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.
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