The not-so-daily ramblings of an Aussie in Vancouver
Monday, December 13th, 2010
Last night we happened across a very cute little German Christmas market which has sprung up on Georgia st, downtown.
This market is the sort of thing you expect to see in films, with cute little timber huts, fairy lights and real Christmas trees everywhere, a central pagoda with a band kicking out some Christmas tunes, everyone dressed up in their thick jackets and gloves sharing mulled wine and bratwurst.
Of course, there was more to it than that – lots of arts and crafts, a German Christmas ornament tent, German bread, soap shaped like fruit and vegetables… The mind boggles really. Particularly after one of their mulled wines…
Actually, it was a cute little market, and I highly recommend it if anyone is in the hood. It’s another great illustration that no matter what time of year it is in Vancouver, there is going to be something interesting happening, somewhere in the city. Which is great 
Saturday, November 20th, 2010
It snowed in Vancouver last night! Only a few centimeters downtown, but still enough to be cool.
Its melting pretty quick downtown, but they got more out in the valley and more is expected in this area over the coming week. Bring it on!
Friday, November 19th, 2010
Well, that’s it – autumn was almost over when winter has just come barging in, brushing past the remaining orange and red leaves, leaving dirty footprints from the door, drinking all the milk we had kept for breakfast and piddling on the couch.
Well, not quite, but it did start snowing briefly yesterday outside my office between torrential rain, then it did that again last night at about midnight. It looked quite cool peeking out our window and seeing the gently falling snow lit up by our streetlamp, the wet streets behind.
The forecast for the coming week is looking pretty chill:
Both Cypress Mountain and Whistler are forecasting to open this weekend, so they’re having a nice early start to the season. It’s going to be funny if we get the snowiest winter ever after the fart in a bottle we had last winter when the Olympics came to town…
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
October 31 is a pretty fun time of year around these parts. Why? It’s Halloween!
The buildup to the actual day is pretty cool as well, as the City of Vancouver and most surrounding cities allow the sale of fireworks for the 6 or so days prior to Halloween. It’s quite amazing really, the random shops that pop up with MASSIVE white signs with red lettering advertising that they’re selling fireworks… obviously they’ve gotta make hay while the sun shines.
The random fireworks going off in that time around town combines with seeing more and more people tramping around town in their costumes the closer we get to the 31st. I mean, at any other time of year you would raise an eyebrow at Spartacus cruising around wearing a sword, shield, full face helmet and cape while carrying a Costco reusable shopping bag, right?
Apologies for the bad shot – iPhone shaky cam. That was taken two days before Halloween.
Then you start seeing strange things popping up out of the ground around trees…
It’s a very fun time of year, checking out everyones costumes. But the most fun part? Well, according to me, it’s this:
Hoo hoo hoo!! Family pack!
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
So I had intended to take a bunch of autumn colour pictures to post, as they’ve just been great over the past few weeks. Lots of trees turning multiple colours, spreading their leaves like those of us who grew up in Australia only really ever saw in pictures. Although I do remember that my oldest brother got a stern talking to after he lit a large pile of leaves that my dad had swept up under a pine tree at a previous house, which ended up in half the rather large pine tree catching fire, but we moved out of that place when I was 2, so that doesn’t count.
Anyhow, I haven’t gotten very far with my photography mission, despite the couple of weeks of glorious autumn weather we had – blue skies, crisp cool air temperatures, gently warning sun. Perfect weather to have a nice outdoor fire on a Sunday afternoon after raking up the leaves or cleaning the summer out of the garden. Maybe my brother was onto something…
So here’s a snap I took at lunch the other day:
Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn for the worse now and the rain has started to settle in. That, plus it’s getting colder. Thats not a bad thing though, there was 15cm of snow on Cypress Mountain the other day! They’re saying this should be one of the worst/best winters in 50 years, depending on how you look at it, so that should be interesting. Hopefully it’s something like the one we had a couple of years ago where there was a couple of feet of snow in downtown Vancouver that hung out for a few weeks. That was fun!
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
When you’re leaving a place that you have called home for a couple of years, the inevitable happens- you have to shed all the valuable possessions, whittling down your stuff till you can fit it all back into the two bags you came over with. Either that or pay through the nose for shipping.
So, it is with great regret that I must give away one of my most prized possessions, one of the pertinent reminders of my homeland. It can be yours too if:
A. Your Australian enough.
B. You can pick it up in Vancouver.
What is it? My preciousssss…
Yes, that’s right folks, you are looking at a larger-than-life size corflute Coopers bottle sign, and it makes the perfect addition to any Aussie flat in Vancouver – show off your Aussie pride!
If you want it, “git yer Ocker on” in the comments – post up your favourite Aussie sayings or whatever… I’m willing to bet there won’t be much competition, but points will be awarded for creativity 
Hell, even if you don’t want it or you’re not in Vancouver or don’t want the sign then feel free to post up anyway! Just let me know you’re not serious… I’ll even kick it off – see below
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
They’ve been talking about replacing the roof on BC Place stadium for years and years – you know, the one that looked like it had a mushroom growing on top of it, as the roof was a giant white inflatable thing. The one where they held the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Olympics and a bunch of other sporting and cultural events pretty much every week of the year. This one:
After the Olympics they actually finally got their act together and deflated the roof, starting a long period of renovations for the stadium. So long that they’ve actually made a temporary outdoor stadium about 20 minutes east of downtown on the site if one of Vancouver’s original football grounds, Empire Field, to house the Canadian Football League (CFL) team that usually plays in BC Place.
The old roof must have been hideous to maintain and had to have fans running 24/7 to make sure it stayed inflated. Exiting a big event was a nightmare as you had to go through revolving doors to make sure the pressure inside the stadium stayed up, so it took ages to get through them when battling crowds of other folks. Bring on the new roof I say!
I was thinking they’d just rip the roof off and stick on a reasonably flat roof that opens at the middle, buy then they erected one of these poles.
It was freaking huge! These things are so tall. Not sure if you can tell from the picture or not, but the stadium is pretty tall to the top rim, and these look like they at least double the height.
Then they added more
And more
So many that it eventually prompted me to check out what the finished product should look like:
Crazy! Of course, Vancouver being Vancouver, they had to step up and do some sort of amazing design. It’s going to be really interesting to watch this come together. Try seem to have most of the poles up now, and they’re all wired to the central unit (which I’m led to believe will be the scoreboard) with cable that is thicker than that used in the Peak2Peak in Whistler. I wonder what the next step is?
Actually, here’s an artists impression of the finished roof… impressive!
More info can be found here, including a couple of interesting video renderings:
Monday, September 13th, 2010
I said to Nat the other day that I’m pretty sure you could come up with a blog based entirely around Vancouver fire hydrants. I’m serious! Well, mostly, anyhoo.
They’re everywhere and some of them are in quite interesting spots and some look like little aliens come to take over our water supply.
You think I’m kidding?!
This guy likes the idea.
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Wow, how confused is this koala?!
It’s amazing what you find when shopping at a Chinese supermarket…
Friday, August 20th, 2010
Sometimes Canadians crack me up…
I’m sure the character in the pic is absolutely stoked to be Mr Rooter
Then again this company is probably owned by an Aussie having his own little joke on Canajuns.
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