Year in review

Well then, where to start. This year has certainly been busy in many ways, good and bad.

Most obvious thing: we started this blog. Dragon has been writing when he feels like it, I've had the ambition to write something every day, and I've succeeded in it only being late it couple entries, and even those mostly because of communication issues. There have been 613 entries this year and 917 comments and I've been happy with this communication channel and many people have told me that it's been fantastic to get this glimpse into our lives. All of you - I'm humbled by your kind words and as long as I have readers I hope to keep on writing.

Work-wise I settled into a new job and was working very hard on tight deadlines, but still loving it. Surrounded by intelligent, funny and friendly people - and although the commute was a pain I got used to it pretty well. I even made one amazing friend at work, Woja.

I've talked about friendships before, but Woja was really the first (and only) of his kind amongst the friends I made in UK. Steve in emo days was so important to me - but he was intellectual, cultural friend. Good listener, good talker and loyal to the boot. But not silly, not silly at all. Don't get me wrong - Woja can be intellectual and cultural too, but he is also extremely silly. All those things in right portions - with him I could chat about anything, about wrestling, or play the quote game (haven't done that in ages with anyone else: one person quotes something and the next person should reply with the next line, whatever it is... requires very similar interests with the playing partner and can't be played with just anyone). But he could also understand emotions, and talk about feelings, you know - like with your girlfrineds. I was gutted to lose him, but we'll still stay in touch and I'm hoping he'll visit us next year.

Busy describes the year very well in many ways... Didn't go to the movies that much - best movies seen this year have been Finding Nemo, Kill Bill volume 2 and Shaun of the Dead. I had time to read books, about twenty of them, and I'm quite happy I had energy to write about them all. The autor of the year was Richard Morgan, he wins hands down. I read all of his books and loved all of them. Bought some CDs but mainly soundtracks - some gems were found, like ukulele music, but CD of the year for me was George Michaels' Patience.

I really got into yoga. I found something that I truly loved, I trained like mad - but also had to give it up over work and now in Canada over lazyness and fear.

Did I mention busy? First half of the year was spent planning a trip to see SummerSlam in Toronto, and in August we made the trip together with my favourite people Chu and Dragon. One of the best memories of 2004 - I remember the sunny Toronto (and not the sunburns), I remember the wonderful athmosphere in the events that we saw, and kindness of the wrestlers that we met, and I remember the effect Canada had on me.

Well, there's the key word: Canada. Most of the autumn was spent fretting about Dragon's new job, and after the decision, lot of fretting about the move. Lot of bad things to say: leaving my job, country I love, people I love, my home, getting depressed and lonely. Lot of good things to say, too: coping and getting over depression, finding a new home, seeing Dragon relax into his new job, getting to know the fantastic city. It's true: Vancouver might just be the best city in the world... sounds awful to say that, belittling other cities I love like London, Helsinki and Nottingham. But pretty much everything here clicks.

Summa summarum: difficult year, and not as happy as I hoped.

Next year should be better. I'm hoping for a new great job, great new friends and getting back to exercise and yoga. I'm hoping that friends and family will have time and money to come and visit us, and I'm looking forward to showing off the city to them. I'm hoping for another fantastic trip with Chu and Dragon, this time to LA to see Wrestlemania.

Happy new year eveyone.

Later: I shouldn't have bragged about updating daily, as I'm now having serious issues with my web host. Also I'd like to add a new web host to my new year ambitions.

Onwards, upwards

Dragon is pretty much ok now, but just to be on the safe side we didn't go out more than to pick up lunch and coffee (yes, I'm really getting into this - and soy milk seems to work very well for me). Dragon is also getting his appetite back, and we actually ate dinner tonight unlike when he was ill when he had totally lost his appetite. Everything else is exactly like it's been for the past couple of days, except the game on TV is now Shadow Hearts 2 as Suikoden finished yesterday.

Been thinking about the past year in retrospect (and I really like Janka's Year Turning post and last year's too - I think I'll snurch the idea and write something similar tomorrow) and the year coming. I'm not big believer in new year's resolutions as I generally believe in changing your life as you see fit - not starting from some certain point as it kind of implies, I don't know, ending it too in a similar fashion. So instead of waiting for two days to start a "new life" I started today.

I mean, really. All this laying on the couch isn't good for me, not in my age. Gone are the days when I could eat "anything I wanted" and still maintain figure and fitness - for sure, two months in Canada with a fairly passive lifestyle, and I've surely gained weight. So we were talking about exercise today with Dragon and he noted that he was thinking about starting to walk the stairs up to the 23rd floor, and I've actually had similar thoughts. Well, not doing it every day, but occationally. So, why wait? I had business in the basement as I needed to empty some recycling containers, so I put on my shoes and off I went.

Floor 3 - hey, this is no problem at all! Set a steady pace and breath deeply, and this is child's play!

Floor 7 - my goddess, I'll never make it. Breathing hurts and I've given up breathing deeply and opted for panting.

Floor 14 - hey, maybe it'll be ok. And then remember that the superstitious builders of this house didn't put in floor 13.

Floor 20 - not... long... now...

Floor 23 - "Oh, did you climb the stairs?" asks Dragon, and I only have energy to nod.

Yeah. High time to get off my sofa as long as my ass still fits it.

Another sickie

Another one of Dragon's sickies... I'm a bit surprised I haven't caught whatever it is that he's having. But he continues to be in high spirits as long as he can play Suikoden 3... About 70 hours gone, and still going strong.

Today I got us lunch from Lucky Tao Chinese Noodle House - the closest Chinese restaurant to us. This is a cute place - very down to earth little restaurant that has plastic table cloths and posters of Jackie Chan and Jet Li on the walls, you know the type. The food is... not what you would expect. I'm used to Chinese food in England and Finland, but Lucky Tao has certain home made quality to it's food that I haven't encountered elsewhere. Especially for lunch, price is more than right: for $5.25 you get a soup, spring roll and the main course which should feed even a big hungry man (let alone me).

I also taught Dragon to use the washing machine.

That's pretty much highlights of today. I'm hoping either one of us will be ill tomorow so maybe we could venture out together. I'd like to dip my nose into the sales and buy some more tea from Teaz.

Dabbling in coffee

The photo is taken this morning from our living room window. This is the kind of fog that we sometimes get - so thick you can't even see the neighbouring houses.

Dragon is using his holiday in a very useful way, by being ill. Considering that he doesn't have any paid sick leave, it makes more sense... besides, he's been able to do what he most wanted - play Suikoden 3 - so he's no losing that much. I'm sure he'll tell you all about it when he's finished... And then Suikoden 4 is being released in January.

So that has left me pretty much doing my own thing. Except when I first tried to take a nap on the sofa Dragon reminded me that he was actually really hungry - so I got up and went to buy groceries and lunch. Luckily our Safeway occasionally offers organic beef so I didn't have go further than that for dinner. For lunch I got us subs from Subway and coffee from Starbucks...

I have to say I'm starting to get addicted to this coffee culture and Starbucks (but probably that brand only because it's the closest one to us - for Blenz I'd have to walk several blocks!). At the moment I'm kind dabbling and trying to figure what I like and what feels good. Too much coffee I don't like, and too much milk makes me feel nauseous... So far I've mainly tried some lattes - the gingerbread latte is nice, and the new favourite chai latte is good too but obviously doesn't have any coffee in it. Next I'm thinking about replacing the milk with soy milk and see if I like that better.

But not going to these coffee shops that are literally everywhere doesn't seem to be an option. Everyone goes there - they sit inside, outside, walk on the streets with their cups, and the coffee speak is part of the culture.

You know, when in Rome? Gotta go with the flow.

To someone else

I don't think there are many people who are not affected in one way or another by the Indian Ocean earthquake. I only heard this morning that my cousin was supposed to be in Thailand at the time, and only by accident was safe in Singapore. So we donated some money to Red Cross this morning.

I know it wasn't my cousin there, but somebody else's was. So this is for him. Do what you can.

Seattle trip

Well, we're back home after a very successful trip.

We took a shuttle bus outside a hotel couple of blocks from our house that went trough some downtown hotels and then proceeded to downtown Seattle (only costing $90 return for two people). Bus ride was uneventful - even the border crossing - but not as nearly as tiring as flying, and we arrived to Seattle on time. By this time we had figured out that it seemed impossible to call Hardy's mobile from my (UK) mobile so we needed to call his wife Tracy to get her to call him so he could come to the right place to pick us up... overly complicated, but it worked and Hardy found us in five minutes.

Hardy lives in Seattle suburbs with his wife Tracy and their two children Sofia and Gilbert, and the party we had been invited to included other friends and neighbours, and most of them bringing at least one child of their own. I think Dragon counted eight kids at some point but it was difficult to keep track when they were constantly moving. Their house was in a cul-de-sac, and looked exactly like those big American houses that you see in the movies that you think no one really lives in. Well, Hardy's family does, and it was a beautiful house decorated with plenty of Christmas decorations (and then some) but all still done in good taste.

Say what you will about Americans (and I do too at times), but I've seldom felt as welcome and at home at somebody else's house - especially on the first visit - as I did at Hardy and Tracy's. Especially considering that previously I'd met Hardy twice when he was working in Portsmouth and never met Tracy or anyone else at the party. Wonderful, intelligent and warm people, delightful evening. After all the guests had gone and kids had been put to sleep, the boys - both being games designers - talked shop. Tracy is as used to this as I am, and it was really cool to meet someone like her who had the same problems and experiences with a games designer as a husband as I've had.

Although our room was on the chilly side, we slept really well, in fact way later than we intended to. Still, we had a lovely unhurried morning: had breakfast, chatted, and after Tracy's sister Mandy offered to look after the kids we headed into town. It was absolutely fantastic weather, albeit a bit cold, but it was clear so we decided to go up to the Seattle's most famous landmark, the Space Needle. There was quite a wait to get up there, but it all worth it. We even got to see the magnificent Mt. Rainier that is apparantely only visible 40 days a year. Seattle is beautiful - not as beautiful as Vancouver, but well worth a seeing the city, sea, mountains and Lake Washington. Next time we'll have to take a bit more time and wander around the city.

We had a coffee while boys talked more shop (and I had Chai Latte - excellent), and then it was time to head for the buss. There was also a big wait to get to the elevator going down, but we had time to chat so the wait wasn't too bad. Then another four hours in a bus and we're back home. I'm really glad we went - the temptation to stay home and spend another couple of days lazying on the couch was definetly there... All definetly worth it, and we'll be going back for sure.

Tally ho Rudolf!

Enough of this laying about already.

We're off to Seattle for a Boxing Day party arranged by Dragon's friend, and will be back tomorrow. Weather is grey and rainy so I doubt I'll see anything interesting to moblog, but in any case I'll be back on-line tomorrow evening.

Sleep and food

Wow, I must have been really tired after all those Christmas preparations as I slept fully 12 hours last night. Followed by some pudding for breakfast and a two hour nap on the sofa. If I hear Elvis sing "Why can't every day be like Christmas" one more time, I think I'm going to slap someone.

After I almost fell asleep for the second time (only woke up when I started drooling) we decided to venture outside although it was raining heavily and went for our new Starbucks for a coffee. Now I don't generally drink coffee, but Starbucks' Christmas-time gingerbread latte is heavenly. We were slightly dubious if it was going to be open at all - but we should have know better, Vancouverites giving up coffee even for one day, as if... we were lucky to even get a table! (Although West End might be an exception to the rule as according to 1996 census states that over 50% of population here falls into the 20-39 age category - I would say this is the age group most likely to go for a coffee around four on Christmas Day.)

So that's what I've been doing today. Eating and sleeping. Between nodding off on the sofa I've made trips to the frige, we've drank mulled wine and eaten ham and salmon, and Dragon has played about 10 hours of Suikoden 3 and he's not about to finish yet.

Perfect. I've seldom felt as happy as I have today.

Christmas in Finland is so much more hectic - in a funny way I almost envy people like Janne and Outi who get to choose who's parents and relatives they get to visit on Christmas... As both of ours live in Helsinki we're doing double duty all the time insted of getting one over with in couple of days. Not to say I don't enjoy meeting the relatives, I really do, it can just be very tiring when you can't do what you feel like doing.

This Christmas has perhaps been the most relaxing and peaceful Christmas ever.

Merry Christmas

After days of carrying food home, and hours and hours of cooking today, the Christmas Eve is nearly over, and I'd even consider it a success. Salmon was nice, the wild taste has it's own character, and I even managed to find some salmon roe from a small Russian delicatessen on Bidlwell so aptly called Euro Shop Plus. Mushy peas were praised by Dragon so they must have been properly cooked, and even the ham - although not salted - was ok, the taste was different sure, but the apple/mustad crust made it quite Christmasy. And the plum croissant pudding was good, too.

I think we did good.

I'm so sleepy now. Although Christmas almost requires eating at night, I don't think I'll manage to stay awake for more than couple of more minutes.

Merry Christmas to all, and peace on earth.

Making Christmas

Christmas has come early as I got the new stereo system for us as an early present. And to entice Dragon's Christmas spirits I got also several CDs worth of Christmas music... yes, I'm that old. But hey, it worked a treat, and we decorated the Christmas tree tonight while listening Nightmare Before Christmas (See how I transformed this old rat / Into a most delightful hat) and a bit more traditional Elvis' best Christmas songs.

My mom keeps telling me that we should use this opportunity of spending the Christmas alone to create our traditions. So we've kind of started - as Dragon has to still work tomorrow morning, we did the tree decorating tonight. We'll have rice porrage for lunch when he comes home - good news is that unlike in Britain, it's actually possible to get lactose free milk here. Evening menu-wise the offering is going to be humble compared to the full menu my mother offers: freshly salted sockeye salmon (graavilohi) and boiled potatoes for starters, ham with mustard and apple crust and mushy peas (Christmas delicacy from Dragon's side) for main course (and for the Brits reading this, mushy peas are indeed a Christmas delicacy in Finland!) and plum croissant pudding for dessert (my own adaptation of the British bread pudding).

So everything is mostly in order for tomorrow, I still have to pop into the shops tomorrow morning to get couple of more things that I just couldn't carry tonight, especially after dragging that 15 kg stereo in an impossible shaped box from the city centre today. Mulled wine is still a delight - I've decided that I actually prefer this one cold, the vodka makes it so strong that when you heat it up the steam alone get me drunk.

Feeling a bit disorganised but writing everything down helps, as always. I just hope I'll manage to get everything done at least to an acceptable standard.

Mulled wine a la kolibri

Mulled wine turned out to be fantastic, so here's the recipe:

1 bottle of dry Bordeaux wine
100 ml of vodka
100 ml of port wine
15 whole cloves
1 tsp whole cardamom seeds
3 sticks of cinnamon
3 pieces of fresh ginger
1 lemon, peel and a thick slice
2 small oranges, peel and a thick slice
150 ml brown sugar

Crush all the spices to release the aromas. Mix them with the vodka and port wine. Wash the lemon and the oranges (I used blood oranges) very well, and peel them. Add peel to the mixture. Slice a thick slice of both fruits and put them in too. Peel ginger and chop into bitesize pieces, add the pieces in. Smell the mixture but resist temptation and put it into an airtight container and to the frige overnigth, or 24 hours if possible.

Next day, drain the spices from the liqueur, and mix it with the sugar and the wine. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Now's the good part - tasting. I've put quite a lot sugar in because I like my mulled wine sweet, but make yours according to your preference. If it's too sweet, add more wine, and if it's too tart, add more sugar.

Heat up only the amount you're going to drink, and you can keep the rest until it's needed. Microwave is really good for heating up mulled wine, but if you heat it up in a pan make sure it doesn't boil.

Serve with raisins and almond chips.

More preparations

Very tired today. For the first time in... well, probably since we moved here about two months ago, I slept the whole night trough without waking up once, only waking up when Dragon's alarm went off. Was greeted with a flooding toilet - no idea where the water came from, but it seems to have stopped now. Need to keep an eye on that... And we were reminded that we still don't have any kind home insurance which we need to get - we got lucky this time as there was no damage and the flooding was contained in the bathroom.

I'm sure I did something important in the morning, but I have no idea where the time went. I do know I napped on the sofa for over two hours which is a bit extensive, even for me. I didn't manage to get out of the house until around four, but it had to be done as I had decided to go and buy mulled wine incredients today. I did manage to find everything I was looking for, even if it took two trips (and here's my mental note: go to the liqueur store last next time, as bottles weight a lot).

I put the spices with orange and lemon peel marinating in some vodka (in a dash of patriotism I bought Finlandia) and port wine, and the fragrant smell coming out of the container is absolutely fab. Tomorrow it's time to drain the spices out and put in the dry red wine - I've combined the recipe from several sources I found on the net, leaning on the Swedish glögg recipes that are probably closest to my Finnish palette. If it turns out ok I'll share it for all the other expats who want a piece of Finland at home.

Chimes

I think I'm starting to feel the Christmas frenzy. I went to city centre today with a purpose of helping out Santa with some gifts he was too busy to buy, and decided to pop into The Bay to check out their decorations. Didn't find any silver garland (we bought some on Saturday, only it got lost somewhere between the shop and home), but I did manage to find a really cute Christmas Tree skirt with an adorable reindeer, and a runner (a table cloth, only a thin one covering only middle of the table, "running" over the table...) with some napkins. I've now also got some paper to package the gifts, only I don't have any tape... Then I decided that it was a good idea to walk home after also buying about 2 liters of Tigi shampoo and conditioner that I found on sale.

All in all, very productive, although tiring trip.

At home I started arranging the tree, put the skirt on, and gathered all the gifts we've received so far under it. Which is quite a few as today a second package from my family arrived when I was just coming out the shower. I opened one after my sister told me that it was really a pre-Christmas gift, and it turned out to be Angel Chimes (enkelikellot).

Now as long as I can remember, Angel Chimes have always been part of our Christmas traditions. It's a fascinating apparatus: it's got four candles on the bottom, and the heat from the candles causes the angels on the top to spin and, in doing so, the small chimes attached to the angels hit against the bells causing tinkling sounds. It's not used that many times over Christmas, typically three or four I think - the tinkling sound is sweet for about the time it takes for the candles to burn. I put it together just now and had to give it a spin (and why is it that I always put the angels the wrong way around first?) and it's instant Christmas!

Cupcakes!

Conversation outside Cupcakes:

Me: See there's this silly shop that only sells cupcakes, and it's called Cupcakes!
Dragon: They look delicious!
Me: Should we go in and buy two?
Dragon: Why not?

Conversation inside:

Me: I'll take Mint Condition...
Dragon: You only want one?
Me: Well, if you take two, I'll take two. I'll take Sweet 16 also.
Lady behind the counter: Well, if you take six, you can get the extra two for a dollar or so...
Me & Dragon: Why not?
Me: I'll take Blue Hawaii too...

Sweet.

Good deals

Well, we've officially started Christmas arrangements. We went and had a look at some Christmas Trees today - as our rent agreement forbids live trees (grabage disposal and fire hazard - in a building with over 150 apartments I guess there's point) we had a look at some artificial ones. Alternatives were very basic and slightly scruffy looking $25 tree from our local Chinese Homestore, or a fancy looking lights-already-installed $100 tree from Sears. After a short reality check we went for the economic option, but still got some decorations from Sears - for once it's of some use being totally late with Christmas arrangements as all decorations were now on -50% sale. Just think how much I'd save if I got them in a week's time!

Anyway, turned out that the scruffy looking tree at Homestore was the final one, so we got that one to go - at home I opened it and carefully twisted the branches and it suddenly started looking like a real tree. Lights cost $1.99 extra, so I think we got a pretty good deal here.

In my family the Christmas tradition is that the tree isn't decorated until noon on Christmas Eve after the official declaration of Christmas Peace (a Finnish Custom), but since that actually happens now 2 am our time, I think we'll do it when we wake up on the morning of 24th. As here, like pretty much everywhere else in the world, 24th isn't a special day, so Dragon had to especially take the day off so we can start Christmas celebrations the proper (= Finnish) way.

In other news, we bought some games to pass time on the holidays, two games for Dragon, and one for me. Now when it comes to games, I'm really difficult. I don't like violence or killing, and I'm not very good at platform jumping games or anything really that requires reaction time and lots of combos, so I'm pretty limited - that's why I like simulations like Sims or Pharaoh, and Myst games. I think I have today found a game that I can add to the list.

It's a game called Katamari Damacy, and the basic idea is that you roll things into a ball. Let me explain: I play the little prince whose father is the King of All Cosmos, and due to an unfortunate accident suddenly all the stars have disappeared. So my darling father decides to cash in a "favour" of my existance (gee, thanks dad!) so I need to create all the stars again. This happens by rolling big enough balls (called katamari) - it's done like rolling a snow ball when making snowmen. I roll my katamari over different things and they stick, the bigger my ball gets the bigger things get stuck into it. So I start with caramels and tags and mah jong tiles, and move into legos and mice and sparrows and teddy bears, all the way up to people and houses and stadiums and well... anything you can imagine. Fanstastically innovative and absurd, and great gameplay. Love it.

Lists rule

I've started writing lists. Although I'm generally speaking a list person, I seldom write my lists on paper - at work yes, but I have a good memory so I don't normally have to do it. But now, when I don't really have a structured life style I find that I keep forgetting to do things, forgetting to buy this or that and it's getting annoying.

So I've started writing my lists down. Today I had two lists - to-do list and to-buy list. To-do list was simple: drugs (went to get the next batch of my depression drugs), moisturiser (I swear by Clinique's 3 step program) and lunch. To-buy list was simple as well, although requires more coordination due to my meat limitation: meat (got chicken legs, lamb, and pork, organic of course), fruit and bread.

Honestly, I have to write these kind of things down. Yesterday I didn't write lunch down so I forgot to buy some. Today I continued to explore restaurants on Denman and went for a Mediterranean restaurant (Greek and Persian - how does that work?) and got some lamb with rice, pita with tsatsiki and salad - fast and certainly a big portion, unfortunately quality was only ok. Still, would consider using the place again, as fast as it was. It's funny - these kind of kebab places are quite common in Helsinki and it's only one type of fast food that people regulary eat. In England kebab is only eaten when drunk on your way home back from the pub, and when you wake up in the morning and your whole room smells of kebab you'll never want to eat any ever again, until next time you come home in the small hours and it seems like a good idea again.

City view

Haven't uploaded any photos for a while, so here's the panorama view taken this morning from our study/guest room window just before I went for a swim. Mountains on the left and sea and Burrard Bridge, with pretty typical weather: cloudy but not raining (at this particular moment).

Other achievements for today: after lot of searching I finally managed to find a present for Dragon. Difficult sometimes when you want the best for the best.

You know when you're from Vancouver when...

The removal company came and took last of the empty boxes out this morning, so we officially have a dining room now. I spent the morning talking to Chu after a too long break - we still don't have a land line here but I used SkypeOut, Skype's pay-service. Not too brilliant quality, but good enough so we got everything on our hearts poured out.

Yesterday when searching for some information (I forget what it was) I came across a Vancouver message board that had a list of things that you immediately recognise if you're from Vancouver and it had me giggling so I'll pull out some of my favourites and explain them:

You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.

It's true! In England I got so used to just throwing everything away - I did collect glass and newspapers, but recycling was made so difficult we ended up having huge piles of the stuff laying around and only took them to recycling every few months. In here, even in the hotel, there are recycling points where you take the trash out to make it as easy as possible. Fantastic!

You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the "Walk" signal.

This one is weird, but Vancouverites really do obey the pedestrian lights and generally don't cross the street anywhere else. In England people would cross wherever and whenever - here cars honk at you if you break the rules. Recuires some adjustment.

You consider that if it has no snow, it is not a real mountain.

Indeed! Otherwise it's just a little hill. The real mountains are majestic and everlasting, peaceful giants that watch over you.

You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Blendz, and Tim Horton's.

You would have to ask Dragon about coffee, but the truth is that while in England there was a church in every block, here there is a coffee shop. Literally, I'm not kidding: there is a coffee shop every 100 meters or so. Vancouverites must love their coffee.

You are not fazed by "Today's forecast: showers followed by rain," and "Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers."

It sounds bad, but it really isn't. The rain is gentle, and it's not often cold and rainy. Also, it doesn't last to long - it comes and goes in a blink of an eye... in fact, it's always important to be dressed up prepared for rain, or carry an umbrella if you're a wimp like me.

You cannot wait for a day with "showers and sun breaks".

Sunny days are just so gorgeous here. The mountains, the sea, the city, the sky, the people... Incredible.

You notice "the mountain is out" when it is a pretty day and you can actually see it.

I've said this before.

You recognize the background shots in your favourite movies & TV shows.

Ah, guilty as charged.

You often switch from "heat" to "a/c" in your car in the same day.

Well, I don't own a car currently, but this is certainly a familiar phenomenon by just walking outside for couple of hours. You dress up warmly when you leave and feel fine. Halfway down the road you start to sweat like a pig because you have too much on - so you take off your gloves and open your coat. The next minute you're shivering again because it feels cold again. Alternatively, you feel fine but the moment you step into a shop you're in an oven... it's just very difficult to dress up so that you would be comfortable all the time. Answer of course is layers, I just have to figure out the right ones.

You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your friends in the British Columbia or those who used to live here!

Ahem... Since I only know two people from this city and they both read this blog, consider yourselves forwarded.

Trying to get licensed

Can I say I had a busy day if I've still sat on front of the telly for several hours and had a nap on the sofa? It feels like I've had one anyway, but I guess it's all relative.

I decided that today was finally going to be the day I would go and take my driver's license test - the province allows me to use my foreign driver's license for 60 days after moving here so I thought I'd have to do something about this soonish. I can take a test and assuming I get over 80% of the questions right, I can exchange my current license without further tests. I'd taken couple of practice tests on-line and each time gotten 80-90% right so I was pretty confident I'd be able to pass.

So I go the ICBC office and give my documents to the lady, who points out that I have to have had the licence for over two years to be able to do this easy exchange, otherwise I'll need to go to the learners program. Well, I've had my license for twelve years, so this shouldn't be a problem - however, most of the time I lived in England I still had my old Finnish license that I only exchanged to the EU license about a year ago... Year and two months ago to be exact, like the lady pointed out - as the new license has the "valid from" date from that date and I have no proof of actually having a license beyond that.

Bummer. Seems like I need to get some official document from Finland proving when I got my license, and this might be a bit tricky.

In addition to that I've been running all over the city looking for that perfect present for Dragon... And for the first time I used the local bus. Although I might sound really pathetic by saying this, I'm still going to say it: that was fun! Not quite as neat as Finnish busses, but so much better than anything in England...

For late lunch I got a burger from Vera's Burger Shack. They advertise that they have the best burgers in town, and that's a claim that I just had to test - best burgers I've had in my entire life have come from Sammy's couple of blocks further. Now I'm not big on fast food, and I'd never buy anything from McDonald's and co, but real burgers made with real meat and original recepies while you wait are an entirely different thing altogether. I tried the BBQ burger and while it was quite satisfying, it didn't beat Sammy's Mexican burger.

Go me

I finally got off my ass today and I went swimming in our building's swimming pool. Arms and back complained loudly after hundrer meters or so, but I refused to listen to them and did my usual kilometer in about the same time as before. I like the spa area on our building, it's really pretty - but the most important thing is that it's got a sauna! A bit weird one, what comes to saunas - it's funny shaped, with big floor area not small seating, and the heating element (or whatever kiuas is called) was fenced off. There was no water either so I don't think I was supposed to throw any, but the sauna was hot enough that I didn't have to.

I guess it's one of those very Finnish things, sauna (there isn't even a verb in English for the action of using the sauna). Being there relaxing in peace and quiet is almost like a sacred experience... I pay $10 a month for the pool privilege, but I would call it more like sauna privilege. It's worth the money just for that.

On TV

One of the things I miss about England is the incredibly high quality TV they have. Some things you take for granted you don't miss until you lose them, and TV is one of them. Previously I've lived in the two of the only countries in the world that actually have TV license and publicly funded state television... so I always thought it pretty natural, although paying the fee seemed annoying at times.

Well, here I've figured out (doh) what happens when public doesn't pay: you get ads. First time in the middle of the news on the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Company, equivalent of BBC and YLE) there was an ad break I was shocked. In fact, ad breaks on all channels are more frequent than for example in England, and seem to take forever... Half an hour program can have three or even four breaks with real program segments sometimes lasting only couple of minutes. I mean, sometimes breaks are nice for getting something from the fridge or going to the toilet, but this is taking the piss!

Also although the quantity of channels exceeds what we had previously, quality is much lower... There are some nice things like getting many TV series when they are first broadcast (but then again, it's not true for all anymore as Sky in UK has picked up several series first), and I definetly prefer Space over Sci-fi Channel. Technology is nicer too, the digital cable box we have is by far the best digi-TV system I've used, beats especially NTL that ran like a dog (press a button, wait for several seconds before anything happens), and even Sky Digital, by being very intuitive and having a lot more usable interface for actually doing what you want to do. Like TV guide for browsing what's on in other channels now and later showing five channels at a time with colour coded program types, and still actually being able to watch the progream on the current channel... seems easy enough, so why this functionality has been lacking on other systems is beyond me.

Oh well.

Have a nice day

Spent a peaceful morning with Dragon watching new episodes of Galactica (which continues with as high standard as ever) and Stargate Atlantis (which I think had the first really good episode so far with Before I sleep, but I'm sucker for this kind of stuff).

Weather was clear and sunny, altough a bit nippy, but we headed out to strech our legs. Not looking to buy anything particular, but just walking around town, looking at windows and enjoying the athmosphere. Went to the bookshop and the comic store, of course, but left empty handed from both. Had a look at some stereos at Futureshop and decided that no matter how cool the $70 system was, the sound was crap, and further decided that decent systems would cost around $250. Not bad.

On our way home we bought some decadent donuts and wraps - it seems that because at weekends we leave out so late, by the time we get hungry it's around four, and that's too late for most places that serve lunch. I was also reminded that despite the mild weather here, it's really winter as when we were walking home the sun was already setting. When weather is this nice the view from our living room window is especially spectacular - in the morning I could actually see Mt. Baker (a big mountain across the border), but when the dusk is setting and the sky is getting dark, at the same time the city is slowly lighting up... absolutely beautiful.

Trying new things

Today's goal was to explore Davie in hopes of finding another butcher, but Davie seems mostly to be filled with restaurants. Trip was not altogether in vain though, I found a green grocers specialising in organic fruit and veg, and another good baker... but for the meat I had to take a detour to Capers on Robson.

I've noticed that my lunches tend to be comfort food, out of all the available ethnic alternatives I choose the most familiar pizza, salads, subs and wraps. So today I decided for the sake of it to choose something I've never tried before, and went for Vietnamese. My choice was spicy pork cake noodle soup and I just had to try what sounds really weird and all Vietnamese restaurants advertise here: bubble tea. The noodle soup was fantastic - as I took it as take away (I'm not big on restaurants, especially alone), the soup was in two containers: one with the spicy broth, the other one with pork cakes (minced pork with spices), raw onion thinly sliced (which cooked in the broth) and the noodles, which I could combine how I wanted. Very tasty and filling, certainly will be trying that restaurant again.

But the bubble tea, that was weird. Most of the flavours seemed to be dairy based - and I don't drink milk - so I chose passion fruit as that one wasn't. It turned out to be like a soft drink, with ice, yellow and very sweet, and in the bottom it had what's called tapioca perls, small pearls that pretty much looked and felt like frog spawn. Tasted mainly sweet, but kind of yucky. It was ok, but a little too sweet for my taste.

Better late than never

Call me slow, but I just realised that Christmas is coming. Maybe it's because Christmas doesn't seem to be so in your face here, maybe it's because I've been busy doing other things. But realised that it's really just a few short week's away when I was watching new ER and they had a Christmas episode on where they had all decorated Christmas trees and I started thinking about our Christmas trees...

None of my normal Christmas routines are present, like getting the tickets to Finland, buying presents, making plans... This Christmas I'm going to celebrate Christmas away from my parents and from my family, for the first time in my life. At times it makes me sad, at times it gets me exited and a bit anxious trying to think how I need to arrange all those lovely things my mom does that I take for granted. Do they do mulled wine in Canada? I need to visit my local liquor store to find out. And ginger bread? Organic salted ham? Need to check those too...

And presents, due to unfortunate events last month, I haven't bought any. So sorry guys, I still love you and I'm still thinking about you all.

All in a day's work

Weather was actually quite nice today, so after the morning's activities which included letting in the manager to test the smoke detector and falling asleep on the sofa while watching Star Trek, I ventured out to do something that was long overdue: to buy a shower curtain.

So I walked down Denman to this nice interior decorating shop on Robson, and while walking there I finally visited the attractive looking tea shop on the way. It seems that although tea infusers are in every supermarket, finding loose leaf tea is challenging so I was happy to finally find a shrine dedicated to good tea. I picked up some sweet Moroccan green tea (mmm... mint!), some fragrant apricot and peach tea, and some Baroness Gray (variation of Earl Gray with cinnamon that I haven't seen before, or tasted, yet). Wonderful little shop, not just selling tea in packets, also brewed tea with cakes, really calming and nice place.

After choosing the shower curtain I explored the little shops on Robson and found a decent butcher with lamb and free range chicken (although only whole, not in pieces), and a very good baker from whom I bought some gorgeous bread. I queued in the post office to post a parcel for Dragon, and picked up a blueberry smoothie and some fruit from our corner green grocers and headed home to eat some lunch.

After which I discovered that although I had the shower curtain to prevent the bathroom from flooding, it wasn't much of a use without the curtain rings... so one more shopping trip in store before that one is sorted.

Cheesy

Weather continues to be pretty awful, but I managed a trip to our local Safeway when it wasn't raining. What comes to supermarkets, this one was rather sweet - big and spacious, but in some regards I'm getting frustrated with lack of choice in Canadian shops.

For example, cheese spreads: there only seems to be one alternative, and that's Philadephia. Granted, it comes in about million different flavours include some really strange ones like rasberry or pineapple, but cream cheeses is all they have for cheese spreads. They seem to be lacking the Scandinavian style more cheesy than creamy spread, our favourite in England was Primula (blend of Cheddar and Gouda) sold in tubes.

Another one is meat - in our previous shop there was organic meat available although selection was small. In normal supermarkets the selection is pretty large, but I hesitate to buy anything as in Canada it's legal to use steroids and antibiotics on cattle which in Europe is mostly illegal. So far we've eaten this meat couple of times, but I'm really thinking we shouldn't, for both ethical and health reasons.

Need to put more energy into this.

Doing the man's work

When Dragon is away I get to do all the things he always insists on doing. I've put together the bookshelf and the new computer desk that both arrived today, spending probably almost four hours doing it - especially the desk had lots of really difficult screws that I just about had the strenght to tighten.

Suddenly I see the benefit of him doing it. My back hurts, my fingers are raw and the palm of my hand is sore for gripping the screwdriver for hours. But hey, the study is starting to look like a real room now: instead of boxes full of comics and computer balancing on a stool, there's a proper desk and a shelf.

Settling in, although alone

Dragon has by now arrived in San Fransisco, and will be away for the next two nights. I don't like being alone, never really have, but I'm feeling fine about it this time.

Before he left, we walked down Denman to our hotel and checked out. I really liked our little apartment there, but now going in there to double check that we didn't leave anything was really depressing. We lived there for five weeks, and while most of that time I was perfectly satisfied, those couple of dark, terrible days were the first thing on my mind when I entered the flat. Sad that bad vibes were the topmost thing on my mind - but makes me even more glad that I decided to go on medication as now all my associations of our new home are happy ones.

Walking back home was kind of my first exploration trip to our new neighbourhood - Denman Street is a lively street filled with restaurants (we counted at least 12 different nationalities, so there shouldn't be a lack of choice!) and little boutiques, and we even found a candy store that sold salmiakki - albeit Dutch so the texture was a bit funny, but taste was authentic enough. Every block seems to have an ice cream parlour, which is not a huge surprise as we are a stone throw away from the beach. Really nice neighbourhood, affluent and clean, but still characterful not too fancy to make one feel unconfortable.

I think I'm going to love it here.

Laundry

I'm starting to feel better, but it's not like I've been pushing it today. Weather has been miserable, and the only good thing about it is that we get to watch the clouds hanging so low they cover tops of the highest buildings, which looks pretty cool this high up.

As far as news go, most exiting thing I did today was some laundry - you might not think that's too interesting, but it was my first laundry here. It seems pretty common here that rental places don't have their own washing machines, instead you have communial ones in the building that every one uses (as there is no place in the flat to put one in either). In our building there are laundry points in every even floor, so I need to go to floor 22 to do ours - you put the laundry in, you put in your coins ($1.50) and off it goes. Check back in about 25 minutes to get the clean laundry - or you can dry it in the tumbler if you wish, but I ran out of loonies so the laundry is drying here.

Tomorrow Dragon is off to sunny California for couple of days. Blah.

Still ill

Looks like the nausea is indeed due to the drugs, and while I could spend the entire yesterday laying on the couch (which seems to make it more bearable), today I didn't have that option. Dragon had taken the morning off so he could help me to get some essentials to our new flat, and I had to return the rental car in the afternoon, so we set to work early.

Result: despite having to stop in couple of occasions so I wouldn't vomit, we managed to buy a new desk for the computer, more bookshelves, CD rack and a lamp for the living room - pretty much all remaining items on the to-get list. And on my way home I picked up a kettle, essential for any tea addict like myself.

Rest of the day I've spent back on the sofa - while this nausea is really unpleasant, mentally I feel well. I don't have panic attacks, I'm not even anxious. So assuming I'll get rid of the side effects within couple of days, it's definitely worth it.

Quick update

Just a quick update, I took a photo from the balcony outside our dining room. Yesterday's weather was fantastic: crips and clear, today it's foggy and I can't see the mountains.

As you can see, we're back on-line with the internet connection working.

Mentally, I feel fine and I definitely think it was the right decision to take the drugs, but physically I've been feeling nauseous all day... I'm wondering if it's a side affect.

Tired

All day on our feet, checking, arranging, unpacking... But we're pretty much moved in: all of our stuff seems to have arrived, and only casualities so far have been a broken glass and slightly damaged shelf. I think we can live with that.

I'm so tired...