Hot cakes

Another pretty good and productive day.

Today's saldo includes a parking permit for three days at the new place (for the remaining days we have the rental car), and I bought a new PlayStation 2 for Dragon. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he's been without a console for over a month now. But this morning I was reading the news and they were saying that Sony hasn't prepared for the success of the new slimline PS2 and they are running out of stock. Well, we've got ours for Christmas, so hooray.

Not much we can do to prepare for the move - the packing that we have is to pack our clothes into our suitcases and haul them over, and the moving company will pretty much do the rest.

Also we should get the internet connection working on Thursday, so blogging will be limited until then.

Productive day

Today I've been arranging the move, as much as it can be arranged as we don't actually do the moving ourselves. I've managed to activate my credit card after three days of trying (don't ask), fix a broken internet connection by disabling Norton Firewall (would be better if you didn't ask anything about this either), I've bought a digital cable box, duvet covers and a sofa.

Of which only the last one is potentially of any interest to anyone else, really. We wanted something very comfortable and relatively cheap, and ended up buying a sofa with a chaise (you know, sofa with that sort of divan style ending that we probably end up fighting for as it's dead comfy). Unfortunately there was not much of a choice with colours (read: none) so it's beige, but kind of textured beige so it's not offensive. And it was in stock which means it will be delivered on Wednesday, on the day of the move.

What I've decided

Thought I could fake this thing alright
Thought it could somehow get me by
-- "Panic Attack", Finger Eleven

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who has talked or emailed me about the drug issue, it's good to know that you care. It's good to hear other people's experiences and thoughts... on the other hand I've heard as many different opinions.

But here's what I've decided.

It's not just me that I need to think about. While I might be able to crawl trough this with bloody knees in my stubbornness, but there's no reason to drag Dragon trough it too. If I'm feeling bad, he feels it very deeply and suffers with me. So it is my duty to him to take care of myself. (Thanks to Mikko for this one.)

Drugs are not cheating. It's like putting on kneepads before going rollerskating: it's not going to make me a better rollerskater, but if I happen to fall down it will make the fall less painful. It's there just in case I don't make it, but at the same time it doesn't mean success isn't my doing - if I make it, I make it because of me and my actions, there's no wonder drug that could save me against my will. (Thanks to Chu for this one.)

I got initial three weeks sample from the doctor and I'm going to take that - my hope is that I'm over the worse by then and I can drop it... but in case I can't I still have the prescription she wrote so I can get more.

Doesn't feel right, but I'm going to make it so.

Normal Saturday

Still debating on the drugs issue, but even without them, I had a pretty normal Saturday.

Went to the bank to pick up our credit cards that had finally arrived, and went to have a look at sofas in couple of places. My current rental car has a GPS system which we played with, that was fun in a geeky sort of way. The system worked surprisingly well, and I can definetly see the advantage of having a system like that in your car, especially in a rental one when you don't know the area.

Went to lunch to Joe Fortes on Thurlow, a fancy seafood restaurant where I had most gorgeous sautéed tiger prawns with sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, basil and herbs. There was a live singer there and the service was most friendly and excellent - and even though it was far more expensive than your average downtown restaurant, it was still a lot cheaper than what we would have paid in England for something like that.

Evening was spent with Galactica (I'm really starting to like the new series), gym and pizza.

Nice. Normal.

Dragon Games

WARNING! What follows is an extremely geeky confession of a commited, life-long gamer.

Before moving from UK to Canada, I had accumulated an enormous collection of games. Before leaving, I sold quite a few, but I just cold not bear to sell some of my favourite PS2 games -there were far too many fond memories associated with them and a thought of permanently giving them up was painful.

Though I am sure could have easily gotten my hands on a chipped PS2 here to play them, I did not want to go thorugh the trouble or (admittedly unlikely) legal issues, nor did I want to haul them with me across the Atlantic, for even after selling 90% of my games there was quite a pile of them left.

Instead, I decided to let my friends have them. I kept the memeory card with all my saved games (for my old age I guess) and distributed the titles across Finland. So Silent Hill, Wild Arms, Dark Chronicle, Star Ocean and many, many other games were given to a bunch of miscellaneous Finnish gaming geeks for safekeeping.

Now after some time since I left, I keep getting emails from people playing them, and asking for advice on puzzles and tactics. It's been a long time since anything has made me as happy as hearing them telling about how much they have enjoyed playing them. Have fun with them friends, and remember me.

Drugs don't work

Went to the doctor today, and she prescribed me some drugs for the depression and panic attacks.

I haven't decided if I'm going to take them yet or not.

Besides, I'm feeling better, so maybe I should just see how it goes.

I'm not a big fan of taking drugs for panic attacks, I don't have that good experiences with them, and furthermore I believe more that this a problem that I should be able to face and deal with myself (like I've done in the past). I though of the drugs over the weekend because I was so desperate... Now, after couple of "ok" days I've started feeling like I'm just a big loser if I do take them... if I take the drugs, I'm just bailing out, I'm not facing the issue.

Not sure what I'm going to do.

The Tinder Box by Minette Walters

The Tinder Box was originally commisioned by "Bookweek" in Holland in 1999, and was then given away with every purchase of books throughout Holland. The book has previously been available as a translation around the world, but has only been published in the UK this year.

Dragon was saying last night that one of the most satisfying things is grabbing a heavy book knowing that it will last long, but sometimes you have to go for a thinner book if that's what your favourite writer has produced. I don't generally like short stories (except by Philip K. Dick - but the again I don't like his novels that much), and I have very little experience of novellas - but Minette Walters seems to master this art too.

Tinder Box is a story about racisim in a small English village, about an Irish man who has been accused of murder and awaits for his trial while the rest of the village has started a hate campaign against his disabled parents. Strong themes, good characters, excellent story, one of those books that you can't put down. All in little over 100 pages, impressive.

Up, down

Rain continues, but it doesn't bother me as it's still warm. For todays trip to town I had prepared with hat and gloves but I had to take them off as it was getting too hot.

Today has again been a bit better. Mornings seem to be especially difficult, I always seem to have a severe stomach ache, and I'm tired as I'm not sleeping very well. Chatting to family helps, they are worried about me and just knowing that they care makes a difference.

I say chatting, and I mostly mean typing, as especially today we had lot of problems with Skype. First with my sister line was all crackly, and then with my dad I could hear him loud and clear but he couldn't hear me. So after my initial praise of Skype, I might have to take some of that back - it seems to be a total hit and miss if it works at all, and I can't really figure out if I can do something about it, or if it's one of those things. I know the hotel internet system has some kind of firewall that prevents at least some P2P activity working correctly (well, BitTorrent), but that wouldn't explain why Skype has worked perfectly on previous occations. Sometimes re-dialing seems to work, but more often not... I just hope it would be more useful.

Encounter

I bought an umrella today from Sears. It's raining again today, in fact this is probably the first time it has rained properly since I got my rainproof shoes...

I was at Sears because few weeks back I had booked a complementary make-up consultation after talking to a nice Clinique consultant... Today, didn't feel like going at all but knew that I had to get out of the house. So I went - sat down on the chair, waited for my consultant, and an older lady with a fabulous white hair arrives and introduces herself as Raija. As this is a very Finnish name, my first question was of course "Do you speak Finnish?" (in Finnish) and she laughed and said "How cute" (in English) and we started chatting.

Raija had moved to Vancouver with her family when she was 16 and spoke a funny combination of English and Finnish ("Minä sitten levitän tätä tänne outer corners..."). Didn't bother me, as I tend to do that myself at times, and I can easily imagine that I'd be as bad as she in 30 years time. I remeber after we had just moved to England and Tube and the boys were visiting us, and he jokingly said "I bet in couple of years time you'll just be talking in English to each other" which I brushed off - why would as we're both native Finnish speakers. Since then I know it's not that simple - when things around you happen in English, the stories you hear are in English, and you think in English... sometimes to most suitble word to describe something is an English word. It's worth noting though that I'm definetly worst at this, and Dragon is the language police who keeps me on track when I slip into too bad "Finglish".

Anyway, it was really nice to talk to Raija and sitting there in a middle of a busy department story in middle of Vancouver I suddenly felt very home sick. This is weird as I haven't felt home sick (as in wanting to go "home" to Finland)... well, I don't think I've ever felt that since I moved out. Later on the feeling passed, and I was just glad to talk to someone who had been trough the same thing I was.

In fact walking home in the rain I was feeling pretty happy. Still on an emotional rollercoaster so I suspect it'll pass.

Planet Vancouver

When watching the new Battlestar Galactica we sometimes call jokingly Planet Caprica Planet Vancouver as we know it's shot here.

Today I decided to go an take couple of photos of the building I had recognised from the episode Bastille Day. My camera doesn't have a proper lense for taking a photo from the exact angle they've shot the scene, but here it is anyway. Turned out that the building is a huge public library, six floors or so, and inside there is a beautiful walkway with cafes and little restaurants.

The Crocodile Bird by Ruth Rendell

'When we get to wherever we're going,' she said, 'I'll tell you the story of my life.'
'Right.'
'I don't know, but I don't think there've been many lives like mine.'
'You've got a long way to go with it yet, like maybe seventy years.'
'Can I have the last chip? I'll tell from back as far as I can remember. That's when I was four and that's when she killed the first one.'

She pulled a length from the toilet roll he kept by the bed to use as tissues and wiped her mouth. When she turned back to him to say she was ready, they could be off as soon as he liked, she saw that he was staring at her and the look on his face was aghast.

The Crocodile Bird is a fairly old book, originally published in 1993, but that doesn't matter with books like this. The story is about a Liza, a girl who has lived enclosed life together with her mother, but who has to leave home because the latest murder her mother has commited has just come out and police are on their way to arrest her. She tells her story to her boyfriend from the beginning - so it's not as much a whodunnit than an insight into people's minds and what makes them tick.

Very good book: good characters, good story. Although you know or guess quite a lot in the beginning of the book, it still retains the grip until the very last page. You know the murders will happen, and at first you think it's going to be unrealistic, but to my surprise the motives and the conditions at the time of the murder actually make them believable, and the characters make them believable.

I also love how Ruth Rendell describes the environment - you have the isolated mansion and the gate-house somewhere in isolated English countryside, and you have big village with the supermarkets and rich people with house keepers. Liza and her boyfriend live in a caravan doing odd jobs, and Liza is like Scheherazade telling her sultan a new marvellous story every night.

Loved this book, one of Rendell's best.

Engorged Dragon

For years, my training has been hampered by the fact that I have been unable to put on much quality muscle mass.

I know full well where the problem stems from, and it is pretty simple: I don’t eat enough. I train hard (and find it very easy to motivate myself to push myself in the gym), but eating is 70% of the Iron Game. More calories means more building blocks for the body which means more muscle mass which means more results. I’ve promised to fix my diet time and again, but every time I run into a hard fact of my life:

I hate eating.

To be more precise, I hate eating past the point where I am sated, while my training would require me to eat until I am full. While this trait would save someone else from acquiring a big beer belly, for me it has meant that my body is starved for the required materials to repair the damage I inflict on it in the weight room.

Now that I’ve moved to North America, the home of over-eating, I’ve decided to fix this: the huge portions of food served everywhere and cheapness of supplements makes it much easier to consume enough calories. Canadians, being enlightened people, mark the exact protein, carbohydrate and fat content of all their food, making the planning a lot easier. I’ve even signed up for a competition in one of the weight training forums in order to help my motivation to gorge myself with food. This has really helped: my belly aches for eating two enormous servings of Mongolian barbecue tonight, but I will bear it.

I will eat enough no matter what.

Now I’m going to fix another protein drink before bedtime.

The other direction

To those who worry... Today has been much better.

Having been to cognitive behaviour therapy I know first hand the power of mind over matter, and the importance of positive thinking. But still it comes to me as a surprise how much I can do with channeling my thoughts in a certain way. Today I've been actively trying to be positive, and every time my thoughts have slipped into something uncomfortable I've forced myself out of it.

Result: good day. Not a superb one, but compared to yesterday I'm the king of the world. Even went out for a dinner. Couple of more of these would really be in order.

Upgrading

I've just upgraded my blogging platform from MT 2.661 to 3.121. If you experience any problems, please let me know.

Bad day

Very bad day today.

Except for several hours of phone calls to Finland, to my mom and Chu.

Chu was right, once again. I had thought that I should be out of bardo by now, but she quite rightly pointed out that I'm not. I still don't have a permanent base of operations, I'm still living out of a suitcase. It makes me feel better that I have "a right" to still feel bad. She makes me feel better. She is irreplaceable.

(People often wrongly assume that a spouse is supposed to be everything in your life, you lover, your best friend, your therapist. Well, he/she is not, and never can be. It's so important to be able to open up to other people and vent away frustration that would just pollute your relationship with your partner. I'm lucky to have a patient and gentle husband, but let's face it - no one is that patient.)

Squirrels

The squirrels are black here.

Dragon perched on a tree

On my way home yesterday, I got into discussion with another escapee of the now-ruined UK games industry, and we started comparing our experiences of Vancouver. After chatting for a whole I asked him what he thought of the city.

He praised the prices of food and living, gorgeous views, great restaurants, impressive architecture and the friendly Canadians. He only had one complaint: “The trees man, they’ve got to do something about the trees.” he explained to me.

Puzzled, I looked around: the trees lining Robson street reminded me of Helsinki and how much I enjoyed the fact that Vancouverites seem to love trees just as much as I. Curious, I asked him to explain what he meant.

“They should all be cut down man,” he said nodding, “the trees ruin the view. All of them must go. And not just here man, they are all over the country. They must go.”

At first I thought he was joking.

Then I understood that he was serious.

He launched into a long tirade telling of a rich woman here in Vancouver who was imprisoned for poisoning trees in a public area, and how she should have been rewarded instead.

Thinking about it, I reckon it has all to do with the British culture. Now, the English have cut down pretty much all the trees both in England and abroad that they have been able to get their hands on. Of the once-mighty Sherwood forest, only one tree remains. The national forests in UK consists of three tiny trees with no undergrowth. In British fairytales, forest is a frightening place where children get lost and eaten. To my English colleague, the forest is a threat, and every tree an enemy to be cut to pieces.

I’ve been brought up to think forest as a friend. From parents to pre-school, from tv documentaries to the army, the goodliness of trees and forests has been drummed into me since birth. It is part of being a Finn, I guess.

It is strange how profound influence our upbringing has on us. Luckily Canadians have not assumed this particular aspect of the British culture.

Self care

So in the past couple of days it has become obvious to me that the holiday is over, and it's been quite painful. For couple of days I was really nasty and jumpy, before I figured out what my problems was... and I'm still in a process of self analysis, something I do quite a lot. I've been suffering all classic signs of stress and depression: difficulty (and unwillingness) to communicate my thoughts and feelings, I'm easily frustrated, I have stomach problems, I suffer from anxiety and even panic attacks, I'm reluctant to leave home or do anything, I'm sad, I feel hopeless, I have mood swings, self doubt... sounds nice doesn't it.

Something that works for me these days has been trying to concentrate on self care. It's a techinque I read from somewhere, and the idea is that you write down a list of things that make you happy or bring you joy, and then try to do at least three of them a day (and it's almost impossible to be sad if you do that). They don't need to be big things - if taking a bubble bath makes you feel better then that's enough.

Often when I'm stressed I forget the importance of self care, at the time when it's most important... and I realised yesterday that it was happening to me again. I went out with a purpose of buying some Christmas gifts for my sister and her boyfriend, something I had seen and just wanted to go and buy thinking it might make me feel better. But I was standing there in the shop looking at these things and suddenly a huge wave of self doubt came to me and I could picture my sister's face on Christmas Eve with polite disapointment and I was suddenly convinced that she wouldn't like it and I was stupid even thinking it. I became really distraught and left the shop almost in tears, and standing there on the street I realised that I was totally overreacting and I really needed to do something about it before I'd go mad.

So I started walking down Robson trying to gather my thoughts, thinking that I knew the answer to this, I had the tools to solve the problem. And I remembered self care, and I tried to think of my list of nice things to do and that's when I wandered to the book shop looking for a feel good buy.

Today has been all about self care. We wanted to go to the bank this morning so we slept late, and by coincidence when at the bank we managed to take care of signing the credit card applications which we otherwise would have had to come in separately to do. After that I went back home, and I've been reading my book, eating good food and generally taking care of myself... now I feel almost back to normal. I'm able to plan the move in couple of weeks time without getting upset but being able to think about it rationally and even enjoying it a little bit.

Trace by Patricia Cornwell

After a pause, the lady doctor asks another question. She wants to know why Mrs. Paulsson though her daughter was asleep, what position she was in, and the questions are confusing. Each one hurts like a cramp, like a spasm in a deep place. Why does it matter? What kind of doctor asks questions like this? She is an attrictive woman in a poweful way, not a big woman but strong-looking in a midnight-blue pant suit and midnight-blue blouse that sharpen her handsome features and set off her short blond hair. Her hands are strong but graceful and she wears no rings. Mrs. Paulson stares at the doctor's hands and imagines them taking care of Gilly and starts to cry again.

When I was looking for an easy feel good read today in Chapters, I realised I hadn't written about the latest book I read. It was Trace by Patricia Cornwell, a book I might as well not have bought in first place as I disliked the previous Blow Fly so much. Blow Fly was disgusting, and the whole Chandonne brothers storyline should have ended with the previous book (and I'm afraid we'll still come back to it...). But I've read quite a few Kay Scarpetta novels, and I was curious to see how the storyline with Benton would develop, and the first couple of pages that I read in the bookstore seemed interesting... so I bought it.

And turns out a good buy, this book is better than several of hers I've read lately. Scarpetta is back in Richmond to investigate the tricky death of a teenager, and at the same time her niece Lucy is having problems of her own in with a murder attempt in Florida. For once, the main story is actually back to the basics forensics, and in the case itself, and not in Scarpetta's dysfunctional relationships. And the case is actually an interesting in it's own right, and not an attempt to mask a political opinion or trying to be an international spy novel, which is something Kay Scarpetta novels shouldn't try to be.

I like crime novels, for me they are my easy feel good books, no matter how strange it sounds. They should be easy to read, full of interesting characters, good inner logic and satisfying ending. This book fulfills pretty much all of those requirements although the ending was a bit abrupt... So I was happy with this book, and will be looking forward to the next one, even if the wolfman appears again. Recommended for Scarpetta fans, even if the two previous ones put you off.

Confirmation

Ok, the flat has been confirmed, and providing our stuff arrives to the country on time and clears customs on time, we should be moving in in couple of week's time. Feeling relieved.

Home?

I saw a really nice flat yesterday, and today we went back to see it... and put a security deposit down. So if all goes well, we'll be moving into a real home on December 1st. Flat is big-ish, in West End (north of Downtown next to Stanley Park), has fantastic views of the city and mountains, in 23th floor and costs so much my mom will probably tell me off for it. Truth is, it costs little less than what we've paid for lately in England and is in a more central location... and we can afford it, pretty well in fact, once my money starts coming in as well.

At the moment though, I feel kind of bewildered and anxious. I love the flat - and I hope we've made the right decision although Dragon's trip to work is a bit longer than we originally planned... but on the other hand the flat fulfilled every other requirement we wanted, and is there.

Anxiety is partly probably because I've been cooped up here in a windowless room for two days doing nothing else than playing Sims 2, and I get really envolved with this game. Here are my characters, Mille and Thomas (and resemblance to living people is of course totally coincidental), or this is what they looked like when I started. Yesterday they got married and had a baby, today Thomas happily retired - Millie never did get back to work after having a baby, and now seems to be trying to live her youth again trough their son. In addition, Thomas is fit and happy while Millie got fat and now refuses to exercise to get rid of the extra pounds. And I'm taking this all far too seriously.

This game is so addictive. It is so well done, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the whole life cycle pans out. Characters are multidimensional, surprisingly intelligent and realistic. If they have a hard job they spend all their times working, and come home angry and tired and don't have time for anything or anyone else (how realistic).

I need structure and stability in my life. At the moment I'm without my security nets and although I'm painfully aware of the causes and effects, I can't get anything done to fix it. I'd rather take the easy option, stay at home playing Sims 2 and whining to Dragon... and I feel I've been extremely unfair and unpleasant lately.

Right. Tomorrow I'll start.

Dragon Optical Illusion

I don't usually post links for links sake, but as this is dragon-related, and really really cool, I'll make an exception. From Binary Arts, here's a Dragon Optical Illusion, little paper dragon who will appear to turn it's head so it's always looking at you. There's a very convincing video on that site, and you can even print out the dragon to try it out yourself... I don't have a printer so I'll have to ask the Real Dragon to print it out for me.

Via Stupid Evil Bastard.

Of Elections and Immigration

Over and over again, be it via email or in chat rooms, my friends and acquaintances have asked me about reactions to US presidential elections on this side of the pond. Naturally, Europeans are almost universally opposed to Bush, but even here, in the heartland of America’s closest neighbour, the reaction has been quite astonishing: Americans are writing letters in Canadian newspapers en-masse about their intentions to leave the country rather than suffer another term under Bush. Gay rights activists are despairing for if Bush manages to hammer through his amendment for constitution, then gay marriages will become virtually impossible in US, and the people of the rainbow are eyeing Europe and Canada as well with immigration in their mind. Many Americans fear that another war during the second term is a foregone conclusion, and find this morally unacceptable. Canada, always on a lookout for more immigrants to fill their astonishingly large country, is welcoming all comers with open arms, another trait that never ceases to astonish me: foreigners seem to be genuinely welcome here. I know that Canada had its share of ethnic problems as well, but the overwhelming majority of Canadians see multicultural society as integral part of their society. Certainly, American immigrants that bring their skills and wealth to US should find it exceptionally easy to adjust to life in Canada.

Canadians themselves are not quiet about the election results either. The company I work for is not exactly a bastion of socialism, but even very high level managers are quite openly criticizing the selection of President Bush while dealing with their American counterparts –something I thought I’d never see, as business and politics have never mixed in places where I have worked before. Even some Canadian politicians speak openly against Bush, which is almost unheard of. Yet it seems that the American religious right, the chief supporters of Bush has actually gotten out of touch even with their traditional conservative allies abroad. Canadian businessmen look at the combustible combination of fundamentalist Christianity, eagerness for war and isolationism with worrying eyes and draw their own conclusions.

It is weird for me to think about this: I left my native Finland to pursue an opportunity in my chosen line of work rather than because of political protest. Lacking any suitable qualifications (not to mention that there were no educational programs for games designers at that time) I had pretty much 0% chance of making my career in my homeland. But I know all about the difficulty of leaving your home, your language, friends and family behind for the uncertainty of a new country with its own laws, customs and culture. Yet I would imagine that for your average American leaving your nation behind is much more daunting task, though as one of my friends in Boston put it: we are nation of immigrants. It is in our blood.

Good luck to those who make the decision to move.

Skype

Over the weekend I've been trying out the new P2P VoiP application Skype with my family. Yesterday I spoke with my parents, and this morning with my sister - and it all seems to "just work" as they claim (minus some microphone and headset problems... but can't really blame them for that). But most importantly, it's free which can't be said of phone calls to Finland (which are not only expensive but worse quality). Now I'm just waiting for Chu to get her computer problems sorted so we can do some serious chatting, as I miss my best friend and I miss our weekly conversations.

Time difference seems to bother communications less than I expected. It seems that most of my friends are up until small hours anyway, and that makes it morning and early afternoon for me. My parents want to talk to me in the evenings which means early morning for me - but as I wake up early anyway that's fine too. On the text message front it's slower - I get my text urges usually in the evenings which is very early morning in Finland... so Chu gets them mainly when she wakes up. I'm also suspicious of how many of my messages actually get trough, I'm suspecting some of them have already gotten lost.

Oh well. Need to make the best out of the situation we have - no doubt issues sort themselves out somehow.

House search starting

So, we've settled in enough that we've started looking for a real flat now. The temporary accomodation we live in right now is free (as in paid by Dragon's employer), but that's really the best of it, and I really want my own space. (Ok yes, cleaner twice a week is nice, too.) So this morning before Dragon woke up I had a look at the available properties on the net, and after he woke up we went for second breakfast in a nearby cafe to read Vancouver Sun's property rental section.

There is a secred code language thing going on here... For example, look at these:

2BR grnd lvl ste 12th/Main, np/ns w/d incl, refs req'd

2BR grnd flr in new hse ns/np, suit fam/cpl

Mm... ok? After googling for some abbreviations we were in, then circling in the possibles, then more scribling... We came up with around six favourites, of which we're seeing one today and one tomorrow.

Renting a property is something that's very different in different countires. In England for example, High St is full of estate agents who manage rentals for private landlords, and security deposits are typically 4-6 weeks' rent. In here there seem to be few agents (and those that exist manage whole apartment buildings that offer all amenities) and most of the landlords seem to rent the flats themselves. Also security deposits are very low, typically only couple of weeks' rent or couple of hundred dollars.

All in all, there seems to be quite a lot properties available, in places that we want, even in prices that we want. Certainly there seems to be a lot more options here than... well, anywhere else I've ever lived, so I'm not expecting us to take too long to find something.

Later: house was nice. It's always a bit exciting when they desrcribe the house as having character, but this one actually had: it was a wooden house built in 1920s in a very peaceful residental area. Reminded me of Finnish wooden houses, just the feel of it and creaking floorboards. I think it's slightly too small for us, although everything else was ok, it even had a mountain view from the living room.

Search continues.

Ice eyes

Doing research for games is one of the favourite parts of my job. I recently promised to find a suitable facial photo for an artist for a warrior character in a game. He wanted strong, determined face that was just a touch fearsome, but not ugly.

I searched the net and scoured photo libraries but in the end one of my friends, a Finnish boxer, graciously sent me his picture which was perfect in my opinion. I thought to share it with the rest of you as well.

Lions at Vancouver Art Museum

Only way to cook in this stupid flat

Lest we forget

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

I was quite surprised that Canada celebrates the Remembrance Day - or Veterans' Day, as it's know here - even more than the Brits. Today is even a national holiday in British Columbia (though not in whole of Canada although they are talking about it).

Poppies are everywhere, practically everyone is wearing them, young and old. Even I got one last week when a veteran reminding me of my grandfather was selling them, but they seem to have a tendency to drop off so I don't have it anymore.

I have to say to my shame that I didn't even know that Canada was involved in the Second World War, but they themselves seem to be very proud of their part. But they in fact were involved, both in Europe and in the Pacific, and were on the five nations in the D-Day landing. Canadian industry was greatly affected by the manufacturing of planes, ships and weapons, and they not only supplied food to their own troops but to their allies as well. It was no small effort: over a million Canadians volunteered to help in the war - this was over 10% of the (then 11 million) population.

Maybe it's one of those things - I don't think anyone in Europe would say that Canada had a big part to play, they often play down the role of US in the war (especially war in Europe). Whereas here they want (and need) to believe that all those deaths and injuries were not in vain and that they had an important role to play.

New shoes, the geeky way

So the news is, I've got new shoes - I had with some stroke of genius packed only one pair of shoes, and although the weather for couple of days has been really nice, I really needed some rain proof shoes. And the geek I am I wanted to try the new phone's camera and compare it to my Nokia's camera. So here are the shoes, in stereo: on left is the image taken with Nokia 6600, on right is the image taken with Sony Ericsson T637.

The weird thing is, I framed the both photos identically - and on screen the T637 shows the framing correctly. But when I send the photo to my computer with Bluetooth it seems to crop the photo in a weird way, but still retaining the image size which results with really grainy image (click on images to see the original photos). Nokia's camera is obviously quite a lot better, it picks up more tone, more sensitive with colours. Sony Ericsson loses all the detail in a bright surface like the shoebox where you can't read the text at all.

Fog

The weather seems to continually have something new in stock for us. This morning it was fog, thick impenetrable grey stuff, so dense that you couldn't even see the tops of the skyscrapers. Then, there are these pockets of clearness on top of some hills where you can look down and you see just fog and mountain tops swimming in it.

It's probably true what they say, this is the most beautiful city in the world.

Phones

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, I've been preoccupied with the task of getting us Canadian mobile phones. The problem is, as we'be just arrived to the country we don't have credit ratings so we can't get "normal" pay monthly phones... so the only alternative was got get prepaid "Pay as you Go" phones.

The problem with PayG phones generally is that you can't use them abroad, and this is definetly something we'd ideally want to do. So I had a look around and came up with Bell who on their site claims that "Bell Mobility is the only carrier to offer you not only North American roaming and long distance but we also have international capabilities as well. No other Canadian carrier offers overseas calling to their prepaid customers."

So first stop, Bell store to find out more details. Just to confirm that I had understood everything correctly, I first asked if I could use my phone abroad - to which the chirpy girl answered "Oh no, not our phones - you need to go to Rogers or FIDO, their phones use SIM cards." I figured she knew what she was talking about so I headed over to Rogers (as we had been warned against FIDO - but now Rogers has bought FIDO so it probably doesn't matter anymore anyway) where a really nice young man helped me to choose two phones.

Only they were out of stock. As they were in the next shop I visited. And the third one. At this point it was seriously time for lunch so I headed home where I made some enquiries on where I could locate a shop that would actually sell me these phones. After some luck, I managed to find a shop near Dragon's work place - unfortunately I had underestimated the amount of traffic on certain roads and didn't get there in time so I had to postpone getting the goodies for today.

Now we are proud owners of Nokia 3120 (for Dragon) and Sony Ericsson T637 (for me). The whole mobile system here is just a bit difficult to get to grips with... It seems to be similar to American "receiver pays for the calls" system where some of the incoming calls cost me. My new phone number has Vancouver area code, so if someone outside Vancouver area calls me I have to pay the difference between a local call and a long distance call or something like that. In fact, I have to pay for all incoming calls, except if they come from another Rogers PayG phone. I can send text messages to Finland and receive them (which is most important as this is the primary way we communicate with Chu), but I can't call Finland and it's still a bit unclear if I can receive calls from abroad.

Sigh. Well, at least my new toy looks black and shiny: I've been using Nokias since day 0, but I've been hearing great things about these new Sony Ericsson phones so I decided to give it a go. I've still got my Nokia 6600 in case I really really don't like it.

Superstition

Dragoneye view of Vancouver

After a week in Vancouver, I finally figured out why I feel slightly unreal. As I walked around the town centre of Vancouver today, It really felt like I was walking in a movie set or a setting of a cyberpunk novel; sky-scrapers and wooden houses are scattered across the city in a merry mess, the majestic mountains are straight out of a fantasy novel and the blend of different cultures and nationalities is simply staggering.

From the industrious Chinese to the Japanese visitors who keep themselves to themselves, from Indians to the friendly and easy-going Canadians, the blend of exotic and familiar, old and new, technology and tradition is bewildering at first. Even simply choosing a restaurant amongst the seemingly limitless choice is daunting at first: how can you tell what Mongolian food is like, or which type of sushi to eat? The overload of different tastes, sights and smells from across the globe is something I appreciate, but it isn’t what I am used to. Finland is still relatively homogenous country, and England, while multicultural, feels old, worn and slightly insular compared to Canada with its love with technology, dynamism, openness and optimism is perhaps the most modern place I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong: I love Helsinki like no other city on earth, but Vancouver is truly different.

My guide to Vancouver said that Vancouver is like no other place on earth. Originally I thought this was somewhat romantic view, but once I’ve been here for a while I have understood that it is true. And I need to find my place in the order of things here.

I shall think on this.

Traffic

When we were watching the new Battlestar Galactica today and there was this scene where the characters were in this forest and it was dark and raining, and Dragon made a remark that they must be shooting the series in Vancouver. Which - incidentally, of course - turned out to be true, and Vancouver is indeed very popular destination for shooting TV series and films.

In England one of my pet peeves was a traffic jam that was due to people slowing down to look at an accident, often on the other side of the road. This week I came across a Vancouver version of the same thing - people slowing down to watch a film being shot. On Thursday and Friday we had to change our route trying to avoid a particular night shoot happening in downtown: the trucks that carry the lights and other equipment block several lanes for blocks. Somehow, I don't mind that kind of traffic jam as much - at least the reason isn't morbid curiosity.

Jet-lag over

It's over 11 o'clock in the evening and I'm not tired yet. So I must be over the jet-lag... To celebrate that, go and have a look at some photos I've finally been able to upload.

Connected, finally

Well, we finally got the computer yesterday and I immediately hooked it up on the hotel's broadband (which is little under 3MB which is very nice) and everything was fine. Unfortunately the connection was lost quite soon afterwards, and call to the help centre resulted in "they are trying to solve the issues, but there is no ETA"... But it's back now which is most important.

Weather forecasts have promised nothing but heavy rain over the weekend, and they sure seem to be accurate. The rain here is very thorough and it soaks absolutely everything. So what more perfect day than this to spend some time in a museum. The museum we chose was the Museum of Anthropology at Univerity of British Columbia, and good choice is was, too. The exhibit wasn't very big, but the native people's totem poles and other carved wooden items were just spectacular. The photo below is one of the most famous sculptures potraying the moment in the ancestral past of the Haida people when Raven, a wise and powerful yet mischievous trickster, has just found the first humans in a clam shell on the beach, and is coaxing them out of it. Very beautiful and so impressive.

For lunch we decided to finally go and eat in the Mongolian BBQ restaurant next to us, and I have to say I'm not surprised at all that people are queueing up to eat there. The idea is that you take a bowl, you go and pick different meats, greens, noodles and sauces from the bar, and give the to the cook who then proceeds to cook the food for you on hot plate (which only takes 20 seconds or so). The photo below shows the cook preparing Dragon's second bowl - one was quite enough for me. The food was absolutely fantastic, and the price was more than fair: $6 for one bowl or $8 for all you can eat... I'm getting hungry again even thinking about it.

Mongolian BBQ for lunch

Raven and the first men

Downtown from Stanley Park

Friendliness

Looks like the camera phone photos don't show enough detail and you can't see the snowy tops in the photo below... oh well. Let me just tell you then that it looks damn pretty! Once I get my computer I can upload some proper photos taken with my real camera that should show a bit better what I'm talking about... meanwhile the camera phone photos will have to do. (And I think they're ok for what they are - at least it gives you some kind of concrete idea of the place I'm at.) And talking about the computer - still no news, the relocation lady will chase up the customs today as "it normally never takes this long". The computer doesn't have any illegal programs or other material on it, so I can't see why they would take their time with it...

We went to get a bank account yesterday, and decided to go for a joint one. Dragon's employer of course has good relationship with a certain bank so we got some really nice service there - unfortunately getting a credit card requires an international credit rating to be delivered to them so that will take a while. All in all, pretty painless - we've both even got debit cards now, although until the first paycheck comes they're not that much of a use.

Generally, Canadians are incredibly friendly. I would have said that previously of Brits, too - now I would say that Brits are polite, not friendly. For example, when I say "thanks" after receiving my order or some other service, in England that would end the conversation - in here Canadians will always add "you're welcome". I know it's a habit, but it's kind of nice. Shop assistants might just greet me and ask how I'm doing when I'm wondering around the supermarket - not to offer help necessarily, just greeting. Finns would probably find this freeky, but I've had a crash course in small talk and meaningless politeness while living in England so I find it kind of nice (so sue me).

Snowy tops

Routine

Good weather continues, although it tends to be colder than I would prefer - then again at 10 C most of my friends would probably frown at me for complaining.

There's a routine forming - we wake up at 6:30 which is currently not a problem due to slight jet-lag, then I take Dragon to work and go back home where I have a second breakfast (yes, I think I'm turning into a hobbit). Then I go to a closeby net cafe to check my mails, news, blogs and write a bit, followed by some wandering around the city (weather permitting) and getting groceries. Then it's time for lunch, some daytime TV and with any luck Dragon is ready to come home and I go and pick him up.

Still no sign of my computer, and getting it would make life more pleasant. Relocation company has been authorised to get it from customs, but we haven't heard from them in days so I don't what's going on there.

Like pretty much every other human being on earth, we watched the horror play that is US elections unfold last night. Unfortunately pretty soon it became obvious that Kerry would lose so I went to bed - it makes me very sad and frustrated that the Americans don't see how much damage Dubya is doing globally, and I'm not even going to touch the religion subject.

On other news, D/k has had it's 20 000th visitor couple of hours ago, a Pinseri user logging on from his employers computer on Tammasaarenkatu in Ruoholahti. Congratulations to him, and I'm hoping it brings you better karma - if you're ever visiting Vancouver, we'll take you for a cup of coffee or sushi (whatever you prefer).

Lion's Gate Bridge

Thurlow

The sunny view down Thurlow St. You can see bottom of the mountains in the bottom of the the street, framed by the clouds. Nice weather today, for a change.

Clouds

I don't think I've ever been so much influenced by clouds as I am right now. In Vancouver, clouds define the city - how much you see and how the city feels. If it's bright with the occasional cloud, you can see the mountains towering over the city, you can see for miles and miles. If it's a bit cloudy you can see maybe North Van and some of the forests on the mountains, but clouds are hovering over the mountain tops and you can maybe see glimpses of them. On a really cloudy and rainy day (like yesterday) you can't see a thing, the mountains, or even the shore might as well not be there and your world becomes small and dark.

Too difficult to explain in words, perhaps... But it's like previously, clouds were just these abstract things that might steal your sunshine but that was pretty much it. They were high up, somewhere there. Now, I can actually relate the clouds to the landscape - "clouds are high" or "low", related to how much I can see of the mountains. And they have locations - clouds over North or West Van, because that's where the mountains are.

Perhaps you have to see it to understand what I mean. You know who you are.

Stanley Park and Downtown from Kitsilano Beach

View

I'm trying to post a photo a day, but as it's raining heavily today I haven't ventured out too much. This is the view out of our living room window - and yes, those trees are planted on a patio on that house.

Heaven

I've died and gone to heaven. I've just found a supermarket that only sells organic food, and has a huge selection as well. I found some loose tea, finally, but I can see that organic meat is going to be a problem as there the selection was tiny (maybe organic meat production is very rare here). The shop also uses as much local produce as possible. What a fantastic idea.

Good weekend

Rainy days vs. sunny days is tied in at 3 - 3 at the moment. The weekend was absolutely gorgeous - clear bright weather, absolutely perfect for walking around the city. Not that Vancouverites seem to mind, whatever the weather - the most perplexing sight so far has been people sitting outside on restaurant patios eating and drinking - and we're talking about evening temperatures of 5 C or so.

On Saturday we went for a little window shopping, and to a design exhibition Massive Change:The Future of Global Design in Vancouver Art Gallery with Janne. Exhibition was pretty interesting, and certainly thought provoking which is always good. Then we took a walk to Canada Place (although we didn't go in), and went to the Lookout tower that showed fantastic view of the city. In fact, we stayed there for well over an hour - just sitting there, watching the mountains and talking. One of the most peaceful moments in Canada so far - watching the mountains as sun was going down, seeing how the light was changing, then last of the sunlight reflecting of the windows of the houses in the mountains and then seeing how the North Vancouver slowly lit up again when it got dark. Fantastic.

On Sunday we went for a peaceful breakfast in the harbour with Janne and Minna - the restaurant was quite fancy, and the food was (again) just superb (I had Eggs Benedict - I love Eggs Benedict). After that Janne had to leave for the airport but Minna had the day to spare before her flight so we ventured to Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park to see the whales. They have a small group of Beluga whales there which we really wanted to see, and just happened to wander outside when they had a show starting. All done in good taste I think - not jumping trough hoops or anything silly like that, the show was more based on educating the audience about the whales than doing tricks. Still, the habitat looked awfully small for such huge animals... But it was still really cool seeing the whales, especially in the underwater observatory, and Beluga whales are just sublime.

Today, we're back to rainy weather, and I mean really rainy. I took Dragon to work this morning - it's his first day - and I'm off exploring next. I think I'll explore the possibility of acquiring an umbrella first.