The water is back

Woohoo. The boil-water advisory was lifted yesterday. It is still a little queer-looking, so we're going to drink bottled water for a few more days. No more boiling our washing-up water though - that was getting pretty annoying.

We got up yesterday to a good deal of snow. Steph took a bunch of pictures, like the one to the right. Christmas has arrived early! The snow is still around today, and tomorrow there is more snow forecast. The weather is going to warm up towards the end of the week though.

Tonight we are going to our first ice hockey game. I expect I probably won't have any idea what's going on, but it should be fun. Must remember to cheer for the Vancouver Canucks, or I might get duffed up :)

Snow (and other things)

It started to snow yesterday, and it is snowing today too - quite heavily at the moment. Check out the webcam picture opposite. The forecast is for snow until at least Tuesday I think. It is a lot colder than it was last year at this time. A high pressure front means not too much rain though, which is nice.

Steph and I went to see Casino Royale with some friends last Sunday. We all really enjoyed it. I thought it was the best Bond film in ages. Some of the action sequences are awesome, and Daniel Craig seemed to fit the role really well. It was a little too long, and had its moments of silliness, but overall it was a great movie. Recommended!

We are still having to boil our water at the moment. It's improved in quality since last weekend but is still some way off being good enough to drink. I expect the boil water advisory won't be lifted for another week at least. We are getting used to relying on bottled water now, although washing up is still a major pain - boiling enough water to fill the sink is a time-consuming process :/

Last night we went out for drinks for a friend's birthday. We then went 5-pin bowling. It was similar to modern 10-pin bowling that I have done before, but there are only 5 pins (obviously) and the balls are much smaller - small enough to grip in one hand. It was pretty low-tech - the pins themselves were on strings that reset them, and there was no electronic scoreboard. You had to puzzle it out for yourself which isn't easy when you're a little tipsy. It was all very quaint and old-fashioned :) I think everyone enjoyed it though (there were nearly 20 people there altogether) and Steph and I would like to do it again some time.

Don't drink the water...

So on Thursday we were showering and noticed that the water was a nasty brown colour, and smelled of dirt. We figured it was a problem with our apartment block, and would have spoken to our building manager that morning but they were not around. Anyway, when we got to work we found out that the dirty water had another cause. Apparently, torrential rains flowing into Vancouver's fresh water reservoirs have stirred up tonnes of sediment, leading to the nasty water quality. The health authorities have issued a Boil-Water Advisory, which means we have to use bottled water or boil it for at least a minute. As it is so full of dirt, you wouldn't really want to drink the water even after its boiled.

So its Saturday now and the water is looking slightly better, but not much. I've no idea how long this is going to go on for, but believe me washing up our pots has become an epic operation that takes several hours :/

One interesting thing I discovered on Friday - canned drinks don't do much good for you. Normally I drink pure water all the time, but on Friday I had to drink canned juice drinks and so forth. By the middle of the afternoon I had drunk about 5, and was still dry. That can't be right.

Ray sings (and speaks!)

On Thursday (November 16th) we went to see Ray LaMontagne at the Centre for Performing Arts. We saw him once before at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London and he was great then. This time I think he might have been even better. The sound quality at the venue was great, and we had good seats too. Ray's voice was amazing as always. He played a mixture of his most popular songs from his first album, and tracks from his new album too. We were totally absorbed in every song. Initially I thought he was going to be painfully shy as always, but he actually spent a little while talking to the audience this time, which was cool. He was quite a funny guy when he got going. The crowd appreciated his music too, and gave him a standing ovation at the end. Superb. We've vowed never to miss an opportunity to go see him.

Happy 3rd anniversary to us

Wednesday (November 15th) was our third anniversary - go us! Steph and I went for food in the evening to celebrate. We tried a restaurant called Chambar which was excellent - not too pricey and the food was great.

It's been a fantastic year in Canada and we are both looking forward to the next one!

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 :(