So yesterday (Friday) was my last day at work. It was very sad. I've enjoyed working there, it's been so much fun with the people I work with. Ah, the number of times I must have said/shouted "FAIL!" to them, or insulted the face. It's been good there! On my last few days I have been adding random messages to the juice I put into cups, like little smiley faces, or "drink me!", stuff like that, on the Friday, the Flying Spaghetti Monster appeared on apple juice. I also took a few photos of people and things before I left. There wasn't too much time to be sad about it though, as Ashley forgot to bring a chain to tie me up with (she apparently had handcuffs prepared, but left them at home), and I had to make it to a bus stop in downtown by 6, when I finished at 5.30. Why? For me and Helen were going Kayaking!
Kayaking! I say again, Never done it, do want to do it again. It was good. We were Kayaking at Deep Cove (see my googlemap for where it is). This involved me running from work to the skytrain so I could get to the waterfront station (near Canada place), then running (or walking fast) again to the bus stop down the road where Helen was waiting and hoping the bus didn't get there before I did. The semi-running was actually pointless, the bus was late and we waited a few minutes.
We wait for the bus, 290 to Deep Cove.
Well, the bus came and we realised that we would have to upgrade our bus passes otherwise we wouldn't have paid the correct fare. What we ended up doing was playing the dumb tourist card, and got on the bus for free! Yay, I like the bus drivers here. The bus drive was interesting, it was through the more industrial areas of Vancouver, so not as pretty as I am used to over here. It was made up though when we went on and over the Trans Canada Highway bridge. The view of Downtown and North Vancouver was great from it. When we were on the North Vancouver side, the scenery was completely different. For some reason my brain was convinced that the smell of the air around there was just like Sri Lanka at times. It's very forest-y and full of nice looking houses around the far eastern part of North Vancouver. We eventually got to Deep Cove and were silenced by the view. This does happen a lot around here admittedly, but it was rather nice! First thing we did was, well besides from make sounds like 'ouu, and ahh' about the view,
The view of where we were Kayaking
was to go inside the Deep Cove kayaking club and get ourselves kitted out. This was halted for a minute for the standard waiver, basically saying its our fault if we die. Signed that. Then it was time for getting kitted out in Kayaking gear. First was the spray deck, to stop you getting completely wet from the paddling.
Oh yes, me and Helen are well aware of how we look.
Oh yes, we looked good and we knew it! We got that sorted, with the life jacket and the paddle too. Next was wait for two Kayaks, then to get in, and be told how to use or, or more precisely, what to do if you mess up. Our Kayaks confused Helen as the one she had been in before did not have peddals to steer a rudder on the kayak. As for pictures while on the water, they don't exist. I was not going to take my DVD camcorder anywhere near water, and Helen's camera was underneath the spray deck, or in other words, sealed away from the water, and from her hands. So no pictures, but it was very pretty, and the houses on the edge of the mountains/by the edge of the water were amazing to look at, and probably to look from. Wouldn't be surprised if celebrities lived there. We only had 2 hours of it though, and we arrived a little late, so we decided to turn back from our original destination, to make sure we got back in time. On the way back I saw Vincent, the guy who works in Science World and took us to see Batman in IMAX. needless to say it was a random encounter, but good, means I get to see him before I leave for England. On the bus ride home Helen and I decided to go to Lonsdale Quay for food, so we would be next to the seabus to go home. With that in mind we remembered The Cheshire Cheese restaurant, it does English food. So we both instantly thought of Toad in the hole, and that is what we had. Oh having this food was sooooo good! The sausages were proper sausages, not this rubbish Canadian stuff, proper and English, the gravy, well wasn't what was expected, as in we couldn't drown any toads today, but the Yorkshire pudding was great. What was unexpected was that it was served with salad. Yes, salad. What's with that? Odd people, reminds me of the time I was in Sri Lanka, ordered a Hot Dog, and received half a sausage (cut through it's length) and a leaf of lettuce in a hot dog bun. It's not right!
Toad in the Hole, but what's with the salad?
With that exception, it was still delicious! After the much needed food was the long ride home, sleepy style. Today was a good day. Yep.
AH! It's the day after (Saturday), and apparently I have left my keys at the Kayak place! Crud!
I will get it back somehow. but now I must go to Ninjitsu for the first time ever!
...
12 hours later
...
yay, they have been retrieved! Sabrina has them, for she went kayaking today at the same place.
However, I got to the place where ninjitsu was meant to be, and found no-body there! I was a little annoyed, especailly as I jumped of the bus and ran a few blocks to the place. The bus was stuck in a traffic jam at kits beach. So I decided to walk to Mink, and take the Burrard bridge, it has a very nice view of English Bay from it
English Bay from Burrard Bridge.
THe odd thing that I noticed was lots of Zombies. yes, I said Zombies, I didn't take photos of the Zombies or even talk to them. Not from fear of loosing my brain, or from being fictional (They were real!), but mostly because I was still annoyed. One Zombie had a wii remote stuck in his head, and was holding a wii remote and nunchuck in his hands. I thought it looked good. Ok, I've just looked it up with the help of google, it was "Zombie Walk 2008", It has been going on for a few years now, part art, part fun. There are also photos that can be found on flickr, I quite like this one of zombies attacking a bus! Somewhat odd seeing zombies in downtown. Well like any other lazy day in Vancouver, it was decided that we should go to the beach, English bay. And watched the sunset. I also took a picture of Ben Wearing Nicole's Sunglasses (Lynda's work mate), it's a lot like Ben's picture of me like Ray Charles, but he looks like a spastic Elton John.
Ben as 'Spastic Elton John'
I can't say that life here is boring, there is always somewhere to go/something to do. Hmm, what to do tomorrow? Get my Keys!
Anyway, now to other stuff, namely, how the rest of the week has been.
For the most part, there is not much to say really.
Well, there was the day that I became Canadian for a brief moment from me saying tom-aye-toe instead of my usual tom-ah-toe in normal conversation. This was at work, Ashley was Very happy, started bouncing for a while and laughed and pointed at me. It was a slip of the tongue! I am not starting to talk Canadian as my normal language! Grr, I don't think Ashley will let me live that down. This is what I get for talking like them to customers. Oh actually, talking about the Canadian tongue, on Friday I discovered that the trick of saying 'Beer Can' and finding it impossible to not sound like a Jamaican saying 'Bacon' doesn't work with Canadians. It ruined the phrase for me. Today I also discovered that it doesn't work with Australians too. On another lingual front, if you do come here, don't add 'o' to the end of words, like good'o or 'brillo!', it confuses the Canadians.
On Thursday Helen made a roast for us to eat. I can honestly say that it was good. There was chicken, mash, cranberry, gravy, vegetables, Yorkshire Puddings, almost all that one needs, she forgot about stuffing. But hey, its hard to remember that when shopping at a Chinese supermarket is a good excuse. This food is the reason we thought about Toad in the hole after Kayaking. On the way back from Helens, I saw a skunk, and for the first time ever, a Raccoon. This wasn't any ordinary raccoon though, it was a raccoon that was staring at me. Having never seen a raccoon before, I decided it was best to walk on the other side of the street, while it still stared me out. It was a little odd, but when it was being backed up by a skunk, I didn't want to take a chance. It did look cool though. That just leaves Coyotes to see around here.
Current things you may not know: My hair is now fluffy like! People like this. And generally like to pat my head. My parents went up to Jasper and further up the Rockies and are currently on their way back down, seeing dinosaurs. I keep being told to stay in Canada. I would like to, but have made plans. darn. Although a man named Jonathon is being a twat about setting up post dated cheques. Has he not heard of Direct Debit?! Grr, I am in a different country, as well as other soon to be housemates, how are we meant to do get this done by the 22nd? foolio.
Never did hear from Jane or Elissa, so dunno about hanging out with them to see vancouver-ian things to see around here. Anyway, future plans include Whistler, Tofino, Ice Skating, Speed boat-ing, the islands in general, hopefully whale watching, and more chilling out! so look out for more to come in my last 2 weeks here!
We wait for the bus, 290 to Deep Cove.Well, the bus came and we realised that we would have to upgrade our bus passes otherwise we wouldn't have paid the correct fare. What we ended up doing was playing the dumb tourist card, and got on the bus for free! Yay, I like the bus drivers here. The bus drive was interesting, it was through the more industrial areas of Vancouver, so not as pretty as I am used to over here. It was made up though when we went on and over the Trans Canada Highway bridge. The view of Downtown and North Vancouver was great from it. When we were on the North Vancouver side, the scenery was completely different. For some reason my brain was convinced that the smell of the air around there was just like Sri Lanka at times. It's very forest-y and full of nice looking houses around the far eastern part of North Vancouver. We eventually got to Deep Cove and were silenced by the view. This does happen a lot around here admittedly, but it was rather nice! First thing we did was, well besides from make sounds like 'ouu, and ahh' about the view,
The view of where we were Kayakingwas to go inside the Deep Cove kayaking club and get ourselves kitted out. This was halted for a minute for the standard waiver, basically saying its our fault if we die. Signed that. Then it was time for getting kitted out in Kayaking gear. First was the spray deck, to stop you getting completely wet from the paddling.
Oh yes, me and Helen are well aware of how we look.Oh yes, we looked good and we knew it! We got that sorted, with the life jacket and the paddle too. Next was wait for two Kayaks, then to get in, and be told how to use or, or more precisely, what to do if you mess up. Our Kayaks confused Helen as the one she had been in before did not have peddals to steer a rudder on the kayak. As for pictures while on the water, they don't exist. I was not going to take my DVD camcorder anywhere near water, and Helen's camera was underneath the spray deck, or in other words, sealed away from the water, and from her hands. So no pictures, but it was very pretty, and the houses on the edge of the mountains/by the edge of the water were amazing to look at, and probably to look from. Wouldn't be surprised if celebrities lived there. We only had 2 hours of it though, and we arrived a little late, so we decided to turn back from our original destination, to make sure we got back in time. On the way back I saw Vincent, the guy who works in Science World and took us to see Batman in IMAX. needless to say it was a random encounter, but good, means I get to see him before I leave for England. On the bus ride home Helen and I decided to go to Lonsdale Quay for food, so we would be next to the seabus to go home. With that in mind we remembered The Cheshire Cheese restaurant, it does English food. So we both instantly thought of Toad in the hole, and that is what we had. Oh having this food was sooooo good! The sausages were proper sausages, not this rubbish Canadian stuff, proper and English, the gravy, well wasn't what was expected, as in we couldn't drown any toads today, but the Yorkshire pudding was great. What was unexpected was that it was served with salad. Yes, salad. What's with that? Odd people, reminds me of the time I was in Sri Lanka, ordered a Hot Dog, and received half a sausage (cut through it's length) and a leaf of lettuce in a hot dog bun. It's not right!
Toad in the Hole, but what's with the salad?With that exception, it was still delicious! After the much needed food was the long ride home, sleepy style. Today was a good day. Yep.
AH! It's the day after (Saturday), and apparently I have left my keys at the Kayak place! Crud!
I will get it back somehow. but now I must go to Ninjitsu for the first time ever!
...
12 hours later
...
yay, they have been retrieved! Sabrina has them, for she went kayaking today at the same place.
However, I got to the place where ninjitsu was meant to be, and found no-body there! I was a little annoyed, especailly as I jumped of the bus and ran a few blocks to the place. The bus was stuck in a traffic jam at kits beach. So I decided to walk to Mink, and take the Burrard bridge, it has a very nice view of English Bay from it
English Bay from Burrard Bridge.THe odd thing that I noticed was lots of Zombies. yes, I said Zombies, I didn't take photos of the Zombies or even talk to them. Not from fear of loosing my brain, or from being fictional (They were real!), but mostly because I was still annoyed. One Zombie had a wii remote stuck in his head, and was holding a wii remote and nunchuck in his hands. I thought it looked good. Ok, I've just looked it up with the help of google, it was "Zombie Walk 2008", It has been going on for a few years now, part art, part fun. There are also photos that can be found on flickr, I quite like this one of zombies attacking a bus! Somewhat odd seeing zombies in downtown. Well like any other lazy day in Vancouver, it was decided that we should go to the beach, English bay. And watched the sunset. I also took a picture of Ben Wearing Nicole's Sunglasses (Lynda's work mate), it's a lot like Ben's picture of me like Ray Charles, but he looks like a spastic Elton John.
Ben as 'Spastic Elton John'I can't say that life here is boring, there is always somewhere to go/something to do. Hmm, what to do tomorrow? Get my Keys!
Anyway, now to other stuff, namely, how the rest of the week has been.
For the most part, there is not much to say really.
Well, there was the day that I became Canadian for a brief moment from me saying tom-aye-toe instead of my usual tom-ah-toe in normal conversation. This was at work, Ashley was Very happy, started bouncing for a while and laughed and pointed at me. It was a slip of the tongue! I am not starting to talk Canadian as my normal language! Grr, I don't think Ashley will let me live that down. This is what I get for talking like them to customers. Oh actually, talking about the Canadian tongue, on Friday I discovered that the trick of saying 'Beer Can' and finding it impossible to not sound like a Jamaican saying 'Bacon' doesn't work with Canadians. It ruined the phrase for me. Today I also discovered that it doesn't work with Australians too. On another lingual front, if you do come here, don't add 'o' to the end of words, like good'o or 'brillo!', it confuses the Canadians.
On Thursday Helen made a roast for us to eat. I can honestly say that it was good. There was chicken, mash, cranberry, gravy, vegetables, Yorkshire Puddings, almost all that one needs, she forgot about stuffing. But hey, its hard to remember that when shopping at a Chinese supermarket is a good excuse. This food is the reason we thought about Toad in the hole after Kayaking. On the way back from Helens, I saw a skunk, and for the first time ever, a Raccoon. This wasn't any ordinary raccoon though, it was a raccoon that was staring at me. Having never seen a raccoon before, I decided it was best to walk on the other side of the street, while it still stared me out. It was a little odd, but when it was being backed up by a skunk, I didn't want to take a chance. It did look cool though. That just leaves Coyotes to see around here.
Current things you may not know: My hair is now fluffy like! People like this. And generally like to pat my head. My parents went up to Jasper and further up the Rockies and are currently on their way back down, seeing dinosaurs. I keep being told to stay in Canada. I would like to, but have made plans. darn. Although a man named Jonathon is being a twat about setting up post dated cheques. Has he not heard of Direct Debit?! Grr, I am in a different country, as well as other soon to be housemates, how are we meant to do get this done by the 22nd? foolio.
Never did hear from Jane or Elissa, so dunno about hanging out with them to see vancouver-ian things to see around here. Anyway, future plans include Whistler, Tofino, Ice Skating, Speed boat-ing, the islands in general, hopefully whale watching, and more chilling out! so look out for more to come in my last 2 weeks here!
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