Merry Christmas!

Cozy, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Not much happening lately in 'ol Raincouver. Still bloody raining, though I shouldn't complain as I know you folks back home can't get a drop.

Christmas up here was pretty good. Knocked off early on Friday after the 'surprise' drinks. These weren't the usual drinks in the boardroom that I'd grown accustomed to at CHC Oz; it was a fully-catered affair of wine and assorted nibbles that included among other things spicy meatballs and mini-quiches. Best of all, we were waited on by two waiters and one (very hot) waitress. To top it off, we were given cab charges to get home. Spent the evening in town with Travis and Elizabeth from work. Stumbled home around 1am.

Got an invite for tea from Travis on Saturday night and gladly accepted. Had a roast lamb meal with Travis and Liz, Roar (also from Heli-One, his wife Sammie and Liz's sister. It was a bit of a United Nations there that night only the girls were locals- Travis is American and Roar is Norwegian. The highlight of the night was 1980s Trivial Pursuit and copious amounts of Roar's Norwegian Aquavit (Scandinavian spirit made from potatoes). The story goes that while it's being distilled, the barrels must be put on a boat and cross the equator before being bottled. The back of the bottle's label has the boat's name and the voyage date that the barell was on. It smells sweet, but burns like buggery going down. I guess it keeps them warm. Stumbled home about 2am this time. The walk home was punctuated by stops for slices of pizza along Davie Street (gotta love all-night pizza places). Had sobered up by the time I got home.

Sunday was another crappy, rainy day. Had made plans with Annette to go to the botanic gardens to see the lights, but the rain put the kibosh on that idea and agreed to do it another time. The day didn't get much better. That night, I got a call from Nick to say that Annette and her Mum had been in a car accident. They were both fine, just a bit shaken up and some minor bruises. The (company) car is probably written off though.

Had Christmas lunch with Annette (didn't need to administer first aid Brownie), her Mum and Nick then went out for Christmas dinner with Ashley and Kate Strauss and their kids. Dinner was a buffet at a place called Hart House, a big tudor mansion in a Suburb Called Burnaby. It's a little bit like Ayers House back in Adelaide.

Other than that, just took it easy.

Looking forward to New Year's now.

Oh Dear.

Forecast 28 Nov, originally uploaded by Snappy Tim.

Never Seen This Before....

Cool Bike, originally uploaded by Snappy Tim.

Today was the second day running that I saw this snow covered bike at Airport Station while waiting for the connecting bus out to the South Terminal where CHC is. Has the owner abandoned it due to the snow? Forgotten about it? Left it there while they're out of town? Who leaves a perfectly good bike just because it's covered in snow. Surely you could just knock the snow and ice off and get it working again?

Today was freezing and last time I checked, it was -7C. The snowing had stopped, and we had clear skies and sunny conditions, yet the mercury never got above zero .

More snow is predicted for tomorrow.

This Is How I Felt Today

I'll Call Him 'Mini-Me', originally uploaded by Snappy Tim.

The snow continued all night downtown and continued pretty much all day out at the airport.

Around my place there was a blanket 4 inches thick covering everything, and about 6 inches (and counting) out at the airport and Richmond. It was really pretty, but f$@#ng freezing. Ive never felt so cold in my life and it's going to be worse tomorrow, with low of -8C tonight and a 'high' of -3C. I don't know how the folks in places like Winnipeg cope!

I didn't get to work until after 9 (would normally have been there before 8) as the buses were now chockers with people taking the bus to avoid driving. One good thing about this snow on a work day is that we got to knock off at 2pm.

After getting home, I quickly changed into some warm clothes and went out to get some shots of the snow. Some of my more successful photos are on the Flickr page. I'll be taking the camera in to work tomorrow so hopefully the snow hasn't turned into grey slush by the morning.

Snow!

The weekend forecast predicted snow, but a quick look out the window Saturday morning would make you think that snow was the last thing that would happen. Hardly a cloud in the sky and clear view through to the mountains, where the descending snow line is evident.

Took advantage of the good weather to go into town and so some shopping. Grabbed some bargains (2 x t-shirts, 2 x sweaters, 2 x business shirts, and a fleecy vest for $110) at Sears. Sears is a big department store along the lines of Myer or David Jones. They do have much better sales -at least on menswear- with many items discounted 40-50%. And it's good stuff that's discounted too. The clouds had started to gather by the time I got home at about 2. At about 3 o'clock, the Rolling Stones started their sound check for their concert at BC place that night. I could hear the sound check, and later that night their concert, from my place. It sounded pretty much the same as The Big Day Out did when I worked at Wayville. The Stones actually played for quite a while -went on after 8 and went through till about 11. No doubt 2 of those hours would have been the post 1980 songs that no-one cares for but there you go.

The snow finally appeared at about 5pm with just a few flakes. Went and had a coffee with Ashley (moved out to Vancouver from CHC Australia) and his family at a nearby cafe. During this time the snow really started to pick up. We discussed a possible trip to the snow in the coming weeks. The snow continued for most of the night.

It started snowing again at about 8.30 this morning at continued to do so all day (it's still going as I write this). They've even had to bring out ploughs ("that name again is 'Mr Plow'") to keep the roads safe.
Decided to brave it and go for another walk back into town to get a decent waterproof/warm jacket as it's obvious to me now that I'm going to need one as my current jackets are woefully inadequate and I don't want to ruin another leather jacket.
I'd forgotten how slippery it gets when it snows, so the walk into town took much longer as I avoided slipping over. Went back to Sears and bought a nice big (and warm) jacket. It too, was on sale with 40% off, so all up it cost about $100. Wore it back home and then went out to go for a walk along the marina and get some pictures of the snow.

Left: view from my balcony at 11am today.










The first photo had to be a Luke Byrne style "take a picture of your feet in the snow" and then one of my building similar to the one I took the other day for comparison.

Following this, I did a quick lap around the block. In one of the photos below, you can see that the marina itself is starting to freeze over. Any cars that were left out overnight were now covered with a thick layer of snow.

Winter is Coming.

Map, Schmap.

Stumbled across this great little download via the Vancouver Flickr Group. In a nutshell, Schmap is a dowloadable city guide. You install the player and then can choose guides for a number of cities. Currently, most of the guides are for North American cities, but there are quite a few for Europe and even a couple for Australia, and likely more to follow.

The guts of it is the central map which shows the whole city, or a section of the city. You can then choose to show places like pubs, restaurants, museums etc.
Clicking on a place on the map displays information about it in the right-hand paine such as a review and contact details. Pretty handy for findiing places when you don't know the city. You can also bookmark your favourite places for future reference or use the search function to find places of interest. No doubt not every place is included, but it's a start.

The player and a guide is about 2MB and are free. Check it out at http://www.schmap.com/

A walk along the Marina

I took advantage of a break in the rain that had been falling most of the day to get out and break in my new lenses. Luckily for me, the break in the rain happened at 4 o'clock, which just happens to be when the sun starts setting at this time of the year. This lead to some 'golden' light.

On the left is my apartment building taken from the park (called Cooper's Park) across the road on the waterfront. My place is on the 22nd floor, and the building has 39 floors, so count down 17 from the top to work out where I am.

Whilst the light was warm and golden, it was actually freezing and the grass in the park was muddy and squelchy.

The picture below was taken looking back from the marina towards my apartment building. Mine is the tall one on the right.

Kayaking along false creek is quite popular and I intend to give it ago when the weather warms up. I like the effect of the dusk light on the buildings and their reflections in the water. The two kayakers happened to come past as I was taking the shot.

This last photo was taken from in front of the first tall apartment building in the last photo. Looking out over the marina towards the sunset. This photo is actually a bit of a 'cheat'. I used Photoshop to make it what is called a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image. The dynamic range of a camera (both digital and film) the range from total brightness (ie total white) to total darkness )black) that its sensor (digital) or film will capture when exposed to light. A camera's dynamic range is not a large as your eye's, so you'll find that when taking a photo in conditions where there are both brightly lit and shadowy areas that your picture won't come out the same way as you saw it with your eyes. The photo will either show the areas in shadow properly and make the brighter areas appear as bright white, or the reverse, where the bright areas (such as a cloudy sky) look right, but the shadow areas are black, or near black. Normally to make a photo that shows both the light and dark areas properly, you need to take a number of separate photos (say, three): one exposing for the shadow, another exposing for the bright scene and a third somewhere in the middle. You can then use a piece of HDR software to 'merge' the three photos into one image exhibiting a greater range from light to dark. In the case of this photo, I took one picture in RAW format (this is important) and adjusted its exposure in Photoshop and saved it. I did this twice: once adjusting so that the bright area (the sky) looked correct and then again so that the darker foreground looked correct (or at least, better). Note, when I took the photo, I was exposing so that the sky looked correct. This gave me the following pictures, exposing for the sky on the top and for the shadows on the bottom.



I opened both images in Photoshop and 'dragged' the lighter one on top of the darker once (creating another layer on top). Then just used the 'magnetic lasso' tool and selected around the skyline and the bottom of the picture. Then just inverted the selection so that the 'blown out' sky was selected and then 'cut' it to get rid of it, exposing the correctly exposed sky below. Voila! Basically done. Did some other minor retouching to rectify some of the areas missed when selecting the sky. If you look closely, you can see a smudge in the sky above the tall building on the right. This is due to some sloppy cloning on my part when cleaning up. Spending more time on it would have done a better job.

Class dismissed.

When it rains, it pours.

Went out and bought some new lenses on Saturday as I only brought 1 lens (50mm) with me and my others are still back in Australia awaiting shipment. Having only one non-zoom lens was a little restrictive as it never seemed to be wide enough to get enough into the shot. Ended up buying a wide to mid range (17-55mm) zoom and a telephoto (80-200mm) zoom.

The persistent rain has made it difficult to go out and break them in, but below are some shots from my balcony of my neighbourhood. Next thing on the list is a (decent) tripod to get some decent (and level) shots, particularly at night.

The view down from the 22nd floor:



And the view from the balcony looking left to right:


It really was that bleak today. All of the buildings in the foreground are apartments built as part of the Yaletown redevelopment. The land used to be an old industrial area until it was sold off after the 1986 Expo (like Brisbane's Expo '88). Cambie Street bridge heading south on the bottom right.


Panning to the right, you'll see BC Place, the big centre where shows and football games are held. Ice Hockey is played in the GM Centre right behind it. There was something on today there, though I have no idea what it was. Note the people sheltering under the bridge.


Last picture of the 3 shows the Cambie Street bridge crossing False Creek (so called because it has a dead end at one end). Straight across the water, the athlete's village for the 2010 Winter Olympics is under construction on the former sight of Expo '86. The silver 'ball' that you can see across the water framed between the arm of the crane and the top of the building being built is also from the Expo. It's covered with lights and looks like a giant Christmas decoration when lit up at night. On this side of the water, yet more apartments are going up. In a few week's time, I will no longer be able to see the Expo Ball, as it will be blocked when the rest of the floors are added.

If you look closely, you should be able to see that the barge in the middle of False Creek is listing to one side. It contains sand used (or possibly dredged up) during the construction of the Olympic Village. The sheer weight of water from all the rain we had caused it to tip over last week.

It's expected to be rainy like this through to March next year.

Saturday Night: Jambalaya, Ice Hockey and Driving.

Had an interesting night out last night. Annette dropped around with the company car and then headed walked to a place called the Cactus Club just around the corner for tea where we had Jambalaya, which is awesome. For those that don't know, it's basically a cajun stir-fry consisting of chicken, prawns, celery, capsicum, red/kidney beans, spicy sausage, green beans, coriander and a few other ingredients all served on rice. It's very yummy. The waitresses at the Cactus Club are very nice too. I'm surprised they haven't been sued for discrimination. No complaints here though.

After tea, we drove out to see a couple of the guys from work play Ice Hockey out at Ladner, about 45 minutes from Downtown. Unfortunately, luck was not with them on the night and they went down 8-1. Did get to see a near punch up, which was cool too. The real downer for us was that we spent the last 20 minute period of the game trying to stave off hypothermia after the heating in the stands switched off for some reason. It was only after the game when we saw the switch on the wall behind the group of seats next to us marked "press button for heat". D'oh.

Headed back to the car to thaw out and then it was my turn to drive home. In the rain. At night. On the wrong side of the road. In an unfamiliar area. The only way it could have been made more difficult was if I wasn't wearing my glasses. And if I was drunk. It wasn't actually my first time driving here though; I drove Lisa from CHC Australia to the airport from the CHC building (about 2km) the other afternoon without much trouble. It's strange at first as I continually reach down to my left looking for the handbrake and as I am used to driving a manual, keep having problems getting the key out of the ignition. You can not remove the key from the ignition if the car is not in 'Park'. As I'm used to driving a manual, I'm used to either leaving it in gear or in neutral.

Took the car out again today to the nearest Safeway to go shopping and I think I'm getting the hang of it now. Driving in a familiar location is definitely half the battle.

Remembrance Day

As in Australia, Canada recognises Remembrance Day every November 11. Though, it appears to be much more significant day here than in Australia, where Anzac Day is the more significant day. In fact, I'd say that Remembrance Day is Canada's 'Anzac Day'; with marches, wreath laying ceremonies and a public holiday. This year, the public holiday is on Monday the 13th as the 11th falls on a Saturday. In the days leading up to and including Remembrance Day, Veterans and volunteers alike give out pin-on poppies (the cost is a donation of any value) and pretty much everyone wears them. They are traditionally worn on the left over your heart.

The following poem: In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae is synonymous with Remembrance day for Canadians.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

New Apartment

On Saturday, I moved into my new fully furnished, 1 bedroom apartment. Located in an area called Yaletown in downtown Vancouver. Situated on the 22nd floor (building has 39 floors). Here's what I see when I open the blinds at night:

The big building is BC place, a large exhibition centre. I'm told that Ice Hockey and other sports are played here too.

My building is located right in front of the marina on False Creek, with restaurants, yuppie grocery store, cafes, shops and about 100 Starbucks and 7-Elevens, in walking distance.

The other thing I like about the place is the ~40" plasma TV:


Further pictures to follow in due course.

Big Trucks

The 'pickup truck' is very popular over here. Some of them are obscenely large; the biggest being the Dodge Ram 3500 Mega Cab.

Parking one of these can be a challenge:

Idiot.

3 Countries in 24 Hours

Left Adelaide just before 10am on Friday and flew to Sydney to meet a connecting flight to San Francisco where in turn, I would meet another flight to Vancouver. Airport codes in brackets for anyone interested.

Adelaide (ADL) to Sydney (SYD) (Qantas) - just over 2 hours' flying time so no dramas.

Sydney (SYD) to San Francisco (SFO) (Qantas)- things didn't start well. As this flight was going to the States, I had to go through extra security; had to be patted down by security who then rummaged through my carry on luggage. Not a major hassle, just a nuisance. The flight was then delayed half an hour as a passenger's 'lost' luggage was found. Not too comfortable as it was 34C outside and the airconditioner isn't effective unless the engines are running. After we finally got going, flight itself went well. Had an aisle seat in the middle section and fortunately, the two middle seats were empty so I could spread out during the 13+ hour flight.

In flight entertainment was really good; you get the obligatory screen in the back of the seat, but unlike when I flew Cathay to London, the programming is all On Demand. No more waiting until the movie to start again; you just choose what you want and it starts from the beginning. Had a pretty good range of movies and TV shows. Watched following movies: Mission Impossible 3, DaVinci Code, Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore Global Warming doco), X-Men 3. The guide listed that Thank God You're Here was available, but I couldn't find it. Food was pretty good too.

Had some more minor hassles upon arrival in the States. Had to clear immigration and customs just to collect my bag and make my connecting flight unlike when I was in Hong Kong where I only had to clear customs if I wanted to leave the airport. More nuisance security checks at San Francisco airport. Had to be fingerprinted and photographed as part of clearing immigration (everyone entering the country has to do this). After this, had three x-ray machines with about a hundred people in the queue on the way to terminal for my next flight. In addition to having to take laptops out of bags, everyone had to take their shoes off as well. Took nearly half an hour to get through this check all the time enduring whinging Americans in the queue. Overall, the people working at the airport were no-nonsense rather unpleasant. The people at the Alaska Airlines (whom I was to fly with to Vancouver) were pleasant (they may have been Canadian).

San Francisco (SFO) to Vancouver (YVR) (Alaska Airlines) - flight was delayed about half an hour as the plane was late arriving into San Francisco. The flight, as appears to be standard practice for US airlines, was overbooked so they offered to upgrade two seats to first class for a 'nominal' fee of US$50. If it was a longer flight (only 2 hours) I would have considered it. Another Alaska Airlines flight (to Palm Springs) was also overbooked; they were offering a free return trip to any of their destinations to anyone willing to reschedule to another flight. The tails of the planes have some bloke's head on it. Have no idea who it is but it reminds me of a cross between Che Guevara Bob Marley.

Flight was uneventful and managed to snooze a bit. Flying out of San Francisco reminded me of flying out of Adelaide as you fly out over the water. The flight North to Vancouver was reminiscent of flying from Adelaide to Darwin as the landscape is dry, brown and sparsely populated. Past a number of snow capped mountains on the way, one of which I thought may have been Mount St Helens (not 100% sure as while large, looked smaller than I was expecting). Got into Vancouver at about 4pm.

Vancouver airport was very nice, clean and modern and even had a water feature. People at the airport were all pleasant and helpful.

Hotel (Richmond Hotel) is only 7-8 minutes from the airport via the free shuttle bus.

Get Your House Burgled 101

For sale sign for my house :(

Oh well, should make the job of getting rid of my furniture easier.

For Sale

Updated 25/9.

I have the following items of furniture for sale:

SOLD - Fridge - Samsung 228L fridge/freezer. Asking price $300.

SOLD - NEC Microwave (approx 25L). Asking price $100.



7 piece dining table. Asking price $300.



Queen size bed suite (including pillow-top mattress and 2 bedside drawers). Asking price $500.



6 burner gas bbq and 9 piece outdoor setting (SOLD). Asking price $250 each.



Plus 2 couches (1 lounge, 1 sofa bed) and assorted books, appliances etc. Let me know if interested.

Will update items as sold.

Gift Wishlist

Don't know what I want for Christmas or my birthday? Worry no more!

Click here to go to my Amazon.com wishlist. As I find things that I want to buy, I'll add these to my wishlist (if I don't buy them immediately that is). All you need to do is click on an item and purchase it as a gift. Just put my address in as the shipping address and the present will go straight to me. Sweet.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog (boy do I hate that word). Now, first things first: this is NOT going to be one of those wanky blogs that some people ('bloggers' *ugh*) fill with inane drivel and poetry. No, my aim is to use this purely as a means of keeping my friends and family abreast of my time living and working in Canada (Vancouver) over the next 12+ months. I'll also be posting as many photos as possible.

Lastly, there will be NO NUDITY (unlike this effort).

Well, that's about it for a first post. Now I'd like to share a poem I've just written...