A weekend of watching live food porn

Interesting title you may say. But if I tell you what I doing then you may understand.

No it didn't actually involve any nudity and food in a scene for adults only. I spent the Saturday at the 'Eat Vancouver' Festival at the BC Place. ie A big food festival in the big stadium where they hold the Canadian Football League games. (which incidentally are starting soon)



Now one thing I wont deny, my attraction to food. I love food, food loves me. And then food also hurts like any love I've known. In this case it exacts its revenge upon me by making me fat, whenever I try to love it too much. So therefore I struggle through life attempting to get a balance in our relationship.

Food Porn is by definition where you sit and watch food being prepared, mesmerised by the food drooling at the end. Most times it involves some tv show and a celebrity type chef. I can't deny to anyone that I've not sat there and drooled over the food prepared on a Jamie Oliver episode. Heck Iron Chef is still always good viewing. Not only for the bad dubbing. Well Saturday was just a live version of this.



So needless to say on Saturday I was the kid in the candystore, eyes beeming, and my mouth going Wow. And it wasn't just from seeing the size of the stadium. Food everywhere. As sad it was I managed to spend over 5 hours at the exhibition. Over 30,000 people pass through the gates over the weekend so I wasn't the only one. By the end of it I had watched a Barbadian Chef prepare food, completed a local cheese tasting session, tried every sample in sight around the stalls, and even enjoyed a Japanese Sake tasting. Not bad for a day where I originally had nothing planned.



Now that I have overindulged in food again I now dare not tell the body what I have planned for it in the near future.

On Tofino time

Tofino is an awesome place to visit. It's only tiny, and well things happen they say in Tofino time. Well my watch must of been fast because I still managed to fit in quite a bit in the 2 days there.

Lets see. There was the sightseeing of the Pacific Rim National Park:


the starfish on the rocks at Tonquin Park,


Tofino itself,


and oh thats right the 6 hour kayaking tour I completed. The kayaking Tour was awesome. And it only rained for about 1/2 an hour while out in the inlet. Did get to see a sea lion in the water, and a heap of bald eagles in the trees along the inlet.


Many west coast people come here to surf on the beaches. But to me thats crazy talk. The water temperature on the coast was still only 9 degrees. Needless to say I did not go for a swim. I'll wait to I find a coastline with the warmer water temperature and no wetsuit requirement.

Getting To-Fino the weekend

Well the weekend went well. After initial concerns that my ride to Nanaimo was going to halt all proceeding I managed to work around and have a great weekend.

The original plan was to catch the Greyhound Bus there. But as stated earlier it never got out of the gate. Just like betting on them really.


Luckily after I had come into this problem I was directed to go via council bus to Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal. I didn't even think that they'd offer this route to the ferry really. Anyway this bus was cheaper. But wouldn't offer the ride into downtown Nanaimo. Oh well.

The ride there was great. The Ferry though was packed. This was the first long weekend after Easter. ie the first weekend where people travel. All ferrys to the island were booked out for cars after work for weeks. And the foot passengers were everywhere. I ended up meeting a local on the ride. We past the time chatting away on the inadequacies of the system, and how the British Columbian government had managed to screw it up apparently. Very interesting. Anyway this guy also guided me into downtown by walking. It was a half hour walk along a boardwalk most of the way.

Nanaimo was cool. Only had the night there.

And then Saturday I picked up my car to go to Tofino. The nice people at Budget gave me a brand new car. No kidding this Cobalt had 14kms on the clock. Cool!


Anyway on the way to Tofino there are places to see. The main spot being Cathedral Grove. A giant Cedar Forest. Apparently this was the location shoot for Star Wars. The Ewok Village. How cool. So I went Ewok spotting. Didn't see any.

Anyway here's a few pictures.

Tofino pictures come later.

The throwing of spanners is forbidden. But still they persist

I've just arrived at work this morning to find out my plans for this weekend are in jeopardy. Greyhound Buses in Western Canada have just gone on strike as of 12am this morning. Argh!!!!!!!

Why must people throw spanners into my plans. Just because I was planning a good weekend doesn't mean it needs to wreck it.

A 72 hour strike over pay.

I knew I shouldn't have been discussing possible things that could go wrong last night with a friend. I've jinxed myself.

And I'm now due to catch a non-existent bus at 5:45pm which gets me to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island this evening for my long weekend over on Vancouver Island.

The irony of the situation being that buses on Vancouver Island are unaffected.

Yep. I had a Chad moment.

Well most of you who know me know that once in a while I'll have a moment of greatness. A moment in time where anyone would just look at me and just say something like 'you dickhead', 'you idiot', or just shake their head in disbelief that one could do such a thing. The list of these episodes is too great too list individually. You need not email me with a blow by blow of your funniest Chad moment, whether it be an action of mine, or my just as famous foot-in-mouth syndrome.

Even more surprising than committing these acts is the fact that I can't but admit to the acts to everyone. My view being that I enjoy laughing at myself just as much as the next person.

So without further introduction I hence admit 'Oops I had another Chad moment'.

The Scene

Well Saturday morning I was planning to make a trip to Victoria, on Vancouver Island. You know Victoria, as in Empress Hotel, capital of British Columbia Victoria. Now Victoria is fairly distinctive. I had been there before for a day hence knew what to expect. I expected to see the vine covered Empress hotel, and


and the parliament building.


So needless to say when I arrived to this


I knew something had definitely gone wrong. I had arrived at Galiano Island not Vancouver Island. Whoops!

Now don't get me wrong I had already found some indicators prior to the arrival at Galiano Island that I had stuffed up. They were:

1. The Ferry departed 15 minutes before I had expected it to depart. I did at that moment go, 'hmmm, that's weird'.
2. There was a 2nd ferry at another gate when the ferry I was on left.
3. The brochures on the stand on the ferry didn't have any reference to Victoria. They were all about other islands in the channel, like Galiano Island, Mayne Island, and some Salt Spring Island. I noticed this and well, again didn't think much of it at first. As the ferry ride continued it was this indicator which propagated my suspicions.
4. The Ferry Captain asked drivers to return to vehicles earlier than I expected. By this time though I pretty much had come to this conclusion and was preparing to swallow my pride. In fact I had already started making my admissions to friends and family by then.

The Confirmation

Before we docked at Galiano I swallowed the pride and approached a staff member on the ferry with the assumption that I was on the wrong ferry. Answer was, yep. And a, 'I guess they didn't check the tickets that closely today'.

The Error

I have identified my error as being impatience. I got frustrated at the entrance to the ferry terminal due to the crowd and queues not going anywhere. There was a tour group of like 50 people at the entrance lining up for a ticket booth, plus another 50 who had come from the bus I had caught to the ferry terminal. I noticed there to be machines to swipe and pay by credit card, which was immediate and easy. I swiped, paid and escaped all within a minute. At this point I was still lost and well I did what any good sheep does. I followed. I followed a person up the escalator, along the path, and to the departure point where another 100 or so people were waiting, for the only ferry at the terminal. I didn't read any signs. And as soon as I arrived at the gate they started letting everyone board. It was 8:35am, and the Victoria Ferry was due to depart at 9am.

Oh well I've learnt my lesson. Again.

Anyway Galiano Island ended up being a blessing in disguise. It was a highlight to the weekend. A mere 3 hr detour. When I had confirmed my stuff up I confirmed that there was another ferry leaving the island for the Victoria Swartz Bay terminal 2 hours later. It gave me 2 hours to explore a small island I would have otherwise missed. And well it was hardly a terrible mistake to make. The island is a popular day trip destination due to its spectacular views, and feeling of isolation. It would have been better with a bike, and a plan to see the island, but hey, I was sightseeing on the run. I took a walk around to a viewing point, and also stopped off for a coffee until I was able to connect to the 2nd ferry. There was no additional ferry ticket purchase required for my error. So all in all I view my actions just like computer programmers do. Not a mistake, but a "Feature".


The rest of the weekend on Vancouver Island was okay. I did see some other places of interest. But heck the story to go with it doesn't compare.

Nakiskans, Canucks, and exploring the surrounds

I'm still alive. Ok so I haven't written an entry for nearly 2 weeks. I was building suspense, or well building a list of things to write home about.

Towards the end of April I was coming to an end of everything. The working contract was due to end, my room-sitting situation was to finish with the return of the missing flatmate to Vancouver, and an end to the ski season was here. But true to form everything has sorted itself out, but for the snow situation.

The contract has again been extended. This should take me through to the start of July. This is good as I won't need to find another contract before I start traveling non-stop until my return home. I am comfortable with my surrounds in the office, and the people in the office are great. The role itself is still extending further and further as I go. I admit at times I am concerned it's not quite the experience I expected in coming to Canada, but in reality it's a great fit to my needs of the moment, and still providing me with valuable experience.

I'm also here in the apartment at least for another month. The girl I'm room sitting for hasn't returned to Vancouver yet. There is chance she may never do so, but that's not my concern. My concern was a place to live while working here. So lucky for me I've been able to stay at least for May. I'm unsure about June, but hey we've barely started May so have plenty of time. For the moment I'm making use of the access to a kitchen, so I'm eating too well, and more importantly am not living out of a suitcase still.

Yes the snow has gone. I'm mean, sure I could go skiing on Blackcomb at Whistler again, but alas I'm now thinking I should let it go having ended on a high note. Which brings new direction to this trip again. What to do over the weekends. Where to go, what to see. Plan from here is the weekends away.

We've got a long weekend in May coming up. So that might be my return to Vancouver Island weekend. Last time I visited Canada I spent only a day on Vancouver Island at Victoria. This time I want to visit Tofino a 6 hour bus ride away. Other weekends I'll just plan trips around. I might do Victoria again, go to Seattle again, and then take a weekend to Kelowna visiting some of the Nakiskans who've ended up there for the summer.

Past June is still a long way off, but plans are still there in concept. A road trip through the Western USA with my mate CJ. Which only brings the point, CJ if you're reading this, remember you're saving money for this road trip. CJ has taken a trip to Mexico after the ski season, and is now on Toronto searching for a job to get him by, and back eventually to Vancouver ready for our departure in July. Destinations are yet to be established.

Anyway that's the concept. Details to be filled in later. Details of the US part of my trip are at least more detailed than the European section. If anyone wants to join the US trip, then all I can say is 'seats are limited'. And as for the European section, I'm still open to suggestions.

The past 2 weeks have been filled with day trips to other ends of Vancouver, and the occasional visit from other friends from the days at Nakiska. And that's the image I'll leave people with. Last weekend I took a trip out to Steveston. No not a place that worships my brother Steve, but a small historical village to the south of Vancouver. The village was the location of a major Salmon Cannery. Now it is the location of a boardwalk for the tourists, with a great place to enjoy outdoor restaurants. The also have a cannery museum, and historical area of old buildings to walk around.

The boardwalk was great for the fact I got out in the sun. One enjoys the sun when it consistently rains a few days every week. As you can see from the photo it was a really fine day at Steveston.

Other than that I had friends from Nakiska here during the week. Nicole, one of my flatmates at Nakiska was in town organising her visa for her camp programme in the US starting in a few weeks. She's already left for Seattle. I showed her around a bit. We took the ride around Stanley park, and walked the rest of Vancouver. Then last night I had Manu, one of the ski patrol guys pass by for a drink.

Yes this last photo is one of the tulips. Nicole being a former florist had this thing for stopping and photographing the tulips. They are in full bloom at the moment and look awesome. I just had to add this photo cause they were so colourful.

Oh, and the final thing to mention is that the Vancouver Canucks are out of the playoffs. They lost to Anaheim in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Which I will add is way further than Toronto got.

Utopia has been found. But to keep it secret they call it Whistler.

Ah yes I vow that I shalt never compromise ever again if I ever have the choice between Whistler or going to a closer ski resort.

Whistler is the best all round ski resort hands down. No doubt about it.

Wow it was awesome. What I was doing by going to Cypress last month. I never knew the bus ride to Whistler wasn't that much longer. It wasn't even that much harder to arrange. Now I must look back and think about how I could of had 2 other days at Whistler instead of Cypress. I want my 2 days back. Argh!

I actually skied my day on Blackcomb Mountain side of the resort. Reason being that it was the Gondola I caught. In the end it may have been the right choice to considering the Whistler side was on its 2nd last day. Hence would have been packed with last chance skiers. Oh well I don't care. To me its all one resort. It's like going to Perisher Blue and skiing Blue Cow all day. Both have snow and are part of the same resort.

As something different I did a tour of the mountain with the ski mountain guides. Instead of skiing by myself for the day, and I knew it'd give me variety for my one day of skiing Whistler. Boy was that a good call. They took a group of us around the whole mountain showing us the best areas of the day, and the absolutely crazy drop-offs, and even some residual powder drifts leftover from their last major snowfall on the Saturday prior. Yeah they had a major dump of 15 centimetres in the middle of April. It's been a crazy season for them. They've had over 45ft of snow this year the guide said. Whereas normally they'll have about 34ft in a season. The snow is still over 2 metres.

In addition to the normal ski runs on the tour we spent time skiing on one of the glaciers. It's rock hard, the snow is dry, but don't get me wrong it was not ice. Perfect groomed run for skiing. The run going from the top of the glacier through to the bottom is about 9kms before you get to a lift. And it was really mixed in variety. I loved it.

And just for anyone wondering. No I didn't do a double black diamond. That would have been suicidal. They're crazy. Although as the guides say, you're fine after the first turn. The guides incidentally aren't allowed to take you on the extreme runs on the tours. It something about safety. Not that our guides were too keen to anyway. Both were on their first days back from injury.

If anyone wants to pay for me to ski, gee, I guess I'll find the time to go again. But send the money soon, as I want to get there asap.

In the meantime let us all drool over these photos I took of Whistler.

Setting and Reaching Goals

When I set out things I wanted to do this trip, there was one item which most people would put at the top of their goals in life, that I set out to do on this trip.

You know the goal I'm talking about. It requires

Dedication.

Devotion.

Skill.

And Fitness.

Yes thats right

I'm going to go Ski Whistler.

Now don't go denying it. I'm right, I know. No second guessing going on here. Thats everyones goal in life, isn't it. Well if it wasn't your goal then perhaps you should change it. Skiing Whistler would probably a more enjoyable goal to have anyway.

Well this weekend I'm doing it. I've got the bus ticket and lift ticket, so I'm all set.

Where will you be this weekend!

And as a one time only offer. I will offer to buy the first round, after skiing. Open to anyone who is there with me. Oh, you can't make it. Oh well you'll just have to wait for the photos.

The Seagulls are on Steriods - Evidence Found

Yes you've heard the news here first. The seagulls are on steroids in Vancouver.

These birds compare well in size to the well fed blackbirds which I saw inland. I wouldn't put it past them to eat small children too. They're bred big, the size of chickens. Which makes you only wonder further about whether you're really getting what you pay for when you order chicken in this town.

How did I come across these child taking seagulls. Well I went for a walk towards the University of British Columbia for something to do. The weather is getting warmer nowadays so I thought it best to make use of the partly cloudy weather. Especially since I got drenched with rain the night before. Anyway I went to Jericho Beach near the university. From there you get a great view back towards the city. I took the opportunity to sit down, have some hot chips down at the waterfront. Feeding the birds as I ate. The child snatcher above in photo one was the Alpha male bird asserting dominance.

I also found the oldest building (now a small museum) in Vancouver over near the beach. Yeah its a slow news day when I'm pointing out this in the highlights.


Anyway I'll leave people with the view back towards the city and the grey sand beaches of Vancouver. With their views out to large container ships parked in the bay. Ah yes, the beaches here do make one remember how good we have it back home.

The middle of Spring + Sunshine =

Skiing! Or well it does to me when I'm here in Vancouver.

I finally got to go skiing again. I had planned to last weekend but ended up picking up a cold. So being the religious person I am I planned ahead to go skiing on Good Friday rain, hail, or shine. Lucky for me it was shine and the day held out to be as advertised.

Now being only 1 week from the final weekend of skiing at the resorts around Vancouver one would expect the ski runs to be below their peak. I can though vouch the condition weren't bad. They were better than a month ago. There are signs though that they can not go much longer. Like the occasional brown patch in well worn areas, but on the whole if they wanted they could of extended the season. After next week I'll only have Whistler to choose from in terms of ski slopes. They stay open until June I hear.

Meanwhile working in Vancouver is still going well. They really do treat their staff well with added perks, and then go out of their way to organise special events once in a while. During the Quarter End close they've been feeding us lunch, and dinner if you're working past 6pm. The other week the team I'm mostly attached to went out for a 'Fun Day' afternoon. Lunch at a restaurant and then over to a Bowling Alley for 5 pin bowling. Yeah 5 pin. Not 10.

It's weird if you've never seen the 5 pin version before. The balls are smaller. All the one weight. And the pins are set up like the front line of the normal 10 pin version. You do though get 3 attempts to knock them all down. Anyway the end result was a good afternoon. And in the words of a good loser, the game was the winner that day.

Newsflash - My friend Prasad is now a Dad

Prasad's wife Swathi just gave birth to a 3kg boy at 3:32am.

Yeay.

Wife and baby are fine.

Gee its all happenning here with the sport

Well its been a few weeks since my last post. Reason being nothing much has happened. Except for rain, rain, and more rain. I have reached my saturation point. I'm over rain.

But I knew that about Vancouver when I committed to it. It rains here, and I'm accepting it and moving on. I wish though that it would keep it to the weekdays. For once I'd like to go skiing on a Saturday. After all I did buy some new ski stocks, and brought my snow gear over here.

Anyway this evening was one of the highlights. Another Ice Hockey game. Vancouver vs Colorado. It was a ripper. Only one fight to report. And that was in the first 2 minutes of the game.
Below is how it ended. (Of note this is my first attempt at a You Tube video connection so please understand if it doesn't work.)




Yep that's right Vancouver lost in a shootout.

Anyway to share the excitement of a hockey game I'm also adding the introduction to the games and a few random photos. It's part of the spectacle.



Anyway thats all for now. If anyone is missing me, send money. If not send money anyway. I'll take good care of it. Really I will. Hockey games aren't cheap.

Counting down until I need to be in Vancouver again

Hey I don't know whether many people are keeping up with this but Vancouver has their own countdown clock for the olympics.


The olympics website is
http://www.vancouver2010.com/en

So what does this all mean for all my readers. Well it means you only have about 1090 days to get your sponsorship money in, to send me to the Winter Olympics. In return for your sponsorship money you will get the return of having sent Chad a long way away again, and photos of several Olympic events. I am accepting sponsorship monies from today via direct deposit. Bank details are available on request.

Thou Shalt not not make definite plans without consequence

Yes I have learnt my lesson.

As you may recall I used my last email to set in my mind plans for this weekend.

Well the good news is that I was able to hold myself to those plans. Even if it meant getting up early on a Saturday morning to catch a bus to Cypress Mountain Ski Resort.

Well anyway the result was, I should not have made such plans for this weekend. Or another way of looking at it was, one should always look to the snow weather report in the morning if you plan on going skiing.

Why, you may not need to ask, but I will say anyway. Cause if it's pissing down rain, no-one should be skiing. And boy was it pissing down. Check out the photo below taken at about 11am in the morning. Boy wasn't that a wonderful session of skiing.


Anyway it fined up a bit. As you can see from this 2nd photo. And no this photo wasn't taken much later in the afternoon. This photo was taken about 12:30pm in the middle of the day. It went from horrible to miserable. Hence I forced myself out for a 2nd session of skiing at that point.


Cypress is one of the 2 ski resorts very accessible to the locals in Vancouver. It in fact takes only about 1/2 an hour to drive direct to this resort. It isn't huge but is bigger than the closest runs at Grouse Mountain. It offers night skiing until about 10pm at night but yesterday the lights were valuable to just be able to see. With all the rain, fog, and generally miserable conditions any light was good light.

Second lesson from yesterday I learnt was when you read the snow reports, also look to the temperature. 25cm of snow may be a very liberal interpretation. Especially if the temperature is only borderline negative. It might be hiding the fact it was actually just more rain.

So today to make up for the fact I was drenched yesterday I have decided to stay in. There's been back to back NBA basketball games on TV, and I'm able to sit in front of it while typing this. Ah the joy of living in an apartment again.... Plus it's pissing down again outside. I don't want to get wet today.

Before I go I'll also post another photo of the Vancouver.

At dusk from the Granville St Bridge towards the Burrard St Bridge. I took a walk over there on Friday night as there are several ski stores over that side of the bridge. I needed to pick up some ski poles for yesterday. Now I need to make sure I make use of the poles before the rain washes all the snow away.

Recent Photos

Yes I've been a bit tardy with the photos recently. But I'm making it up to you all.

So what's the difference between living in a hostel vs the share accommodation I now have. The answer is space...

I mean sure my space currently comes with its own personal photos of people I don't know, but hey thats not the issue.

We have another weekend coming up... Surprising to some but we have many of these every year. And well this time, now that I'm nearly over being sick I'm going to try do some skiing. I didn't haul my skis down from the mountain for nothing. Or well this message will try to hold me to that thought. That and these photos from the other weekend up at Nakiska. Of note they don't allow skiers to go into the boarder cross event. Not that I wasn't up to that level, I chose to keep skiing :)

Revenge of the Hostel

They must have known I was soon to move out of the hostel. I was set up.

Why my conspiracy theory. Well upon returning from my excellent weekend at the snow, I arrived back late at the hostel (thanks to the consistently late Air Canada). I got put into a dorm room with 3 long stayers who were not so pleased to see someone else try to move in at 12am. Anyway one of them had a very bad cold. He was coughing and spluttering everywhere. And once asleep he took the title of the loudest chainsaw snorer I've ever heard. So the result was after a tiring weekend of skiing I had only 3hrs sleep in time for work Monday.

By Tuesday I had the first signs of a sore throat. (I had though moved hostel rooms in order to get sleep)

By wednesday, the day I moved out of the hostel into an apartment it was confirmed. I have a cold. Argh!

I hate missing work due to illness but had to Thursday afternoon.

And yes mother I've been to the doctor now, and I'm laying low to try shrug it off.

I'm trippin' to Nakiska next weekend

Just thought I'd let people know I'm alive. Oh, and I've decided I can't be wasting too many of my weekends here doing nothing. Especially now that I have a more semi-permanent source of income.

So next weekend I'm going back up to Calgary to go skiing with my buddies up at Nakiska.

Yeah I know it sounds like the expensive way of going for a ski but really it's more than just that. I also needed to go say hello to the friends there.

The way I look at it is that I'd be saving on full price of ski ticket and accommodation by staying with CJ and the 500 crew, as opposed to skiing here and skiing say Grouse Mountain. All this offsets the price of the flight which was a valentines flight special anyway.

And to those up in Nakiska reading this. Planned stops are:
1) Nakiska - Skiing Saturday and Sunday. If anyone can get some time off those days to ski with me, that'd be sweet.
2) The Bighorn - for a Chocolate Avalanche, and
3) Woodies - the old stomping ground.

Anyway thats about it for the moment. Most of my time during the week is focused on earning money and getting a different work experience. So nothing too exciting to share.

Chad

Good News... I have had my contract extended

YEAY.

Just in a nick of time I've had the contract extended. So I'm still an 'employed' homeless bum.

Until March when I have a home.

Contract extention is until mid March possibly April. Doesn't worry me so much. The company has things I can learn, and they seem a nice bunch of people. Being new to the firm is still daunting but hey I'll find my groove.

Now I'm not so homeless... but

News is I'm moved.

Well I had to move hostels cause the Hosteling International people have a rule regarding people only staying 3 weeks at a time. And before you say but why don't you stay elsewhere for one night and then go back, you can't. 3 weeks in 2 months. I travelled a long way to the other hostel. Across the road.

Not that one would want to stay there permanently anyway. Something about sharing a room with 3 guys doesn't do it for me. Plus when you get the roommate from hell with chainsaw snoring as I've had you really, really get over staying in a hostel.

Well the news is I officially have a place to live. Or well I have a place to live for 2 months. In the worst case scenario I'll be renting out a room of some girl who'll be going home for 2 months. She can't afford to leave the room empty during the time. So basically I'm house sitting.

It's alright deal. Perfect location. But....
Supposed to be moving in March. She hasn't though confirmed dates etc.

Then I've got another place or two still in the pipeline. But considering most places
have 13 people applying... chances are never good.

Sad news is that I may not have a job after Wed. The contract runs out. The firm I've been working for is good. But not sure whether they need me in that role. Role was more administrative. Of all things I've been running a month end reporting process. Seeing that people report their progress and recording it. Noting overdue items etc. Considering people say time management isn't my forte its been good to be involved in this.

I haven't though felt entirely comfortable though. But when am I ever comfortable with a big change straight up. My difficulty has come about primarily because they had an experienced person of 8 years in the role previously. They knew how they could help, knew the people to push (primarily managers), and the business inter-dependancies. This all adds up. Being unfamiliar with the process I've spent the time just pushing people on the process, without understanding the process. At times feeling like I was just a communication tool, less a part of the process. I have also taken the time to document the role considering this was the first month without the missing person, and they really didn't know what information to provide me on the role so that I could complete it to their expectations. This has come about because the person was there so long, and the business has grown so much recently they hadn't really had time to do this.

Its also been an interesting experience for seeing the reporting process in a big corporation. The analysis of the figures that goes on. The incredible amount of meetings people have just to communicate stuff and manage work completion.

Hopefully they can train me in a few of their processes in the last few days. I suspect they if they don't appoint someone they'll not want to start from scratch again with a new person for next month. So maybe I can get a return gig in a week or 2 when they repeat the month end process. (Although now they have a job role description to fill anyone into the role)

The firm has also been interesting for the number of Aussies there too. They've had to get a few of us in to handle the growth. Had an interesting experience where the manager of another Aussie who had just started was nearby and said to him jokingly he's got a hard to understand accent. I had to point out, 'what accent, sounds normal around here'. Considering Aussies out numbered Canadians in the immediate area I was justified.

And finally, another thing about the kitchen work back home would find of interest... their kitchen... wow is it stocked. They treat their staff well. 4 different types of coffee in pots, a cappuccino maker, soups, and hot chocolate all there for the picking... many of you would be in heaven.... oh and a chocolate candy bar machine with subsidized chocolates and chips.... All there in a conspiracy to make one fat. Just trying to avoid evil is a struggle.

Sometimes it's good to have a roommate

I mean rarely, rarely does a roommate at a hostel show any value other than conversation.

Well Monday was one of those days.

My roommate was an Aussie living up at Whistler. Anyway he just head out across the road for a drink.

15 mintues later he walks back in and says. Do you want to go to the Vancouver Canucks Hockey game? I just got given 2 tickets from the bar across the road. They had a few tickets leftover and the game just started.

Well he didn't have to ask me twice. Canuck tickets, and at my price level too. Free. Woo hoo!

Anyway we got there in time to see half the 2nd period and the 3rd. (wierd game with only 3 periods)
Anyway the game was Awesome, even if we were in the nose bleeds.

Interestingly the Canucks are currently upto over 172 games of consecutive sell outs. Wow.

Other than than I start my job tomorrow. And my next biggest challenge is finding a place to live. Vancouver has rental vacancy of less than 0.2%. And house prices are the highest in the country I hear.