Posts
I apologize for neglecting you for so long; I can only hope that in the future you will find it in your heart to forgive me… In all honesty, the reason I’ve not been updating the blog is because I’ve not had an awful lot to write about in the months since my somewhat immature ‘test-post’ back in May. (Plus I doubt many people would be interested in reading ‘the life and times of tesco cleaner adam’)
So in summary, the last few months:
May
Leg still broken, dissertation completed, University finished
June
Leg still broken, Lads tour of Wales (wet mud, rivers running through tents and crazy camp site owners) Job hunting – no jobs
July
Leg still broken, although now crutch less, 22nd birthday (hurrah!), Graduation (woo!), Pete’s stag duo (Stag! Stag! Stag!), Hangover (euurgggh), job hunting – no jobs
August
Leg fixed, still no jobs, Pete’s wedding (hurrah!)
Sept
6am cleaning job acquired
Work, work, work
October
Work, work, work
Met a lovely lady ;)
Novemeber
Work, work, work
Fire sale of my possessions
Right, so I’ll pick up late November:
If all goes to plan I will be away on my Canadian adventure for about 12 months, this is a long time without seeing friends or family so I wanted to see as many people as possible before leaving. . .
Friday 20th November:
After a last minute ring-a-round of friends, both near and far, I managed to assemble a motley crew at my local watering hole ‘the nags head’ in Shrewsbury at 8pm. I arrived fashionably late, due to the taxi of mum and dad being ‘delayed’ at the pub…
I arrived to find a much bigger turnout than expected, which warmed my heart… for a tiny moment... until I realized I didn’t have a pint.
It really meant a lot to see everyone turn up and for some people to make the effort to come so far. It made me realize what great friends I have, which is part of the reason why I have starting writing this tin-pot blog again: to keep everyone informed of my mis-adventures. The night went well, I received lots of hugs:
A few kisses:
And got drunk enough to be talked into dancing on the table:
The next day I invited family members over for what was meant to be a more chilled out and relaxing farewell, however the end result was me being beaten at downing jelly vodka shots, by an eccentric old dear called Densel. Again, it was really great to spent quality time with my family and I’ll miss them all over Christmas.
My flight was on the Wednesday following the two parties it and came pretty quickly, luckily I had Ruth here to do my packing, as I’m useless at doing pretty much anything. To my delight I arrived at Heathrow with my passport and both my suitcases, and I met up with the BUNAC group who I was flying out with. Everyone was dead friendly and I think for the first time in my life, got through customs without needing extra checks (must be those dodgy looking family members I usually travel with that draw unwanted attention from airport security, or the fact I shaved off the ‘terrorist stubble’ the night before.) I arrived in duty free alongside some other BUNAC members where we were offered a free shot of baileys from a lovely man in one of the many stores. Not a bad way to start the trip!
The 9 hour flight went quick, I got through it with a combination of sleep, films and excited chatting about everyone’s plans. It turns out that most people are skiers or boarders and are traveling up to the resorts for work, whereas my plan is to stay in Vancouver until at least March/April – depending on work.
As we approached Vancouver I attempted to get a view of the approaching city lights as we crossed over the last of the rocky mountains, however my view was obscured by the biggest, greyest and probably wettest cloud the world has ever seen. Many of us were discussing the point of a 9 hour flight because if we wanted cold, grey and wet we could have stayed at home!
After getting through immigration and finding both my suitcases had arrived with me, we got a minibus to our hostel downtown. The hostel was nice, warm, good showers and free breakfast so it was just what I needed after the flight, however when it was suggested we should go out for some food and a few beers… well, I couldn’t refuse.
Now, I’m not sure how the others were feeling at this point, but I was one disorientated English fellow in a far away land. The flight had taken off from Heathrow at 1pm, and after 9 hours had arrived in Vancouver at 3pm. As it was dark by 6pm when we left the hostel I kept thinking it was 1 or 2 in the morning, and couldn’t understand why people were walking home form work.
We headed towards the bright lights of Downtown Vancouver in the foggy rain, until we stumbled across a tapas bar called… wait for it… “the loose moose”. Perfect. I ordered a beer and a burger and handed over some funny looking money. Looking around me at the tiny bar, it suddenly dawned on me that I really was in Canada, mainly due to the 12 TV screens showing every kind of North American sport there is… its just like on all those tv shows and movies.
Three beers later and a belly full of amazing food I had to call it a night, I had been up now for 30 odd hours and I was hoping my plan to stay up as late as possible to beat jetlag would work when I woke the next morning. Fearing falling asleep in a strange bar I thought it’d be best to head back to the hostel and get some well deserved rest. On the walk back we past a hospital which was all done up for Christmas, it was quite a scene:
The next morning, and after my lovely free breakfast, Steve (one of my roomates) and I decided to go for a walk to get some fresh air, an essential commodity when sharing a small room with 3 other men. Not really knowing where we were going we wondered upon a beach where we saw this sign:
We got back to the hostel and met up with the rest of the group before heading downtown for our orientation. Basically the mission is to settle in and find a job. Something I had struggled with back in the UK.
Fortunately I have family out here in Vancouver so I’m staying with them until I get a job and find my own place. I’m sleeping in the ‘den’ – a games room, a 22 year old man’s paradise. The den also happens to be next to the ultra warm laundry room, which is extra convenient for me as its getting into the minuses at night!
Friday and Saturday saw me searching for jobs and a room to rent and then my uncle informed me that he had acquired 3 tickets to Sunday’s canucks game – The local ice hockey team. What can I say, it was awesome, I’ve watched quite a lot of it since I’ve been out here, and my little cousin Aiden is really into it, repeatedly thrashing me on NHL09 on the wii.
The strange thing about ice hockey is the gaps in between the periods. The game takes place over three 20 minute periods, with a 20 minute break between them. This means there is a lot of time to keep the audience entertained, with half-time games such as child-sumo suits and Mexican waves to keep the crowd going.
Most of this week I have been job hunting, and house hunting which means I’ve been wondering around the city a lot, I’ve taken a few shots, from all over the place. Enjoy these for now and I’ll try and update this blog weekly!
