Previously on 24...: April 2006

Land of Hope and Glory

This weekend saw the best weather since we've been in Vancouver. On Sunday I actually wore shorts to show off my beautiful legs. With Sunday being so nice we had decided to have a barbecue at Andy and Ian's. Firstly I'd like to thank both of them for the excellent job they did and their great hospiltality.

Sunday was also St George's Day. For those of you who aren't English, St George is the Patron Saint of England much like St Patrick is for Ireland. Nobody in England celebrates St George's day as it's pretty much been hijacked by the BNP (British National Party). They don't really like anyone who isn't white and English.

St George is famous for killing a dragon. He's lucky it wasn't Trog Dor he was fighting or else he might have taken a bit of a beating from one of those beefy arms.

The day involved two barbecues and a visit to Kit's beach. It was almost a perfect day but for me sadly, one thing was lacking.

Anyway, enjoy the next 30 odd pictures and my witty comments that accompany them.

Andy getting the first barbecue going. If you're traumatized by this picture you may want to stop reading now

Come on baby, light my fire

Relaxing in the afternoon

Keenie playing with a piece of rope in the hammock. Finally he had met his intellectual match

Celebrating St George's Day wearing my England shirt, wrapped in an England flag. Staring into the distance and praying to God he never sends me back

"You wanna come to my club". Two naive Englishmen being lured into some seedy club by a gay cowboy

Where'd the cowboy go?

It's silly hat time

Ian about to be dropkicked off the balcony by Simon

Secret hammock cam

I just can't explain this picture, nor would I want to

Ian being spun around in the hammock for about 5 minutes

Ian and Jade cleaning up. It was even messier by the evening

Mountains, sun, what more could you want?

Gav and myself with some heroic poses in the sea

Its a beautiful day. As soon as I wrote that I just heard Des Lynam's voice saying "Tonight on the Premiership"

An amazing view. The mountains, sea and park aren't bad either

Something missing from this picture

The beach was full of people

Simon and Andy fully clothed in the sea

WARNING - The following few pictures could have serious harmful effects on your future health. Turn away now if you suffer from backpains or are pregnant.

Simon and Andy in their boxer shorts. Eugght. They went for a swim in the sea. Being a veteran of the polar bear swim on New Years Day I felt no need to go in again

A long shot, much nicer

Look what crawled out of the ocean

Frisbee on the beach, exciting...

...or not

Glorious

Group shot from the ground

We stopped off for ice cream on the way back. Being the affluent man that I am I forked out for the most expensive one they had to offer. $3.50 this cost me

Ian lighting up the second barbecue in the evening. By this point he'd lost his camera. I feel for you Ian

Now I know I put you though a lot of stress with those pictures of Andy and Simon, so I thought I'd redress the balance with two pictures of what is the second (not first) most beautiful sight in Vancouver.

Strong Bad

For those of you who say I never give you anything, here is the link to see the Strong Bad e-mails. Just copy and paste to see all the classic cartoons. I haven't watched every one of them but if you find one funnier than "Dragon" (which gives birth to the character of Trog Dor) then you are a big fat liar.

http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Strong_Bad_Email

The Homestar Runner Gang

The S is for sucks

Check out all his majesty

Number 11

What would another month be without another new housemate. At the end of this month Aaron will leave Vancouver to go back home for the summer. But who will replace him you may wonder. Well, wonder no more ladies and gentlemen and let me introduce you to no other than Andy Bull's considerably better half, Laura Zuber. As I have had so many housemates in such a short period of time, I can no longer be bothered to keep learning all of their names. I will now refer to them only in number. Laura shall now be known as Number 11.

Andy and Number 11 as seen in New Mexico.

The house welcomes Number 11 as she will bring a female touch currently lacking to the house. Although this may have the drawback of having to see Andy a bit more than I already do.

Only joking Andy. Hahahahaha.

Trog Dor

You may have noticed a new link on the side of my blog. Liz from work introuduced me to this hilarious cartoon which you are now all able to enjoy. Just make sure you have some speakers.

Consumate v's

Double Figures

With all the time updating my blog with Whistler pictures I forgot to mention that I have yet another new housemate. It's goodbye to Kate and hello to Nick. He was born in Russia but has lived in Canada for many years. He also has the honour of being my 10th housemate. That's my 10th different housemate since being in Canada. Stay tuned for my 11th housemate at the end of this month. Who will it be, only time will tell. It's going to be hard remembering all the people I've lived with but in some cases maybe that's a blessing.

The Canonball Run

"My driving is rivaled only by the lightning bolts in heaven" The Sheik (The Canonball Run)

The last installment of my personal photos from Whislter takes us to the tubing and the drive home. After ski-dooing we stopped off for our only healthy meal of the weekend at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Just like in Vancouver they gave you plenty of free bread. We then headed up to the tubing runs where I narrowly missed being hit by a snowboarder.

The tubing itself was fun. You bascially sit in a rubber ring and get shoved off down a slope at a high velocity. One mad Austrian guy who worked there also spun us as we went down and you'd often fly down backwards. Being the pro tuber he is Gav said that the conditions weren't that good for tubing. After the tubing we drove back home stopping off in Squashmish for a Tim Hortons.

Looking out to Whistler village

Insaide the cable car. The tubing excitement is about to reach overload

Bottom of the tubing slope

See the nervous look in Ian's face. He knows it's going to be rough down that slope

Simon looking very relaxed

Ready to go down in style

Simon and Chris proudly display their Sunderland shirts at the top of the tubing run. The first time Sunderland have been on top of anything for a while. Told you I had one Simon, told you I had one

The tubing slopes of doom

The gang getting ready to slide down

There's the car I drove on the left

Tim Horton's all the way

Gone in 60 Seconds

"Man this guy can drive" Det Drycoff (Gone in 60 Seconds)

Well, we finally get to the snow mobiling action. I'm going to start with my personal photographs from this adventure and then later on put up some of the professional ones. The whole thing lasted around 3 hours, 2 hours on the machine and cost $201.54 (That's around 100 of your English Pounds). Basically we got kitted up, receieved a demonstration that scared the hell out of us and then on we went.

Having no experience we decided to choose the intermeidate course and were led by the guide in single file. It was fantastic driving the machines and the only problem I had was remembering to steer as I looked at the spectacular views.

The highlight included a free for all drive on a big open space of snow where we could just race around on our own for about half an hour. There were quite a few bumps as well which allowed you to get a bit of airtime. This was follwed by a much faster drive back where you were going hell for leather down some slopes as fast as you could.

There were a few mishaps however. Hannah managed to drive her ski-doo into a ditch and luckily wasn't hurt. She had to drive back with Ian and even then they tipped over once we got to a soft snow section.

All in all it was well worth the money and I would gladly do it again.