We got a home!

The insane downhill kickers & our new home #28

Wow, we haven't updated this thing for a few weeks now! A lot has happened.. So, we finally left Tofino and caught a bus up here to Whistler.. Crankworx was on which is a festival involving a week of insane downhill mountain biking so the place was heaving and the huge kickers set up down the mountain went off every evening in the comps. Actually saw De La Sol play on Saturday night which was awesome, stood right up front with a crowd of about 40 people?! Very cool..

We checked out a bunch of places to live and finally moved in to a 2bed home (ski in/ski out!!) on the mountain in an area called Nordic. It's a 5 minute bus ride from Whistler Village at a place called Whistler Creekside. There's a gondola there for access straight up the mountain in the morning.. We have fresh bear poo outside our door step most mornings which is a little scary, and intriguing all the same..Come play!!

Job-wise Rich landed a wicked job on practically our first day here, working for whistler blackcomb as their software developer, and he started this week.. He's finding it a bit hard getting back in to the grind after a few months off! Although in reality he got to go downhill biking last nighit, after his first day, as a team activity - followed by beers and burgers, it ain't all bad! And he saw a bear while going up the chairlift - lucky duck!! I was offered a job with the mountain but declined it as it really wasn't what I wanted.. So, still on the job hunt..

That's all to report so far. We're ABSOLUTELY LOVING it here!! The weather is about 35 degrees every day and the lakes are beautiful to swim in.. The festivals keep rolling in too - next up is the National BBQ Festival ?!?!?!

hope you're all happy & loving life
xx

Can't leave the rainforest..

Photos: Black bear taken through binoculars, bear on rocks, us on rocks at Long Beach

Well, here we still are, officially 'overstayers' in James' cabin.. Tofino is addictive!! We've rented some bikes so been ripping out to the beach & doin some off- roading through the rainforest trails, wicked fun. Rich is working sooooo hard on his top secret IT 'project' most days..hehe, nah it's not top secret, but just at it's beginnings so he's working hard to keep it evolving whilst we're travelling.

But seriously, we are catching the bus tomorrow mornin (Thursday) back to Nanaimo, then ferry on back to Horseshoe Bay, then bus back to Vancouver, for one night only tho.. Since we have managed to 'kill' more time here - hardly a difficult thing to do ;o) - we now only have to spend Thursday night back in Van at the hostel, then Friday go get our Social Insurance cards issued so we can legally work, then jump the bus to Whistler for a 3pm check in at the timeshare.. Which will be pure luxury after the hostel! Yippee!

Then it's time to get our sh%t sorted.. jobs & a roof over our heads top the list.. then bikes, friends & the rest will come with time.. There's a cool animal shelter called WAG where I can volunteer when we finally have ourselves set up, so that'll be fun.. Fingers crossed the 'Whistler' idea comes to fruition.. If not - we'll have to come up with a new plan! argh!

Alrighty, time to get on with some job hunting online..

rock on & be happy :o)

Tofino photos..

Another few shots of the view out back of the cabin.. And us being silly fools in the kitchen. Went bear watching yesterday, by boat, will have to upload some black bear photos as soon as we get them off the camera! Grrrrr! Awesome creatures...

Mounties, maple leaves & bears

HERE we are in British Columbia, Canada!

Been doing looooads of things, can't believe we've only been here a week. It feels like a month or something.. Right now I'm writing from a little old wood cabin,perched on the edge of an ocean inlet in the town of Tofino, out on Vancouver Island.. We found a friend from the UK (James, a kiwi) was back living out here for the 2nd summer in a row, chefing at a fab restaurant in town.. So we jumped a ferry yesterday from Vancouver and have come to stay for a week.. It's insane out here, the back deck is basically in the water especially at high tide, & the cabin is what you imagine when you think of a log cabin in the woods. Totally authentic - we're absolutely LOVIN it! Black bears, cougars, orcas (killer whales) and grey whales have all been spotted in this area. I keep looking out the window hoping to see a killer whale swim past!! Bliss..

BUT Vancouver though, turned out to be a little different from our expectations. The hostel we went to the first night was right down town & over the first 4 days that we stayed there we saw more crack & heroin addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics and generally aggressive people than we've ever seen in our whole lives.. Vancouver has done a brilliant job keeping this side quiet!!

ON the positive side - we walked for miles around the city the first few days & saw the beautiful Stanley Park, walked the seawall all the way around to English Bay and then on to the 'cool' beach area Kitsilano..I think it was about 15 miles in the end and we were sunburnt and so tired! Started drinking beers along the way and got quite trollied by the end and had to stumble our way back to the city.. hehe. Day 2 we hired bikes & took them on the ferry over to the north shore to check out other areas to live.. Rode for hours then came back over the Lionsgate Bridge back to the city & managed to ride in to a street called East Hastings & in to an area that had on both sides of the road, no joke, about 1000 homeless drug-addicted zombies, prostitutes doin business down alleys & more syringes & shooting up than you ever want to see. It shocked us so much our whole opinion of this place is a little shattered.. There's definitely a huge problem here. Locals have told us that because of the mild winters, this is the only area in Canada where a homeless person can survive the winter so they have all ended up there.. and it's weird because people are living in flash places right there in the neighbouring suburbs. I guess you just stop noticing it.. ?

ANYHOO, we decided that we'd like to be based outside of the city, so are looking at new options. Whistler is one, there's a little CBD and with the 2010 winter olympics coming, there's lot happening there. There's even a few puter programming co's who are interested to talk to Rich, and other agencies that I could get work through..

So, will see what turns up! Gonna go up to Whistler from 21 - 28th July to check it out.. Who knows where we'll end up?!! I suppose that's half the fun ;o) exciting times...

PEACE ROCKS
Nic