Last week I was waiting for the bus to work. It was 6am, it was freaking cold. It started hailing. Usually I would have found this a most uncomfortable horrible situation. All I could do is laugh though. I think I’ve chilled out about things a lot more, I like this.
Canadians (the ones in Vancouver anyway) for the most part are quite unfashionable. I can only presume because of the weather? It’s all jeans, hiking type shoes and rain/camping type jackets, The north face type thing. I really like this, dressing for practicality and comfort. It’s my kind of dressing.
Last weekend I went out on the town with April and a friend of hers. We were walking through the city at about 2 in the morning? Maybe earlier, can’t remember. We walked by a 7/11 and there were 2 security looking dudes standing outside. I laughed and said, why the hell are there security guards at 7/11. April informed me that they were infact police officers, and then I noticed the rather awful looking woman slumped up against the wall. Yuck. Then as we continued our journey there was a woman who broke down in tears on the street, couldn’t find her phone, or cigarettes, something about a boyfriend who had left her. Then several zombie like people wandered by us. They had blank soulless eyes and had slow strange movements. Earlier on in the night we also saw heaps of homeless people set up with tents. April said that one of them had a crack pipe out. I have decided that Vancouver at night is not my favourite place.
In Vancouver everyone is quite considerate as far as making way for anything who is aged, pregnant, or with a pram on public transport. This older woman came onto one bus with a pram and people got up and made way. Only upon her exiting the bus did I realize that she had a stupid looking miniature dog in there… fuck. That’s so stupid. People are weird.
April and I were walking home from the supermarket or something and noticed that there was this awesome looking New York taxi from the 70’s. Had all the cables on the top where the light went. Had NY taxi painted on the side. We kinda stood there admiring for a little when the owner came over. We thought he thought we were gonna try and knock off his car. But when we explained that we were just admiring it he asked us if we wanted to go for a ride. We said no, and started walking off… then he said… “wanna come back to my house”. We said no again and walked a little faster. Then he got in the car and took off in the same direction as us. When he got to us we were about level with our house. He stopped, made a get in motion, beeped, we shook our heads, he kept going. We walked past our house until we couldn’t see him and then ran back as fast as we could. Yuckers.
I took last Friday off work and April and I hopped onto the sky train, and then on a bus, and then on a Ferry to get to a weekend long Festival, Recompression. It’s an offshoot of the Burning Man festival that happens every year in the Nevada desert. It’s more tame though as food is provided and we got to sleep in cabins (it’s too cold and rainy in BC this time of year to do it any other way). I’ve never seen so many crazy costumes ever. It was awesome. Made me feel really tame. Each of the cabins had themes and decorated them accordingly. I was staying in the Enchanted Orifice. The rooms were themed, the mouth, the ear, the nose, the vag, the arsehole. The vag was connected to the womb, which was set out like a chill space, sheets draped from the roof, cushions, soft lighting. It was really awesome.
People would enter our cabin and be blind folded and offered a taste testing. Then they were taken to one of three chairs. Kiss, lick or bite. Whichever one they sat at, that thing was done to them by a member of our cabin. It was pretty damn crazy. People could stick their fist in the arsehole and get a treat, there was chocolate pudding, sheep, birds, all sorts of crazy shit up there. The ear had a microphone attached to it and when they spoke into it, it echoed and made crazy sounds. People put so much effort into this, just for the one weekend. Made me realize how lazy I am.
The festival was great. The only thing I’d change was the music, all this shitty electronic trance, techno crap. Not my favourite. I liked how relaxed it was during the day though, at Woodford Folk festival there was just too much stuff to see and do, always had the feeling I was missing out on something. This was good coz it was so much smaller, less people, more relaxed. All in all, a great weekend.
Many strange things are happening lately. Keeps things interesting at least. Sorry if this was lengthy and uninteresting. As the title suggests, I am tired and sickly. Forgivable.. yes?! Would put up photo’s, but I can’t be arsed. Perhaps tomorrow.
Oh yeah, started new job today, seems real ace, heaps better than Tim Hortons. Real nervous about driving a van around Vancouver on the right side of the road. Sure I’ll survive.
Anniversary
8 years ago
3 comments:
This conjures visions of good everyday Vancouver living Kate so its good to get insight into your daily routines. The Recompression festival sounds a bit weird !!
Hmmm... The world is not quite as cosy as Melbourne and Sydney.
I didn't really see a lot of nasty stuff in Japan (extremely high standard of living despite the crowding), but Shanghai was a real eye opener. Real fucked up shit too:
People on the streets with rotting teeth and filth-infested hair offering blow jobs (obviously the only English phrase they knew);
People trying every dodgy tactic on earth to scam you of your money (I wrote about a couple that freaked me out on my blog);
Little girls cutting their legs and rubbing vomit and dirt in the wounds so that they get infected and people feel sorry and throw cash at them;
Drunk skanks getting it on in public places with Shanghainese walking past and pretending not to see.
And yet, I'm sure it would have been a lot worse if I was not a six foot guy.
Gosh. It is really eye opening to see all these things. Makes you realise how lucky you are with the life you live, and how much worse things could be.
Also brings on this sense of helplessness sometimes. "The problem's so big... what can I do?". Makes me feel a bit selfish.
Being a small female does make me feel at a disadvantage sometimes. More of a target. Guess I just gotta be more careful.
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