Vancouver - Why not

Change Of Tact...

2006-10-29T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well after almost a month (can you beleive it!) at home i've decided the blog needs a change if its going to continue. I feel, and im guessing by the lack of activity everyone else feels, like they just dont have the time or the energy to update the blog with the rail trip! (Paul being the obvious exception, and we love him for it).

So im just going to conclude that we all had an incredible time, learned that sitting on your arse (on a train) can actually cause pain if you do it for long enough, and that if you cross the notorious gang of 7, you and your whole crew are dead.

Very soon you'll start seeing some regular updates again on life in England. Expect the words, football, pub, no-job-yet, and bored to crop up regularly

Simon

San Francisco!

2006-10-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well, after a week at home i've finally found the time (and being able to face the fact that im not travelling anymore) to begin writing up the trip. My journey started on september 4th as I had a free flight to use up and wanted to spend more time in San Francisco. Lindsay saw me off at the airport and it was a strange feeling being on my own for a couple of days before the rest of the gang made the trip down from Seattle.

On arrival it really hit me how hilly this place is! They really dont exaggurate in the films! Downtown looked nice, that was until of couse I arrived at the hostel which just so happened to be in the "tenderloin" district, the roughest area of San Francisco. OK i admit, that should have been researched a little better but that was probably the only slip up on an otherwise flawlessly planned month. Already getting late in the day I decided to walk around a little, bought myself a Nintendo DS, an excellent investment to kill some hours on the train (well it is run beating paul and ian at mario kart) and went back to the hostel.

In my room I find a guy who lives about 2 blocks from my house and a guy from Newcastle about 15mins from my house in Durham, crazy! Go out for a game of pool and get back before midnight. On the way home about 20 "crazies" come up to us offering us a wide variety of drugs, sex, and generally begging for money, great fun.

Onto day 2 and my first day of doing stuff! I decided to get up nice and early and head for the uber-touristy Pier 39.

Part of the fun of getting here was riding the F-Line trolley, a very popular method of transport in the 1940-60's that is still going in San Francisco. From here I rented a bike with the intention of going across the bridge and coming back.

There it is, I worked this bike pretty hard that day (harder than I intended)

Now, people had told me about the fog over the Golden Gate Bridge but I didn't ever think it would be this severe.

This is the view of downtown.

And this is bridge (both pictures were taken at the same time)

Me at the bridge (later in the week!)

Still feeling pretty fresh and with hours left on the bike rental I decided to head into Sausilito a fishing village on the other side of the bridge, the scenery was spectacular and I decided to push on another 5 miles to Tiburon. This is where it went wrong and a 2 hour detour up a 25% incline meant that I missed the ferry and had to wait around for 3 hours, still i needed a rest by this point.

The ferry back to San Francisco

That night I stayed in due to fear mainly as I could see 2 rival gangs of about 20 people right outside the hostel. In the morning the gang arrived! Fresh from a 23 hour train journey (which we now class as easy) we all headed out to the "lovely" golden gate national park. Problem was, it too was more than a little rough, and after convincing tens of people that we did infact not have any change we found the good bit of the park.

Not looking very impressed at Shakespheres garden

The first of the "hilarious" jumping pictures, and a particularly good one of Andy

All the men, hang on where's Paul? Not like him to miss a picture

My attempt at an arty picture

On the night we went out for a posh (well posh for us) Italian at North Beach. We even made sure we got a certain bus that stops near the hostel to avoid the army of wierdos.

Day 4 meant it was back to Pier 41 and a ferry ride to Alcatraz. We went on a fun audio tour

We felt very welcome, even though we werent Indian
Actually very similar to my room at first year of Uni
Paying our respects to this national landmark
The second "hilarious" jumping picture. Slightly miss timed
Geeks

After a quick "in and out burger" (magic) we headed for a pub, just a pub, any pub will do! Came to the conclusion that there arent any pubs in San Francisco

We started our last day hiking up to the Coit Tower for a view of the city.
As you can see, much of San Francisco is low rise
Lombard street with its twisty turns, it was quite a hike too

The night was spent seeing Crank, an absolutely terrible film, but produced brilliance such as "You, and your whole crew are dead!"

Hope you enjoyed the first instalment of BUNACTOUR06. You can expect instalments to become smaller as I run out of pictures and my motivation decreases :)

Simon

Safely home

2006-10-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well after the most exhausting but most rewarding month ever, im back home!
So how am I?
Well im not jet lagged or even tired which is very surprising! Its nice seeing everbody again and having internet and the car (and a snazzy new phone!). Its nice to watch the football again too.
So how am I?
Well the truth is not brilliant. I really miss vancouver, miss having my own place, and miss Lindsay. Still im sure i'll get used to England again in time. Ive spent 3 days getting all the little things sorted so Monday means its time to get a job! I guess how good that job is determins what (and where) i'll be doing in a years time.

And to anyone whos thinking, where are all these USA tour pictures eh? Don't worry, i'll update all that stuff next week! So for now, thanks to my Canadian (and English of course) friends for a fantastic year, to Jess for making me very feel welcome around the house! And to Lindsay for too many things to bore everyone else with a list right now :)

Greetings from San Francisco!

2006-09-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome from the home of the golden gate bridge. Well, dont expect this to be a regular occurance but as the gang havent arrived yet and im on my own i have time for a quick post. The flight over was very easy and i found the hostel easily (it is a grid just like vancouver after all). I even got upgraded free to "economy plus" whatever that is! But it meant free leg room and more drinks! I have to admit i did feel slightly lost arriving here on my own, but i decided to walk around the city for a good 4 hours to get my bearings and i have a reasonable idea where I am now! That cheered me up and tomrrow if the weathers nice im going to rent a bike and cycle over the bridge, that should be fun! A guy in my room just happens to be from Newcastle! (what are the chances!!) So we're heading off tonight for a couple beers and a game of pool, smashing

Simon

Kayaking!

2006-08-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

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!)

2006-08-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

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?

Steveston = Fish and Chips

2006-07-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

After many months in Canada I couldn't resist the urge of proper fish and chips any longer (even though I don't even particularly eat fish back home!). So me and Lindsay set off for an exciting adventure to Steveston, a tiny fishing village/touristy place just outside of vancouver.

The first problem was just how to get past the spider in the garage, im not going to mention any more about this because of a later incident with a huge flying killer insect that won't be mentioned ever again will it? When we got there we found a British shop that sold british sweets and stuff, excellent!! A bottle of tizer, and some proper dairy milk were the order of the day, worth the trip in itself!

We went to possibly the most bizarre museums ive ever been to. And when i say been to i mean, go in, look at the gift shop then immediately leave. It was an experience though...

To sum steveston up, great place to visit for the day, probably hell to live in. Enjoy the pictures! SPIDER!!

Who's the mystery woman on the street?

Deep down she's just a cannery girl

Ah, the Cannery. Thats "double n"

Still looking for North Vancouver

As some of you back home may not realise, all Canadian's are given this costume at birth and when they hear someone is in need they quickly run to the nearest phone box and change, ready to offer assistance

We waited for ages for this strange lady to leave so we could take a photo, but she never did! (thats the lady in the green i'm talking about)

All I need in this one is a Union Jack

Some passing lady was persuaded to take this, didn't do such a bad job either

No water had been spilled at this point

Nice day for a BBQ

2006-07-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well with temperatures reaching a 35 degrees (35 degree's! We're English, thats no good to us!) we decided to have a nice "shady barbeque". Thats a BBQ in the shade rather than another type of shady barbeque (i apologise to whoever I used this joke on last time, the first time it was off the cuff and therefore funnier). Jade wanted to come back and see the gang, and also Ian. After a few weeks in the UK Jade, an Australian who'd spent a year in Vancouver, had somehow managed to get sunburned, quite an acheivement.

After the BBQ we headed down to the beach for a swim, me and Gav were first to dive into the icy cold/luke warm water (it really was, oddly) and after some persuasion Ian (who didnt want to mess up his hair) and Paul (who had contacts in) joined us. Of course we left the girls to soak up the sun and guard our stuff! Me and Paul finished the day by a nice romantic cinema trip to see Pirates of the Caribbean (sp!?) it was good, much better than I thought, still I think seeing it 3 times in a week is a little keen (you know who you are). Enjoy the pictures... Paul was glowing at the prospect of eating his horrible cheap sausages (that no one has touched after a week in Andy and Ian's fridge)

Ian loves BBQ's you can see it in his eyes Me, Paul and a Mountie. We almost look like we're dressed for military action, what type of military action tho I couldn't say
Andy and Laura were already waiting for us at the beach
Without Andy around, we took an opportunity to live like Andy for 5 minutes
After months in vancouver, Scotland finally realised Gav had gone missing and sent a boat to take him home, nice knowing you Gav
4 young strapping lads fresh from the sea

This time last year

2006-07-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well, as my mam reminded me, a year ago to the day I graduated from Lancaster Uni (this isnt infact my graduation picture but it is from Lancaster at least! they're all pretty much the same anyway). Cant beleive a years gone by so quickly! What are we all going to be doing next year!? Paul will probably be in New Zealand, Liz will probably be living in Scotland, Keenie will probably be a millionaire, who knows!

Meredith's BBQ

2006-07-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Well after drinking beer all night in the Kingshead, we decided to have a night off the beer. So myself, mr hodge and miss barrett decided to get creative and make some cocktails. The occasion? A BBQ at Merediths house...

Hard at work...

Cheers

Meredith was an excellent host

Me and Gav are having a who looks the scariest competition, who's the winner?

Gav looks a little posessed

Someone had the bright idea to blow up a watermelon

Success!

Classic Gav

GST Rebate! Did anyone else know about it?

2006-07-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows the GST has just fallen from 7% to 6%, big deal it'll save you about 3c on a coffee eh? Actually its better than it sounds. The canadian government have just deposited my account with $70! A 1% GST rebate from 2005, nice! I reccomend you guys check your accounts and see if you've got one too unless you knew about this already.
Si

Science World!

2006-07-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

Its a 3 post spectacular today, so enjoy!

Me and Keeny went to Science world ages ago! and ive finally got round to putting some pictures up The lego thing was excellent, even if keeny got scared occasionally
He did however set the record for reaction times (until someone beat him a few minutes later, I...was rubbish)
Cant remember the point of this one
Lifting a third of your own body weight is easy!
Unless your keeny

Gav the wannabe Englishman

2006-07-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

After an utterly unsuccessful footballing history Gav has decided to stop supporting scotland and follow england. We welcome him with open arms. He says his favourite player is David Beckham because he likes his hair

Introducing Lindsay...

2006-07-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

Its about time I introduced a newcomer to the world of simon's blog. The BUNACers know about her already but perhaps some of you other readers don't. Today we went to Stanley Park, unfortunately we forgot about it being a public holiday and everyone else in Vancouver went there too! Luckily despite an early onset of road rage it turned out to be a lot of fun!

In a break from recent outings we decided to actually bring a camera this time. Which resulted in some marvelous pictures of erm, a big rock

Here it is in its full glory

Not a cloud in the sky, actually i dont think ive seen a cloud for a couple weeks

Still a little snow on the mountainsIm a little dark in this oneI asked Lindsay to look "rock like" on this one, did she achieve it? you be the judge Looking for North Vancouver, its around here somewhere

Liam and Stephen are here!

2006-06-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Well its been an action packed couple of weeks so what have the 3 of us been upto? Well, stephen and liam have mainly being doing the touristy things. Infact Liam has taken about 400 pictures, most of the identical ones of Kits Beach (it keeps him busy though).

We rented a car and went down to Seattle for a couple of days. The trip mostly consisted of the same old tourist things (including a very interesting tour of underground seattle), and the occasional beer and burger.

Seattle Public market as seen by night The first ever starbucks, a magical place
Me driving our boatsized car

Right at the start of the week we attempted the "grouse grind". This bascially involves climbing a mountain (i think you climb 2.9km). Myself and Liam completed it in a very respectable time of 53minutes, the fastest out of any BUNAC member so far although Paul claims that his time of 1 hour 10 minutes was slowed because he had to look after Stephen. Thats rubbish though, because as everyone knows Stephen is quite the athlete. Anyhow 1 hour 10 is a pretty good time too.

The gang at the bottom, doesnt look too steep from here...

...Until you get to the top that is Me and Liam filling in the time waiting for the others to show up ;)

Aside from Liam and Stephen coming the most important event this month is of course the world cup. We all went over to token Scotsman Gavins house to watch it and gloat after our magnificent victory. Unfortunately that didnt happen, but it was fun all the same.

Off to the park to make our own funAll of us sitting on a rally car that Gav happened to find in his garage! (really!!)

One last night out was in order at the end of the trip, and to make sure the journey home was a safe one, myself and Kayla decided to borrow some hard hats for the journey.

Poor Keeny...

2006-06-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

We were all enjoying the evening sun in Vancouver yesterday when your friend and mine Mr. Andrew Keen was savagely stung by a wasp on his ear. Some would say this was a one off event but I think something more serious is at play here. I think that the animals have formed a secret pact to injure Andrew Keen.
Just 2 weeks ago Keeny was walking to work when out of no where a crow descended from the heavens and savagely attacked him. Keeny walked away uninjured but its only a matter of time before the crow comes back for him.And most shockingly, mans best friend and perhaps not the most savage breed, the sausage dog attacked him in full view of a shocked beach this week. So far however, he has lived to tell the tale.

Summer Challenge

2006-06-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to get in some sort of reasonable shape im going to set myself a series of challenges for the number.

1. To swim 30 lengths of kits pool. Thats 4,110 metres or 164.4 lengths of a British swimming pool.
2. To do the Grouse Grind 5 times.
3. Thats all I can think of right now but im open to suggestions, maybe we could have a BUNAC decathalon.

Kits Pool!

2006-06-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

I used to think of myself as a good swimmer back in the day, and with this in mind I headed to Kits Pool down the road. Not any old pool though, but Canada's biggest pool! The beast is 137 metres long which is over 5 times the length of a standard British pool. Its wierd in that its half sea water but its heated to a reasonable degree (as long as its warm outside). Its pretty tiring getting from one side to the other. Because I got bored (and yes ok, a little tired) I only managed 14 lengths but im going to get myself a 10 passes for $35 ticket and start going a couple times a week. Anyone want to join me?

Another night at the Kingshead?

2006-06-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

On Friday we had another night out at what is fast becoming our local, the Kingshead. Located within staggering distance home (or not quite staggering distance), the place really comes alive on the weekend and I decided to suggest a starbucks staff night out there...Of course my gang of English accompanied me so that I wouldnt feel lost around so many Canadians although the way it worked out, we sat in opposite tables staring at each other all night. The turn out was pretty good as I remember and after kicking out time, someone had the idea to go for a swim. Brilliant I thought! I love swimming in freezing cold sea water at 1am (well, ok actually I do). Good fun and sore heads were had by all involved especially myself.

On another note, I've been half heartedly trying to grow a beard in the last 2 weeks but alas, after no compliments whatsoever I decided it had to go. The very next day, it gets it first compliment but by that its too late! Pah! You know who you are

Simon

Me Mam's Here!

2006-05-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well its now a week since my mam and its time to document her stay here!

We met up with Liz's parents and went off to lighthouse park in exotic West Van. Its amazing what you take for granted living here in Vancouver and it was nice to be reminded how nice everything was again though someone elses eyes.

(mental note, look into renting a yacht)
(The 3 parents couldnt compete with Simon and Liz's climbing abilities)

Seattle, home of Hendrix, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and most famously Starbucks. I really like this place, perhaps the best thing about it is that it isnt as good as Vancouver and when you come home you feel good about it but apart from that it is a cracking city. Of course being america everything is a little bigger, louder and my patriotic but (for a short trip at least) thats half of the fun.

(The view from the top of the space needle)

(the view from the bottom of the space needle)

Galiano Island for those few of you who dont know already is one of the Gulf Islands situated South West of Vancouver. Meredith generously offered to take us there and to let us use her parents place for the day, more importantly she also let me drive, finally some open road without a bloody cross road every 2minutes!

(the ferry only leaves twice a day)

(im getting into my creative photography arent I)

(Arent I?)

(well its no supprise with a view like that)

(Meredith's place was far better than the hostels me and Chris were use to)

Grouse Mountain! Thanks to some free passes I took my mam to "the peak of vancouver" as chris reminded us on his perfectly renditioned speach.

(T shirt weather and snow)

(Vancouver from above)

(North Van, the best thing about it is that you get a good view of Vancouver)

Thanks for coming Mam hope you had as much fun as I did

Simon

Lets Paint Chris' Room

2006-05-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

This was a good while ago now but the first time ive had a chance to get on and do some blogging in a while. Something about defacing chris' wall was remarkably good fun and i think the end results speak for themself

(hard at work on my unicorn)

(Meredith being swept away)
(Would you trust these two to paint your room? Next target, Keenie)

Rail Trip Info...

2006-05-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one today with no time whatsoever to talk about the fantastic week im having with my mam (there'll be time later), just some vital info for the rail tripping BUNACers! I decided to try and get this thing booked once and for all and emailed a travel company in the UK (you see we cant get the tickets direct from the USA as its only for us international folk. This is their response

"Dear Mr Farthing (thats me),
Thank you for your email enquiry. The price of the 30 day national pass is £239.00p.p., we also charge a £6.00p.p. booking fee and a £5.00 postage charge. We can reserve the trains for you, the first five reservations we do free of charge and after that there is a £10.00p.p charge for every other five you want to make. I think the best thing to do is if you can give us an address in the UK to post to and they can post the tickets on to you. I do require the full names and passport numbers of the all of the passengers. I also need to know which journey is your first trip, as we send you an exchange voucher for the pass and you exchange it for your pass at the first station you get to in America, therefore Amtrak need to know where you will exchange the pass and what date on.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information"

Sounds good to me, and if we act fast (within the next month) perhaps we can all chip in together and someone can book them on a credit card and send them to my friend Liam, he could then bring the tickets when he comes in June. How does that sound? Any questions you want me to ask them? An obvious one is, can we make changes to the journey 'on the fly' and can we book the stations we want to stop at though someone else too. Maybe this trip will have to be planned in terms of when and where we stop, but we can still explore the area we stop in for a few days at a time and stuff. Anyway, what do you guys think?

Metatarsal Injuries, a Personal Perspective

2006-05-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well looks like Wayne Rooney is going to miss the world cup, and with him go the likelyhood of us winning it. I thought I'd take this chance, with the help of the BBC to tell you a little about metatarsal injuries. This is the second time Wayne has broken a metatarsal, other players to suffer a similar injury are Steven Gerrard, David Beckham, Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Ashley Cole, Ledley King, Michael Owen, and myself Simon Farthing.

BBC's website, fountain of all knowledge tells me that a rest period of 4-6 weeks, with no weight on the metatarsal is the best way to heal it. I guess driving to whistler and running in the snow the week after is the reason that mine still isnt properly healed 12 weeks on. Although I can take some comfort from learning that Michael Owen took 18 weeks to recover from a similar 5th metatarsal injury to mine, proving once and for all that I am indeed fitter than Michael Owen. I hope you've all learned something

Simon and Meredith's Day of Adventurous Fun

2006-04-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well after 8 days without a day off thanks to my swanky new job (in a box factory) I decided to take a relaxing trip to the states with a friend of mine and pack in as many things as you can do in a day. First up was the tulip festival somewhere in Washington state, USA. You all know how I love my tulip festivals.

The first thing you learn about the states is that its a little different to Canada. Yeah the people still talk funny, still tell you to have a nice day (well, as opposed to a good day), they all probably say awesome ten times a day too, but somethings different, the people are a little crazy. The border crossing guy for example, Chuck i think he was called (or Hank or something like that). The banter with him was worth the $5 entry fee alone. He couldnt believe that they let Brits work at such fine establishments as Starbucks and thought the idea of two of us having a day off on a Friday to be highly implausible. After some debate though he let us though and wished us well, his gun, CS spray and tatoos of skulls and unicorns meant we treated him with the greatest respect.

First port of call was Denny's. Ok you can get it in Canada too but theres something quintessentially American about it. Our lovely waitress "Kandi" (I kid you not) provided us with excellent service, topping up my coffee after just one sip, I obviously looked like i needed to wake up. (That big ice cream looking thing is actually butter, there was another scoop of butter which left that gaping hole in my pancakes, mmm)

The 3 hour drive to somewhere in Washington was certainly worth it, I even got to drive my first manual car on the wrong side of the road (thank you!). I have to admit that I dont blame Meredith for being a little cautious as I first tried to enter the car on the wrong side, then couldnt work out how to start it (its different to back home beleive it or not!), but my composed driving style soon reassuringly took over. Now, are you ready for some tulip pictures? Yes, yes you are...

(Who'd have thought it. The statue of liberty in a tulip field, priceless)

(The windmill was said to be one of the most impressive monuments in "Tulip Town")

(Myself surrounded by tulips)

(Would you beleive it, more tulups) (A stunning artistic shot there, what a memory)
(This had to be the best tulip festival ever)
(Sunderland coloured tulips)
(you guessed it)
(It was 24 degrees, in April! So im freckled up) (Angelic (if not a little disturbing))

Well after all that excitement it was time to go home, and on to the next project. Im getting tired of typing and uploading pictures now but bascially we decided to get chris a new look for $10. Did we succeed, did we ever, we even gave him a new hair cut. Ive obviously got hair dressers genes in me eh mam? (Thanks Han) We also went for a swim in a private pool that belongs to a friend of ours and some gentlemen referred to our informal style of dress. But thats a whole other story...

(Back home to Canada)

(Rocky road, not as tasty as you'd imagine)

(Stylish new chris, to a certain extent)

Well all I know is that no tulip festival will ever live up to that one. Would I go back again? Certainly not

Happy St. George's Day!

2006-04-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

While the rest of Canada was still recovering from the easter weekend, us Brits dived straight into our St. Goerge's Day celebration. Of course, we've never bothered before but being away from home means you have to make that extra effort doesnt it? Enjoying Vancouver's un-naturally warm April we had not one, not three but two barbeque's! Wild...Me and Andy even went for a swim in the ocean which was unsurprisingly extremely cold. If you want to see those pictures, theres something wrong with you, check Pauls blog for details. (Its fun to stay at the YMCA) (What a nice picture of Ian and Jade, aaw)
(Cheers Ian, better watch you dont have one too many tho)
(Why you rarely catch me in a hat or sunglasses)
(oh dear, Ian's had one too many)

It Lives!

2006-04-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well after being dead for a couple of days my ipod seems to have came back to life. And with generous CD donations he's fuller than ever. Back of the net

Road trip troubles...

2006-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

The road trip has been main topic of conversation over the last few days and true to form simon has been looking into stuff...Alamo wont let us under 25's rent a van and i cant find anyone else who will either, which leaves too options. Andy, Paul, and Gav drive, or we take the train. The cost of them driving would be $4,000 + gas. So lets say $700 each after gas.

Now I was probably the least in favor of this when it was first suggested but now i think it makes sence. You can go with Amtrak and get a 30 day rail pass that lets u go anywhere in US or Canada for $1000, expensive!! However, a US only pass is only $395 which is think is much more like it. Obviously we'd have to get into the states first but thats no problem, also we could even head home on the train after saving the cost of a flight (unless we're sick of the bloody train by this point :) ).

Why dont you guys check it out and tell me what u think, I havent looked into it all that much but what i have seen is pretty convincing , we can always rent cars and do our own thing in the cities we visit on the way
http://www.amtrak.com/

World cup Sweepstake

2006-04-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Winner takes all, $5 entry fee, all team names or the names of top ranked teams pulled randomly out of a hat (e.g. if only 10 people enter, the 10 top ranked teams will enter the hat.

· ANGOLA
· ARGENTINA
· AUSTRALIA
· BRAZIL
· COSTA RICA
· IVORY COAST
· CROATIA
· CZECH REPUBLIC
· ECUADOR
· ENGLAND
· FRANCE
· GERMANY
· GHANA
· IRAN
· ITALY
· JAPAN
· KOREA
· SAUDI ARABIA
· MEXICO
· NETHERLANDS
· PARAGUAY
· POLAND
· PORTUGAL
· SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
· SPAIN
· SWEDEN
· SWITZERLAND
· TOGO
· TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
· TUNISIA
· UKRAINE
· USA

Anyone fancy it? We can do the draw next week (Canadian residents only :) )

A game of two halfs

2006-04-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Or rather, a game of 7mins on then 7mins off. It was football time last night and the lack of English people mentioning no names Andy and Andy didn't stop it being a classic 4 a side affair. Banksy was his usual smooth self with arguably the best goal of the night, a Di Canio esq volley direct from his own keepers long clearence that left the opposition keeper no chance. I scored my best goal ever in canada with a thunderous volley from the half way line (or erm 10 yards). In other news today I think my ipod has finally died, any donations of cd's to compensate me during this tough time would be greatly appreciated

Duggans gone, and taken the good weather with him

2006-04-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well its been about a week now since Mr Duggan set sail for Royal Brittania, and the good weather has gone too. Its been rainy and miserable ever since...Until today! When we had lovely sunshine. We went on a random driving adventure to West Vancouver and came across Lighthouse Park which boasted a great lighthouse and equally good park. Good fun was had by all and we even had an ale or two (two) at Darby's rooftop terrace. I'll post something more interesting and substantial when I do something more interesting and substantial :) Its pretty much summer now though so the possibilities are endless

At last! A night out with real Canadians!!

2006-04-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Well after 6 months and 3 days i've finally had a night out with Canadians in Canada, awesome (as they say). The night started in our local Darby's where myself and Bethany (a Canadian) showed up roughly on time. Of course, I took along 8 of my British pals for company and thats how the night went on for the first couple of hours. 11 o clock though saw the arrival of Karina, Johnny, Lindsay, Stephanie, and Ian bringing the Canadian total up to a magnificent 6. Meredith's arrival was the cherry on the cake raising the bar further to seven. Still, there were more Brits than Canuks but we got close, maybe next time...

Whistler Part Deux

2006-04-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

First of all I apologise to those of you who will look at pretty much identical pictures on this, Ian's, Paul's, and the other bloggers sites, but we took so many pictures this weekend that it'll be worth your while looking at them. With Chris and Ian's friend Hannah both coming to visit this week we decided it would be perfect timing to head back to whistler and see the last of the winter snow. First thing we did when we got up there was hit the head for the pub, afterall Whistler has a "party town" reputation. The night got off to a crazy start with me and Ian spending half an hour reading the paper, but quickly settled down as we headed onward. Its fair to say that we got pretty drunk, but a quick McDonalds breakfast and we were ready to go Ski-dooing.

Me and Ian in Canada's wildest party town Us lot in possibly the worst club ive ever been in (apart from Klute), we later went to a better one where we met Toadfish from Neighbours
Liz enjoing her last seconds of happiness before Chris slapped her across the head (dont worry he didnt really)
King Banks lord of the dance floorCant remember this been taken

Ski-dooing was excellent fun, they get to over 40mph on compact snow apparently and felt really bloody fast. It does get dangerous tho and Hannah was getting bored of going round the course so decided to park her Ski-doo in a ditch. Unbelievably she escaped uninjured, excellent!

Parked up before we set off for the afternoonGav taking an action shot

Hannah's Ski-doo (whats left of it)

All the gang with helmet hair, looking a little weery

Me and Chris half way up Whistler mountain

Whistler - Part One

2006-04-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

Before we get into it, lets start with the professional pictures that we paid through the nose for :) The gang with our first Ski-Doo
Me chasing someone up a hill
Gav lining up King Banks for an overtaking move
Me leaving Hannah in my wake
Chris trying to kill himself
And nearly succeeding

Me trying to do a Chris and getting some air

The Subways!

2006-04-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last week all the male members of the Macdonald household along with Chris' good pal Erin and up and coming Vancouver hostess miss Meredith Baker went to see the Subways in Richards on Richards. It has to have been one of the best and most random nights thus far in vancouver! Here are the pictures...

We got pretty close to the action

Shame we missed a picture of Chris falling on his head

The boys looking slightly intoxicated

The gang minus Chris, Meredith holding a Corona that I would later cruelly steal

Best local ever/generous taxman?

2006-03-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

Following in the fine tradition of The Station in Langley Moor, The travelers Rest in Durham, and Gz in Lancaster, its nice to again have a local pub. This time its early days but possibly the best local i've had, its equidistant from my house and the batcave, its fairly cheap, has good beer, and a bartender who is friendly and agrees with whatever you say no matter how ridiculous it is, spot on! Last night me and Keeny went in sat in our chairs at the bar and Keeny even got himself a free beer, the bartender (Kevin, or is it Keith?) took pity on him for not joining me in a refreshing pint of strongbow. He even put on a 'UK hits' satilitte radio station for us, good lad.

In Canada you have to declare your own taxes, which i did leaving me $130 to claim back. However, unlike the British equlivilent the Canadian's realised I'd been paying too much of the tax that you can't claim back, and gave me it back anyway! Meaning i got $260 back instead! Thank you Canada

Power cut!

2006-03-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

Much of Vancouver was plunged into chaos last night as a power cut wiped out over half of the city. Fresh back from the pub, Keeny tried to "shed some light on the situation" (Paul writes my jokes), with his handy pocket torch. This set up a romantic candle lit evening with the Macdonald house minus Chris plus new best friend for the week (until Andy comes back to snatch him away) Ian. The fun ended after around an hour until the morning, when it appeared a second power cut occured at around 2am. Hilariously, literally 3 customers at work looked paniced as they happily sleplt through their flashing alarm clocks. One customer remarked, "I thought it was funny that my clock read 12:00 but it was getting light outside".

(An artists impression of last nights events)

Another one of those things that you can't mention on your blog

2006-03-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

Well, after the break up of "those two". That incident with "you know", and the "I didn't see that one coming!", and the incident with keeny and the chimpansee, theres been another incident that can't be mentioned on anyones blog. I'd like to apologise in advance for the next two weeks of moodyness and drunkenness, im sure everything will settle down again soon :)

Also, Big Mick has been sacked by fans favourite chairman Bob Murray. I don't know whether im supprised or not.

A little homesick

2006-03-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

Well its day 151 in Vancouver and for the first time in months im a little homesick. So i've decided to take a trip down memory lane and put up some pictures of the lads and lasses back home that I found lying around, enjoy... (Left to right, Jess, Gillian, Gareth, Tom, Me, Ed, Cog, Tom and Becky at the front in the friary)
(Richard, Cog, Tom, Phil, Me and Chris - looking happy about something)
(Dave harrasing me on the dance floor)

(Tom, me, Jenni, Dave and Robin)

(If you have a bar to yourself you tend to experiment a bit)

(The 6foot2" Corona bottle from work i "borrowed" at 6am after the staff party)

(Its the lads in Budapest, not really dealing with the 40degree sun too well, left to right Mark, Jarus, Ed, Anthony, Me and Gareth)

Duggans coming!!

2006-03-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

After working more than 25 hours a day for the past 4 months Mr Chris Duggan has earned the right to a holiday. He's coming to sunny Vancouver (which will hopefully be sunny by then) on March 31st! I've already got a Canucks game and a road to trip to either Whistler or the Island in store, i'll get my thinking cap on for the rest of the week. Talking of caps, how about a whitecaps game they should be playing by then, anyone fancy it?

(Anthony, Chris, Me, and Phil. All looking totally sober for my 21st birthday)

All hail King Banks

2006-03-01T16:04:00.000-08:00

(Paul Banks)

Job number 8?

2006-02-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

Well its been a restless time during the last two weeks where unfortunately i've only managed to hang on to two jobs at once, but it looks like Auntie Pol's favourite neice see here has managed to get me in the door at the Honda garage. Ok so washing cars isnt too exciting but it pays well and you get to drive the cars around a bit, so hopefully i'll get the job. Cheers for that Liz.

Picture Frenzy

2006-02-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

Tired of spending all our weekends hung over, me and Gav sprung out of bed (seperately) and embarked on an a North Vancouver adventure (whilst being hungover). We went to the Capilano suspension bridge, widely regarded as one of the most quite good and over priced tourist traps in Vancouver. Luckily, using our boyish charm we managed to get in for students and got our moneys worth.

(The view was said to be even more spectacular than the river wear)

(Gav - Not looking all that steady)

(Some big totem pole things)

(February in Canada - T-Shirt weather? Oddly yes it was 10 degrees)

(Gav took his time to think about which direction his life was heading, and what we'd get for dinner)

(Although we did find the Ewok village, we only found some trout)

We then went home only to bump into Andy and Ian, two of our most favourite Londoners. Stuck for something to do we headed off to the thrift store to stock up on 1980's board games.

(the boys, dreaming of the thrift store)

Following our North Van adventures, the following weekend involved one plan, driving a car. The excuse was that Liz needed driving practice (not because shes a bad driver, because she's taking her Canadian test soon). After toying with the idea of driving to Ikea, we decided Whistler would be far more fun so off we went. Because Gav slept in me and Liz got to have all the fun and do the driving ourselves. When we arrived, we went for an afternoon of tubing, definantly the best winter sport you can do with a broken toe)

(The gang! Pontiac Sunfire, Gav, Ian, New Liz, Ellie, and Myself)(Tubing - being pushed down a Mountain on a rubber ring)

(The view from the Gondola)
(Beats the dry ski slope at Willington hands down)

(The sun as seen from Whistler)

We have a winner!

2006-02-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

After the 50th vote was cast I decided to call an end to the competition. Also, as it was posted on my blog I decided to do the sportmanlike thing and disqualify myself from the competition leaving Ian the overall winner. The presentation ceremony will take place soon. Hard luck Paul who was edged out by one vote. Maybe Ian would like to share a little of his Mars Bar or a hand shandy.

Serial Job Collector

2006-02-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

What do a...
bowling alley attendant
coffee shop barista
admin assistant
stadium bartender
restaurant bartender
newspaper promotions assistant
warehouse worker
...have in common?

They're all jobs ive had in Canada! Not to let down my reputation as a job collector i have a newspaper promotions job (handing out the newspaper) and a special 3 day only warehouse job counting stock for IKEA. Its all about the doller

Broken toe!

2006-02-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

I've only just found out that I broke my toe 6 days ago! I did it after this Asian Canadian guy went in on a late challenge on me playing football. It hurt a bit at the time but not enough to stop me playing for a further hour. The doctor told me I have to take it easy and as its far away from the heart it will take 8-10 weeks to heal!! So no football for me for the next 4-6 weeks! No going easy on it either as I work on my feet all day, ah well im sure itll heal eventually.

P.S. Lads, if you feel the need to go in hard on the guy at football next week thats quite alright with me.

New Housemate!

2006-02-13T17:01:00.000-08:00

On behalf of myself, Chris and Keeny i'd like to welcome Liz to the Macdonald household. After searching far and wide and considering a vast array of nationalities we decided on Liz from Oldham. Well, us Brits are just great aren't we.

The Sun has got its hat on...

2006-02-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

...Hip hip hip hip horay. The sun has got its hat on and its coming out to play.

Unbelievably us Vancouverites are experiencing a second day of sunshine in only two days. The local authorities have announced a hose pipe ban to deal with the unexpected conditions.

Also, as im feeling generous im willing to offer the author of the best blog a free mars bar. So whos blog is the best? I've voted but im not telling you who i voted for

Tea time!

2006-02-04T21:06:00.000-08:00

Me and ellie went to a tea shop and had some proper nice tea. Champion!

We even got some english style (probably chinese style actually but i like to call it English) tea cups. I even invested in some loose tea and a strainer thing so i can recreate that authentic tea experience in the comfort of my own home. Another wild day in Vancouver :)

Simon

Rain, rain, rain, rain, sun!..Then more rain

2006-02-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

Well didn't we pick a fine year to visit Vancouver. January was officially the wettest month ever in Vancouver with a staggering 29 out of 31 days of rain. This was really starting to get the gang down until finally a day of sunshine arrived! And here it is...

February also marks the month we start looking for a new housemate. We hope to have the 4th member of the Macdonald household sorted out by tomorrow. Exciting times!
Simon

Vancouver to Toronto

2006-01-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

After weeks of talking about it i've finally decided to plan an very rough route from Vancouver to Toronto. No one knows who'll make the final 7 (or if we'll get another car), or what we'll be buying/renting, but tell me what you think of the route and we'll work the rest from there.

The miles are based on a 2 year old Road Map and they didnt give you distances interstate so some of them are a wild guess :)

Day 1. Vancouver, BC to Banff, AB
Highway 1 - 550miles

Day 2. Banff, AB to Calgary, AB to Glacier National Park, MT
Highways 2 and 5 - 200miles

Day 3. Glacier National Park, MT to Bozeman, MT
Highways 89, 15, 90 - 350miles

Day 4. Bozeman, MT to Yellowstone National Park, MT
Highway 89 - 80 miles

Day 5. Yellowstone National Park, MT to Mount Rushmore, SD
Highway 212 - 450 miles

Day 6. Mount Rushmore, SD to Sioux Falls, SD
Highway 90 - 330 miles

Day 7. Sioux Falls, SD to Des Moines, IA
Highways 29 and 80 - 300 miles

Day 8. Des Moines, IA to Iowa City, IA
Highway 80 - 114 miles

Day 9. Iowa City, IA to Chicago, IL
Highway 88 - 210 Miles

Day 10. Chicago, IL

Day 11. Chicago, IL to Indianapolis, IN
Highway 65 - 180 miles

Day 12. Indianapolis, IN to Fort Wayne, IN
Highway 69 - 128 miles

Day 13. Fort Wayne, IN to Cleveland, OH
Highways 24 and 80 - 250 miles

Day 14. Cleveland, OH to Niagra Falls, NY
Highway 90 - 250 miles

Day 15. Niagra falls, NY to Albany, NY
Highway 90 - 300 miles

Day 16. Albany, NY to Boston, MA
Highway 90 - 180 miles

Day 17. Boston, MA to Cape Cod, MA
Highway 6 - 70 miles

Day 18. Cape Cod, MA to Montreal, QU
Highways 6, 93, 91 - 250 miles

Day 19. Montreal, QU

Day 20. Montreal, QU to Ottawa, QU
Highway 417 - 120 miles

Day 21. Ottowa, QU to Toronto, ON
Highway 201 - 230 miles

Day 22. Toronto, ON

Day 23. Toronto, ON to New York, NY
BUS $50

Day 24. New York, NY

Day 25. New York, NY

Day 26. New York, NY to Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC
FLIGHT $150, BUS $40

Total cost including spending money, accomodation, rental, flights and car should be about $2,500 Canadian.

Simon

Daniel Sedin...

2006-01-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Ellie and I went to vancouver's only Swedish bakery, and who did we run in to other than Vancouver Canucks left winger Daniel Sedin! He's part of the Swedish Sedin twin combination so it makes sence for him to be sat outside a Swedish bakery. Ellie and Dan (as we like to call him) chatted for a few minutes while I stared into space trying to pick up the odd word. He seemed a top bloke tho, and we felt honoured at meeting the hockey equivilent of Phil Neville. Next week im off to Ikea in search of Sven Goran Eriksson.

Soccer? Pah! Thats not what we call it round here mate

2006-01-18T12:20:00.000-08:00

As part of our ongoing cultural exchange, myself and a 8 strong army of Brits decended upon West Point Grey Community Centre for a good old fashioned game of football. Of course, from the 20 or so players about 15 were Brits, its what you expect, we did invent the game after all. Infact, if you include the swedish guy and a girl who was quite possibly spanish there were probably only 3 real life Canadians present. But in a departure from our usual ways we decided to mingle with the multinational crowd, before testing out our physical, long ball, Greham Taylor style of play. They all seemed to be good lads except for a few exceptions, i'm sure we'll enjoy the run around every week. Better still, my local "Darby's" give 2 for 1 pitchers of beer for sports teams, excellent.

I'll leave you with this message from the Iraqi Information Minister:

Not much to report

2006-01-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

But before I start here's the quote of the day from none other than Mr Thomas Owen of Cornwall:

"To the United States two hundred miles is no distance but to britain it is a long way, whereas two hundred years is a long time in the US and no time at all in Britain" - very true

Another one along the same lines from Ted a Canadian I worked with at the shaughnessy restaurant:

"I was in York visiting York Minster when some American guy said, 'woah that building is really old, is it pre War?' A nearby Englishman said, it's pre America!" - true story

Anyway whats happening in Vancouver...Not much really! Back to working 35hours at *$'s coffee shop and back on the look out for bar jobs. The lads have started playing football every tuesday night which is a laugh except the canadians make you play with hockey goals and only let you on the pitch for 7mins at a time, fools! Its good fun tho.

(the Vancouver Kings Head Inn (not shown here)

Went to a couple of good pubs this week including the Kings Head Inn, an english theme pub complete with english beer such as Becks, Stella Artois and Kokanee. Ok not particularly english then but good all the same. Elwoods and the legion also get a notable mention.

And for good measure I'll leave you with a photo from Tofino stolen from Gavin's webpage:

(the four in Tofino, prizes for naming who's who)

Simon

I would drive 500 miles...

2006-01-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

Well, i just got back from a driving holiday to Vancouver Island and it was great! After a long december it was nice to get away for a couple days and see some more of BC. And like the proclaimers we too drove (not walked thatd be silly) 500 miles (but not 500 more).

Myself, Gavin and Paul were the designated drivers, with Andrew and Becca the tag alongs :) We started the journey by renting a 1998 3.5L V-6 145HP Ford Taurus. The car was pretty fun to drive and a bit of an all round beast! This thing was about as wide as 2 nissan micras which made inner city driving fun! We set off from downtown Vancouver and boarded the ferry..

(our car)

The ferry ride went pretty smoothly and we even took time to explore the luxurious "sun deck"

(me trying to look nautical and holding on so I wasn't blown overboard)

We arrived at the port city of Nanaimo, this place is pretty much your standard port, and as the locals told us there was nothing good there we drove straight through on our way to the tiny town of Tofino in the North West of the Island. The roads were really fun mountainous trails with "Slow down!" signs around every turn. Amusingly, we thought we had a duff map that only featured the major roads until we realized there are no other roads of Vancouver Island. Once we reached Portville there were only two possible destinations, which meant not even we could get lost (on the way there at least).

(The middle of nowheresville, still time for a quick leak [Andrew] and a fag [Gavin] though)

We arrived at the hostel in Tofino before the light faded and were supprised by the standard of the place. It was spotless, there was a sauna, free pool and table football, and even a lovely fake log fire overlooking the pacific. Not bad for $21 a night. The main reason to go to Tofino is to see Long Beach (they also have short beach, small beach and big beach imaginatively). But after an hour and a half of driving country lanes in the dark we could only find "The Wickaninnish Inn at the Point". Ah well, at least they had a little beach for us to run around on

(Not one of Canada's best known landmarks)

We then retired for a quick game of pool and an early night

(some of us went for earlier nights than others)

We got up at 6am (actually I dragged them up) and set sail (drove) to Amphitrite Point Lighthouse and walked a little of the Wild Pacific Trail

(it seemed funny at the time :) )

(anyone fancy a swim?)

We did manage to get some great pictures of the lighthouse and the pacific. The storms at sea are pretty violent and hugely impressive to watch.

We then set out in search of long beach and when we found it we werent disappointed. The beach is too vast to even see the other side and we even went for a wade in the water. The pacific ocean is pretty cold in January :)

After this we set off for the long drive to Victoria, capital of British Columbia. To be honest, we were all pretty exhausted by the trip so only stayed in Victoria for a couple of hours. We found it pretty boring but I'd like to go back in the summer perhaps and give it a second chance. It seemed like it was trying to be England, we even had afternoon tea and scones (i had 6 cups, excellent).

(English style tea shop complete with those funny horse shoe things you find in pubs and pictures of the royal family)

(Random pictures of Victoria)

We then took the car home on the ferry and said our goodbyes to the Island

(The car, not as cramped as it looks here)

It just goes to show how different it is in Canada. We drove 500miles/800km which is the majority of the length of England, but in Canadian terms this is a small trip, we only covered about 20% of the length of our province, BC! It was lots of fun tho and hopefully theyll be plenty more adventures to come, next up, California with Ellie, I can't wait!

Simon

Happy new year!

2006-01-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

So here's some photos from Christmas...

Bull Junior and Senior have a game of darts before being beaten by the unbeatable S.I. combination who recorded their first victory in 3 months that day.

the gang

Did you hear the one about the Englishman and the Scotsman?

Everyone was so drunk in this picture that Gavin still appears upside down in our minds

365 days a year...

2005-12-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

Well the time has come to decide when im coming home, and i decided i just wouldnt be happy with myself unless i went for the full "canada experience" so i've decided to stay until October 3rd 2005 (arriving at 11.25GMT to be exact). This leaves me with mixed emotions, happy that ive got loads of time to do everything i want, but a little worried about how exactly im going to finance it. With the Shaughnessy job coming to a close (3 days to go!!) i'll have to find a new job fast, and to be honest, working 60 hours a week wasnt why i came here so it'll have to be well paid too. I'm hopeful tho, you never know whats round the corner :)

Ian did a very cool list of things to do while in Vancouver, so im going to attempt something similar. Perhaps better (only kidding Ian). Every month i'll look back and tick or cross the ones I managed or didnt manage

Simon's monthly Vancouver plan

January
Go snowboarding in Whistler
Find a job paying $10+ an hour
See Coldplay
See a Canucks hockey match
Get drunk more often

February
Snowboarding on the local mountains
Go to a gig in richards on richards or commadore ballroom
Go to a good club
Rent a bass guitar
Go to the Storm brewery tour

March
Properly explore California in my rented car
Buy new camera memory card and take millions of pictures
Live like a king for 3 days in San Francisco (whilst staying at a hostel)
See a top sporting event, preferably NBA
Visit Universal Studios
Spend the night in Yosemite National Park
Buy loads of cheap beer at the airport and maybe some fags for Gavin

April
Go to a Canadian soccer match and laugh at their standard of play
Start playing football once a week in a sunday league (not necessarily on Sundays)
Start swimming in kits pool even if it is "brass monkeys"
Visit Vancouver island, Victoria and hopefully Tofino with my mam
Visit stanley park
Go to the top of grouse mountain

May
Have a BBQ on kits beach
Sit on my balcony with a beer watching the world go buy
Eat at Gotham

June
Generally lounge around in the sun all month

July
Give Anthony and whoever else wants to come a tour of Vancouver
Go to the indianapolis grand prix
Visit the motor museum thing
Take some quality photos

August
Convince a friend to come to Vancouver
Show this friend Vancouver...
And go to New York with them

September
Embark of grand tour of Cananda in a car
Drive coast to coast stopping off at interesting places along the way...
Such as Montreal and Toronto
Leave 2238 Macdonald Street

October
Stay at the Hi-Hostel downtown Vancouver and claim my free night
Fly Home

I'll try to do updates on the progress of this every month
Simonx

Birthday!

2005-12-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

At long last i've had chance to put my birthday pictures on! Enjoy...

(Andy's impression of a guitarist was known to woo the ladies world wide)

(A lovely photo of Ian - also everyone else)

(Chris and Debs seem to be having fun, well Chris seems to be at least)

(Well, you've got to have a couple of pints on your birthday haven't you?)

(Me and Ellie - pre-drunk, obviously)

(Chris generously decided to pay the bill)

Busy December...

2005-12-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

(last year's festival of lights in the Van Dusen Botanical Garden where I work)

Well the Shaughnessy restaurant job is going well but working mornings at one job and evenings at another is taking its toll. Luckily though there's only 3 weeks to go but the Shaughnessy job is about to get a whole lot more difficult when the "festival of lights" begins. Its a show that takes place every night through december (except christmas day) and with my restaurant being in the middle of the garden means we'll be very busy and I'll only get 1 day off through December! Luckily though the tips should be pretty nice and with the money saved im hoping to take a trip down to San Fransisco in April, stay tuned for more on that...

Before i forget i'd like to thank everyone for coming out for my birthday, i'll post the pics up soon. I've heard from good authority that a good time was had by all and that Andy in particular enjoyed himself :)

Simonx

Tall people are cleverer than short people!

2005-11-29T16:41:00.000-08:00

(A clever man in a nice suite, and a not so clever person in a dressing gown)

Its official...

from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4481164.stm

"A Children of the 90s study by the University of Bristol found low growth hormone levels were linked to low IQ"

"Short stature, linked to poor post-natal growth and nutrition, is also known to be related to poorer performance in intellectual development tests and in educational achievement"

I knew it

Gray Cup!

2005-11-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

(not the cheer leaders I got to meet)

Well the Gray Cup job turned out to be alright! I got put in the executive box serving free booze to overweight, overpaid, Canadians and got the best view in the house, excellent! Shame that their "football" is no football though. It went on for almost 4 hours and was apparently one of the best games ever. I thought it was rubbish and would have much rather watched Sunderland Vs. Crewe.

It did have its perks tho, I got to meet Fergie out of the Black Eye'd Peas, and the whole Edmonton cheer leading squad which was nice! They didn't have much crack mind but they were just about to go out in front of 60,000 so I guess they werent in the mood to chat. Away from work i'm currently sleeping this week, i'll need it if i get this Shaugnessy restaurant job, if i dont, i'll need to hibernate for christmas in order to pay the rent :)

Simon x

FA Cup Final?

2005-11-24T12:47:00.000-08:00

The BC Place as seen from Cambie bridge (probably)

Its looking up on the job front! I have an interview on sunday for some off licence, an interview this afternoon at a posh restraurant to be a barman, and on Sunday i'm working at the 60,000 seater indoor arena the BC place. Its the CFL (american football for canadians) final, the gray cup and im making sure that 60,000 drunk canadians get a little more drunk as a bartender! Should be fun watching those Canadians get overexcited about soft rugby players running around...

I'll tell you all how it went next week

Simonx

Funny old world

2005-11-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

I was lying in bed at 8am this morning (as you do) and i got a call from an unknown number. It turned out to be the offer of work for one day in an office...Its not 10am and here I am! My main executive duties include taking notes from one end of the building to another, photocopying things and asking the clients if they would like any coffee. So basically im an office junior, ah well! Its actually pretty cool, the pays better than Starbucks and im on the 16th floor of a building in the centre of town overlooking vancouver waterside and the rocky mountains, so it beats working in a coffee shop every day :) So far in my 2 hours i've spent 20minutes working and 1hour40minutes reading about Roy Keane's shocking departure from Man Utd. If they need me they'll call me so im told, not the most taxing day of my life but certainly not the worst :)

Simonx

Sorry its been such a while...

2005-11-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

Its been ages since i last updated my blog! Ive moved into my new house and have been working loads so havent had much spare time, all is getting back to normal again now tho :) So what have i been upto...

Well the house is starting to look up (ill put up some pictures when i get to an internet cafe that lets u plug cameras in). Its still pretty scruffy but the main things are sorted. In my room ive got a very very comfortable bed, a tv, and soon my balcony will be neat and tidy

My job at starbucks is pretty fun, they work you pretty hard but time goes quick, and most importantly it means that i have some money coming in so i mightnt be bankrupt by christmas afterall :) (mightnt!) I really want to get a barjob too, for the simple fact itll get me some more money, if i could do that then i could maybe work like crazy for 3 months and take then do some fun stuff and travelling around.

As well as the work theres been a little play too, the lads (and ellie and debs) went to a brewary the other day which was great as the girls dont drink beer so there was more for me! We got chatting to a couple of random canadians and a little tipsy which resulted in me going to bed at 9 o clock! (thats not as bad as it sounds as i had work at 430am!!)

Oh and im getting really into the hockey, its a pretty brutal game but the most similar to football of all the poncy american sports, talking of football all the saturday games (3 of them) are televised starting from 4am which is perfect (if you have a video recorder - think ill have to get to the shops soon the early mornings are killing me!).

Thats all i got time for, ive been texting a few of you but my texts arent reaching home which is more than a little annoying, hopefully ill have that sorted soon :) Ill write a bigger blog in the next couple of days, until then, seeya later everyone
Simonx

Seattle and back again!

2005-10-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy week in the world of Simon. A busy week but the best ive had in a very long time :) Ok so where do i start... First of all im quitting my job at the bowling alley its rubbish! Starbucks is good tho they're very organised! and the people i work with are lovely, im getting to meet some real canadians too which is part of the reason i came here! The only downside so far is the fact that i have to work a 430 am shift on wednesday! argh! still, its only one day though so i hope ill cope.

Vancouver this week has been pretty quiet, as our collective funds run dry we find going out less popular and sitting in the hostel playing pool more popular :) But its really starting to feel like my home now, its pretty easy for an englishman to adapt over here. One thing weve started doing is playing on this drum machine at the arcade. It all started because its next door to the pub and after a few beers you quite fancy hitting something with a stick but we're all adicted now, well, me and andy are everyone else just thinks we're a bit mad. Its my ambition to be able to play "Super shomin car" on expert by the end of the year. Oh yeah, thats the only downside, the game only has a bizarre selection of J-Pop!!

Last weekend me and Ellie took the short trip across the border to Seattle! Seattle is nice, kinda like Vancouver but a little smaller, and less friendly! You can really see the difference between canadians and americans, so when we came back to Vancouver it really felt like home! I think we appreciated where we live more when we came back. We had a superb time, with the highlights being the space needle (big pointy thing) music experience project (really cool place, they even let u practice on all sorts of instuments and give u tutorials of how to play) and this really posh restaurant. It was probably the best place ive eaten, voted the number 1 italian restaurant in seattle! But the best part was just being able to spend some time with Ellie :) Even though I can't speak any Swedish i feel like jag förstår perfekt what shes thinking. And she can understand my accent better than the canadians so she has to translate for me sometimes :)

Anyway thats all i have time for today, except for a few pictures from Seattle, hope everyone is well!
Simonx

(Me and Ellie - for those who havent met her yet!)

(Downtown Seattle)

(The Space Needle. The biggest and pointyist thing in Seattle)

(a load of guitars in the music experience project)

(the famous Seattle Public Market)

Boldly going where no bowling alley attendant has gone before

2005-10-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

Movement on the job front today as ive got myself not one but two jobs! The first, i started on Monday, possibly the most bizarre job ive ever had at a bowling alley made in the 1930's called Commadore Lanes. I work for 3 chinese guys none of which can speak particularly good english. You'd thing my job wouldnt be so complicated, but im going to my third shift tomorrow and im in my myself, having to cash up the tills, fix the lanes (which break at least once every 30mins), clean the place, and work on two tills. Bit of a nightmare job really, but when your desperate for money what can u do :)

I also heard today that im starting at one of the 4 million starbucks in vancouver (seriously in a city the size of leeds theres probably about 50!!). This jobs probably going to be a bit better and for getting the job Ellie gets $50 for refering me which is excellent! Still looking for a "proper job" though. if i could get some marketing work id be looking at $12-18 per hour as opposed to $8.

The most rediculous thing did happen today though. Half way through my shift walked in a bald man with a dodgy Canadian accent wearing scruffy clothes asking where the pool tables were. I pointed him in the right direction and noticed he really looked like Patrick Stewart aka Captain Jean Luc Picard! The girl i was working with thought it definantly was so i went over and asked. He shook off his dodgy Canadian accent that he was obviously putting on and chatted away to me for 5mins. Not what you expect in a shoddy run down bowling alley on one of the scruffiest looking streets in Vancouver!! He seems a nice fella but soon left when i noticed who he was. Unfortunately he didnt tip me for his bottle of water but ill forgive him for that :)

Managed to make $20 tips today though which will go towards the Seattle fund! I've heard from reliable sources (Stenhouse) that its a great place but i think im more excited about who im going with rather than where im going :)

Anyway time for bed, leave some more comments itll give me something to read :)
Simonx

Killers, Job Interviews, and Drunkenness, its been a fun week!

2005-10-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

(the view of Vancouver was nearly as Beutiful as Wharton Park)

Greetings everyone, well im soon to start my second week here and things are looking up! Firstly i have a job interview on monday at the bowling alley (dont laugh!). This wouldnt be so bad if it didnt pay $8 an hour and include working with 3 other people, none of whom speak any english thats better than "hello Mr. Farting" (in a dodgy chinese accent). But hopefully ill get the job and start to make some well needed money!! Ive had an online interview for a shop thats pretty much the same as Dixons, that pays $12 an hour so would be much more like it (just half your dollers to get your pounds).

We've had some cracking nights out this week with the best being on Friday! We went to a place called Gastown which is about 30mins walk from my hostel (we havent worked out how to use the buses yet!) and got some food and a few pints. When i say pints, i mean Canadian pints. Theyre about the same as 3/4 of a pint in our country (rubbish!). After that we went off to a bar and sat there from about 9pm til about 2am resulting in much drunkenness. Cockney Andy briefly fell in love with Ellie's Swedish friend Sanja until he later found out she was leaving the country in 2 days time (which was a complete coincidence by the way). Saturday was a bit of a write off :)

The highlight of the week though has to have been The Killers on Thursday night! They were great and a good time was had by all (all, being me and Ellie!) She has some pictures on her Camera so i'll have to steal them and put them up! As im stuck in the hostel for 2 and a half more weeks (which feels like the rest of my life!) i've decided to make the short 4 hour trip down to Seattle! Im going next Saturday morning and coming back on the Sunday night and taking Ellie with me. I can't wait! :)

Thats about all ive got time for today, hope everyone is well back at home. If you get bored say a little hello

Simonx

Us lot!

2005-10-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice picture of the gang. Of course, in an English theme bar. I'll post some more pictures later.

Greetings from Vancouver - Along with the most cheesy picture i could find

2005-10-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

So, why Vancouver? People always ask me that. My answer is the same as everyone elses who ive met here. Why not! No one really knows why theyre here but we're all having a great time finding out!

Well, its day 9 in Vancouver and on the advice of cockney andy ive decided to start one of these blog things. They seem pretty cool and its a bit of a change from just writing emails all the time. So where do i start...? The people, i flew over (as many of you know) with 40 other "BUNACers" doing the same thing as i am. 9 days on theres about 10 of us left, we're a pretty close knit group at present. Unforunatly ive managed to make friends with 3 people called andy as well as another guy we know called andy, so we've decided to label them "cockney" "bagpipes" "hula hoops" and "andrew" for obvious and not so obvious reasons. The rest of the group are mainly guys but theres a couple of girls thrown in there for good measure, as well as Ellie, a Swedish girl who's been here for 4 months. Shes very nice, maybe ill write more on her later :)

Being true english, we've managed to meet no Canadians whatsoever, i think thats partyly because they dont understand a thing I say. We also tend to stick to the english and irish pubs, dont want to make too big a cultural jump at once do we? ;) I went out the other night with a glaswegian and a guy from aberdeen. I swear they thought we were speaking german :) Seriously though, the canadians all seem nice, im sure we'll start meeting some when we get jobs. Talking about jobs, i dont have one! Its about the only thing thats really unsettling me at the moment, and if i dont have one in a couple weeks, ill be on the plane back home! Im sure itll sort itself out soon tho. If not one of you will have to claim the dole on my behalf :)

I do however have a house! Its great and close to the beach which'll be great for the summer. Also, all my mates live nearby so thats cool. Have to slum it in a hostle for 3 more weeks though before i can move out which is a bit of a nightmare! Or perhaps an "aid to personal development" depending which way you look at it :) Im off to see the Killers with Ellie tonight so dead excited about that!

Hope everyone at home's well, feel free to leave a comment if you get that bored :)
Simon