Previously on 24...: February 2006

Housemate Housemate Number 9

Now that I've settled into my new home I thought I'd give everyone a brief review of my housemate situation. Last night I met Shuji, my 9th housemate since I've been in Canada. He has replaced his fellow Japanese countryman Takuma and speaks a lot more English.

House 1 -

I moved in with Tessa and Rachel into a 3 bedroom house. It had no furniture, in fact it had nothing. On the second day there Tess decided she wanted to move to Whistler instead. When Tess and Rachel went on a trip to Vancouver Island a number of hostel stayers spent a few nights here and there at the house. One of these Gareth, decided to stay and became my third housemate. To save on rent we decided to change the dining room into another bedroom and when Tess left Pete became my fourth housemate.

House 2 -

Now when Paul Smith left Gavin's Pete moved in there. After an unsuccessful attempt to get anyone in we all decided to go our sepearte ways. I moved into my new house with my 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th housemates, Kate, Adam, Aaron and Takuma. The house is fully furnished with sofas, beds etc and has 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 2 kitchens. Takuma has now moved out and been replaced by Shuji. My 9th and definitely not last housemate in Canada.

So here's a list of my housemates and nationalities for those of you interested -

1) Rachel - English
2) Tessa - English
3) Gareth - English
4) Pete - English
5) Adam - Canadian
6) Kate - Canadian
7) Aaron - Canadian
8) Takuma - Japanese
9) Shuji - Japanese

Stay tuned for the Paul's Housemates vs Simon's Jobs Competetion. Whoevers had the most by the road trip wins.

One for Ian and Andy

Dear Ian and Andy

Here is evidence that my parents were in Vancouver.

On top of Grouse Mountain

At Chinese Park

Simon's New Job

Simon started yet another job this week, this time handing out the Metro in Downtown Vancouver. The Metro is one of many free newspapers that can be picked up and is in fierce competition with it's biggest rival 24.

After a tough first day where he didn't meet his quota of papers I thought I would stop by today and pick up my paper from him. This meant getting off the bus a bit early but I found him standing outside London Drugs freezing cold and all alone. After a brief chat I asked for my paper and Simon reached into his bag and gave me a big group of them. Thats dedication and hard work for you.

Canada in Mourning

As you read this the country of Canada will now be in mourning. Their men's ice hockey team have been knocked out 2-0 by Russia in the Winter Olympics quarter finals.

Totem Poles, Stanley Park and a Stone

Some more pictures from my week off. My mum wanted to see the totem poles in Stanley Park so we went there. It was also another chance for my mum and dad to get a photo of a blcak squirrel. So after going to the totem poles we walked through Stanley Park in a desperate attempt to find some. Whether they got any decent pictures is another story as soon as you got your cameras ready they ran off.

There is also a picture of a stone with a poem on. It is found near Kits Beach. Ian has one on his blog from ages ago but I've put mine up anyway. Why... because I want to.

The totem poles of Stanley Park

The leaning totem pole of Vancouver

More totem action

Yes, I know I have my eyes closed

North Van from Stanely Park

Stanely Park from Kits beach

The poem on the stone. Click on the picture to get an enlargement

Space... The Final Frontier

Another place I visited with my parents is the Space Centre. It is located next to the Vancouver Museum which Ian and myself had visited just before New Years. The highlight of the experience is a ride in the same vein of the Back to the Future one at Universal Studios. After watching a short sci fi film introduction about getting something from the sun to take to Mars you are taken to the simulator. Here you strap yourself in as the "spaceship" is thrown around as you fly through the sun and then onto Mars in order to complete your mission. It's quite short but good fun.

There are also many games to play in the main section, including landing a spaceship (I crashed every time), planning a mission to Mars (infuriatingly difficult, you spend ages planning your crew, fuel, equipment only to be told you've failed for some stupid reason. These include having a betrayer on board the ship, not having enough equipment and not even taking off because green peace protesters don't like all the nuclear fuel you use to power the ship), scanning your face into a camera and creating your own alien planet and docking with the international space station.

There are also many other things to see and a few shows to visit. These include dangers of space (more of a kids thing) and the planetarium where you lie back and see the stars from a variety of viewpoints across the world.

Here are a few more things I saw.

A space suit. Worn by astronauts in space. Go figure

This is an actual piece of the moon. I have actually touched a piece of the moon. Hahahahahaha

This is part of an asteroid. You have to try and pick it up with one hand, it's quite heavy

Some moon buggy thing

A model of a space station. Hooray

There was a man in this costume. I think he was crying for help

A model of a space ship. As John Fashanu would say "Awooga"

Go Canucks Go

A couple of Sunday's ago I finally made it to the hockey to see the Vancouver Canucks against the Minnesota Wild. Accompanied by Simon, Ellie, Ian, Andrew and some Swedish guy Ellie knows we all excitedly went to see the game. Having watched plenty of Canucks games on the TV (they play 3 or 4 games a week usually) it was a much better experience live.

For a start even though we were in the cheaper seats, we still got a great view. As hockey stadiums aren't as big as football it means that wherever you sit you get a great view. We weren't quite at the back but not far off. Compared to football, ice hockey seems like a more family orientated viewing experience. I only heard one swear word throughout the match and surprisingly it didn't come from Keenie.

It was very stop start as well with line changes happening all the time. The first line changed after 30 seconds of play. People in Canada insist that skating is harder than running but I can't really believe that. They also have a complete lack of chants compared to football. The only one we heard was "Go Canucks Go", which dazzled me with its wit and imagination.

However, it was a hugely enjoyable experience and was very exciting. The Canucks had lost their previous two games and this was the last one before the Olympics break. I'm glad to report the Canucks won 3-2 with an overtime goal by one of the Swedish twins Daniel Sedin, assisted by his brother Henrik.

You also get good value for money with the whole game lasting over 2 and a half hours with breaks between the periods, but saying that it does fly by. As I write this I have been left alone in the office again meaning I'm currently watching the Olympic Ice Hockey on the TV. After a couple of shock defeats in the round robin group stage Canada are now playig Russia in the quarter finals. Current score 0-0.

Here are a few images of the night for all those of you who couldn't make it.

No, I really did go to the hockey even though this picture looks like I've been superimposed onto a fake background. See Ian's blog for another example

A Swedish guy, Ellie, Simon, Myself being strangled by Keenie

The players warming up

The pre game light show

This whale floated around in the intervals dropping tokens for Bryan Adams Cd's into the crowd. Fortunately I didn't get one

A great view of the stadium and action

The Canucks attack in the corner

The aftermath of one of the fights in the game

The Canucks celebrate their victory together

Harbour Centre Tower

The Harbour Centre Tower is probably the best lookout point in downtown. You travel on a lift that is on the outside of the building which shoots you up to the top. Here you can walk around a full 360 degrees looking out to every angle of the city. What else is good is that once you've bought a ticket for the day you can go back as many times as you want. So you can see Vancouver by day and Vancouver by night. Here are a few things I saw.

The Centre Tower as seen from it's internet page

The lifts as seen from the internet site

Looking out over the shore to North and West Vancouver

There's East Vancouver in the distance, a dark and dangerous place. Many go there, few come back

Stanley Park, I've been there a few times but have yet to meet Stanley

That big white thing is where The Ghostbusters shot down the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man. Not really, had you fooled though didn't I. It's actually the BC Place Stadium where the BC Lions play and many other concerts happen

A surreal artisitc picture at night

Chinese Gardens

We set off to Chinatown in order to visit Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Chinese Gardens, only to find it was actually closed for some reason. There is a park next door which we did go to though. It represented another stark contrast in the sights of Vancouver. Whilst the park was peaceful and tranquil, just two blocks down the road a group of tramps/drug addicts/dregs of society hang out. We walked past them as we cut from Gastown to Chinatown. It wasn't actually the infamous Hastings and Main but it can't have been far off.

Anyway, here is what I saw.

It's me in China

Yep, China's lovely at this time of year

I love being in China

Who'd want to be in Vancover when you can be in China

I need you

If you follow a link to the side for Simon's blog you will find a vote for whose blog is the best. Feel free to vote for me and get everyone you know, random strangers, pets etc to do the same. You know it makes sense.

Grouse Mountain

After Capilano Suspension Bridge we took a six minute bus ride and then a further 4 minutes in a cable car and suddenly we were on top of Grouse Mountain. It really shows the contrast of Vancouver that you can be walking through the trees in a rainforest one minute and then only a short time later be wading through the snow on top of a mountain.

A view of downtown from the mountain top

The cable car you ride up and down, which Chris now works on

He's behind you

Quite simply a beautiful shot

Quite simply, even a more beautiful shot

People who came to ski and snowboard

Another great shot of the local scenery. Don't get this in Nottingham do you

There are still many more pictures to see but you'll have to wait another time for those.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

With Sunday being a much nicer day we travelled to North Vancouver and Capilano Suspension Bridge. Basically its a long bridge high off the ground in the forests with some trails to walk around on the other side. Here is what I saw.