I'll admit it has been a while but better late than never, right?
The weather in Vancouver has been amazing lately. And by 'amazing', I actually mean amaaaaaazing - blue skies and temperatures in the double figures, not just temperatures above zero and a few breaks in the constant rain. I can tell you it was really getting to me there for a while. I scoffed when I first heard this (admittedly at the time I was yet to experience a Vancouver winter) but apparently Vitamin D deficiency is highly common in Vancouverites. I totally get it now. I believe my lowest point was when I forced myself to leave the house for a Sunday run two weeks ago. For seventy minutes I struggled against cyclonic winds and horizontal rain pelting down across as I ran along the seawall (almost sideways in order to keep my cap from flying off my head), continually questioning my own sanity. Thankfully, just when it couldn't get any worse, my efforts were rewarded as a family of ducks (including six ducklings) happily waddled past me ... at least they appreciated the weather (they were super cute too).
Unfortunately we haven't been able to spend too much time enjoying the recent sunshine in the city because wonderful, spontaneous holidays call for cash and cash calls for work. So the vicious cycle continues. Work is being a little frustrating at the moment. I keep trying to remind myself I'm on a working holiday, the whole point of which is to at least enjoy a work-life balance but sometimes it feels like it'd be easier if I just lived in my cubicle.
And some of these people? Oh, they're painful. Honestly, so many of these physicians expect the world to wipe their bum because they spent half their lives doing exams! I appreciate what they do but that doesn't mean it's my responsibility to tell them where they've misplaced their license or solve their professional development dilemmas. Not to mention they're the biggest tight-arses I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. But that's another story! Who’d of thought I’d ever get myself a job where 70% of my day consists of answering phone inquiries. Yep. I was once the girl who wouldn’t even pick up the phone to order a pizza. In fact, I can remember having numerous fights with my brother over that very fact growing up, which resulted in me going to bed extremely hungry more than once. C'est la vie, eh?
Despite my protests I am thankful that I get to work in a great team and every now and then an application or two comes across our desks to make us smile. I like to think of it as God's little pick-me-up. For instance, my colleague Mark came across a gem on Thursday - an application for registration for Dr. Anis - a gastroenterologist (I kid you not!) - and I've also recently witnessed an application for a Dr. Nimrod. This one's just funny in itself.
Fortunately we've had the chance to get away from the city a couple of times in the last month - to Seattle and Whistler respectively. Seattle was our first stop on Missy's Farewell Tour (see previous post) and a fun weekend was had by all. Most of us had been there before so we didn't go all-out touristy but we spent some time wandering around the famous Pike Place Markets and, come to think of it, spent our first day there on our own little food tour. That doesn't sound at all like us! (HA!). Our food tour on the Saturday consisted of mini donuts at Pike Place Markets, grilled cheese sandwiches at Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop and a stop by the old Seattle brewery for some sampling. This was topped off by dinner at the Crab Pot restaurant where we shared massive seafood dinners - delish! To give our digestive systems a breather we managed to split up the food touring with a trip to the Seattle Central Library which was pretty cool. I know nothing about architecture but its just as interesting inside as it looks on the outside that's for sure! Well worth a look if you ever find yourself in The Emerald City.
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| I believe I am in awe of the cheese selection. |
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| Fresh fish throwing at the Pike Place Markets |
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| Mmm chillies! |
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| Pike Place Markets |
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| Laura & I waiting for our beers... no idea why I look so happy. I hate beer! |
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| Pretty tree-trunk warmers? |
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| Seattle Central Library |
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| Dave: really excited about his dinner (I think it can be attributed to the mallet!). |
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| Teddy & Sharah about to attack their dinner |
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| Missy & Dave - so much fun can be had with a wooden mallet! |
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| Team Conlow seafood dinner spectacular! |
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| The result. |
So two weekends later we found ourselves back in Whistler on the final leg of Missy's Farewell Tour which also coincided with Steven's 29th birthday. The Irish girls picked us up from work on the Friday afternoon and the four of us headed up to Creekside in Lola (their lovingly named car). As a side note, Lola prefers not to function beyond about 60km/hr so you can imagine the fun we had trying to get her up hills along the Sea to Sky Highway! I can also only imagine the dirty looks (and words) we were getting from those people who were stuck behind us. Suckers.
After everyone had arrived and checked in (back to our stomping ground at Legends, Creekside), we made our way to the second room for Steve's surprise Captain America themed birthday cake (thanks to Addey) and group present, as well as his special birthday card. And as he willingly posed along side his special birthday cake and card, I couldn't help but look on with just an ounce of satisfaction that it didn't take our newly-found Canadian friends long to understand why I often refer to him "Princess". Clearly, the strategically chosen cake and card was a true and accurate reflection of their acknowledgement of Steven's tendency for diva-esque behaviour!
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Princess Steven posing with his cake & card - Addey handmade him a Captain America cake. He seems pleased!
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Once Steve had finished posing it was off to Dusty's for a late birthday dinner. Shortly after we sat down the boys thought all their Christmases had come at once as two scantily-clad girls in gold and silver sequined dresses carrying tequila approached the table. Apparently it was free tequila night so we were all offered shots. And with that, the table let out a collective groan as we'd all endured the wrath of tequila at some point in our lives, but in the end we couldn't resist the fantastic pimp-style beaded shot glass necklaces they were handing out - we were all secretly thinking how perfect they would be for Rapstar: Round 2, later in the evening.
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| The team - Steve's late (and post-cake) birthday dinner at Dusty's |
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| Dave's shirt matches the ribs bucket paper - it's an omen - the ribs are all his! Dave's reaction? "Alriiiiiiight! |
We all enjoyed a delicious late night feast at Dusty's, made complete with their "famous" butt-rub mayo. I am happy to report that butt-rub mayo does not at all taste like butt. what I can only imagine a butt-flavoured something or other would taste like. Following dinner we made our way back to Legends where Teddy started to set up his PS3 in preparation for a long night of Rapstar, only to find (much to everyone's devastation but, in hindsight, probably much to the delight of our fellow hotel guests) that Sharah had forgotten to pack the microphone. Sadly, we all headed off to bed, sans pimp shot-glass necklaces.
Saturday morning we woke up to the most beautiful blue sky and the longest gondola line in the history of the universe. Longer than anything we experienced at Christmas! We eventually found out it was because the famous Peak to Valley race was on - approximately 700 skiers took part over the course of the weekend. You can imagine the atmosphere (especially at Dusty's on Saturday and Sunday afternoon!).
I am happy to report that my Saturday of skiing was highly successful. The blues skies helped I'm sure - it was honestly the most beautiful day I have seen since I have been in Canada - absolutely perfect conditions. After a few green runs, a run from the peak and one, rather unfortunate and utterly terrifying wrong turn onto a blue, moguls run (thanks to Steve's strategic miscalculations) I was finally ready to attempt my first official blue runs down Whistler mountain which would, eventually, lead me straight to Dusty's. Unfortunately no green runs take you down that far, so this one was a milestone for me. While the others decided to finish the day with the Peak to Creek run (approximately 11km), my goal was simply to make it down the mountain without taking the gondola for the final (and steepest portion!). Thankfully Teddy was happy to come with me so together we made our way down the blue runs and straight home. I can tell you the only way I made it was to keep looking across the slope while a voice in my head screamed "DON'T LOOK DOWN". While my confidence is improving let's just say the joy to terror ratio is yet to reach equilibrium.
Once we'd all made it down the mountain and pruned up in the hot tub we finished off the perfect day of skiing with drinks and teppenyaki at TeppenVillage in Whistler Village. On Sunday we then completed the weekend with a snowmobiling expedition which was a lot of fun for me (when Steve was driving) and probably the most terrifying 15 minutes of Steven's entire life (when I was driving).
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| About to head off on our first run of the day! |
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| Chilling. I thought it would be worth posting since you only ever see the 'beach version' of this shot! |
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| Drinks & snacks break |
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| A gorgeous view! |
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| Us looking so bad-ass on our snowmobile! |
You can check out some footage of our skiing here:
And some extra footage (as promised) from our Banff road trip & hockey antics earlier in the year at the Fairmont, Lake Louise here:
In other Vancouver goings-on, we were lucky enough to make it to two Canucks games in one week in January- funnily enough we watched the first match from the nosebleed section of Rogers Area and thought it was pretty impressive nonetheless (i.e. not a bad seat in the house) and then four days later scored Steve's boss's tickets in the members section ($300 per seat for one match - and they're not even the most expensive) where we were so close to the rink you could almost feel the impact of the players slamming each other against the glass reverberate though your entire body.
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| Canucks game - the view from our $300 per-ticket seats. |
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| Action shot. |
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| And another! |
Post-match we decided on the way home we'd stop by Costco (Steve had never been) - Costco is the biggest membership warehouse chain in North America. They pretty much sell everything you could imagine, in one handy (massive) warehouse... in bulk. It's the only place I've been where you can buy King Crab next to a dining table and chairs set next to a diamond ring next to oranges the size of softballs. Oh, and this is what I mean by 'bulk' ...
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| Bulk: 6 x 3kg frozen meat lasagne dinners ... all kinds of eew! |
Shortly after viewing the above (and feeling compelled to take a photo) Steven publicly declared his love for Costco and stated with unparalleled certainty: "I want to live here".
So as I finally complete this latest, mammoth blog entry (thanks for playing everyone!) I thought I'd end by sharing a video recently released by Tourism Vancouver. For those Facebook friends of mine I know you've already seen it but as the blog's primarily for my parents and they're "far too busy being retired" to have Facebook, you'll have to bear with me.
A video of our beautiful city and temporary home - Tourism Vancouver video
While I love the video and the (albeit dry - oh what a lie!) image of Vancouver it paints, our friend Dave made a legitimate observation when he mused about the lack of hobo footage. Clearly this video does not accurately reflect the city, as Dave correctly pointed out he can't even walk 10 metres from his apartment in Gastown without being accosted for money. And while we're on the topic of accurately reflecting the city - 3
whole minutes of sunshine? It must've taken them a year to shoot this thing!
Oh, Vancouver. We kid, but really, we ♥ you.
