Kayaking!

Ok, i know what your thinking. This doesnt look like kayaking at all! And youd be right. Its not. But we decided that camera + water + kayaking novices = disaster and left the camera at home. This is a photo from the fireworks festival that lit up english bay/kits beach for four nights recently. I had lots of fun spending the majority of the fireworks nights with Lindsay, her "mom" (as they say over here), and the worlds smallest chair.
Deep cove was the destination after an earlier attempt to kayak at ladner marsh revealed that people who run kayaking in ladner marsh are clearly idiots. After the initial scare of learning that everyone else on the trip had done it before and was into running and eating salads we relaxed and found we weren't too bad at it, we didnt fall in at least! It was definantly worth the going all the way to deep cove as the sceney was spectacular, driving (ok you probably dont call it driving) a kayak proved to be different to what i expected but myself and Lindsay seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly and it was great fun! I'll definantly do it again. After the best doughnut ive ever had we looked in the window of a classy restaurant before going over to the cafe across the street to actually eat. Its really easy to just live somewhere and not go looking for things to do but im really glad i did this. I might even give it a try when I get home

Reflections

Well, as everyone else on the blog seems to be reflecting on the year (already!) i might as well join you. Personally speaking I came here with few preconceptions. I hadn't done thorough research on Canada, I knew little of the people, what i'd be doing or even why. I wasn't even sure i'd "stick it" the full year but very early on I knew I would.

The most important thing about any place you visit for an extended period of time is the people. In meeting a gang of British at the airport I think we all gave ourself a safety net that made the first month or two far easier and more enjoyable. The fact that we're still just as good friends 10 months on (except for a few notable exceptions, who we didn't really like anyway) means that im sure we'll all keep in touch. (Dublin 2007 anyone?) I didn't come here to make a bunch of British friends but I don't think that friendship wise the year could have worked out any better.

Thats not to say we haven't all met some canadian friends too. Ive made friends with a lot of people from work (at least the ones who understand my accent) and im sure i'll keep in contact with 4 or 5 people when I go home. Maybe I can even convince them to put me up for a week when i come back for a holiday (or possibly a more permanant stay!). When they asked me to organise some social events at work to improve staff morale I dont think they meant start dating another barista but that seems to have worked out pretty well too.

Last night we went for a walk to granville island along the sea front, I know we take Vancouver for granted sometimes but im sure we'll look back on little things like that and miss this place. There really is no comparison back home. Im not one of these people who hates home, im really looking forward to seeing the place and my family and friends back there. But there just isnt the scope to do things like there is in Vancouver (you Canucks don't know how lucky you are sometimes). Despite a run of broken toes (don't laugh) im in better shape than ive been in years and im having fun in the process. Doing stuff is fun.

We talked about snowmobiling last night too, that was excellent. And tofino, seattle, galiano island, grouse mountain, steveston, North Vancouver thrift store, Squamish Taco Bell, theres been so many trips, all excellent in there own way. Im glad ive managed to do so many things this year, the rail trip is still to come too, going to New York for 5 days itself is a holiday!

I guess this counts as a 10 month review, theres still 2 months left, one sixth of our time here and im sure we'll get up a a bunch of stuff before we're sedated and dragged onto the plane by the RCMP. I still don't know why I came here but its been one of the best choices I ever made. I think i've learned a lot about myself and about life in general, im no expert yet though.

Simon

Grouse Mountain (again!)

For the fourth time Chris has came up big and this time sorted out some Grouse tickets for me and Lindsay. This time however, we actually did the activities that people pay all that money for to get up, and it was well worth it!One of the many hilarious pictures I took inside the car that were all appreciated

After weeks of consistant sunshine we got to the top of Grouse which resembled cloud city, although it was so cloudy we couldn't find Lando Calrissian anywhere.

The "world famous" lunberjack show. Anyone heard of it outside Canada? I certainly hadn't, it was really good tho, but by this point it was freezing!! Everyone seemed equipped tho except for me just wearing a t-shirt (thought about wearing shorts)

By the end of the show it was starting to clear up, wouldnt have fancied falling in that water tho, brrrr

The wood carving were supprisingly cosy insideWe went on the ski lift ride which luckily gave us a nice view of Vancouver after the fog had passedWasn't perhaps the busyist day on the top of Grouse

Don't worry, Lindsay isn't really trapped in a cage on top of a mountain with invisible walls...or is she, has anyone seen her lately?