No pain no gain

It has been an action packed past few days with the exception of today, today I'm staying indoors nursing my cold which I most likely contracted through airline airconitioning. I'm cozy staying in, reading a book and revelling in watching the snow fall outside - the first I've seen since I've been here and which is probably all wrong considering it's supposed t be spring. My body is aching and muscles full of lactic acid due to too much activity recently than it hasn't been accustomed too. The first was indoor rock-climbing with Nat and Malcolm on Thursday night. Great fun, I've never seen a climbing centre so packed! Got a few climbs in and was encouraged not to give up, however my arms and shoulders would've preferred that I did! That day I'd spent shopping (ahh bliss!) and just wandering around Granville and downtown.

Friday was a leisurely start, a brief trip into town to pick up my memory stick which Natalie masterfully extracted from her laptop! However this has since rendered it rather sick and unable to boot up consistently without a piece of paper shoved in the card reader slot - doh! Then back home to grab a lift to Cypress mountain with Zara who was going for some downhill skiing. I however decided to go alpine snow-shoeing for 3 hours. Very pretty hiking, dissappointed I didn't meet a bear or any other exciting creature though, maybe when get to Whistler... I relish opportunities to be out in nature and alone with my thoughts, hardly saw a soul and it's all the better with your iPod too :-)
Got to the peak of Hollyford to behold views of Vancouver, Stanley Park and the mountains of Vancouver Island beyond - magical! How many cities in the world do you have skiing a 1/2 hour out of downtown and views over the city and harbour while standing in the peaceful snowy mountains? Met some locals at the top and a Raven who was 'hanging ouwt' with them. Realised I had 30mins to get 2 or more kms down the mountain in order to get my rentals back in time, so ran/walked/bumb slid my way down and made it in time too! However I think that is why my legs are stiff and sore all over now :-(

Headed home with Zara to a flat full of Nats friends all waiting for me to get ready for a night out on the town! Put my glad rags on and met them all at the Italian Kitchen, a very she she fu fu la la restaurant where we received the most attentive service (Nats stockbroker friend had used his connections there and requested we be well looked after), amazing calamari and pasta! Then off to a club called Ginger, where we had a group booking on the door to avoid the queues. Got inside and its practically empty, queues all there for marketing purposes - absolutely crazy! It soon starts to fill up though and we start hitting the vodka, lime and sodas not to forget the shots (tequilla especially) and of course the dancefloor! Had a german DJ playing and cool bongo beats over the dubs that were awesome to dance to. Free body painting in the club so a few people got that done, very cool. Left about 3am and headed home.

Hangover next day, I'm not too bad but my sister out of practice due to her clean living - I enjoyed giving her shit about it ;-p So needless to say a quiet day wandering around taking in the many art galeries in this area of town including Windsor Gallery exhibiting a collection of Patrick Hughes 3D paintings that play amazing tricks on your eyes, well worth checking his stuff out http://www.patrickhughes.co.uk/ A yummy brunch, followed by some more shopping. Out for Thai dinner with Elizabeth and then I headed home for a soak in the big deep tub with feet to soak my sore muscles, mmmmm.

Well the sun is out now and the snow hasn't settled, so will head out to Granville markets for a look see and a meal. Till next time...

First dayz...

Arrived to a crisp temperature and a warm welcome from my sis, complete with dodgy 'must have' donuts and ultra sweet hot chocolate. The drive into town consisted of pretty much one main road Granville St, and it still is my lifeline into town! Nat lives in 11th Ave off Granville and as you'd imagine it's only the equivalent of 10 blocks away (and a bridge) from downtown Vancouver :-)

The way to find your way to the city is to head for the mountains which make an impressive backdrop to the city with a smattering of snow on them still. There are 3 main peaks, Cypress is one of them and you can ski it, only 30mins away.

So first night was out into town, saw Nats office on Water St (very quaint pretty St and probably one of the most touristy ones), then across the road to a bar 'Le Magasin' where there was a young entrepreneurs networking convention on that we had tickets to. With much business card swapping and self promoting going on, Nat and her boss Darryl circulated and swooped like true entrepreneurial professionals and once they'd made some key contacts we left to go for dinner. This was at what Nats coins a 'she she fu fu la la' restaurant, or in other words 'posh'. But it wasn't really, it was very reasonable and I forgot you only need to order an entree to be perfectly over satisfied. Of course, the Canadians 'entree' is in fact a main, if it's good enough for the rest of the world then it's not good enough for these folks. Darryl and I indulged in a Lagavulin to wash down dessert, mmmmm.

Today was a leisurely start, wandered around the shops near Nats place before walking over the bridge and downtown. Took quite a few pics too, however when I got to Nats work she thought the memory card would fit in the over sized slot that I warned her wasn't the right one, and it wasn't... and now it's stuck. Many tweezers, nails, baby screwdrivers etc have been used to try and wriggle this sucker free but to no avail. So off to the shops I go tomorrow to get another :-)

Ate at home tonight, stir-fry alla Natalia, and then off to the indoor climbing wall with Malcolm. Lots of fun, arms feel like lead weights and I'm dragging my knuckles along the floor but hey, it was worth it! Now I'm going to drag my sorry body to bed.

Over and ouwt aye.

starting a blog

here I am, just working out what all this blogging business is about - then making one! Easy as that ;-)

I'm blogged AS bro!