Do I Still Have It?

After two unsucessful weeks in attempting to get to the 5-A-Side football (or soccer as they call it over here) I got there extra early this week and was ready to play. Usually they only let 20 people play but due to there being nobody at the reception there was about 25 this week.

More than half the people there were British and most of these were fellow Bunacers from my flight. Making up the group were a few Canadians and a couple of Germans. Football is so highly regarded in Canada that we even have to play with ice hockey goals which are very small and cut down on goal scoring chances.

Having been put in a team with Simon, Andy, Andrew, Chris and Gavin it was the moment of truth. Could I still play football after almost 4 months without kicking a ball. Both goals in an opening 2-1 victory, and the winner in the second proved I still had some ability although I was almost dying after the first game. A further two goals followed in the evening plus an awesome display in goal to keep a clean sheet, meant I had a fairly successful night of play.

It would have been even better if Keenie had managed to convert some of my passes with open goals galore at his mercy.


Ronnie Rosenthal can finally relax as his miss is no longer the worst in football history


Other than football I went to two birthday outings at the weekend. Firstly to the Steamworks for a meal and then to Malones on Saturday for Australian Jade's 21st and then to The Buffalo Club for Gareth's birthday on Sunday. The highlight of this being Gareth going onto the stage for a drinking game and then collapsing before being ushered away as he'd already had a lot to drink.

All being well I should be going to the comedy club tonight and then attentions turn to moving house next week.

We've also started planning a road trip which will take us to the other side of Canada through America in September. Here is an early draft of the route as borrowed off Simon's blog.

Day 1. Vancouver, BC to Banff, AB
Highway 1 - 550miles

Day 2. Banff, AB to Calgary, AB to Glacier National Park, MT
Highways 2 and 5 - 200miles

Day 3. Glacier National Park, MT to Bozeman, MT
Highways 89, 15, 90 - 350miles

Day 4. Bozeman, MT to Yellowstone National Park, MT
Highway 89 - 80 miles

Day 5. Yellowstone National Park, MT to Mount Rushmore, SD
Highway 212 - 450 miles

Day 6. Mount Rushmore, SD to Sioux Falls, SD
Highway 90 - 330 miles

Day 7. Sioux Falls, SD to Des Moines, IA
Highways 29 and 80 - 300 miles

Day 8. Des Moines, IA to Iowa City, IA
Highway 80 - 114 miles

Day 9. Iowa City, IA to Chicago, IL
Highway 88 - 210 Miles

Day 10. Chicago, IL

Day 11. Chicago, IL to Indianapolis, IN
Highway 65 - 180 miles

Day 12. Indianapolis, IN to Fort Wayne, IN
Highway 69 - 128 miles

Day 13. Fort Wayne, IN to Cleveland, OH
Highways 24 and 80 - 250 miles

Day 14. Cleveland, OH to Niagra Falls, NY
Highway 90 - 250 miles

Day 15. Niagra falls, NY to Albany, NY
Highway 90 - 300 miles

Day 16. Albany, NY to Boston, MA
Highway 90 - 180 miles

Day 17. Boston, MA to Cape Cod, MA
Highway 6 - 70 miles

Day 18. Cape Cod, MA to Montreal, QU
Highways 6, 93, 91 - 250 miles

Day 19. Montreal, QU

Day 20. Montreal, QU to Ottawa, QU
Highway 417 - 120 miles

Day 21. Ottowa, QU to Toronto, ON
Highway 201 - 230 miles

Day 22. Toronto, ON

Day 23. Toronto, ON to New York, NY
BUS $50

Day 24. New York, NY

Day 25. New York, NY

Day 26. New York, NY to Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC
FLIGHT $150, BUS $40

Total cost including spending money, accomodation, rental, flights and car should be about $2,500 Canadian.

Don't panic, I have a new home

After little searching and only one viewing I have found a new home. And its about a ten minute walk from where I'm living at the minute. It turns out I'm just a hometown Kerrisdale boy who can't bear to leave the area. It should be fun as I've not actually met any of my new housemates as of yet and there will be four of them. I will be living in the above ground basement section with another guy who's moving in the same day as me and there are 3 other people living upstairs, 2 guys and a girl I beleive. 2 of them may be students at UBC.

Anyway its a big house with plenty of space, quite cheap and it actually has a sofa and beds and furniture. It even has quite a nice balcony for the summer off the living room. I even noticed a Playstation 2 next to the television. Hello Pro Evoloution Soccer 5.

The cable has gone

I came home from work last Friday, put the tv on and to my surprise nothing came on. Whats going on I thought. Not only did we have none of the cable channels but the free to air channels were conspicuous by their absence as well. Apparantly the cable guy came around looking for one of the previous tennants. Answering the door Rachel said that this person no longer lived here. The cable guy said do you still want cable. Rachel said no. Now normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem (I'm moving house at the start of February - stay tuned to find out which street and I really mean the actual street if I can't find a house soon I will be living at), but this weekend saw the start of the new seaons of Battlestar Galactica and 24. Now I may have to fork out for the first half of Battlestar on DVD and watch the second half on TV what was I going to do about 24. You see they were having a four episodes in two nights extravaganza to start the season and its a programme I'm going to have to watch at work so I wanted to watch it before I had to do this.

At work I usually just scan quickly through most programmes meaning it would ruin the viewing experience of not really knowing what was going on and finding out things that happen out of context. Readers of my previous posts would remember my trusty 5 inch black and white TV that yet again came to the rescue. Whilst not allowing for the same viewing experience as a larger TV with colour it did its job and allowed me to watch not 1 but 2 episodes of the Jack Bauer Power Hour.

This may not sound like what I've come to Canada for but I'd had two late nights on Friday and Saturday and wanted a relaxing night in.



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New Year and the Polar Bear Swim

So, how did I celebrate the start of a new year in another country. Well on New Years Eve's Eve if that makes any sense we all got together and decided where we were going to go. The following afternoon armed with two different locations both myself and Ian set off into downtown and tried to get some tickets. To our shocking surprise both places had sold out. Shouldn't have left it so late really. After panicking we tried out a bar we've been to a few times before known as Malones. To our relief they had tickets and we bought enough for everyone.

We met at 9pm and had an enjoyable evening. They had a good band playing who we had seen there before and they eventually chucked us out at 2.30am (even though said on the tickets it closed at 4am). Gavin informed us though that ther people living above him pretty much have a party every night of the week so myself, Gavin, Gaz and Andrew set off for Gavin's. Gavin almost didn't make it when after bumping into a guy was suddenly surrounded by about 10 of his mates all pushing him for no reason. We managed to drag him away and got back to his basement dwelling via 2 incredibly packed night buses. It may come as a shock to you back home but you can catch buses till about 3am every day of the week. And on New Years Eve they were free which didn't make much difference to me as I have a bus pass but it was a nice gesture.

Having finally got back to Gavin's we found out that there was in fact no party going on upstairs, although it was about 4am in the morning. We spent the next hour and a half sitting around as Gavin entertained us with his new ipod and his Rolf Harris music collection he has stored on there.

Keenie is instantly entertained as Gavin puts on Rolf's cover of "I can't get no satisfaction"

At about 5.30am me and Gaz decided to set off back home and managed to flag down a taxi. To our surprise, the usually quiet Kerrisdale had been disrupted when the front window in the coffee shop around the corner had been smashed to peices. In the paper the next day I discovered it was part of a police chase where a driver had been ramming into things during his flee. He evntually crashed into a lampost and was arrested. So I finally got to bed around 6am but no, I wasn't going to have a long lie in, the Polar Bear Swim awaited me in only a few short hours.

The Polar Bear Swim is an annual event in Vancouver at English Bay. It started in the early 1900's and involves lots of crazy people running into the sea in freezing cold temperatures. So I met Ian and Andy around 1pm, the weather seemed nice and we thought it should be alright. In the next hour and a half before it was due to start the wind picked up and it started to rain. Also no one else who said they were coming had made it down yet, meaning there was no on to leave our stuff with.

The crowds begin to gather as the clock counts down to the 2006 Polar Bear Swim

Eventually Andy's girlfreind along with her mum and brother arrived meaning we could get changed and prepare for the event. At this point Chris was running down Davie Street in an attempt to get there.


Me, Ian and Andy before the swim. Yes it was freezing

So, now in our swimming gear we fought our way through the crowds and finally made it to the rundown into the sea. To our surprise people were already coming back out so as we got closer a gap opened up and we ran into the sea. Now to get the badge for taking part you have to be completely wet from head to toe. So after diving in I submerged myself in the water and resurfaced to see Ian legging it back out as fast as his legs could carry him. We then went to collect our badges which you can see proudly displayed in the next picture.

A badge, it made it all worth it

It was a gret experience over all. Over 1500 people took part and many more slightly saner people were watching from the sideline. I might not have been able to stop shivering but it was a once in a lifetime experience that we shall never forget. We then met up with Chris (who had managed to do it as well), Debs, Andrew and Gavin and went to get some fish n chips from a nearby restaurant. After going home to have a shower I then raced back out to the cinema and had a relaxing evening watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Other things I have done recently include going ice skating for the first time. It turns out we have an ice rink about 20 seconds from our house. And then I beat everyone at 5 pin bowling. After making a slow start I soon picked it up and managed to fly past Keenie in a breathtaking finish. The natural order of the world was resumed and everyone went home happy.

I also went to to the Vancouver museum with Ian where we saw this gret car in the 50's section.

If only there was a way to sneak it out without anyone noticing

Just one wish for Christmas - A working oven

Well Christmas came and went with a flash but it had its moments of drama. Here's a quick rundown of what happened.

The oven at Chris and Debs broke on Christmas day. Managed to eventually get into next doors house (through legal means) and use their oven. The meal was very nice.

Spent afternoon playing a variety of games including Streetfighter 2, Ghouls and Ghosts, Darts and in the evening Pictionary. This game lasted hours and me Chris, Debs and Simon only lost through the others continuous cheating.

Opened Secret Santas from everyone. Keenie bought me lots of toys from his shop as he thinks I do no work when I am at work. (I'm writing this at work so he has a point).

Spent rest of night watching TV, including Queens speech at 11pm. All in all a good day.


What I came to Canada for, playing Street Fighter 2 on Christmas Day. Can you bleive I paid 60pounds for this game when it first came out on the Megadrive.


The Bunac gang on Christmas Day


Me opening my secret Santa from Keenie. For once he actually did something useful