Winter is here! (by Neil)

We've decided to drop the whole interview format, hopefully our bloyal blog fans don't mind.

This week marked the first snowfall within the city of Vancouver. We woke up Saturday morning to a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Whistler has been getting pounded with snow and opened up on Friday. Cypress (a mountain about 40 minutes from our place, where many of the Olympic downhill events took place) also announced they would open this weekend. Tara and I actually bought an 'off-peak' season's pass (meaning no holidays and no weekends in January and February) for Cypress, so we figured we might as well head up to pick up our passes and get a few runs in.

I unfortunately had not yet installed my winter tires, which would be required for our upcoming mountain journey. I only own one set of rims, so changing tires means I need to bring the car to a garage to dismount the summer tires from the rims, then mount and balance the winter tires. I called around in a hurry on Saturday morning trying to find a place nearby that would do it, only to be quoted some outrages prices such as $140 for the set. After reading a recommendation online, I called a place in Richmond and the conversation went like this:

Me: Hi, can you guys swap my summer and winter tires off of a single set of rims?
Other guy: Yes, sir.
Me: How much do you charge?
Other guy: Fifty dollar, what time you come?
Me: How about one o'clock?
Other guy: Aaaah...one o'clock too late...
Me: Okay I'll leave now and I'll be there at eleven thirty.
Other guy: Ok, you come at one o'clock, no problem.

So Tara and I drive out there for one and find the place in a little bit of a 'middle of nowhere' industrial zone. We pull up to the 'garage' and are greeted by the owner/mechanic, who pulls my car into his little garage and tells us we can have a seat on the couch and surf the internet on his computer if we want. Of course I did not take him up on this offer, and proceeded to use my iPhone to soothe my internet addiction. The funny thing was the whole process started to seem more legit than other garages I'd been to (minus the fact that there was only one employee and it looked like it doubled as his home) as I was able to sit there and watch everything he did to my car. Here's what the place looked like:

He did all four tires by himself in about 40 minutes, I paid him $50 cash, and he didn't even burden my wallet with an unnecessary receipt! In fact the only proof I have that I went there are some pictures I took of my car up on the jack. I'm still not sure if it was the greatest idea but it brought me that feeling of warmth inside knowing that I saved, like, at least $40.

Anyways, maybe you had to be there, but it was sketchy, hilarious, and super convenient as we were all ready to head up to Cypress today. We got there a little late as I forced Tara to go to a late showing of the new Harry Potter movie instead of going to watch UFC 123 like she wanted to, and we wanted to sleep in. There weren't many runs open but I am proud to say that we got in our first day of boarding before any of you did, muahahahaha! Here is a picture of me giving the peace sign in front of the Olympic rings, which I thought was appropriate since the Olympics are a symbol of international unity and I am a HUGE supporter of world peace:

Another shot from the 'top' (at least the highest point that was open). You can see the Howe Sound through the haze in the distance, it's really beautiful:

I'm actually pretty excited about having a season's pass to this place. They have night skiing (with amazing lighting thanks to last year's Olympics, apparently), and a decent amount of vertical considering it's a stone's throw from the city. I've never had a pass to a mountain before, and we plan on getting A LOT of boarding in. I might actually take a day off work this week and head up to Whistler with Bernie, depending on how our schedules go and what the conditions are like.

Aside from the snowy excitement, work went amazing this week as I 'fired' the experiment I'm working on for the first time. I was delayed a few weeks by some frustrating circumstances that were out of my control, but the shot on Friday marks the culmination of my first month and a half of work and I was really happy and relieved. I wish I could post pictures here, but I'll have to show them to you all in person. Instead, please enjoy and drool over the amazing pad thai we made for supper tonight:

That's all for now...

Volleyball, Rock Climbing and Kayaking, Oh My! (by Tara)

So, like, isn't it time for an update on what you guys are up to this weekend? 

It totally is time for an update! It has been a great week filled with activities and our weekend is not over yet! Today we went to a rock climbing gym. We needed to retake our belaying test to prove to them that we know what we are doing. Our tester kept wanting us to sing while climbing, but who can think about lyrics when trying to stay on a wall?! Plus it wasn't Beyonce so I didn't know the words!

Neil on the Bouldering Wall

 

Wow that looks cool, if you're into that kind of thing. Anyway, Tara, I heard that you signed up to a volleyball team?

The rumors are true! I have joined a volleyball team! We are called the Hit Eating Grinners and we play every Wednesday at UBC. We play against two different teams and after 6 weeks we have our playoffs! It had been a long time since I had played but it went well and I had a lot of fun!

That's, like, totally awesome! What else are you doing this weekend?

Well as mentioned in the last post by Neil we have started whitewater kayaking and we are going to go again tomorrow. I was pretty nervous last time and got a lot of water up my nose from practicing tipping, but I am excited to get back out there!(plus I bought nose plugs...)

Okay, okay, this post is getting pretty long, try to sum it up already!

So this week we are finally going to be getting our furniture which is very exciting. We are currently using our blowup mattress as a couch! Also we won a free month at the Steve Nash Fitness World! It was pretty nice and is close by. We will see how the month goes and decide if we want to continue there or not.

That's all for now!!

Outdoor and Indoor Adventures (by Neil)

Woah, so what did you guys do this weekend?

Well, now that we are semi-settled in our new place (still hardly any furniture though) we figured it was time to start taking advantage of the outdoor playground that is so easily accessible from this new city of ours. Since hiking won't be an option for much longer until next spring, we figured we should take advantage while we still can. We drove up close to Squamish (about 1 hr) to hike up the Stawamus Chief, a series of 3 peaks that soar above the Howe Sound and sea-to-sky highway. The weather was decent until it started raining on our descent, just as we hit a section that required holding onto metal chains and a vertical steel ladder. Here are some shots from the top, you can see snow that's already fallen on the mountains up north (closer to Whistler):

I'm sure we'll end up spending a lot of time up around those parts. The area is apparently also a mecca for outdoor rock-climbing, which we'll finally get into in the spring (we'll brush up on our indoor climbing skills during the winter).

Ok, big deal. What else did you do?

Sunday evening we went and did a beginner whitewater kayaking course with the Vancouver Kayak Club. I work with the guy who runs it, and when I showed some interest he insisted we come and try it out. They run pool sessions during the winter to practice/learn skills for the river. Most people there were very experienced, but there was one other newbie who joined us for a sort of intro course. You need to pick up quite a bit of experience before heading onto the river, as the boats are extremely unstable and easy to tip. After the hour and a half course anyone there who wanted to played a game of contact kayak polo which was extremely exhausting and entertainingly violent. I'm actually already pretty hooked, we'll probably go back next weekend and then again later in the winter before the season begins to brush up and get ready to try it on a real river.

Cool, cool. Anything else to say?

I think we are finally starting to get more settled and starting to enjoy our 'free time' a lot more. There are still a bunch of little things to take care of, but we've bought most of the important furniture items (still waiting for delivery though, using out patio set as dining table/couch/computer desk/toilet). Aside from that I'd like to dust off my bike and take it onto some nearby beginner trails to get into a bit of light mountain-biking. A lot of the guys I work with go mountain biking at lunch on nice days and I'd like to be able to go along (at least when they do some of the easier trails).

That's all for now...

New Places and Familiar Faces (by Neil and Tara)

So much has happened here in the past week, you guys must have so many questions...

Holy cow, we heard you guys had a visitor on Friday?

How did you know? Yes, Neil's cousin Julia graced us with her presence very briefly on Friday evening. She was in town for a volleyball tournament and couldn't resist a feature story in our blog. We picked her up and brought her to our neighborhood for dessert and a stroll. Check out what a great time we had:

Dessert at Benny's Cafe

That is so completely awesome! What else have you been up to?!

Well, on Saturday we finally got the keys to our apartment! We had planned on roughing it for a few days to a couple weeks with a blow up mattress, but it turns out our stuff came in on the earliest day it was scheduled. The moving guys (who we are convinced were gypsies) came in yesterday afternoon and quickly dumped off all of our stuff. Everything went smoothly and we've been unpacking ever since. Here are some pictures:

 Living Room

 Candid Shot of Neil Lounging

 Shot of Tara on Balcony...from Other Balcony

Tara and Boxes

Basically the place is amazing. Tara loved it immediately, and when Neil saw it again it seemed so much larger without the previous tenant's crap strewn about. Plus, we have 2 balconies, a giant walk-in closet, and a mother #$%@ing dishwasher! Also, just after our stuff arrived we received a brand new fridge (owner had it replaced) and next Wednesday we will be receiving a new stove.

After living in our little basement suite for over a month it's an unbelievable relief to have our own space, even if we are missing most of our basic furniture!

An Interview with Tara and Neil (by Tara and Neil)

After much delay and anticipation, our blog is FINALLY up and running. Since there is so much to talk about we thought we'd try and answer all the big questions in one shot...here goes:

So, uhm, like where are you guys staying?

We were lucky enough to get a fantastic deal on a fully furnished suite for the first month in a house owned by Neil's Uncle Rob's friends Bernie and Cindy Ross. The house, known as Cherry Hill, is in Kitsilano, and under amazing lighting conditions looks like this:

Woah, that's so rad! So like did you guys find a place to live yet?

Yes we did. Neil spent a lot of the first few Tara-less weeks on an intense apartment hunting quest. It turns out that getting an apartment in the more popular areas of Vancouver can be extremely competitive, and difficult when you have just arrived in town, started a new job and claim to have an invisible girlfriend.

Luckily, through an amazing coincidence, Neil found a condo on W 4th and Trafalgar being rented by a woman who lives in Calgary. Since Neil was going to Calgary for Thanksgiving, it was very convenient for the owner to choose him. Long story short, we will be getting the keys to our Kitsilano apartment next Saturday.

Ok, that's cool I guess. What's the big deal with this Kitsilano area anyways?

After checking out several different neighborhoods, Kits seemed like the way to go. The apartments are larger than the walk-in closets they are renting right downtown, it's right on the ocean, there are countless restaurants and bars within 10 minutes walking distance, and it's only a 5 minute bus ride downtown. Think of it like NDG except with way more bars/restaurants/cafes/shops and you can walk to the beach in like 5-10 minutes. 

 

 Jericho Beach, 10 minutes from our place

Oh man that's so totally awesome! So Neil where are you working and what's it like?

I'm working at a company called General Fusion as a Mechanical Engineer. I'm designing things, building things and testing things. Check out the website if you are at all curious about the crazy science experiment we are working on. It's located out in Burnaby which is a bit of a commute, but I usually take public transit to work so I can read or look extremely cool playing with my IPhone 4. I've pretty much had a blast working there so far and I can't wait to see how it will work out in the future!

Okay calm down. So Tara since you just arrived and are, like, a jobless freak and everything, what have you been up to?

Well I have been spending my days looking for a job, exploring the neighborhood and going for runs along the beach! When I am not doing that I can be seen drinking coffee in one of the many chic cafe's along West 4th or West Broadway. 

Oh okay, that totally doesn't sound boring. So what does the future hold for you guys?!

There are so many things on our list to do here, including snowboarding, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, biking, surfing and food eating. Right now we are focused on getting settled but in a couple of weeks our belongings will have arrived and soon after that the snow should start falling and the real fun will begin!

Stay tuned with our blog and find out what happens next...