Happy Halloween, and goodbye wisdom teeth!

Yes, while everyone else has been celebrating Satan, or whatever Halloween actually means, I chose to have my two lower wisdom teeth removed. At least I thought I could save having to dress up - instead I'll just wander around with blood dripping out of my mouth.

I was delighted to say though that I'm in no fit state to scare anybody. I was very nervous this morning at 9am when I went to the dentist, mainly about the fact that I was having a general anaesthetic. I hate being knocked out during operations - I'd rather have a local and see what is going on so I know the job is getting done right! Anyway, they knocked me out and I woke up about an hour later and apart from the wobbles I felt pretty good. Steph came to take me home and then went out to get all my drugs. She's so good to me :)

So I've popped my antibiotics and my anti-inflammatories and this afternoon I even had a painkiller, but frankly I could have done with out it as apart from some aching in the sockets I haven't had any pain. It all just seems too easy! I'm an eternal pessimist so I'm still waiting for the hammer to fall (as Queen once said) - maybe tomorrow it will catch up with me!

flOw (a cool little life game)

I was browsing the latest previews on GameSpot the other day and found a game called flOw that is being developed as one of the first games that will be available for download on PlayStation 3. It is being developed by That Game Company, but it turns out that you can already play the game as there is a Flash version online. And it is rather good. Check it out here.

Happy 1st Canada anniversary to us :)

It's been a while since I posted, so I'll try to catch up with what's been happening.

Last Thursday (21st September) we went to see Snow Patrol perform at the PNE Forum. Getting there was interesting, as we had to catch a Hastings St. bus. Hastings is about the dodgiest street in Vancouver and a focal point for drug use and physical attacks. Nice. The venue itself looked like a disused sports hall of some sort, but it was spacious and not too hot. So let's get to Snow Patrol themselves. They performed pretty well, and the lead singer had plenty of energy. What was a big let down for me was the sound. It was the worst I had ever heard at a gig. The guitars broke up into white noise at any kind of volume, and the bass was awful. The speakers could produce bass, but only at one muddy frequency, so bass chord changes all sounded exactly the same. It was like watching a gig while a convoy of trucks was driving by. I found myself having to imagine in my head what the songs should have sounded like in order to enjoy them. Grrr.

We had visitors too for a couple of weeks - Gavin and Hannah and their little baby Grace. They left last Saturday. It was nice to have people staying again - our last visitors were in May/June. We hung out with them when we could, including a trip up Grouse Mountain. Grace is very cute, and a fast crawler so we had to be ready to grab her at any time when she went for something expensive! Our lounge isn't really baby-proof. There could be a few photos to come from their visit, when I get round to sorting them out.

Yesterday - September 29th - was our first anniversary of arriving in Canada. It should have been the 27th but thanks to Air Canada we ended up arriving two days late. The year has passed by pretty quickly for us, but it has been a great time. When we first arrived we had to endure Winter in Vancouver, and one of the wettest on record at that. It did put us off a little at first. We got to enjoy some winter sports though which was cool, especially for Steph who loves to ski. Last December we moved into the apartment that we live in now, which we still love. Lots of space, a nice quiet area, great views - it's perfect really. Then the summer arrived and we really started to get out and around. We've packed in quite a few trips in the last few months, as you can see if you look back through this blog. I think I have enjoyed this summer more than any I can remember. There is just tons of stuff to do in British Columbia. It will keep us busy for a while yet :)

Today we were planning some kayaking and walking at Deep Cove with friends (which is at the base of Seymour Mountain),. Unfortunately, the weather is crap right now - foggy and grey. So that's probably off and it will be a lazy day instead. We are going out for a meal tonight to celebrate the anniversary - a nice restaurant called Brix in Downtown. Looking forward to it, and to the next 12 months in Canada. So far so good for this life adventure :)

Congratulations Lauren & Woody!

The beginning of September was Labour Day weekend (with the Monday a statutory holiday). It was also the weekend on which our friends Lauren and Woody decided to get married. The wedding was on the Sunshine Coast, which is North of Vancouver. It's surprisingly easy to get to, and took about 2 hours or so including a 40 minute ferry crossing. We travelled down there with some other friends that we have met through work.

So how was the wedding? The setting was beautiful, and the hotel was pretty sweet too. The whole event had a very relaxed feel to it, and wasn't the crazy stressful affair I usually associate with marriage. I think if I ever took the plunge I would try something similar. Even the bride and groom seemed to remain relatively calm throughout, and we certainly enjoyed ourselves (apart from those $%£$ing mosquitoes).

The natural beauty of the place was definitely memorable. Late in the evening we made a point of going out onto the jetty to lie down and look at the stars. For the first time in years I was able to see hundreds of them, and even the faint glow of the Milky Way. The sky is so much more beautiful once you get away from the light pollution of big cities. Another cool thing we found is that the waters along the coast are filled with bioluminescent plankton. Any disturbance in the water causes them to emit a green glow. We spent quite a while messing about with that, waving our hands around in the water and so forth. You could even see momentary trails left by fish as they moved beneath the surface. Pretty amazing stuff.

So all in all, we loved the Sunshine Coast and are definitely thinking of going back there sometime, especially since it is a relatively short journey compared to other places we've been. You can check it out for yourself - our photos from the weekend are here.

Mosquitoes At A Wedding

No, this isn't another idea for a sequel to Snakes On A Plane. Last weekend we went to the Sunshine Coast because our friends Lauren and Woody were getting married. The reception in the evening was outside on the grass which was lovely, until we discovered we were being devoured by mosquitoes. Check out what they did to my feet:



Steph's legs also appeared to be a popular choice:



They itch SOOOOO much :(

Leopards On A Barge

Julian pointed me at this amusing article. Total Film magazine came up with some ideas for rejected pitches for Snakes On A Plane. I like the last one best. Find them here.

Winery finery!

Last weekend, we went to the Okanagan. This is an area of BC east of Vancouver containing a huge river valley. The climate is hotter and much drier than on the west coast, which makes it ideal for wine growing. Most of BC's wines are produced from grapes grown in the Okanagan. It is also a major fruit producer for the province, growing apples, peaches, plums and cherries.

We hired a car, and the drive took about 5 hours on the way there, and 6 on the way back. We stayed in a fantastic little B&B just outside Kelowna called Accounting For Taste. We'd definitely recommend this place; it was very clean and comfortable, and the breakfasts were amazing. Thanks again Rosemary! The weather was hot all weekend (31C and higher), although visibilty was not great. Forest fires are burning in Washington, south of the US border, and the smoke was causing a haze for hundreds of kilometres north into BC.

On the Saturday we went on an all-day wine tour, visiting Sumac Ridge, Hawthorne Mountain, Inniskillin, Nk'Mip and Jackson Triggs. We had free tastings at every winery, and they had some great wines. We came away with 9 bottles at the end of the day, but it was hard not to buy quite a bit more. It was a long and fairly tiring trip, but well worth it - we saw a lot more of the valley south of Kelowna than we otherwise would have, and the scenery was great.

Sunday was a day of relaxation on the beach. In the evening we went for a meal at the restaurant at Quail's Gate winery. The food was fantastic, and they served wine by the glass to accompany each dish of each course. Lovely. We were stuffed and drunk by the end, but very happy :)

Monday was our last day. We checked out a couple of local wineries in the morning - Mission Hill and Quail's Gate. We took a tour at Quail's Gate too which was really good. They taught us a lot about the basics of grape growing and winemaking which was fascinating. After that we headed back to Vancouver along the slower but more scenic route. We were so glad we did too - the scenery was beautiful and well worth an extra hour or so.

All in all, it was a great weekend and we are looking forward to going back at some point. In the meantime we have 9 great bottles of wine to enjoy, and our photos. Check them out here.

Summer photo mix!

Or "a bunch of assorted pictures that didn't really belong anywhere else". I mean to publish these photos a while back but I got busy. Get off my case already. You can find the photos here.

World Party are ace

So Steph talked me into going to see a World Party gig. I had heard of them and a few of their songs (like "Put The Message In The Box") but was a little dubious. I had a quick read of their website before the gig last night and learnt a few interesting things. World Party is all about one guy really - Karl Wallinger - who left The Waterboys years ago to start his own band. They made several albums and had some success. Then it seems the rest of his band split and went and recorded "She's The One" with Robbie Williams - a song that Wallinger originally wrote. About the same time, the poor guy had a brain aneurysm.

Anyway, he's back now with a new band and a new album, and we saw them last night at Richards On Richards, a music club just next door to where we used to live when we first arrived in Canada. And they were great! Wallinger was looking older and somewhat portly, but he was a remarkably easy-going and cheerful guy. He had a habit of talking to the audience at length between songs, and although most of what he said made little sense, it was usually pretty amusing and really helped to establish a connection between the band and the audience. His chatter was covering some technical problems too - it seemed that the bass player's guitar was on the blink all evening. But when they were belting out the songs, they rocked. The melodies and lyrics were great, and the musicianship of the whole band excellent. Great songs performed by great musicians - superb entertainment by any measure. I am now officially a World Party fan. Time to buy some of their albums I think. And thanks Steph for talking me into it :)

Restaurant review - Urban Thai Bistro

Steph and I went to this restaurant in Yaletown last night for food, so I wrote a review for it - my second restaurant review now on dinehere.ca. Woohoo! Find out what I thought here.