Downtown Decorations

After about a week of clouds and rain, today we had a perfectly sunny day. I took another trip downtown to get more pictures.

First, I took the SeaBus across to North Vancouver to get a few shots of downtown from a distance.



Then I got on with my main, er, focus: I wanted to capture some interesting building decorations. You know, those bits that stick out that don't seem to have any useful purpose? I've been noticing lots and have meant to capture some of them.


"And for the kids, we also offer a roller coaster on the roof."


I sure could go for an ice cream cone. A waffle cone.



"What will we do with these leftover columns?"
"Hmm, I think I have an idea."



"Such a large piece of cheese ... if only we could grate it into thin slices ..."



"Well, I like the idea of a large pot of boiling oil on the roof to repel invaders ... but what if we get strong winds?"


"It's a nice building design, but where will we fit the cyclotron?"
"Hmm, I think I have an idea."


I love this: it's not just a tree on the roof ... it's a tree you could climb.



I also spent a bit of time inside the Vancouver Public Library, which has been used in Battlestar Galactica and The 6th Day.

Home Sweet Home

Well, not until November 1st, but that was the move-in date we wanted. (We have committed to this rental until 26th November, so the move in date gives us plenty of time to transition and buy furniture etc.)

We've found a 3 bedroom + den unit across the street and up a couple of blocks from Sarah's school. This is a large home split into two separate units with separate entrances, and the owners occupy the upstairs suite. There is a very large open kitchen (!) with breakfast bar, a living room, three bedrooms and the den. Also some storage space outside and a long hallway to the garden. One bathroom. As is usual here, appliances are included, which saves us a lot of money immediately.

Although I liked (a lot) the home we applied for that had a view of the water and mountains, we weren't actually offered it, and this is better for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, we really like the owners, and since we will be living in close proximity, this seems ideal. The family are recently (4 years) arrived from Iran, and have had to make an adjustment to a new country. Both adults have attended or work at UBC. Their daughter is in year 7 at Sarah's school. So, despite being from very different cultures, we have a lot in common. Second, the rent at this place is significantly less expensive (even a bit less than the lower limit that we had expected) which means we can save more towards the purchase of our own home in a couple of years. Third, it is a few blocks closer to the bus stop - always a bonus when you are trying to manage without a car. (It is uphill from the bus stop, which will be a pain in the rear when I am hauling home groceries, but I suppose the exercise won't kill me.) Sarah will be able to walk to school on her own.

The house has a small shady patio in the back, and I am thinking of putting in large pots of ferns and hostas and maybe some shade tolerant vines along the wall. No room for a real garden, but less maintenance and at least if we are planting in pots, we will be able to take them with us when we go. There is space for a table and chairs and a barbecue, which will be nice for entertaining in nice weather.

For me, the only downside to the house is a lack of a real dining area - we will have to somehow carve space from the living room, and there would not be much room for anything but a small table. I'll need to think about how to make this work, as we do like having friends over for meals.

So - this is a big step for me in terms of finally feeling settled. Now I just have to organize getting everything moved from Portland in November.

We look forward to seeing our friends and family in our new home sometime soon! (And I am looking forward to Christmas in our own space.)

Love,
Margo

News and Things We've Learned

I haven't written in a while, and I'm not sure where to start. So I think I'll write about lots of little things.

Close Call
I didn't mention this earlier, but Margo booked our flight from London on a budget Canadian airline named Zoom. She booked it many months in advance. Two days after we arrived, the airline was grounded due to unpaid debts, and it seems the airline is no more. That could have been bad.

School
Margo just got a teaching assistant position. She spends one afternoon a week with a graduate school class. Sarah is enjoying her new teacher. She's also making lots of friends. When I pick her up after school I keep hearing kids saying "Bye, Sarah".

Work
I keep having great interviews with really interesting firms but have received no offers nor rejections so far. I've been told that employers here take more time to decide on a candidate. Since I was hired so quickly in London and in the past, I expected the same here. I did visit a Vancouver Java User Group meeting last week and met some other local professionals. It's hard for me to adapt to having so much free time and to not having a work role. I know, it's a nice problem to have.

Housing
We decided to check out some local apartments on Thursday (both close to Sarah's school) and I left phone messages for two ground-floor apartments in houses. We were called back, and each had an open house Friday evening. The first one seemed a pretty good fit, though a bit smaller and darker than we were used to, and with less storage space. The second one we didn't like much. We left applications for both, not even being sure we wanted to really commit. But I spent that night researching others and the more I saw, the more I thought the first house would be a great fit, so I was quite disappointed when we didn't get it (though we were very close to getting it).

It's early for us - we would have been paying dual rent for two months - but once you realise you want something, it's sad to see it go. But we expect there will be some similar opportunities in the coming months. Alternatively, we may secure something in a completely different neighbourhood, which would be harder on Sarah with changing schools, but may have other advantages in terms of transit time and local community.

I'm still struggling with prices. Even renting, we'd be paying at least twice what our Portland mortgage was two years ago. But that's the key, isn't it - a lot has changed in the last two years, and there's not much we can do about it. In another year, Margo will be able to work full time, and we can start looking to buy then; perhaps prices will be even lower at that time.

I still often regret leaving Portland. We had so much: a great neighbourhood of close friends, family nearby, a good job (for me at least), and a relatively cheap, fixed-rate mortgage. But the price of adventure is giving up some security. And besides, we're in a beautiful city with nice people, we're well-educated, and we have a bunch of cash, so things could be worse.

Society
I know we've said it before, but people here are so friendly. It's really welcoming. Sometimes it feels like another planet. We've filled out many a form and visited a few government offices, but each one was modern, efficient, and friendly, a pleasure to work with, really. I've yet to meet someone who I'd consider a real jerk. It was rare in Europe, but even more so here. And unlike the reserved English, here people are more willing to make time for you and be genuinely welcoming.

The City
I've spent lots of bike and bus rides exploring our city. Granted, I've been taking in the most picturesque, touristy places: Gastown, Yaletown, Coal Harbour, Stanley Park, Granville Island, Kitsilano, Commercial Drive, Vancouver Heights. But it all seems so beautiful. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a single building that is truly ugly. There's little litter or graffiti. And almost all the housing I see looks appealing, like some place I'd like to live. I can hardly think of a house or flat I've seen that I couldn't imagine living in (well, except the second one we saw the other night). Though at times it feels like walking through Brigadoon, a landscape I can look at but not touch, prices being what they are (one can easily spent a million for a one-bedroom flat).

The one exception I know of is a stretch of Hastings between Gastown and East Vancouver. I don't know if it has a name, but when my bus travels those few blocks, it looks a bit like a post-apocalyptic film set. Windows are grilled if not boarded up. Litter is everywhere. And ill-dressed people shamble about, chatting, making deals. It's the area where the city's poor have been grouped with cheap hotels and government services. It seems having them in one place lets the rest of the city shine, and I suppose there has to be some place - you can't just ignore people and problems. But I wouldn't walk Sarah through it.

Politics
You might not know it unless you lived in Canada, but there's a lot of election news. Stephen Harper is calling for a federal election soon. There are also BC provincial elections, and Vancouver has a mayoral election. It seems the first few pages of the daily newspapers are given over to such news.

It seems the Conservative party (also known as Tories, as in the UK) has the most popular support at present. Other major parties include the Liberal, New Democratic Party (NDP), and Green parties (again, these are also present in the UK). There's also the Bloc Quebecois. I'm looking forward to learning about all of them. I could hardly begin to think who I'd vote for if I had to, so I'm sort of glad to be absolved of that pressure. (We can vote once we gain citizenship.)

Healthcare
We've learned that healthcare isn't exactly free. Healthcare is administered separately by each province, and households earning above certain threshholds pay regular fees. We expect to pay $108 a month, once we pass the three-month initial period. (We will have private insurance until then.) Also, most non-essential services are not covered. But serious accidents and medical conditions seem to be fully covered, and I think it's great that those who can't pay, don't have to.

Entertainment
Our vacation rental must have some form of cable or satellite TV, as the reception is fine. But the choices seem pretty rubbish compared to what we had in the UK.

The CBC seems to have some great programming. There's only one channel, and it does have adverts. But during the day there's mostly children's programming, some local, some from the UK, Australia, and perhaps America, and all of excellent quality. Evenings feature Canadian and some BBC programmes, though the BBC ones are from a much smaller selection, and are a season late. (Tonight is the Flood miniseries, which aired months ago in England. But it will be nice to get Doctor Who again, albeit late.) There are also Canadian comedy shows we're starting to enjoy.

Another channel we enjoy is the Knowledge Network, which is produced in BC. It features excellent documentaries and children's shows.

We do get some local stations from Seattle and perhaps Bellingham. There's also a country channel and some entertainment channels. I can't remember the rest very well.

But when we look at the newspaper's evening recommendations, they typically seem disappointing. Where are the family movies on Sunday afternoons? Or evenings for that matter? What is the must-see TV? I should be happy that there's less distraction, I guess.

I haven't spent much time getting to know the local radio stations. There are apparently several CBC stations but I only know of one at the bottom of the dial, which seems to be always announced in French. I also found a nice modern rock station out of Victoria.

I've been considering buying a game console, since I have so much extra time and there are some games I've been waiting to play. But that means we'll have to eventually buy a TV, which I'm not sure I want to do yet, and it seems silly to spend so much before I have any income.

And In General
I do worry a lot because our immediate future is quite uncertain. In the coming months, we'll have to choose another place to live, and probably another one a year later, both potentially meaning a change of neighbourhood and school. I expect to be working soon but I worry about not working. And I worry about our standard of living and our ability to retire when wages are a bit lower and housing and consumables are substantially higher. My engineer's brain keeps working on these problems, rotating them and looking for new angles, new information, new solutions. We have some big decisions to make in a fairly short time, and I'm afraid of making bad ones.

I really wish we had good friends here. It would be great to have people to guide us, ask questions of, and socialise with since we spend so much time on our own.

But these things take time. Margo's mantra is, "It'll all be fine", and she does have a good track record, though it's so horribly unscientific. Looking at it differently, we've just sat down to a big buffet, and though we don't know exactly what we will eat and how much it will cost, we do know that it will be tasty and filling, and so we might as well be enjoying it. Two million other people are getting by here, so it shouldn't be too hard for us either.

Sarah Biking

The other night I brought our camera when Sarah went biking in the nearby play fields ...

Getting settled - Slowly

Hello everyone. Thought I'd add my bit to the news that Mike has been posting.

We are starting to feel a bit more settled in our new city. Sarah has now been assigned to her classroom and teacher at her new school and seems very happy. She is in Grade 3 and it sounds like she has been making friends pretty easily - something that seemed to be difficult for her for the last couple of years. Unfortunately a few of her acquaintances here at the apartment complex are not the sort of friend I am thrilled for her to have. She has reported to me that the boys (Grades 1 and 2) have rather a colorful vocabulary, and it appears that they combine their profane words in creative and surprisingly offensive ways. So far Sarah has not shown, at least in my presence, any inclination to follow their example, but I am looking forward to meeting some of the other parents at the school, and (I hope) finding some other nearby children with whom she can play. She is definitely not playing at their house as I have to assume these children are learning a lot of that language at home.

Sarah has begun to walk to school by herself and to play outside unsupervised - one big step for Sarah and a gigantic step for her parents as she has never really been unsupervised by us or a trusted family member/friend/professional before. So far she seems to be using pretty good judgment, but we are only very gradually loosening the leash at this point. I remember walking up the street or around the corner to visit friends when I was quite small - 5ish, and certainly walked to kindergarten with other children and with no adults. It is strange how nervous I feel about letting Sarah - almost 8 years old - out on her own - nonetheless, she needs to learn to be a bit street smart and independent and will need to actually go out into the world in order for that to happen.

My return to school is also going well. I have been finding the shift from thinking about Social Work practice and practice theory to thinking about research and research theory a bit difficult and just getting back into the swing of academia has been tough; however, I am loving this opportunity to read and write and think about things that I find interesting.

Today I found a position as a Teaching Assistant for a course taught to Master's students: "Social Analysis for Social Workers". It looks quite interesting and is taught as a series of modules by a number of the professors in the department, so it will be a good opportunity for me to meet most of the faculty over the course of this year. It does look like some of the course material will be somewhat new to me, so I'll likely be just a week or two ahead of my students, so I am a little bit nervous. The format of the course is a three hour session every week, with the first half spent in lecture and the second half being a facilitated discussion of the lecture and readings- that's my bit, plus grading papers.

There are five students in my cohort entering the doctoral program this year and all have very different and interesting backgrounds, so that has been good - though I really miss my PSU friends!

We are already all feeling some pressure to publish and present original research, in addition to needing to apply for the various sources of funding that are available, so there has not been anything so gentle as a gradual process of easing into the program - everybody is feeling some pressure to get right into it all! The amount of reading is huge, but at least most of it is interesting.

We are still car-free and that seems to be working well so far, although I am a bit worried about the winter weather and how it will seem to be waiting in the cold and rain for buses on a regular basis. I do buy a lot less rubbish at the grocery store now that I have to actually carry it home!

We are looking forward to getting into a long-term rental and becoming re-acquainted with our belongings. I know that I should be trying to be less attached to my stuff, but I have to say that's not really happening. I can't wait to have my kitchen stuff and artwork and cookbooks etc back in my possession again. It will be fun to set up house for real again as it has felt for the last two plus years somewhat like squatting - we used cardboard shipping boxes as end tables for two years!

Well, I have an early start tomorrow as I like to leave early and miss the rush on the transit system, so I will sign off now. All in all, I feel that we will be content here and that the standard of life offered will be very positive for all of us. (And even though I am not driving at the moment, it is SO nice to be back on the right (as in non-left) side of the road again!)

Love,
Margo

Things I'm Happy To See Again

• A sunny September. Sure, the UK gets some sun now and then, but not like we do in July, August and September. Of course in October it'll be wet and getting darker.
• Bran muffins. I missed these. If I could have found any muffins in the UK that were remotely healthy I would have chosen them for breakfast more often.
• Bike lanes. They were hard to come by with those narrow Medieval streets.
• Northwest beer. There's something unique about our micro beers. They're served a bit colder than UK ales, but there's also something to the taste. Maybe it's the regional hops, or something about our brewing technique.
• Shops with attitude. Bike shops, coffee shops, music shops staffed and patronised by Bohemians who are proud to be weird.
• Maple syrup. Okay, not that I'm having any these days, but in England we had to get by with honey or "golden syrup".
• Omelettes. They don't seem to offer them in the UK.
  

The Perfect Place?

You know how it is when you move to a new place, and you find reasons to think that you're lucky you ended up there and not anywhere else? Even though most of the reasons are ones your brain invents for you. It seems no matter where you end up, you'll come up with reasons why it's the best place. Well, I've started to do it for our place.

Sarah and I just got back from Kensington Park. We go out our door (the back way), cross the quiet road, and walk about a hundred metres and we're there. We rode our bikes to give her practise. We rode on a tennis court, then later a soccer field (yes, it's called soccer here), then a baseball diamond, and then a large gravel field. There's perhaps ten playfields here; the high school is nearby but after hours these are all open for community use. There's also an outdoor pool that we have yet to explore.

We still have gorgeous weather, and tonight in the last golden rays we saw all of Mount Burnaby to the east, Mount Baker to the southeast, and a range of mountains to the northeast.

If we walk to the far side of the park, about ten minutes from our apartment, there's the Kensington Square shopping centre. The main store is a Safeway, but we're learning to avoid it. Instead we patronise a meats shop, a bakery, a health food store, and a produce market. There's a post office and drug store and a video store. There's a wine shop that only sells wines made in British Columbia (by members of the Vintners Quality Alliance - VQA). We're on our third bottle.

The next two blocks have local shops. There are two coffee shops (one Italian!), an Italian deli, a yoga studio, a hair salon, and across the street is the bike shop where we bought Sarah's bike.

If we go out the front way, across Hastings is Sarah's elementary school. There's a crossing guard there at school times. One of us accompanies Sarah both ways, but we may start letting her go on her own soon.

Also across the street is the Italian restaurant we enjoyed (we've visited twice now) and a barber and a 24-hour convenience store (that's quite clean and spacious inside).

We'll be looking for longer-term housing soon, and I'll be wondering if we can achieve the same level of convenience, but of course I'll be doing the same rationalisation for that location also eventually ...

Photos on a Gorgeous Day

Today I went into downtown to visit the Vancouver Art Gallery and see the last weekend of the Krazy exhibit on cartoons, anime and video games. I enjoyed it a lot.

Later I did a bit of walking around. The day started overcast but by late morning there was hardly a cloud and the lighting was just brilliant. I took a few dozen pictures but these are some favourites.





(This is from a cruise ship, one of two docked at Canada Wharf.)

First Pictures

Now that I have my software, I can share some of the pictures we've been taking since arriving.

Here's us on our first night. We've been in the apartment for just an hour or two. We ordered pizza. The wine was in the fridge from the last vacation renter.


Next are some pictures from Sarah's and my trip to Science World ...



And here's the exterior, at the base of False Creek, with the downtown peninsula behind. Science World is in the dome on the right.


Here's Sarah on our attempt at riding up Mount Burnaby on our new bikes. We got partway up.


This is the view downhill, down Hastings Street to downtown Vancouver. If you look closely you can see the Shangri-La tower right at the horizon.

iMac Therefore I Am

My iMac arrived this morning. Such a relief. Now I can catch up on my podcasts, get photos off our camera, and at the moment, it's our best source of music.

Margo is also relieved because she doesn't have to share her laptop with me any more.

I was worried. I'd been tracking its shipment from Parcelforce, a UK shipper, and saw that it arrived in Vancouver the day after we did. Then, nothing. For a long time. We even got Margo's book boxes, sent at the same time as the iMac but with less urgency.

Finally I thought to check Post Canada and try the tracking number there, and fortunately it worked. I found that my parcel had been held by customs for about seven days. When the box arrived, it had clearly been opened and re-sealed. But it looks like nothing's missing, and it booted right up when I unpacked it. I updated the location preferences and now I'm on my way.

I've got a bike and my computer. I am sorted.

Carless in Canada

Yesterday Margo returned our rental car. We're now car-free. Margo has agreed to try life without one for a week or two. This is the first time she's not had to drive to work. And driving to her classes is actually more difficult than using transit. So it's a great time to give it a try.

We're seeing that personal transport is well served by transit. Grocery shopping is a problem we're working on. For now we're doing more, smaller shops. Margo has found a stop she can make where she can get fresh fruit and veg, meat from a butcher next door, and bread from a baker a few doors down. I think we'll find more such places as we learn our neighbourhoods.

But we'll still have need for occasional hauling, like things in bigger boxes. So we're looking into car sharing. There are at least two car sharing schemes in the Vancouver area. And when we want to take longer trips, we can rent a car.

Margo is dubious but is being courageous enough to try this out for a short while. If you have any suggestions or words of encouragement, please email her.

First Ride Around Vancouver

You know, being a human and having a big brain is pretty cool. But one disadvantage is that we humans can quickly adapt to changes in our environment. And the reason I'm complaining about this is that I think our new city is beautiful and I don't want to get used to it.

I set out on my bike this morning just to ride around and explore. I took the Frances/Adanac bike route heading west. Some day I'll count the number of hills between our apartment and downtown, but it must be about five or six, none of them too severe. Except the uphill from Boundary Road, on the return - it's best not to look up when climbing that as it's discouraging.

And on this ride, there's something neat to see in all directions. Ahead, the towers of downtown Vancouver. To the right, the mountains. To the rear, Mount Burnaby. And to the left, the towers of Burnaby neighbourhoods like Metrotown and Brentwood.

I'd intended to stop for coffee on the way, and when I saw the Bean Around the World Coffees shop at Union and Gore I decided to stop there. I asked about a drink they called British Fog and tried it - it's Earl Grey Tea with a bit of vanilla syrup and steamed milk. Nice. It was also my second bike parking. I have a U-lock in a holster on the bike, and brought a cable lock as a backup, because thieves usually don't carry tools to break both types. Bike theft is pretty rampant here.

I carried on up Pender Street through the north side of the downtown peninsula. Glancing to the sides up the cross streets, the towers make the same canyoning effect you see in New York and Chicago. Traffic was quiet, today being Labour Day; I suspect it's much busier during the week.

Around Cordova I was able to go right and down to the water to join the Seawall path. This mixed-use path (pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers) goes along the shoreline around most of the peninsula.

And the beautiful beautiful buildings! Several times I had to stop and pull over and look and just go, Wow. I've seen this route before as a tourist, but this was my first time as a resident, and I know the importance of savouring the first time. I probably should have walked it, but I rarely lingered for more than a few moments, because I am a man of action, and that's what I do.

But! There are dozens, hundreds maybe, of these glass towers. Some have interesting colours, some lean out a bit, some bulge out a little, some cut in and cut out, and they are all interesting. And riding by at street level, some have water features like fountains and small pools that made me think, to live here is to live in beauty.

And on the other side, the Burrard Inlet, with the mountains, the towers of North Vancouver, and seaplanes landing near-constantly.

I made it to Stanley Park, the forest which takes up the northern end of the peninsula, and was soon turned back around facing downtown's towers from a more distant perspective. There's a new tower, named Shangri-La, that breaks the established rule - where most are about the same height, this one stands about 1/3 above all others. I wonder who's the lucky guy with the penthouse.

Soon I passed under the Lion's Gate bridge, and was looking out English Bay at the moored tankers. Then, heading south, I was soon out of the park and among the residential towers, passing Denman and then approaching the swankiest new towers in Yaletown, as the beach, and later Granville Island, passed on the right.

I stopped to get a bite to eat and decided to try to find something in the Roundhouse area, a neighbourhood I've visited in the past, built around an old railroad turnabout. I parked and settled in at the Urban Fare, a grocery and cafe that's the size of a parking garage inside and full of gorgeous-looking (and probably monstrously expensive) produce. But I managed to fill up for under $10 with a chorizo egg wrap and cranberry juice.

Then it was back on the path, ending up close to the shiny dome of Science World, and from there I got on the Adanac/Frances path heading east. And when I made it to the top of that fifth or sixth hill, I was genuinely winded a bit, though I'm glad for the opportunity to get such great exercise, and in such a fun way.

Mike's Best of Europe: Food and Drink

We've seen and experienced a lot in our time in Europe, and now I can look back and make my picks of the best of them.

Best Beer: Belgium. I've had a good sampling of British and Scottish beer, though I wish I'd done some research and exploring in Munich - I'm sure there were plenty of great varieties right under my nose. (For a while, two work mates and I were talking about going to Oktoberfest - that would have been great.) But the styles that appeal to me most - malty, sweet, dark, strong - are well represented in Belgium. Give me a duvel or tripel any time and you will have a happy man. Our Christmas in Brugges was overwhelming with tasty choices and I wish I'd taken more notes. And I've enjoyed many a bottle of Leffe whilst in the UK.

Best Wine: Italy. I guess the only real competition in Europe would be France, but I don't much enjoy the Bordeaux style - it's complex but not my taste. No, I've much more enjoyed deep, dark, juicy Italian reds. I just love saying the names: Montepulciano. Valpolicella. Negroamaro. Brunello di Montalcino.

Best Coffee: Well, I can't name one country. I'd be content with a cuppa anywhere in France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, or Scandinavia. Dark, strong and fresh, in their unique way.

Best Meal: Palle d'Oro, Florence. It's no coincidence this was our first dinner in Italy. I suspect that if I went back I might find it unexceptional. But even though we were full of the joy of just being at a traditional Italian meal, the food was memorable. The ragu sauce of Sarah's bolognese was the single best tasting thing I remember in Europe. (Excepting Margo's home cooking of course. (Whew! That was close.))

Best Chocolate: Belgium. Cadbury's? Meh. Nestlé? Adequate. Toblerone? Zzzzzz. Give me rich, tasty Belgian. I also enjoy the varieties - nuts, crunches, fruits, rums.