One year as Canadian residents
By ruth | February 27, 2008
On the 7th of February we celebrated our one year anniversary as landed immigrants in Canada. Two years until we can apply for citizenship!! We’re still loving it here, especially the snowboarding.
In the last six months, we have done the following:
- Dave started work with Connor, Clark and Lunn and we went to their very posh Christmas party in December
- I’m confirmed in post at the BC Cancer Agency
- We’ve done lots of yoga
- The police shut down a meth lab in the building opposite our house
- We have been to Whistler (many, many times, mostly snowboarding but also summer sightseeing and hiking); Lighthouse Park, Pacific Spirit Regional Park, Lynn Canyon Park, and Grouse Mountain (with Mum and Dad); Mount Seymour; UBC (Nitobe Memorial Garden); and Granville Island (lots)
- We have been snowboarding a lot (25 days so far), mostly at Whistler but also at Cypress Mountain and Grouse Mountain, and had four days’ worth of lessons
- We’ve been split boarding in the Whistler backcountry
- We’ve hiked the High Note trail in Whistler and seen a bear on Mount Seymour
- We’ve celebrated Christmas at my boss Nicole’s house, James’s birth at a baby shower, and Jenn and Clark’s wedding at Granville Island Hotel
- We’ve eaten at The Naam (lots of breakfasts), Quattro on Fourth, the Mountain Club, Earl’s, the Beetroot Cafe, the Bearfoot Bistro, Maurya, Red Door, Urban Elements Tapas, Gastropod, Bistro Pastis and Rimrock Cafe (among others)
- We’ve been to gigs by Ben Harper and Suzanne Vega, and an improv comedy show at Theatresports
- We shopped till we dropped at the Turkey Sale in Whistler, between us buying a snowboard, some bindings, a snowboarding jacket, some snowboarding trousers, socks and mitts
- We’ve had four visitors (Mum and Dad, and Stuart and Andrew) to stay with us
- We’ve done a term and a half of Japanese evening classes at UBC
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Winter
By dave | September 21, 2007
I think Calvin says it best…
Winter is coming. The days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and Whistler has had its first dusting of snow! We’ve been busy planning our winter fun and getting way too excited since we watched TB 10 (almost certainly the best snowboarding DVD of all time) a few weeks ago.
So far we’ve booked the fairly impressive total of 33 days riding in Whistler. We’re heading up there pretty much every other weekend from season open (Nov 22nd) to the middle of April. We’ve also got a 9 day trip in Feb when some people from the UK are coming out to play. We’ve already bought early-bird season tickets so I hope it snows! If I have my way we’ll be doing something snowy every weekend until we can see grass again. I want to check out all the local mountains (we only managed to try Cypress last Winter), Baker looks amazing (when we get really clear weather we can see it from the Lions Gate bridge). We’re also talking about going to Manning Park to ride (and maybe try some X-Country or some snow-shoeing).
I can’t wait…
Tags: snow, winter, calvin, TB 10, dave
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Six months as Canadian residents
By ruth | August 17, 2007
Ten days ago was the six month anniversary of our immigration to Canada!
In the last three months, we have done the following:
- Dave has found a job with investment firm Connor, Clark and Lunn, which he will start in October
- I have started work at the BC Cancer Agency as web communications specialist, and it’s a great place to work
- We have passed our level one kayaking and solo recovery course with Ecomarine Kayaking
- We have been to Skaha Lake, the beaches of the West Side, Whistler (twice), Shannon Falls, Granville Island (many times), Lighthouse Park, Dundarave, Telegraph Cove and Port Hardy
- We have been kayaking on Indian Arm, off Jericho Beach, and in Beaver Cove near Port Hardy
- We’ve been scuba diving in Howe Sound (brr)
- We’ve hiked up Hollyburn Peak, along Eagle Ridge, and through Capilano River Park
- We’ve seen blue herons, bald eagles, a black bear, orcas, humpback whales, dolphins, seals and porpoises
- We’ve celebrated Canada Day and BC Day, HSBC Festival of Light, and a Commercial Drive Car-Free Day in the rain
- We’ve eaten at Vij’s, The Naam, Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe, The Fresh Tomato Cafe, the Beach House, the Mountain Club and the George Lounge (among others)
- We’ve had two visitors (Janey and Dave) to stay with us, and they said they could see why we’d moved here
Being at work makes me feel a lot more naturalised. We’ve met some more lovely people, including Jenn and Clark. The summer has been sunny compared with the UK, though not as good as the usual Vancouver summer apparently. And Dave is already counting down to winter…
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3 months as Canadian residents
By ruth | May 7, 2007
Today is the three month anniversary of our immigration to Canada!
In that time, we have done the following:
- Dave has set up his own company, Attla Consulting, and started work on a contract for UBS
- We’ve got bank accounts, social insurance numbers, medical services plan membership and credit cards
- Dave has passed his BC driving test
- We have found, rented and moved into a lovely apartment not far from the beach in Kitsilano
- We have been to Vancouver Island, Whistler, Deep Cove, Lighthouse Park, and downtown
- I have met lots of interesting, kind and helpful people in pursuit of a job
- We have signed up for sea kayaking lessons, which begin tomorrow
- We’ve been swimming an awful lot
- I’ve been jogging along the beach (five times!!)
- We’ve shopped at Capers, Marketplace IGA, Safeway, Granville Island market, Duthie’s bookshop, Cobs Breads, Canadian Tire, Walmart, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Ming Wo cookshop, Basic Stock cookshop, Cookworks, Home Hardware, Bean Around the World, and more
- We’ve eaten at Burgoo, Tim Hortons, The Schooner in Tofino, various coffee shops, Jules Bistro, East is East, Presto Cucina, Earl’s, Milestones and Cioppino’s
- We’ve watched a lot of (ice) hockey
- I’ve weeded for cash…
I still feel very much a foreigner here, but am getting more and more used to the idea that I live here. We have met some lovely people (Doug and Alice and their friends, and Anke and Michael) and hope to meet some more soon! It’s rained a lot, even for Vancouver, but summer is coming and we have a lot of exploring to do.
Tags: immigration, ruth, anniversary
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10 things Rachel has learnt since arriving in Canada
By ruth | March 25, 2007
- Do not push buttons or slide levers if you do not know what they do
- Blenz make the best hot chocolate (Belgian dark)
- Snowboarding is a lot easier on decent snow
- The internet connection in Whistler is not totally reliable
- Dave is turning into Randy from ‘My name is Earl’
- Fitting a roof rack can take a lot longer than you might think
- Vancouver Island is nothing like the Isle of Wight
- In Vancouver there are lots of scrunts (dogs small enough to tread on)
- Mini golf can be a sub aqua sport
- Dave can make fire (with a little help)
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Rachel’s 10 reasons to have a day off rather than go snowboarding
By ruth | March 25, 2007
- You are far less likely to hurt yourself
- You can spend the money you saved on a lift pass in the shops
- You can have a lie in
- You don’t have to wear a helmet and therefore have bad hair
- You can spend hours in a coffee shop drinking hot chocolate
- You don’t smell
- You don’t ache all over
- You can enjoy the pretty snow without ending up face down in it
- You don’t have to get off any chair lifts
- You can wear shoes that don’t cut off your circulation as soon as you put them on
Tags: rachel, snowboarding
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Rachel’s 10 reasons to snowboard in Canada rather than Europe
By ruth | March 25, 2007
- There is lots of snow
- People queue for lifts in a civilised manner
- There is lots of snow
- You can get fresh vegetables
- There is lots of snow
- There are lots of nice shops that sell normal clothes (without Velcro)
- There is lots of snow
- The kitchen in our apartment not only has a kettle but also coffee machine, toaster, microwave, popcorn maker, sandwich toaster, etc, etc
- There is lots of snow
- The food up the mountain is cheap and delicious with loads of choice
Tags: snowboarding, rachel
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Rachel’s blog from Canada (February 2007)
By ruth | March 25, 2007
We allowed Ruth and Dave approximately 10 days in their new country of choice before landing on their doorstep - or more specifically their sofa bed. As far as sofa beds go it is pretty comfy and I would certainly recommend it although the upstairs neighbours will wake you at 4.30 each morning by having their noisy alarm on snooze several times and then by tramping up and down on the noisiest floorboards in the northern hemisphere. Of course the jet lag doesn’t help…
On our first day here we went on a whirlwind tour of Vancouver. Despite Ruth and Dave’s assurances that it always rains in Vancouver it was a beautiful day. We got the ferry across to downtown - so much more civilised than the tube - and walked into the city. We stopped for a coffee (or hot chocolate depending on the level of your caffeine dependency) and Stuart created a new sport: Dodge Ram spotting.
Then it was on to Stanley Park and the Aquarium. Highlights here were certainly the dolphin display and the beluga whales who appear to be made out of marshmallows. The onion rings were pretty good too! Next we walked around Lost Lagoon to the beach and then along to Granville Island, via the seabus. If Dave and Ruth offer to take you on a tour of Vancouver, take my advice and wear comfy shoes! We finally arrived home via the organic supermarket.
On Monday it rained. Lots. Dave and Stuart set off to get a roof rack fitted to Dave’s Toyota Corolla and Ruth introduced me to Flickr. Later we went to a Mall and were introduced to the delights of a Canadian food court (so much nicer than at home) and had fun in Walmart looking at everything from lingerie to guns to John Deere dinner services.
On Tuesday we ignored Zoe’s advice and travelled to Tofino on Vancouver Island. By this stage Dave’s driving was improving and he only needed occasional reminders of which side of the road to drive on. The ferry took about an hour and a half with amazing views. Outside was pretty windy and resulted in some amusing photos of silly hair. It took about 3 hours to drive from Nanaimo, across Vancouver Island to Tofino. One thing you will see a lot of in Vancouver Island (at least in February anyway) is weather. We had sun, cloud, hail, sleet and snow several times over during our journey.
Despite what Zoe said (when trying to put us off going) Tofino is lovely. A little town on the edge of the world. We dumped our stuff and went off to explore Chesterman Beach. Only slightly alarmed by the tsunami warning signs! Did a little shopping and went for a coffee / hot chocolate. Went to the Schooner restaurant for dinner which was most civilised. Fortunately we’d booked as despite it being a Tuesday night out of season the place was packed. I had fabulous fish and seafood. Stuart had an interesting experience with some wasabi! Our first night was spent in a ’suite’ which was fine. Unfortunately we lost electricity in the morning and all had to shower by candle light. When we mentioned it to the owners they said ‘You didn’t try to have the coffee machine and the toaster on at the same time did you?’.
The next morning our plans were some what delayed by Ruth losing her wallet (allegedly not a rare occurrence). So we searched the suite and then started to retrace our steps from the previous day. Stuart and I heroically agreed to search the coffee shop while Ruth and Dave traipsed around the shops and eventually ended up at the police station. While Stuart and I were tucking into breakfast at the coffee shop it turned out ‘Gordie’ had found the wallet in the street and it was handed back to a most relieved Ruth. (Mrs Hartnup - if you are reading this I totally made that last bit up and Ruth didn’t lose anything!).
It has to be said the weather on this day was even worse than the previous day. It rained and rained and rained. We went up to a view point but could see nothing but cloud. Stuart and Dave collected lichen while discussing the geniusness of Ray Mears.
As Brits abroad we were not to be beaten by the rain so it was off to the golf course and a game of mini golf in driving rain. The bloke in the pro golf shop obviously thought we were mad and gave us a discount! Hitting a ball into a water filled hole is not so easy but Ruth was quite happy in her new red co-op wellies. Dave kept score on Stuart’s waterproof notebook and only realised several hours later that he’d had an umbrella in his pocket all along. For the record Dave won but as Stuart pointed out he was doing the scoring… As we couldn’t get any wetter we decided to go onto Long beach. Stuart and Dave stayed in the car but Ruth and I braved the rain for long enough to see mad people go surfing.
For our second night in Tofino we stayed in a cabin on the beach. It was beautiful and really secluded. The cabin itself was pretty small. French windows opened onto a deck. Just inside the french windows was a double bed, sofa and most importantly wood burner. At the back of this room was the kitchen with the bathroom off to the side. Up the stairs / ladder was a Heidi style attic with twin beds. We had a lovely evening playing cards while Dave and Stuart burnt stuff. Dave proudly made fire with lichen and his fire stick. Ruth and I were convinced we’d seen a sea lion although Dave maintains it was driftwood!
I woke up early the next morning to the sound of Ruth taking photos. I wondered what on earth she was doing until I opened the curtains to discover a couple of inches of snow. Apparently I let out quite a gasp! It was time for a new experience - being on the beach in the snow in our pyjamas! Many photos later we had breakfast while Stuart and Dave lit the wood burner despite us having to check out in an hour’s time. While packing up we saw 3 sea otters swimming in the bay.
So we’d seen Tofino in the sunshine and in the driving rain, now it was the snow day. We considered a rematch of mini golf but opted for Long Beach instead. It looked beautiful covered in snow and there were still mad people surfing. We drove on to Ucluelet for a gorgeous lunch and then it was back over the mountains to catch the return ferry. This time Stuart took the wheel but we made it in one piece. On the ferry on the way back we saw dolphins swimming alongside the boat which was quite exciting. Ruth and I spent the remainder of the journey scanning the horizon for more wildlife but with no joy.
We had one evening in Vancouver to re-pack (and collect Dave’s new computer). Dave and I went on a mini adventure to find some Chinese food and in the process managed to make out the street system in Canada. We stuffed our faces with Chinese and packed all the snowboard gear.
The next morning Simon arrived and the boys spent a while loading the three board bags onto the new roof rack. Then we set out for Whistler. We ignored the flapping noise coming from the roof and the signs telling us to go no further without winter tyres or snow chains. We continued through the snow and eventually arrived. The others all piled up the mountain while I wandered around the shops and drank yet more hot chocolate. Bought Stuart a cool coat and myself a very pink very furry jumper. Finally got into our apartment and it was worth the wait. Huge, with the best equipped kitchen ever. We headed out for a meal and strangely enough ended up in an Irish pub which served Guinness and huge meals.
The next day even I couldn’t put off the boarding any longer. However my fears were slightly lessened by the gorgeous soft snow. In fact it didn’t stop snowing for the next 48 hours! I won’t attempt to go into detail about the snowboarding except to say the others had a great time and I didn’t hate it! In fact I did turns and everything! Stuart and Dave had both bought GPS gizmos which recorded not only how far they had been but how fast! Obviously no one was immature enough to try and beat their speed record on each run!
On Monday Ruth and I both had a day off. Went off to the coffee shop to make the most of the free internet so Ruth could get her Flickr fix. Stuart came back early having hurt his knee and Dave and Simon came back tired.
I cooked everyone a fab roast dinner. All was going swimmingly until I pushed a lever on the oven to see what it would do. Unfortunately what it did was to lock the oven until it cooled down (something to do with the self clean mode!?!). For a while we had to face the prospect of a roast dinner without roast potatoes which were locked inside. I started cooking emergency mashed potatoes but thankfully before the vegetables were ready the oven released the roasties!!
Following a massive dinner and a few bottles of wine we felt obliged to introduce Simon to the joys of ‘My name is Earl’. Many hours later we headed to bed but not before it had been agreed that Dave is Earl’s brother Randy’s double!!
Tuesday was sunny! Nothing fell from the sky until after dark so there were views aplenty up the mountain. Stuart and his bad knee were left behind to tidy the apartment while the rest of us headed up the gondola. Dave cooked in the evening as I wasn’t to be trusted with the oven. Then it was time for more ‘Earl’ before bed.
Wednesday and the weather was back to snowy. Very snowy. We had to check out by 10am so packed everything into the car. Ruth, Dave and Simon headed out for a last day’s boarding and Stuart and I spent many hours in Blenz coffee house (no Flickr due to no internet access from Whistler to Squamish).
Thursday was Dave’s birthday so we all agreed he should decide what we did for the day. After a while we could stand his indecision no longer so went for brunch at Milestones. Nice food and lots of it. We went for a walk along the beach and got the boat over to Granville Island. The food market was amazing and while Simon and I salivated over all the fresh fish and seafood Dave went on a shopping spree for dinner.
Back in North Vancouver we collected the car and headed over to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-operative). Dave had a minor ‘Randy’ moment and drove along the pavement - sorry, sidewalk! We thought he probably shouldn’t do that in his driving test. Stuart went mad in MEC and tried to buy all kinds of things. Then we headed over to Canadian Tire (kind of like a cross between Homebase and Halfords) which some of us found more exciting than others!
On Friday it was time to pack up and go home. Had a thoroughly unhealthy lunch in Tim Hortons followed rapidly by a second lunch in McDonalds as we were all still hungry. Unfortunately the 40 minute journey to the airport took 3 hours and we almost missed the flight (not sure who was more worried about this prospect – us or Dave and Ruth!). However we made it by the skin of our teeth and set off home.
All in all we had a fantastic holiday and I would recommend Canada whole heartedly.
Never written a blog before so not sure how to end…
Tags: rachel, holiday, tofino, vancouver, whistler
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Cypress Mountain
By ruth | March 10, 2007
A week after arriving in Vancouver, we hadn’t been out to do anything fun, and were feeling a little stircrazy. I suggested a trip on the bus to Cypress Mountain to go snowboarding. The shuttle bus leaves from near the Seabus at Lonsdale Quay, and we caught the 8:30am departure.
It felt very strange walking down our street, then sitting on a bus for nearly an hour, in full snowboarding gear, but it started feeling less weird when it began to rain, then sleet, then snow quite hard by the time we got to the resort. All the people on the bus seemed to be snowboarders, and a lot of them were Australian or European.
At the top, the snow was coming down hard and wet, and I wasn’t at all sure what sort of day we were going to have. It turned out we had an absolutely amazing time. The snow was slushy but easy to ride, and the pistes were empty - just the way I like them. We had to stop after the first few runs to get something to cover our faces because the snow was coming down as sharp ice crystals and the more exposed slopes left your face stinging quite badly. We both had lots of fun carving big wide turns, though we both had quite painful falls a few times too. We had a leisurely lunch at the lodge, where we realised just how wet we were - all my outer layers were absolutely sodden, and everything in my pockets too.
Cypress isn’t huge but there was plenty to keep us happy for a day. I banged my head in the afternoon so we stopped quite early, and went to the bar for some hearty corn chowder before catching the 4:30pm bus back to Lonsdale Quay and traipsing home through the rain. Despite the wet, the total lack of views, and the falls, we were both best pleased with our first day off in Canada.
We went back to Cypress with Simon a couple of weeks later. It was even wetter and the snow was slushy and heavy - and still no views - but even on a Saturday it was nice and quiet. And as a wonderful bonus we saw a white hare, which may well have been a snowshoe hare, lolloping around near the piste!
Tags: cypress, snowboarding, ruth
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Our little apartment
By dave | February 26, 2007
We are living in a ’suite’, which is an apartment that you can rent on a short term basis and is equipped with all mod cons. All bills (electricity, water, internet, cable, local telephone calls) are included in the rent, which is $1,400 a month. It’s on East 1st Street in North Vancouver, and is much more reasonably priced than any other suites we found. It’s owned and managed by Suite Deals. Suites are generally aimed at businesspeople who are staying for longer than they’d want to stay in a hotel, though it seems Suite Deals get quite a bit if custom from new immigrants like us, including a lot of nurses.
It’s a nice place, spacious and centrally located, just ten minutes from Lonsdale Quay, where the Seabus to Vancouver downtown leaves from. We have local shops and cafes and restaurants; a parking space; a big lounge, TV, internet and a comfy but squeaky bedroom (the floor throughout the apartment is wooden and squeaky, actually).
We still havent’t explored the local area much, but what we have seen we like; and it’s only a 50 minute bus trip or 30 minute drive to Cypress ski resort (Grouse is closer but we haven’t been there yet). Life is easier now that we have a car (about which more later); we had to go to the local supermarket pretty much every day when we first arrived, and buy what we could carry. We need to build up our store cupboard!
We are in the suite until the beginning of April, so we need to find some more permanent accommodation soon. We have somewhere we’re going to look at that belongs to a friend of a friend, but we really need to decide what area we want to live in. We could stay in North Vancouver; or we are thinking of the Commercial Drive area (rough around the edges but lively and with lots of multicultural restaurants and cafes); or the area between Cambie and Main on the border between East Vancouver and the West Side, which is also quite lively and a little more salubrious, and up-and-coming. We’re only going to rent to begin with.
Tags: suite, acommodation, suitedeals
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