Tuesday 29th: It rains! (week 8)

OH NO! it's raining, there is nothing on the front wheel of my bike to protect me from the rain! crap crap crap!
It's 7.53, and I am going to cycle into work soon. fun fun fun!

It's 9.56pm, and I'm eating after just getting back home. So this is today, enjoy:

I. Was. SOAKING WET!, my hat did good to keep my glasses and hair dry, mind you I had to keep one hand holding onto the hat and one to the handlebars whilst going downhill at speed, as the hat always wanted to fly off! Anyway, taking my speedy shortcut to work (see Dyl's google map), I made a new time record, 30mins to work! So I locked up my bike to itself inside the building, through the backdoor. This door has a passcode lock on it. This is what I do every time I go to work. More on this later.
Anyway. So I walk in, and people look confused, maybe it was because there wasn't a dry spot on me? This might of been the case, but it was more to do with the fact that I wasn't meant to be there until 11am. What had happened was that Celina, my manager, had changed the schedule, but forgot to change the one in the staff room. Whoops on her half! What this did mean was that I got to explore science world, and I tell you; it, is, amazing! Random toys/machines to play with, puzzles that are actually difficult to solve (obviously I can solve them =p), and exhibits. The first one I looked at was the optical illusions, a subject I'm particularly fond of. As well as that, there were other exhibitions, including a Disney exhibit. It is rather good actually! I also found a staff member that I often serve, and until that moment, she (Elissa) had not realised that I was in fact English. Anyway, she was telling me about the flying carpet pictures that can be taken, and how staff take their own pictures in silly poses! (when no-one is there). She said I could do that too, so watch this space for Dyl on flying carpet photos! That and playing on a giant keyboard that you walk on.
Ok, so the general rule for where I work is that it is very busy on rainy days. Today was no exception, and it was actually the busiest that I have ever seen. The line was humongous, and We barely got to go on our breaks, I had mine at four. After making as many milkshakes as humanly possibly in the space of 10minutes!
Closed the shop today, and this was followed by the orientation for new people. That's right, I've been working here for almost 4 weeks now, and so I get my orientation. Just before that started one of my workmates asked me a question or two, it went like this:
Hey Dyl, did you ride your bike in today?
Yes, yes I did.
Where did you put your bike?
Out back.
Really? It's not there.
? Sure it is, it's behind the dumpster.
*we walk to where I know the bike to be*
My bike is where this big space is. Wel it should be...

Yep, my bike has GONE! I asked The manager if they had seen it, and on that question they were instantly shocked. Stuff does not get stolen from the back, ever! There is no way to get in without the code, unless you are the garbage removal people, in which case we let them in. They were quite shocked, as was I, but I was just, you know, a little bit annoyed.
The science world building was closed, and so we could ask if one of the staff members had moved it, if it was in the way. Also, the dumpster company would also have closed shop by then, so no calling them either. What is going to happen is that we are going to check with them and science world, if nothing comes of that, then the police will get involved, and if no bike is found, then Celina said that there would reimburse me for the bike. Which is nice of them.

So yes, the end of my day was spent listening to crap I really didn't need to hear about greeting "guests" and proper handling of food procedure etc, whilst being annoyed at missing bike. Celina was helpful, and very caring though. So not all bad, I guess. It wasn't raining by then either. Did some shopping, and here I am.

Thus ending the first day of rain. woo.

week 7 (really)

why not really? (EDIT:IT IS NOW!)

For I am sleepy! I am going to sleep soon, but thought I would mention a few things before writing a proper entry tomorrow.
1st, it was my cousin's birthday on Wednesday, so Happy Birthday Dilani!
2nd, its been a long week, long long long. Mainly due to the 5 days of 9-5.30. It's not as bad as some of my friends here, but still, hard work. Most days after work were spent wither going to mink and meeting up with, you wanna guess? Ben and Lynda. That or just cycling about, and exploring.

On Wednesday there were fireworks. It was part of the countries competing against each other and showing off how awesome fireworks really are. Now I would love to say that the fireworks were great, but, well, I missed them. The plan was, go to the spaghetti factory and eat (obviously), then watch the fireworks. What happened was we ate and ate through the fireworks... oh well, nevermind!

Thursday had some random food at Helens place. 'tis was good I say!

Friday... hmm, ok, maybe this will be the week blog then
Friday was pretty boy's last day at work.
Who is pretty boy? Well his name is actually Chris, a legendary person to me at work. Actually I have mentioned him before. Anyway, long story short on the name, the manager gave one of the reasons for not considering him to go out with is that he is too much of a pretty boy. haha, yep, great reason, so it stuck. Ashley ended up calling me tall person, and him pretty boy, kinda like we were super heroes! (ok, yes it's sad, shut up). Anyway, what made this day good was that it wasn't (overly) busy, I may have messed about on the job,

Does anyone recognise this character?

and that we changed two peoples lives!
Well, ok, they were just unhappy looking people. The first guy came to the window at the side and his natural face was just an upside-down smile. So to see if we could make him smile, we gave him his burger in a kids bag, and even gave him some skittles! This was while Chris had a little badge I had made for him on his shoulder saying, "I am too pretty" pointing towards him. We gave him a little smirk. his life was changed, for he has smiled... kinda. The second person was a mother who looked fed up with the child, just ever so slightly. It was at the end of the day, so we tend to just give the food to customers rather than calling out their number. So my task was to wear a kids bag on my head, and give her, her food. It was quite hard to keep the bag balanced actually, but I prevailed, and it made her smile! it was fun. Job well done I say.
Oh well, no more random occurrences like that anymore I guess. Farewell Pretty-boy, hope you acting career goes well!

So long pretty-boy, I'm sure that Triple Os will survive without you!

Oh, speaking of work, you get to learn accents, and dialects of the people quite well. What I heard the other day though really surprised me. Canadians love to say "for sure". Now this lady, came up to my till and said,
"I would like 2 of these sandwiches for sure".
Now, I dunno about you, but that just seemed excessive. I didn't really need those extra two words there to comprehend!

meh.
Saturday, this was fireworks! many many fireworks, but before any of that was brunch with Helen at White Spot, so I got me a discount. Woohoo! Something we had planned for a while now. It was good, pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs, potato and maple syrup, and tea of course. now that is a good breakfast... I mean brunch! Helen had the same but with French toast instead of pancakes.

We were meant to get the food before eating, but we failed. It looked too good!

What we realised is that this Canadian breakfast was kinda like English mixed with a French breakfast. Thinking about this, it makes perfect sense, it's perfectly Canadian with the French and English.
After brunch I joined up with Ben, Lynda and Andrew for board short shopping. Me and Ben were happy with our selections...

Ben models his choice of board shorts

and

and... I'M TOO TRIED! IT's quarter to 2, I'm sleeping!

more on this tomorrow!
...
continuing on...

my pair are orange fading to red. I think they are cool.
After some lunch, which was a nice sandwich for me and a breakfast for Ben (to wake him up!), we went to a thrift store to help find stuff needed for Lynda and Andrew's place. For their place came with nothing, at all. No beds, kitchen utensils, cooking implements, basically everything!
Much buying of stuff later, and carrying back to Lynda's via the skytrain, we went to buy food. Tis' was good, we had random 3 minute noodles with left over Indian food. It worked well, but also, a moment of genius by Lynda, the suggestion of squishing blueberries and mixing them with Philadelphia. This was brilliant! Great when spreaded on bread. Oh but before we ate the food, we discovered a park nearby. A park with slides and swings and a pull up bar, and one of thoses things with 2 hoops that you see in the Olympics, where gymnasts pull themselves up and do spins. Yea, so we played about there for a bit, having swinging wars (by swinging sideways), and general acting like a kid. It is great fun doing so, the gymnast thing we could flip ourselves backwards but not lift ourselves up. That was too hard to do.
Alright, so Saturday was also the turn of America (apparently) to show of fireworks. We decided to go to Granville bridge and watch from there. There was probably little chance of finding a good spot that late anyway. While Lynda took the skytrain and bus, Ben and I cycled back to his to get his awesome camera, and the to the bridge (Map link to show places will be about soon). We did that quite quickly. Found a place to stand, and got some photo's before and during the fireworks, which were above english bay. The view was good, although towards the end there was also quite a bit of a dust cloud from our view too.

Cars on Granville bridge at night

Picture Ben took of fireworks

Me, Lynda and Ben watching the fireworks

The smokey view of vancouver after the fireworks.

After the fireworks, me and Ben decided that after walking Lynda to the skytrain, we would explore downtown on the bikes and get some night shots. Dowtown does look rather good at night. Oh, but as today was an event, there were many many police there. They did not like mine and Ben's way of cycling on the pave... I mean sidewalk when there were many people there.

Cylcing on the sidewalk is not permitted! (Photo taken whilst cycling on the sidewalk)

They told us to get off the bikes. You don't argue with them. Hah, until you pass them that is. We got back on after leaving Lynda and cylcled towards the seabus station. According to Lynda, when we got back on the bikes, the police lady that told Ben to get off his bike was quite annoyed and called up for people to keep an eye out on him. Hmm. Never did see them again. We did however see just how pretty Vancouver is at night, took many many photos. And cylced down many stairs. It's something that me and Ben have been doing, we are getting good at it. However, on this day, being dark, we did not realise that one set of stairs was actually not just 3 or 4 steps, but more like 9! I will tell you this, that is a very bumpy ride! We made it though, so it was good. Taking a picture of a nice ferrari is cool, until girls try to park behind it. Basically, these girls was trying to park behing this car, with not that much luck, so they swapped drivers, the second girl was better. Whilst all of this was going on, Ben was trying to take a long exposure shot, but they were ruining his picuture. THey eventually park the car, and then proceed to take a photo or two in front of the car. Lets just say ben was not best pleased. So lesson learned, don't take a photo if there is a girl parking a car in your shot.
Photos: we found that Canada place also looks great at night. We also discovered that taking pictures near the edges of the road makes drivers nervous, some so much so that they honk their horns as they think you are on it. This is slightly annoying, if funny.
Photos from this night can be found on our flickr's.

Ben and I appricating the view of downtown at night.

Sunday. The only interesting thing today was looking for present for my cousin. Then I went to see a 3d film with Emma and Sabrina. The film was 'journey to the centre of the earth'. It was actually a really good 3d film, fun for all the family style, but the 3d was rather good. It's been years since I've seen a 3d film, and long gone are the days of one red eye and one blue eye. These just looked like sunglasses. It took me about a second to realise that they worked by polarisation. Go me, I know things. Anyway, yes, the film, it was good, some parts had objects flying out that appeared to be going rather close, if not towards your face. Sometimes things came near to you so that you felt that you could probably grab them. It was a good experience. No I am not saying what was in the film!

umm, yep, that is all for this week. Time to sleep. Work in a few hours. I'm thinking of quitting 2 weeks before I head back home for some real exploring time, with money!

till next time.

week 6 (14th july - 19th)

This has been an odd week so far.

It is the week we discover heartless people!
I think me and my group of friends have discovered that some people in this world are ... completely horrible.

Nothing bad has happened to me! Don't worry, but two things occurred this week. The house Lynda and Andrew were looking at turned out to be a scam. They were given a sob story by an "old lady" who owned the place, and who had had a hard time with other tenants. She had gone back home and currently wasn't in the country. So she kept asking for proof of money from them. This was done through sending a moneygram between their bank accounts as proof of funds. This would then mean that only one of them with their ID can release the money.
On monday however when this old lady was meant to fly out to see them she never got back to them by email. She always had before, but after sending a receipt of the moneygram (with all the important information blacked out), she never contacted them again. On the Tuesday Lynda tried to pick up the money from the moneygram, but had found out that it had already been taken from elsewhere in the country. So they have lost a load of money, and to lose the money, some fake ID must exist too. It's really annoying when trusting people are taken advantage off, with no remorse apparently.
Also, the bike that Ben toiled over was stolen! How sucky is that? Some people just make you want to kick some sense into the world...
anyway. The week as it has been so far, minus the bits above:

---
Mostly been working this week, so, umm, here's some stuff that happened.

Had soup on Monday. Lynda was staying at the Irish girls house as you can only stay at the hostel for so many weeks, and besides, there was a place to stay in downtown Vancouver on the horizon. So she decided to make soup made from many many vegetables. 'It was very good', is what me and Sabrina thought of Lynda's cooking. Ben may have too if he had remembered that there was soup. Soup and bread with much butter. Yes, I have said soup many times now, but it really was good! It just took about 3 hours for it to be cooked properly. Also I got to see Seun again. We thought maybe the other Irish girls had 'disposed'/'taken care of'/'KILLED' her!

A workmate (Nadia), who also has a bike, suggested riding along the seawall of Stanley park. So on Tuesday me, Ben and her went. Yes, this is the second time I have been, but this time I threw a stone at that tall pile of rocks. They did not fall over. I knew that they were stuck somehow.
You know what? Having a bike is great! I can't believe I have lived without one for so many years. I can get to work in 35mins if I completely belt it downhill. Back home is a different story however, uphill is, you know, a little more effort. Actually here is the route I take.

After work on Thursday I ended up on English bay again. This time I cycled from my work to it, taking some photos along the way (some pictures below for you).

Near the science world building, the start of the ride.

It's me cycling!

This was a nice spot to relax in.

At English bay. I borrowed Sabrina's sunglasses, for the world looks cool in them.

Very pretty as you can see. Are you jealous?
Anyway, met up with Emma and Sabrina and decided to join Ben and his work mates at the cinema watching Wanted. I likes, not a very deep film, or any amazing plot, but good for a laugh. Oh yea, and Thursday is also the day Ben's bike got stolen. Yea, he was not a happy bunny. However, one day later and the awesome-ness of craigslist later, He had bought an even better mountain bike (with suspension) for 100 dollars. So all is not bad I guess.
Oh in other bike news, my bike was fun today (Saturday). On the way to work, my front tyre came off. That's right came off! I was at the traffic lights, they changed, now, I normally end up doing a little wheely when trying to accelerate. This time however, when my front wheel returned to the floor, the front tyre popped of, and I was left cycling on the metal rim! I looked behind me at a fellow cyclist with a face thinking, "holy sh**, this should happen!". With the front wheel coming off I discovered some of the reason why my is so rough and bumpy. It's not just the seat, it's the tyre, it has no air, they are solid rubber, so no punctures. After this discovery, I popped the wheel back on, and continued on my way, constantly watching my tyre, just in case it wanted to jump off, when I was going downhill at speed.

Today, (being saturday as I write this) I did the longest shift I have done so far. 11.30-8. Yep, long day, The science world building, and so my work at triple o's normally finishes by 6. Today however, sciencve world was rented out and wanted us to be open for that time. Well this is all good, but what we discouvered was that There was also cake being served inside the building. Hardly anyone came in to buy food. What this basically ment was that there was much spare food, ie We got free food again. Christophe (a french kitchen guy) asked us all what we wanted, so I asked for a double chicken burger. I must say, it was awefully good!
Oh actually yesterday at work was good. In the morning Chris and I wer talking, talking about how I was the "new model" of staff, as I have a new top, and a better, newer name-tag to him. Anyway, so we are handing out some food, and he asked to pass something, and going along the lines of a new model, I do so in a robot-like fashion (including the sound). Then Chris gives it to the customer, also in a robot like fashion. The customer then moves to grab the tray, and also makes the robot sound! It was great, we all laughed. It's always good when customers...wait wait wait, I mean when "guests" (as we are supposed to call them), join in on our fun. This only really occours in the morningm by lunchtime, all hell is let loose!
On the friday, between 12 and 1, we took in $1300, and a hell of a ot of milkshakes were sold. I'm glad I wasn't doing beverages that day. Bein the beverage person is normally good, only when not busy though. Mind you, I had a major milkshake incident on thursday.
Ok this is what happened,
First, this is how we make milkshakes; 1st take milk, add Ice cream, then add chocolate/vanilla/strawberry, then put in blender stand thing, with the most tiny support to hold it in place, then let it blen, while doing something else. What happened to me was that on the blender, the cup jumped out of the blender throwing milkshake evreywhere! Alot just in front, a fair bit on me, some on the floor, but luckly, missed all the "guests". I was not too happy. Stupid strawberry milkshake.

Tomorrow (Sunday), I shall be meeting up with Ben, Andrew and Sabrina to do the Grouse Grind. I will take pictures and whatnot. That and probably come back home and collapse, as next week is 9-5.30 Monday to Friday. This does leave the weekend free to explore properly. Should be fun.

week 5 (7th july - 13th) Complete!

Dammit, dammit dammit!

I was supposed to keep uptodate! But after everyday I think, 'I will do it tomorrow'.

Anyway, this week, week five, is the week known as 'the week where dyl has a bike' week.

That's right people! I have a bike! look,

My bike. aka trouser eater...

it's very nice for the $80 I paid for the bike, and $5 for the seat... and $10 for the lock... +VAT...
but it was still cheap! Plus it works, and has gears. This is an important fact for Vancouver, as I live on the top of a hill. Great for getting to work, it's all downhill, but from work... erm, yea, not as easy, especially the first time. Anyway, now to the day to day bits of this post.
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Monday

Day off work! Well, would have been, but I did a few hours as they asked. This is why I bought a bike, the bike that had a seat missing. I was surprised that it was offered for the $80, and the guy (with an awesome name -> Dylan) gave me the part to attach the seat to (which he said I could change if I would like to try a different one) for $5. I just had to fix it on myself. Which was all good as they had all the tools and would guide you if you didn't really know what to do. I think this store is great.
So with this bike, I decided, 1st I really needed to make sure that no-one could steel it! So to a different shop, and the situation of, leaving the bike outside to buy a lock so that I can lock the bike in such a situation without it being stolen. Very odd. I found out while riding to this shop that the bike likes to eat my trousers. Eat. Shred. DEVOUR!

The leg has been eaten by my bike

A little bit annoyed doesn't quite describe it. I really like them trousers.

2nd, I wanted to show it off. Hello Ben & Lynda. They were first to see it. Us three always seem to meet up as we finish around the same time and work in a close enough area.
On the ride home I decided that I would also like to do some shopping. You'll notice from the picture of the bike that there is no-where to put said shopping, nor the manbag that I was wearing. Which by the way isn't that comfortable to have around you when riding a bike.
Ok, so I saw Robert on the way to safeway too. Thanks to him I now know how to lock up a bike.
Confused?
well ok, I know how to lock up a bike, I was just being extremely dumb that day. This is what I did: I took the lock and tied the wheel to the frame next to the bar that holds all the trolleys. What Rob pointed out was basically that I failed. He picked up the bike. I had forgot to tie it to the bar that holds all the trolleys!
So there you go folks, remember, tie your bicycle to something, not just to itself!

Well, as I was saying, nowhere to put bags. Now this in itself wasn't so bad, I just put it on the handlebar. What was bad was that on my first ride home I decided to take a route that involved THE STEEPEST CLIMB EVER! A few pedals upwards and I thought 'screw this, I'm walking with the bike'. Yep, I haven't ridden a bike in a while, My legs did not like what I was doing!
Actually, my knees were complaining lots. I figure it was because the seat was not high enough. I will say this however, the view was very nice indeed. It kinda made up for the poor choice in direction.
So lesson number two, plan a route that isn't so steep.

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Tuesday

No work for real this time. Ben and I met up with Lynda at her place of work. ie we went to see the chocolate coffee shop known as 'mink'. I have to say, the milkchocolate drink that I was given was rather nice. We were meant to watch the film Hancock, but It was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to English Bay and just chill. While waiting for Andrew, me and Lynda decided to practice kicking each other... ie pretend we know kung fu.

These photos on Bens flickr... and yes I chose these two because I thought when compared it was funny.

Anyway, when we did get to English Bay, it was so beautiful. I didn't have my camera though. But you can all be jealous from this photo that Ben took.

Yes this picture is very nice, but being there looked even better.

After this, as everyone was taking a bus home, I joined them, despite having taken a bike. Good thing that these buses can hold bikes. So me and Ben took the same Bus, and ended up waiting forever for said bus. While waiting we met an odd old man (why do they always appear when buses are involved?). He was just yabbering to us about random crap. He mentioned tai chi, and so I mentioned that I do chen style, and then he did it. He was rather good. The oddness really came in when he mentioned that he was once talking to a random teen on a bus, and told us that he wasn't doing so to chat her up... Now I don't know about you, but if you have to say that, then maybe you were.
Anyway, long story short. He was odd. The bus arrived eventually. I got home.

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wednesday

Work! Ok, so the kitchen staff liked calling me Nigel as it was an english name. Grr. However, today they thought of another name, London. So now I am known as London to the kitchen staff. yay. Still, better than Nigel. It's all fun though, I don't mind, besides, I'm teaching them proper english swears, and general english words/phrases. One thing they pointed out that I completely agree with is the stupidity in using the word tea, for dinner. It's true, and I never use it this way. But, then again, its not as confusing as these Canadians make it out to be.

So as not much happened today, I am going to tell you all how to talk and act canadian.
1st: Say 'eh' (aye) after most sentences (especially questions). Although, to be honest, most Vancouver people don't say this, other Canadians do.
2nd: Don't ever say bathroom, or toilet when you are out, you are looking for the 'washroom'.
3rd: a list of things canadians don't really understand, and the equivalent canadian.
plaster = band-aid
clingfilm = ceram-wrap
washing powder = laundry detergent
single cream, and all the varieties of milk = they don't use words like semi-skimmed etc, they have a percentage showing the fat content.
surname = lastname (some canadians understand this though)
CV = resume
blutac = tac/putty/I don't think they really have a name for it!
route = pronounce it as rawt. (although, once again, some canadians understand this)
'ickle' = they don't know this word! Nor do Australians. It's only people from the UK that have.
Canada Geese = They are just called Geese here.
4th: always do as the lights on the road say. Canadians, seem to lack the ability to walk across a road unless the light says they can cross, even if there are no vehicles!
lastly: recycling. This is second nature to them, we suck at recycling.

Oh actually, I took a nice route back from work on my bike, not too steep and full of nice looking houses. One day I'll have to show my bike route (scenery) somehow. Taking the cycle roytes means less traffic and nice scenery... and no stupidly steep hills (so far). I'm not sure how far to cycle to work is, but the straight line distance is about 6km from the house to work.
Also, there was more riding, from house back to the hostel (about 5km away in a straight line) to celebrate Andrew travelling for 1 year now. I am rather jealous. The cake was good. Plus I took some photos, this is my personal favourite.

SuperAndrew, and his adoring fan Lynda. They weren't even posing, this is normal

Andrew has amazing stories, and it is great to hear them. Just so so jealous that he has been to so many places and has many stories to tell.

I discovered on the ride back, that riding the bike was faster than waiting for the bus. woohoo!

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thursday - I have a house warming!

Work - all management disappeared an hour before the end of my shift. This ment we all took free food. (Should I write this here? meh, I'm sure I'll be long gone before they see this). Also if anyone messes up (like throwing stuff in the bin, catching something, walking with wrong tray), we like to say to each other, 'Fail!'. Also, for some reason, using the word 'face' is still a great insult.

HOUSE! is a doctor,
and my housewarming is not,
a random haiku.

umm, yea, so we had pizza! I was happy, so returned the favour with strawberries and grapes in cream. People seemed to like the house, it's garden (despite not having been mowed for a while), and the many floors. Ben 'Secured' his place on the Sumo Bean bag, and we watched a film. Helen came later, this maybe because I accidentally told her the wrong bus. Sorry! Really I am, we shall have tea some time to make up for it.

Everyone but me here

I'm in a photo, yay! Emma is deeply focused on the film.
Lynda is napping, so you can only see her legs. Also Helen really likes her "nest seating".

A few people left early due to sleepiness or 'need to call girlfriend at the same hour everyday' syndrome. That left Me, Rob, Sabrina and Emma. Not enough for scumbag really, however my housemate Edwin showed up. We got him to play with us, and so Scumbag returned, however, Rob was always king.

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friday

NOTHING HAPPENED!
I bet you would like that, but no, nothing much happened at work. I do like the fact that as a new person, I get to train even newer people. Oh and I got my first pay check (from my first week of work). OH, and some lady said to me, I love your accent, is it Australian? I think she wins the Dumb award today.
Anyway, I finished work an hour early and so decided to make this an evening with my bike. Here's a few photo's from my flickr,

Granville Island bridge

One of My bike and False Creek

some with me in them as my mum has complained that I am not in many of my own photo's.
That's right, I'm following Ben's footsteps, I'm taking arrogant photos of myself. I tell you what, it is addictive. Although in some of them, you may wonder, how I got the camera in such a place.

Thoughtfulness. Plus the science world building behind me,

A random footpath bridge, with no flat place to put the camera on!

Tomorrow is water fight day in Stanley park! But also, buy a bike for Ben day too.

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Saturday

WATER FIGHT!
or maybe not as it turned out.

Ben and I walked to bike shop and found a bike he wanted and needed fixing up.

The bike Ben found.

The first offer for the bike was not by Dylan, but by a lady co-worker, she said $150. 150! she was having a laugh, surely! So after she went back in the shop, I said, lets walk to Dylan, he offered a more reasonable price, less than $100. However, there was much to be done, fixing the chain, front wheel, brakes, gears, and general rust-age.

"Pish-posh, I know how to fix this on."

The new bits that needed to be added cost a little as well, that and using the bike holding-ma-jigger thingy, and getting instruction from the staff while fixing it.

That bike holding-ma-jigger I was on about. (Ben in background)

Yea, this actually ended up taking about 2 hours. Which meant that we missed the start of the water fight. We went to stanley park anyway, with a quick stop to starbucks along the way. We had strawberry frappuccino. They are very nice, and so to are the cheese croissants we had at Tim Hortons.
So we found quite a few people still water fighting, and we met up with Lynda. What we did was not fight with water, but chill in the sun. Yep, that was out day, chilling in the sun. I hear it wasn't such great weather today in england, haha, you all suck.
Lynda did have a water gun, but it had the strange ability to hit everything but the target. Sabrina joined us later. After much chilling and half napping in the sun watching boats and ferries pass in the Burrard inlet (yes, it's hard being in Vancouver), we decided that we were hungry, and required food. We had a brief interlude messing about on the fallen tree.

The fallen tree in Stanley park.

Attacked on the tree top.

(I personally like this picture. Click HERE!)

Then we had a fake picnic! We found a spot near some Canada Geese (which are just called Geese here), and Ben and I rode our bikes to the nearest corner shop, bought a loaf of bread, some ham, some philadelphia, bananas, apples and some crackers. This was our picnic/dinner. It was rather good actually. It was also a lot of fun, randomly eating like this together.

Umm, fake picnic goodness.

The geese also liked the crackers too, and apparently the not so good apple. Lynda and Sabrina took the bus afterwards, and left me and Ben to cycle home. On the way I used a washroom in a random shop, and discovered, to my amazement, square watermelons!

Look, they're water-melons, and they are square!

I did not know they actually existed! And, yes, ok, they are technically "cube" shaped, now be amazed by it!

Today has been a good day off (check out more photos of today from Ben). Tomorrow is work from 11 to 6.30. Or in other words, I get to help with the closing up. Fun times!

---

Sunday!

Work was work. What did annoy me was the owner of this dog. They left him outside, with no shade, and only a little to drink, and left him for like over an hour! IDIOTS! the poor dog was finding hard in the sun, so I propped an umbrella next to it. Stupid owners, should be slapped with a fish or something.
Anyway, finished at 6.30, and got to take 9 cookies, for they were going to chuck them away at the end of the day. These cookies were for the 'Getting rid of rob party/event', probably more of an event.
I cycled all the way there from work, it took 45mins. Cycled by the water all the way, it was good. I really like cycling now, can you tell?
Yea, we spent a little time back on Jericho beach, relaxing, then had some $8 pizza's on 4th Avenue before splitting up, never to see Rob again... until he visits the uk/we visit him for awesome new year celebrations that the dutch have. He is going to Japan next. Farewell Robert!

Umm, the only other thing about today is milk. Yes milk, the type of milk I bought is called... well look at the picture.

Yes, that's right, it's and excellent source of calcium!

nice.
And thus ends week 5! Tomorrow is a day for soup.
and random photos too that I have not shown yet.

something new!

OK, here's flickr stuff, for those that want to see more random photos.
Enjoy.

week 4 (30thjune-7th july)

monday

1st day on the job! It went like this.
WAKE UP EARLY SO THERE WAS NO CHANCE OF BEING LATE! Even if it is a 10 o'clock start.
Wore black trousers as requested for work, took bus then the skytrain to workplace.
I get on the bus, but realise that I don't know the combination number to get into the building. I left the code at home. The manager "Maureen" told me it when I rang her up thankfully. Enter me looking confused about what life will be like working.
To anyone reading this thinking, 'wait. Dyl with a job? This is a joke right?'
NO, it is not, I REALLY have a JOB!
Ok, so 1st day. I was shadowing a girl called Hilary. She seemed unimpressed at having to teach a new guy. But she taught well. She has been doing this for many months. By lunch time I was using the till my own. Not exactly the hardest thing in the world.
Oh right, yea, my job. I am working up front, taking orders, making drinks (non-alcoholic), and being me. It's fast food, with some very nice sandwiches, muffins, cookies, milkshakes, coffees, teas and salads.
Things that annoyed me today:
People who don't know what they are ordering.
Me not knowing what the menu is, but still trying to enter the order!
People changing their mind about an order half way through ordering.

Things I liked:
50% off the menu, and free drinks.
Fun/cool co-workers (some new like me).
co-workers fascination with how english I am. (Why do people think I have a really posh accent? I don't do I?)
Finishing at half three, and not having a busy day. Easy does it.

That was my day at work.
Ben's day was like this apparently.
Get there early, wait an hour for bosses while talking to other temps.
Bosses talk to them, tell them to take a rather long lunch break.
They get back, more talk until about 3 (I think). Then they tell them to go home as they have no usernames, but they still get paid a full days work.
Or
Got paid for not doing any work.
Lucky, lucky, git!

Ben left the hostel today, others are moving out tomorrow. So I've decided I too will move out tomorrow, before the start of the jericho beach canada day party! That and get $23 back. Woo, no work tomorrow, and new house. All is good!

---
tues = canada day! = july 1st = awesome!

Well, started with me moving stuff to the house. Well all I had to do is pack my stuff up as Colin came and picked me up. Very nice of him, I know! From the house I decide to take the bus back to the beach. I just didn't count on not finding the bus stop. Ahh! I did eventually find a bus, just about 7 blocks further than I should have gone.

Well I made it back to the hostel, and canada day party went like this:

Food - good
Beach - brilliant. I shaded myself, others wanted a tan. An Australian named Mark went swimming in his underwear. As you do. Also, there is a rule that you cannot drink in public, including the beach. However on canada day, no one cared, even the beach patrol (guys on quad bikes, patrolling the beach) were out having a laugh, drink in hand. There was also a mini sand fight.
Boatrace (the beer kind) between countries - Austrailia lost to Japan. Japan were happy, austraila hung there heads in shame. England didn't enter! There were many irish though.

Lynda and Andrew showing just how canadian they are.

People around the table, chilling out, having fun.

Football, bearfoot - Fun game. I love listening to italians talk, they sound so cool!
Canada day cake - Oh the canada day cake was very good. It was Carrot cake in fact.

The Canada Day cake, it was very delicious!

We had a mini water fight, kind of - Sabrina and Rob throwing water from bottles about. Then I helped Sabrina get her own back. I came up with the idea of filling regular balloons with water. We waited until we could fill them up secretly, however he suspected us. He found us walking with the water filled balloons. No suprises for him. But he did slap mine out of my hand. Damn. He won again.
ball tag - Exactly what it says on the tin. It's tag, but with a tennis ball. You may run about with the ball, all you have to do is throw it and hit someone. That someone may catch it though and not be 'it'. This was actaully a really fun game. If a little slippery when barefeet on the grass. We stayed out until it was a little too dark to see the ball. So then it was time for...
A running race between us guys across length of football pitch (american) - The walk to the other side to start the race was funny. Rob was saying he would win, we thought, really? The Ben and andrew thought I would win. I kept silent. Ben lets it slip that he used to do professional running. Oh crap. So who won? I know, you are all dying to know aren't you? Well Seun did the on you marks bit. and...

I slipped at the beginning. But I didn't come last! Ben won. We all agreed that the grass was somewhat slippy.
Watched fireworks - I'll be honest, they were pathetic. There was a nice atmosphere though, but that might have been from the day in general. Ben and me agreed that we have nothing like this in England. Well I suppose there is St Georges day, but nobody cares about that. I think Seun put it nicely by saying, "There's a St Georges day?".
Home! - I have one, and housemates informed me that soon there will be better fireworks. All to music and as a competition between countries. Sounds good.
Then there was sleep - it went like this: Zzzzzzzzz.

end

---

wednesday - 2nd day at work... and bike ride!

Not much to say about work, 9-2 was today, so it was pretty chill. Didn't get too busy before I left. The only concern was the morning and finding the damn bus stop. I knew exactly where to wait for the bus, for my housemate Adrienne told me. Yep, I have helpful housemates.
It was fairly busy by the time I left from the lunch madness. But I didn't care about leaving co-workers, for I was going on a bike ride. Well, it was Robert's idea but he was a 'lil busy trying to get his visa for china. long story short, he got there at 9.30, was still there at 2.30. he left at around 4ish... with no visa. Yep, so sucked to be him then. So that left me and sabrina to go bike riding around Stanley park. It was good, we cycled around the park for 2 and 3/4 hour. came to $17 on the rental bikes.
Admittedly, some of that time was probably taken up by going the wrong way, and heading back to downtown! Yea, we back tracked that bit. I blamed the fact that all the maps on the boards had a tiny bit missing, showing where on the map you were! someone had ripped it off! twats.
Sabrina blamed me for guessing where we were going.
Whatever.

Some cool water fountains found by getting lost.

Sabrina looking at the totem poles.

Going around the outside was quite beautiful, and our rental bikes came with little bells, this was great amusement for me!
When pigeons are in your way, or just nearby, ring the bell.
If stupid man is on the cycle path, ring at him, again and again, especially with bike riding buddy to make a point.
Besides from pictures, all I will say about this is that there was a tall pile of rocks. Ok, this may not seem interesting, but look at them!

Random pile of rocks.

See, they are interesting, and now that you see them, don't you have the impulse to find another rock to whack it with to see if it stays standing?
I think everyone does, as both me and sabrina did, then as 2 random guys walked by, we heard them say the same thing.
So did we find out?
No
There were no random stones near by. I wonder why this was?

Anyway, riding a bike again after so many years made me realise 2 things.
1: You never forget to ride a bike... very true.
2. I want a bike!

After the bike ride we decided that we deserved ice cream. The Ice cream was 3 different flavours in a tub, and it was gooooood!

Also, on a separate note, I saw a giant dog today. I was going to get a photo, but the sabrina said she would take one, and FAILED! however we did see it again later on, just sitting down, so the dog doesn't look half as impressive.

Giant Dog! Lying down

---

thursday

work: started off with random whipping match between me and tony (someone who has had 2 days more experience than I) with our wash cloths. While we were cleaning the counter of course. Pain was received when we were distracted, ie when listening to anyone. Work is fun. I am certainly appreciating how it has a relaxed atmosphere, and so far doesn't seem too taxing. Plus the fact the dates of work are flexible is also very good. On this morning shift I discovered that I don't like wrapping the cookies and muffins up. Why? Because they smell so good, and I want to eat them all! Then by the time my lunch break has come, they have all been eaten.

After work met up with Ben and Lynda. We went and ate some food at a place called steamrollers. It does really good burritos. They also fill you up just before you can finish it, and they are green coloured!
I tell you what though, today we discovered why some of these "homeless" people are annoying.
Ok, so we are finished, just chatting away, and this man, on a bike, cleanly shaven walks up to us claiming to be homeless. Now ok, maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. What he did is the annoying bit, He gave us a sob story about how his guitar just got stolen, and how now it is harder for him to make money to go to vancouver island... blah blah blah... So could we spare some money so he could buy some food.
Now, we had some spare food, so we offered him that, he takes it, and just rides off, without even a thank you. The whole story thing was pointless, it just makes you want to ignore him as he might be making it up. If he just said he was homeless, and hungry, and could we spare some food, as he was looking at it the whole time. We would have just given it, we weren't going to eat it.
grr

anyway, tomorrow is go to Irish girls house for house warming party. It is also a day when I finish work at 6. Fun times!

---

Friday

Work started at 3, so I missed the lunch rush... Or so I thought.
It was wave after wave of people queuing up for food. I was on the till, and making many milkshakes. Really tasty looking chocolate and strawberry milkshakes. I didn't even get to go on my lunch break until 5!
I wanted it! But instead I was serving it.

After work was straight to the bank to sort out a VOID cheque. This lets me gets paid for my work. Then on the bus to the meeting point of the house-warming (safeway), I found a Ben. Well he was at the back and saw me about a minute before I was him. Apparently I looked tired.
We were both hungry and so decided to buy food. At safeway we met Rob, Sophia and Sabrina. Rob and Sophia wanted food too, so there was one thing for it. An excessively large Pizza. We bought 2. These are the kind of pizzas that wouldn't fit a normal UK oven, but canada is HUGE, and so are its ovens! Also, as I had been making milkshakes all day, and had told Sabrina, it was decided that I should make some of that too. and for the hell of it, we bought some houmus and croissants.

House: Pizzas. Yum. With humous too, also yum. Croissants yum, with humous, errm, a bit much a thought, but ben liked it.
Milkshakes, everyone liked. I should take a picture next time. They look awesome.
We ended up playing a card game that lynda just taught us, called Scumbag. It is a simple to learn game, where after each go, you end up with a king (the winner), a queen (2nd place), a scumbag (2nd from last), and the dodgy scumbag (last place). I ended up king at the end. But admittedly, I was scum alot of the time.
Lynda also brought a housewarming present, it was fridge magnet words. After a few people left, We decided to make random stories/sentences up. Ended up with some very funny stuff. Will link some photo's up when I get them from people.

---

sat

No work! Jogged to Ben's house. Wouldn't have taken to long if I didn't get last half way. This at first seems impossible as I live on 36th Ave, and he on 35th. i.e. almost a straight line. In my defence, the road disappears half way through, but I saw a back road, went through that as I thought maybe it was a short cut. It wasn't, I ended up further away. More jogging got me there, in the rain. Fun.
We then were going to walk to Helens place for a tea party, but on closer inspection of a map, we realised that that would be stupid. Besides it was really raining now. So we bought some muffins and cupcakes and found a bus stop. Helens place is nice, and the tea party was good. Her landlord randomly walked into the living room, and says he is having dinner with some friends here tonight, and invited us all to have dinner with him. Obviously we said yes, free food!
And wow, it was gooooood food. All grown from the garden, except the chicken. Desert was also rhubarb and strawberry crumble. Loved it. Also the people were all friendly, and from different places, and made good conversation.

Everyone on top of garage. Random people everywhere!

Also a bike shop was suggested to me "our community bikes", they received donated bikes, do them up and sell them on. They are non-profit, and also let you build them up yourselves with guidance. Sounds pretty cool.
This is one thing I've really been loving about vancouver so far, the fact that everyone is friendly, meeting the random people and talking random stuff. I wish this would happen more often at home, instead of people thinking everyone is going to do something to them if they are a stranger.
Blah.
Anyway, We ate the food on the roof of the garage (there were stairs to it), and the view was quite nice. We also looked around the vegetable garden, and were given mint leaves.

Helen and her landlord, apparently thinking of something good.

Also, as there was spare food about, Ben and I got it to eat. Woohoo! free food, and free food to take home, good food.
food food food. I like food.

---

Sunday - Ben has house warming party.

1st however, work. Today people were trying to say stereotypical English things. NOPENOPENOPE, most of the time, it was IRISH! I do not say, "top of the morning to ya". DUMB!
I think the award winning dumb statement goes to a girl called Wanner, she said, 'do you come from British then?'
Everyone took the piss out of that. It was all good though, and I got off work early.

With this extra time, I looked for the bike shop called 'our community bikes'. I got to it, just as it was closing, but I saw a bike I liked the look of, It looked all ready to go... minus the bike seat, which was non-existent. Tomorrow, I will be there!

Ben's place.
We sat outside for a bit deciding what to eat, as someone irish forgot the pizza. However there was cake... I mean, there was no cake Helen, you missed nothing.

Everyone chilling out in Ben's back garden

We decided to get Chinese. Ben's landlord was also quite cool, finding the best Chinese food places to eat for us, and giving us chairs to sit on outside.
The food was good, well except for the one vegetarian dish, which sucked. Well, ok the rice was god, but the tofu was bleh.
Ben made us all some lovely mint tea with honey (He is a good host), while we all once again played scumbag.

Ben making tea, being the perfect host.

SCUMBAG!

Its good to relax with friends, in the lovely weather, talking random stuff, and jobs and houses etc. This is the life.

Hopefully there will be more days like this to come.

end.

why is there nothing new?

Umm, yea, been busy at work, and having fun.
Work is just fun, easy, and at times, BUSY AS HELL!
I do however get tonnes of time off. So I will have something else up soon, promise!
right now... I'm going to walk to ben's, then helen's (we live quite close apparently).

so in the mean time, have a picture!

what has happened so far - week 3 (23rd-29th june)

part 3 (week 3)!

Monday (23rd)

Gah. been looking for jobs for what seems like forever now! Well, ok, it started last week at some point. Today I started at 9am by walking down 4th avenue (type "4th ave vancouver" into googlemap to see. I'm at Jericho beach on the left, downtown is to the right). Now the thing I didn't know was that almost everywhere is closed at that time! Stupid places. Well, I carried on looking so I can look into them later (like in a couple of mins). I found a few nice coffee shops, and the few restaurants that seemed very nice were still closed. Oh yea, I actually found the most amazing coffee place that does excellent smoothies.

A random picture from inside the coffee place

I in fact stayed there for an hour just so I could see the manager. The staff were cool, and the food/drinks looked nice, plus they had random drawings. Basically, it was very me. When the manager came he informed me that if I were here until december, then that would be great. However all the front positions had been taken up last week.
LAST WEEK! dammit! That could have been me talking random crap to customers! If only I had known.
Oh well, off I go again (might come back here later, still have no laptop).
Later!
Yea, no more. Write about the rest of today tomorrow.

---

Tuesday 24th (longest entry ever!)

Writing this at 6.10pm... and oh my oh my, ooh, myyy! I might have a laptop in 30mins!
For $200!... wait let me check my money... ok, I need to get out another $20, but then it should be all good!

Umm, yea, anyway. Today has been an ok/interesting day. Later I shall be looking at a house (7.30). It's an old heritage house too. Know nothing about the housemates though. However, there is another house with 2 housemates that are really cool, by their description anyway (see link). They seem quite random, and like doing odd things... so very like me! However I got this from them today

"

Hey Dylan,

You sound about the right person to fit the place. We're just trying to figure one thing out with the room as there might be one of our good friends in need of the space, which would obviously work great to give it to her. We should know in the next few days, so if it's still available, we'll for sure give you a call (or email).

Sorry that's all I can say for the moment...

Cheers,

"

hmm. this sounds all so familiar! Also, I love the way the canadians are always saying stuff like, "for sure", "whatever", "it's like" and etc etc. It's sooo canadian. But yes, what to do. Well 1st, find out where their house is, I've forgotten!

Ok, it's almost been an hour, and laptop guy is not here. Grr. I will have to look at the house soon.

Anyway. Today, Ben had the perfect job for me... or should I say 'perfect'. It's a job and pays well. Oh yes. It's what he has got. His company told him if he had any friends that would want to have a job, and if he referred them, then he would get $100. So yes, I went for an office job interview today. A 2 hour interview! Well ok, there was about 10mins of interview in the middle, and the rest was on the computer, proving your skills with using Microsoft products. fun times, typing tests and excel tests, but certain buttons could not be used. Data entry testing. Yea, stuff like that. Oh and it ended with a safety video from the 80's. Oh that was painful to watch, so instead I read the leaflets they gave and partially watched it.


###
OH wow last night was amazing! Although after I just finished writing the above, I had good and bad things happen.
Goodthing: The laptopguy came with a laptop with 2 spare batteries (1 a bit crap) and 2 chargers, a laptop bag and the laptop. The laptop ran very fast indeed. It looked old, but I don't plan to keep it, just need it for internet. For geeks or others that are interested in what I got for $200, read inside the stared section below.

****
1.6GHz pentium 4 (but can control the speed), 1GB RAM, win XP, IBM thinkpad.
a lil old so has no USB2 though. has wireless firewire and that nipple for a mouse.
boot time just over 10s!
****
now the BADTHING: i didn't want to carry this bag of laptop stuff about to the house viewing, so I decided to go back to the hostel first, and change there while I was at it (for I was in my, "Dyl looks very cool and smart" get up). So I call them before I leave to make sure I can if I get lost, and the guy informs me that there has been a change. The room is only available in August.
What a bunch of ... people described by rude words! could of told me before! well, guess I won't be living there.

So I was half happy half sad. Laptop worked well when I used it. Also friends seemed impressed that a laptop that cheep actually worked. Although the guy selling it did seem to be a bit of a weirdo. He was bouncing about as he was illegally parked because I wanted him to show me the laptop. But he was also half dressed like an 80's gym person (clicky is an example). Rather odd. But I did like the way he cleaned the computer (hard drive, not literally, it was dusty as hell!), and seemed to know what he was on about. Just the bouncing was conerning, however, the laptop could not be faulted.
ANYWAY!
the WOW-NESS OF LAST NIGHT!

Ok. So I end up having/making some burger with some Australians, Lynda and Andrew, who were also cooking for ben (uk) and rob (crazy dutchman!). The food was good, and now I have grown an appreciation of eating burgers with lettuce tomatoes cheese and carrots. Thats right, carrots. It works, and is good for you!
anywho, so while I was cooking burgers, the guys started talking to some random irish girls (also real irish!) called Seun (I think, and really hope is spelt like that. sounds like shun) and sabrina (whom you should not follow up with saying "the teenage witch"), and a french girl called emily. Anyway. We finish eating and play the card game arsehole. I invetibly say the word arsehole, to which Seun starts laughing! Apparently I sound really posh. "Arse'h'ole". Yes, from then on she was complimenting me... I mean "complimenting" me on my accent. She did like it to be honest, just also liked imitating. I got my own back when she didn't know the difference between a Jack and a joker. ONE SAYS JOKER ON IT!

anyway, we also played with an italian lady 'Daniella', and chris. The girls got confused, and ben. So then we tried poker but with pretending to bet, so we had bluffing. This really confused the girls, and ben.
SO THEN WE PLAYED SNAP!
This confused nobody! And ben won. He was well chuffed!

After this, it happened. The awesome of awesome! We decided to play... Hide and seek! We also found rosa and got her to play too (even though she was very tired). It was late at night and outside. It was great! We had been trying to gather people to play for 3 days, and finally it had happened. Although ben had to make his usual night time call to his girlfriend, so we waited like, I dunno, 2 hours (ok, 30mins maybe?) =b .
Went to the beach late at night. The view is even better, downtown in one direction, nothingness in the other, starts alight above (no pictures from this today, also the video camera can't be adjusted well enough to take pictures of what you see).
But, yea, three games. It lasted 'til about ... half 2? Yea. The last game took longest.
Think we might play again.
Anyway, after that was green tea with jasmine and listening to a french guy play classical style guitar, all improve style (mostly scale like). Then me and chris played, also cool. Oh but what was surreal was the convo between frenchman and daniella. They talked for ages about finding a 10/20 note. Just plain odd. Then Rosa decided to start some improve. Here is the back story... (to the frenchman)

So you are sitting on this couch, and this here is the TV. Then you look down, and it becomes a bowl of strawberries, and the couch becomes a cloud.
Now act!

Oh yes! This is one of those moments I wish I had my video camara at that time! The frenchman just couldn't comprehend this randomness, also he had had some drinks by then. So mix that with listening to non-native language and comedy occurs. He just didn't get why he suddenly looked down, or why strawberries. To be fair we didn't either.

...and I'm realising that this isn't half as, no remotely nearly as funny written down as it was last night.

Oh well.
The night ended with a few of us left watching "into the wild" and not from the beginning. I seemed like a really good film, must watch it sometime.
Anyway, the night ended at a quarter to 4. Sleep was required.

----

Wednesday (thats today! (well was on the day of writing))
ok, so I woke up at 8 (not bad considering), washed, brushed, changed, ate. Added stuff to laptop. Then it was Watch germany play turkey! This hostel is all about the germans, as they are awesome! And run the kitchen. I have some pics and video footage too!

loads of people watching the game outside.

We all got to wear german flags (mini ones on toothpicks). Well rob didn't want to as he only supported them now, but wouldn't wear their flag.
The second half was most annoying. The satellite went! Apparently this happened in Europe too, but I don't know.
So when this happened, we were all most annoyed (especially the germans!).
What was annoying more so for me was that I was filming people being happy, then pressed the pause button as turkey scored the 2nd goal. I just missed the reaction of everyone!

After that was open interview time, and I took lynda along too, as she was looking for the same type of work. We also went and handed in resumes at a place called Sciue (Shoe-eh), that had good ice cream

---
thursday

So today was a day of achieving absolutely nothing.
seriously. I sucked. (yea, I'm not feeling too happy right now)
I was supposed to look for jobs, and also look for houses and then come back to the hostel and have some fun.
What I actually did was sort out laptop
...Geek bit...
It's very old, and had been restored to it's original settings. Or in otherwords Windows XP, service pack none existent.
So there was much updating to be done. Like all morning, while russia sucked at football.
...end geek bit...
anyway.
So I go and have dinner today with helen, and bring random hostel people too. She informs me off the fact that she is going to look at a house today that also has an extra room for two months.
So I thought that sounds good, no having to look for houses today. It was in north vancouver however. So also no job searching either as it would have been busy time by the time I would have got back.
Although there was one thing. The owner of the house sound like he was a bit mad on the phone to helen. The plan was to meet him at the seabus port, and he would pick us up. Although helen really appreciated the company as he seemed a lil' odd. When we got to the other side, we discovered that he was in fact mad, a mad-hatter if you will. His name is Jerry.
Hawaiian style shirt, crap crap car, and a straw hat. I was in the back, and wondered what I was sitting on. Crazy convertible ancient ford with random burn marks and I think bits missing. He had no seatbelts in the back either! Made worse by the fact that he couldn't drive at all.
He didn't watch the lights, twice had to go hard on the breaks, and once had to reverse back as he was in the middle of a crossroad! I was not feeling safe. Then he was asking if we had heard of random country western people who played before we were born.
It gets worse though.
He shows his other cars. Both look like banged up pieces of shit. When we got out the car, helen shoot me a look of, 'is he really this mad?', and 'what have we got into' rolled into one. I think I replied with a look of, 'where have you taken me? WHY have you brought me?!'.

The inside of the house. Oh inside the house, that was the worst. I can't believe he was asking for $500-odd. What kind of joke was he playing?! Ok, so we walk in from the back, it was like a construction/tip site. His "new bathtub" was outside, looking used. He was saying how he doesn't like paying for electricians and plumbers so he does everything himself. Yea, he was a handyman. And looking at the house, not a very good one. He was doing up the house, and it looked like the house could be nice, it was just that the way he was doing it was making it look like a hole. The living room had a pool table, (waiting to be built), and some draws (waiting to be demolished and others to be built), and a cat (which helen is allergic too, and left a load of orange fur on my lovely black trousers for interviews). It did have one good thing, a nice view... when looking out of the window.
Yea should have gone then as there was no point in looking if the cat is a problem for helen. But I thought, why not look more. Bad idea, waste of time, except for the funny-sad factor. The room wasn't too bad I suppose. Just a bit ... plain. Nothing good about it, and had a internet cable that didn't work.
Yea, we left and said that we didn't need a lift, we would walk back,
'So that we could see the how long it takes to the seabus'

Yep. The walk back was full of, Oh my god about the house. Especially as the guy said that after I leave (assuming I stayed), he would fill the place up really fast. 'In a flash' I believe he said. We were just thinking, to who? Blind people?
But even they would feel and generally sense that it was not a good place.

I decided to buy some Bisto gravy from the quay market. I found the shop guy funny as after every sentence/question/statement he said 'aye'. Or is it spelt 'eh'? Well that sound, anyway.
On the way back was good news for helen as she got her job with the travel company. Meaning ok pay, but free flights to anywhere in canada.
good good.

I however was in sucksville. Apparently rejoined by ben (I found when I got back). He had had an unsuccessful day house hunting. Had fun walking 2-3miles to a cash point as the first one was out of order. Lynda got a call back from a chocolate shop where she handed in a resume. They wanted to have an informal interview over coffee.

Tomorrow I make food with her, and everyone else pays for the shopping. Woot! We're thinking chicken mash potatoes gravy (hence the bisto), and salad. But we also have to make some veggie food.

---
friday

RARRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats all I can be bothered to say about the day.
Evening was good, for the food was awesome and we had table cloths and everything! including gravy served in a teapot.
Then we went to see the sunset. We technically missed the actual sun setting, but still could see the colours disappear. Which is still great. Oh, and ben took some long timed exposure photos of us. Mostly in fighting poses! It started with 2, then more people were added, then more and more. until we had everyone trying to hold really random poses for 15seconds. I'll link the photos up.

Here's the link! +my favourite photo from the set


---
sat.

I hate this job hunting and house searching. hate hate hate.
At 5 I will play football with the random canadians from the week before. That will make me forget.
Is it bad that I'm getting seriously annoyed that other people have jobs, and or houses and I don't?!
Stop rubbing it in people! Lynda got the job at chocolate and coffee shop. Very nice, I wanted to work there! But they didn't need someone only there for summer! Grr. But, you know, go her. But my brain still thinks grr! However... JERRY IS BACK! Ben didn't know who he was. But it is in a location where me and helen looked that day. And the guy sound similar, so me and helen warned ben to STAY AWAY.
however, Jerry has saved bens number and keeps asking when is he going to look. oh dear, oh dear indeed.


Oh my!
ok, so I emailed a resume this morning for a random cashier/cook position at a fast food restaurant inside of the science world building. Now every time I have emailed a resume, I have had no replies.
Today however, at lunch time while I was still thinking along the lines of,
'This place is great but finding a job only 'till september is a bitch! nd a house.'
I received a phone call. I was called for an interview, tomorrow at 9.30
like what the hell? I am being called up, that is odd. I was more baffled that happy.
plus its minimum wage, $8-10per hour, but you do get tips too. -EDIT nopenope, no tips.

Today I discovered that playing football in the bright bright sun when you are hungry just makes you increadibly tired. No random canadians, so it was a 2 on 2 match, me and andrew vs ben and rob. OR, europe vs austrailia and sri lanka. We lost 9-10.
it was very close, we had skills, but by the end we just didn't have heart (Well that's what I'm saying).

Today was meant to be stay on the beach all night, with a fire, and stuffed potatoes, marshmallows, and other stuff. Mainly as ben didn't have a room booked this night.
Actually, he could have if it wasn't for us being good Samaritans.
A tawanise (is that right?) girl called Jane was on the bus, and was asking how to get to NW Marine Drive. Which is to the hostel. But a smelly bum was trying to give her directions... to the wrong place! This man did really smell bad, I mean, it was a mix off puke, alcohol, and possibly some pee. I wasn't too sure (I was sitting next to him, until I made way for a baby carriage), and didn't particularly want to figure out what the smell consisted off.
However, rather randomly after some irish guys on the bus whistled and he asked them if he could do this. This turned out to be a really good donald duck impression. Which made everyone on the bus laugh/chuckle.
Anywho, our good deed.
Yea, I asked Jane if she was going to the hostel, but the smelly man continued to say the incorrect stop, so I took out my youth hostel card as proof of being truthful. Luckily the smelly man got off a few stops earlier than us, so we could take the girl to the youth hostel. She hadn't actually booked a room though, and so we thought she may not get a place.
Well there weren't any beds in the female dorm rooms, but there was a bed available elsewhere, just the one. So she got that, and ben who had been looking for it had nothing. Sucks to be him!
mind you, if I don't find a place to move into by tomorrow, I too will have to add a few more nights.

Oh yea, the night with no beach was turned into a movie marathon night. Starting off with finding nemo, then Dogma. I'd say the rest, but I went to sleep after that so I had no chance of missing the interview.

---

sun

OK! I've got a job!
Well. It's not what I planned for at the beginning, you know work in a bar/restaurant as server/barman/waiter/something! On the other hand though, I still get tips and won't die from starvation anymore! I start work tomorrow at 10. Now to watch german play spain. I think spain will win. To everyone saying what do you know dyl? Well, ok, I know nothing, but I can still have an opinion!

haha, spain won!

later: Yesterday I was meant to get a phone call saying to look at a house. Never did get it, so I left a voicemail message. At 5, I got a call. It was the house! I could go look. Really nice people, girl called adrienne and guy called colin picked me up and drove me to their place. It was really nice. The house is Mahooooosive!
loads of room, there will be 3 housemates, 4 later when an original inhabitant arrives.
In the house then will be 2 canadians, a columbian studying english over the summer, me and then an indian.

Oh but the house was gorgeous! I am going to take pictures when I go back there (as in when I move in, on wednesday). You'll see.

We have pictures!

Outside of the house and inside my room as I walked in.

there are also videos. Soon people. Soon.


Although, this news may have pissed ben off now. He is the only one without a place to live.

However, I can't be too sad.
I HAVE A HOUSE AND A JOB!
WOO!
Sophia (a german girl) is cooking us a jamie oliver style chilli con Carney.

Ben decided to use my laptop for extra house searching.
He came up with a few places, but all failed. Some taken, one was to be looked at, but as he walked out of the door he got a phone call. It had been taken.
Then he found one, from the notice board. The person said that they would take him there. This meant he missed having dinner with us. But when he got back, He also had a place!
And also got back in time to eat warm food!
So pretty much everyone has a place and job.
Well ok, me, helen and ben do. Seun and sabrina have a house (no job, but they've only just got here). Lynda and Andrew both have jobs.

Anyway, tomorrow, is job at 10. Leave here at 9 (so I really can't be late!). I'm finally up to date!
Next, sort out the blog (put these onto it, with pics). -And this is what you are reading now... oooou.
Last day of the month goes with a bang. Have a laptop, job, awesome house, great friends. All is good!

What will happen next month? Well it starts with canada day (1st).
Me tired, untill tomorrow all.

dyl