We had a busy weekend, and some less jealousy-inducing stuff



Adam - ready to climb

Hello all. My work got extended, so I've found myself with almost steady work. Bizarre. Adam has been less fortunate, which is really frustrating. Also frustrating is my complete lack of climbing partner ability. I did try when we eventually got to Lighthouse Park on Saturday, but I pale in comparison to the Birmingham group!

Action shot - sort of

We miss you! (It didn't help that it was boiling hot, my neck hurt from craning with the sun in my eyes, we were surrounded by SEA and BIG ROCKS, and I got horribly badly bitten by small black bitey things. My legs are now covered in blister bites and bright red patches. Luckily, I have some of the super antihistamine tablets from my inflated arm last year, so I'm taking as many as I can without falling asleep!) Adam is still on the jobhunt though - thank you in advance for encouraging words! (Otherwise the longboard may be purchased sooner rather than later, and I'll have lost him to the thrill of skateboarding!)

Salmon festival!

North Shore - near the seabus. After smashing dinner on Saturday night.

We had a good time on Sunday - we went to a small festival celebrating pink salmon. Yes, salmon. These are more eco-friendly than coho or sockeye, so they did this huge free tasting event. We had to queue for a while, but we were rewarded with a DELICIOUS lunch. Never eaten so much salmon all at once. They had stalls and this brilliant bubble machine that produced pink, salmon shaped bubbles! We also had a mooch around Granville Island - very touristy market-y area. Nice, but not terrifically staggeringly amazing. The carved kayaks we saw were quite good though. Lots of marquetry work.



Slushy puppies

After all that, we headed back to Deep Cove, for 'Deep Cove Daze' - a small music festival. Pleasant to sit on the beach and take in the music. We were pooped though. Only slushie drinks kept us going!

Deep Cove Daze view of stage and beach

P.S.
We saw a skunk the other day! Tiny, cute, and not ponky.
P.P.S.
Adam had the ingenious idea of eating our chickpea lunch on Saturday with our safeway loyalty card! (I had forgotten the sporks...) It worked rather well!

Hot Hot Hot

Thanks to all those people who replied to the last blog, this now means we have to keep on blogging. Its really hot today and im considering a trip to the beach in a bit. Daisy at work :( so im going to be  sat on my own reading a book. (climbing book of course)

The picture bellow is what im going to buy myself when i get a job, long boards are big skate boards and are realy cool in Vancouver and its the same make as my mountain bike back home (daisy thinks thats sad)
OWWWW i just hit my shin on the table!!!! stupid table grrrrr

Need a job but hopefully the climbing centre and outdoors shop will call me back today with a bit of luck. Then i get my long board :)

Love to all, Adam

still here

At library again. Adam successfully climbed today. Scraped fingers to prove it. Daisy tired after walking a long way to and from work. Looking forward to day off. not sure what we'll do yet.
Over and out.

Does it count if it is me responding?

Adam's right. It chucked it down with rain today. Apparently this is what winter is like in Vancouver. I don't want it to be winter yet. Not unless there are serious amounts of snow and skiing involved. Adam'a been here four hours, so this is only a short post!
Tata

Adams 1st post!

Hey all........ or no one, this is my first post and maybe my last if no-one responds to this! (please respond) Daisy's gone to work today and after walking out on my job at the bike shop yesterday i am now unemployed again! Looking on the positive i have some great leads and im positive that this is just a minor setback and a positive move.

I have just been for a walk with Simon (the dog) and he enjoyed it even tho its raining, this is the first rain we have had since we got here over one week ago.

I have really itchy feet to go rock climbing but just need the rite weather and the time when daisy can belay me. I am planning to go to the climbing centre down the road tomorrow and meet the staff and butter them up for a job maybe. Once i have a job im going to treat myself to a long board (long skate board) tho im not sure if im cool enough to carry it off!

All the best to everyone and remember post back or this is it!!!!!!!

The temperature here is amazing... updated to include photos!

On the bus today, coming back from my first day of Canadian work, it was 5.45pm. And it was 24 degrees c. It was blissful waiting in the sunshine for my transfer.

Finally managed to upload some pics. These are from our various wanders around the city over the past few days. Vancouver foot is unlike anything I've ever had. I even had to buy trainers yesterday!

This is me by a firetruck. Not taken today.

Adam on the bizarre orange fake grass lumpy feature outside Vancouver Art Gallery. A few days ago.

our office is a carpark

Perhaps this is not jealousy-inducing, but at £260 for two months of internet on a dongle, we think it isn't really worth it! So we are sat in a carpark using free wifi, while it is getting dark. The house is nice though, and the dog walk this morning was fun. Photos at some point hopefully!
Mum/dad - if you can find the white web dongle that was in my bag of useful wires for electronics, it might be helpful if you could post it? It may be next to the bed, or it is in one of the boxes in the attic!
Adam's fed up, so we're leaving our carpark office.
Over and out.

...we're moving to the mountain

Poor internet coverage imminent. Sun still shining. Job search progressing. Moving to mountain in North Vancouver today. Bears, skunks and raccoons nearby. And there's a dog in the house!

...two afternoons on the beach already

We've not really been tourists so far. Too many 'proper jobs' to sort out to relax! Dinner out last night has meant that we now have some accommodation sorted, which is a big load off our minds. We also have some leads that we are following up for our work, which is a huge relief. So, after ticking another item off the 'to do' list this morning, we headed south into Gastown - a very touristy area.
We stopped by the steam-powered clock. It was pretty pants as clocks go. Not a patch on big ben or old joe! We then made our way to the Dr Sun Yat Sen Chinese garden. Very pretty, and a bit of an oasis. We had to skirt the edge of two separate tai chi classes to enter the free garden. There are tortoises and big koi fish in the pond.
We have spent two of the last three late afternoons on the local beach. The beaches are very well used, and quite clean. It is complete novelty to be out enjoying them. We did realise last night on our way back from our dinner that we hadn't actually been out after dark at all! Jet lag tiredness the main reason.
Not many pics taken yet, but we'll add a selection when we don't have to schlep down to the IT room in order to access the web!

Black squirrels

Hello everyone, we are here, in Vancouver. Hot hot hot. We stayed up very late English time, but local time, it was bed at 9.30! We forraged for slices of pizza, bought smellies at the drugstore, completely filled our hostel room with bicycle and clothing, and went for a walk on the beach!
We walked from English Bay beach all the way up to Second beach, where there is a heated pool. We didn't dip, but plan to. Wandered back down Davie Street having scooted through a bit of Stanley Park, where there are black squirrels. Exactly the same as ours, but black.
We were pretty pooped after a delayed flight. They served mini ice cream at one point, which was pleasing! Customs was intimidating, and we were there a long time queueing, but we were sorted pretty quickly. It made finding our baggage easy as it was the last remaining in a small pile! Bike in one piece too. Still being surprised by the items Adam is pulling out of his baggage.
Love to all. I have to go and tick off some items from the to do list. Adam's gone to see a man about a job. Already. Pfft.
Daisy

Caption competition...

[Insert jokey caption here!]

We had good fun at our leaving party on Saturday. Many thanks to everyone who was able to come, and braved the weather and a very spitty grill! We received some lovely cards and gifts, and we were overwhelmed by how many people came along. We really appreciated the send off!
I managed to get some ace pictures - using a self timer for group shots can be quite interesting! For the sake of people's privacy, I won't post them here. I'm trying to work out how we can share photos privately, but any suggestions are welcome.
Thank you again!


(By the way, if you liked the hall, please take a look at the 1st Tidbury Green Scout Website. They are in the middle of the Panther project - raising funds to improve the facilities. Adam did the LEJOG cycle on their behalf last summer.)


Credit to LA from BRB for the title of the blog!