On Saturday me and Debbie went for a trip to Stanley Park because it was sunny and we like to go outside when it's sunny.

All the rich people's yachts are moored in the harbour here.
I think that looks like a pig chasing a goose, personally.

A little beach

The city through the trees

A gas station for boats, in front of Canada Place

Another little beach. It'd be nice to picnic here

Debbie and some view

The Lionsgate Bridge leading to North Van

A piece of a Japanese ship

"Girl in a Wetsuit" some kind of Little Mermaid substitute

Me and the Lionsgate Bridge

I have no idea what's going on here

Token Debbie-on-a-bridge photo

When we had left Stanley Park we came across this little restaurant in the area where all the rich people's appartments are. I thought it was a bit of an odd theme for a restaurant.

The menu; "day passes" and "petty crimes"

I was working on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and will be working today. Have a day off tomorrow which is cool because Debbie and Greg also have days off so we're thinking about some kind of house meal followed by the open mic night at Cafe Deux Soleils again. Which should be fun. Not sure what I'll get upto during the day. Think the weather's meant to be crappy. No doubt you'll all find out what I got upto sooner or later!

Sunshine & Showers.

I've pretty much been working this week but on Wednesday Debbie and I decided to get up early(ish) and head over to UBC to see the Beijing Performance Photography exhibition that we've been meaning to go to for ages. So I made a packed lunch and a packed dinner (as I was going straight to work afterwards) and we trotted off to get the use of our buspasses. It's been really beautiful weather lately which makes everything a lot nicer, I think.
When we got off the bus we weren't really sure where we were going and Debbie got all male about it and so started the "trust me, it's this way"-ing. We got there without too much detouring and we got to see the $2 million houses they're building so it wasn't that bad.
The view was pretty fantastic too (probably why the houses are $2 million!)

View of the bay and Stanley Park from UBC

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC, where the exhibition was

Inside the building

A photo of Debbie taking a photo of a photo...

One of the photographs

I liked this photograph

Some more view; this from the Rose Garden at UBC where I ate my lunch (Debbie forgot to pack hers, so she ate my banana)

Debbie after she realised she had no lunch

The other day (I forget which) Debbie received a parcel of presents from her family for no reason in particular (my family, take note) which I thought was very nice. She sat in my room and opened them all, spreading her happiness all over my jealousy.

Happy happy happy

This was taken another day (hence wardrobe change) when we went nuts and broke numerous health and safety regulations and lit the indoor sparklers over newspaper and a box of matches. If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room.

Yesterday I had a day off and no one to play with so I took a wander downtown and went to the tourist information office to plan Ritchie and Gaby's holiday (you guys are SO paying my way while you're here). Got some information about the area between Vancouver and Calgary and have a preliminary route for the adventure.

I left the tourist information office a different way that I came in and was trying to find a coffee shop I had seen on the way there when I walked straight infront of the Bill Reid Art Gallery that had been recommended to me. Since I had nothing better to do I went in and had a look round. Bill Reid is an artist who does lots of Haida (first native) art, like the orca whales and eagles with all the patterns in them. I really liked his stuff because all the colours were so bold and the lines were so clean, and that appeals to my OCD side. There was a woman painting parts of a totem pole that was mid-way through being assembled too and it looked so relaxing. Wish that was my job. Making tea's stressful eh!

It was a pretty small museum so it didn't take long to walk round and then I went and found the coffee shop that I was looking for and did another half-crossword and looked through the tourist brochures. Felt proper touristy. Kinda liked it.

I had a pretty relaxing day, which was nice because today I had to try and sort out the unnecessarily complex MSc application and find out why I have no electricity bill and reclaim my seat at the top of the Geo Challenge leaderboard. Back to work later too. I have tomorrow off and I wanna go walk round Stanley Park again if it's sunny and then I have to work on Sunday then my next day off's Thursday!

Anyway, my tummy's pestering me for sustainance so I'm gonna go feed it a steak.

Sunday February 15th 2009.

I've had such a nice Sunday today. The kind of Sunday that makes everything OK; involving key ingredients such as secret coffee drinking and french toast, book reading and beach walks, and chocolate shopping and tea. The day still holds treasures for me, since I have cooking in a clean, clean kitchen in my future. All in all, thus far, today has been good for my soul.
Let me elaborate:

This is an awesomely-shaped tree on the way to the bus stop. I think the sign/tree combination looks all fifties and whatnot. This photograph also illustrates the fantasticness of the weather today.
This is a statue Debbie and I came across on our off-road venture to the beach. It was infront of an autoparts garage which was odd.

This is False Creek/English Bay in nice weather, not at night time.

The Granville Street Bridge, which we got to know during yesterday's trip to the library.

Me and my Starbucks cup (ssshhhh)

Debbie and the Burrard Bridge

The Seabus pier with English Bay and the mountains in the background. There's probably been photos of this up here before but I don't think that view's going to get old anytime soon.

Debbie all wrapped up, reading on the beach.

False Creek

The Inukshuk statue, English Bay

The tree on the top of the skyscraper at English Bay (at the top of the green part of the centre building)

Debbie and Inukshuk

Some more view

Back to work tomorrow. Not looking forward to it. I think I've pretty much learned all that I'm going to at Steeps and it's starting to get a bit repetitive. I think I'm going to ask Pierre for only 4 days a week after the next few already-scheduled weeks. It's not that I have loads of plans but I enjoy my time off and should be able to afford rent on 4 days a week.

I also need to put more time into considering what I'm doing come May. I've been speaking to Jenn and Ben and they want me to go visit them in South America, they'll be in Chile in April and Argentina in May and I'd prefer to go to Chile but don't want to go in April so I might see where they're going to be in late May/June. It'd be something to do I guess.

I have my referees reports now so I can take the next step in applying for the MSc but I need to see what that next step is and get both the references in the same format.

Hmm...

I've just realised I'm sitting in the dark, so am going to go and turn on the lights, and maybe the heating too.

Take it easy x

Here's a video of me snowboarding that Debbie took and edited.

On The Piste.

So yesterday Debbie, Dru and I went snowboarding up at Mount Seymour. On Mondays in January, February and March they have girls ride free so we just needed to pick up a voucher and we got free lift passes! We still had to pay for equipment rental but still pretty sweet none the less. I had work 10.30-3 and had to work an extra half hour so was pretty stressed when I left but was soon in the snowboarding spirit. It took a couple buses but we got there in plenty time.
I was pretty worried that I was going to be really, really unable to do anything and break lotsa bones but I was in the mood to try it anyway. And it turns out I'm not all that bad at all. Took a bit of getting used to having my feet tied together and I was a bit shaky getting on and (especially) off the chairlift but they only needed to slow it down once for me. When I was at the top of the hill I didn't find it too tricky to get my balance and managed to grasp falling leaf on my heel side fairly quickly, which allowed me to go down the hill at a decent speed.
I tried going on my toe side but my board kept switching round and I always seemed to end up just going straight down with my left foot forward which isn't what I wanted to happen (because I ride goofy, y'see). So there's some snowboarding lingo for yous all.
On my third run my right leg started hurting from all the squatting so I decided that was enough for me so waited at the chairlift for Dru when she came down and then Debbie after she did another run. Then we got the shuttle bus back down the mountain and the 211 which said Vancouver on the front. Except what happened was the bus driver of the 211 was the biggest jerk ever and never had any intention of going to Vancouver and we ended up back by the mountain, the last people on the bus when he shouted last stop. So we asked him what the f*ck and he was like it never said Vancouver on the front and we'd have to wait 20 minutes (outside, in the freezing cold) for him to faff about for a while before he drives the same bus back to the exchange where he allegedly told everyone who wanted to go to Vancouver to change onto a number 4. Anyway, eventually he came back and drove us to the exchange where a 4 came immediately and we had a nice bus driver to take us back downtown. Then a 15 came pretty quickly too and we made it home around 12.30am after leaving the mountain at 10.
Here's some pictures.

Debbie looking smooth with her goggles

Me looking like a pro

Dru and Debbie

Debbie carving it up

The run with Vancouver in the distance

Debbie on the chairlift

The view from the chairlift (bit blurry because we were moving)

My tiny tiny feet in their boots and bindings

Me looking rad

Some more view

The chairlift (queues were huge)

The moon and the trees

So in conclusion, I enjoyed snowboarding and -although I'm in varying amounts of pain today- would definitely do it again.