We went on holiday! (Please forgive long post)

Adventurous adventurers that we are, we separately headed to Squamish at the weekend. This will be a long post!
Adam arrived on Thursday and kept himself busy, which included a very wet day walking to the top of the 'Chief', which he rock climbed a few bits of a few weeks ago. I arrived on Friday, seeing the same views from the greyhound that Adam pictured in a previous post. It really is a fantastic view as you drive up. The Chief is much bigger than it looks!
We had dinner at the Inn and watched 'Cliffhanger' *snort*. Next day we got up and walked to Shannon Falls, but before we got there, we saw the Rocky Mountaineer train, and SALMON! Swimming UPSTREAM! Like what they do on NATURE PROGRAMMES! Absolutely fascinating, and you feel tired just watching the poor blighters battle the current. We're going to have to rename this blog adam and daisy spend too much time considering salmon. Moving on, we looked at salmon, ahem, shannon falls, after having taken a very upsy downsy trail route, looking at some potential bouldering climbs on the way.  Upon arrival we saw a man in a suit amongst other tourists, from the tourbus parked round the corner. Pfft. Anyway, big impressive waterfall. Wander back to Inn, via some more potential bouldering climb routes - too soggy to use, so we flopped around feeling tired for a bit, then ONWARDS TO ROCK CLIMBING ADVENTURES!
I'm sure Adam will put the correct climbery info on here in due course. (He's out at a tupperware party equivalent for outdoors shops workers.) Basically, he and a chap from the Inn who he met on his previous visit clambered up some rocks near the Inn, using all sorts of pretty tools, then we walked a bit further, and they clambered up some different rocks, where there were some other people clambering up too. I was official photographer until I got fed up with the shutter on the camera - only half of it closes when I switch the camera off now. Never mind.
After lots of rocks had been climbed, we had dinner at fancy brewing company, which was very good, then listened to live music in the bar next door. Also good.
Sunday was a wash out. We went for a wander down to the deserted and tiny marina, and were so wet, we decided to mooch back via coffee shop and supermarket, and flop back at the inn. Deeply frustrating that we couldn't leave any earlier than 6pm! We were therefore very prompt for the greyhound on the return to Vancouver. Nothing so nice as taking off wet socks after wearing them all day.
And now we're back at work. And it still mostly rainy. Spirits are up, as we get our change of scenery next week, with a new short term flat.
Love to all, photos coming next.

By the by, the answers from the last post were Pantene (well done anonymous commenter) and Nissan!

Swish swish swish

Well folks, this is what I had to wear to go to work today. Snazzy jacket and new swishy waterproof trousers. I'm not yet equipped with waterproof shoes... but soon! This was taken at close to 7am this morning, as I leave the house at 6.55, to walk the 5 mins down the road to the first bus, jump on that, wait until it leave at 7.07, then dash across the bus exchange around 7.20 to get on the other bus, wait for that to leave, then get off and walk the remaining 2 blocks to the current office, arriving time to turn the phone on at 8am. This morning's poor weather made it a close call to get there on time after missing the second bus, but I swished quickly once I got off the bus. Thought the naysayers might like to know that I am capable of getting up early (even if I'm terminally unable to pack my belongings until the night before a departure...)
On a side note, it might interest you to note that we have some slightly peculiar pronounciations here... Neessarn and Panteen being two of them. Can you guess which products I mean?! Bonkers. Right. Enough procrastination. I have a greyhound to catch tomorrow. 30 minutes to get from downtown to the bus station... may have to swish swish quite quickly!
Anyway, back next week with pics from Squamish. Adios!

Buckets and buckets of photos

Hello all, Adam asked me to put some of his photos up... As ever, click on a photo to see it larger. (It is worth doing with these ones!)

Lions Gate Bridge, cyclist's eye view

Lighthouse at Stanley Park

Not sure where this was taken, assuming Lions Gate Bridge!

Faithful cycle on front of C15 bus!

Still not seen one though...

Ski slope in summer!

The road into Squamish

Adam's first sight of the chief

Adam climbed this

View from top of climb

Rope!

View from top of climb

More view from the top

And a little something to make you even more jealous!

Uhoh, winter's on it's way...

My 'beet' socks, and Adam's new pair - thanks for the parcel! Note the fireplace - just for show!

Concentration face - and newly cropped hair.

Bumper package from knitting guru! Lessons start in a few weeks, but how will I hold off?

Thank you for the parcel! We enjoy receiving lovely things! Hopefully a few people have received snailmail letters from us now.
It is raining today. Really raining. I've been researching waterproof snowboots all morning...

Haiku and news

Long blogs are boring
Will try to make it shorter
Hope this is better

And now the news (not in briefs):

Moving closer to downtown in two weeks, occupying a room in a duplex house while owner is on hols. Hurray!
Adam and I see each other late at night, our shifts don't quite match up! Boo!
Ski applications ongoing! Hurray!
Weather getting greyer, but not as bad as UK! Hurray!

Mostly hurrays! Hurray!

Stats are interesting

We have people looking at this blog from all over... I wonder who checked us out in New Zealand? And Germany? The Netherlands? The US? COLOMBIA?
Stats are interesting...

Video evidence of flying fish

Thanks to anonymous blog commenter - this video was indeed from the salmon day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhN2fNLKIk8

This week, in Vancouver

Is it me, or is the building swaying? Has my vertigo come back? It feels strange for a few seconds, and then it might still be moving but probably is just the memory before equilibrium is reached. It lasted perhaps 20 seconds, with the feeling of a big sway in two directions, back and forth, and then a feeling of uneven wobbling.  A colleague comes in, I pose a cautious question, ‘Did you feel that too?’  A positive answer confirms that I haven’t lost my marbles in the wobble. A few minutes later, and he says that there’s nothing on the web about it yet. A few minutes after that, and it is a 6.7 earthquake, 80km down in the Pacific, west of Vancouver Island.  Mystery solved. Of course, I keep feeling phantom wobbles! It doesn’t help that I can’t see out of a window to accurately compare with the other buildings nearby. (Still haven’t got a window with a view, though the float plane terminal is nearby.) 

People on the ground didn’t feel it at all. Apparently they strike all the time around here. That’ll be why there’s an information poster about it in the kitchen here… I’m at a new temp role in one of the tall buildings downtown. In the words of Bjork, it’s oh so quiet. Until the scary giant phone rings with the force of my morning alarm clock! Plenty of time to write letters, download new things to and read on the kindle. (3 Dickens novels downloaded yesterday, along with a Granta anthology and North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell.) I heartily recommend The Summer without Men by Siri Hustvedt. I finished it very quickly and really enjoyed it. Just literary enough to stretch my brain cells, but not so stretching as to leave lasting damage. Had to dust off my comprehension skills from my degree, but it was worth it. With the long commute, I'm finishing off books with alarming speed. Thanks to lovely staff at BRB for furnishing me with plenty of spends to download more!  (I used up half the voucher the day before we left on about 20 books!)

Adam spent today being a totally rad cool dude man. He longboarded his way round the seawall at Stanley Park. He's now at work, selling stuff to other rad dudes. Atmosphere is quite a posh outdoors shop, a bit like snow and rock in that it sells mostly very good stuff, but is really quite spic and span. With quite the largest selection of outdoorsy shoes I think I've ever seen. And tremendously skilled and pleasant staff ;) We went out for dinner with some of them last saturday night - a literal passing of the torch from old to new manager. (Tiki torch hidden from serving staff...)

We were the first to arrive at this dinner, in a private room downstairs in a restaurant on W. 4th Ave. They called it the vault, and it had wallpaper which was old safe deposit boxes in a gold colour. More than a little intimidating to our heroic duo. Staff eventually started to file in, and most said hello and were very welcoming. Typically, we talked most with the people who no longer work in the store. Goes to show that they get on well though. It took us a long time to get back to North Van though, 1.5 hours, and we had to wait for one of our buses in a quite busy street, with all the clubbers on their way between bars. My mojito had worn off by then, so it was just annoying when we were trying to get home to bed!

Not sure what the plan is for this weekend. Adam's working and on sunday evening *say it quietly so as not to jinx it* we're looking at a flat to stay in during October. Very good price, much better location-transport wise, and suits our current plans.  Wait and see.

Before signing off, I will comment on the souvenir shop. A matching pillow for our smallest, canoe-riding friend was found. Beaver or Bear? Or would another fox be sufficient? The curious shop was owned, and mostly patronised by Chinese people, but does that explain the bizarre displays of 'seal oil' and 'salmon collagen' beauty products I saw? Turned me right off buying anything, until I saw the display of nightlights. Glass blown night lights. Electric, glass nightlights. Nightlights in the shape of eggs, with maple leaves on. And teddybears. And tea cups. And in the shape of tiny lamp covers. Well, not so tiny. Quite the naffest display of trinketry I've seen so far.

In order to counteract it, some pictures from the UBC Anthropology Museum:

Bentwood Cedar boxes. Waterproof. Simplicity at it's beautiful best.

Serving platter used at potlatch ceremony. Had to be 15 feet long!

Beautiful little baskets.  They had (embroidered?) whales on them, and boats

Museum is concrete building - view of mountains!

Museum is to left - rebuilt Haida settlement (houses are MUCH bigger than they look)

View from gun emplacement no. 1 - the museum is the site of the old triple gun emplacement protecting port of Vancouver. Mountains!

Work and climbing

Started working yesterday for Atmosphere outdoors shop, check out http://en.atmosphere.ca/, they are a small chain of shops across Canada and the shop has a really nice vibe about it. Plus they give staff 40% off :)
Daisy doing her first day as a receptionist for a company in downtown Vancouver and im applying for ski jobs and being taxi service for May who we live with.
I have possibly found a flat to live in next month, hopefully we are going to meet up with the guy who's letting it Saturday, its situated closer to work and where more things are happening.
Tuesday/Wednesday i went to Squamish! I took 3 buses to get me across Vancouver then cycled 42km along the highway to Squamish. Booked into the hostel http://www.innonthewater.com/ then climbed with a guy called kye who i met through a climbing website. He was a very safe and sensible climber with much more ability than me. The rock here is different to the UK. Most climbs go up very small finger jamming cracks and are hard work to climb and put in your protection as you go. We did about 7 climbs with most of them on the edge of my ability as a newcomer to crack climbing.
I cycled back Wednesday and then went to work for a 4-8 shift which was a bit of a killer to be fair. Next time i will give myself more time/get the coach for $16 each way.
The pictures i took were on my phone which i dont have the lead for so the pictures shown are from the net but show shome of the climbs i did and the view from above.
Working friday, sat, and sunday while Daisy enjoys the last few days of good weather before it starts to drop away next week.
Goodbye for now,

Adam x

The road to Squamish (i know)

Even in the summer the mountains have deep snow!
Odd to be boiling hot cycling looking up at that!

Inn on the water

The Chief, the best climbing in Squamish/Canada
not climbed by me yet but may do some small routes next time
on the right hand side

Squamish from the top of the Chief (WOW)

Phlymish Dance 5.8 (lead this one) high!!!!

Classic Squamish cracks

For pity's sake, what is this obsession with Salmon?

For the last time - more salmon pics: (Click on the image to get a bigger one.)

Just a few salmon bubbles floating above the festival

Bubble Salmon, a stage and a submersible

Are you happy now?!
A musing of mine from today while doing data entry and stuffing many many envelopes: there are lots of very interesting place names in this part of the world. Osoyoos and Jinglepot Road being two of my favourites. Having to write #32 - 4266 125th Street and so on gets a bit wearing, so bizarre place names help to pass the time.
Adam meanwhile *pause for dramatic effect* CYCLED to Squamish today, with just a few necessaries in order to scamper over some quite big rocks. He's met some people and done some climbs, and been astounded by the drive-thru ATM machine. (He clearly hasn't noticed the one down the road...) Anyway, the route tired him out - not surprising given the temperature, the distance and the luggage! He'll be back tomorrow around lunchtime, just in time to head off to work!
Tata for tonight. (Keep enjoying the pants weather Birmingham! My sunglasses come with me everwhere...)

special bonus extra post - click on photos to make them larger!

Adam walked in and said, 'do you want the memory card to my camera?' Thinking of you, our dear anonymous readers, I said, 'yes please'. Because I'm polite. *Insert pause while we pick some photos to put up...*

A short while later, and in no particular order...

This was our cramped plane - and Jo's sheep!

Daisy posing at Dr Sun Yat Sen Garden - there were ducks, koi and potential terrapins!

Adam posing at Dr Sun Yat Sen garden. There was HUGE bamboo here.

Adam practicing a 'problem'. (We've been reading the Jerry Moffat biography - he's a climber!)

The true purpose of underwater functionality on a digital camera.

This is why it took Adam a long time to pack!

Kitsilano pool yesterday. Looking out to downtown, with Stanley Park on left, and mountains to rear. Jealous yet?

Totem poles in Stanley Park. My favourite was the one on the right.

Ok, phew, whistlestop tour of Adam's memory card over. Photos of the new Tony Hawks tomorrow hopefully. Right now he's out with Simon, for his evening, ahem, 'routine'.
Good night lovely Englanders.

...it has still only rained once, and we get Monday off

The rain when it did come was like standing under a power shower. Gore tex jacket was fine, cotton trousers, not so fine. I dried off eventually. But that was a week ago! We are in the middle of Labour Day weekend - we get Monday off! Hurray! Adam starts his new job on Wednesday, and we went out for a meal with some of the staff yesterday - a fun bunch. However, I will have to attempt somehow to prevent Adam from spending all of his money in the store, well, less that than prevent him having to hire a container to get it all home!
We finally made Olsen skype contact yesterday after setting up our skype date - it was lovely to start the day with them and with Wendy. Adam is hopefully setting up a pay skype account, so that we can make some home phonecalls to those without it. We then went out to Kitsilano beach. We saw all sorts, but perhaps the strangest thing was the man sitting on a park bench with a boa on his shoulders. It brings a whole new meaning to the concept of  'walkies'.
By popular demand, please see below for a fish bubble in the process of being created:

 I'd love to add some of the snazzy underwater photos we took today at the Second Beach pool, well, mine were snazzy. Adam's were of himself pulling faces. However, I have absolutely not got a clue where the required wires are for Adam's camera are. Or where his camera is. We tidied up over the last few days, consequently, we can no longer find anything. Life, I guess!
We will endeavour to capture some completely 100%, guaranteed, not faked-at-all photos of Adam using his skate longboard over the next few days. He doesn't quite so much like a seven year whose Christmasses have all come at once now, but stopping and a small turning circle are still to be mastered. He has, however, developed a natty ability to persuade me to 'help' him up hills by pushing him! A brief sojourn in the local skate park (which has an absolutely spiffy mural) yesterday left him with slight grazing to one hand, and a determination to loosen the *somethingorother* so that it turns better!

Nearby where we were today. Note the tree at the top of the building! Stanley Park in background. Picture from our first week.

Simon

Here is Simon:

Playing the innocent.