Bad news

If you are in the UK right now, you probably won't have too much sympathy for us, but it's hot here right now in Vancouver! Summer is in full force, but the weather is turning today with possible thunderstorms later, which precedes a coming week of rain and showers.

To say that it's been a stressful week would be a major understatement. The company where Steph and I work has been going through some "realignment" under its new management, which meant more than 100 people being made redundant. Unfortunately, Steph was one of those people.

On the lighter side, Steph's friend Helen is visiting us and having a good time so far. She's been travelling a lot so we haven't seen so much of her so far. She comes back this evening from the Okanagan valley. This week we are all going to see Radiohead play outdoors at UBC Thunderbird Stadium, and then at the weekend we are going on a day trip to Bowen Island for some kayaking and walking, with a bunch of friends. So plenty of good stuff ahead.

Last night was a wedding celebration for Steve and Janine - good friends of ours - which was great fun. There are some photos on the web taken by other friends of ours if you'd like to take a look.

Let's hope next week is better than this one!

Fireworks, and other things

July was a busy month for stuff. We saw a bunch of movies, which I'll maybe get around to reviewing at some point soon. July was mostly great summer weather, apart from the last week which was cold and wet. We spent time on the beach, and cycling too. The last two weeks has been the Celebration of Light again, which for those that don't know is four big fireworks displays from English Bay (close to where we live). This year Canada, USA and China competed, and Canada won again for the second year running. I reckon it must be a fix, as China was the best in my opinion (they were the best last year too). Last Saturday we had people round to ours for drinks and to watch the fireworks from our apartment, which was cool. Yesterday was the final display, and our friend Jon has a BBQ at his place which was fun. It eventually degenerated into several hours of Singstar karaoke which was quite hilarious (especially Rick Astley). It's a long weekend here (Monday is BC Day) so we'll be taking it easy for the rest of it.

If you are interested, there are pictures from the fireworks here, and some from last night's karaoke fun here. Or check out the movie below :)

Funny sign

Spotted whilst walking back from Kitsilano Beach one afternoon.

Spamalot!

The theatre show based on Monty Python's The Holy Grail (and some other Python stuff) came to Vancouver, and a bunch of us went to see it. It was enjoyable enough, but mostly just regurgitated the funniest scenes from the film, performed with bad English accents (which sometimes added to the enjoyment) and slightly suspect coming timing and delivery (which did not). I am glad we got our tickets half-price as otherwise it would have been rather a rip-off. As it was, the production was good and the song and dance routines were most enjoyable, but it would have been cheaper and funnier to watch the movie again.

Paul and Jane visit

I'm so late mentioning this, but better late than never. Our friends Paul and Jane stayed with us for a long weekend at the beginning of July, pretty much straight after our weekend in Seattle. They were on a round-the-world trip virtually, from Australia where they now live, via San Francisco. I used to share a house with Paul when I lived in Cambridge so we are good friends. He moved to Melbourne in Australia probably a year or so ago now with his then-girlfriend Jane. Recently they got married but I missed the wedding as Steph and I were too busy to travel at the time. It was really great to see them, and we packed in a few tourist-type things in the short time they were here - a trip to Granville Island Market and to Grouse Mountain. We also got together with Chris and Katie and their new baby Lucas for the evening (we all knew each other from when we worked at Sony and lived in Cambridge). After leaving here, they went back to the UK for a wedding reception for the guys that couldn't make the Melbourne wedding, and then on to Italy for a week of actual holiday before returning to Australia. An epic journey indeed. I heard the other day that they made it back safe and sound, but narrowly avoided being on the Quantas plane that nearly crashed that day. It was only because that flight was overbooked that they ended up on another one. A close shave!

Oh yes, and one other thing. While they were visiting, we learnt that Jane is pregnant. Congratulations guys!!