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Published: August 8th 2007
Roger Waters
Rog and his bandWhatsup?
Where to start eh?
If you can cast your minds back a month and a half or so to our last post you will remember we were telling you about how excited we were to be going to an upcoming Roger Waters show (creative influence behind Pink Floyd, remember?). Well the long awaited and highly anticipated show finally rolled into town on June 21 and we had an amazing time. Unlike the Police concert we went to GM Place was a 25000 strong sell out with an electric atmosphere. I'll try not to bore you all with all the details of the show but I will try and give you a brief run down on what we saw and heard and experienced as I know that some of you were deeply upset at missing out on seeing him when he was down under. As we entered the arena we were met with a massive projected image of an old wireless radio sitting on a shelf next to a bottle of whiskey and a model of an old Lancaster Bomber. The intial seats we took weren't the best being beside the stage but right up high. Thankfully though we
Amazing light show
The album art work for Dark side of the moon in lights were offered an upgrade to seats that were still beside the stage but were right down on the lower level where we had an unbelievable view of the stage, and the whole arena. As showtime drew closer a massive hand came up from the bottom of the screen and flicked off a lightswitch beside the radio and simultaneously the house lights switched off. Pretty cool. The hand proceeded to pour a glass of the whiskey and spark up a cigarette and then, as the cigarette smoke wafted up across the screen, the hand turned the tuning knob on the radio with every change in song coming on bringing a raucous reaction from the crowd. As the hand continued to change stations from ABBA songs to Chet Baker, Roger and his backing band took the stage to a standing ovation and immediately ripped into the classic 'In the Flesh'. The first half of the show consisted of old Pink Floyd hits like 'Wish You Were Here', 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', 'Have A Cigar' and 'Mother', as well as some of Roger's new material including the controversial 'Leaving Beirut'. After a short intermission the second half of the show ran through
Watching rugby
from left, Reghardt, Paddy the Irishman and Charles watching the rugger at Doolins the entire tracklist of 'The Darkside Of The Moon' album including hits such as 'Money', 'Us and Them', 'Brain Damage' and 'The Great Gig In The Sky'. Then there was an encore featuring 'Comfortably Numb' and the anthem 'Another Brick In The Wall Part II'. The performances and musicianship of Roger and his large backing band were exceptional and the images being projected on the screen and the lighting and use of props were visually spectacular. I have never been to a concert where there has been so much going on and so much different stuff to watch. First you had the large band on stage who were very entertaining to watch, behind them were these amazing images being projected on to a huge screen, then there was all the other lighting all around the arena, then they had all this other stuff going on like a giant inflatable pig being flown around the stadium by remote control (some of you may have seen this during the Roger Waters performance at Live Earth) as well as a giant astronaut floating above the crowd from one end of the stadium to the other, bubbles floating from the ceiling and confetti covering
Watching the rugby
This one is just to show me kitted out in my ABs gear. Sorry about the crapy photos. the whole crowd. Then of course there was the crowd itself which was a pretty amazing sight in its own right. And the association people make between Pink Floyd fans and drugs is certainly true. I think Emma and I were possibly the only ones in the arena who weren't smoking the weed, although we were certainly given ample oppotunities to share the joints with stoners on either side of us and behind us (who had brought their son of no more than 4 or 5 years old (that start them young in Vancouver)). I have never seen so many drugs being smoked at one time. Overall, one of the best concerts I've seen and am ever likely to. And Emma, who wasn't a Pink Floyd fan prior to the show was absoutely amazed. I don't think I can do it justice by writing about it here so buy the DVD when it comes out.
July 1st was Canada Day, the day when Canadians celebrate, well, Canada. It was also the day after the first Bledisloe Cup test between Aussie and NZ so as has become tradition during the Tri Nations we spent the day at the pub watching
Canada Day
BBQ and beers in local park. a replay of the match with some other rugby fans. Once finished there we decided we would celebrate Canada Day by having a few beers and a BBQ in a local park with Charles, Berdine and Paddy the Irishman. After a pleasent evening in the park we all then headed to across the other side of Stanley Park to watch the Canada Day fireworks display along with thousands of other proud Canadians. The display lasted about 25 minutes and was pretty good entertainment. All in all it was a pretty relaxing Canada Day. On the way home we were passed by three speeding cop cars heading for English Bay. As we got closer we could see a crowd of onlookers so went in for a closer look. As we neared the crowd we saw two cops fighting a guy to the ground and putting him in cuffs. As we were watching this another mele erupted behind us and we turned to see half a dozen cops with their weapons drawn pointing them at three guys and screaming at them to get on the ground. Just as this was happening a bright light from the chopper flying above us shown down
Canada Day
Emma and Gaz on us and we decided that we were probably a little to close for comfort and decided to cross the road and get out of the way of all the other cops that were showing up. We were saying to our South African friends how it was so weird (and a little scary) seeing cops walking round with shotguns and pointing them at people and yelling etc. They laughed at us and were amazed at how safe and secure NZ must be to have unarmed police. Apparently in South Africa even the security guards at shopping malls etc are armed. With all the stories we've heard from these guys about crime and danger in South Africa its little wonder so many of them are leaving the country (apparently in some parts it is illegal for woman to stop at red lights after dark). Anyway we watched the goings on over the road for a little longer and several cops walked up and down the beach with shotguns and torchers looking for something or someone along with the help from the chopper. We've been getting this type of action pretty regularly round here recently. With all the hot weather lately crowds
Canada Day
Beautiful sunset over English Bay of people have been heading to the beach which is great but with the crowds come the bums looking for money and the little gangs of youths looking for trouble. Pretty much every night we've been hanging out the window watching the cops arrest someone. Quite entertaining.
Another journey we made recently was to the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Van. There isn't really alot to say about this. Its one of Vancouvers most popular tourist attractions but is pretty over priced for what it is. For $26 you get to walk across a 450 foot historic suspension bridge 230 feet above the Capilano Canyon to the Treetops Adventure where you walk along board walks that go through a section of coastal rainforest from the forest floor and up through the trees (12 stories high approx). There is lots of interesting ecological and historical information to read along the way but all the staff are dressed up in tacky period costumes and its not up too much really. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon when there is nothing else to do but you could probably have more fun with $26
Canada Day
Canada Day fireworks elsewhere. Its one of those things that you just have to do while your living here though so we enjoyed crossing that one off our list. On the way home we stumbled across a performance by a very good Johnny Cash impersonator which was the best part of the day.
July and August are traditionally pretty busy times of the year in Vancouver and this year has been no different. At the end of July the waters of English Bay have played host to the annual 'Celebration of Light'. Essentially this is a the world's biggest fireworks competition where pyrotechnics companies from three different countries compete to be voted the best by the Vancouver public (and hopefully pick up a few contracts such as the Olympic ceremonies in the process). The competition was held over four nights over a two week period. Each country puts on a musically coreographed 25min display on one of the first three nights and then the fourth night is the grand finale where each country puts on a smaller 6 min display. The countries competing this year were Spain, Canada and China. Spain set the bar pretty high early on with a huge finale
Canada Day
Berdine, Charles and Emma on the Seawall watching Fireworks in their performance. Canada were obviously crowd favourites and did the country proud with a perfectly coreographed display using a wide variety of different fireworks, however they lacked a little of the bang at the end of the show and it basically just fizzled out. Lastly was China, the traditional home of fireworks. I was expecting something big from the Chinese and was not disappointed. I have never seen fireworks like (and likely never will again). It was almost as if the sky over English Bay wasn't big enough for all the explosions of light. And with every bang you could actually feel the force of the explosion on your body as you sat on the beach. It really was quite an awesome sight. Certainly put the Canada Day fireworks and the old New Years fireworks in Qtown to shame. The event is a massive day on Vancouver's summer calendar each year with 400,000 people crowding the cities beaches every night. I have never seen so many people. The road outside our apartment was closed for the night and at the end of the show it became a see of people, almost as awesome a sight as the fireworks itself.
Canada Day
Police action on the way home. The Police Crowd Control Unit HQ was based directly across the road and we saw a few young hoods getting arrested. I'm not normally one for Police bashing but I do think these guys were a bit heavy handed, although I guess that is to be expected when they are trying to control 400,000. They walked around in teams of 8 or so and when one young fella accidentally ran into and knocked over a couple of newspaper stand the police were on him in no time, two guys wrestling him to the ground even though the guy was surrendering, with the 6 other guys forming a circle around him to keep the rest of the public away. This guy didn't help himself much when he suddenly started resisting, but all that for just a few newspaper stands. Anyway, the festival overall was really, really good. We didn't get to see the finale as we were in Victoria but from what we heard it wasn't as good as China's anyway. The overall winner was Canada (not suprising I guess given they were the host country but I don't think they were quite up to China's level).
Early August is
Celebration of Light
Packed English Bay beach looking southeast also Gay Pride time in Vancouver but unfortunately (or not) we were out of town for the big Pride Parade. From what I've heard from people who saw it it was a little.... ummmmm.... disturbing. Not really my scene.
We made use of a long weekend at the start of August to book a few days off togethor and head off over the Strait of Georgia for a couple of nights in Victoria. After and hour long bus ride we boarded the ferry at Tsawwassen (south of Van) and sailed for an hour and a half over to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. From there it was another hour long bus ride to downtown Victoria and our backpackers. After settling into our digs we headed out for a quick look around downtown then jumped on a bus headed for the famous Butchart Gardens (another hour long bus ride). Now gardens such as these aren't normally something that would float my boat but I must say I was very impressed with what I saw. The property is the site of an old cement factory and the main garden, "The Sunken Garden", was established when the wife of the cement factory
Celebration of Light
...and looking northwest owner decided to turn a disused limestone quarry into what has become a positvely spectacular garden. Just look at the photos. There are a number of other gardens such as Japanese, Italian, Rose and Bog gardens, all of which were picture postcard perfect. The lawns were also pretty impressive although we weren't actually allowed to walk on half of them. It was a lovely summers evening and there were thousands of people out to enjoy a fireworks display. As well as a couple of restaurants, they offered fully catered picnics on one of the lawns with other people bringing their own picnics to the concert lawn to listen to the band that was playing. Emma and I just settled for a traditional Canadian hot dog (unbelievably our first since we've been here). After touring the gardens we grabbed ourselves a spot on the lawn in front of the fireworks display and enjoyed a somewhat more subdued but equally entertaining display compared to the earlier shows in Vancouver. Once that was over it was time to head back to Vic and after waiting 50 mins in line (we probably spent at least half a day in total standing in lines over
the 3 days) we finally got on a bus and back to our beds for a good nights sleep.
Next morning it was a bright and early start for a spot of breaky and coffee followed by Whale Watching. As we donned our bright red survival suits and boarded our zodiac boat we were excited at the prospect of seeing some beautiful Orca in their natural environment. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. We were advised that early in the morning was one of the best times to see the whales but what we hadn't figured was that at that time of the day all the whale watching boats were still very much in the process of actually locating the whales. After 3 hours of searching our time was up and we had to head back to port but not after having some porpoise playing around our vessel and seeing some seals and cool birds. The driver was also really good and showed us round some of the Gulf Islands and told us lots of interesting stories. Because we didn't quite get what we had paid for in terms of Whale watching we were allowed to go back as many
Celebration of Light
More of Spain's display times as we wanted until we saw them. The next morning we took full advantage of the offer and headed out for another go. Unfortunately the only time they could fit us in was on one of the early boats when again the whales had not actually been found yet. Another three hours passed without success but overall it was a better trip than the previous day. The driver this time was much more passionate about the whales and BC than the guy from the previous day which made it more interesting and he also had much better jokes. The sea was alot rougher the second time round which made for some pretty fun boating. The best part was launching off the wake of a fully laden freighter as it steamed full speed down the Strait of Juan De Fuca. We were both pretty wet by the time we made it back to port.
After the first time whale watching we spent the afternoon at the Royal Museum of BC browsing the Titanic exhibit. It was a really interesting display that included several hundred atrifacts that had been recovered from the ship wrek itself and were accompanied with stories
Celebration of Light
More of Spain's display about what they were, where they came from and the people that owned them etc. The exhibit also featured replicas of various rooms of the ship and a slightly smaller (but equally as cold) version of the ice berg. There was also a interesting section about the various BC people who were on board and their stories. After the museum we headed to one of the many sun drenced pub patios for a nice meal and a few relaxing drinks then followed that with a stroll around the harbour to Fisherman's Wharf where there is a small community of some very cool house boats. On the way back through town we stopped and watched the Victoria Symphony Orchestra who were putting on a performance from a barge in front of the Legislative Assembly Building with thousands of people watching form the water and waterfront. Not really my seen but it was a pretty awesome sight and it actually sounded pretty good. There was also another fireworks display but it was nothing compared to Vancouver's effort. We are well fireworksed out by now. After whale watching the next morning we spend the afternoon leisurely making our way back to Vancouver (took
about 4 hours with all the buses and ferries that we had to wait for). It was a fab weekend and we were both left feeling quite relaxed and mentally and physically refreshed for work the next day.
The last couple of weeks her and one of her workmates have spent most of their time talking about Harry Potter and the new movie and new book. Thankfully, thats all over now though. I hate Harry Potter with a passion. Its been pretty warm here recently which has made mowing lawns pretty hard work. A couple of weeks ago we had five straight days of record high temperatures, the hottest being 35 degrees. For someone not used to that sort of heat, much less having to work a physical job in it, it was a bit of a struggle. The week after we had 7 straight days of rain, a record for consecutive days of rain in July, which makes mowing a very frustrating job. Added to that we are short staffed and have fallen way behind on our cutting shedule which has meant they've been pushing us to put in 10 hour + days. Everybody has been getting
a little tired and stressed out.
This blog actually marks six months in Canada. It seems like only yesterday that we left a freezing cold Invercargill Airport, but at the same time it feels like we have been quite busy exploring and settling down in a new city. I have no doubt that the next six months are going to go by exceedingly fast as we still have a few trips to make, a visit from Emma's parents to look forward to and the daunting task of organising stuff for our move to the UK early 2008. Its weird to think that in six months time we will be doing this all again in the UK, or, if things don't go as planned, will be winging our way back to NZ. The rest of August and September will be pretty quiet for us though and we may not have anything to blog about for quite a while. As well as supporting the ABs in the World Cup, we've got a Crowded House concert to look forward to (will be cool to see a NZ band over here, apparently they have quite a big Canadian following) and a Velvet Revolver
and Alice in Chains concert as well, which I personally am really looking forward to. We had also hoped to make a trip to Tofino on Vancouver Island but a review of our financial situation suggests we'd probably best to give that one a miss. Its a really popular little surf town on the west coast that we tried to visit when we were on Vancouver Island but in summer its just nuts and is booked out months in advance. Oh well we can always come back and do it.
Anyway, hope all is well with everyone and the cold weather in NZ isn't getting anyone down. Spring is just around the corner. And go the mighty Stags eh?
Bye for now.
Gaz and Emms.
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Mum
non-member comment
Busy Beavers
We appreciate your really long and informative blog. You seem to have been very busy wee beavers, making the most of all your free time. The fireworks sounded spectacular. The heat seems a bit over the top. you must be fading away with the heat and the excessively long days, but I suppose that is a bit more money. What happens to your job in the approaching Canadian winter? Have you made contact with the Conway boys yet? What other trips are in the pipeline?. Keep having fun and take care. Love to both of you. Mum