Fairs and Movies - 17/08/09-23/08/09

This week there really isn't much to tell. Man working sucks hehe. There is an endless supply of money and I don't have to work, yeah right!!

Monday to Thursday were working days for me and we didn't get up to anything really.

Friday morning I finished my night shift and had a sleep till after midday. Tonight we packed up our picnic blanket and chairs and headed out for a night at the movies, outdoors. We stopped for takeaways on the way and then headed to Connaught Park, to watch UP outdoors and on Big screen. There was quite a turn out. Once again I really enjoyed this movie, still pulls on the heart strings the second time and I shead a few more tears. We'll have to keep an eye out for more outdoor movies its such a great idea.

Annually, PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) a non-profit organisation, runs a 17 day summer fair at Hastings Park. In 2010 it will have been running for 100 years. The fair has heaps of shopping stalls, food and drink stalls, rides, entertainment and of course candy floss. The entertainment included a dog show where different dogs would jump over things and run through things, a car show, Celtic dancing show, and a Lumberjack show. They also had other animal shows however we skipped these ones. They also had different bands playing, the final band was a tribute beetles band, they were very good. Then finally they finished off with a musical/dance pyrotechnic show, this was awesome with fireworks, clowns, old bicycles and lights. It was very well done and we really enjoyed our day. We were here for about 12 hours, Cam described it as a cross between field days and the big day out.

No spoiler involved in the next paragraph. Yesterday we didn't really get up to much. Only interesting thing really was the movies. I can't believe how packed it was, we got there an hour early and had to join a massive cue to get into the movie, turns out we were able to get a good seat, the cinema was completely sold out. We went to see District 9, had heard only good things about it. We came out not really knowing how we felt about it, if you go to see it remember to keep an open mind, very weird and not like anything I have ever seen. Trust Peter Jackson to put some money into this kind of movie. Overall I think all three of us liked it.

Holidays - 10/08/09-16/08/09

Nothing much to report this week. It turns out summer has decided to end for this week. It has turned cold well max of 18 degrees and the rain has decided to start for a little while.

Monday was my second day on my own at work and this was a really good day, nothing too different seemed to pop up and I had a really great team of people to work with. Its great during the day there is lots of support on and always at least one senior person you can turn to for help. Also these senior people don't have patients so its a little easier to ask for help. We'll see how I like it after a really busy day though.

Tuesday was my last study day as such. It was a surgery study day so really relevant for me and it helped for working on the ward. We also got to meet a few of the doctors, physios and other health team members which was nice.

Wednesday we booked a flight to Vegas to join Jacki on her holiday, a bit impulsive but they had a seat sale on and only had 3 seats left on one particular flight so we bought them. Will only be for 2 and a half days so may have to go back another time. Very exciting though.

Thursday tickets went on sale for Pearl Jam in Vancouver, well the presale anyway but unfortunately we weren't quick enough, we will have to try for the public sale to see what we can get. Another average day at home, was a bit cooler here, decided to do some more baking.

Friday we managed to get tickets to Pearl Jam and pretty good seats if you ask me, so can't wait for that show on September 25th 09, woohoo!!

Friday we went to the Museum of Anthropology which according to our book is one of the 1000 things you need to do before you die in USA and Canada. So another tick off our list. The museum is part of UBC which is the University of British Columbia, it used to be on the same site however it is now just across the road. The museums collections, exhibitions and programs are renowned for giving incite into the cultures of indigenous people from around the world. It holds many ethnographic and archaeological objects, many of these originate from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. Some of these objects include totem poles (or story poles), carved boxes, bowls and feast dishes. The museum also has sections on pieces of gold, silver, wood, ceramic and other materials. It was very interesting and once again we were just in time for a free tour which went for 1 hour. Its great to catch these tours as they show you the things which are the most relevant or significant, it enables you to hear a bit about most things and then you can go around and take a more detailed look at what interests you. Totem poles (story poles) are carved by the indigenous people of British Columbia. They are made out of red cedar and are used to tell a story or to identify which tribe/community they are from.

There was a room full of European ceramics which was bought over by Dr Walter. C. Koerner, who made his money in Canada in forestry, this whole collection was his own and there were 600 pieces collected over a span of almost eighty years. Not really my sort of thing but there was a really cool tiled stove which is still used in Europe as a source of heating.

The exhibition at the moment even has a touch of kiwi, it seems we pop up more than I expected over here. The exhibition had photos taken by a kiwi photographer who had taken pictures of Samoan families or communities in New Zealand. These photos were showing the culture of getting tatau (tattoos) within the Samoan community. Not a lot to read but the photos were interesting.

The last room we looked at on the tour was the Bill Reid Rotunda room. Reid is from the Haida community, he was originally a jeweler however became a sculptor and painter after learning about his first nations history. His sculpture called "The Raven and the First Men" which is made out of yellow cedar is in the museum. This depicts a moment in the ancestral past of the Haida people when a Raven, a wise and powerful yet mischievous trickster, has just found the first humans in a clam shell on the beach and is coaxing them in and out. This man has 7 honorary doctorates from different universities, seems pretty smart if you ask me.

So Saturday was another free event in Vancouver. It was 40 years since Woodstock so Kitsilano (Kits) decided to put on a 40 years since Woodstock, summer of love, car free street day. They had 4 stages with bands playing 60's music and the street was full of old 1950/60's cars which were awesome. They also had some stalls, shops were having sales and off course food and a beer garden. It was a nice day to walk around and look at things, there was not as much to see as other days we have been to however the music was great and the bands had done well to dress up in 60's gear.

We had invited Emily along a new friend of ours from work, we had a drink at Kits and then decided to head into town for another drink, we had come this far and it was only early in the evening and dinner time so we decided to continue on for dinner and a few more drinks. I enjoy the frequent martini, margarita and cocktail specials they have each day. It was a good day and evening. Spontaneous drinks and evenings are the best.

Nothing to tell for Sunday just a relaxing day.

BC day, Apartment searching and new people - 03/08/09-09/08/09

Another public holiday in Canada, I think its great the way they have done it here, there is a public holiday pretty much every month except for 3 months. It just so happened that I had this one off as well. We didn't do too much this day just thought we would take it easy. Apparently there is a world police and fire games which happens every 2 years that happens all around the world. There are about 50-70 countries competing depending on what site you read. Basically it is police and fire people, correction officers and customs officers that compete in many events such as: athletics, ice hockey, rugby, shooting, swimming and many other sports. All events are free, we decided to head to Burnaby (a city within the greater Vancouver area) to watch the track and field athletics. The main events we could see were long jump, running, and high jump. We mainly watched long jump, some of these people could jump really far, in the 18-25 group one guy jumped 6.98 m, considering they don't do this for a living that's pretty far considering in the Olympics they get to mostly 7.5m some up to nearly 9m. I thought they were pretty good.

After this we decided to head to the Night market at Richmond. It was a bit frustrating really, we had heard the night market was great and that they were looking at moving the venue, so we have been looking at the official website for the last 2 months which keeps saying check back for the new location of the night market. However the night market has been going since May yet the website continues to tell us its not on, turns out you don't look for the official website you go to a completely different one, ah annoying. Any who we decided to go, it just so happened the bus that runs to the market from where we were happened to be was full when it arrived, and the next bus was 1 hour away. With Cam having a dead battery on his phone we had to wing it, we walked to another bus stop. One bus trip, one train trip and then 3 more different buses later and about an hour or 2 in time, we arrived at the market. The funny thing was that the people that had obviously waited for the next bus to arrive where we started from, were walking out of the market as we walked in, should've waited. Oh well it was a good trip and wow we can't believe how helpful bus drivers are, we even had one which stopped past the bus stop to get us further.

Anyway the night markets were ok, I'm sure I have seen better, maybe being a public holiday it wasn't as busy as normal, perhaps we will have to go back once the website tells us it is open hehe. They did have some nice different foods, Cam had a nice squid and prawn skewers and I had chicken skewers and some curly potato with seasoning (these were yummo!!). However it was quite expensive. They did have some really cheap things at the stalls though, we did resist a few things.

Tuesday and Wednesday we didn't really get up to much, back to work for me so I'm usually pretty tired, and only get home at 8pm ish.

So we thought hard about our living situation. It appears that our lease agreement actually said that if we wanted to extend our lease past 31st August then we had to do this by June 30th. As it was now the start of August and we had not extended it we though we better look at new apartments. I'm sure if we wanted to stay where we are we probably could, but decided we have had enough of collecting other peoples mail, getting calls all the time for someone else, never being able to get hold of the landlord and living in complete clutter. We checked out Craig's list, like trade me and discovered that all of a sudden there were heaps of apartments for rent that were furnished, turned out to be perfect. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent looking at apartments, in 3 days we looked at about 8 different places. We did have difficulty trying to decide on one as we actually found about 3 really nice places. One would only lease for up to 3 months which was not great for us as that would bring us up to just before the Olympics so that crossed that one off and the other was subletting, which he wasn't allowed to do so another cross, which left us with the one we have accepted. It means we will be moving in to town, first time to be moving by public transport which should be fun. We move September 1st ad will be there for 11 months.

Friday night we went out for drinks at the winking judge pub in town. One of the girls from work who started at the same time as me has just arrived from London and doesn't know anyone over here, so we invited her out for the evening. Just had a quiet few drinks, it was a great evening. We'll have new friends in no time.

Saturday night I rung home for the first time, it was Dads birthday in New Zealand but the day before for us. It was great timing as I got to talk to Mum, Dad and Vanessa. Was great to catch up on all the gossip and hear some familiar voices. Yes we were home on a Saturday evening, but I had to work the next morning at 7am and it was my first day at work on my own.

As I just said Sunday was my first official day at work, I was all on my own. They were really nice to me and I got an easy patient load, still makes me laugh that I only get 3 patients and very occasionally get 4 depending on the patients. Turns out 2 of the patients were what I have cared for in the past so that was good also. Only thing was that everything that I haven't experienced on my orientation days happened to pop up, Murphy's law I guess. For a first day though I must say it was pretty good, it happened to be more quiet that usual and everyone was very helpful. You just have to share the questions around different people hehe, so they don't get sick of you. I think once I get used to the hospital system and policies I will really enjoy it.

This evening we went to our new apartment to sign the lease. Our new landlord is very nice and friendly, also she lives in the building so at least we won't have a problem getting a hold of her. We'll post some photos when we have some.

Hot weather, first concert, and fire works - 27/07/09-2/08/09

So the weeks are starting to go really fast again now that I'm working and we have stopped doing so many things. Its a bit strange really, normally the holidays go quicker than working days but that doesn't seem to be the way at the moment.

The weather this week continued similar to the last week, it has been so hot, temperatures this week hit the highest recorded temperatures in Vancouver. The airport temp said 34.4 degrees but the temp monitor in the city area hit 40 degrees. Some areas around Vancouver got even higher, I'm sure I had no sleep or very little for about a week.

Anyway Monday was one of these hot days and we decided to head to Stanley Park and sit under a tree in the shade after I had done a little study at work for our teaching sessions. Its nice just sitting watching into the port area of Burrard inlet, watching the boats and planes coming in and out, as well as the people walking around. We lazed around listening to music and people watching. After this we headed back home for a relaxing evening.

Tuesday was another work/study day for me. While at work I had a text from Cam saying that he had something planned for us at 7pm so not to organise anything to do. After getting home from work I was trying to guess what on earth it could be that we were going to do. Since we don't really have any friends in Vancouver as yet that we hang out with, my closest guesses were the movies, dessert as we had already had dinner, or the police and fire games which are happening at the moment. It was much better that all of these put together.

They had made tickets cheaper for a Blink 182 concert which Cam bought so this was where we were going. A very nice surprise as we have had so many tempting concerts to go to but have had to say no. The supporting band happened to be All American Rejects, one of my favourites, this band came to New Zealand to play before Simple plan however we found out about 2-3 hours before the concert that they had cancelled. This band was the actually reason I wanted to go. So finally I got to see them. There were 2 other Canadian bands who performed first then, All American Rejects and then Blink 182. Its been about 7 or 8 years since I had seen Blink 182 at the big day out and they were just as good as when I saw them then. Dammit (the song) was awesome live and was their last song, I had actually forgotten this was there song. All American Rejects were also awesome. Overall a great evening and a great first concert in Vancouver.

This was awesome, look closely at the photo on the right and you will see the drummer playing the drums while the platform he is sitting on is up in the air, he moved all around the stage and the flatform also spun round. Looked really effective.

The next day I had work in the morning, after I finished I wasn't up for anything, I was stuffed. Thursday was another work day and we didn't get up to anything.

Friday was my first official pay day in about 2 months and we went shopping, it was great. I have wanted to go shopping in such a long time. Unfortunately we still had to be careful with how much we spent but both of us ended up going home with a pair of shoes. Mine were for work so not that great but still shopping and when you work 12 hours on your feet, comfort is important (yes Pam it is). Can't wait for the next time!!

Annually Vancouver has a HSBC celebration of light. This is where 4 countries compete with a fireworks display over 4 nights over 2 weeks, eg wed, sat, wed, sat. They have a barge in the middle of English bay, which is off the beach near downtown. Thousands of people camp out having picnics, swimming and playing in the park all around the bay, waiting for the fireworks which start at 10pm. Each display goes for about 30 minutes and are amazing. Normally the countries do there thing on the first few nights and then on the last night they all let of a display. However this time they didn't have a finale, the different counties did their display on different nights. The 4 countries involved were Canada, South Africa, England and China. We happened to go on the last night only, which was China and they won this year. Turns out we picked the right night.

We decided to make a night out of it, pack up a picnic and head to the waterfront around 6pm. We had our cheese and crackers, ham, eggs, potato salad, tomato and caramel cake for dessert while watching the sunset behind the mountains in the distance. It was extremely picturesque, about the 3rd or 4th time we have seen the sunset here. I think its about time for a sunrise. The fireworks were very good, I think these were a little more subtle than some of the other nights but still good especially for the last couple of minutes. We decided to walk home after this as the buses were packed and there was heaps of traffic, turns out we made the right decision, we walked for about 15 mins and never had a bus go past.

Sunday was another warm day, today we headed out to watch the Gay Pride Parade in the gay and lesbian area of town. Turns out Vancouver is very open when it comes to this population. To be honest I was expecting a little more glitz and glam with the parade. They had some floats, people on bikes (some naked), people marching with signs etc, but it wasn't as out there as I was expecting. I think some things freaked me out more than it did for Cam which was surprising hehe. We didn't stay for long and headed home.

First night shifts, movies and Lantern Festival - 20/07/09-26/07/09

This week was a little less action packed as I begun my night shifts and worked most of the weekdays. So not many interesting things to report.

Monday was a nice warm evening so we went for a walk after dinner to Granville Island, to get a feel for it at night. Its nice looking across the water to all the lights of the city. There are some nice looking restaurants there, we may have to head back one evening.

Tuesday was a half day at work for me, after this we headed into town for a small amount of much needed summer clothes shopping. We can't wait to actually be able to go shopping properly, so much saving time and no spending gets to you in the end, never thought I'd say that. We got tickets to the movies, headed home for dinner and then back into town to see Ice Age 3 in 3D. We both found this hilarious. Both of us laughed most of the way through the movie. There was one point we were in hysterics, I had trouble seeing through the tears streaming down my face. I don't know what it was, but I just think they had more adult jokes placed throughout it. I definitely recommend this to everyone, if you enjoyed the first one.

Due to starting nights on Wednesday (my first 12 hour night) we had a late one the night before and a bit of a sleep in on Weds. Today we headed for a relaxing lunch at Hurricane bar in Yale town. They had beautiful meals, great location, reasonably cheap and the waitress we had was very good. All great components of a great meal out. The one time I don't mind tipping someone. We walked back along false creek towards home and I had a bit of a snooze before starting work.

Night shift went surprisingly well for the first day anyway. Actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. I think I will start to like 12 hours. The only thing is when your working you work, eat and sleep, I feel too tired to do anything else, well things that are energetic anyway.

Friday morning I finished my night shifts and slept till about 2pm. We decided to have a nice night in and watch movies. Picked 2 very different movies. Yes man with Jim Carey was the first movie and this was surprisingly good, even Cam liked it and hes not the biggest fan of Jim. It even had Rhys Darby in it and he was hilarious. If you want to watch a movie that you can have a good laugh in and not have to pay much attention then this is the movie for you. The second movie was completely different, this was Valkyrie, based on the true story of a plot to kill Hitler. This was also quite good in its own way, didn't blow us a way but still worth watching.

Saturday started out to be a really nice day, but ended up with lots of rain, thunder and lightening, which started right before the Illuminati Lantern Festival at Trout Lake Park. This is a festival which happens every year, hundreds of people gather with home made lanterns or anything that glows. There are performers, stalls and lanterns set up all around the lake. There are no lights as such, just the light from the lanterns. We headed over to Alison's house (a lady I just met who has started at the hospital) which was about 10 minutes walk to Trout Lake park. We enjoyed sitting around in the sun drinking mojitos made by Alison and other drinks while chatting the evening away.

The weather started clouding over so we moved onto the covered deck for dinner when it started raining. Along with this came the constant lightening and thunder (apparently something Vancouver never gets), it must have gone on for at least 1-2 hours. The rain wasn't going to stop us though, we all borrowed rain coats off Alison and headed out into the rain. On our way to the festival people were telling us it was cancelled, we decided to continue along for a look anyway as we could hear drums in the distance. Good thing we didn't listen to those people, even though there weren't as many people or lanterns as other years (according to Alison) there were still enough around to get the idea. Initially there were supposed to be fireworks as well, however these were cancelled due to the grass being so dry with the heat Vancouver has been having. It was pretty funny really considering now it was poring with rain. We didn't need fireworks anyway the lightening took care of this. It was beautiful walking around looking at all the neat hand made lanterns and seeing lights glowing in the dark in the distance. Alison had an awesome jellyfish lantern. We ended up reasonably wet, well I wasn't too bad, but worth it.

Sunday (yesterday), yes we are catching up on our blog, was Caribbean day in North Vancouver. We should not have gone to this as now I really want to go a Caribbean place, it looks soooo nice. Definitely think I have to do it one day though. Didn't really get up to much here as it was so hot, must have been around the late 20's/early 30's, only supposed to get hotter next week as well (Another thing that doesn't happen in Vancouver either apparently). We had some traditional Trinidad and Tobago food though, well I went for the chicken curry but Cam had goat curry, wasn't too bad but think we could have found a better stall. Then we sat in the shade and looked out at the ocean drinking smoothies, another relaxing day over.

Whistler, Drinks and Picnics - 13/07/09-19/07/09

Monday and Tuesday for me were spent at work on study days. Tuesday while at work Cam joined Sarah for a few drinks in town at a Cafe above the Vancouver Art Gallery. What better to do than to spend a beautiful afternoon drinking. I finished my study day early today so headed into town to join them. It was nice sitting out in the sun, listening to music, drinking and talking amongst friends. Sarah's friend joined us toward the end and then the 2 of them headed off for dinner. Cam and I headed off for dinner also, I had been craving Wendy's since I saw it in the first week of arriving in Vancouver, so we decided to have this. We have actually been really good since arriving, we hardly ever have take aways so this was a bit of a treat.

Now Wednesday was an exciting day. Sarah was staying with a friend in North Vancouver who happened to let us borrow her car for the day while she was at work. We took this perfect opportunity to head to Whistler for the day. It just so happened that the weather was perfect, it was beautiful, sunny and extremely hot. So we headed off early in the morning to get the most out of the day, as it takes about an hour and a half to get there. We headed a little past Whistler to Pemberton as Sarah had heard that this was beautiful place to visit. It was a quite, little town in the countryside, surrounded by mountains and the view was beautiful. It reminded me of the movies. There were some beautiful houses in this area. We stopped at a little petrol station/town store/McDonald's and had lunch, its amazing McDonald's is everywhere. Who would of thought you could get a picture in front of McDonald's with huge mountains in the background.




We continued on our journey back towards Whistler and stopped at Nairn Falls. There was a 1.5km walk along the river to the falls. Over 150 million years ago the area was near the shore of a vast ocean. Gradually the earths crust moved upwards and crushed nearby volcanic islands against the shoreline. Further upheavals and other movements of the earth's crust changed this area from a seashore to a mountainous area. The falls were huge and very powerful, it was very beautiful.





Next stop was Whistler, it seems that even on a weekday in the middle of summer there are plenty of people that want to visit Whistler. Still not packed though is was quite nice, we didn't have to wait for anything. We stood around for a little while watching the mountains bikers on their jumps and turns. Now if you were a mountain biker I think this would be an awesome place for you, not really my kind of thing looked pretty exciting but dangerous. So we headed up the gondola towards the summit, the gondola takes you almost to the top but not all the way, you have to get off walk down a small distance and then catch the chair lift to the top. This chair lift is quite steep and in summer all you are looking down at (well mostly), is really sharp rocks. Now the view from up here was very panoramic and beautiful. It was a really nice day but a bit hazy unfortunately as it always seems to be. They have a big monument at the summit called an Inunnguaq commonly mistaken as the Inukshuk. It is a stacked rock in human form which models the Inukshuk as created by the inuit (native) people of Canada's Artic. It was used as a guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time it has become a symbol of hope and friendship across Canada. The Olympics 2010 emblem is an interpretation of this. This spot also seemed very popular for taking photos, with a peak called black tusk in the background.



We had our first sighting, this time it was a chipmunk not that I would have recognised this by looking at it. They are very small and cute. We fooled around up here taking random photos, and repaying favours by taking photos for others, before we headed down the chairlift to go across the peak to peak gondola. The peak to peak gondola connects the incredibly high mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb. It is 4.4 kms long and 436 metres above the valley floor. This breaks 3 world records of the longest unsupported span of 3.024 kms, highest lift of its kind at 436 m above and it completes the longest continuous life system on the globe. I thought this was going to be really scary looking at it from the bottom, turns out it wasn't that scary. We were lucky as there were only 5 of us in our gondola and it takes up to 28 people. Some of them have glass bottoms but the wait for them was much longer and we would be stuffed in like sardines with others, so decided to go for extra room instead, turns out you couldn't even stand on the glass. We walked around the top of Blackcomb for a little while and then headed back down the chair lift on this side to the bottom. We had a short walk around the Whistler village before heading on our way home as it was getting a little late. After a petrol stop and dinner time we headed back along the sea to sky highway towards Vancouver.


Along the way we had several stops taking photos of the beautiful scenery as the sun had just gone behind the mountains. It was great to be able to get pictures in the start of the day and then complement these with dusk photos. The lakes and ocean around this area was very stunning. All in all a very long tiring day, but soooo worth it, we had a blast. Thanks Sarah for driving (and thanks to your friend for the car).


The next day was another nice day, we were a bit tired from the previous day so decided to have a relaxing afternoon sitting at Charlson Park, listening to music and admiring the view, before heading home to make mince pies. Turns out you can follow a recipe from good old Edmond's but pies just don't turn out the same. There was something missing but I can't quite put my finger on it, needed just a little more flavour, this is just one small thing I was missing from NZ after 7 weeks of no pies. Guess it'll be good for us in the end haha. Tonight was Sarah's last night in Vancouver and she was staying with us, however I missed her, turns out starting 12 hour shifts can be quite tiring and I had to head to bed before she made it back to ours. That's alright got to wake her bright and early the next morning and say goodbye as I was heading out the door to work.

Saturday we were heading out for the evening to David Lam park for a picnic and outdoor movie. Unfortunately we arrived off the bus with our picnic rug, chairs, chiller bags and backpacks ready for several hours out, and there were hardly any people there. This was a little concerning. Anyway one thing we looked at said the Saturday however these details we set up wrong and the actual day was Sunday. So we ended up having a really nice picnic, in comfort, overlooking false creek watching the cyclists, people and dogs going by while the sun was going down. Turned out great anyway. So as it was a Saturday night and there was now no movie we decided to head out to Cactus club cafe in town for dessert and a drink. I had a really nice peanut butter crunch fudge thingy and Cam had a slice of cheesecake. Normally I don't like cheesecake at restaurants however it seems they know how to make them in Vancouver. To top it off we had a frozen cappuccino martini with vodka, coffee liqueur, creme de cacao and cream whip, which tasted like coffee and alcoholic goodness, it was awesome. Tonight was also another movie/film spotting at the Marine building (a beautiful old building in the centre of Vancouver, which was once one of the tallest buildings in Vancouver). Unfortunately we didn't get any glimpses of stars, this time they actually had the area sealed off, so maybe there were more famous people involved, oh well one day!!

Sunday was another hot sunny day. This called for a swim and laze around at kits beach. I'm actually starting to get a little bit tanned now (even on my legs, thought this would never happen), I guess that's what happens when you go from one summer to another and when the country you move to actually has an ozone layer. Its great to only need sunscreen on once in the day. The water today was actually warm, of course you get the initial cold but once you were under it was really nice. I would say it was about 19 or 20 degrees this day which beats the 16 or 17 it has been. We lay in the sun for a while, listened to music and had a drink before heading home. A nice relaxing day.

Holiday over for one - 06/07/09-12/07/09

So this week was the start of work and end of my official holiday. If only every day was like the first and I actually got paid for a full day. They eased me into it with a 4 hour generic hospital orientation, then we got to go home. This half day was about policies/procedures, disasters, infection control, human resources and what is available to us from the hospital. The day also included other safety/need to know things. We also had croissants, donuts, fruit platters, pastries and coffee to keep us going for the day which was awesome.

After getting home, then doing the groceries and having dinner we headed off to the Cambie again for drinks with a couple of guys Cam went to school with, Justin and Dave. It was a great evening of a few drinks, catching up on old times (for Cam), discussing Vancouver and watching a bit of sports. We go a month not having people to go out with then 3 nights in a row we catch up with people, it was really great. Turns out I think we have found somewhere that may play the All Blacks games, well they were advertising the tri nations on the TV, so fingers crossed we may get to catch at least one game. We headed home at a reasonably decent time as I had to get up at "normal" time again to head to work for a normal 8 hour day of nursing orientation.

So Tuesday and Wednesday at my new job were about getting to know each other and the leaders within the hospital. We spent a lot of time discussing the values and missions of the hospital, how these related to us and what we wanted/expected of the hospital. It was actually good to write down your ideas, then all the leaders went around the room looking at what our expectations were and what we wanted out of this experience. We spent time talking about different policies and safety. I can't believe how positive the staff seem here, you get a really good vibe being there, lets hope it stays this way. The people that spoke to us seemed to really love working here and it made you feel really positive and wanted. It is encouraging that about 80% of people that spoke to us have been in the organisation for over 20 years without leaving, so maybe we will end up staying longer, who knows. The last half of Wednesday we were shown around our unit, looked at the computer systems, registered for courses and talked about what we wanted to learn from the unit. I always forget how tiring learning is, I was stuffed when I got home.

Thursday was a day off work for me, we slept in for a little while, then headed to be tourists again. This time our destination was Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This is located in Chinatown, Vancouver. It was built in 1985-86 to maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. It was built using equipment/materials sent over from China and uses only this equipment. It honors principles and techniques from the Ming dynasty garden, halls and pathways are constructed with precise joinery and without the use of nails, screws or glue. Even though it is a reasonably small-moderate garden there is a lot of story behind the construction of it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We decided to take the free tour they had on offer which described why everything is constructed in the way it is and how yin and yang have a role in this (feng Sui). I found it very informative, I think if we hadn't done this we would have been in and out in 20 mins or so. It meant that we actually had things in particular to take photos of. There was a piece of embroidery that looks the same on the front as it does on the back, there is no bad side (something I thought you would appreciate Kay). Only thing is you can't really appreciate it properly from the photo.

The garden is set up in a masculine/femine way (yin and yang). For the women it has an outside walk which is set up so that there are two pathways for different times of the day so that she can stay in the shade. It has seats along the side of the pathway which are made uncomfortable to sit on with your back directly against the ledge so you have to sit sideways which is more flattering. These areas have beautiful views of the gardens and water, these areas were used for the scholar to entertain his guests. This particular garden is a scholars garden, scholars worked for the emperor. They built these gardens at their houses outside of the city, they built them away from the city as their the emperors generally changed their mood frequently, one minute you may be his best friend and the next minute he hated you. This was a place to go to do their work away from the emperor. This garden had an area away from the water where the scholar would do his work in peace from the running water and he would have someone playing a musical instrument in the corner while he was working. It was quite interesting the difference in noise from one area to the other just by stepping through a door way in the walls around the garden. Overall this was much better than I was expecting from when we first entered.

After leaving the garden we walked past the guiness book of records worlds skinniest building. It goes from the red part of the building to the dark blue, the lighter blue stripe on the left hand side is a different building. We were shown this on our sins of the city tour.

Friday was another day off for me. We decided to go for another walk today through Stanley Park, there are so many different walks around the area, we still haven't managed to get around them all. We headed off to find Lumberman's Arch which we though we were near when we were last walking around the area however we couldn't find it. This time we found it and it was right next to where we had been before but was obscured by trees from our direction, easy to miss. Lumberman's Arch is the site where 2 squamish nations log houses were situated at one point in history. It is a basically a huge arch made from a tree trunk. It was home of Khwaykhway a major village and gathering place. It was such a hot day we decided to sit in the shade and have an ice block.

After this we headed into Stanley Park and headed towards Beaver Lake. Beaver Lake is currently changing from a lake to a bog which may eventually become a meadow and then a forest ecosystem. There is a decreased amount of incoming water, increased amounts of sediments and incomplete decomposed plant material which is accumulating on the lake bottom, this is making the lake decrease in size. Lillies were introduced to the lake and are now overtaking which has slightly increased the rate which Beaver Lake is transitioning from a lake to a bog. The area around the lake is home to many Douglas Firs, Western Red Cedars, Sundews (a carnivorous plant) and flying squirrels. Well actually they don't fly but are called this as they jump from tree to tree, jumping gaps up to 58m wide. We did see some but not jumping. From here we headed along Stanley Park seawall and back home, another beautiful, hot, sunny day.

Just a random photo we took on our way, a 2 ways over bridge accross the road with designated lanes, weird.

Saturday and Sunday we my first 2 12hour days at work. We were straight into it you don't get any days off here, on my first day we had 3 reasonably complex patients. However it was good for me as these 3 patients were similar to what I have looked after in New Zealand, which was helpful. It helps having nursed before as things are very different over here, so its nice to have the general nursing processes sorted, then I just have to adapt to the way things are done over here, what I am or aren't allowed to do, different paper work and of course the different medication names. I guess something I will get used to eventually, though it makes you feel like a brand new nurse again. The other thing I find difficult is the accent, its so frustrating. Its hard to believe that we all speak English but it can be so different. I really feel for people now that go to a different country where they speak a different language. Its even had with the different names for things eg: torch=flashlight, nappy=diaper, plaster=bandaid. Oh I can't forget loo, but they just don't even know what that means hehe. We didn't end up doing anything these evenings after work as I was stuffed, I think 12 hour shifts will mean work, eat and sleep. Activities will have to wait for days off I think.