Fun and games in the park

Once again, greetings from the window sill. I know it's been a while since I wrote last, and that's not (entirely) due to neglect, but rather nothing much happened of new to make an entry seem worthwhile. However, over the last week or ten days, new elements have woven themselves into daily life, so I thought it was time for an update.

First off: it's been a week since Q arrived in Vancouver and so far, I am coping with the addition of yet another boy in the mad house! It's great to have him in the same time zone. He's jumped straight in to the job hunt. He's looking for sensible jobs at the moment - still full of the "newly- arrived" snobbery that prevents you from filling out the Starbucks application form. We all give him another week of this luxury! In general, walking in to places, such as restaurants, bars and shops to present yourself seems to be a more effective course of action than sending off resumes and cover letters to the invisible waiting room that is craigslist.com - a rich source of job postings, but disappointingly thin on the responses. He's staying with us for now, and will probably look for his own place once he has some income from a job.

Last Saturday we had our house-warming party. It was also a celebration of Loic and Sophie's birthdays. And it was mad! Our basement was transformed into a bar/club with the aid of a home-made bar, some painted shamrocks, music and some green light bulbs. Not sure how many people came but it was a lot! Mainly Australians. The clean up job was a project the next day! But a good night had by all.

I've been doing about 23 hours per week at Eco Outdoor Sports and so far it's going really well. My job title is sales associate, and my day gets filled with tasks such as merchandising, stock taking, sorting out the back office but mainly we're meant to engage with customers. The prospect of sales targets to hit every day is daunting, and I find it hard to push if it's obvious they'd rather be left alone, but generally, I've hit or exceeded my targets. Which is a surprise to me! And the days that I don't, it's no big deal. I enjoy remerchandising the store, and using my creative side to think out the best layout for the store and stock. Once you have a rapport with a customer going, shopping with them becomes less of a sales task and more a personal shopping experience.

Next Saturday, I'm off to Whistler with Q and his family for a skiing holiday which I'm really looking forward to. Apparently the snow hasn't been great this season but has been improving in recent weeks, so I hope it carries on. Typical, the one year I leave Europe, it has a better snow season than Canada.

This afternoon was one of the most fun I've had for a long time. We all went to a nearby park armed with a frisbee, football, basketball and cameras. The six of us spent the next few hours playing football, 3 on 3 basketball and clambering all over the playground, including a hilarious game called Blind Tag. One person is IT. The others all take up positions on the climbing frame/play area. IT then has to search around with their eyes shut to try and tag someone whilst everyone else climbs around trying to avoid them. Only one rule: your feet must not touch the ground! A few bruises, a broken, bloody nail and six muddy people later, Kev, Nath and I are awaiting dinner to be cooked by Chris, Q and Loic, 11-9 losers in the basketball, the winning hoop shot by yours truly... :-)