More from Van

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As usual we shall start of with a few new observations.

* Vancouverites love their dogs. There are dogs everywhere. Most of them are of the small, annoying variety as they're easier to keep locked up in an apartment, but there is the odd bigger dog as well. And they dress them all up with stupid wee woolen jersey type things and little rain jackets complete with hoods (which Emma loves). Mad. And they're allowed to go everywhere. You'll be sitting in a Starbucks and a guy will come sit at the table next to you with his two dogs, ignoring the sign that says 'We really love your dogs but as this is a food premises can you please keep them outside''. Emma had a guy who walked into her store the other day and told her that his dog was hungry and wanted a biscuit. Apparently he does this alot and they keep a supply of dog biscuits behind the counter for him. Emma seems to get all kinds of weirdos in there. There is another guy that she sees quite regularly who walks down the street singing opera at the top of his lungs.

*There is alot of film making in Vancouver. Its known as North Hollywood and is one of the biggest filming areas in North America, behind Hollywood and possibly NY. There are a surprising number of mainstream movies that lots of you would have seen that have been filmed here such as the Final Destination trilogy, Rocky IV, Elf, The Butterfly Effect, Freddy Got Fingered, Happy Gilmore, the Scary Movie series and many, many more. Movies that are currently screening, have recently been screened or are about to be screened that have been filmed in Van include 'Shooter', 'Night at the Museum' where the Vancouver Art Gallery doubles as the New York Museum of Natural History. There are also plenty of tv shows being shot around here as well. I spent a couple of hours the other day watching the filming of a couple of scenes of the tv series 'The 4400'. Crap show but it was quite interesting seeing it being filmed.

We had decided that we were going to let the whole 'homeless' issue go for this entry but just recently it has become increasingly frustrating (ha, I'm sure nowhere near as frustrating as actually being homeless I guess). The frequency with which we discuss homelessness in our blogs is perhaps a reflection of how big a problem it is in Vancouver and how much attention it gets in the media here. Anyway, we went down to BK for a feed the other night (just two ovens/stoves within a hostel of many means that some eating out is inevitable) and were cornered and asked for money three times while we sat enjoying our meal in the restaurant. Really annoying when your trying to have a quiet meal with your partner, catching up on the days events, even if it is only BK. One guy came up to us and pointed to Emma's face then turned to me and gave me the thumbs up, without saying a word. Then he pulls out a note for each of us saying that he was a member of some deaf persons group and could we donate $1 to help and deaf people with families etc. We figured we were getting suckered but we gave him a couple of cents just to leave us alone only to have the next guy badgering us 2 mins later. He is a guy who we see quite regularly and has hit us up before while we were having lunch at a food court (have a look at the photo of the actor from the 4400 and you will see him in the background with a red jersey on). A couple of nights later we went to our favorite little Chinese restaurant in Davie Village (the owners have grown to know us now, not that we go there that often.. Yeah Right). They have reasonable sized servings so not being I big eater I still had plenty on my plate when I'd finished as much as a could. We were just chatting with our half empty plates in front of us when this guy smacks the window and then puts his face up to it staring at the food on my plate. He then asked me for it and I just gave him a dirty look back to which he yelled the reply 'Man, you're going to starve me to death'. I told him to eff off but he musn't have heard me through the window and starting making really loud groaning sounds and just staring at the food, so I started eating it again, after which he left. It probably sounds really cruel and heartless to you all but it is highly annoying and frustrating, not to mention embarrassing. Generally people (including us) just ignore the beggars but we do occasionally give someone some change if they've actually done something helpful for us like open a door. You can't go around giving change to all of them due to the share number of them, that would become very expensive and its not like we have alot of spare cash to spare.

Since we wrote last not alot has happened. At the moment we seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut while we try to finally get ourselves set up and settled. Until we have finished doing that we can't really do or see much beyond the Dowtown Vancouver area and surrounds and it is becoming slightly frustrating. Living in the hostel is really starting to eat into our savings. We have left numerous messages on peoples phones regarding apartments they have advertised but not one of them has rung us back. Maybe it is the NZ accent that scares them off. We have also sent out quite a few emails as well but the only reply we have had from those was from a lady telling us that she had just rented the apartment we were inquiring about. However, after much effort, we have finally signed up for an apartment. Its in a pretty neat location at the end of Davie St on English Bay in the Downtown West Side, not that we can actually see the bay from our unit. Its small (1 small bedroom) but is quite nice all the same. We're working on the theory that with less space we'll be able to keep it tidy really easily. Its got hardwood floors, Venetian Blinds and a dishwasher which the big selling point. Its going to mean an extra bus ride to work for me and an extra 10 - 15 min walk to work for Emms, not that either of us mind. We're just stoked to finally have a place. Its been quite a frustrating search. I would say that less than 20% of the inquiries we made were actually answered. We move in on April 1 so will post some photos of it then . Now the next thing is going to be getting everything else we need, like a bed and a tv etc.

You might remember that in our last blog I told you of a work trial I was doing for a place called Apex Tents. Well the trial went really well and the work was alright and the rest of the guys were all good blokes. The first day we put up a tent at some rich persons house for their daughters barmitzfa. It was a pretty big tent with porta floor, gas heating, lighting, the works. It took six of us 11 hours to finish the job due to some muck ups along the way (nothing to do with me I might add) which had some of the guys pretty shitty. The previous two days they had raked up 26 hours pulling down there biggest tent which only goes up once or twice a year. Its not so much a tent as it is a proper building. It is huge. Anyway they were all pretty tired and it showed with some work place accidents that could have very easily ended in missing fingers and broken bones. The next day we were all back at the warehouse loading all the bits and pieces of the big tent into shipping containers. It took a dozen or so guys a full 8 hours (in the driving rain) to do that, it is a monster of a tent. At the end of the day the boss called me into her office and tried to pressure me into taking the Crew Lead position rather than just the Installer position. I had already told her I wasn't interested in it as if I was to take on that sort of responsibility I'd need to be sure I could handle it and I didn't think two days was enough time to work that out. In fact from what I had seen of the crew lead from the day before I definately didn't want to accept that job without at least a few months experience behind me. And the guys I would be leading had been there a while and all knew it all anyway so they would be leading me. She wasn't too happy about this and said that they would still like to hire me but if it was going to just be for the Installer position then she could only give me part time work for the next four weeks, then start me fulltime. I asked to have the weekend to think about it and immediately started looking for another job. I really needed fulltime right away and I got the feeling from what the other guys had said and the way I'd been treated that these guys weren't the best employers. The phone call I had with the boss on the Monday confirmed this for me. I told her I still didn't want the Crew Lead position but would still like to work for them as an Installer but that I really needed fulltime work and and found another offer elsewhere that i was considering. At this point she began to tell me that she had thought about it over the weekend and was able to offer me fulltime work as soon as she got back from overseas a week later. She had also told me that she had just fired a guy from South Africa who had been working there for a week and was on the same working visa as me. He wasn't the hardest worker but wasn't a slacker either and I thought he was quite a good guy. She had told me after the meeting on the Friday that she was going to offer him the Crew Lead job as well so I wonder what happened. Anyway, it reinforced my feeling that these guys weren't being all that honest and didn't treat their workers well. I had an interview at the new place on the Tuesday and began working there the next day. Its at a place called Neighbourhood Lawn Care and the position will basically just be mowing lawns. Its a bit of a throw back to my days with the Parks Department in Invers all those these guys and their clients are pretty serious about their lawns so you have to be a bit more careful about things. If you can imagine those tv ads or movies with the typical subruban North American home with their manicured front lawn, thats the sort of places we service and they're pretty strict on doing it right (lines have to be perfectly straight, place has to be perfectly spotless when you leave and by joe you better not accidentaly mow part of the neighbours boulavared lawn). The money is quite reasonable for lawn mowing and as there is a base rate with commission on top for the more lawns you do, there is potential to earn more than at the Apex place (the average hourly rate works out to be about $2 more with commission than what Apex was offering). Its a reasonable operation with about 25 or so other guys and girls, most of whom are in similar situations to myself. There are 3 or 4 South Africans, a few Aussies (of course), Scotsman, a few Poms and two other Kiwis. I spent last week working with a German, so its quite cool mixing with all these other cultural backgrounds. We each get a vehicle of our own and if you start at 7:30am and have lunch travelling between jobs you can be out of there by 3:30pm which suits me fine. Its also Mon - Fri which means I'll be able to have weekends free now.


Other than that bit of news things have been pretty quiet. St Paddy's day is pretty big over here and they have turned the whole week prior to it into a Celtic Festival, culminating with a St Paddy's Day parade. Unfortunatley I spent most of the weekend laid low with my first illness of the year so wasn't able to really celebrate it like everyone else and poor old Emma worked right through it.

Oh, also the weather is picking up a bit. Last week it pretty much rained all week non stop which meant a few early finishes at work (hard to mow lawns when your mower is floating on water above the actual grass). Everybody was getting really annoyed with it but were even more disappointed to find out that even after all that rain we're still 20mm off the all time March record. There have been a few pretty good days though and the sun has been shining all week this week. A couple of weeks ago we actually had 17 degrees one day (and you all thought Canada was meant to be cold in winter).

Sorry its been so long since we posted an entry but now we're both working it is starting to take a bit more effort. Hope you all enjoy all the photos we recently posted.

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Photos

Star from 'The 4400' doing fan photos
Note the old homeless guy in the red jersey in the background. This is the guy who has hit us up on a number of occassions while we\'ve ben having a meal.

Comments

[Kerry Apthorp]

Finally a reply from Down Under
Just having a trial run with Harriet instructing me how this Blog thing works. Thanks so much for the postcard Emma and of course the very interesting news in your blog. Will send this now and then have a go at sending you some real news via this. This is just a practise run. Let me know if you get my comment. Just thought I would let you know I had coffee at the Good Oil with Anton Oliver and Tony Brown - No bull. Gosh you will be saying. Much love Kerry xx

[Sarah]

Hello sis
Hey I can not remember your email address so I have just left a comment here. What is you postal address for your package of dip. I am at work, on my holiday and am sick it sucks. How are you guys? You need to take some photos of your place so I can see what it is like. I went home for a day at easter (mum and dad were in ChCh and away for the rest of easter). Every one is well even Tabatha, although dad told me off for doing too much for her. He said it would make her lazy. Like she has not been lazy all her life, shes a cat!!!! The weather overhere is starting to get cold, so I assume it is getting warmer for you. I have my first cold of the year fun times. I have actually spent most of easter in bed with the electric blanket on (to Smudge's great joy). Smudge is good although she ripped my fav sheets on the line yesterday. She was trying to catch a butterfly on the sheets and ate my sheet with the butterfly. Not to mention the huge rip where she jumped on the butterfly. Stupid cat. She was then very disturbed that she got caught in the fitted part. She is so cute but very dumb. Are you guys ahead on Grey's Anntomy? Does Merideth die?? I tried to look up internet but it did not tell me, was too much of a spoiler. I have a new show that I watch "Men in trees" I like it but not as much as "bones". Hope work is still going well my work is fine. We are busy at the mement and I have lots of work to do but too sick to concentrate. Well email me with your email address and mail address so I can send you stuff. My email address is [e-mail] Love Sarah