How is Teddy?: September 2006

Well, Wednesday was my last day as a carpenter in Vancouver and they really turned on the weather for me. It rained all day and it was really quite cold. It was a nice reminder of why working outside in a Vancouver weather would be quite miserable. I'm now a man of leisure. I'm sitting in the lounge room of a little B and B called Mansard House in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Mum and I have been having fun tripping around today and are heading further up and across the other side of the island tomorrow to see Ucluelet (pronounced you-clue-let) and Tofino (pronounced tof-ino). If the weather is nice, and I feel up to it, I might even have a surf at Long Beach on Sunday.
Here are a few picies from the past week or so. See you real soon.

John and Kim, Dane's parents, came all the way from Victoria Point just to visit me. We had dinner at Rossini's in Kitsilano and they had the pleasure of listening to me play some tunes with Bob York. It was great to see them.

Although I will be home in under three weeks, Sheridan and Alicia decided that they simply couldn't wait that long to see me. We had dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant on Robson St and then stopped in for a beer on Granville St afterwards.

Kris, Nicky, Cathy and I headed off to Deep Cove last Sunday for a bit of hiking. Nicky's right index finger points to where we hiked to.

It was a lovely view and a nice afternoon.

The ferry ride to Vancouver Island is beautiful.

This is the B and B that we are staying at. It's called Mansard House because of the Mansard roof. It was built in 1891 and is very cosy.

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia and has a beautiful old Parliament House Building that is lit up by night. It looks great.

We went to the Butchart Gardens today. The Butchart Gardens are built on an old quarry and are spectacular. Mum was a bit peeved off because she flattened her camera battery within about the first 20 minutes. Fortunately I had a spare battery for my camera.

Chrysanthemums

We finished off the day with a small offering from Tim Hourten's, a Canadian institution!

The fun continues over here. No time for an essay today. Here's a few photos and that's all you're getting this time. Can't wait to see you all in that many days :

My work family BBQ on Sunday 27th August. From the left, Brian, Me, Kathleen, Brian, Aaron.
Aaron built the railing with me. I was feeling a bit seedy from previous night's gig at a Polish wedding with Bob and Jambalaya. The father of the bride was keeping my plastic cup topped up with three quarters gin, one quarter tonic. Saw Miami Vice with Kris and Nicky later on that evening downtown. We had a bit of fun with one of the local bears. There are hundreds of them in Vancouver.

The railing has been painted by the way. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Ok, a little bit of commentary. I started working at a new building site on Thursday the 31st. It's the same company but a concrete high-rise building instead of a wood framed one. It's good to see a different style of building and also reassuring that my skills transfer to that type of building well. I wonder if they do it the same in Aus? How many mm in an inch again???

The weekend of the 2nd/3rd was Labor Day long weekend over here. I spent the weekend up at Squamish with Emma, Jason and the kids and also popped up to Whistler on the Saturday. Went on a 15Km hike from the peak of Whistler, around the back side to the Flute Bowl, then back to the Roundhouse around Harmony. The trail only opened a few weeks before so it was exciting to be one of the first hikers to conquer it. Took some great shots up there. Can't believe the difference. Those of you who have been there will appreciate these!

The bottom of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. I'll be trying my hand at down hill in two weeks time. Don't worry, it's covered under my health insurance.

The Inukshuk out the front of the Roundhouse at the top of the Whistler gondola. That's the one that I was sitting on in a previous post.

The Saddle. It hasn't snowed since May and there is still snow. Amazing.

The Peak Road. Goes from the Peak down around the back of the mountain to the start of Burnt Stew Trail. You can also drop into the Saddle from there.

Whistler Village far below.

The most photographed pointy rock in BC I reckon. The Black Tusk.

My office from the Whistler gondola.

Here it is from the Roundhouse.

Chekamus Lake. Such a beautiful lake over the back of Whistler Mountain.

Me at the top of the Flue Bowl. It's just as tough a hike in the summer time. A little warmer that's for sure.

I had dinner at Sushi Village with Mariko and a few of her friends that night. I decided that it was about time that I sat on the Blackcomb sign on the way home. I had been meaning to do it all season.

The next day, Jason and I drove out to Emma's friend Jim's house for a go on one of his many trail bikes. This one cost him $20! Bargain. It was heaps of fun.

This is Jim. He's a real mountain man if I ever saw one. He could also pull off a surf bum in Aus I reckon.

I went to the PNE with Kris and Nicky on Monday night. It was the last night so we thought we had better make an appearance. The PNE is Vancouver's version of the Ekka, but they have better rides and more variety of food. We thought we had better try a 'Corn Dog' in the interest of comparison and the Ekka's Dagwood Dogs win hands down. That says a lot about how terrible the corn dogs were.

Had to try on the Aussie hats. Kris is modeling the genuine Crocodile Dundee hat. He also wanted me to say that his shirt is 'Water Melon', not pink. Sure it is :)

This ride was insane. I have a video of it which I will show anyone who is interested when I get home.

Look at the anguish on Nicky's face! That wasn't just put on for the photo. She was really packing it. So was I!

For those of you who don't know, mum has come over to visit me for a few weeks. She was lucky enough to catch me and Bob at the Polish Club on Saturday night.