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!