What's news on page 34?

Wow, Kevin 07 made the news on page 34 of today's Sunday newspaper (The Province).

Where are the Canadians?

I've finally found somewhere to live. Yay! It felt like I had been househunting for weeks, but in reality it only took 1 week. It's a one bedder downtown and I move in next weekend.

Throughout the week, I kept meeting more and more Brits. Canadians must be shy. Work was quite uneventful this week. Although I'm still trying to get my head around using Lotus notes.

People in Vancouver seem to very organised. Everyone has started their Christmas shopping and it isn't even December yet! Tomorrow, there is a Santa Claus Parade on Robson St, so I might go and check it out. Our family Kris Kringle with the relos has been organised too!

New Years is 'sorted' too (imagine me saying this with a pommy accent!). I'm going skiing at Whistler with a bunch of Brits for New Years. How's that for organisation. I heard on the grapevine that this trip was organised by the secondees before they even arrived in Canada!

I still haven't seen much of the city as yet, but have noticed that Canadians love their Starbucks. At the intersection of Thurlow & Robson St, there are 2 Starbucks diagonally opposite each other. What the!

Until next time, ciao!

Have you broken your beer?

I've been in Vancouver for 1 week now. It took me most of the week to get over the jetlag.


Earlier this year, I spent 4 months in London and only hung out with Aussies. Now in Vancouver, I have met quite a few Brits. I had lunch with 4 Brits last Friday!

On Sat night, a few of the gang from work went out for a meal in Yaletown. One bloke, Eric (from Sweden) was telling us that instead of saying 'have you finished your beer?' the Swedes say 'have you broken your beer'. We all found it quite funny.





This is a piece of artwork near Chinatown. I thought it was a pretty cool abacus. The beads actually move up and down too!

O Canada!

Greetings from Vancouver! I've been here for 3 days now. So far so good...except the jetlag which is killing me. I'm safe and well...and making sure that I'm eating my vegies! I've been busy settling in but won't bore you with all that stuff. So here are a few of the more interesting things so far...

Sun 11 Nov 2007.

• I arrived 1 hour after I departed Melbourne. That's the beauty of crossing the International Date Line! The 13hr flight from Auckland to Vancouver was a long one. It was the fourth time they had flown this new route. Thank goodness the plane was half empty - as I had 3 seats to myself.


• One of the airport staff at Vancouver told me my accent was cute! He was a Saffer himself.


• I caught up with Age and Tania for dinner. Tried my first Canadian beer 'Kokanee' made with Glacier water. Tania was telling me that I was fitting right in with the Canadian fashion because I was wearing a jumper with the diamond checkered pattern!

Mon 12 Nov 2007.

• The jetlag has kicked in. I woke up at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep until 4am, only to be woken up by the phone ringing at 9.30am. It was Uncle Richard calling to say I had 1 hr to get ready for Yum Cha.


• Yum Cha with the relos. We had a table for 12 and it was so nice to meet family, especially the Aunts & Uncles that I had never met before. Brunch was the usual deal with 'ha gao' & 'siu mai'. Being the latest surrogate family member, just imagine my grand uncle piling the food onto my plate. I was so full by the end!


• Mark, my relocation consultant, was giving me a tour of the city. He's a pom and has lived in many cities including HK. We were talking about all sorts of random things in the car and it was so funny when he came out with the words 'lap sap' (meaning rubbish in Canto). I was so amused. Then I was telling him, the criteria for my house hunting was that the nearest supermarket had to sell bok choy! haha Isn't it funny when you're away from home, you start craving things that your good ol' mum cooks.

Tue 13 Nov 2007.

• First day at work. I was somewhat excited about starting work as it has been 7 1/2 months since I last had a 'real' job. We had some technology training in an interactive virtual classroom which was quite cool. You could raise your hand to ask a question, laugh at the facilitator's jokes, applaud and chat to everyone in the classroom using an instant messenger. The facilitator would have no idea if you were 'alt tabbing' between applications! hehe

Last comment the day: I can't say that I have immersed myself in Canada. There seems to be alot of imports around. Plenty of poms, asians and the occassional aussie. I even saw someone with a Safeway green bag at the supermarket - must have been an aussie.

Word of the day: pound. Press the 'pound' key to contine...What key? Oh...that's the hash key!