Wherever I go, there I am!!...

Well it has truly been a very long time since I last wrote and updated. Now that I am settled in Vancouver after a whirlwind and hectic year in ’08, I can look at my surroundings appreciate it for what it is and also give you some news, observations, and views.. I can say that I have grown an affection for the city. but it remains not a huge favourite.

2008 was a super busy year for me; I feel like now with this new month and New Year, I can finally sit down and relax properly. I have really been non-stop since I arrived 9 months ago, I can’t believe it has been that long, it has flown by! I feel like finally I can take in all of what’s around and start living in this city Vancouver. For a while there, I felt like a visitor and never quite settled in, granted work had a lot to do with that, with my summer pretty much taken up with travelling, but it also had a lot to do with putting time aside to enjoy rather than being in automatic mode. With me staying here over the Christmas and New Year holidays and having some time to myself (which has also been rare), I began to look up and around me as I walk through the city streets, rather than looking down and rushing to where I needed to get to.

Having travelled all over Canada this past year, I have really learnt to appreciate Vancouver and make the conclusion that it is a very pretty city, comparison to others I have seen in Canada. Montreal would rate as the closest feel to Melbourne in terms of being so cosmopolitan, fashion and food conscious and generally a good young vibe about it. The buildings are very European like, namely French style and so it certainly is up there in looks and feel. Halifax was also a pretty city by the water and very hilly, it reminded me of Hobart or Edinburgh. The seafood there was out of this world, I have not been able to top my 4 course seafood dinner that I had there, unbelievable! The lobsters were so juicy and meaty, the scallops big and fresh, along with the prawns and a pub on every corner to go into and wash down all that seafood. Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto were not spectacular, just run of the mill cities. Generally, again with the exception of Montreal and Toronto, the people in these cities move very slow, that’s in work, life and speech. It did get on my nerves but I learnt to go at their pace which relieved my impatience immensely. So getting back to my earlier statement, after travelling around, I realised that Vancouver does have the prettiest surroundings and that I am spoilt living in a city that has both mountain and ocean views all the way around. I am all the better for having visited the other cities and can now count Canada as ‘done’!

Work as usual is busy and never boring and that’s just how I like it. The Breast Cancer Season finished at end of September with it beginning again in June right through until October. This year there is an introduction of 5 new events which are the bike rides. With the success of the inaugural 250km bike ride from Toronto-Niagra Falls last year, the foundation has decided to try and do more bike ride events in more cities and also travel to Phoenix and Kentucky in the United States. The rides will be from Vancouver-Seattle, Calgary-Rockies, Montreal-Quebec City, Toronto-Niagra Falls and the ones in the US. These new rides along with the normal events of the 60km walks in every city in Canada gives it a very full schedule for this year, so a lot of work to be done to get there. At present though, I am doing a side project working with a local event production group on assisting the organising Committee of the Winter Olympics, along with assisiting the Australian company in charge of the Opening and Closing ceremonies with their event operations and requirement needs for the games. This project came about as a result of me knowing the right people already working for the Organising Committee here, along with knowing the Australian Company doing the ceremonies for the Winter Olympics. The local event production company do not have a lot of Olympic Games experience, although they are a big company here in Vancouver. There is a huge program coming up very soon on February 12th 2009 which will mark the ‘One Year to go’ until the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I am helping with this project also and can’t wait to see how it unfolds.



With as much as it is an Olympic city, it remains quiet and especially now with winter in full effect, the locals tend to retreat to the mountains on the weekend, but I am hoping with the Games only 1 year away and with the upcoming celebrations, the city will come to life a little and start counting down. Having said that, with the economic recession, the mood is a little damp and people’s pockets are a little dry so the enthusiasm might take a little while to happen.

Socially things are busy, ever moving and changing as well, there are a consistent growing number of my ‘games industry’ friends coming to Vancouver and so the social activities and gatherings are never ending. At last count there were 30 of us, living in very close proximity of each other in the city with the number very likely to grow as we approach 2010. It does make for a non boring social life with such a large group, although at times it does become too familiar but between all of us we do have a few local friends who are work colleagues that we have added to our ‘aussie’ mix. I must say though if not for work, it can be difficult here to make friends, the locals aren’t really known to socialise much in the city bars and pubs as a general rule.

I had my dream come true over Christmas as the weather decided to turn white and make Christmas Day a winter wonderland, and for once, I was very excited when I saw the weather forecast. I really enjoyed a wonderful Christmas day with full Canadian style lunch/dinner to enjoy. A huge size turkey with hazelnut, apple and bacon stuffing with other wonderful treats and pleasures, ‘twas the day for indulgence. The lunch turned into dinner with a snow ball fight in the park and a hob tub and dip in the icy pool on my friend’s rooftop of her apartment. It was a memorable day.

The weather has been very unusual as I keep being told by the locals. Vancouver is not known to get snow in the downtown area, and if on the rare occasion that it does snow, it only lasts a couple, if not one day. So for the snow to arrive mid December and basically not let up until a few days into the new year was unprecedented, extremely disruptive and somewhat chaotic to the city. With such heavy snow, the city was just not prepared for it and this caused major disruptions to public transport, along with the airport and flights. It was absolute mayhem , so many flights delayed and cancelled and right before the Christmas holidays. A lot of people didn’t make it home in time for Christmas, we watched footage from the airport everyday of people and bags stranded unattended while people complained at the lack of service. Air Canada was the most to blame as it was the only airline not flying during the snow, other airlines seem to be able to do so and it was reported that Air Canada didn’t have the man power to keep their planes flying, needless to say Air Canada has lost all credibility and not great timing given it is the official airline for the Winter Games. The snow also cause disruptions in garbage pick up, a lot of streets just didn’t get the snow cleared away, the city was only clearing the main streets to allow normal traffic flow. So with that a lot of trucks were not able to operate on the streets and make garbage pick up, this was a huge problem. I was told that there was only 2 snow ploughs in the whole city, it just shows you how rare the snow is for city.

The snow was beautiful and serene for the first couple of days and I really enjoyed seeing the city all covered in white, but to be honest walking around the streets and having to really concentrate and looking down at your feet all the time to avoid the slippery snow did start to get annoying and also when the snow started to melt a little, the slush and mush was no better. It proved to me why locals say the snow belongs on the mountains, it’s true, snow on city streets is not that welcoming. And now with the rain coming back and the weather warming up dramatically, (average temps of 8 degrees, instead of -8 degrees), the city is trying to get back to normalcy but is facing another challenge of flooding with the heavy rain and snow melting. But I’m sure it’ll all come good again soon.

I, however am counting down the day until I am back in Melbourne for a wedding. I arrive in Melbourne on January 24th for 2.5 weeks. I can not WAIT as the sun of Oz has been calling me and I’m so looking forward to seeing my family and friends. It can’t come soon enough!. I’ll be sure to have a report after I’m back from my trip, which I can only imagine will be fabulous and fun filled.

As usual I have attached some photos in my album, so please feel free to check those out.