my eye brow and she quickly added 'Oh, not that I'm saying... I just wondered as I hear its around here'. I explained that we had got to the area literally an hour ago and had absolutely no idea what it was like here.

We ended up in a bar pretty much opposite the hostel with most of the other BUNACers. It turned out that it was the gay area, and in fact we were in a gay bar (though it didn't seem that gay). This was a rather ironic turn of events considering the various rumours about Andy and myself at work. Like something out of a bad American teen comedy film. We had a good night in the end and managed to hold off sleep till 10:00pm in an attempt to get my body on Canadian time.

Yesterday was induction by the BUNAC Canadian partners SWAP. It was really good and fired Andy and myself up for our year. The first night was a bit of a culture shock, especially as the area our hostel is in, though safe, looks pretty grotty in parts. We worried that all of Vancouver was going to be like that. But walking to the SWAP offices in the centre put most of those worries to bed. Vancouver is not exactly a pretty city, but it is located in an amazing place. You can see mountains! And the sea!

We've packed a hell of a lot in over the last two days (can't believe I've only been here 2 nights). I now have a Canadian bank account, mobile phone and have seen most of Downtown Vancouver. I have been in a 7 11, have watched (bits) of a ice hockey game (it was the first game of the season last night, the mighty Vancouver Cannucks beat the phoenix Coyotes 3 - 2) and asked where the 'washroom' was. Just have to see a moose, bear, whale and mountie now. Oh and get a job, somewhere to live, etc. I've eaten a lot of Pizza (1 buck a slice, that's 50p!) and gone out both nights. I'm still jet lagged but hopefully I'll be fully operational by the weekend.

Anyway, that's pretty much it so far. I'll keep you updated as regulary as possible and hopefully will start putting pictures on soon. I'm going to have an easy night now as my alcohol limit has reached its, er, limit.

Take care where ever you are in the world, Ian x