Rollercoasters and doves

Went to playland yesterday. It had been a really long time since I’d been on a rollercoaster. I was mother freakin excited, but surprisingly nervous at the same time. It was AMAZING. Everything I dreamt it would be. Wooden roller coasters are by far my favourite, they feel dangerous, like they may break down or fall off the track at any moment. This one was big enough that you got a lot of speed and my arse left the seat quite a few times. So damn good.
There was a smaller steel rollercoaster where you were strapped in and it did a few loops and crap, it was pretty fun, but no where near the same level of fun as the wooden one. The other rides were fine, but mainly small rides that just spin around in circles. That’s just a whole bunch of vom and boredom.



Seeing all these kids reminded me of how fearless you are as a kid. Just go on all these crazy rides without hesitation, get real dizzy, line up for the same ride or another as soon as the ride’s over. I love it. Made me remember that sensation of wanting to rush around and not waste one minute not being on, or lining up for a ride. Glad I’ve chilled a bit since then.

Last weekends adventure involved getting on a bus to Lynn Valley. It was real damn pretty. Love being outside! Went on this freakin’ epic walk from there to deep cove. A bit more than 10k’s I reckon. I don’t mind hiking I’ve realized, I just don’t like it when there are steep hills and declines.



Found out yesterday that some kid died the day we were there, was in the water for too long, it was real cold and he died. Not cool.

Finally got to see my favourite band ever, the Doves play live. I wanted to get tickets to their Australian show a few years ago, sold out before I got a chance though. They were pretty damn good. Played more new stuff than I would have like though, I wanted to hear all the old classics.


I only have a bit more than a month left working at Stanley Park. I’m getting slightly anxious and sad about leaving. I’m really freakin liking my job and where and who I’m living with. I’m making friends and going on adventures. Life is sweet. I do wanna travel around and see things though. So I better get off my arse and organise something. Going on an Intrepid camping trip with the parents in September. That’s a good start I guess. I’m worried I will get home sick while I’m traveling around before they come though.

Flag

My Australian flag fell off my backpack. I don't think this means anything. I glued it back on. I was lucky I didn't lose it. The nice people at the laundro mat knew it was mine and gave it back to me.

My new friend Douglas

My job at Stanley Park is for the most park quite good. Best job I’ve had so far. I get to be out side in this awesome park walking around all day and teaching kids about things. It’s made me think about a few things. I’m nervous for the next generation. The age range of the kids is from 10 – 13. Many of the girls in the first group I took had mirrors and were asking other students about how their hair looked. Others had hand sanitizer that they used ALL the freakin time. Shitty immune systems here we come. I’ve been helping by encouraging children to not wash their hands and to eat food that they dropped on the ground. Hopefully parents don’t hear about this.

Some children have complained about doing the dishes and told me that it was child labour. Arguing with kids is great though, a lot easier than with adults anyway. I just said… what being forced to clean up after yourselves? She looked ashamed and shut the hell up.

I feel especially bad for some of the spoilt kids from rich families. Some of the teachers have told me that these kids don’t even wipe their own arse or blow their own, that nanny’s do all that for them. A lot of the stuff they had to do on a two day camp totally shocked them. I like that.

Unrelated story: Yesterday I saw a crow pecking a baby duckling to bits. Bits of feathers were going everywhere. It was a wretched sight. Baby ducklings are just so damn cute. Stupid crows. They make me nervous.

I have a new favourite animal. The Douglas Squirrel. It’s native to Stanley Park and is the cutest little thing ever. It’s really shy and has this really timid cute way of running.

The loveliest day

Yesterday was amazing. It consisted of me for the first time in ages being movitaved enough to do something creative of my own accord. I’m beginning to decorate these shorts I bought from an op shop to replicate ones I saw in Japan but was being too much of a tight arse to purchase.


So far I’ve made Jiji, the kitty from Kiki’s delivery service. Not sure if I’m gonna do a bow yet. Thinking about putting a Canadian flag sewable patch on there, that may be going too far though, seems regrettable. Can always take it off though. Will post a photo of the finished product.

The afternoon was spent playing badminton and gardening in the backyard with April. Forgot how much I love just hanging out in the backyard with people. Used to do it all the time as kid, it’s something that’s faded now I have a computer and extreme laziness. Like the good old days of playing badminton in the backyard as a kid, we had strung up a make shift net using a piece of string. Golden.

I also picked up the guts (with the help of April) to venture to the house two doors down to enquire about using their drum kit every now and then. Luckily they were real nice and more than happy to let me have a crack. They also said that they plan on having a few barbeques at theirs and said we could come along. Hoorah!

In the evening April, my other house mate Rodney and I took the sky train into town to meet Beck and Hugues for Japanese food in Gastown. It was this amazing Japanese restaurant that was heaps like the ones in Japan, heaps of yelling. Food was bloody good too.

To top of this excellent day we went home and watched a shitty American movie that required no thinking at all – The Step Brothers. Ahhhh.. what a day.

Running out of creative title names

I received and cashed my last Tim Hortons cheque today. I worked in total a little over a month = 25 shifts = 185 hours. I earnt $1438.27. I would earn that in two weeks of teaching…. Should have saved way more before I came here… oh well.

New job: going fairly well. Had my first camp on Thursday/Friday. Was pretty dang full on. Had no idea what I was really teaching. Really reconfirmed that teaching isn’t my fave thing in the world. It went okay, and at least it’s gonna be the same thing I’m teaching each week so I really get the hang of it. It’s still better than Tim Hortons. Kids are pretty dang funny. They had to build shelters in the forest in teams. This one kid wouldn’t give up his rope claiming that he was a boy scout and that he was sure they would need it later. One of his team mates got so frustrated he yelled “are you gonna marry it or something?!”… ahahah. Hell funny. Half the girls had hand sanitizer, and used it all the times… they’re gonna have such shit immune systems later. One girl had a mirror she carried around with her and all the other girls wanted to borrow it to check their hair… Jesus H! They’re 12! How did this happen.

Life’s getting a bit normal now. I’ve got weekly routines. Some of my old laziness has returned. Makes me glad that this job ends in June to force me to get off my arse and travel around. I’ll really miss living in this house though, it’s been really freakin ace so far.

People keep telling me that Montreal is freakin ace, so I reckon I wanna work there next summer. Force me to learn a bit of French maybe… (prob not).

I left Australia 81 days ago now. I still feel pretty good about being away, I hope that continues.

I’m building a bit of a reputation as being the small Aussie girl who swears a lot and says crude things. A big part of me really likes this. Another part of me things maybe I should make more of an effort to be less crude. I just find it so damn entertaining though.

Spring is in the air

Last week at work I made my first attempt at driving on the right side of the road. I think I did pretty damn well for a first crack. Drove right through the downtown area in this huge freakin van. Lucky it was automatic. It was still fairly nerve racking, and I’m worried that if ever a rushed decision needs to be made I may go back to my old Aussie driving habits. The blinkers are on the left, not the right of the steering wheel. The gear shift is on the right…. Uh oh… sure I’ll get comfortable with it soon enough.


Vancouver doesn’t have the same awesome pubs and bars that Melbourne has, but I’m really appreciating the house parties and the people at the moment. When I go out in Melbourne, usually I’ve got my little posse of people, and would tell any male who approached me to fuck off. I guess that’s not the most conducive way to meet people. I do seem to be a lot more open to meeting people and talking to them at the moment. I guess not being so dang frazzled and drained from teaching help, as does being in another country and not knowing heaps of people. I’m liking it.

April and I went to this excellent house party on the weekend. Dress up theme ‘Dirty Thirties’. He we are looking at our best:


Spring is in the air, everywhere I look around.


Went to VanDusen Botanical gardens yesterday with Beck and Hugues. We were tempted to do a guided tour, but ended up just walking off to explore on our own. Out popped this lovely little old German lady to give us a tour though. At first I was a little peeved as I was still seedy from the previous nights partying and didn’t think I wanted to listen to someone drivel on about plants. It turned out quite well though. She was highly cute and entertaining.


As always, more photos can be seen on flickr.

Ramblings of a tired, pre sick girl

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.