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!