We are NOT Australian...

Hello!

Well, we made it. After a very long flight with Zoom airlines, we landed at Vancouver International yesterday at about 3pm local time. The journey was pretty uneventful, but saying goodbye to our families and Dave at Gatwick was pretty hard. Jethro was veh, veh brave, but I was a bit of a mess. (Sorry parents! I meant to be strong and not cry!) We got some photos taken of us just as we were about to go through to departures so we'll post one up later. Jethro's parents apparently got a ticking off by airport security for taking the photos but we needed some evidence to show everyone that yes, we've actually gone now!

Immigration wasn't as scary as we had envisaged once we'd landed. The only slightly annoying thing is that we had to queue for two hours to see a very stern lady who gave us our working visas with very little grilling (which was a relief). But it was a bit like the first day at University. You can imagine that all the season workers are descending on Vancouver this week to work at Whistler mountain so there were lots of skiers and snowboarders on the plane and the bus from the airport, all very excited about the months ahead, and all trying to get work for the coming season. Jethro and I were in the minority as we're headed further afield to Fernie, and we admitted to each other that we were a little glad about it.

After settling into the YWCA in Downtown Vancouver, we unpacked and then went for a stroll in the pouring rain - it hasn't stopped raining here since we landed but it reminds us of home (so we're not complaining.) After a hot meal and a pale ale at White Spot (a bog standard chain diner here) we hit the sack at 8.30pm! Rock and roll!

Up with the lark at 6am (body clocks are a bit of a mess) we watched a bit of Canadian TV and found - to our utter delight - that they show our favourite cartoon here, Jaegers featuring Fernie the cow, Pigley the pig and a sheep played by Mel Brooks. It's a very cool little cartoon and we used to catch it before we went to work every morning in London, so it's just like being back in Battersea... without the work part! ;-)

We eventually got up, then caught the bus over to Kitslano and went to our favourite place in the world for breakfast - Sophie's Cosmic Cafe. We had gut-busting portions of omlettes, pancakes, bacon and home fries and wobbled down 4th Avenue to visit the snowboard shops to see if we could pick up a new board for Jethro. We got some great advice from one guy in a small shop on the corner and then proceeded to Pacific Boarder where we used all his advice to prove to the sales guy in there that we knew our stuff. He was great (shout out to Tory! Thanks man!) and spent a lot of time with us explaining all the different boards. He didnt push too hard for one brand and left Jethro to read all the blurb and make his mind up, so he now has a spanky new Rome Flag 163 board (and it's sooooooooooooooo pretty!).

On the way back, we had another one of those Vancouver moments which make us love this city. Standing at the bus stop with Jethro's new board, a middle-aged, very smartly-dressed lady comes up and says "ooooooh, that's a nice one" and points to J's board. Cue a very pleasant bus journey where she had a good old natter with us about what we up to, and where we were headed. Super nice lady!

There is one thing that has slightly vexed us since we got here. People keep thinking we're Australian. So, we've taken to saying "G'day Ripper!" and "No worries, mate."

This afternoon we're going to wander around Gastown, which is a little suburb of Vancouver with some nice bars and shops. Then some more beer and unhealthy food this evening at the Libary bar, where we will no doubt watch a bit of ice hockey on the telly. Tomorrow we have to go and attend our talk on how to integrate ourselves into the Canadian way of life, and then get our SiN numbers (social security numbers so we can pay taxes). Then we have dinner plans with a fellow powderoomie called Sarah, who lives out here and has very kindly agreed to meet up with us.

More soon!



A fond fairwell at Gatwick.

Choccy in Gatwick Departures.

The soothing touch of a moose.

Vancouver library in the rain.

My new board, a 'Rome - Flag', very sweeet!