The not-so-daily ramblings of an Aussie in Vancouver
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
Just got back from the first CanAussie.com Australia Day BBQ – what a great day!
Met some excellent people, played some football, stood around the BBQ shooting the sh!t with Aussies, and we got a sneak preview of the 2010 Australian Winter Olympic Team uniforms! Some pretty great gear in there, and thanks to Ben for bringing it along… the Aussies are going to look amazing in all that stuff!
I was talking with Ben at the BBQ, and as the Attache to the Olympic team, one of the things he has to do is get crowds of Aussies to certain points at certain times during the games to support Australians, particularly when we win a medal!
If you want to be in on that, email Ben on [edited] with your name, location and cell phone number. You may have to move quickly to be at the events though, as we may only have hours notice!
I’m excited!
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Here’s an absolutely amazing timelapse video of Vancouver, masquerading as a music video for a local Vancouver artist. Some awesome scenery in this one, and gives a feel for what it’s like here sometimes.
Turn it to 1080p, make it full screen and enjoy 
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
It’s only two weeks to go before the Olympics! OMG!
So this city has spent the last however many years getting ready for the Olympics, and it’s finally almost here. You can almost feel the city holding its breath.
There are big banners going up everywhere, they’ve started closing streets here in Downtown, and there are temporary buildings going up in all the parks because there is going to be a bunch of stuff going on in association with it… and a lot of it will be free! Right up my street! I spent a while this morning perusing a fantastic site someone has put together with all the free activities and venues for the Olympics, and you can check it out for yourself here:
http://www.citycaucus.com/2010free
I’m going to try and as many of these as I can and post up pictures for those of you who can’t make it… it’s just so damn exciting to be on the ground during an actual Olympics! I was in Canada when the Sydney Olympics was on, so I missed out totally on those ones.
Only problem they seem to be having at the moment is that’s its been a tad unseasonably warm in Vancouver recently, so all the snow on Cyprus (one of the mountains on the North Shore of Vancouver) hasn’t been topped up, and the rain is kinda topping it down. They’re hoarding snow at higher levels and trucking it in, but… still, it’s only a couple of events on Cyprus, so I’m sure it’ll be all aok. Right?
Still, expect further updates from the Vanaussie on the ground as they happen. Or I get around to reporting them.
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Happy Australia Day everyone!
We got into celebrating the grand day in style… Well, with Tim Tams and a bloody big flag anyhoo. Here’s a pic of my office today:
It was quite funny having the flag draped over the door today – there was a variety of different reactions. There was the CSR who didn’t really get it to my boss who broke out into Waltzing Matilda…
It’s funny the reactions actually, because Canadians are one of the most patriotic bunch of folks I’ve come across. They love their Canadian flag, and aren’t afraid of showing it off.
You can probably put this down to being close to the US, but I think it’s kinda cool. Over here it’s regular to fly the Canadian flag or the flag of your favourite hockey team and nobody will have a go at you.
I’m also a firm believer that you become 100% more patriotic as soon as you step on the plane to leave Aus… It’s just something that happens, like osmosis.
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
So I’ve been stewing on this one for a while, but I’m just going to come out and say it.
Milo in Canada sucks.
No other words for it. Well, there’s actually quite a few other words for it, but no positive ones… It’s really just drinking chocolate with a slight malty flavour.
About the coolest thing about it is the french on the tin
“Hot Milo” becomes “Milo Chaud”
“The Energy Drink” becomes “La Boisson Energetique”
“Chocolate Malt Drink Mix” becomes “Melange pour boisson au chocolat et au malt”
It all makes it sound so much more exotic, really
This has actually inspired me to start a new section of the CanAussie.com forum: Aussie Food Tips! In there you can tell the world if you found Tim Tams somewhere, or whatever… It’s all about the important stuff!
UPDATE: Don’t be tempted to buy Ovaltine as a Milo substitute! It tastes like a mix between Vegemite and home brand drinking chocolate… and it’s not good!
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
So I’ve been trying to get tickets to go see Avatar in Imax 3D for the last couple of weeks, but even though it’s been out for a month already it kept selling out before I got tix… Bastards! Tix would be released 5 days in advance and sell out 4 days in advance, and there’s only one reasonably close IMAX in Vancouver – the one in Richmond.
Still, I finally got tix and we saw it today. Great film! Not sure if it was worth the wait to see it in IMAX though… Probably also because the lineup before us was long even though we got there 40 minutes before it was supposed to start, because this meant that seat choice was a little more limited… Here’s a crap pic of the line in front of us:
So, future learnings for seeing films in Vancouver? Book online & get there early!
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
I’m stoked, I ordered 1000 stickers for canaussie.com last week after agonizing over getting them for months…
They came in today and they’re great! Have already given a few away to disinterested people just cos I wanted to show them off
Yes, I think I may be a geek.
Here they are:
If you want some, come see me at an event like the BBQ we’re having on the 31st in Stanley Park. They weatherproof and will look fantastic on your car, snowboard, or wherever else good stickers are stuck.
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
I’ve just come back from a Canucks game… Man I love a good hockey game!
So that’s ice hockey for any aussies reading this, commonly known as hockey over here in north America… They actually have close to zero respect for field hockey… Go figure!
We had pretty good seats tonight, row 25, back of the lower bowl:
It was a pretty close game with fairly few penalties and only a couple of fights:
And where else can you make a hell of a mess with peanut shells?!
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
I’m happy, ‘cos the sun is now up when I’m driving to work! Well, it’s rising when I leave (typically a bit after 
and is well and truly up by the time I get to work. Now that we’re past the solstice the days are getting longer and it’s much better for the soul. Here’s a brief happy snap from Oak St Bridge, which is near my work:
Apologies for all the crap all over the windscreen… it was a spur of the moment thing
Now, I’ll be happier when I’m driving home in the daylight too – the sky was just blue on the horizon on my way home tonight… stay tuned for more updates on these important events!
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
This is a quick flashback to January 1/2, when (due to various reasons, including cocked up flights) I arrived at the airport in Vancouver then had to quickly bolt home to Yaletown, grab some overnight stuff for Nat and myself, jump in our trusty 4Runner Rusty, and head to the ferry to pick up Nat. Nat was on a direct flight from Cancun to Victoria thanks to a cheap Westjet deal, which was way better than the flights she had originally.
I wanted to get to the 7pm ferry so I’d have plenty of time to piss fart around then pick up Nat from the airport, however that had sold out by the time I got there, and I had to hang out for the 9pm ferry… dang! Here’s my amazingly entertaining view for that period of my life:
Luckily, I arrived about 10 minutes before she disembarked at about 10.45pm or so, then we hightailed it into Victoria itself to some accommodation that I’d booked a few weeks before through www.hotwire.com, and I’d used their system where they don’t tell you what sort of hotel you got in the end, only the star rating. Lucky, as it turned out to be an amazingly nice hotel, and we got it for about $70 or so! The places name was Inn at Laurel Point, and if you’re heading over there for a weekend their normal rates seemed pretty reasonable and the rooms were really nice.
Here’s our view at night:
And the same one the next day:
Victoria itself is a pretty nice little town, and “feels” older than Vancouver with lots of really nice old stone buildings. It’s the Capital of BC, so there are parliament buildings, a cool hotel on the water there in the picture and a variety of other interesting stuff. I can see why people would rather live there than Vancouver, as it has much of what Van offers, but with more of a “small town” atmosphere. It’s only an hour and a half on the ferry between the two cities, and you can even get a sea plane between the two if you’re feeling well off
We couldn’t hang around on the Sunday morning as we wanted to get back home to clear our heads after the Mexico trip, but I would like to spend more time in Victoria next time we’re over there.
As a side note, the weather here has been abnormally warm of late, hovering around about 8 – 10 degrees C, which isn’t particularly good news for the mountains on the North Shore and the skiing they offer, and Cypress will be hosting some events for the Winter Olympics, so they’ve actually closed early to hoard snow at higher levels in case they need it for the activities they’re putting on. We’ve also been getting buckets of rain… I imagine if it had been colder, say in the negatives, all that rain would have been snow… the city would have been chaos!
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