Apparently, the Vancouver (or at least the Delta) police want to speak to me. It's probably something to do with this evil twin I've got running around.

The sun has come out.

Actually it's been out for a few days, but I've been too busy working to be able to enjoy it, or post here, for that matter. Everything is going well here in canada land. I just got paid, work is paning out. Camille (one of the girls I work with) has offered to cut my hair so I won't look like a Duran Duran reject every time my hair drys out. Anyway, I'm off to catch some rays.

Well I'm INCREDIBLY tired right now. Yesterday I worked from 10am to 4:45pm at the coffee shop and then went to my training at my dishwashing job at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown, I worked there between 5:30pm and 12:00pm. Then I went to bed, grabbed about 3 hours sleep, got up again and went to work at JJBean for 5:30 till 12:00. I'm only posting this right now in aid of making sure I sleep at night, rather than in the evening. Luckily, I've got the day off tommorow to recover.

I'm not happy with The Old Spaghetti Factory though. First, I was told my "training" was going to start at 5:00; which meant I rushed closing at JJ's so I wouldn't be late; this was VERY inconveniant because I was doing my second close of the Espresso Bar because the person closing with me had been working even less time than I had. I also apparently have funny expectations about what "training" is. Like the trainer is supposed to explain things to you, rather than give you jobs to keep you out of the way. That's why they get my share of the tips for my training sessions. It certainly didn't help that nearly everyone else who works in the dishwashing area has a heavy foriegn accent of some kind; I'll just go read my training manual more, I guess...

Anyway, reccount of the past couple of days. Hmmmm, where to start. Well I've got a new TV with some dead sexy Bose speakers in. It cost me $85 in total. $60 for the set, $25 for a van taxi to get it back. It's still sitting on my floor because I can't lift it by myself. One of the major advantages is that I can route my MP3 player through the speakers to make it an ad-hoc sound systerm. I've also bought an electric kettle, because I want to be able to make tea in my own room. I've also changed the arrangement of my room so that my desk is under the window so it gets more light (so I can write in my new diary easier, ZOMG, organisation). This had made some space that I'm thinking about putting a futon that Greg wants to get rid of in.

My shoes have done absolutly sterling service for my dishwashing job. I was told it was going to be wet. Even though I seriously underestimated how wet, my feet remained bone dry even though my shoes haven't seen a water proof covering in about two years. My jacket I bought has worked really well too, I've walked around in the pouring rain in it, not so much as a drip of water and got it dry the next morning.

Speaking of being out in the wet, I'll explain how I ended wandering around in the rain. My tuesday night out was a miserable failier, the bar was dead for about two hours. I met a nice girl who works at the Royal called Heather who bought me a shot...anyway; yeah, on Thursday I went out for the SWAP night at the Beaver (the pub in the Annex of the SameSun hostel) , I didn't acctauly end up speaking to my SWAP buddies as much as all the hostel goers curious about my recent departure. After that I decided to head out and check out the band that played at the Cellar on a Thursday, as it had been recommended to me, and I was in the mood for some semi-good covers of classic british tunes.

So I've had a pitcher at the Beaver (keep in mind I'm the kind of person who can go through at least two pitchers in on evening before I'm tipping over into the relms of seriously wasted) and then head down to the Cellar, I grab on pint there, whilst I settle in at around 11pm, after that I'm dirnking nothing but water and juice, untill 1am, when the Bouncer kicks me out for being too wasted. The amazing conclusion, either he's incredibly slow (I had walked past various Bouncers in the same club 3-4 times the same evening after I had stopped drinking) or they just like to kick out people who don't spend enough money on alcohol (which is a little unfair as I had alread paid a $6 cover just to get in). I had been having a great time too.

Anyway, life goes on. It's going to be tuesday afternoon in...24 hours. Somone recommended I check out Celebrities as they have a 2$ special too. It should be busier this week as school is out.

Oh, and yes mother, I've got no excuse for at home, as long as you buy me a big industrial sized dishwaser. :)

I've got my second job! Cue "da money" and extream burnout. Wooo!

I went to see brick at the cinema yesterday, it was good. It managed to carry off being a Noir film set in highschool without coming off as being compleatly dumbed down. Part of the reason for this is the fact that the director preserved most of the language, which whilst making it harder to follow, does make it feel like a Noir film. All thats missing is trenchcoats, rain and neon street signs....

I forgot to mention in my previous rant about things in Canada how much the banks here bite. They are set up to rob you of as much money as possible I swear. ATM's (even ones for your own bank) cost between $1-2 for each transaction, every debit on your card past the first 15 transactions costs 50c, I had to shell out $25 to order a chequebook. It sucks quite a bit.

Anywho, Kim came buy today and dropped off a whole bunch of stuff for me, a nice pan for cooking, plates, cutlery, glasses, mugs, towles, a dishcloth, some food and a Tim Hortons doughnut (yum!) amoungs other things. So I'm all set to be able to cook myself some sqaure meals. Yay!

I found some pins left over from the last resident and picked up a cheap picture frame from Army and Navy, it's looking a little more homey now I've got some drawings up on the wall and Lirel's (author of badblood) sketch of Jared to keep an eye on the place whilst I'm out. I'm waiting on picking up a few posters to put up. I've spotted a free computer on Craigslist today, so there might be some photos tommorow, all things going well.

I also ran into a lady I met at the SWAP Pub night on the bus. The whole buisness card thing seems to be paying off in a very practical way (I've yet to test it out on the Laydeez yet, tonight perhaps...). Not bad for about $4.25 overall cost.

Canada's Credit Agency sucks.

So I've tracked down the source of my woes with my phone. Apparently I'm coming up as "High Risk" on my credit assesment. Apparently, even if I find out why, theres not much I can do about it. Even if I get my credit rating reset, it's going to look even MORE suspicious.

I might try and get a breakdown of my credit check anyway. Perhaps then I can find the mofo with the same name and DoB as me who is fucking things up for me.

I woke up this morning with a cold, thus compleatly screwing my first few days off work since I got back from Sakuracon. I've spent the better part of the day exploring in spite of my illness, because the weather is nice and I've got stuff to do. Went down to UBC and the area north of where I work in East Van. It's clear that my honeymoon with Vancouver isn't over, It's still fun to just wander around.

The real kick in the teeth came when I was trying to arrange to move my phone over to a monthly plan. Apparently I have to pay a $200 deposit in spite of the fact I already OWN my handset outright. This has pretty much cleaned out my bank account. Nobody at fido will tell me what the $200 is against, as the worst I could POSSIBLY steal from them would be $30 by not paying for a month, at which I assume I would just be cut off. Even the lady at SWAP thought it was strange. I'm going to consult the guy that came to the initial swap meeting and told us about the phones on Thursday. If fido keep dicking me around I'm just going to find another provider. I'm too british to put up with this crap.

I have this vauge plan to get a chessboard and go play Chess against random strangers in a park somewhere. That is, if Fido don't rob me for every penny first ¬_¬

Karma is a funny thing (Ever seen My Name is Earl? I was using this phrase first, but it's a good show.). In repsonse to my childish sniping at Shannon, I had a really terrible day on Sunday. When I got up, there was no breakfast on at the hostel, so I went all day without a decent meal. After work I went down to Lougheed to visit Wal-Mart on a tip off that I could get a bed in a bag for $20. Apparently they had run out. So after shelling out $40 for bed stuff (admitedly, I have pretty colourfull bed stuff now) plus a towl and a fuzzy throw for me to hug. I paid for my second ticket (my first one expired whilst I was wandering around the same 4 rows looking for what I wanted, even after I asked an employee to help.

Got back to the appartment, made my bed, headed out to the hostel to check out. I thought I was paid up untill monday, non-refundable. Apparently not, so I lost another $10 deposit, I was to tired to protest the shitty service I had got that day, the lack of breakfast or rent notice on the door (and that the net machine had eaten a dollar of my money). After screwing around with THAT, yet another transport ticket had expired (thats 3 now, if your counting) so I gave up and just hauled all my stuff along the 35 minute walk back to the appartment. I left work at 4.30pm and got in finaly at around 9pm. Since I had work at 5.30am the next day, I just finished making my bed, put the cold food in the fridge and crashed out.

Alas, if only it was THAT simple. At 11pm I got awoken by a call from Shannon, who was concerned about what I had said about her on this blog. I have like $1 of credit on my phone, and didn't have time during the day to buy more, so it runs out practicaly instantly. So it's 11pm, and I have to go out and get change to use a payphone, or find a shop to sell me some mobile credit so I can call back and confirm I didn't just hang up. Thanks to somone helpfull from my floor hanging out in the kitchen, who told me where to find a payphone, and some lucky wandering to find an all night convienance store; I managed to stumble out half asleep and find what I needed. It took about $2 to make a 30 second call and give Shannon a number to call me back on. I was still half asleep and probably barely intellegable. So I probably did a terrible job, as per usual. Shannon, if you end up reading this too, don't think I'm annoyed at you for calling me.

Anyway, onward to the real point of this post. A quick rundown on my daily life in Vancouver.


Where I live
I live in a room in an appartment in Gastown on Alexander. It's pretty basic and plain right now, except for afformentioned colourfull quilt on my bed. I'm planing to get some wall scrolls and posters and stuff once I've put away all my junk and get time to go down to Sakura Media in Metrotown. Thats going to be my little treat after I've bought BORING things like pots and pans.

Where I work
JJBean House of Coffee. It's not just a coffee shop too, its a micro roaster. The coffee there is soooo good, it's turning me into such a coffee snob. Plus our muffins are luurvely. I'm getting better at pulling drinks behind the bar now too. I've also started to learn the names of all the regulars and employees who work in the back making coffee. I'm getting to know quite a few brits who visit regularly too. Currently my favourite source of entertainment is asking customers if they would like "a spot of tea" and see how they react. Everyone I work with is cool too. The new girl Alexis is a cutie.

Where I Drink
Soon to change, but my regular watering whole will probably still be the Royal on Tuesdays for 2$ high balls. I used to drink at the Beaver across the road, but I'm probably going to Boycott them because they're the pub in the hostel that has $20 of my deposit cash.

My Favourite Hangouts
Granville Island, although I haven't visited it in a couple of weeks. It's a nice place to just wander around. I also really like the JJBean store on Commercial Drive, I can sit there and drink uber cheap coffee (perks of being an employee) and people watch.

What I eat
Broken Muffins and $1 Pizza Slices. XD. Acctauly, I get two sqaure meals a day, when I have time to cook. Pasta, Rice, Mushrooms, Onion, Garlik and Fresh Air are my staples. :P

Current Passtimes
Uhhh, not many. I spend my spare time updating my blog, doing my research for my test at work. I watch a little TV here now I have a scifi channel to watch, not that much because the ad's piss me off so much. I do a little wandering, less than when I first got here because the novelty has worn off and there are less intresting places to explore. I don't go out drinking as much right now, because it costs too much money considering how unforfilling the last few outings have been, I'm too tired to make new friends. I've been thinking about taking classes in dancing, even with the Barrista work I still feel a bit artisticaly gagged. oooh, how pretentious does THAT sound? I'll have a better idea of how much money I have to waste on that stuff next month.

Seeing as things are pretty much stabalised (for now, anyway) I think I should offer up some thanks to people who helped me get this far. Firstly, thank you to Kim Campbell for helping me find a job, and letting me use your appartement for a while. Thanks to my mother, letting me stay home and save up the money for this trip so much faster. Another thank you to Diane for giving me a job back in england, without which I wouldn't HAVE the money to go on my trip.

I would also like to thank Greg, for giving my job as a Barista here in Canada and putting up with training somone with no experiance working with coffee. I know I'm going home with a bunch of great skills that is going to turn everyone back home into coffee addicts. Thanks to all my friends and family who where so supportive about me going away. No thanks to the lamers who still send me fowards and never email me to ask how I am. Lamers.

Finaly, thanks to Shannon Campbell for telling me I wouldn't be able to afford to live in Vancouver. When the chips where down that was the only reason I needed to pick myself up and go look for another appartment or job. Thank you for telling me I embarressed you; I can take a lot of comfert in knowing that even though I excist in a part of the social spectrum where I'm only going to get laid out of pure desperation, I'm still better than you. Thank you for working you ass off to avoid me and then imply that you where more of and adult than me because you took life seriously. If it hadn't been for that, I might have acctauly believed you.

Yeah, I feel better now.

I'm so sorry to everyone reading this blog thinking I'm living in Canada. I've been riddled with guilt and I have to confess, it's acctauly all part of an elaborate hoax to keep the heat off me from that bank hiest I pulled back in england. Never fear though, I'm actualy lazing it out in Cuba with my newly aquired wealth.

If you believed THAT, then your really are an april fool :)