(6) Vancouver again

Jayson, Sasha and Nathan at the Roxy Burger


So back to hanging out with Nathan at the Burger and then a couple of weeks later alone came Jayson. A new 3rd Musketeer. So after a couple of weeks of practically not drinking there was a couple of big nights out. One night we were out and completely pissed and walking down the street and some pissed guy falls through a bolted down fence while talking on his phone. Even when he landed and rolled on the ground he didn't drop the phone and kept talking on the phone. It was so funny... what a legend!

So skipping about a month where there is not much to talk about except to say the Nathan moved onto Toronto and Jayson has moved onto White water rafting. So we get to ANZAC day. There was a fantastic ANZAC day service put on here at an Army hall. It was at 7pm at night, which i liked because i didn't have to get up so bloody early. The guy giving the service was Australian which was good to see australia providing someone to do this. It was emotional as expected and afterwards there was a heap of Australian food. We were wrapt there was sausage rolls and something the resembled party pies, lamb in damper with mint sauce, fairy bread, cheesymite scrolls - oh my god it was so good. During the speech some guy called Kevin Lamb got up and spoke as the australian representative and we stated laughing as we thought that he sounded like a gay canadian!!

So what can i say Canada continues to be an experience. The weather us finally getting better. In a few weeks there will be some walks in the mountains when the snow melts so i can go up and have a look around. Canada is also a bloody expensive place to live. Drnking or no drinking.... I am already $4000.00 au in debt and so all Cash donations accepted!!!!!!!!!!

(5) Chilliwack

Joan, Christian and Jonus at Cultus Lake



As i have stayed in touch with BJ and Dom from my Contiki tour in Europe in 2002 and she's Canadian (actually French-Canadian) she kindly volunteered her parents to have me for a weekend. So on the 24th of March i head to 'Chilliwack'. (Pronounced Chillawack)

Joan (BJ's mum) and Yves (BJ's Dad). Joan works in the deli department at save on foods and Yves is a prison guard. He had some pretty interesting stories from his days working in the prison. Yves is french canadian and Joan is native Indian. She has gorgeous colored skin.

One of my bosses from work happens to live in Chilliwack so he was kind enough to offer to drive me to Bj's parensts place. This was interesting as there was plenty of time for me to talk his ear off about Australia. There is also a sign hanging over the road that says 'Bare' and so i ask what this means. He proceeds to tell me that it means that there are bear's crossing for the next little while. I believed him and he let me go for about 10 minutes until he stared laughing and told me that it means bare conditions on the road - Stupid me!!! Anyway we get to chilliwack and go to the Hockey first because BJ's mum works there and that no one was at home yet. It happens to be the last Hockey game ever for that league in Chilliwack and the poor buggers lost. So Graham drives me back to BJ's mum's house as she doens't have the car there and hitches a ride with someone else. So we finally get to the street where they live after driving around for a bit and then we can't find the house. We had the number, but it was hidden behind the bushes and the street numbers and it's dark. So we are driving around looking at every single houses number and after a while i start laughing as Graham is asking me if there is some instructions that i should have remembered about the directions to the house but i couldn't remember what it was. Actually i should have remembered that their house is next door to the duplex, but hey i can't remember everything. So anyway we get there and he drops me off and it's so good to be in my own room. BJ's bed was so comfortable. The first night i sat in the lounge and talked to BJ's mum, Joan and BJ's nephew Jonus. It was so good to relax in a lounge room. Joan and I had a drink and then it was off to bed. I had the best nights sleep that i had had in a long time. On the saturday we went for a drive so that i could do my banking (Because the banks over here will open some branches on a saturday) and then we collected 3 grand children and went to wal-mart and then we drove out to Cultus Lake. Cultus Lake was really pretty. There is a jetty set up in a square like formation so the kids don't get run over by boats. The lake is over looked by heaps of houses and the Canadian Pine trees. I played tag with the kids and got out run by them. Not as fit as i used to be. So saturday night i go off to BJ's sisters place, Victoria, and we have bangers and mash for dinner. Man it was good to have a meal that resembled home. We watched some episodes of a soap called Corner Gas. They were pretty funny so it was back to Joan and Yves place for the night and then up late again the next day. Joan did a cook up for breakfast which was chopped up potato's, eggs, onion, capsicum and chopped up sausage. That left me pretty full for the rest of the day. The rest of the time we relaxed and watched and then it was time to go to work on Monday and do the 1 1/2 hour drive back. I spent most of the time silent as i was tired from getting up early. As for describing Chilliwack it was good to get away from the City into a much smaller place. Though it's a handy little place as there is absoluely everything that you need, every dept store and fast food place. It smells like cow shit at night because it's farming land. So it's back to work and going home.

Thanks to Joan and Yves for having me for the weekend!!!

(4) The Fun Continues!!!

Hello All,

Oh my god i haven't updated my website for 2 months. So here goes. Firstly WORK: I have been working since a week after my birthday for a company called 'Searchlight'. Searchlight is a data collection company that takes documents from law firms and businesses and scans them into the computer and codes them so that when the law firms use the info in court they can take a computer with them instead of heaps of boxes of papework. If just makes all the information accessible electronically. For those that are interested the website for the company is www.searchlight.ca. There are some photo's of my work colleagues. So is started off working there in the coding department but moved into the scanning room and i like the scanning better. Both jobs are tadious and repetitive but it's the only consistent work that i have found so i am gonna stick with it. I earn a whole $10.00 an hour which is actually above minimum wage which is $8.00 an hour over here. I have had a few emails from people asking me what i am doing for work. I thought that i told everybody but obviously not. Anyway for now i am still in Vancouver and will stay here for atleast another 2 months and think about heading up to Toronto. My work has an office up there so it will be good if they let me transfer, We'll see! Last time i wrote i had been to Seattle for the weekend with a group of us which was a good weekend. A couple of days after returning from Seattle i went to my first Hockey match. We can get tickets through the Hostel and one of the staff members will take the group so they can explain the rules. Chad took us to that match so i made sure that i sat next to him so i could ask as many questions as i wanted. We got to the game early for Pre-skate so we went and sat really close to the court so we could see them come out and warm up. It's good being up close as everything looks so much bigger, but we had to go back to our seats back up away from the court. That didn't matter you can see from everywhere and the atmosphere is awesome. The atmosphere is as it looks on the tv, except when the Canucks are losing then there is no atmosphere at all. We saw the Canucks vs St Louis which is the worst team in the league and we still lost. Following the Canucks is like following Geelong!!! But not to worry about the loss i still had a good time eating hotdogs and watching the hockey!! February other than that was pretty quiet until my birthday. We ended up going out on the Tuesday night before. It wasn't planned and off-the-cuff nights always turn out to be the best. We ended up staying out until after midnight so that that way we celebrated my birthday on the Australian 22nd and the Canadian 22nd and so i celebrated both. Well the barmaid knew it was my birthday so she let me drink for free. I drank Gin and Pineapple and a few shots and oh my god i was so drunk. I didn't realise i drank so much and vomited twice when i got home and three times the next day. So i had to take the day off work i was so sick. What a birthday!!! Skipping to Wedneday the 1st of March i went to see Ben Lee in concert here in Vancouver. The concert was really good and i even knew a couple of his songs from the radio, i didn't realise i knew them until i heard them. I was lucky and got a photo of myself with him after the show. On the 7th of March i went and tried 5 Pin bowling. It's weird. There's only 5 pin's and the bowling call is like a wooden shot put. Just about all of my balls end up in the gutter. It's too hard to control a wooden shot put. Anyway onto Friday the 17th of March. St Paddy's Day. I was really looking forward to this day as it is huge in Canada as Canada was not only colonised by the French but by the Irish and the Brit's as well. After all Canada in French-Canadian and Vancouver is in BC - British Columbia. But as things are very good at going wrong for Shelley i got GASTRO in the morning and so i spent all day in the toilet and then spent the night sitting in the hostel on the couch looking and feeling miserable. It was here sitting on the couch that i got to know Nathan. He was curious to know who the 'ball in the corner of the couch' was so he came and talked to me. We talked for a bit before Heath came and joined in. He looked quite concerned that i was sitting there all pale and in PJ's so came to check out what was going on. Luckily for me he was carrying Gastrolyte so he gave me some and then he and Nathan sat there and encouraged me to drink a litre of water. I sat and chatted with them until midnight then i had to go and lay down before i fell down. Before going to bed we all discovered that we were bourbon drinkers - cool we had something in common. There we all became the '3 Musketeers', except that i could not go out drinking that night, they went out anyway as you would when you have only been in Vancouver for only and it's St Paddy's Day. So the two boys go out and find a bar that they can actually get into as there were cues a mile long and people were going crazy in the street everywhere so they stumbled across 'The Roxy Burger'. They drank there and then wento onto a couple of other bars had a really big night and then Saturday come around and they are keen to go out and do it again. As for me i tried to eat as much as i could as i had just emptied my system the day before and so then that night when they are like come out - i let Heath and Nathan twist my good arm and go out. Easily led i know!!! So we head out to the Roxy Burger and god only knows what they did the night but the bar tender is all like "Boys you're back" and gave us all a free shot. So we start drinking and talking to the bar tenders who are really nice. We now know it was JW and Sasha that we were talking to, JW gave us the shots.

*Break in the story for a minute - here's a run down on the staff the Burger*

SEAN: Not only one of the cutest bar tenders in Vancouver (though he' from Edmonton) but a great person to chat with. He's as popular as the high school quarter back has a sporting body but never played a whole lot of sport. All the girls like him!!!

JW: Though sadly he's leaving to go and work in another bar what can i say - So CUTE!!! Half African American and half Irish (though still Canadian) his skin color is beautiful. He's extremely friendly and a stylish dresser. JW sees the best in everybody so conversation is fun with JW as he tells a storty without bitching about people.

SASHA: Born in Serbia but also Canadian (another one from Edmonton) he has an extremely dry sense of humor and gets grumpy sometimes but i always make him smile because i love his grin. He's been lucky enough to live in Oz so we have lots to talk about.

BRIEN: Is a rapper. Everything is 'happening' when he's around. He wasn't happy with me when i left without paying my bill one night but quickly forgave me when i did. I laugh when i see him wearing any shirts with the letter 'B' on it for Brien. He's such a big kid. Then there is the girls: Sunny, Hillary, Odelia and Michelle. They are all really pretty. Sunny is really nice. I wouldn't want to do the wrong thing by her. She can handle people really well. She's a strong character and used to work at Hooters!!! how cool...

*Back to the story*

Since that day Nathan drank there for 28 days straight and we got to know all the bar tenders: JW, Sean, Sasha and Brien and some of the girls Sonny, Hillary, Odelia, Michelle etc... So for a whole month everyday after work i would come past 'The Burger' which is on my way home and say hi to Nathan and the bar tenders. I didn't drink all the time because i can't afford it so the bar tenders have learnt to ask "Are you drinking or not?" Nathan quickly became a friend of mine as well as everyong at the burger and so was someone that i hung out with for as long as i could. Heath was with us for 3 days before he took off the London and Europe. On the Saturday before we went out drinking we went walking around the streets and went past the 25c peep shows so i made the boys take me. You have to buy tokens to use the booths and man it was funny. The booths stunk, some of them like stale urine. They were tiny and only 2 people can sit down in them so i had to sit on the boys knees and they had to look around me at the tv screen. They're only videos not real people. We found a heap of tokens in one of the booths and so we took them and as they are gold and the same size as a loonie the boys used them for tips until one of the bar tenders figured it out and luckily saw the funny side. Luckily for them as this is North America and they're hell bent on tips. So moving on we go out on Saturday night and then get up the next day for the St Paddy's Day Pde. We watch that for an hour and a half which was fantastic. Their military people marched as well as the Irish dancers and the Irish music playing it was great. After the parade Heath and i go with a big group to watch the Gaelic Football. Australia vs Ireland - We lost!! I actually found the match kind of boring, but stayed for the whole thing anyway. Afterwards Heath and i went for a walk to Chinatown and got some chinese food. Heath is in the army and so there were some interesting stories to listen to. Anyway that night back at the hostel Heath decides that he would like to try some BC marajuana. So as i knew people in the hostel and he doesn't i go around asking everyone who can get him stoned. So finallly someone relents and gives him some. So then as he is paranoid he wants to not be around people so i offer for him to hide out in my room as i was on my own at this point. It was so funny watching somebody get stoned. He was going through all the different zones and trying to control what was happening to his body, which he can't. Eventually when he hit the zoned out stage he was falling asleep so i told him to lay down, put the doona on him and there he slepy until 5.30am when it was time for him to go to the airport. Anyway we say goodbye to Heath and so the 3 Musketeers become 2.

Onto the next Entry....



Sasha, Sonny, Sean, Hillary and JW - Staff from the Roxy Burger


Nathan, Me and Heath at the bar at the Roxy Burger