First Day of Winter

English Bay Snow, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Well, 1st December and winter is officially here.

The Grouse Grind

Wednesday after work, I headed off to do the 'Grouse Grind' with a mate from work. The Grouse Grind is a trail from the base to the summit of Grouse Mountain, and follows the path of the cable car (see pic).

The Grouse Grind is, indeed, a 'Grind'. I was expecting it to be tough, but I was not prepared for the hour and a half of hell that awaited me. The picture to the left does not give do justice to how bloody steep this mountain is. To give you an idea, the Grind takes you from 300m above sea level to 1100m, but is actually 2.9km long. It gets better: it's all STEPS!

The trail has markers at every quarter based on altitude rather than length and the first quarter is the easiest and also the longest and flattest. We were taking it 'easy' and all up it took us about 45 minutes to make it to the first quarter. Yes, it took us 45 minutes to climb 200 metres up the mountain. I was already stuffed at this point, with my heart pounding and legs burning and had to take a 5-10 minute break to catch my breath and regain my colour. We then made a start on the second quarter.

From here on, the quarters get shorter and steeper (and harder) and the half way mark is the point of no return as it's quicker to keep going to the top rather than walking back down.

There were dozens of people, of all ages and fitness levels, doing the grind with us and it was heartening to hear them all huffing and puffing.

After just under an hour and a half, I emerged drenched and wheezing at the summit. Beer and nachos have never been so good. Besides the sense of achievement, the view is awesome and makes it worth it.


Even though it was real hard yakka, I plan on doing it again and hopefully will do it regularly in future. Sadly, and obviously, the trail is closed during the winter months.

Vancouver Pride Parade 2007

Flag, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Quite an eventfully weekend in Vancouver. Saturday saw the finale of the Celebration of Light fireworks and Sunday was the day for Vancouver's annual Pride Parade. Traditionally a gay and lesbian parade (like Sydney's Mardis Gras), it is now more of celebration of lifestyle and cultural diversity in Vancouver with many participants from the various communities in the city.

We headed down at about noon for kick off. We didn't have to walk far as the parade was along the street in front of our building. The organisers couldn't have picked a better day; bright blue skies and mid-high 20s. Quite warm for downtown Vancouver. Ironically, it was the worst conditions to take photos in with the bright sun overhead creating harsh shadows. This was made worse by facing into the sun, leaving my subjects' faces in shadow, but enough about that.

As you would expect most of the paraders were men; dressed in drag, leather, underwear or nothing at all. Despite being surrounded by families with young children, no one seemed to mind. The glitter and paint that I was told was ubiquitous last year, however, was seldom seen this time round; strange considering it's what I think of when I thing of a gay parade. This one's for you Robert: There were some women parading too; the most notably the girls in fishnets, and the girls dancing with huge feather arrangements a'la Rio's Carnivale.

Except for the naked blokes it was quite an enjoyable experience and the crowd and participants had a great deal of fun and the parade lasted about 2 hours. Afterwards, Trav and I headed up Davie Street for our regular Mongolian BBQ lunch.

More Fireworks

Celebration of Light, China 1 August 2007 - III, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

It was China's turn on Wednesday and they were far and away the best; plenty of big loud explosions filling up the sky. They also synchronised their fireworks to music better than either Spain or Canada.

The Finale was on Saturday with all three nations taking competing for 'victory'. I don't think there are any prizes awarded for the actual winner. Each nations put on a 10 minute display and pretty much recycled music from their earlier displays. Once again, China were the best, though I believe Canada may have 'won'.

'Twas a good evening: had 7 people over to watch the fireworks while drinking a number of bottles of assorted beers and red wines. The lowlight of the night would have to have been the dubious Szcechuan chicken from the late-night take away window at a near by Chinese place at 2am that Travis and I had. Most of it ended up in the bin.

Celebration of Light - Spain, 25 July

Celebration of Light - Spain 25 July 07 - I, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

One of the highlights of summer in Vancouver is the annual 'Celebration of Light'. Similar to Skyshow, it's fireworks set to music. Where it differs from Skyshow is that it's a competition between 3 countries. This year's competitors being Spain, China and Canada.

The beaches around English Bay were all packed with hundreds of thousands of people which is amazing considering it was a Wednesday night and due to the long days of summer, the show wouldn't start until 10pm. The bus ride home after work was a bit of a nightmare as thousands of people left their cars at home and took the buses downtown. The buses here are not air-conditioned. The next show is on a Saturday night so it's going to be insane.

Spain was the first competitor and did a good job. Their show lasted about half an hour and they used a wide variety of fireworks. One of the most spectacular was one that exploded into a huge golden 'weeping willow tree'. More photos of the show here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_mcdonald/

Had some friends over and we made pizzas for tea then sat back and enjoyed the show drinking beer and wine and laughing at the poor suckers crammed down on the beaches.

We're going to do it all again on Saturday night.

Canada Day Fireworks

Canada Day Fireworks I, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

July 1 is Canada Day (same as Australia Day) and besides a public holiday on the 2nd (Monday) there is is also a fireworks display. There were actually two simultaneous displays downtown; one in Coal Harbour and the other in English Bay near West Vancouver.

This is from the West Vancouver display. The tree tops of Stanley Park can just be made out in the foreground.

Toronto Day 1

Gleam, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Headed to Toronto for 3 nights on Monday. Flight left Vancouver at 9.50am and due to the 5 hour flight and the 3 hour time difference, I didn't arrive into Toronto until 5.15pm. I flew with Westjet, and they have the screens in the back of the seats so that you can watch a number of TV channels (such as Discovery Channel). I think the programming must be straight off the satellite as one of the programs on Discovery Channel was unforunately a show about the investigation into the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off of Halifax in 1998. The investigation found that faulty wiring caused a fire which ultimately led to a loss of control and the loss of the aircraft. Just the kind of thing you want to see on a plane! Headsets are not complimentary on Westjet; you have to bring your own or pay $3 to purchase a set in-flight. Their headsets are a bit better than the ones you normally receive on flight, having better padding around the speakers. Once you've paid your $3, they're yours to keep for future flights.

I didn't have to worry about waiting for me luggage as I carried everything on with me. Caught the shuttle bus ($39 round trip) from the airport to my hotel. The weather was nice (about 24C) with a little bit of humidity. It was, of course, cool and rainy back in Vancouver.

There was quite a bit of haze and smog in the air; obscuring the city skyline on the approach from the airport. It was about 6.30 by the time I got to my room. I'm glad I paid the extra (approx $150/night) to stay smack-bang in the heart of the financial district as everything

was within easy walking distance. For instance I was about 3 blocks away from the CN Tower. That evening I walked around and checked out the downtown area.

Toronto reminds me of Melbourne in many ways. There are many architectural similarities - big, tall, glass buildings alongside Edwardian buildings from the late 1800s. One of the main streets, Queen Street, reminds me of Fitzroy with all it's 'alternative' shops and posters plastered on building walls over many years. By and large, the streets and buildings were clean (except everyone leaves their garbage bags on the footpath) and don't have that 'grit' that coats the buildings and streets in Vancouver (caused by the moisture I guess).

Had a meal and watched a bit of baseball (boring) in a pub before heading back to the hotel.

Toronto Day 2

CN Tower Imposing, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Today was my first full day in Toronto and my main objective was to check out as much of the city as I could as I was off to Niagara Falls all of the next day. My main objective was to check out the CN Tower. A boat cruise on the lake was also recommended.

Today's weather was not as good as yesterday's; it was muggier with a few clouds around and with some darker clouds moving in. The forecast called for storms later in the day.

At first, I just walked around town, following some of the main streets to see where they would take me and worked my way to the CN Tower after taking a short cut through some 'ghetto-ey' looking area. There were a couple of drops of rain, but the weather held.

It costs about $30 to go up the CN Tower, depending on what optional 'extras' you want to take in. I just did the main observation deck, glass floor, and sky pod. From underneath, the Tower looks like a jet engine stuck on a skewer. It takes about 45 seconds for the lift to reach the main observation deck. Once there the view is spectacular; far better than the Space Needle in Seattle. Unfortunately, the clouds had rolled in by then so it was quite grey outside. You can go outside as well up there onto a lower deck and the wind is quite strong, possibly stronger than normal due to the approaching storms. The lower deck also has a glass floor which allows you to stand over and look down on the street some hundred-odd storeys below. Not the place for those with a fear of heights.It gets better though- you can another elevator to the skypod, an obsevation deck even further up. Had to queue up for about 10 minutes before I could go up. Once there, the view is even better.

According to the stats, the sky pod is 147 storeys or 447m (1465ft) off the ground. There were a group of young Australians in the lift on the way down and when one of the blokes was asked what he thought of it he simply said in true Aussie style "it was sick".

After the CN Tower, with sky getting darker I took a one hour tour by boat of Lake Ontario. This tour only cost $16 and gave a great view of the city from the water.

The tour goes out through the 15 islands (14 natural and 1 man-made) in the harbour, past yacht clubs and even an amusement park. Aparently, the Everglades chase scene from one of the Police Academy movies was actually shot around the Toronto Islands. Whilst in the harbour, the name of a moored ship caught my eye: "Capt Matthew Flinders". I found it strange that a ship bearing his name would be about as far away from South Australia as you could get.

The last activity of the day was found purely by chance. I happened to be walking past an old train yard in front of the CN Tower and saw that it had a sign saying 'Steamwhistle Brewery" above the door. Breweries are always good and brewery tours are even better. I'd never heard of Steamwhistle before so thought I'd check it out. As luck would have it, they offered brewery tours and the next one started in 15 minutes. The cost was $8 and that included a number of free 'samples' and a souvenir bottle opener or glass. I chose the bottle opener. Steamwhistle only makes one beer- a Pilsner and it's actually quite good. Slighlty bitter, but a very crisp, clean taste. Had a couple of 'samples' while I waited for the tour to begin. Once the tour began, we were immediately instructed to go to the bar to top up our glass to take with us on the tour. My third free beer of the day. Sweet. We headed outside and sat down to listen to the guide explain the history of the brewery (started by 3 blokes retrenched when the brewery they used to work for was bought out). At this time, the heavens opened up. Like Australia, and unlike Vancouver, when it rains in Toronto, it really rains. Vancouver rain is lighter and prolonged, here in Toronto it just dumps and gets it over and done with. The way it should rain. We continued the tour inside and then headed back to the bar where we had more free beers and waited for the rain to stop. Like the Heineken brewery in Amsterdam, the Steamwhistle brewery gets brewery touring right: an intersting tour, a useful souvenir, is cheap, and free beer. After about half an hour of drinking and waiting I'd had enough of waiting and headed back in to town. By now the rain was easing and it was time for dinner. Had a good meal at a little italian place near the hotel. Linguine and meatballs with ricotta in the centre. Yum.

Niagara Falls (Day 3)

Maid of the Mist, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Today I took an 'Antiki' tour down to Niagara Falls. Costing about $130, it lasts about 10 hours from pickup to drop off (9am to 7pm) and includes an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch. About 3 of those hours are free time for you to do your own thing. On the itinerary was obviously the Falls but your fee includes a 'Maid of the Mist' boat ride and a trip to th historic town of Niagara On The Lake. An optional extra is a helicopter ride over the falls. Weatherwise, it was a perfect day for it, the previous day's muggy then stormy weather had cleared meaning today was nice and warm with an expected high of 24C.

The drive from downtown Toronto to Niagara took about an hour and gave the driver an opportunity to enligten us about Ontario's history. Along the way, we drove through the city of Mississauga and also through the Niagara wine area. Niagara is starting to make a name for itself in the wine industry because of its ice wine. During winter, the temperatures often reach -30C which is perfect for making ice wine. The grapes are left on the vine to freeze and then thaw, then freeze again and so on. This constant freezing and thawing concentrates sugar in the grapes and leads to a very sweet wine. Unfortunately, the grapes have to picked by hand to avoid breaking them so some poor bugger has to go out in -30C to pick grapes. The driver was also kept busy turning the airconditioner off and on as the (mostly older, English couples) passengers alternated between complaining that it was too cold then too hot.

The first stop along the way was the optional helicopter flight over the falls. The price is usually (or so they say) $115 but the tour group only had to pay $85. Onky about five or six of us (out of about 30) opted in for this and it was great. Groups of six were crammed into a Bell 407 helicopter (Niagara Helicopters operates about four of them) for a 5-10 minute flight over the falls and surrounding area. Well, the Canadian side anyway, I don't think the pilot ventured into US airspace. Whilst not exactly cheap, it was well worth it as how often can you do this sort of thing?

All too soon it was over and we were herded back onto the bus.

Shortly after the helicopter ride, we arrived at Niagara Falls proper and disembarked to do our own thing for about an hour before lunch. I was slightly surprised that the falls didn't seem as big as I had always imagined. I'm not saying I was disappointed as they are still bloody huge and make a hell of roar, but for some reason I assumed they would be even bigger. I guess it could be because you actually look down on them from the sides of the gorge. There are two falls, the smaller 'American' falls on the American side and the bigger 'Canadian' falls further up the gorge (the ones you think of when you think of Niagara Falls). One thing I was not expecting (though I should have, this is North America after all) was all the hotels at the falls.

There's a Sheraton, a Hilton, and a number of others. The tour guide explained that Niagara Falls is the most popular honeymoon destination in America. I thought it would have been Hawaii but there you go. There weren't just hotels there; there's a casino, a Hard Rock Cafe and of course the obligatory Starbucks.

After lunch, we ventured down the gorge to board The Maid of the Mist. The Maid of the Mist is a ferry that takes passengers out into the mist caused by the falls. So that you don't get drenched all passengers are given blue plastic ponchos (basically big blue garbage bags) covering you from head to toe. They even have hoods to keep your hair dry. Not necessary for me of course. The Maid of the Mist is fantastic and the best way to see the falls. The best moment is when the boat gets to about 100 or so metres from the Canadian Falls (the big ones). The boat sits there for a couple of minutes getting bobbed around by the torrent of water rushing past on its way down the gorge. Meanwhile, you're trying to stand up straight, getting covered with spray listening to the thunderous roar of the falls. It's great.

The last stop on the tour was the little town of Niagara On The Lake. It's a small, heritage town analogous to Hahndorf I guess, situated on the shore of Lake Ontario, about 15 minutes from Niagara Falls. Many of the buildings date back to the early 1800s and are kept in immaculate condition as are the gardens and nature strips in the town. Other than that, there's not much else to it (the town holds some festivals throughout the year though), but grabbed and ice cream and took some pictures of some squirrels running around in the park.

At 6pm we boarded the bus and headed back to Toronto.

Toronto Day 4

CN Tower from Spadina, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Didn't get up to much today as I had to be at the airport for the 1.30pm flight back to sunny Vancouver. This was the latest I could fly out today and because of this, I only had a couple of hours to look around. Just wandered around having a last look at a few places before checking out and catching the bus back to the airport.

The flight back to Vancouver actually took a bit longer than on the way over and I'm told it's because of the gulfstream that blows in an easterly direction across the continent. On the way over, we had a tailwind, whereas on the way back we were flying against the gulfstream. Arrived back in Vancouver at about 3.30pm.

Vancouver Aquarium

Jellyfish, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

One of the places I'd been meaning to check out for AGES here in Vancouver, was the Aquarium. I don't know why I'd not visited sooner as for the last 4 months I have been a 20 minute walk from it (it's located just inside Stanley Park), but I finally got off my arse and went in.

It's pretty good, though much smaller than I imagined it to be. I imagined that it would house marine life from all over the world, but was very BC-centric. This is not such a bad thing though as I really didn't need to see a Platypus or fish from the Barrier Reef.

The Aquarium consists of about four or five main areas, indoors and outdoors. Indoors, one area shows off BC marine life (such as the jellyfish above). Another area is dedicated to the Amazon for reasons I'm not aware of. This area houses some of the giant fishes and caimans native to that part of the world. Adjoining this is a small replica Amazon rainforest replete with butterflies. It's climate controlled to recreate the heat and humidity of the Amazon rainforest, but it actually reminded me of home.

Outdoors there are four separate pool enclosures housing Sea Otters (I saw a couple in the wild on the beach during one of my morning runs along the Stanley Park Sea Wall); another housing Belugas (big white dolphin/whale/seal cross). I must have visited the Belugas at the wrong time of the day as they were literally just hanging around in the water. Perhaps they were sleeping. Moving along you come to the Sea Lion enclosure. These guys were huge and seemed much bigger than the ones in SA. I was much closer mind.

The last enclosure, the centrepiece of the Aquarium, is the 'Wild Coast' enclosure housing the Dolphins. These Dolphins are native to BC and are dark on top and light on the bottom. Their name escapes me now. At certain times of the day, there is a Dolphin feeding show. One benefit of the relative small size of the facility is that you can get quite close to the animals adding to the spectacle of the feeding show. The show lasts about 15 minutes and consists of the Dolphins performing a number of acrobatic trips for a fish reward. These Dolphins can propel themselves a great distance into the air (probably 10-15 feet) and is all the more impressive when you're 10 metres away from them. Well worth taking in if you visit.

Unfortunately, admittance is $20 for an adult, which, considering the size of the facility and the duration of the visit (about an hour) is probably too much. The Aquarium is self funded and non profit though, and you do get your hand stamped, allowing you to come and go as you please all day.

Just a Little Update

Not that much new to report from Raincouver, and I really mean RAINcouver. Here's why. All last week was nice and sunny with highs in the low 20's followed by a beautiful weekend with temps around 25C.

It gets better. Many parts of BC have flood warnings as this rain will add to the rivers already swollen by the melting snow from the mountains brought on by the warm weather.

I have this week off:

Typical.

In other news, I booked a trip to Toronto for 3 days between the 18th and 21st as I have that week off too. Because Canada really only has 2 domestic airlines (similar to Australia I suppose), it's actually cheaper to fly to London than it is to Toronto. Despite this, I'm looking forward to it as seeing Canada was the reason I came here in the first place. I may actually need the break after I finish my first week in the maelstrom that is my new role at work. CN Tower and Viagra Niagara Falls here I come.

I wonder what weather conditions I will bring to Toronto?

Not bad for $75

Not bad for $75, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Sometimes, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. The couch that I had been PROMISED FOR THE LAST 3 MONTHS ("we'll pick it up this weekend"), as I had long suspected, fell through. However, on Saturday, saw a flyer in the laundry room from someone in the building selling a couch. Looked OK in the picture and the price was reasonable at $150. Gave the bloke a call and he mentioned that it had a 'slight stain' and the price would be a little lower because of this. This didn't fill me with confidence, but called the guy up anyway. Went and had a look and it checked out OK. Yes, it did indeed have a small stain (from the red/orange cover they had on it which must have got wet at one stage), as well as signs that it had been sat in for a few years, but nothing really noticeable. Because of this, the asking price was revised down to $75. I even bought a pedestal fan from them for $15. The place is not air conditioned and being on the 25th means I have 24 floors' worth of heating to contend with as it rises up through the floors. Best of all, I didn't have to worry about delivery as it was already in my building. It shouldn't be hard for me to dispose of it as I'm actually at least its third owner in the building as the people I bought it off bought it from someone else in the building.

Other than that, bugger all to report aside from the fact that we're actually getting some nice days here and the days themselves are getting much longer now. It's light when my alarm goes off at 5.30am and the last traces of light are gone by 10pm. Certainly beats the 8am to 4pm hours of December.

It's Funny Coz It's True

Move Along, Nothing to See Here

Nothing to See Here, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

It's not every day that you see a plane wreck on a city beach. This is apparently the set for the movie 'Passengers', being filmed here in Vancouver.

Otherwise, pretty uneventful weekend.

Seattle

Seattle, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Last Saturday went for a drive with Nick and Annette down to Seattle. Seattle's about 3 hours by car from Vancouver, but this can vary wildly depending on how busy the border crossing is. We had a relatively easy crossing, though we did have to get out and fill out the green US immigration forms and pay US$6 for the privilege. All up, it took us about half an hour to clear immigration. The upshot of all this is that we now have a 3 month 'visa' for the US so should be able to come and go as we please until the beginning of May. I'm hoping to get Las Vegas and Hawaii trips in in this time.

The drive down was fairly easy as (would be expected) you take multi-lane freeways all the way into the city centre. The freeway to Seattle is littered with shopping centres ranging from outlet malls like Harbour town to giant Costcos. As we had skipped breakfast when we left, we made the mandatory stop into a Maccas. They probably do this in Canada too, but the breakfast menu at McDonald's in the States has items called 'McGriddles' which look like the normal muffins but with scones (or possibly damper) instead of the muffins. We just had the normal muffins.

Got into Seattle proper at about 11.30 (about the time the rain started, naturally) and headed straight for the Space Needle. Unlike Vancouver, the centre of Seattle has overpasses galore. Hopefully it will catch on in Vancouver and ease the traffic problems. The Space Needle itself looked smaller in the flesh than I had imagined but the view from the top was still great. Unfortunately due to the rain, I couldn't get any decent photos outside so had to make do with the one above taken from the lookout.

After the Space Needle we thought that a trip on the monorail would be a good way to see Seattle. After paying our $4 for the round trip, we waited, and waited, and waited. When the monorail finally arrived we were presented with a 45 year-old monorail car that looks like it was designed by the same person that designed the original Starship Enterprise in Star Trek. Once we boarded and found our seats we sta back and enjoyed the view of downtown Seattle from 10 metres off the ground. After two blocks an announcement came over the PA saying that we were approaching some stop at a mall and that we had to get off would have to get back on for the return leg. Yes, we paid $4 for a two-block return ride. We had a quick look around the mall and the immediate surrounds.

The city centre of Seattle is pretty much the same as Vancouver though it looks a bit cleaner (less litter) and we did not see any homeless people begging for money. I'm told though that it's worse when you get outside of the city centre. At this point, we thought we'd go for a drive and try to find the Boeing factory. The drive out to the airport took about 25 minutes and we pulled up at a place called the Museum of Flight to have a look around and ask for directions to the Boeing Factory. We soon learned that the Boeing factory was another 45 minutes' drive and as it was already 2pm we decided to leave it for another time and just look around the Museum of Flight.

The Museum of Flight is actually quite good; the first thing you see is a massive open area with old (pre WWII) aircraft hanging from the ceiling and a giant SR-71 Blackbird Spy Plane (the fastest plane ever built) taking centre stage. I have put a few photos on my Flickr page. Across the road are a number of airliners; most notably a Concorde and one of the ealry Air Force One aircraft. You can go inside these aircraft. Air Force One is particullarly interesting because you can see all the offices, meeting rooms and even the safes that contained the codes to the nukes. One of the highlights for me were WWI and WWII displays full of planes from both sides in the wars. The WWII one was great - full of BF-109s, Mustangs, and P-47s to name a few.

Left the museum at about 4.30 and decided to make the trip back home. Along the way back, we stopped off at one of the Harbour Town-esque outlet malls. There is a Nike shop there and shoes were incredibly cheap; about US$50 per pair.

The last point of note is our experience with the McDonald's drive through as we left the mall. One of the items we (I) wanted was a small coke. It transpired something like this:

Nick: Cheesburger, fillet-o-fish and a small coke
Girl: shake?
Nick: no, a coke
Girl: shake?
Nick: no, a coke. You know, coca-cola?
Girl: ok

I looked at the screen that displayed what we'd ordered and saw that she'd put down a vanilla shake. What the? How do you get 'vanilla shake' from coca cola? Any way, I managed to get a medium coke instead of a small coke and decided to quit while we were ahead.

I recommend a day trip to Seattle if you're in Vancouver, but you should leave early (around 6am) in order to get a full day.

Just don't order a coke at a Maccas drive through.

View from the 25th Floor

View from the 25th Floor, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Had the Shaw cable guy around this evening to connect my cable TV and (more importantly) internet in my new apartment.

Took the day off on Thursday to move into the new place at the other end of town. This time, I'm on the 25th floor with, I reckon, a better view. It will be great when summer finally comes around. The picture above is a panorama of the view from my balcony that was created from five photos joined together on the computer. If you click on the photo, you'll go to the picture on my Flickr page and will be able to view a much larger version. When you look at the larger version, you'll also see where the software didn't quite get it right.

I'm now at the west end of downtown Vancouver near English Bay (the bay in the photo). Just past the building is the Stanley Park. The apartment isn't as nice as the Yaletown one, but it's much cheaper (half the price) but is unfurnished. All up, I think I'll save about $500 per month here after accounting for furnishing the place and monthly bills (the Yaletown apartment was furnished and included internet, cable TV etc etc). As a bonus, two of my mates from work also live in the building.

The area around is a lot older and a little bit 'grottier' than Yaletown but has pretty much everything I need on within a five-minute walk: Safeway, McDonalds, Starbucks, Dentist, bottle shop, Japanese restaurant, Indian restaurant, London Drugs (supermarket/electrical/computers/ chemist). There are also tons of restaurants within a 10 minute walk. One thing of note, is that the West End is the heart of Vancouver's gay and lesbian community. I was only made aware of this AFTER I signed up for the place, though the pink bus shelters and rainbow flags along Davie Street (the main street by my building) should have given it away. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Besides, I much prefer it to the yuppies in Yaletown poncing around wearing their rectangle glasses carrying a coffee (grande half-decaf soy chai mocha latte extra hot) in one hand and their bloody poodle in the other. Wankers.

Furniture-wise, starting to build up again- now have a bed (from Ikea) and a TV (37" Viewsonic LCD). Need to get a couch, though the styrofoam blocks that protected the TV are doubling as an ersatz couch for the time being.

And Now Fog

And Now Fog, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Bright blue skies one day, thick fog the next.

My New Car

Hummer_blog, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Not.

Found this Hummer parked in the car park at Granville Island.

Speaking of Sunny Conditions...

Forecast_resize, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

...forecast for next week.

Vancouver is now on water restrictions due to the drought.

A Room With Two Views

Lounge_blog, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

I know I haven't really shown much of the apartment, and my first (and last) effort could at best be described as 'rubbish', so here's one I took today to take advantage of the sunny conditions. Used two external flashes- one on the couch to the left of picture and one behind the TV to light the room.

I'll try and get some more before I move on Thursday.

Porcelain Bus and Porcelain Shards

Tranquility, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Well.....not a bad weekend just gone by. Friday night was a bit rowdier than I planned. Nick, Annette and I decided to head out for tea for a quick bite and a drink or two. As we were leaving, Jens Korte (MD of Heli-One Norway, and all-round nice-guy) asked if he could tag along. No problem we said.

After washing our dinner down with 3 or 4 pints of beer, we bode Jens farewell as he had a ski-trip planned for the weekend and headed off The Foggy Dew pub underneath Nick and Annette's hotel. The rest of the night comprised drinking round after round of Canadian Club and coke interspersed with B-52 shots. Needless to say the night ended in a blur and I spent the night on Nick and Annette's sofa (after getting crook in the dunny).

Saturday was pretty much a write off, but things picked up after sending Annette out on a Macca's run. Nothing cures a hangover like grease.

Annette and I left Nick to sleep it off and headed out to the Costco at Richmond to break in my new membership card. Costco is basically a huge discount store where everything is sold by the kilo or gallon. For example, you go to Costco if you want to buy a BUCKET of peanut butter. It's also CHEAP at Costco. I have my eye on a 37" LCD TV for my new place that they are selling for $999. It's a Viewsonic too; not some K-Mart rubbish (Centrex anyone?). Besides Richmond, there is also a Costco downtown and it's almost as huge as the Richmond one. To give you an idea of the size, just think of a Bunnings that sells food, electricals, medicine, toiletries, clothes etc etc. It even has its own meat, fruit & veg, and bakery sections (the baked goods are baked onsite). The only catch, is you need to be a member, not just to purchase, but to even set foot in the store. They actually shoooed me out of the Downtown store when I first went there without a membership. Basic membership costs $55 per year.

The weather on Sunday was great. The sky was a strange shade of grey (ie BLUE) and the rain was conspicous by its absence. Despite the clear skies and sun, it was still only -1C. This was the perfect opportunity to check out the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Chinatown as I'd heard it was one of the places you must see when in Vancouver. So I dragged Annette and Nick out to take a look. It is actually rather nice, and the snow and ice made for some picturesque scenes. The pools in the garden had actually frozen over and the ice must have been pretty thick as Nick's best efforts to stomp it with his foot (luckily) came to naught. Half of the garden is free to see, but you have to pay $8.75 to see the other part and there are regular tours with a guide. We paid up and joined a tour with a little old Chinese lady who looked and sounded like Yoda (apologies if you're reading this lady). She had some interesting things to say, but it was just too cold to stand around listening to her talk about where each individual pebble and porcelain shard in the courtyard floor came from (maybe I'll come back in summer for this) so we cut her loose and headed back into town for some food.

If you're in Vancouver, I'd say it's definitely worth visiting for the free section but $8.75 is a bit steep for the other part.

I did get some good photos though.

And frostbite.

BC Place Roof Collapses

Deflated, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Got home from signing up for a new apartment (details to come) to be greeted by the sight of BC Place with its roof collapsed. Apparently, a tear developed in the fabric (it is an 'inflatable' roof) followed by a loud bang as it collapsed. BC Place officials claim this was intentional 'controlled deflation' after the initial tear was discovered.

For those interested, more info can be found on the CBC (Canada's equivalent of the ABC) website:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/01/05/bc-dome.html

Happy New Year

1 Jan 07 - 7pm -> Return DVD, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Happy New Year everyone.

All the best for a safe and successful 2007.