Mini golf, sunsets and rental cars

Monday 9th July 2007

I got up without having any plans for the day and decided to make a few phone calls including one to an old friend, Mike Johnston, who now works as a hydroponics account manager up and down the Island. It was the first time I'd spoken to him on the phone and he happened to be a 15 minute walk down the road. I met up with him and he took me to lunch at the Whistlestop pub. After a good lunch we drove to Rent a Wreck where I picked up my awesome Chevy Lumina. We were supposed to go tubing in the river that evening with his brother but he didn't turn up in the end. Which was annoying!


Unfortunately the only picture I have of my beloved Lumina

Tuesday 10th July 2007

I arranged to meet up with Sherry Bernauer, a friend who I've become reaquainted with, like so many of the people you'll read about on here, on facebook. She picked me up in a minivan with her four kids (two sets of twins - 3 and 2 years old!) We picked up some McDonalds and headed to the Courtenay Airpark (basically a walk around a bay and an small airstrip). I managed to put too much sun tan lotion on my face so I ended up sweating the stuff into my eyes. I could barely keep my eyes open in the hot weather! I ended up having to go into the bathroom of a small cafe to wash my face. So that was embarrassing but I don't think the kids will hold it against me. After the walk we went back to her mother's house (Sherry lives in Alberta now) and played in the sprinkler with the kiddies. They really started to take a shine to me when I let them pour little pots of water over me! Had a really good afternoon hanging out there, looking at pictures, playing with the kids and reminiscing about old times. It was amazing to see how well Sherry was doing with the four kids! Seems to be an incredible mother to them.



In the evening I drove to Black Creek to meet Rhonda, another old school friend. Before I got to her house I walked around my first proper school 'Black Creek Elementary' which is no for sale and no longer used. Peeked in a few of the windows that weren't boarded up. Again, it was all so small compared to what I remembered! It was also kind of sad to see it not being used! Its all yours for $400k!



Rhonda and I started off the night with a game of minigolf, which was hilarious! After giving Rhonda a good thrashing we headed off to the Lucky Dollar for a munchie run (twizzlers, sour gummy candies, root beer, kettle chips) we headed to Saratoga Beach to chill out and watch the sunset. We found a log on the beach that took our fancy and we sat and talked (what the hell was that huge glowing thing on the shore of the mainland?!?) until it got a bit windy and the sunset disappeared.



Driving in Canada

I was a bit afraid when I got over here that I would turn the wrong way down a one way street or go head on into another car down the wrong side of the road. Thankfully that hasn't happened yet. The roads are wide enough for two cars to fit down one lane, and the fact that the wheel is on the left hand side of the car reinforces what side you're supposed to be driving on. I haven't found myself ever thinking that I'm on the wrong side. Getting into the car, however, is a different matter. I've only just started going around to the side of the car I'm supposed to be sitting in.

Rush hour on Vancouver Island (except for Victoria) is a joke. The only difference between normal and rush hour is that you're still travelling the speed limit, but you can see a car down the road in front of you. Literally, thats all it is! Its incredible.

There is ALWAYS parking wherever you go. There aren't any NCP's (National Car Parks) that you have to pay for, you just drive to where you want to go, park and then leave! Its the way its meant to be!

My Lumina rental was a great little car. I think it was made in the late 90s, an automatic, thankfully; it'd be weird trying to shift with my right hand. The total cost of my weeks rental was $300 which I thought was just dandy! :P I also borrowed Maureen's Mazda as well as taking out Jane's (the lady I'm currently staying with in Penticton) Jeep and a Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet. I've never driven so many different cars in such a short time. Its been great!


Anyway, its getting late now so I should hit the old dusty trail (Yawns and stretches). I've put up a new batch of pictures onto my photo page so check em out for an advanced preview of stories to come!

Good night y'all and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

I'm Still Alive!

Hey there sportsfans! I haven't died. I just haven't had internet! A lot has happened since my last post... I've been to Victoria for a few days, as well as Vancouver for 5 and now I'm in Penticton!



I've been having the trouble getting the motivation toost, yet I think of great things to say all the time. Its because the level of detail I've been going to has meant that I'm way behind and its a daunting task to get up to date again. I've said it before, but I'm gonna try and cut down on the detail a bit and keep on going through.

Sunday - 8th July

After the big night out before, Chad came and picked me up and we went for a tour of Black Creek hitting both the Miracle and Saratoga Beaches as well as the old local store 'Lucky Buck' and we drove past my old house. It was the first time I'd seen it in 12 years and it looked a lot smaller than I remembered. Undoubtedly as I'm much bigger than I was then. We also stopped by my old swimming haunt nearby but the ropeswing tree had rotted and fallen over as well as the trees which the diving boards were nailed onto. I went for a quick dip but the water was sooo damn cold and we didn't have a lot of time, so we left.

He dropped me off back at Maureen's house and I went down to the Vancouver Island Musicfest. Maureen was able to get me a free ticket so I wandered down there on my own and had a great evening watching the bands and hanging out in the beer tent. I saw Don McLean (Bye Bye Miss American Pie) and Bedouin Soundclash (Canadian Band who've had a hit in England - They're kinda like a cross between U2 and The Police. After a lot of dancing about in a crowd of random people, I set off home again and spent the rest of the evening listening to my iPod and looking up at the stars.

More to come soon! I have regular internet here!

Devil's Climbing Something-or-other

Hey all!

I'm back for another post! Time's flying by out here. Still loving every minute! Had a great last couple of days and hopefully I'll be able to tell you about them in this post, but seeing as the last one took so long I don't know if I'll get that far, but here goes:

The day at the lake



After getting about 3 hours proper sleep, I was picked up by Chad and, after stopping for a flat of Lucky Beer and munchies, we went to Comox Lake. Hetty and Gord were there with Gord's boat. Some other guy, can't remember his name, offered Gord 40 dollars for 15 minutes waterskiing so we took him out with us on the boat (a mid sized motorboat with a decent engine on the back and comfy seats - i should have really asked a bit more about it). Before the guy got his time skiing, we were motoring around the lake and found this houseboat about 100m offshore with its doors open and no-one in it. We tied up to it and hopped aboard and had a look around. It was basically a floating box with a porch at either end and a balcony on top, with a little meter high mezzanine bedroom poking out of the top, accessible by a ladder from below. It had a kitchen, bathroom, little lounge and a collection of 80s cassette tapes including Roxette and AC/DC. Chad and I stayed on the houseboat while the random waterskier had his 15 minutes.

When they came back we took off for a tour of the lake, speeding around and jumping off the wakes of other boats and swells in the water (it was quite windy). You really had to hold onto your beer and steady yourself or else you were going overboard! Saw some cool sights including Devil's Staircase (or ladder, ropeladder, escalator - i'm not sure... its probably not escalator), which is a huge rock face on the side of the lake. People jump off this all the time. The first place you jump from is about 60ft up and you have to run and jump way out to hit the water. It was a bit overcast so there was no-one doing it while we were there and none of us were brave enough to take it on.



There are loads of cottages around the lake which are only accessible by logging roads that people have just built (without owning the land) and have been allowed to keep. There are pretty little groups of houses with small piers out into the lake for fishing and mooring. One of them is called Little Italy and flies an Italian flag. There were great views of the Comox Valley Glacier, which actually feeds the lake.

We eventually returned to the houseboat and jumped off the balcony into the freezing water. We'd climb out of the water via the motorboats tiny ladder, pull the boat towards the houseboat, jump aboard and repeat. I say repeat, we only did it about 4 times each before I volunteered to get towed behind the boat in an inner tube. It was awesome, for the time I was actually on the tube, but half of it was spent clutching onto the back of it trying to get back in after falling out! :D The picture below is the last time I fell off. We were going pretty fast and I could really feel the deceleration when I hit the water!



After that, of course, combined with the night before, the jet lag, the beer I'd injested, and the numerous joints, I was knackered! We went back to shore and got a some food at a burger stand and then headed for home. I slept very well that night!

Cougars

I was reliably informed that Cougars, as well as being a large mountain lion roaming North America, are older ladies looking for some younger man action. The definition from UrbanDictionary.com says:

An older woman who frequents clubs in order to score with a much younger man. The cougar can be anyone from an overly surgically altered wind tunnel victim, to an absolute sad and bloated old horn-meister, to a real hottie or milf. Cougars are gaining in popularity -- particularly the true hotties -- as young men find not only a sexual high, but many times a chick with her shit together.

Well thats all I can do for now. I'm really going to have to catch up over the next few days or I'm in danger of forgetting exactly what I've done. I've been posting a lot of pictures on my Flickr Page so you can see what I've done before I get around to writing about it! Thanks for all your comments! Keep em coming!

Bye for now!

Chris.

The Story So Far

Right! Well I've finally got an hour or so to spare, so here goes!

I'll start with before my trip to Canada.. just for completeness sake. I made my way back to Reading on the 29th of June and spent that day and most of Saturday doing the final clean of the flat before we moved out. Was hard work.. Especially wiping down all the walls. We hadn't done it since we'd moved in so there was lots of dust and that just turned into droplets and marked the walls up even more. Was a long process! Spent the rest of the weekend, until Monday, at my parent's, before returning to Brighton.

Tuesday night was sort of a leaving do. I invited all the regulars and a few extras and it turned out to be a great night. We went to Smugglers, a bar in Brighton (used to be pirate themed, but now not so much - Booo!) where there are pool tables and lots of comfy chairs :D

Click here to see the rest of the photos from the evening.

The day of the flight I had to be up bright and early. Set the alarm for 6:15 and had to be out of the house by 7am. The time at the airport was pretty uneventful really. After lining up for ages to get through security, I had breakfast and waiting to get on the plane. I'd chosen a window seat (and paid extra) so that I could take pictures but they wouldn't let me have my laptop and my camera bag on the flight, so I had to choose the laptop really (not that I used it - but the laptop bag had the rest of my stuff in it.)

Once I got on the flight I was pleased to note that 1) There was no one sitting in the middle of the group of seats I was in and 2) the aisle seat was occupied by a very nice girl from Quebec called Daniella. The flight went a lot quicker than I thought. I watched all the movies (one about a famous dog with a toupe, one about a farmer/astronaut and Music and Lyrics) and talked to Daniella. I'm sure I pissed her off by continually pointing mountains out to her which all looked the same. I was just thrilled to be seeing real mountains again!

On landing into Vancouver, I had to wait around for a few hours for a shuttle/bus to take me to the Ferry Terminal. It was quite a wait, and was a very hot day, so I bought myself my first Slurpee in 12 years and my god it was good! Sat next to a couple on the shuttle who giggled when I told them I worked for Eli Lilly, correctly guessed that they'd heard of the company through Cialis (the ED drug) and was treated to innuendo about their sex life on the trip through Vancouver. They were actually very nice and the guy was pointing out local landmarks to me and helped me figure out what I was doing once we got to Horseshoe Bay (the ferry terminal).



I was supposed to be getting on another shuttle at Nanaimo (the Ferry's destination on the island) to get to Courtenay but while I was walking around the foot passengers departure lounge, I ran into an old school friend, Oliver Zihlmann, who was waiting for the same ferry. I was going to meet up with him in Vancouver when I'm there later on in the trip so it was some surprise to see him sitting in that seat.

I hung out with Ollie on the ferry and we met his brother on the other side, and he gave me a lift to where I'm staying now, in Courtenay. It was a long day of travelling.. I think I got into Courtenay at about 8pm local time, which is about 4am UK time. So it was about 22 hours of straight travelling.

My first full day in Courtenay was spent getting my bearings as well as as a drive around in my host (Maureen)'s car. I went up to a beautiful beach called Goose Spit (as attractive as that sounds). There are some amazing views from there! There are plenty more pictures in the set on my flickr page.



In the evening, I'd arranged to meet my friend Chad. He came around to Maureen's for a BBQ and then we went out in his HUGE truck! We went to his friend Gord's place where I met Hetty, a guy (also with a big truck) who took us to the Music Festival that was happening nearby. We were going to try and sneak in through the 'poaching routes' though the forest but we ended up trying to drive in through the VIP entrance first, and it worked! They waved us in behind another van! We stayed around for about an hour. Not watching any of the bands, but drinking cans of lager in the VIP area and laughing about how lucky we'd been to get in for free.



After that, we went to a local bar called 'Gullivers' where I got very very drunk on tequilas and lager and forgot alot of what happened the rest of the night!

Anyway, I'm going to have to stop writing for now.. This is taking much longer than I thought and its getting late! If you want to see all the photos from my trip (well the ones i'm happy to show people), they're on my Flickr Page.

Stay tuned to hear about my day on the lake and also, find out what a Cougar means!

Chris.

Chris Loves Canada and wants to marry it

Hey everyone!

I know i've been bad at posting but just been too busy.. I don't have time to say much except 'oh my god - i'm having the most fun'! Been to bars, motorboating on a beautiful lake, and driving around in a fucking big truck. I'm renting one for myself tomorrow. I'm off to a music festival tonight. Have a backstage pass!

There will be more (and pictures) soon!

Chris
x

Unemployment and the Birth of a Blog

Hello and welcome to my new travel blog. Its going to be as much a diary for myself as a way to keep friends and family posted on my movements. I haven't got an incredibly long holiday (5 weeks in Canada - A week in Amsterdam), but I wanted it recorded somehow and have an easy way of sharing everything that I find in Canada with everyone 'back home' in the UK. It will also serve as a way of people I meet in Canada finding out what I'm up to at any time. I will hopefully post an itinerary when I know more of whats going on, but I've been crappy with giving people dates as I don't want to tie myself down anywhere. I want to be able to stay an extra day or two in any places I like.

I've been 'umemployed' since Friday 15th June and I can't say I've been up to all that much since then. I decided to come to Brighton as soon as I could, so I left the day after my last day, taking the train down in the late afternoon. I've been to the beach to enjoy the sunshine a few times and to the pub once or twice, but that pretty much sums up my activity in Brighton since I've been finished. I've been getting into the 'I've got nothing to do so I'll do nothing' mindset and I've enjoyed it!



This last Friday I woke up early and rented a huge moving van to collect my stuff from my flat in Reading. I've never driven anything so big and I loved it. Its nice being so high up! I was a bit wary of taking corners wide and not scraping the side on parked cars but I managed to scrape through without losing any deposit. Brian (my brother) was on hand to help pack and load things into the van. After packing and hoovering for a few hours we got back in the van and drove to my parents. We stayed the night and headed back down to Brighton after lunch. We put everything into storage on the Sunday and I took the van back yesterday. Was kinda sad to have to leave it. Here's a pick of the 'tank' outside my parents house in London.



I've been spending my evenings hanging out with my brother and playing Worms (on the Xbox 360). Its just a simple version of the game but its so addictive and the others are tired of me suggesting we play it. We normally stay up until around 3 or 4am and I've totally gotten out of the normal working persons time zone. It is taking its toll on me a little but as I've said I'm not doing anything too strenuous so it doesn't really matter. Below is an example of this. I fell asleep while we were watching episodes and Brian and Josh crafted a thought bubble with a picture of Heat's Torso of the Week stuck on it.



Anyway, thats all for the first entry in my blog. I hope it hasn't been too boring, I'm not the most exciting of people or the best writer, but, as I said earlier, I'm just keeping y'all up to date.

I'll try and post again soon before I fly out (5th July).

Chris