so very very wet

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October 17th 2006

Published: October 17th 2006

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emmy

Welcome to Canada

Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia

...which is a nice change to freezing cold. However, it doesn't help me in my new job (I have switched the part-time food store job for a full-time outdoor gear store job - I want the staff discount...), as it's damn boring when no-one is around. I'm spending my spare time learning all the technical mumbo-jumbo that comes with ultra-nylon-hyper-Goretex-thermo-dynamic whatchamacallits. Today was only day one, but it seems like a nice enough place - packed to the rafters and basement with stock, and even better - the managers wife works at the local Mars factory, so there's always lots of goodies on hand for the boring/hungry moments.

Still waiting to move into the new apartment. I guess the downside of having a newly renovated apartment is the fact that every man and his government-service-provided dog has to check the work and sign off on it - therefore we wait for the fire inspector to give his seal of approval and we move in. This should be quite easy for me, having nothing but two bags to move - by far the easiest house moving in my life...

I still lack the basic clothing of most cold-seasoned Canadians -

stone stack sculpture

Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia

no warm jacket, no boots, no waterproof pants (work should hopefully provide me with these at reasonable cost), so I'm praying that the snow and severe cold holds off for a few more weeks yet, until I can get a few paychecks behind me. It's amazing how low the average wage is here in Canada - I was earning easily double most jobs here when I was rousying, which is a bit weird - but I guess I don't have to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn to bust my butt all day in shearing gore .... every cloud, eh? So I must adjust to being more financially-challenged. Not having a car should help a lot, as I can walk everywhere downtown from the new apartment, which is only about 5 blocks from the main street, and is right on the water - pics will follow if/when we move in.

Halloween moves ever closer - Walmart has huge aisles full of cheap candy (sorry for the use of the American "candy" - but that's what everyone says over here, and I'd rather be mocked by email than in person, so pfflrfblrrrt :p ). Is it just

the harbour

Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia

me or am I just thinking about junk food a lot? It must be the cold weather - I'm trying to avoid the overly-abundant coffee stores here (believe me, these guys are ADDICTED), as these also supply large gooey amounts of doughnuts, Timbits (like the hole part of said doughnut), cookies (see explanation for use of "candy") and other evil foodstuffs. I'd hate to be a lardball come spring, or mistaken for a snowman in winter, come to think of it.

It's a weird in-between weather time now, where it's too cold to do the usual outdoor stuff, and not cold enough to do the fun outdoor winter stuff (tobogganing, skating, skiing, snowball fights, getting frostbite etc.). Therefore physical activity has been limited to walking around town and dodging vehicles when I don't cross at the lights, looking for traffic on the wrong side of the road - note to the kiddies: always cross at the lights, and always check BOTH ways before crossing, you never know when a madman might come careening towards you on the left side of the road. I'm not sure what the official legal stance is on jaywalking in Canada, but it looks like

in the woods

Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia

the Australian rules apply - if someone else is doing it, then it must be okay, so go ahead (just not in front of the police).

What else? - ummmm .... squirrels rock - so much cuter and less aggressive than Australian possums, and they come in a variety of colours ... no mounty, moose or beaver sightings as yet ... planning to go maple-tree tapping in spring ... found an american website for an importer of Vegemite and Tim Tams ... for a country with so much fresh water, their tap water tastes like bleach ugh ... have recovered almost from my cold, just waiting to be reinfected by someone else in the next few days ... salmon is almost impossible to find in the supermarkets (what the hell?) ... no-one is emailing me (emilyjanemartin@hotmail.com) ... will try to put the first Canada photos on tonight if there's nothing else going on.

Ciao for now hosers!

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