5am

I was having the most wonderful dream about pineapples when this noise started. At first I thought it was my heart beeping to tell me that something was up with the pineapples. Then I was apple to crack my eyes open a bit to the pitch blackness and thought "the alarms is going off ... but i haven't heard that alarm before". Then my wits kicked open the door, "the phone" .. of course! I crawled to the phone hoping this wasn't a 5am "[family member/good friend] has gone into hospital and is probably never coming out again, would you like to [a] send them some flowers, [b] come and see them before they die or [c] help sign the DNR".

But I was surprised by 30+ of my good friends from Australia (including that Wingus Guy, you know who you are) ringing up to say "HAPPY NEW YEAR". My apologies if I sounded cranky from being woken up but i had only been asleep for 3 hours. I really appreciated the call and if Shannon hadn't been in a deep sleep she would have got on the phone as well, as apposed to the waving from the bed which was pretty tired. But thanks guys, it meant alot that you called.

Happy new year Future people, I hope I can return the favour.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

I would love to write a review for this book but that wouldn't be possible. I don't think I would be able to do the book justice. However what I can say is that I loved this book. Unlike other times I couldn't take this book with me on the way to work as its only 15 minutes to work and that's hardly time to read a book as I know, I would be reading and completely miss my stop. The book completely engrossed me and at 1005 pages, I didn't want it to stop. The ending was excellent and even though as I said before I didn't want it to stop, it was a highly satisfying ending.

I started out reading this book as a loan from someone else and ended up purchasing my own copy. I won't give it marks out of 5, 10 or 100. I will say I rate it highly and that it is probably one of the best fantasy novels I have read in years.

Read it, stop reading this blog right now and start reading the book. Seriously! If you've read it and enjoyed it you know what I'm talking about, if you didn't like it, your completely entitled to your opinion.

Christmas

Its been a while since my last post.

Leading up to Christmas I was pretty busy with work but somehow managed to get my Christmas shopping done.

Christmas Eve, we went over to Christine's and had a wonderful roast chicken, potatoes to die for and great stuffing. A friend of Shan's and her mum, Deirdre, was there so we had delightful company. We drank, ate and laughed ourselves silly. It was a great night.

Christmas day came. We prepared our Turkey for dinner and got ready to make breakfast for when Christine came round. Christine showed up with a tonne of presents of which we were not expecting. Some were from Shan, but due to her broken foot could not bring them home so left them with her mum. We opened a few before breakfast. What a haul! Its all a bit of a blur now, so i can't recall in what order we got things, so I'll list them all later. One we did receive before breakfast was a blender which helped us created the nicest pancakes ever for breakfast.

Upon finishing breakfast, we sat by the tree and exchanged gifts. I got shan some mittens and beanie (not a touke, you crazy Canadians) with a pirate skull motif, two books and an Ipod Nano (blue colouring). Shan got me Guitar Hero 2 (joy!) with the extra controller so we can play coop and head to head, BBC production of Pride and Prejudice (of which we have already watched, excellent 6 stars!), and the wifiest gifts you ever did see, socks, underwear and a jumper, all of which i desperately needed and was glad to receive. Christine got us the aforementioned blender, a rice cooker (to alleviate rice debates between shannon and myself) and a poker set (which I've been wanting) with dogs playing poker motif, which got us quoting Simpson's for most of the night.

Rob stopped by for a few hours in the afternoon. We played some guitar hero 2 and a large amount of Texas Hold'em. After a while Rob took his leave to go to another Christmas party, thanks for coming by Rob, shame you missed the Pavlova.

On to the Turkey Dinner. We cooked the Turkey for over 4 hours! It was so juicy. We had cauliflower, roast potatoes, stuffing, the works! The gravy was perfect, the Turkey succulent. The meal, excellent. We stuffed ourselves and the went to the couch. And then proceeded to watch the first half of Pride and Prejudice. As that went along we had Pavlova and were much sated.

Sadly shan's leg started to play up and we had to take her to St. Pauls Hospital. We were quite worried that it was a blood clot in her leg due to her broken foot, but the next day it turned out to be ok. I won't say more as I'm sure Shan will relate it on her blog.

So apart from that, Christmas was perfect.

Vistors from the 4th Dimension!

So I was halfway through Ziggy Stardust (on hard) when I started hearing this noise coming from outside. I looked outside and saw a police box suddenly turn into a taxi. Out jumped the doctor and his lovely assistant. It was a new doctor. I don't think i've ever seen the doctor with mutton chops. I went down to greet them and let these strange people into my home. The doctor said his name was "Bez" but i knew it was the doctor. His assistant was "Shoshe" but I haven't heard of her, probably a new to be released series.

After settling in we went to meet Shannon at the nearby restaurant Las Margaritas. We had a lovely dinner. After which, a little tipsy, wandered back to our place and ate Oreos while we conquered Guitar Hero 2. We went through on Easy and then did some challenges against each other. Heaps of fun. I especially loved the moving between tiers on the map. Reminded me a bit of this. A bit lacking on the track side I thought at first. This would change the following night.

The next day, we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. We hadn't been in a while and we weren't overly sure of what crowds would be like. However since it was slightly rainy we were able to get in and hardly had anyone to contend with. We got to see otter feeding, Beluga Whale show and the Dolphin show. When went to the other exhibits we were delighted to find that they had finished the previous construction and had extended the areas. The new area had spots where you could stick your head into a dome and see the whole tank around you. Those were pretty awesome and allowed for some very silly pictures to be taken. Also for the first time we we actually saw the sloth in the amazon exhibit. The Doc... i mean Bez pointed it out. And then started to tell us about how slothes with different toes can be really nasty. All I have heard in the past was that slothes occasionally killed people by dying and then eventually falling out of trees when sufficiently rotted and killed people by landing on their heads. But I suppose "Bez" was talking about mystical future slothes. I wonder if they ever tussle with the Daleks.

After leaving the Aquarium I left Bez and Shoshe in Shan's capable hands and went to my works Christmas Dinner. It was good to finally meet some of my colleagues from up North and from the Island. We ate and drank a little and then had a raffle, which was setup since they weren't allowed to pay for our drinks due to UBC policy. And guess what, I won something! I won a $50 gift voucher to Earls, which must have been fate since thats where I was going to meet Shan, her Mum and the time travelers after leaving the Christmas party. Upon arrival I had a lovely desert and a couple of girly drinks (which contained enough alcohol to floor a rhino) and then went back to our place to take the medium challenge of Guitar Hero 2.

And what a challenge. Firstly, I thought I was special when I got an encore at the end of the first tier. I thought I had was the bees knees, the cats pajama's and the elephants instep. And then Shoshe got an encore and then Bez got an encore. Now I don't want to discount their efforts as both of them were very good players but then we realised it was the bonus song going from one tier to the next. We played until almost 2am. At the end. Freebird. We were really sure we wanted to play it. So Bez did. It gave him several chances to back out, but he slugged on. And thus he finished it. 9mins long with 83% success. We were very proud and rewarded him with a robotic hand as his old one was completely used up. Solo Q to S really did him in. Then growing tired we crashed.

The next day we went for Brunch at Sophie's Cosmic Cafe. We ate a hearty brunch and then soon it was time for our time travelers to leave to go back to the future ... ok ok .. "Australia". We said our goodbyes as the taxi took them away from us into the future. I asked for horse races and lotto numbers, but "Bez" said that would change history and was not "allowed". Lucky for me he left Gray's Sports Almanac 2000 - 2050. And now I shall rule Vancouver forever!

Thanks for dropping by Bez and Shoshe, it was great to see you.

Well I just lost $5 AUD

I've just finished watching MI:3 and I just lost a bet.

Overall it was a pretty average action film. It had the right explosions and number of bullets to fit the criteria but sadly didn't really hold my interest. I thought out of all the series that it was the best of them. Obviously JJ Abrams was the right choice as director. As always Tom Cruise was not very good, but I've come to expect that with most of the movies he is in.

At least the movie was short.

And as it pains me to say, it was a better film than The Davinci Code.

I have now fulfilled my half of the bet and Dave, I hope you enjoy your $5 AUD. Make sure you spend it wisely.

Free does not equal good

Yesterday I did something very silly.

I work in a hospital and yesterday they were giving free flu shot to anyone who wanted one. I thought "we'll that's probably a good idea. That way I won't get the flu". And so I had them put a needle into my arm. Before that happened they made me read a sheet which pretty much said "you might get sick" if I have the shot but I thought "pfft what are the odds". The next clue that this might not be good was when they asked "So which is your writing arm, I'll give you the shot in the other one". It made me pause but I went ahead with it anyway.

Guess what. I got sick!

It came on slow. Didn't notice it at first. I expected to have a small affect, after all the shot is a smaller form of the flu anyway, whether it was killed or weakened so my immune system could take it over and make sure it didn't have house keys anymore. The it was time to get some lunch. That's when the high fever hit and I started to hallucinate. I saw a chicken-man getting a chicken burger at the kiosk. I couldn't help but stare and then I went and got my tuna wrap. On the way over to the new building where I had to go provide some training, before I got outside, it started raining on the inside. I put up my umbrella and got some very funny looks (also a bought of bad luck as its really bad to put up an umbrella indoors, usually for the umbrella).

That abated after the Tylenol kicked in and then I completed the training session and then went to check out the new lecture theatre. I was going to go and be part of another meeting when the Operations Manager said I looked dreadful and that I should go home. And so I did. And last 30 minutes before a migraine rendered me almost unconscious (luckily enough time to clean the dishes) and I went to sleep for 2 hours before Shannon got home.

And thus I was sick for most of last night with the hot-cold flashes. What was worse was that I had "the Grand ol' Duke of York" stuck in my head for several hours yesterday.

And I still feel like crap.

This whole experience reminds me of plif.

We paid for blood!

Last night I went out with Rob to a Canucks game. It was my first live Ice Hockey game (if you don't include the game we played back in Sydney) and it was Canucks vs the Detroit Red Wings. I can surely say I picked a good game to see. Full of penalties (of which a few I had to query Rob over) and rough housing enough to satisfy the next person (and did, they were cheering all the way through).

The Canucks wanted to win. It was obvious to see. However the Red Wings seemed to want it more. In the end I think the shots on goal from the Red Wings was double that of the Canucks. 3-2 final score. Luongo did his best and saved a hell of a lot of Pucks but the Red Wings got lucky and the Canucks defense could have been better.

The best part of the game was a shot on the canucks goal. Luongo missed it but it hit the top of the goal and bounced off, the ringing noise could be heard from up where we were sitting. It then got stuck in the net and we could see a guy trying to shake the net until the puck dropped out and he caught it. He got a lot of cheering and jeering for that. But, as Rob said, if you paid for tickets where he was sitting it was well worth trying to get a puck.

The main foul came when the Canucks got a third goal disallowed as they said there was "Goalie tampering" because the Goalie was on the ice. But it was plain to see nothing had happened. There was a lot of yelling at that point and my ears started to hurt. But I was yelling to as I was outraged! Outraged I say! Those poor Canucks.

Anyways, I had a great time and would definitely go back and see another game any day.

Its a trap!

Last night Shan and I completed Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy on the PS2. We rented it from our local Vid store (or should I say DVD, I don't think there's any "videos" in the store no more) and had 5 days to play through.

Now I got to play about 30 minutes of the first game at Tancred's place last year and it was fun but a little finicky with camera angles. However I was really looking forward to this game as the original 3 are my favorites (and to go further down which is better search the internets).

The game combines two of my greatest joys, Star Wars and Lego (three if you include the fact that its a computer game). So already I was having fun. You start of as Princess Leia and Captain Antilies. Now I could go further down the story line but you pretty much know it already. There are some creative liberties taken with the story (and overall story length). However the fun came with the silly hats you could make the lego men/woman wear and the silly things they do. And the fact that it was all LEGO! The levels were not overly hard (apart from the ones where you have to fly ships, where each wrong move flips both characters and usually ends up running into blaster fire, snow banks or tree stumps (or all 3). The short clips are hil-arious!

After finishing the game we had only completed 41.9% of the game. I had played the first levels two chapters as single player but to be honest got quite bored without a 2nd player. The only advantage of single player was that the camera angle handled a little better without dragging the other player of cliffs or platforms.

One big thing I noticed while Shan and I were playing was that unless it was absolutely necessary to progressing during a chapter, neither one of us wanted to play the whinny farm boy.

I would give it 4 stars but since I feel the game doesn't really have much replayability I give it 3 1/2.

Now, back to playing Guitar Hero on Hard and defeating the 4th boss in Shadows of the Colossus.

The Empire

Last night Shan and I went to the Commodore and had a lovely dinner and beer while listening to the supporting act before the Cat Empire came on.

To be honest I've been meaning to get around to listening to the Cat Empire for a while. I'd heard 2 of their songs and seen 1 music video of their 2nd CD. I liked what I heard but just didn't get around to it. When we arrived at the end of July and had just missed them at the Blues festival we were a little disappointed. However a month later I was walking around the streets and saw a flyer saying the Cat Empire was playing on their own away from the rest of the festival. So I ran home to tell shan and she had seen the same flyer. So we got a copy of the first CD, we bought tickets and waited.

Fast forward to last night and we were ready for a good show as we liked what we'd heard. And boy, what a show! It started at 10:45 and was still going strong at 1am. We danced non-stop. We were in what would be considered the 4th row if you could put rows in the mosh pit. Jumping up and down and accosted by drunken Irish women, shan and I just kept going. They were quite honestly one of the best live performances I have ever seen. I would put them at number 2 in my list of live performances I've seen. They knew how to entertain and involve the crowd. I had to work the next day but who cared, we dance, we sang, we laughed. It was good to be part of the Empire for the night.

Thanks Cat Empire, we had a great night. I'm still laughing at the irony that we had to come to Vancouver to see an Australian band.

Edit: I meant to also add, while we were waiting for the band to start, I called this out just for Joe and Guy "Play some fucking Chisel"

2nd Edit: I just remembered that while we were dancing there was a Guy who I at first thought was a little obnoxious and creepy as he kept leaning on me while I was dancing. After about 1-2 minutes I turned around to see what the hell was his deal and the guy looked like he could barely stand. He was either drunk as a skunk or high as a kite. Either way he wasn't coping as he looked like he'd already sweat out half his body weight in fluid. A few seconds later a few security guys came along and pulled him out of the mosh pit asking if he was "ok". He looked like he was about to collapse. While it was a little creepy, hope he survived, he looked like his heart was about to kerplode.

The Cambie

Well my birthday was heaps of fun.

I started the day off at 5:55 am to get up to go to work. I covered the "Nestle Presents" nutritionist convention. So after supporting that for 9 hours I was ready for the Cambie.

We arrived and just as we got there, the Canucks scored a goal evening the points. While waiting for the others to arrive we then got to see the Canucks score again and win the game. It was very exciting to be in a bar when that happened. It also meant I had beaten the curse that I was having on the Canucks as the last 2 games I watched they had lost (before that they had been winning).

Then Kass and Bjorn turned up and Rob shortly followed. And thus we laughed and imbibed libations. For 4 hours straight.

Alcohol consumed by moi:
- 2 screwdrivers (which consited more of vodka than OJ)
- 3 jagermeister shots
- 2 Tequila shots
- countless pints of Granville Island Honey Larger

And then we went to Rob's and played Guitar Hero. And there was much rejoicing and passing out. A good night was had by all.

Zombie Joey Ramone can kiss my ass!

We went out to the Keg for dinner tonight with Shan's mum for my birthday dinner. Dinner was delicious and the service was emaculate as always. However just before the meal arrived a special surprise came with the waiter.

IT WAS GUITAR HERO! Shan's mum bought it for me as a birthday present. Shannon is playing it right now while I write this. I've already unlocked the first section of medium.

Thanks Christine! You rock as well!! I'll make sure I play "More than a Feeling" by Boston just for you tonight before putting it away.

Oh and Tancred, if Zombie Joey Ramone turns up I'll enact plan 9 and go for the fire axe. That'll reduce his rebellious spirit.

Score!

Just wanted to say that Shan bought me a Playstation 2 for my birthday along with Shadows of the colossus. This is completely awesome! I was no way expecting it. This opens up a world of games I've been itching to play for a while.

I find it funny as I've now come full circle. 2 years ago my parents bought me a playstation 2 for christmas (i think it was) and at the time, I wasn't really fond of a lot of the games that were available. So I went out and swapped it for an X-box. Now I got the X-box for Halo (and if Bungie had stayed Mac only I probably would have bought a mac) and that was well worth it. I had the X-box for 2 years and only really bought a few games for it. The X-box did not have the best selection but thats because I'm not overly fond of car racing or just pure action games apart from a few of the FPS's that were available. Also, most of the games on X-box were almost always released on PC, so if I actually wanted a game for X-box, i had to ask if it was better on the PC.

During that time, a ream of good games came out for the PS2. I have a few friends who have PS2's and they purchased alot of the good games, including Guitar Hero (which I think to this date is one of my all time favourite games...next to Accordian Hero). So here I am, back with Playstation after many years apart.

Thanks Shan, you rock!

PRICE
(Suddenly enthused)
What's that, a gram?

BATEMAN
New card. What do you think?

McDermott lifts it up and examines the lettering carefully.

McDERMOTT
Whoa. Very nice. Take a look.

He hands it to Van Patten.

BATEMAN
Picked them up from the printers yesterday

VAN PATTEN
Good coloring.

BATEMAN
That's bone. And the lettering is something called
Silian Rail.

McDERMOTT
(Envious)
Silian Rail?

VAN PATTEN
It is very cool, Bateman. But that's nothing.

He pulls a card out of his wallet and slaps it on the
table.

VAN PATTEN
Look at this.

They all lean forward to inspect it.

PRICE
That's really nice.

Bateman clenches his fists beneath the table, trying to
control his anxiety.

VAN PATTEN
Eggshell with Romalian type.
(Turning to Bateman)
What do you think?

BATEMAN
(Barely able to breath, his voice a croak)
Nice.

PRICE
(Holding the card up to the light)
Jesus. This is really super. How'd a nitwit like you get so
tasteful?

Bateman stares at his own card and then enviously at
McDermott's.

BATEMAN (V.O.)
I can't believe that Price prefers McDermott's card to mine.

PRICE
But wait. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

He holds up his own card.

PRICE
Raised lettering, pale nimbus white...

BATEMAN
(Choking with anxiety)
Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Owen's card.

Price pulls a card from an inside coat pocket and holds it
up for their inspection: "PAUL OWEN, PIERCE & PIERCE,
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS." Bateman swallows, speechless.
The sound in the room dies down and all we hear is a faint
heartbeat as Bateman stares at the magnificent card.

BATEMAN (V.O.)
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness
of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark...

His hand shaking, Bateman lifts up the card and stares at it 

until it fills the screen.

He lets it fall. The SOUND RETURNS TO NORMAL.

CARRUTHERS Is something wrong? Patrick...you're sweating.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh Yeah. I just got given my very first business card.

Itttssss my birthday

Although I've been living in Canada since the end of June, my body clock is still a little bit Sydney time so somewhere in Australia it is currently my Birthday.

Woo!

Tomorrow Canada time I can look forward to a relaxing day of Dermatology Lecture, Nursing Bursary and Dermatology Tutors. What more could I want on my Birthday!

If your in Vancouver and have nothing better to do this saturday night, come have a drink at the Cambie. I'll be the one getting drunk after a 12 hour shift at work.

2 hours and 33 minutes

I had a plan when I arrived home. A simple plan but a plan that amuses me to no end. I was getting comfortable and decided it would be really amusing to put on Shannon's pyjama pants and then mine over the top of them. Not only would this mean that I would be toasty warm and doubly comfortable (I mean one pair=comfortable then 2 pair would = 2 x comfort or comfort squared) and the 2nd part of the plan would have Shannon looking for her pants and thinking she was crazy for not being able to find them.

So she got home from a long day at the console and made chicken soup to help with my sore throat. Then she decided to get comfortable. "Honey, have you seen my pants?" (an amusing line which has stuck with us from a nescafe ad in Australia). "Ah no dear, where did you last see them?". Now I had deliberatly let the end of the pants legs slightly show just under mine. She spied it and then yelled bloody vengenance. What next could only be described as a Benny Hill-esque* of chasing around the house trying to get the pyjama pants.

Then we called Jen and congratulated her on finding out the sex of her baby.

* I couldn't actually find any actual benny hill chase senes but I did see some silly things on YouTube , but I think the silliest was this one.

Future medicine professional

Well firstly I can say, that med students around the world are the same. At least Canadian/American and Australian med students that is. The other day, while waiting for the lecturer who was late, a student ran out the front and said "so does everyone want to do a wave and I'll record it with my phone?". And they did, three times.

I've been fortunate to see over the last month highly interesting medical lectures. Some of the pictures are a little nauseating but not so bad as to remove the interest. I feel privileged to see these lectures and I won't pretend to say I understand more than 50% of what I'm seeing/hearing but I also have a handy net connection and google with wikipedia, I can usually get the gist of whats going on. However it does make me think bleakly of the future of some of these "doctors" when I see one or two of them playing computer games in the back row of the lecture theatre. Now generally I'm pretty understanding of games, I'm a gamer myself, but when the lecturer is talking, you should be paying attention especially when your above first year medicine, since this could be an important lesson that one day may save a life. Now there are other factors, maybe he could multi-task listening and playing, or maybe he was doing 2nd year medicine again and toped this section of the course. Regardless, I laughed about it at first and then decided that I hoped I never had him as a doctor.

To date, the most icky lecture I've had to sit through was diseases of the Anus, Rectum and Colon. Yuck.

Rumours of my death ....

... Never actually happened. Many appologies for being quiet for sometime. Its not that I haven't done anything blog worthy, just that I've been distracted or just not felt like blogging. As you may have noticed Shan and I have moved from our original Blog site.

So Whats been happening? Lots of things. I'll update slowly all the posts that I got half-way through and never finished. I'll make sure I blog more often.

I am now working for UBC in an AV\IT support role. I'm really enjoying it. We've just cleared our stuff through Customs and should receive it next tuesday. I'm very excited.

Irony, your name is Australia

I read this in a Canadian newspaper just this moment:

Aussies plan prison ship

CAIRNS - Australia plans to use an armed prison ship to hold illegal fishermen and "boat people" in a move that critics say smacks of the county's convict origins.

Under the plan, naval and customs patrol boats will no longer have to return to port to deposit asylum seekers and poachers detained at sea.

Terry O'Gorman, the president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, called it "an immigration prision ship". He said: "It's a delicious historical irony that Australia was founded on convicts who were moved from prison bulks in the Thames. Now we are repeating history".

The vessel, which could be operating by January, would carry up to 30 armed customs officers and two deck-mounted machineguns. It would be able to hold up to 30 detainees for up to a month.

I had a large rant originally planned for this but in the end I thought "why bother". There is no point in trying as Australia already has a tarnished image from people overseas in regards to what we do with "boat people" and illegal immigrants. I just hope the rest of the world doesn't think all Australians agree with it.

Celebration of Light

Well the HSBC Celebration of Light just concluded. 4 days over two weeks of great fireworks. You can see the pics on Shan’s flickr account (they probably aren’t up yet, will remove this bracket when done). I really liked Italy’s and Czech Republic’s fireworks (although the Czech was a little dispointing for its closing number). Mexico was average but had a nice finale, which was good enough to win it the festival. We then watched the compilation show with all countries collaborating. Really glad we managed to be in Vancouver for it.

Thurn and Taxis @ Drexoll

On friday we went down to Drexoll Games and played Thurn and Taxis. I found it to be a very enjoyable game. We had the rules explained to us and alot of it was very similar to Ticket to Ride (no surprises since it was the same creator). This helped alot as I could look at the board and know what the best stratergy would be to use in the first few turns. After 2 hours (including rules explanation) we had a winner: me :) So already I liked it. However I could say it was a really easy game, flows very well, with minimal chances for others to screw you over (plenty of chances to screw yourself if your not paying attention ... twice). Shan's only compaint was there wasn't enough bile. A great game, easy to see why it was voted best game and would be a great addition to any gaming club.

We then played a game of El Grande (plenty of Bile there). I was winning until Frida pulled out this ridiculous move (well it was completely legit but I say ridiculous) and shot ahead of everyone (and stayed there for good) making it more of a race for 2nd place. In the end I think I came third but it was a real fun game of El Grande. It took us around 3 1/2 hours and then it was time to go home.

We then went home and watch Cinderella Man, as we hadn't seen it yet. It was ok but the ending was predictable. If pushed I might be able to give it 3 stars, maybe 3.5 for the photography and production value.

Crash and Ball

I decided to go to the park today for lunch. The weather outside was a delightful temperature, Sun not too warm and pleasant breeze flowed lightly to be cool but not "grab your jumpers, its gonna be freezing". I walked to the curb and waited for the passing cars to travel by. One person decided to slow down and let me cross, which was very nice of them. Canadians are quite polite I must say, and Vancouver (can't say much about the rest of the cities) is very pedestrian friendly, so this while a typical occurrence, is still a nice surprise. However, the people traveling behind them did not obviously see them slowing down and ran right into the back of them. I just stood there dumbfounded that this had happened (in Sydney its a give, usually involving a taxi). Thankfully no one was hurt, but when the offending party got out of the car they were complaining bitterly and sure enough, were American. I gave my details as a witness (and partly because I felt in some way I was the cause of this accident) also because it was very obvious what had happened.

Tonight is drop-in Indoor Soccer again. I started playing last week, Shan and I went to Coal Harbour Community Centre and the group that play are quite nice. Its good to be playing Soccer again and its different to be playing Indoor after 9 years, I'm surprised I don't suck. Although I get quite puffed at the moment, but that's to be expected, give me a few weeks and I'll be fighting fit and taking numbers. Both Shan and I have executed some lovely goals already that are good enough to write home about ... In fact I'll do that right now :)

Happiness is a warm couch

What a week. First I feel that I've overheard some diabolical alien laughter. Next I win 24 dollars on a scratchie (yes!). A day or two later I walked past the same lumberyard and hear a Kookaburra call. Obviously its not aliens, but an international bird smuggling ring. Or at least thats what the aliens want me to think.

However the best part of the week was the weekend. Shan and I went and saw A Scanner Darkly on Saturday. I really really enjoyed this film. It kept me interested with fine actors on screen (Winona Rider wasn't annoying for once, still a little whiney though :P). Also, I still haven't got around to seeing Waking Life yet so the Rotoscope technique was really good to see in a film again, giving it the surreal effect which I haven't seen since Wizards.

Then on the Sunday we went back out to Richmond for house shopping (or I should say outfitting, we aren't going to buy little tiny houses... that would be silly). We took back the TV we originally bought as it was not everything we had hoped for and got a better deal. And they were nice enough to deliver it for us for free as they had no models they could sell us on site. Also we went back to IKEA and got the couch that we saw last week. It gets delivered tomorrow so when I get home from work I'll have something comfy to relax on in the evenings as apposed to the chairs we borrowed from Christine (which we appreciate none the less). And then we sat back, ate dinner and watched the last three episodes of Doctor Who from the current season.

T'was a good week.

Weird occasions bring plenty of dollars

Some people would say "why are you taking pictures of lumber yards?" and I would like to answer that question. For the last week I've been walking past this place on the way to my skytrain station in Burnaby. Everytime I've walked past it after work I have heard evil cackling. The first time I thought "no I just heard something from off the Trance track I was listening to, thats nothing" and I went on my way.

The second time I heard maniacal laughter I stopped. Took off my headphones and was completely convinced I could still hear it...it stopped and then I went on my way, keeping a wary eye over my shoulder.

The third time I noticed something calling out in pain. I say something 'cause it certainly didn't sound human. And then it got drowned out by an electric saw. I then sped off.

And then, I won $24 CAD on a scratchie!

I wonder what will happen when I leave work today

Come on honey, lets smash the state tonight

Argh, this is the second time this has happened to me. Last friday we noticed that my Credit Card was "missing" after I went to use it the other day. We traced back to Milestones that it was the last place that I had used it. They were not overly helpful and it was finally decided that they could not "find" it. So we canceled the card.

Today, I went to take some money out from an ATM today and it got seized. I was so angry! We've just called Australia and discovered that the idiots canceled the wrong card! So I'm without an ATM card nor a Credit Card for a few weeks. Thankfully this time shan's around so we still have some money.

The last time this happened to me, Shan was out of the state and I'd had my ATM card not returned to me at Coles (and didn't notice as it was rather busy, but partially my fault). I rang the coles later and they said they didn't have it. I still had my Credit Card, which promptly got eaten by a machine the next day. Thankfully I had friends I could borrow money from (those zombie dollars got me quite far).

So what does this mean:

1. Always make sure you get your card back
2. We should return to a bartering system and just herd Sheep everywhere. I know I'd accept Sheep over Visa any day. I can see the sheep are right there!

The Dead shift: a week in progress

This week I undertook my job in the funeral business. I'm working for Alderwoods in Canada in the Network support center. I am supporting most of the US and Canada for their networking needs. So far I have learnt how to call ISP's and reboot routers, riveting stuff I'm sure :) However it is giving me experience in and area of IT I have not had the chance to work in before and making sence of my CCNA studies that is quite useful. You could say the job is just like 6 feet under, but with more gigs.

The most amusing thing on the job this week so far has been the number of sites around america that have been hit by lightning. 27. 27 alone this week! I know for most of the USA thats nothing, but the fact that 27 funeral homes have been hit by lightning which have blown out their DSL links makes me think one of two things. One, their doing something to piss of a deity of some kind. Or two, their attempting to bring back the dead, ala Frankenstein. Sure you could say theres a third, they are in hurricane zones and its that time of season, but I'd just say your taking the logic path and go home and play with pythagorus :P I'd like to think there are 27 frankenstein monsters running around America ... ah the American dream.

Also if you've read Shan's blog, you would know that we have just got a new appartment in the "Kitsalano" area, which is similar to Balmain. We have a 2 bedroom appartment which was advertised as a "1 bedroom with den". Its soooo good, we have room for visitors and still plenty of room for a circus ;) I think we really lucked out. We're not really paying much more than we would have payed for our appartment in Sydney after the price hike we would have gone through had we stayed in Sydney.

Due to our new appartment, we went shopping in IKEA today. We arrived at 11am and litterally shopped til we dropped (true story). It was 4pm by the time we got out. But we successfully bought most of the things we need to set up a place and got sweedish meatballs to boot (we ate them, not kicked them ... I know you were thinking it!).

So so far, Vancouver is looking up, I miss everybody terribly, but I reckon this is all going to be worth it :) Catcha on the flip side.

Yo ho ho and a bottle of Bikini Martini

We went to see Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest today. What a film! From the moment the film started to the end of the film I was watching one of the best pirate, swash-buckling films in ages. The movie had a few corny turns but who cares, there was sword-fighting, betrayl, capture, torture and home for tea and medals... or so you think. Surprises all round we shot down the red baron ... i think I've wandered off topic. I better go see the movie again just to be sure. 4.5 Stars from me.

After that we went Milestones for dinner to celebrate my finding a job. I've only applied for two jobs since arriving and the second one came through. I am now employed by Alderwoods, the 2nd biggest operator of funeral homes and cemeteries in North America. Finally I get to support the enternally interned with their connection beyond the grave. Finally I've found my medium .... I am soooo sorry.

Turn the dang music down and get off the damn lawn!

We went to Frontline Assembly last night at Richards on Richards. It was really cool once we got inside and saw that this is one of those bars that features in almost all TV and low-budget films shot in Vancouver.

The bar was filled with Industrial fans and punk enthusiasts. Every 5 minutes I expected to see either Leon or Goggles Medway in the crowd, but they were nowhere to be seen. I kinda missed them for an event like this.
We arrived while DJ? Acucrack was playing. His music was nice industrial music which near the end of his set almost became happy hardcore, which was a little odd.

Next came Urceus Exit, who played an awesome set. The music wasn't that danceable (apart from the last song) but it was some of the best live industrial music I've heard.

After them was an act called Conjure one. Apparently they are an offshoot from Frontline Assembly ex-member. Unfortunately they were nothing special. The female singer was trying to sound like sinead o'conner. The music was nice but nothing new.

Finally FLA came on. I was really looking forward to their show and sadly I was a little disapointed. I've only just got into FLA over the last year and really have loved their music. To be honest, the music could have been the best in the world last night, but I would have like to have heard the lyrics and enjoyed the music without my ears bleeding. We stayed for 20 minutes of their set and just left. I had been warned by a few that FLA are not as good as they used to be, which was indeed a fair call, but I would have thought the noise level would have been sussed out so they could have played at their best.
However that didn't ruin the evening. I was happy to go out and here some good live music with Shan, which I haven't done in ages and not even the loud music and partial deafness after leaving could have ruined that :)

Wacky city

Shannon has claimed rights to blogging about our day out. However, there are two guys down on the beach as I right this, having a lightsaber duel! There on the beach and yelling "the force is on my side" ... if I didn't have a job interview tomorrow I'd have real difficulty in not going down there and joining in. It looks pretty cool from up here on the 24th floor. I think I could like it here :)

In a land of plenty, some bring none to the table.

Well it was a day for ups and downs. We watched the football this morning. Yay for Germany and boo for Italy. I can only hope that Germany kicks them out of the World cup.

The next upset was when we went to the bank and found out we had to make an appointment to do so. They originally quoted 2 weeks to do so, but we were able to get that down to a week. We're going to see if some of the other branches can help us out rather than going through the main branch.

We had a lovely lunch at Earls and we're very happy with out choices. Sadly we were not served by Crab man.

The final upset of the day (so far) was that we have been searching for an ethernet hub or switch so we could share the 1 port high speed modem shan's mum has for her computer and shan's laptop. Then once we got my PC and an appartment of our own, to use for LAN's, etc. However the only switches I could find required Routers to which I already have one coming via sea and would not need. Now that wasn't the worst part because the clerk at least told me it wouldn't work with a high speed modem, rather than letting me walk of with it. He also mentioned that they are phasing out hubs and it will be quite hard to get one.

So we were walking home and walked past one of the small computer stores where you can get single hardware rather than bundles. Great I think. I walked in and asked the kid behind the counter "Do you have any Hubs?". He blinked at me "Hubs?" "yes, ethernet hubs...for networking" "I've never heard of hubs, what are they". I thought, this is not so unreasonable, if there phasing them out he may not know. "Oh .. ok, do you have any switches" he looked to be of the age that would play computer games, LANs and such. "Switches? You mean like, for turning things off an on?". I stood there dumbfounded for a second. Shannon then pointed above his head behind him and stated "no we mean those behind you". He looked at them and then shrugged. I left very quickly before I started to yell. How can he work in a computer store and not know what a Switch is or if they even have any?! I ask you, what is che, WHAT IS CHE?!

Look after your planet and service with a smile.

I went and saw Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth today. I thought it was a well done documentary. Sadly, the message about global warming, while clear, is nothing new to me. The movie will most likely be seen by the masses who already believe and follow the "doctorine". Its also a little podiumish for Al Gore. Thats not doing him a disservice but it could be construed as a poster for Al Gore were he to campaign. Not that given the chance I wouldn't vote for him. That should not detract from the powerful message and the good work he is doing to make people aware of what is happening with Global Warming. The website for the film is also filled with helpful information in how to help combat global warming and inform others in what they can do. I strongly suggest either seeing the film or visiting the website.

On a more positive note, after the film we went up the road and had Mexican food at Las Margarita. I have to say one thing I love about eating out in Vancouver is that the service is almost always fantastic and should you have a query about the menu eg. "I was wondering if you could tell me how this is prepared and what this means" the waitress/waiter doesn't have to go check with the chef, they actually know their job. Also, table service for alcohol! Woo!

Insanity

I was just watching the news and a special article came on. Apparently Western Canada's temperatures having been reaching a high of 29 degrees and some people are having difficulty dealing with this. How on earth can anyone complain about 29 degree heat?! Oh well i guess they don't have to put up with 39-41 degree heats in their summers.

Sunchasers

With Vancouver in full summer mode we have truly chased the sun to its resting place like Anningan chases Malina (who is well and truly in control here). We have sunlight until 10:30pm last night which is a really weird experience but means you can have a lot more sunlight to do activities in the day. The temperature is perfect around 25 degrees and the sun doesn't tend to burn you to death. I've always been a very anti-sun person (what with my plans to pull the sun from the sky) but I feel my temperament cooling towards a more Vancouver temperature.

We walked around the city today and shan had a blast showing me around the place. A few sites i remembered from the last time we were in Vancouver 4-5 years ago but most places were new to me. We had some nice Japanese food for lunch and then went shopping.

It really feels weird to be living in a new city and a new continent. I like it though. I'll review that feeling after I've been here a while depending on my employment situation.

Nous sommes arrivés !

Shan and I have arrived after our 17 hour ordeal on the flight from Sydney to Vancouver. We are extremely tired but safe and sound. I will post more later when my brain is prepared to function at an acceptable level....zzzzzzzzzzzzz