Such a British title! But nonetheless quite apt right now. I'm back at the HI hostel in Montreal, and sitting on the couches in the common room waiting for Quentin to wake up so we can check in to our dorms. But I'm in no rush as Wimbledon is on, so I'm watching seeds being knocked out left, right and centre (bye bye Kuznetsova, Jankovic, Davydenko). Incidentally, Wimbledon coverage over here is just not the same with advert breaks every end change - tis most frustrating and just not BBC. And to give a nod to the third W in the title, the weather looks to be chucking it down outside, with some thunder storms in the distance. So not quite the 30 degree sunshine I'd anticipated, but I've missed humid summer days and evening storms and would quite like some good forked lightning if that's the case.
I definitely have that "home-coming" feeling right now, on return to a familiar place. And the mix of French and English is far more prominent over here, and both Quentin and I are enjoying being back in it. We're here to meet up with Becks and Laura who are currently in Toronto and will be making their way over to Montreal this evening! Excitement mounts.
It's especially good not being at work right now. I've been in charge of the store a lot recently, which is good because I tend to work better when left to my own devices. Also, and I recognise this might not be considered "working better", but not having a boss makes following live BBC tennis updates a whole lot easier (when we have no customers for hours what do you expect?!). However, I did discover nine pairs of shoes missing the other day, presumed stolen. Meika has called a staff meeting, which I'm not disappointed I'm missing (it was 9am today).
Our house seems to grow exponentially. On Thursday night we had 18 people sleeping there. A mix of people staying over after a night out, temporary lodger friends and a group of people on a delayed trip to the Island all camped out on our basement floor. We're going to be one more for a month or so with one girl in the friendship circle staying whilst she finds somewhere to live. We're currently at nine. Really, it would be worth our while starting up an official hostel of some sorts and earning money from this. We all really enjoy having a different mix of people around, and the saying "the more the merrier" really does ring true.
A definite highlight of the past few weeks was the Coldplay concert we as a house, plus Q's friend Jeff went to. We had, by some miracle, managed to get hold of tickets for the floor, eight rows from the stage. View was fantastic. The energy and vibe of the whole evening was infectious and the music was, of course, top. Definitely one of the best gigs I've been to :-)
But now, back to waiting. I haven't been sitting around a hostel internetting away the time for a good few months now, and it's quite nice to indulge for a bit. Good grief, have just looked at the Murray match score and Andy has run away with it and is all of a sudden 6-2 and 3-0 up in the second. Last time I looked he was 2-2 in the first. And Roddick is looking rather pensive and glum in a press interview - has he lost?! I can't find an update. Nope, he's through. Goodness knows what he'd be like had he crashed...
Probably best to stop this structureless diatribe, but hope you enjoyed a small insight into a section of my day. Might try and wake the slumbering boy and find our rooms. I feel some fresh air and a shower would be un bon plan right now....will write again soon!
xx
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Summer sun, Vancouver fun
Hello again!
Life was mainly just ticking by for the last couple of months, and with not much new going on, a new entry didn't really seem necessary, or pressing enough. But now a few things have happened and I am making the most of a balmy June evening and sitting down to write, something I have been meaning to do for some time (no, not two months!)
Just to set the scene: it's 11.30pm, and I am surrounded by a silent house (boys are either asleep or down at the beach). It's warm and still, with the lazy atmosphere of a very hot day turning into a calm, warm night that won't get much colder.
So, a brief sum up of life during the last couple of months and a few forays into more interesting events. Housemates have settled into routines of work, and we now see eachother more haphazardly. Evening meals together have died somewhat as many of us work til quite late. Times together are all the more enjoyable. We've had a few more houseparties, with a totally different crowd to the first one, as people have made friends from work places. The neighbours didn't take too kindly to the noise of the very first one, back in March, and had been being very noisy upstairs in retaliation. At the second party, I spent the best part of an hour and a half talking to the wife on our veranda, her trying to calm down her drunken husband, and me trying to fend off equally drunk and equally unhelpful "peacemakers" who were trying to add their thoughts to the situation! It all resolved itself though, and we seem to have developed a cordial, if fairly non-communicative relationship!
Work is going well. I have recently been made Key Holder for the store, a fairly self-explanatory title! I have a key and responsibilities to open/close the store some days, count the cash and run the place on my boss's days off. It's not much more work, but better pay and full time hours, which makes a significant difference to the pay cheque! I get on very well with my colleagues; we've hired a couple of newbies, so I'm no longer the newest, rather someone that people now come to for advice, and the added responsibility has given me a new enthusiasm for the job. I definitely enjoy the small "managing" tasks and times when I'm making the decisions more than actually trying to sell yet another rain jacket. I'm also socialising more with people from work. David, who recently left, and I went climbing last week, I went to a bbq at his and his girlfriend's place, with another guy I work with and his girlfriend on Sunday. I love having my own circle of friends who are completely separate from my house, as quite a lot of the people we hang out with are a shared group and it can all get a little entwined sometimes. Which is why spending time with my friend Caro and the girls she lives with is always so good. Last week, I was round there and we had dinner, made chocolate cake, watched a movie and ate cake! It was much needed!
On the leisure front: Quentin and I took my new tent out for it's first camping trip this week. We went up to Alice Lake park, just north of Squamish, about an hour from Vancouver. We Greyhounded it to Squamish, then walked the 6-ishkm to the park, set up camp and spent the rest of the day hiking, swimming in the lake, soaking up the sun, playing cards and enjoying the BC outdoors with no electronic distractions or housemates. We discovered that the tent is racoon-proof (good) but that for future trips, an animal box for food might be a good idea, because they are persistent little creatures, and much less cute looking once you know that a lot of them carry rabies. We left the knife we suspected one had licked at the campsite... The next day was spent on a hike, more lake swimming and then heading back down to Vancouver in time for a bbq in the garden with home-made burgers by Loic (yum!).
I had a feeling I had more to write but everything else has evaded me. Life is pretty much dominated by trying to spend as much time outside right now, to make the most of the incredible, and highly unusual hot weather. This mainly involves parks and the beach, which is a 15-min bike ride from home. *Big Smile :-)*
The next big things on the horizon are a Coldplay concert in a couple of weeks, and then, more excitingly, a trip over to Montreal to see Becks and Laura who are coming over! I am massively excited about this for several reasons, namely that Montreal is an awesome place and I can't wait to see the lovely girls, whom I miss hugely, and spend a ton of time with them!
Well, that really is about it for now. Detroit Redwings are battling it out against Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup (the Canucks were, alas, knocked out in round two). I read today that Jaqui Smith resigned over reports of dodgy expenses - I have to say, renting out an adult video and claiming it was a new one! UK politics seem as murky and eventful as ever. We're all backing Fedster for the French. I think if he beats the on-form del Potro then that will be a great win and will boost him going into the final. It would also amuse me greatly to see Soderling through too, after the wins against Nadal and Davydenko. Not so fussed about the women's - have they handed over the trophy to giantess Safina?? Go Kusnetsova!
Ok, I've had a paragraph of rambling, so it really is time for bed. Hope you enjoyed reading a bit about Vancouver life. There shouldn't be so much of a wait til the next post, I hope!
xxx
Life was mainly just ticking by for the last couple of months, and with not much new going on, a new entry didn't really seem necessary, or pressing enough. But now a few things have happened and I am making the most of a balmy June evening and sitting down to write, something I have been meaning to do for some time (no, not two months!)
Just to set the scene: it's 11.30pm, and I am surrounded by a silent house (boys are either asleep or down at the beach). It's warm and still, with the lazy atmosphere of a very hot day turning into a calm, warm night that won't get much colder.
So, a brief sum up of life during the last couple of months and a few forays into more interesting events. Housemates have settled into routines of work, and we now see eachother more haphazardly. Evening meals together have died somewhat as many of us work til quite late. Times together are all the more enjoyable. We've had a few more houseparties, with a totally different crowd to the first one, as people have made friends from work places. The neighbours didn't take too kindly to the noise of the very first one, back in March, and had been being very noisy upstairs in retaliation. At the second party, I spent the best part of an hour and a half talking to the wife on our veranda, her trying to calm down her drunken husband, and me trying to fend off equally drunk and equally unhelpful "peacemakers" who were trying to add their thoughts to the situation! It all resolved itself though, and we seem to have developed a cordial, if fairly non-communicative relationship!
Work is going well. I have recently been made Key Holder for the store, a fairly self-explanatory title! I have a key and responsibilities to open/close the store some days, count the cash and run the place on my boss's days off. It's not much more work, but better pay and full time hours, which makes a significant difference to the pay cheque! I get on very well with my colleagues; we've hired a couple of newbies, so I'm no longer the newest, rather someone that people now come to for advice, and the added responsibility has given me a new enthusiasm for the job. I definitely enjoy the small "managing" tasks and times when I'm making the decisions more than actually trying to sell yet another rain jacket. I'm also socialising more with people from work. David, who recently left, and I went climbing last week, I went to a bbq at his and his girlfriend's place, with another guy I work with and his girlfriend on Sunday. I love having my own circle of friends who are completely separate from my house, as quite a lot of the people we hang out with are a shared group and it can all get a little entwined sometimes. Which is why spending time with my friend Caro and the girls she lives with is always so good. Last week, I was round there and we had dinner, made chocolate cake, watched a movie and ate cake! It was much needed!
On the leisure front: Quentin and I took my new tent out for it's first camping trip this week. We went up to Alice Lake park, just north of Squamish, about an hour from Vancouver. We Greyhounded it to Squamish, then walked the 6-ishkm to the park, set up camp and spent the rest of the day hiking, swimming in the lake, soaking up the sun, playing cards and enjoying the BC outdoors with no electronic distractions or housemates. We discovered that the tent is racoon-proof (good) but that for future trips, an animal box for food might be a good idea, because they are persistent little creatures, and much less cute looking once you know that a lot of them carry rabies. We left the knife we suspected one had licked at the campsite... The next day was spent on a hike, more lake swimming and then heading back down to Vancouver in time for a bbq in the garden with home-made burgers by Loic (yum!).
I had a feeling I had more to write but everything else has evaded me. Life is pretty much dominated by trying to spend as much time outside right now, to make the most of the incredible, and highly unusual hot weather. This mainly involves parks and the beach, which is a 15-min bike ride from home. *Big Smile :-)*
The next big things on the horizon are a Coldplay concert in a couple of weeks, and then, more excitingly, a trip over to Montreal to see Becks and Laura who are coming over! I am massively excited about this for several reasons, namely that Montreal is an awesome place and I can't wait to see the lovely girls, whom I miss hugely, and spend a ton of time with them!
Well, that really is about it for now. Detroit Redwings are battling it out against Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup (the Canucks were, alas, knocked out in round two). I read today that Jaqui Smith resigned over reports of dodgy expenses - I have to say, renting out an adult video and claiming it was a new one! UK politics seem as murky and eventful as ever. We're all backing Fedster for the French. I think if he beats the on-form del Potro then that will be a great win and will boost him going into the final. It would also amuse me greatly to see Soderling through too, after the wins against Nadal and Davydenko. Not so fussed about the women's - have they handed over the trophy to giantess Safina?? Go Kusnetsova!
Ok, I've had a paragraph of rambling, so it really is time for bed. Hope you enjoyed reading a bit about Vancouver life. There shouldn't be so much of a wait til the next post, I hope!
xxx
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Easter greetings
Happy Easter, everyone!
Today I've been thinking quite a lot about public holidays and festivals, and what people do with what time off is given to them. The motley crew of us in the house have all been scattered today. Kev, Loic and Nathen have all been (or are about to be) at work. Chris, Tess and Kev's friend Kai (staying with us for a bit) have been recovering from last night's venture to a downtown club; I went to a church service this morning and spent this afternoon vegging and talking to my family on Skype; Quentin is off at a card tournament. Not hugely different from a normal weekend day and quite a different scene from large family gatherings I associate with public holidays and long weekends. Which makes small touches, like the mini egg hunt organised by my boss at work yesterday afternoon, so valuable. She sent us all out of the store for 10 minutes and we spent the rest of the afternoon happily searching for chocolate and occasionally remembering to serve any customers who had the thoughtlessness to wander in and disrupt us.
There has been a distinct lack of chocolate in the house. Up until today when I went and cleaned out the remainder of Safeway's mini egg sachets, and found a couple of chocolate bunnies as well, all we'd managed was an over-sized bag of mini eggs on Friday evening. (I'll put one of my many "life questions" out here: why does chocolate almost always taste better in egg format? Especially mini eggs.) I've also only had about two hot cross buns so far whereas I think that in the first three months of last year, they made up about 70% of my diet. Oh, Sainsbury's 2 packs for 99p offer - how I missed you. Although they're probably at around £2.50 this year.
Another thing that's lacked significantly in our household is any feeling of long weekend holiday. Being on the lower echelons of the employment sector, we're all experiencing working over the bank holiday duties. Something I've had the luxury of not really ever having to do. It's really driven home the fact that really, there isn't much time anymore that's ever completely off. Something is always open. Of course you appreciate this when you can conveniently go get milk on Christmas morning for the bread sauce, but you never really realise what it feels like until you're on the other side of the counter. At my work today, for example, I don't think working hours were any different than normal. And I think it's a bit of a shame. I'm not saying this from any religious standpoint, merely that there doesn't seem to be any opportunity for a dedicated, guaranteed time that everyone has off, which can be spent with loved ones, on holiday, or with a random collection of people that for now is your precious little nucleus of a family. And what was normally a major event (yesss two free days off work, a break from the city, home cooking for four days!) can quite as easily pass by in a drift of card games, afternoon movies and wondering what to cook. Not that I'm unhappy to be here, though. It still feels like a special day in some happy, mysterious way.
Aside from my little musing about time off and being a public holiday orphan, life continues here as normal. Was a bit of a shock to the system to get back from Whistler this week. The rest of the holiday continued to be just as fantastic as the beginning. More adventurous runs including double black bowls full of lovely deep powder and moguls late in the afternoon when we had pretty much the entire mountain to ourselves. It was great to spend time in a family environment, something which I haven't really done much of lately. To add to this, we were joined by Martin family friends from Devon which made for larger groups skiing, and enjoyable dinners every other evening. We also did a day of boarding which was fun. For me it pretty much consisted of going up and down the slopes to make a fairly easy day. What was fun though, was watching Patrick, Q's dad, learn to board and enjoy it so much so that he declared in the evening that (at the age of 60-something) he was from now on converting to snowboarding for good! Georgia and Dave (sister and boyfriend) are also fab and really good company.
Spring is almost here...cherry blossoms are appearing all over the place and we've had some lovely sunny days where we went and played tennis in the park (house outings to parks and sports grounds are becoming fairly common). I've got some spring clothes to start buying (holes have rendered jeans useless and trainers a bad idea when it's wet, which is a good proportion of the time).
Apart from working, not much else planned on the horizon. Maybe a trip to Vancouver Island at some point. These are definitely the settle and work months, during which I can look forward to upcoming visits from family and very dear friends: Becks and Laura at the beginning of July, my brother Dave in August, parents end Aug - start September and Alana in October/November. For now though, I will leave you once again with happy thoughts for the Easter weekend, and hope that you have some chocolate left for tomorrow, and that you all enjoy the bank holiday!
xxx
Today I've been thinking quite a lot about public holidays and festivals, and what people do with what time off is given to them. The motley crew of us in the house have all been scattered today. Kev, Loic and Nathen have all been (or are about to be) at work. Chris, Tess and Kev's friend Kai (staying with us for a bit) have been recovering from last night's venture to a downtown club; I went to a church service this morning and spent this afternoon vegging and talking to my family on Skype; Quentin is off at a card tournament. Not hugely different from a normal weekend day and quite a different scene from large family gatherings I associate with public holidays and long weekends. Which makes small touches, like the mini egg hunt organised by my boss at work yesterday afternoon, so valuable. She sent us all out of the store for 10 minutes and we spent the rest of the afternoon happily searching for chocolate and occasionally remembering to serve any customers who had the thoughtlessness to wander in and disrupt us.
There has been a distinct lack of chocolate in the house. Up until today when I went and cleaned out the remainder of Safeway's mini egg sachets, and found a couple of chocolate bunnies as well, all we'd managed was an over-sized bag of mini eggs on Friday evening. (I'll put one of my many "life questions" out here: why does chocolate almost always taste better in egg format? Especially mini eggs.) I've also only had about two hot cross buns so far whereas I think that in the first three months of last year, they made up about 70% of my diet. Oh, Sainsbury's 2 packs for 99p offer - how I missed you. Although they're probably at around £2.50 this year.
Another thing that's lacked significantly in our household is any feeling of long weekend holiday. Being on the lower echelons of the employment sector, we're all experiencing working over the bank holiday duties. Something I've had the luxury of not really ever having to do. It's really driven home the fact that really, there isn't much time anymore that's ever completely off. Something is always open. Of course you appreciate this when you can conveniently go get milk on Christmas morning for the bread sauce, but you never really realise what it feels like until you're on the other side of the counter. At my work today, for example, I don't think working hours were any different than normal. And I think it's a bit of a shame. I'm not saying this from any religious standpoint, merely that there doesn't seem to be any opportunity for a dedicated, guaranteed time that everyone has off, which can be spent with loved ones, on holiday, or with a random collection of people that for now is your precious little nucleus of a family. And what was normally a major event (yesss two free days off work, a break from the city, home cooking for four days!) can quite as easily pass by in a drift of card games, afternoon movies and wondering what to cook. Not that I'm unhappy to be here, though. It still feels like a special day in some happy, mysterious way.
Aside from my little musing about time off and being a public holiday orphan, life continues here as normal. Was a bit of a shock to the system to get back from Whistler this week. The rest of the holiday continued to be just as fantastic as the beginning. More adventurous runs including double black bowls full of lovely deep powder and moguls late in the afternoon when we had pretty much the entire mountain to ourselves. It was great to spend time in a family environment, something which I haven't really done much of lately. To add to this, we were joined by Martin family friends from Devon which made for larger groups skiing, and enjoyable dinners every other evening. We also did a day of boarding which was fun. For me it pretty much consisted of going up and down the slopes to make a fairly easy day. What was fun though, was watching Patrick, Q's dad, learn to board and enjoy it so much so that he declared in the evening that (at the age of 60-something) he was from now on converting to snowboarding for good! Georgia and Dave (sister and boyfriend) are also fab and really good company.
Spring is almost here...cherry blossoms are appearing all over the place and we've had some lovely sunny days where we went and played tennis in the park (house outings to parks and sports grounds are becoming fairly common). I've got some spring clothes to start buying (holes have rendered jeans useless and trainers a bad idea when it's wet, which is a good proportion of the time).
Apart from working, not much else planned on the horizon. Maybe a trip to Vancouver Island at some point. These are definitely the settle and work months, during which I can look forward to upcoming visits from family and very dear friends: Becks and Laura at the beginning of July, my brother Dave in August, parents end Aug - start September and Alana in October/November. For now though, I will leave you once again with happy thoughts for the Easter weekend, and hope that you have some chocolate left for tomorrow, and that you all enjoy the bank holiday!
xxx
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Snow babe
Seymour is dead. Long live Whistler mountain.
That's right, folks, Mt Seymours, Grouse and Cypress have nothing on this place. On our 3rd day in, we've been particularly lucky with the snow. Sunday was gloriously sunny, yesterday had bad visibility, but the snowfall all day held promises of better skiing today. And so it was. Fresh, deep powder all the way :-) A particularly good run was Cockarlorum (not sure of spelling on that, and no piste map to hand to check, so we'll go with phonetics for now), in the West Bowl, which you access by a drop in, right down onto deep snow and then deep, soft snow all the way.... Q and I have also been doing a lot of moguls, off piste runs and tree runs, and skiing pretty much top speed down the blues and greens. He's been great at teaching me how to better tackle the moguls and tree runs, and (bless him) putting up with my mini temper flares that I'm prone to when I feel I'm not doing something the best way I could. But by the end of the day something had definitely clicked and I'm doing them way better than I was on Sunday. At least my legs seem to be holding up better - I need fewer breaks mid run ;-)
Had a few wipe outs today as well! A particularly good one was in the West Bowl before I'd quite got my balance for quite such deep snow, and didn't come out of a turn well enough. However, the best one was on a fairly easy, long blue (wait, it does get better..). Q was ahead of me just at where the piste went over a lip to a steeper section and suggested I go for the jump. So I did. What he'd neglected to notice was that where I would land was a patch of ice followed immediately by a big mogul. I went onto the ice, got control but failed to spot the mogul. My skis stopped there and I carried on, tumbling down the slope a few metres. No broken bones or bruises though, and once I'd scraped as much snow out of my ear, jacket and hat as possible, we carried on down to the bottom.
We're staying in a lovely hotel right in the centre of Whistler village, about a 10min walk from the main lifts. The lifts all shut at 4pm (Whistler 0 Mt Seymour, Grouse and Cypress 1) here so there's quite a lot of time in the afternoon for other activities. So far this has involved pool and hot tub and I'm eager to investigate the end of season sales due to only having one glove left. I impressively left one glove on the first gondola we went up on Sunday. That's right, even before I'd put my skis on...I'm managing so far with an under-glove lent to me by Georgia (Q's sister) but tumbles into deep snow are better with water proof gloves.
Time to put this baby away now, but we've got another six days here so there may well be another blog entry from here before we leave.
That's right, folks, Mt Seymours, Grouse and Cypress have nothing on this place. On our 3rd day in, we've been particularly lucky with the snow. Sunday was gloriously sunny, yesterday had bad visibility, but the snowfall all day held promises of better skiing today. And so it was. Fresh, deep powder all the way :-) A particularly good run was Cockarlorum (not sure of spelling on that, and no piste map to hand to check, so we'll go with phonetics for now), in the West Bowl, which you access by a drop in, right down onto deep snow and then deep, soft snow all the way.... Q and I have also been doing a lot of moguls, off piste runs and tree runs, and skiing pretty much top speed down the blues and greens. He's been great at teaching me how to better tackle the moguls and tree runs, and (bless him) putting up with my mini temper flares that I'm prone to when I feel I'm not doing something the best way I could. But by the end of the day something had definitely clicked and I'm doing them way better than I was on Sunday. At least my legs seem to be holding up better - I need fewer breaks mid run ;-)
Had a few wipe outs today as well! A particularly good one was in the West Bowl before I'd quite got my balance for quite such deep snow, and didn't come out of a turn well enough. However, the best one was on a fairly easy, long blue (wait, it does get better..). Q was ahead of me just at where the piste went over a lip to a steeper section and suggested I go for the jump. So I did. What he'd neglected to notice was that where I would land was a patch of ice followed immediately by a big mogul. I went onto the ice, got control but failed to spot the mogul. My skis stopped there and I carried on, tumbling down the slope a few metres. No broken bones or bruises though, and once I'd scraped as much snow out of my ear, jacket and hat as possible, we carried on down to the bottom.
We're staying in a lovely hotel right in the centre of Whistler village, about a 10min walk from the main lifts. The lifts all shut at 4pm (Whistler 0 Mt Seymour, Grouse and Cypress 1) here so there's quite a lot of time in the afternoon for other activities. So far this has involved pool and hot tub and I'm eager to investigate the end of season sales due to only having one glove left. I impressively left one glove on the first gondola we went up on Sunday. That's right, even before I'd put my skis on...I'm managing so far with an under-glove lent to me by Georgia (Q's sister) but tumbles into deep snow are better with water proof gloves.
Time to put this baby away now, but we've got another six days here so there may well be another blog entry from here before we leave.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
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... :-)
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... :-)
Friday, 6 March 2009
Life with Domestic Gods and Goddess
Six days in and the house has really become home for us all. It's great to have a place of our own, our own rooms, a kitchen we don't share with 100 others and our own space. We have lovely neighbours who have been really helpful, and have given us all the numbers we need to get water/gas/cable set up so we don't lose power in about a week. Generally, we all feel massively lucky with this place - loads of space, the veranda is great and we can leave the front door open to let the outside in and make it feel even more roomy, and a lovely quiet, safe location that's minutes from shops, buses and easy access to downtown.
Buying food seems to be an almost daily occurence though! I have new found sympathy for my parents when they have a full house of five adults to feed on the rare occasions we're all home. But we've got a loosely everyone buys and everyone eats system, and we all pitch in with cooking. Loic is especially good in the kitchen, having whipped up iles flottantes with home-made caramel and creme anglaise this afternoon!
We also seem to be a very handy household - fixing things, moving furniture to more useful places, painting, making the most of space, it's all good.
Life is settling. We're starting work, last night we saw some friends from the hostel, and I've already met up with Caro, a friend who was in Toronto and has arrived here til the summer. We're also planning our first party, a joint celebration for Loic and Sophie's birthdays (Sophie is a friend from the hostel), St Patrick's day (for the Irish contingent!) and our housewarming! Also it's the day Q arrives, so we can throw a welcome to Canada element in there too.
On the job front, I had a day's training at ECO Outdoor sports yesterday. It was very thorough, a little tiring, but I was impressed overall. It feels like a really friendly, cool company to work for. Am slightly daunted by the pressure of sales targets but I'm sure it will be OK and easier than I think it is.
Well, I'm going to head indoors as my fingers are starting to freeze up and off to the cinema in a bit with Sophie to see Slumdog Millionaire. Check out Facebook for those of you who are on it for photos and video tour of the house! And we've got tons of room, so visitors welcome any time!
Bye for now xxx
Buying food seems to be an almost daily occurence though! I have new found sympathy for my parents when they have a full house of five adults to feed on the rare occasions we're all home. But we've got a loosely everyone buys and everyone eats system, and we all pitch in with cooking. Loic is especially good in the kitchen, having whipped up iles flottantes with home-made caramel and creme anglaise this afternoon!
We also seem to be a very handy household - fixing things, moving furniture to more useful places, painting, making the most of space, it's all good.
Life is settling. We're starting work, last night we saw some friends from the hostel, and I've already met up with Caro, a friend who was in Toronto and has arrived here til the summer. We're also planning our first party, a joint celebration for Loic and Sophie's birthdays (Sophie is a friend from the hostel), St Patrick's day (for the Irish contingent!) and our housewarming! Also it's the day Q arrives, so we can throw a welcome to Canada element in there too.
On the job front, I had a day's training at ECO Outdoor sports yesterday. It was very thorough, a little tiring, but I was impressed overall. It feels like a really friendly, cool company to work for. Am slightly daunted by the pressure of sales targets but I'm sure it will be OK and easier than I think it is.
Well, I'm going to head indoors as my fingers are starting to freeze up and off to the cinema in a bit with Sophie to see Slumdog Millionaire. Check out Facebook for those of you who are on it for photos and video tour of the house! And we've got tons of room, so visitors welcome any time!
Bye for now xxx
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Settling in
Well here we are. This is coming to you not, as I feared, from a Starbucks or equivalent, but balanced precariously on the window sill of our living room, as it's the only place that picks up wireless networks in our home. So saving on overpriced coffee, but slightly awkward to write and it does cut out from time to time. We also have it on the veranda, which makes for a very modern twist on the notion of sitting outside enjoying the balmy afternoons and evenings.
However! We almost didn't make it! In the kitchen on Sunday ready to hand over the first month's rent, Chris made an innocent comment about the fridge not being clean as promised, which unfortunately awoke the schizophrenic beast within our mousy-looking landlady. She turned round, said "you know what, I'm not going to rent to you anymore" and proceeded, despite many attempts to calm her down, to lay into us for a good ten minutes. It was utterly bizarre, and not a little frightening! Not least because of the prospect of being back to square one. But the torrent ran its course, we paid the money and we got sweet Charlotte back, who then chatted on about how busy she was, her boyfriend, how women are great, and wished us a happy stay in the area. It does mean, though, that all problems to do with the house will have to be fixed by our own initiative because we never. want. to. see. her. again.
We've done a good job furnishing it for very little cost. On Sunday, Nathen and I drove around in a van we hired, whilst Chris stayed on internet duty ringing people who were advertising free/cheap things and then directing us to pick them up. A fun, tiring, long day, finished off by a late trip to Ikea which saw us get very lost (the map was in three bits by then, with middle section mysteriously vanished) only to find it, take the wrong exit and sail down the freeway headed to Seattle. By the time we made it back it was, of course, shut. We returned home to find Kevin back from work, locked out, sitting on the veranda using free internet. First evening was weird Chinese frozen take-out, followed by all camping down on the sofa and two mattresses in the living room under coats, thermals, towels because our bedding was still at Ikea....
But now, it's massively different. House is clean, furniture is set, beds arrived, rooms set up and unpacked and it really looks like a home! It's really, really lovely. We've got a ton of space so visitors welcome! Plus I have the best room in the house (advantage one of being the one girl in five!).
I've also got myself a job! Had an interview at an Eco store on Broadway - the main shopping street near us - and I have a training day on Thursday and then three shifts next week, with the possibility of more. Hurray!! I was sorely tempted to go and spend all the money I have yet to make on a new ski jacket - saw some beauties this morning but I resisted temptation. For now.
Also enjoying the pot of Marmite that Q brought out for me (thanks!). Kev said a few days ago that he didn't mind it (which I seriously doubted) so gave him some to try this morning. He clearly hadn't had it before, as his verdict? The devil's toothpaste.
However! We almost didn't make it! In the kitchen on Sunday ready to hand over the first month's rent, Chris made an innocent comment about the fridge not being clean as promised, which unfortunately awoke the schizophrenic beast within our mousy-looking landlady. She turned round, said "you know what, I'm not going to rent to you anymore" and proceeded, despite many attempts to calm her down, to lay into us for a good ten minutes. It was utterly bizarre, and not a little frightening! Not least because of the prospect of being back to square one. But the torrent ran its course, we paid the money and we got sweet Charlotte back, who then chatted on about how busy she was, her boyfriend, how women are great, and wished us a happy stay in the area. It does mean, though, that all problems to do with the house will have to be fixed by our own initiative because we never. want. to. see. her. again.
We've done a good job furnishing it for very little cost. On Sunday, Nathen and I drove around in a van we hired, whilst Chris stayed on internet duty ringing people who were advertising free/cheap things and then directing us to pick them up. A fun, tiring, long day, finished off by a late trip to Ikea which saw us get very lost (the map was in three bits by then, with middle section mysteriously vanished) only to find it, take the wrong exit and sail down the freeway headed to Seattle. By the time we made it back it was, of course, shut. We returned home to find Kevin back from work, locked out, sitting on the veranda using free internet. First evening was weird Chinese frozen take-out, followed by all camping down on the sofa and two mattresses in the living room under coats, thermals, towels because our bedding was still at Ikea....
But now, it's massively different. House is clean, furniture is set, beds arrived, rooms set up and unpacked and it really looks like a home! It's really, really lovely. We've got a ton of space so visitors welcome! Plus I have the best room in the house (advantage one of being the one girl in five!).
I've also got myself a job! Had an interview at an Eco store on Broadway - the main shopping street near us - and I have a training day on Thursday and then three shifts next week, with the possibility of more. Hurray!! I was sorely tempted to go and spend all the money I have yet to make on a new ski jacket - saw some beauties this morning but I resisted temptation. For now.
Also enjoying the pot of Marmite that Q brought out for me (thanks!). Kev said a few days ago that he didn't mind it (which I seriously doubted) so gave him some to try this morning. He clearly hadn't had it before, as his verdict? The devil's toothpaste.
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