Saturday, September 04, 2004
Cheesy Chips
We've all had cheesy chips, yes? We've all had chips n gravy. But have you had cheesy chips with gravy? Well over here they serve it and it even has a name...Poutine. I just had some for dinner (part of my diet) and it was bloody good. The chips tasted like British chips and the gravy reminded me of home!
Another culinary discovery is Vietnamese food. It's like chinese food without all the liquid. The dish I got was grilled chicken with noodles, veg and nuts and my side order of egg rolls were quality. All that for under a fiver too. Eating out is cheap here! Shame that Safeways is so damn expensive?...
We've all had cheesy chips, yes? We've all had chips n gravy. But have you had cheesy chips with gravy? Well over here they serve it and it even has a name...Poutine. I just had some for dinner (part of my diet) and it was bloody good. The chips tasted like British chips and the gravy reminded me of home!
Another culinary discovery is Vietnamese food. It's like chinese food without all the liquid. The dish I got was grilled chicken with noodles, veg and nuts and my side order of egg rolls were quality. All that for under a fiver too. Eating out is cheap here! Shame that Safeways is so damn expensive?...
Friday, September 03, 2004
Everybody in the place
So I'm finally into some permanent accommodation...well indefinite is the word I prefer. We have a 5 bed house in South East vancouver. I won't lie to you, it's not particularly nice, but then again it's not awful and the rent is cheap. I think my total monthly rent including utilities will be under 300 quid and my room is about 20% bigger than the one I had in London. We have running water, electricity, beds, laundry and cooking facilities so it's all good. We're getting the Internet and cable tv soon and maybe even a sofa. I spent a wedge of cash at Ikea and Costco getting things like a duvet, a lamp, some shelves, kitchen stuff, food. There's so much more we could buy but I keep reminding myself that I don't have a job and so I can't be buying anything other than necessities.
The area isn't the greatest area but it's not scary. I am the ethnic minority in this neighbourhood but at least it means food is cheap, and there are good facilities around (if you know what I mean). There's also a basketball court 2 mins away so hopefully I'll get a few games in before the winter.
I'm coming home
I'll be in Leeds from Sep 10th (although extremely jet lagged) until September 27th. If anyone knows of any work going in Leeds then hook me up baby!
So I'm finally into some permanent accommodation...well indefinite is the word I prefer. We have a 5 bed house in South East vancouver. I won't lie to you, it's not particularly nice, but then again it's not awful and the rent is cheap. I think my total monthly rent including utilities will be under 300 quid and my room is about 20% bigger than the one I had in London. We have running water, electricity, beds, laundry and cooking facilities so it's all good. We're getting the Internet and cable tv soon and maybe even a sofa. I spent a wedge of cash at Ikea and Costco getting things like a duvet, a lamp, some shelves, kitchen stuff, food. There's so much more we could buy but I keep reminding myself that I don't have a job and so I can't be buying anything other than necessities.
The area isn't the greatest area but it's not scary. I am the ethnic minority in this neighbourhood but at least it means food is cheap, and there are good facilities around (if you know what I mean). There's also a basketball court 2 mins away so hopefully I'll get a few games in before the winter.
I'm coming home
I'll be in Leeds from Sep 10th (although extremely jet lagged) until September 27th. If anyone knows of any work going in Leeds then hook me up baby!
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
table for one please...
Why is it that eating alone is such a shameful thing? Also, going into places with waitresses alone seems a lot harder than eating alone in a fast food place. Drinking alone isn't too bad when you know someone is eventually coming to meet you, but when you know it's just you it seems weird. Since I got here I've eaten most lunches on my own but since I got booted from the comfort of Casa de Summerwill I've been eating alone 3 meals a day. I gotta say I don't like it but luckily it should end tomorrow evening.
Why is it that eating alone is such a shameful thing? Also, going into places with waitresses alone seems a lot harder than eating alone in a fast food place. Drinking alone isn't too bad when you know someone is eventually coming to meet you, but when you know it's just you it seems weird. Since I got here I've eaten most lunches on my own but since I got booted from the comfort of Casa de Summerwill I've been eating alone 3 meals a day. I gotta say I don't like it but luckily it should end tomorrow evening.
I've already touched on this subject about a month ago but I just need to remind you...CANADIAN BANKS ARE FUCKING CRAP. All those things we take for granted in the UK are just impossible here. To transfer money electronically to another person costs $30. To get anything done immediately isn't possible, you have to make an appointment to see someone who will fill in a form on your behalf, look at your id and send you on your way. I tried to play by the rules but I lost so I had to play by my own rules. I withdrew the max I could with my crap canadian account ($250) and then I withdrew $300 from my british account. I took this wedge of cash across the road and deposited it in person in the other bank. To do this I had to wait in line for 25 mins while dumb ass Canadians went about cashing cheques for $9 and paying in their rental cheques. I think we are about 25 yrs ahead of the Canadians in the UK. This bureacracy in itself is enough to make me wanna leave the country. There must be some union thing going on because the bankers work at a pace that would seem slow in Mexico. There must have been around 100 people waiting in two seperate queues and there was zero sense of urgency on the staff's behalf. The banks here are also weird because there are no security screens. If I see the red mist again I may end up assaulting one of the staff and finding myself in a Canadian jail! I knew I was mad cos I started muttering to myself and some lady said, "sorry", I then started telling anyone who would listen how shit canadian banking was.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
It's not a holiday...
I'm getting that feeling you get when you're coming to the end of a holiday and you've had enough. I guess you would call it homesickness but it's not exactly the same. I think it's just boredom as I don't have anything to do except waste money here in this Internet Cafe. I suppose I should be Mr Proactive, out looking for work, but after 7 weeks of rejection you do lose your motivation a tad. When I came out here I thought I'd be prepared to do crap work just to get some cash but now I'm finding that I'm not. I guess as you get older it's harder to regress to that kind of shit. I registered with a temp agency yesterday and I was the only male in the building. It was all middle aged secretaries and even the recruiters were middle aged secretaries. I could do their jobs no problem but I just don't feel motivated. Hopefully when I move into my new place tomorrow I will be able to settle down and get myself together.
My original intention was to move out here indefinitely which in my head meant at least 2 years but the way things are going I'm thinking I'm not gonna last 'til the end of the ski season. The plan right now is to spend another 10 days faffing about before I come back to the UK on the 10th for a couple of weeks. Then on my return at the end of the month get some temp work quickly and be supermotivated to get a proper job. If things still aren't happening by 2005 then I guess I'll just see how I feel on a weekly basis. I guess the beauty of this dual citizenship thing is that I can come and go as I please. But anyway, the plan changes on an almost daily basis these days so who the hell knows what I'll be doing!
New Products that I've tried:
Peanut Butter M&Ms - highly rated
Coke C2 - tastes like Coke but not as sugary as full coke but not watery like diet coke
Sushi - didn't like it but it was from a shopping centre food court
Pizza Pops - awesome microwave junk food
Cheerios snack mix - salty and sugary cereals in a bag
Granville Island Beers - very nice, especially the hoegaarden copy
Saw the film "Hero" yesterday. Jet Li plays an assassin. It's much the same as Crouching Tiger but mercifully not as long. I find these fantasy chinese martial arts adventures a bit tiresome. I enjoyed the story but I find it hard to relate to the matrix style fighting in a non sci-fi environment. I prefer my martial arts movies a bit shallower and my sci-fi movies to be complete fiction. I'm not a big fan of the merging of genres.
I'm getting that feeling you get when you're coming to the end of a holiday and you've had enough. I guess you would call it homesickness but it's not exactly the same. I think it's just boredom as I don't have anything to do except waste money here in this Internet Cafe. I suppose I should be Mr Proactive, out looking for work, but after 7 weeks of rejection you do lose your motivation a tad. When I came out here I thought I'd be prepared to do crap work just to get some cash but now I'm finding that I'm not. I guess as you get older it's harder to regress to that kind of shit. I registered with a temp agency yesterday and I was the only male in the building. It was all middle aged secretaries and even the recruiters were middle aged secretaries. I could do their jobs no problem but I just don't feel motivated. Hopefully when I move into my new place tomorrow I will be able to settle down and get myself together.
My original intention was to move out here indefinitely which in my head meant at least 2 years but the way things are going I'm thinking I'm not gonna last 'til the end of the ski season. The plan right now is to spend another 10 days faffing about before I come back to the UK on the 10th for a couple of weeks. Then on my return at the end of the month get some temp work quickly and be supermotivated to get a proper job. If things still aren't happening by 2005 then I guess I'll just see how I feel on a weekly basis. I guess the beauty of this dual citizenship thing is that I can come and go as I please. But anyway, the plan changes on an almost daily basis these days so who the hell knows what I'll be doing!
New Products that I've tried:
Peanut Butter M&Ms - highly rated
Coke C2 - tastes like Coke but not as sugary as full coke but not watery like diet coke
Sushi - didn't like it but it was from a shopping centre food court
Pizza Pops - awesome microwave junk food
Cheerios snack mix - salty and sugary cereals in a bag
Granville Island Beers - very nice, especially the hoegaarden copy
Saw the film "Hero" yesterday. Jet Li plays an assassin. It's much the same as Crouching Tiger but mercifully not as long. I find these fantasy chinese martial arts adventures a bit tiresome. I enjoyed the story but I find it hard to relate to the matrix style fighting in a non sci-fi environment. I prefer my martial arts movies a bit shallower and my sci-fi movies to be complete fiction. I'm not a big fan of the merging of genres.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
At last...
Heskey has finally been dropped from the England set up. Let's hope we never see that talentless waster ever again. Sven must have watched the Brum game where he missed about 4 sitters and finally seen the light. Don't know why it took him 3 years to see the light but I sure as help hope this isn't a temporary thing.
Well it looks like I have somewhere to live. Until I get my hands on a key I'm not totally sure but I'm 99% in there. It's in a house with the original gang of people. They found a 5 bed house while I was doing my own thing looking for a room and luckily there was only four of them. I'm looking forward to having somewhere to base myself after living out of a bag for the last 7 weeks. It's cheap too so I think I will be coming back to the UK for a bit to go my mate Dan's wedding and my mum's 60th birthday. I'm not totally sure yet as I have an interview with a recruitment consultant tomorrow, but I doubt she is going to offer me anything spectacular. If I can get a week of work and then the promise of work on my return that will be good enough for me. I've got a driving test on the 8th too, so if I can pass that and come home, I will be all set on my return.
I can't wait to get out of this hostel. Although it's not disgusting and I have a private room, I'm missing all the home comforts that I've had in the last 3 places, i.e. a kitchen, Internet, laundry, and most importantly - people to talk to.
Right now I'm in an Internet cafe in the gay area of Vancouver. Two PCs down from a me a middle aged asian man is looking at gay chat sites with the occasional flick onto a gay porn site. I seem to have had a lot of exposure to the homosexual lifestyle in the last few years, what with being friends with Michael Collins and going out in soho a few times. His 21st party was hilarious too. The second place I stayed had a house full of camp fellas next door. They had a massive extravagant party the week I was there. It was great actually - gay people really know how to party. The food was quality the aesthetics were nice and the music was European trancy house. The aforementioned surfing buddy has left his PC and has left a page open with the text "Giant Gay Cocks".
Heskey has finally been dropped from the England set up. Let's hope we never see that talentless waster ever again. Sven must have watched the Brum game where he missed about 4 sitters and finally seen the light. Don't know why it took him 3 years to see the light but I sure as help hope this isn't a temporary thing.
Well it looks like I have somewhere to live. Until I get my hands on a key I'm not totally sure but I'm 99% in there. It's in a house with the original gang of people. They found a 5 bed house while I was doing my own thing looking for a room and luckily there was only four of them. I'm looking forward to having somewhere to base myself after living out of a bag for the last 7 weeks. It's cheap too so I think I will be coming back to the UK for a bit to go my mate Dan's wedding and my mum's 60th birthday. I'm not totally sure yet as I have an interview with a recruitment consultant tomorrow, but I doubt she is going to offer me anything spectacular. If I can get a week of work and then the promise of work on my return that will be good enough for me. I've got a driving test on the 8th too, so if I can pass that and come home, I will be all set on my return.
I can't wait to get out of this hostel. Although it's not disgusting and I have a private room, I'm missing all the home comforts that I've had in the last 3 places, i.e. a kitchen, Internet, laundry, and most importantly - people to talk to.
Right now I'm in an Internet cafe in the gay area of Vancouver. Two PCs down from a me a middle aged asian man is looking at gay chat sites with the occasional flick onto a gay porn site. I seem to have had a lot of exposure to the homosexual lifestyle in the last few years, what with being friends with Michael Collins and going out in soho a few times. His 21st party was hilarious too. The second place I stayed had a house full of camp fellas next door. They had a massive extravagant party the week I was there. It was great actually - gay people really know how to party. The food was quality the aesthetics were nice and the music was European trancy house. The aforementioned surfing buddy has left his PC and has left a page open with the text "Giant Gay Cocks".
