The not so scenic views of Victoria....

Our Fernie interviews weren’t till the weekend, and although Google images showed it to be a picturesque gem nestled in the middle of Rockies, it did not sound like it had a great deal to do until the season started, so instead of heading straight there we had a little mini excursion to Vancouver Island. Despite its name implying it is in close proximity to Vancouver… it is not. It takes 3 and half hours, or 4 and a half if you’re us, who apparently have an inability to run on time, even with Anna, the most punctual person in the world. We went for one night, which hardly sounds worth it when you consider we had to get the bus, sky train, a ferry and another bus to get there, all with massive gaps in between them due to our bad scheduling. We eventually arrived in Victoria on Vancouver Island, after a quick walk round, we realised there wasn’t actually a lot to do here. Victoria is very, very British, it proudly advertises ‘ English style fish and chips’, a English sweet shop, and very English grand hotel, basically the entire placed oozed quintessential British charm, which meant we has flown 5000 miles, got a bus, sky train, ferry and bus for an excursion to a Norfolk-like seaside town. Our intention was to have a night out, but as Vitoria wasn’t particularly ‘banging’ we put ourselves to bed early, only to be woken by midnight by the apparently raving club opposite our hostel.

The next morning we woke up early thinking we should make the most of our day in Victoria before we had to get a various modes of transport back to Vancouver, it seemed we had forgotten there was nothing to do. Over hearing our grumbles about the lack of activities an aging hippy came over and imparted his wisdom of Victoria on us, he suggested we take a nice RELAXING scenic bike ride along the something-or-other trail (I forget), which would take us through forests and lakes and along the sea, oh how wonderful it sounds. This is what we did. It was not wonderful. It was not relaxing. All started well, there were trees and there were lakes, even horses and racoons came across our path, oh what a great first hour, and then an excellent picnic lunch (Hungarian salami sandwiches, crisp, apples and biscuits…if you’re interested), and we still had of couples hours to spare to get back to the hostel, and catch our ferry. Then we got over-confident, we went off the trail. Never go off the trail. There is nothing pretty of the trail, there are roads, scary roads, with speeding cars, and hills, lot of hills, which for a girl who never really got taught to use her gears properly were an exhausting feat. What makes these cars and hills even worse is that they were not supposed to be there…or to put it better, WE were not supposed to be there. We were lost, our map was crap (because we went of the trail!), and cars were hurtling past us in a manner which suggested we would soon be road kill. It was terrible; we eventually found a route back, riding along the not-so-scenic views of concrete roads, and houses. This 4 hour ordeal resulted not only resulted in a few scrapes and bruises due to falling off the bikes in panic and fear for our lives, but also missing our bus and ferry meaning we had to wait 2 hours for the next one, which of course added to the obviously joyous moods we were in. So my tip for bike riding in Victoria is; STAY ON THE TRAIL.

Overdressed and Over-keen

We have jobs! Although we are not sure if we are going to take them...yes that’s right, three days into a new country we get a job very easily in a rough job climate and we feel we have the option to be picky, perhaps a little over confident? Our new potential jobs are at Cypress Mountain, we like to think that it was our smart attire that got us the jobs, but in actual fact they were being handed out like sweets at Halloween, all you had to do was turn up. We did stand out though, as the overdressed girls; while everyone else on the free shuttle to the mountain were denim glad we had dug out the ‘smart clothes’ from the depths of our bag-packs, of black trousers and smart shirts – which were even crease-free ( benefits of the rolling packing technique). Me and Milly got jobs in the food and beverage department, while Anna, with her very low knowledge of skiing equipment got a job in rentals… we don’t understand how this happened either. As the orientation isn’t till November we are still going to head up to Fernie for our interviews, to see if the middle of nowhere life is for us….currently I’m feeling the isolated lifestyle may not be for me as I love Vancouver.

As a treat for easing so smoothly into an almost working member of the Canadian society we celebrated as all English do… with dinner and drinks. We decided to go to the Mongolian BBQ as the smell had been wafting down the street for days with its come-eat-here aroma, and who were we to refuse such temptation ? For those of you who aren’t familiar with this type of restaurant, it involves filling your bowl with a selection of thinly sliced, slightly frozen meats (it’s a lot more appealing than it sounds), vegetables, noodles and sauces, which all then gets BBQ-ed within 5 minutes for you. It is however still a normal restaurant, therefore you go in, get seated, and then go fill your bowl up for the BBQ. We were a little over-keen and forgot the normal rules of restaurant etiquette, so in this very full restaurant, which at that present moment in time had no possible place for us to sit, we marched in, headed straight for the frozen meat queue and started filling bowls with as much as we could carry, this was until we noticed the people behind us who hadn’t forgotten the normal rules and were waiting patiently to be seated… this queue continued to form behind them, so we were left standing randomly in the restaurant with our bowls of meat, it was embarrassing.. We sheepishly had to admit our mistake to the staff and were forced to the back of the queue, still clutching our bowls as the contents slowly defrosted in front of us, with even the people in front of us making aren’t you stupid jokes to us. After our embarrassing but delicious meal we met up with the Canadians that me and Milly knew from Monash for some drinks. They took us to the Cambie, we had mentioned to a few Canadians we’d met that we were heading there, and they all seemed to respond with a face which we read as ‘ohhh you’re going there, why!?’ and referred to is as ‘interesting’ /’hick’ place. We got there, and my personal feelings to these reviews were… have these people ever been to a bar in England!? In fact I personally through it was an even a bit more civilized than a English uni bar, although it was rammed, the queue for the bar, was in fact just that, a queue, a long orderly line up of people waiting patiently to be served, there was no shoving, no elbows, and nobody trying to spread their body out as much as possible to hinder other peoples efforts for bar space, I was impressed, I felt more like I was waiting to buy my groceries in a supermarket. With this orderly manner resulting in very quick service, the night ended as expected with many drinks consumed, and a drunk Anna, who when sober is an excellent navigator, trying to lead us the wrong way back home, and refusing to listen to my direction.

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.....lalalala You'll look sweet on the seat, of a bicycle made for two!

15th October

My overall feeling in the last couple of days have not been excitement or joy, it has mainly been distress. Distress at non-included sales tax for ALL purchases. Distress at ridiculous phone contracts which charge you for caller ID (+ tax) and all incoming phone calls (+tax). Distress at banks charging me £10 a month just to have a bank account. Distress at the extreme tipping culture, one drink (+ tip)…another drink (+tip), oh look you have opened my beer, why should I give you an extra 50c for this!? EVERYTIME! Basically distress at my money being sucked away in very subtle but VERY frequent occurrences. This distress has of course been accompanied with MASSIVE appreciation for the UK, and has left me with feelings of why on earth have I come to this sneaky country, which likes to trick me at every purchasing opportunity? Is this a plan that should be added to my ever increasing pile of not very good ideas!?....No, today, distress was lifted (well new distress, my previous complaints are still very much valid, and will definitely remain a constant gripe throughout the year).

We spent the morning preparing for the Cypress Mountain job fair tomorrow, but after that we FINALLY did a fun and non-sorting-our-life-out activity and this I feel is exactly what the Dr.Homesick would have prescribed. We decided to do a little exploring, and what better way to explore than by bike, AND which better bike to use than a ‘bicycle made for two’. As there are 3 of us we had to opt for one bicycle made for one and one tandem. Me and Milly started out on that tandem, although it was going against all my instincts to agree to share control of this contraption with Milly, especially as she was in the front, blocking my view of everything as I rode blindly with her producing just enough sudden swerves to keep me sufficiently nervous for the first few minutes. I had images of us crashing into a wall with me flying of the back of the bike and head first into a shallow rock pool…always best to expect the worse. Amazingly we got into a rhythm, and I quickly started to wonder why tandem bikes were not more common practice, forget cars as the mode of family transport, a multi-person bike is all that’s needed (benefits: tackles obesity, pollution, traffic, fossil fuel depletion…. I think I may be hearing the noble prize in solving the some world problems in coming my way). We rode to Stanley Park, which is not only massive but perfectly positioned to remind me why coming here was a good idea. We rode around the edge of the park along the seawall where we could see across the sea to the tall buildings of North Vancouver with the backdrop of pine covered mountains backed by blue skies and all with a sunny glow being reflected from the sea, we passed small beaches, monuments and light houses…yes we are still in the same massive park, and I felt completely contented about coming here for our very long term excursion……although my bum was experiencing a bit of an ache from the saddle. Milly, Anna and I, did a bit a bit of a switch around with the bikes, although this mostly ended with disastrous crashing and panicked screams with the only working combination being with Milly at the front of the tandem, with either me or Anna behind…. Me and Anna couldn’t even make a meter together so clearly the trust is lacking from our friendship, and Milly’s one previous experience on a tandem was enough for us to hand over bike control to her. So overall the day was great and I am currently much happier.





On a completely unrelated note to Canada life, I have actually had a minor distress today and am fearful I may be being haunted….I’m typing this in the dark and even this is making me a little nervous. Milly and Anna had left me alone in the room while I sorted my purse out, whilst pulling out my cards half a broken driving licence flew into the air and landed at my feet and I was greeted with this staring back at me: (This does not really give justice to how creepy the photo is).


This is not mine! WHY THE HELL IS THIS CREEPY PHOTO IN MY PURSE!? Who the hell this woman!? This is completely a you have to be there type of thing, but I am very upset to have a photo of a most likely dead women jumping out of my purse when I am left alone. I have had this purse over a year, and now it seems the ghosts of owners past are haunting me. Woe and now this will be the thought staying with me as I try and drift to sleep. Distress.

To Eat or Not to Eat? That is the question.

14^th October, 6.30 AM UK, or 13^th October 10.30 PM Canada

We are here. So tired. Bed.

The Experiment

Recently there was a TV programme on the BBC all about sleep, the how to guide to deal with insomnia, very early mornings, sleepwalking, and my main concern, jetlag. The apparent way to prevent the bodily time-zone confusion all lies in food… unfortunately it’s the NOT eating which is meant to help, not stuffing your face as i have now learnt. The experiment involves eating your last meal in the country you’re leaving at its normal time, not eating at all on the flight and then eating your first meal in the country you’re going at its proper time. My appetite seem to anticipate that I was planning to deprive it for the 9 hours flight or it knew that I was about to enter a country where temperature can drop to bloody -50, and therefore I must require a polar bear style roll of blubber (sexy), and so in the week leading to leaving I seemed to be eating everything I could see, I was uncontrollable, instead of excitement or nerves I was completely preoccupied with food, glorious food. I expected that me pre-travel binge would have kept me satisfied on the flight, unfortunately the hungry side of me seemed to have a stronger will that the scientific experimental side of me, and I failed seeing the jet lag investigation through as soon as the first meal was offered. I place most of the blame of the menu, it was beef cobbler, and since I have only just starting eating beef this year, the 21 years of deprivation has resulted in my complete inability to say no when it is offered… it’s just to dam good. It turns out this first meal was a my spiralling down fall, and I continued with Milly’s digestive biscuits, a sandwich, a Kitkat and anything else of Milly’s that she wasn’t going to eat. Handily Anna had heard of the same experiment and was a lot more successful in the non-eating, and so I changed my claim instead stating I was investigating the befit of over-eating….turns out there aren’t any. Three days later I am still suffering tiredness, but Anna on the other hand is perfectly fine and alert, and so it seems the experiment worked, but I am just too weak willed to try it.