Return of the Blogger

Hi all - sorry for the delay since the last post - I have been a little busy!

As you know I arrived safely in Vancouver a little under two weeks ago now. My first weekend in town was spent pretty much just exploring the neighbourhood and getting to know the place. I met up with James for cake at a VERY tasty cake place (picture about 30 flavours of cake in door-stop sized pieces!) and then with James and Paul (a hostel buddy from Toronto) for a beer and to watch some hockey on Saturday.

On Monday I started visiting all the recruitment agencies and doing a bizillion typing and computer tests before heading back to the hostel to await the arrival of Ms Goodall - Z and I had a big old gas-bag over some mexican - 10 months or so of gossip trying to fit into one meal so you can imagine the chaos! On Zoe's first day I had some more interviews so we visited Gastown (the old part of Vancouver) and some shops before I headed off for more typing and computer tests. We thought we had earned a beer after all that and suddenly found ourselves a few beers down and yet again watching hockey at a sports bar down the road... shockingly more gossip and general talking of bollocks ensued.

On Wednesday morning we headed off for a walk around Stanley Park. Stanley Park is a really large area on the edge of Vancouver that includes lots of walking trails, look-out points, sports fields and most importantly to Zoe and I... the aquarium! Unfortunately Stanley Park was badly damaged during a massive storm back in November so a lot of the walking trails are shut, causing us to have to walk the long way around in order to take in the great view of the mountains and the Vancouver skyline. At the aquarium, we had a lovely few hours wandering around looking at the dolphins, Beluga whales (the most ugly thing I have ever seen), sea otters and hundreds of other little critters. After all the walking I thought it was time to introduce Zoe to Tim Hortons and his donut selection... yum...

On Thursday we visited Granville Island, which is a market area with loads of stalls - very cool, and English Bay where there is a very impressive Inukshuk, which is a first nations sculpture of sorts, which we took a few pictures of. We had a really nice lunch at a place overlooking the Bay and then headed off to meet James and his friends for the hockey (yep more hockey - they are even more obsessed over this coast if that is possible). Sadly the Canucks did not manage a win but we still had a good time.

On Friday James, Zoe and I headed down to Seattle for the long weekend. We had a pretty sweet border crossing (finally!) and got to Seattle in time to head to Seattle Place, where Zoe and James went up the Space Needle, and I watched kids play in a fountain. I figure since I have made it up the world's tallest building and the world's tallest free-standing structure this year I am off the hook for going up tall things for a while! We ended up at a sports bar to watch the basketball and went back to crash at our hostel, which was a pretty nice set-up.

On Saturday we all got up early and Zoe and I took FAR too many pictures of flowers at the market. Pike Place Market is pretty much an institution in Seattle but we had found it far too packed on Friday so going back early made it much easier to see around the place. The Market includes the Pike Place Fishmarket, which is famous for the guys throwing fish and we watched that for a while too. Next to the market is the original Starbucks store - Seattle is also the home of IBM and Boeing aircraft.

We also did an underground tour of the city of Seattle on Saturday. Basically the city originally got built on mud and needed to be raised up - after the great fire of 1889 (we think) people were allowed to rebuild their houses but told to put the main entrances on the second floor so that new streets could be put in a level above where they were previously, hence the first floors of lots of buildings are now underground. The tour is led by stand up comics so is really funny and interesting and a very cool way to spend a couple of hours. After that we headed out on one of the Washington State Ferries (just like Grey's Anatomy) and visited the little town of Bainbridge. That night we ended up at the Pike Place pub for some beer tastings and burgers - all of which were pretty good!

On Sunday James headed off to the music and sci-fi museums and Z and I went to the aquarium (yes I know, two in a week but we like them OK!??!) before a wander up to the hippie area of Capitol Hill where we caught a local college game of baseball, found a statue of Jimi Hendrix (a Seattle local) and danced the cha-cha to some steps outlined on the footpath. I also saw a dog with painted toenails. It was weird. After that, we met up with James for some pizza and more general bollocks talking...

Monday we were heading back to Vancouver so just checked out some shops and had some coffee before getting back on the bus for the three hour trip back across to Canada. Yet another smooth border crossing, which I am liking a lot - long may it continue. We did have a rather doddery old bus driver who was rather prone to wandering across lanes but we got back in one piece and Zoe and I wasted no time getting out for some curry... yum!

Today we were just about to head out when I got a call to tell me I had a job so instead of visiting Chinatown I left Zoe to her own devices and started work at the BC Children and Women's Hospital. I am working for a west-indian doctor called Tex who objects to me supporting New Zealand in the cricket world cup so that should be interesting... as far as I can tell my job is to decipher his handwriting into legible, type-written notes. Hmmm... well anyway - better go but I hope you are all well and I will put some photos up soon!

Clare