This week I had already filled up my evening even before it started. Not real exciting things though. Mostly just singing!
On Monday I had a singing lesson with the person that runs the choir. She was pretty good but I had to be careful not to argue and talk back to her. I definitely have a problem with authority! It was good overall.
On Tuesday I had normal choir practice. Nothing much to report there. It seems to be coming together well.
On Wednesday I went orienteering. Which was a bit stupid really. I saw that the course start was only 3km from work so I decided I didn't really have any excuse not to go. Unfortunately it was 3km from work in the opposite direction from home. As I was running to the start point I started to add up the ks and realised that there was going to be a fair bit of running to be had. I had already run 3km in the morning to work! The course was pretty sweet. It was split into three legs and you had to return to base between each leg. It was also a hilarious mass start. Half the group did legs A, B then C then the other half did B, A then C. I think I did pretty poorly again but it was great to see a new part of town (even if it was dark). I think the course was probably supposed to be 6km but I probably ran about 7 because I'm a bit rubbish at. So then I set off on the 6km run home. 19km day, not too bad.
On Thursday I went to the first rehersal for a small choir group out of the larger group. It was an auditioned choir and I was pretty lucky to hear about it and learn the audition song in a couple of days to get in. They were happy to have me though because without me there was probably not going to be a Tenor part. The song we sang is a bit of a mental Bossanova Jazz thing and all kinds of challenging. Everyone had put quite a bit of homework in though so we were pretty good with it straight off the bat. Which meant that we are now going to learn another song. I hope its not as hard. Afterwards we went for a couple of drinks in one of the members apartments who lived on the 33rd floor downtown. It was a pretty sweet view. Again, I'm pretty stoked with the city I moved to.
On Friday I went out drinking with a Eric from work. He's a structural engineer and is a pretty recent graduate. He took me to some place that had a bloody $13 cover charge! I think he felt a bit bad for taking me there though so he paid it. It wasn't up to much and wasn't worth the $13 but we drank quite a bit and I got home pretty late. I tried to cook myself some hashbrowns in the oven but fell asleep and woke up with a headache at 7am to a smokey apartment. I don't think its ever a good idea for me to cook in a fry pan after drinking... On Saturday I was intending to go and buy a guitar but realised that I really need to buy just a second hand one (and I had a sore head). I want a nice one (~$1200 ish) but realised if I pay that then I'm not gonna wanna take it out for drinks so I am hoping to get a nice guitar second hand, I will have to be a bit more patient now though.
On Sunday I left the outside windows and door open to my apartment to air it out. Unfortunately this meant that it was very cold. Just don't burn things I guess is the answer to this problem.
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Work, Boring Items and Fun Items
This week was the busiest I have had in a very long time. At the moment my boss is away travelling in Australia and New Zealand and I think he left a bit early in my employment for me to know what the hell I'm doing but its kinda cool because I feel in the deep end again which I haven't really felt like since my first year at Marlborough Lines. This week I knew I was going to be working hard to produce a report for a controls and monitoring upgrade for a river diversion system. I knew it was gonna be hard because I don't know shit about controls and monitoring so it was basically just making stuff up that sounded technical enough that the client thought I knew what I was talking about. Unfortunately the main contact for the client is a controls and monitoring expert so I was gonna be up against it. I had a discussion with him on the phone at one stage and I think I fooled him! Then this other mining project kinda crept up and BAM! I was the electrical engineering "expert" working on it. Luckily it was the supply of electricity to some dewatering pumps so I had a fair idea what I was doing. I even got to do some load flow modelling. Due to the tight time frame I kinda missed checking some bits off and was pulled up on them by senior review but think I did OK. Unfortunately my report writings skills have deteriorated since uni (I never had to write reports at ML) or the level of writing needs to be higher. Probably a little of both. I hope I delivered some good stuff by the end of the week though. It was really refreshing being challenged again and with the controls and monitoring project I even went through the "what the hell am I doing? I don't know if I can do this".
On Tuesday night after choir I ran across another new critter. A skunk ran down the footpath in front of me and into someone's garden while I was walking to the skytrain. I was pretty surprised at how big he was. Slightly larger than a cat, unless he was just super furry. He didn't hang around like the badger did though so I didn't get to inspect him to much. It is important to note here that I had a couple of beers in me, and it is also time for me to tell you something sweet about the skytrains here. They are completely automated, so there is no driver. But there is still a single seat at the front of each carriage like a drivers seat with a window so you can see the track in front. So when I got on in my slightly toasted state I sat up the front. It was awesome. I thought seriously about pretending I was actually controlling the train but then I realised I wouldn't even get to see the other passengers reactions. It was kinda like a boring roller coaster, but pretty good value for $2.50, good times on the skytrain!
During the week I also got a birthday present from Mummy and Daddy with some tasty caramel fudge cake. Yum. I just at the last piece for pudding tonight. Soooo gooooood!
On Wednesday I got all excited cos I got mail and thought it was my credit card. Unfortunately I was severely disappointed when it was just my cheques. All 100 of them. That's over 8 years of bloody rent payments, what a load of bollocks. I got all angry at the stupid banking system again.
My card finally came on Friday. On Saturday I went into the bank to activate it and put my debit card on the cheque button of the credit card. The teller tried to tell me it wasn't possible but I had already sussed that out so I told her to go and get her manager. It really feels like I'm pushing the bounds of the Canadian banking system here but it is the your 2013! We were supposed to have flying cars by now! On Saturday afternoon I went to Metrotown (just a big mall thing, sounds pretty cool when I say "I took the Skytrain to Metrotown" though doesn't it?). The first thing I did was line up for half an hour to get a BC drivers license. I had looked online and I only had to pay $30 and that was it, they sent me a new card. Pretty good compared to Jesse in Portland who has to sit a practical drivers test! I was a little sad when I had to surrender by NZ drivers licence though! Apparently one of the requirements for the reciprocal agreement thing but it didn't make surrendering a little piece of my country feel any better. After that was done I went on my first spending spree. This one was for boring items though: a toaster (I had been cooking my bread in the oven up until now, many pieces of bread have been sacrificed to the fire gods). Only $20.
An electric jug (the one I have been using doesn't have an auto off function. It doesn't even look that old, but it definitely felt like I was living in the dark ages). I have also started to drink an absurd amount of tea so it will get pretty good use. Some of England must have rubbed off on me somehow. $20.
And a rice cooker (Hayden got real grumpy with me when I told I couldn't make rice in a pot but I don't care because now I have technology to cook rice for me, technology is much better at cooking than me). Only $14.
So those were the boring things but they were kinda exciting because I could use the toaster and jug straight away so I went home and had tea and toast.
On Sunday I went to buy fun things. First I went and spent far to long choosing a pair of new road shoes. I had a voucher for a free hoodie so I went to a place that was a fair way away which meant I had to take a bus. I can't wait to get a car (seems like a reoccurring theme doesn't it?). $160:
I then took another bus to the street where all the outdoor stuff it. I spent a long time in a bunch of the stores, especially MEC which is a store kinda like Kathmandu except I think the quality of the stuff is a bit better. I looked at massive boofey down jackets but re thought what I was gonna use a down jacket for and decided that lightweight was the way to go (still warm but packs down a lot smaller). I ended up just buying a pair of climbing shoes, $150:
Lastly I went next door to have a look at down jackets and found a pretty good North Face down jacket that I think will do the trick, $250:
So now I am a bit better prepared for activities. I had a look at snow shoes but the selection was pretty crap and I decided to just hire them a couple of times to try a couple of different types out.
When I got back home I still had to go to the supermarket so I decided to try my new jacket out and it was nice and toasty with just a T-shirt on underneath. On the way home I couldn't be bothered cooking anything and still felt like spending money so bought a donair for dinner (kebab thing). God damn it was good and it was only 6 bucks. It is likely that I will be eating many more of them!
Crikey dick this post has got completely out of hand. Sorry about that. At least you are done reading it now! I promise I'll make the next one a bit smaller!
On Tuesday night after choir I ran across another new critter. A skunk ran down the footpath in front of me and into someone's garden while I was walking to the skytrain. I was pretty surprised at how big he was. Slightly larger than a cat, unless he was just super furry. He didn't hang around like the badger did though so I didn't get to inspect him to much. It is important to note here that I had a couple of beers in me, and it is also time for me to tell you something sweet about the skytrains here. They are completely automated, so there is no driver. But there is still a single seat at the front of each carriage like a drivers seat with a window so you can see the track in front. So when I got on in my slightly toasted state I sat up the front. It was awesome. I thought seriously about pretending I was actually controlling the train but then I realised I wouldn't even get to see the other passengers reactions. It was kinda like a boring roller coaster, but pretty good value for $2.50, good times on the skytrain!
During the week I also got a birthday present from Mummy and Daddy with some tasty caramel fudge cake. Yum. I just at the last piece for pudding tonight. Soooo gooooood!
On Wednesday I got all excited cos I got mail and thought it was my credit card. Unfortunately I was severely disappointed when it was just my cheques. All 100 of them. That's over 8 years of bloody rent payments, what a load of bollocks. I got all angry at the stupid banking system again.
My card finally came on Friday. On Saturday I went into the bank to activate it and put my debit card on the cheque button of the credit card. The teller tried to tell me it wasn't possible but I had already sussed that out so I told her to go and get her manager. It really feels like I'm pushing the bounds of the Canadian banking system here but it is the your 2013! We were supposed to have flying cars by now! On Saturday afternoon I went to Metrotown (just a big mall thing, sounds pretty cool when I say "I took the Skytrain to Metrotown" though doesn't it?). The first thing I did was line up for half an hour to get a BC drivers license. I had looked online and I only had to pay $30 and that was it, they sent me a new card. Pretty good compared to Jesse in Portland who has to sit a practical drivers test! I was a little sad when I had to surrender by NZ drivers licence though! Apparently one of the requirements for the reciprocal agreement thing but it didn't make surrendering a little piece of my country feel any better. After that was done I went on my first spending spree. This one was for boring items though: a toaster (I had been cooking my bread in the oven up until now, many pieces of bread have been sacrificed to the fire gods). Only $20.
An electric jug (the one I have been using doesn't have an auto off function. It doesn't even look that old, but it definitely felt like I was living in the dark ages). I have also started to drink an absurd amount of tea so it will get pretty good use. Some of England must have rubbed off on me somehow. $20.
And a rice cooker (Hayden got real grumpy with me when I told I couldn't make rice in a pot but I don't care because now I have technology to cook rice for me, technology is much better at cooking than me). Only $14.
So those were the boring things but they were kinda exciting because I could use the toaster and jug straight away so I went home and had tea and toast.
On Sunday I went to buy fun things. First I went and spent far to long choosing a pair of new road shoes. I had a voucher for a free hoodie so I went to a place that was a fair way away which meant I had to take a bus. I can't wait to get a car (seems like a reoccurring theme doesn't it?). $160:
I then took another bus to the street where all the outdoor stuff it. I spent a long time in a bunch of the stores, especially MEC which is a store kinda like Kathmandu except I think the quality of the stuff is a bit better. I looked at massive boofey down jackets but re thought what I was gonna use a down jacket for and decided that lightweight was the way to go (still warm but packs down a lot smaller). I ended up just buying a pair of climbing shoes, $150:
Lastly I went next door to have a look at down jackets and found a pretty good North Face down jacket that I think will do the trick, $250:
So now I am a bit better prepared for activities. I had a look at snow shoes but the selection was pretty crap and I decided to just hire them a couple of times to try a couple of different types out.
When I got back home I still had to go to the supermarket so I decided to try my new jacket out and it was nice and toasty with just a T-shirt on underneath. On the way home I couldn't be bothered cooking anything and still felt like spending money so bought a donair for dinner (kebab thing). God damn it was good and it was only 6 bucks. It is likely that I will be eating many more of them!
Crikey dick this post has got completely out of hand. Sorry about that. At least you are done reading it now! I promise I'll make the next one a bit smaller!
Saturday, 16 February 2013
A Concert, a Critter and a Beer or Two
This is not good, it was two weeks ago since I posted anything and one of two things will happen. Either there will be bugger all because I can't remember anything or it will blow out into a exorbitant number of words. Lets see how we go.
So I new Muse were coming to Vancouver on the 6th of Feb when I got to Canada but all of the GA tickets had already sold out so I had kinda written them off. Then on Monday a person posted to the choir facebook page that she had a couple of spare tickets and was happy to exchange them for pieces of paper that are commonly used for purchasing goods and services here. Keen as, I said, and so I went to my first concert in Vancouver. It was only a 20min skytrain ride to the stadium Chinatown station ($2.10), $85 for the ticket and $40 for the obligatory gig shirt. This is one of the reasons I came to a big city, so that international artists only cost me $130 instead of the $500 and upwards I used to spend getting to Auckland and back.
The concert itself was pretty sweet. Miranda (the person I bought the ticket off) sold the other one on Craigslist to a really nice guy. We all had to enter the arena together (some stupid eticket system) so we went for a beer with him and his friends. Got yarning and ended up missing the opening act but I wasn't too fussed. Muse was good but I think the crowd was pretty confuzzeled by the eclectic mix of genres they play now. I didn't even know that they released a new album in October that is apparently even more electronic than The Resistance. The crowd didn't really know whether to mosh out or cut shapes so there wasn't much movement which was OK because the stage show was awesome, with lasers, lights and a set of concentric screens that could be lowered and raised separately to make a fort over the entire stage (obscuring the band from view). They played a couple of classics like Plug in Baby, Hysteria and Stockholm Syndrome (which I laughed all the way through as I recounted the hermit challenge where I listened to it for an hour on repeat). Afterwards we went for a debriefing beer where we met up with the guy that bought the other ticket again and I stayed up well past my bed time.
On Thursday we had a tenor sectional for the choir. The place we went to was close to the waterfront so when I got there early I went for a wander around all the lah di dah yachts around. Then I found something that I didn't expect to find in a dock, a Badger! I dunno what the hell he was doing, he was probably pretty confused as he was out on the maze of floating platforms that led to all of the moored yachts. He finally found his way out of it though and he walked under the platform I was standing on so I got a pretty good bead on him. He's so big! Why the hell does he live underground? What a guy!
I was pretty guted by the end of the week that I hadn't received my credit card yet (white people problems) so I couldn't go on my long awaited spending spree.
On Sunday I went to check out Granville Island with meetup person named Sabrina and a friend of hers that I met a few weeks ago.
As and aside: I did NOT know that there was a Evil Dead musical! Hopefully get a chance to check that out some time! I had been told Granville Island was an interesting place because it used to be a fully industrial area and has been converted into a vibrant art district with a massive market in the middle. Its funny because there is still a cement factory on the island somewhere in amongst all of the hipsters. After wandering around the market for a while we went to have a beer at the Granville Island Brewery. It was pretty nice beer but nothing to write home about.
Monday was a public holiday. It is called family day and was the first one for BC although a couple of other Provinces have had it for a while. Someone told me that they started to introduce in the coldest Provinces to reduce the suicide rate. I have not checked the references on that. Anyway, the reason for telling you it was a public holiday on Monday was because I was determined not to waste the evening. For some reason part of me always wants to have a few drinks and stay out late on a Sunday when there is a public holiday the next day for novelty factor so I asked around my small group of acquaintances if anyone was keen for drinks. I found someone that was going to a bar with some friends but quite late so I was sceptical if anything would be happening. I got into town at about 10:30pm and found that there was still plenty of people around. I guess I'm not the only one that enjoys making the most of a Monday off. Unfortunately the bar had an awful DJ that kept telling the crowd to put their hands up. In the end I decided that it was just easier to put them up and leave them there. A few people gave me some weird looks but I just asked them "why haven't you got your hands up? He hasn't told us we can put them down yet" His only 2 DJ skills consisted of scratching really badly (I think even a double amputee snake could do a better job) and yelling "YEAH" into the mic (seemingly as a celebration of his ability to fade a new song in over the last one without getting the beats lined up at all). I was not amused or impressed.
I didn't drink too much so Monday was not a writeoff but I didn't do much, just a run to the supermarket. I still hate not having a car.
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Waitangi Day
So I have been trying to catch up with the guy that helped my find my job by sending me a list of engineering companies in Vancouver for a while but he is pretty busy. This week he asked me if I was going to the Waitangi day event at a downtown pub. I hadn't heard about before he told me but my reply was hell yeah! It was at a place called "The Library Square Public House". I got down there at 10:45am and it was great to finally meet Paul. He was with a bunch of ex-Canterbury University Engineers too so it was cool talking to a few of them. Paul was actually the same year in Electrical as the guy whose role I took when I started with Marlborough Lines.
Then event was awesome. The pub had apparently cleaned out the whole area's supply of Steinlager pure and we drank it all by 3pm. At 11:30am there was a welcome Powhiri by the Vancouver kapa haka group (which apparently exists!) and there was also a few Waiata and a haka. They had a couple of special items on the menu for us as well including meat pies and sausage-in-a-piece-of-bread. The event T-shirt was a nice Marino one with a Kiwi-Canada design on it so I had to buy one of those. I met a bunch of cool people but realised how hard it is to make good friends. I had a good chat to a bunch of people but don't know how many of them I will see again. I was stoked to have a yarn to a guy about the whole Canadian engineer iron ring thing (google it) who told me that he is going to go through the ceremony soon to get one even though his degree is from NZ. I'll definitely have to look into that and get me one of those.
I also discovered one thing that I miss from NZ and that is hearing kiwi music. A lot of people complain that NZ music is crap and the only reason its on the radio is because its law but I don't care, its cool that we hear it so much in NZ. The pub played Kiwi music all day, from Shihad to Shapeshifter to Kora to Crowded house. I might be biased but I reckon we have a bunch of good music. I know a few people would give me shit for saying that but I just reckon they would miss it too if they were overseas.
The pub also played classic TV advertisements and montages of movies and TV series on the TV system. It was pretty weird watch Vancouver TV's broadcasting Trumpet ads (togs, togs, togs, undies), Lift+ sharpen up ads, Outrageous Fortune, Footrot Flats among others.
I stayed at the pub until about 11pm at which point I went to hunt some food with some other Canadians. I had a tasty burger for dinner with them before having to leave so that I didn't miss the last skytrain. I crawled into bed at about 1am with mixed feelings about the day. It was a great event but it made me realise how isolated I still feel here, and how much energy I still need to put into meeting people. But that's OK cos I like a challenge and its not like I have another choice as an extrovert. I look forward to next years event that will probably feel significantly different by "being a good time with friends" instead of "another opportunity to meet people".
One thing is for sure though: I'm definitely proud to be a Kiwi.
Then event was awesome. The pub had apparently cleaned out the whole area's supply of Steinlager pure and we drank it all by 3pm. At 11:30am there was a welcome Powhiri by the Vancouver kapa haka group (which apparently exists!) and there was also a few Waiata and a haka. They had a couple of special items on the menu for us as well including meat pies and sausage-in-a-piece-of-bread. The event T-shirt was a nice Marino one with a Kiwi-Canada design on it so I had to buy one of those. I met a bunch of cool people but realised how hard it is to make good friends. I had a good chat to a bunch of people but don't know how many of them I will see again. I was stoked to have a yarn to a guy about the whole Canadian engineer iron ring thing (google it) who told me that he is going to go through the ceremony soon to get one even though his degree is from NZ. I'll definitely have to look into that and get me one of those.
I also discovered one thing that I miss from NZ and that is hearing kiwi music. A lot of people complain that NZ music is crap and the only reason its on the radio is because its law but I don't care, its cool that we hear it so much in NZ. The pub played Kiwi music all day, from Shihad to Shapeshifter to Kora to Crowded house. I might be biased but I reckon we have a bunch of good music. I know a few people would give me shit for saying that but I just reckon they would miss it too if they were overseas.
The pub also played classic TV advertisements and montages of movies and TV series on the TV system. It was pretty weird watch Vancouver TV's broadcasting Trumpet ads (togs, togs, togs, undies), Lift+ sharpen up ads, Outrageous Fortune, Footrot Flats among others.
I stayed at the pub until about 11pm at which point I went to hunt some food with some other Canadians. I had a tasty burger for dinner with them before having to leave so that I didn't miss the last skytrain. I crawled into bed at about 1am with mixed feelings about the day. It was a great event but it made me realise how isolated I still feel here, and how much energy I still need to put into meeting people. But that's OK cos I like a challenge and its not like I have another choice as an extrovert. I look forward to next years event that will probably feel significantly different by "being a good time with friends" instead of "another opportunity to meet people".
One thing is for sure though: I'm definitely proud to be a Kiwi.
Banking, Beans and Beers
Well I possibly shouldn't be so excited about getting a credit card here but I am. With no credit rating I was pretty sure I would have to get some sort of shitty cash secured card but they have approved me for an unsecured card which is pretty sweet. Can't wait to get my hands on in and go max it out at MEC! In other bank related new Canada has unfortunately come through to prove that every banking system in the world except New Zealand is retarded. It is pretty cashless here which is good but not when you wanna give anybody else money. I have been trying to figure out how to pay my rent. There is no such thing as an automatic payment here but I got excited when I learned about a relatively new thing called "e-transfer". Apparently you just send someone an email with a security question in it and when they log on and answer the question your money gets transferred to their account. The first problem I found was it costs $1.50 per transaction. But then here's the real kicker: you can only transfer up to $1000. I mean what the hell? How is that useful to anyone? Under $1000 you may as well just give someone cash to avoid the $1.50 transaction fee. Its not like over $1000 is an uncommon amount of money in this day and age. Giving my landlord cash is also out because I can only withdraw $800 from an ATM in any 24 hour period. So what am I left with? A cheque. A BLOODY CHEQUE! I thought we phased those out 20 years ago. So now I have to order a 100 cheque book for $40 and write a cheque and somehow deliver it to my landlord every 2 weeks. If you can't already tell, I'm pretty pissed off about this. So banking in Canada joins the other banking systems I have had anything to do with in the "not-up-to-much" category.
In other news I went to the supermarket to find the appropriate ingredients for my signature dish and found this:
I almost laughed out loud in the aisle. Canadians gotta maple everything! I thought I better try it before I knocked it so I cooked em up and my taste buds were somewhat confused that I was eating sweet beans for dinner. I wasn't sure whether I should put them on toast or pancakes, I didn't have any pancakes so I ate them on toast and it certainly didn't help the situation at all. I'll just stick to the BBQ flavour that seems the closest to what I'm used to thanks.
During the week I discovered that there were a couple of groups at work that get together for beers. On Thursday the mining and environmental group (MEG) have beers and on Friday power and transportation (P&T), what I am a part of, have theirs. It seems like a pretty good system, someone stocks up a fridge and you pay $2.50 for a beer. I had a good yarn to a few people at work and look forward to the next ones. It was also pretty funny because I drank quite a few beers with a civil engineer on Friday night and then had to run home (I'm still running to and from work). I'm pretty used to running around a little bit tipsey but usually I am pretty inappropriately dressed (wearing casual shoes, jeans etc.) so don't last too long before I have to slow down or walk but this time I had my normal running gear, and most importantly my running shoes. I went sooo fast! By the time I got home I was completely gassed and had to have a wee lie down before I could build up the strength to reheat my nacho dinner. It was pretty funny.
In other news I went to the supermarket to find the appropriate ingredients for my signature dish and found this:
I almost laughed out loud in the aisle. Canadians gotta maple everything! I thought I better try it before I knocked it so I cooked em up and my taste buds were somewhat confused that I was eating sweet beans for dinner. I wasn't sure whether I should put them on toast or pancakes, I didn't have any pancakes so I ate them on toast and it certainly didn't help the situation at all. I'll just stick to the BBQ flavour that seems the closest to what I'm used to thanks.
During the week I discovered that there were a couple of groups at work that get together for beers. On Thursday the mining and environmental group (MEG) have beers and on Friday power and transportation (P&T), what I am a part of, have theirs. It seems like a pretty good system, someone stocks up a fridge and you pay $2.50 for a beer. I had a good yarn to a few people at work and look forward to the next ones. It was also pretty funny because I drank quite a few beers with a civil engineer on Friday night and then had to run home (I'm still running to and from work). I'm pretty used to running around a little bit tipsey but usually I am pretty inappropriately dressed (wearing casual shoes, jeans etc.) so don't last too long before I have to slow down or walk but this time I had my normal running gear, and most importantly my running shoes. I went sooo fast! By the time I got home I was completely gassed and had to have a wee lie down before I could build up the strength to reheat my nacho dinner. It was pretty funny.
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