Well I’m now well and truly settled back in Vancouver with a place to live and a job. In typical style for me, my job sees a return to Davis, the firm I worked for before leaving here last year. I really enjoyed my time at Davis last year, so it is nice to back amongst friendly faces. As an added bonus, I get a small pay rise and for the first time in two years I get paid holidays, medical cover plus a few other niceties! Also my contract is to July 2010 so there’s no need to worry about [View Full Entry]

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Well I’m almost about to take my flight back to Vancouver (via Seattle - always on the hunt for the cheapest flight options!). I’ve had an amazing four months since leaving Vancouver but I’m super excited about my return, the chance to return to a more relaxed lifestyle (travelling will become few and far apart) and the prospects of a Vancouver summer. Upon my return to London from Paris, I had a hectic Easter Sunday making a return to the stunning Natural History Museum to catch the Charles Darwin exhibition to celebrate what would have been his 250th birthday. The ex [View Full Entry]

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Happy Easter everyone. Trust you all enjoyed your time off work or study. Well, I’m now unemployed! At the start of April I said farewell (again!) to the Horwich Farrelly gang. We did have one last night of fun, my leaving drinks was a riot with some nice beers and tasty cocktails followed by lots of dancing - wicked times! The next day I made the most of my last day in Manchester by, finally!, visiting the Central Library (very beautiful inside) and then the John Rylands Library which is stunning outside and even more so inside. That night I went [View Full Entry]

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March - four weekends and four trips … hey, something sounds familiar there … Keeping with tradition, I spent my weekends *in* Manchester, mostly not actually in Manchester! Biggest excitement of the month was my first flight since the start of January with a three day trip to Finland’s capital of Helsinki. Main attraction for me was a concert by Antony and the Johnsons, an amazing band (well singer) who I have obsessed over for a few years now. The concert was truly amazing and Helsinki itself was definitely worth the visit - very similar to Oslo, lots of lovely [View Full Entry]

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and believe it or not, this was meant to be a quiet month … First up was a trip up to Glasgow to catch up with friends Anthony and Iain. I’d been planning to visit Glasgow for a long time now, but sadly never got around to it until now. Everyone raves about Edinburgh, but Glasgow is almost as good - the only thing missing is the stand-out beauty of Edinburgh’s castle and surrounding hills. Sadly I only had one night in town but still managed a little sight seeing (some great, old buildings including the impressive Kelvingrove Art Gallery and [View Full Entry]

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Well I’m well and truly settled in Manchester. I arrived on 8 January, met my new housemates, brought a few necessities had a night’s sleep and then early the next morning I bussed it down to London to catch up with Vaughan and Lucy. That night we caught up with their friend Catherine, Michelle Dean (ex Mallies) and Michelle’s boyfriend Jeff, to catch ‘Le Clique’ a circus/cabaret/burlesque show that has toured around the world. Not my usual cup of tea but it was a great show - favourites being the bendy ‘Captain Frodo’ who contorted his body [View Full Entry]

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Well I had a much better time in New York compared to when I first arrived two weeks ago! Most of my time was spent walking all over the city and then adding the calories back on by eating heaps! Most tourists would catch several buses/trains/taxis a day, I managed 4 ½ days with only two rides on the subway - crazy, but that’s me : -) After my overnight bus from Toronto to New York, I checked into my hostel (way, way better than the previous NY one - conveniently located close to Times Square and hot showers!) and then [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year Wishing everyone a Happy 2009. My new year’s was spent in Toronto I didn’t really get up to anything special in Toronto - the winter holidays meant that the city come to a bit of a stand still when it comes to music, festivals, galleries and the like for which the city has a plethora of during warmer months. My first night was a ‘pub crawl’ that ended up comprising of myself and two guys and a girl from the hostel (all from Nova Scotia in Canada) going for a few beers. The night ended far later than [View Full Entry]

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and indeed it was! I hope you all had a nice Christmas too : -) My second Christmas away from home - a little sad but I still managed to have some fun (although not as much fun as my super-special time in Copenhagen last Christmas. Spending Christmas eve at the hostel with new friends was fun and helped me to forget (just a little bit) that I missed my family and friends. Speaking of hostels, whilst there are good ones there are also bad ones and my New York hostel was one of them … Arriving in New York after [View Full Entry]

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The end of Vancouver (Part 1) and wow has it been snowing! I woke to my last Sunday morning to several cm of snow and with temperatures remaining below 0’c all week (and dipping as low as -10’c I think), and some extra mid-week snow, Vancouver has been totally transformed into a Winter Wonderland. The only thing is … after one week of snow I’m already sick ok it - I still find it pretty but having to be super careful walking to work (that ice is damn slippery - yep I fell flat on my bum at least once!) and [View Full Entry]

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