Cleveland Dam and Capilano River

It was a beautiful sunny day, but quite crisp outside. The temperature must have been around the zero mark but if you were doing some exercise it was nice. My hands and ears got cold as I was walking, but I soon got accustomed to it.

I went to the end of our street and there is an entrance to the Cleveland Dam Park area. I walked over the dam wall, which has a drop of 90 meters, and dams the Capilano River and created Capilano Lake. I then walked down the trail to the Canyon viewpoint #1, which looks down the river and back up to the spillway. I then took the trail down the Capilano River. You had to take care because most of the time I was walking on trails that were still covered in snow that had been compacted to ice and was quite slippery because of people walkin on it. The woods were beautiful with the sunlight filtering through the Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir and Spruce trees.

Following the trail down river led to the Capilano Fish Hatchery where the wild salmon return to spawn. They can't climb the 90m dam wall, so this is as far as they can get up this river. They breed a couple of varieties of salmon and Steelhead Trout at his hatchery. I crossed the river and walked up a trail to fing Grandpa Capilano. Most of the forest here is regroth forest, having mostly been logged prior to 1934. There are still some old groth trees and this particular fir predates Columbus. There are trees in these forests that are over 1,000 years old.

On the walk I also spotted an eagle sitting in a tree over the river. Not a common sight so close to town.

Gad about town

I was picked up by Terry and his wife Andrea. He is president of the British Columbia Exchange Teachers' Association which is partly funded by the BC College of Teachers. They had already picked up a couple from Canberra - Paula and Kate. They are both teachers but Paul is on exchange and Kate is looking for work.

We took a drive along the Trans Canada Highway #1 to Horseshoe Bay which is where the ferries go to get to the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island and the Channel Islands. Nice views along the coast and some pretty expensive real estate.

We then turned back towards Vancouver and went up to the Lynn Valley Canyon which has a free suspension bridge that you can walk over for amazing views of the river and nature walks. There is another suspension bridge that crosses the Capilano River, which is about 2 km from home, but is costs to enter the park and cross the bridge.

We then drove towards Simon Fraser University which sits atop Mt. Burnaby. There are great vies of the Indian Arm inlet and of the entire port and Downtown and North Vancouver as well as the coastal mountains. The University is like a city within a city.

We then went to their apartment in New Westminster. It has views over the port area and you can see tugs pulling booms of logs down the river, as well as freighters navigating the river to load, or unload their cargo.

After a couple of drinks we went in to town to an Italian restaurant to meet the other exchange teachers and members of the BCETA. It wss good food and reasonably priced. Pasta meals for about $15 - $20 and beers for around $5 each. One thing that you do have to remeber over here is that you have add on a tip of around 15%.

I also wish that when they listed prices in shops that they would show the price that you will pay at the register rather than the price before they add on the GST. Something that is shown as $10 becomes $12.50 at the register.

After dinner we went to an amazing icecream shop. 218 flavours and music to browse with. You are able to taste any of the concoctions before purchasing. Some amazing flavours - garlic, curry, some with fruit and jalapeno, wasabi. You name a flavour and they probably have it. I stayed safe with a white chocolate and strawberry. Very nice.

Removing the garage door

I spoke to Bruce during the week and he decided that Thursday was best for him to come over an dismantle the garage door for repairs. The panels were 8ft across and about 2ft high. It takes four of them to complete the door. Anyway, there was no way he could get them off by himself, so he was waiting for me when I got home from school at about 3:30.

One of the problems was that Mario and Melodie's car is in the garage and there was minimal area to move to get the necessary bolts undone, as well as the fact that the panels could fall and damage the car. Nigel, one of the young guys from downstairs hadn't been able to move his car and it was parked outside the garage. Even if we could get the garage door up enough to move the car out of the garage there was nowhere to go. Bruce lives about 60 km away and decided to bring his smaller car to save on gas, but realised that he was going to have to take the panels away to repair them. 2 reasons: 1 - it was too cold to work on them outdoors - he has a big undercover work area at home and, 2 - he would probably need to take the panels in to a workshop at his old school to fix them.

I suggested that I take the seats out of my van and take them in that. He had kindly brought chilli and salad for dinner, so we sat down to eat and then we were off in the fog again for the trip to Langley. Bruce and Patty live on 4th Street. That means that it is only 4 streets away from the US border.

FIS World Cup Nordic event at Whistler

I got up early to get a lift with Bruce and Patty to Whistler. They rang and arranged that I would meet David and his wife Kim at the shopping centre near the highway so that we wouldn't loose too much time at the events were only on in the morning.

Again there was a blanket of fog over Vancouver, but the Upper Levels Highway was above it. It was a beautiful sunny day with a blue sky and not a cloud in sight. The road to Whistler is known as the "Sea to Sky Highway". It travels along the coast, past old mining, and port towns before it starts to climb into the snowcapped mountains. There were amazing views all along the trip and I appreciated being a passenger. I have travelled along this road back in 2001, but I was the driver. You need to be able to look around to appreciate the views.

We stopped once to take in the views and then continued on to the Callahan Valley which is where several of the 2010 Olympice events will take place. You have to turn off the main road to Whistler and travel about 10 km to the event area. As we entered you could see the 2 ski jumps and signs to the bi-athalon area. Blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Definitely a day for sunglasses.

Bruce and Patty's daughter Lyndsay is working for the Vancouver Olympics group, and is the interviewer that is seen on the big screen at the events. We tried to find where she was, and kept meeting people that they knew. There was a team event on in which Australia was competing so I undid the zip of my jacket to display the Aussie flag t-shirt I was wearing. It didn't help because we came 8th in the event.

We moved around the track and up the hill so that we could get a good view of the higher parts of the track as well as the finish area. Patty had brought some food for a picnic, so we sat down on the snow to enjoy the event.

The last event was a men's team event that had some interest for them beacause Canada had a team competing. As it turned out there was a fall on the final bend and the Canadian pushed hard to the finish line and they came in third for a bronze medal. This was apparently unexpected and the course announcer was going crazy because it was his son who was the final skier for Canada.

Great views on the way home again. This time we stopped in far a "Canadian tradition" - a coffee and muffin from Tim Horton's. As we got closer to Vancouver we could see the wall of fog, It was still there and had not lifted at all during the day. It was eerie to see the BC ferries appearing out through the cloud.

They dropped me off at my car at about 3:30 pm and I decided to drive up to Grouse and check out the price of a ride up to the top. I thought that it would be a good opportunity to get some great photos. It was $34.95 per adult for a return ride on the gondola, but only $189 for a 12 month family pass. This also gives 50% discount for up to 4 guests each time, and complimentary ski/snowbord, skate and snowshoe hire. I filled in the forms, got my photo take, my ID card issued and took the ride to the top. Amazing views all the way up, but even better ones from the top. Vancouver was beginning to light up and you could see parts of it through the fog as the sun set behind the mountains of Vancouver Island in the distance. It looked tlike there was a blanket of cotton wool in between.

Magic sunst and views.

Fog in the valley

There has been a layer of fog over Vancouver for a few days. There is no wind and the temperatures are low. We are high enough up Grouse Mountain to be above the fog and look down at the blanket over the city. Sometimes you can see the tops of the tallest buildings peeking through like a periscope.

I decided that see that it was sunny I would take a walk around the local streets and up to the Grouse Mountain Skyride. It was pretty cold, but clear and sunny, and it wasn't long before I was feeling comfortable in jeans and t-shirt, and with a backpack on. I took some nice photos of the area. There is a park nearby that has a soccer field, baseball field, and several tennis courts. All it is being used for at the moment is as a toboggan run. The whole area is covered in about 30 cm of crusty, icy snow. It begins to melt a bit each day and then frezzes again each night.

I got back home and organised to drive to Bruce and Patty's for dinner. There I met their son David, who works at the University of British Columbia. We had a chilli dinner with salad, and wild berries and cake desert. They were going to go to the FIS World Cup event at Whistler the next day and asked if I wanted to join them. I left at about 9:30 pm for the hour long drive home in the fog. They live in Langley, which is about 65 km away and very close to the "Truck Crossing" at the US border.

Week 2 at school

One of my students came in on Monday and presented me with a bag of ANZAC biscuits that she had baked on the weekend. She had found a recipe in a book and decided that becaise she had an Aussie teacher she would make them. They were good.

I was surprised on Tuesday night to get a Skype call from Bryan, my brother in Philly. I first mentioned to him about getting Skype in 2001 when we were visiting. I even left him with a web camera at the time. He finally managed to get it all set up. Might see him and his family over here this year.

We had our first "Choir practice" on Friday after school at the Black Bear Neighbourhood Pub. There were about half a dozen staff there. Not a bad "Winter Ale".

Washington Exchange League welcome dinner in Seattle

I have been getting the emails from the Washington Exchange League because I had notified one of the organisers that we were heading back to North America for 2009. I had previously done an exchange to Washington state in 2001.

They were having the 2009 dinner to welcome home the 2 teachers and their families, who had been in Australia for 2008, and to welcome the 1 teacher from Australia who on Bainbridge Island this year.

The dinner was at a place in Auburn, which is about 25 km south of Seattle. It took me about 45 minutes to get through the border and then about an hour and a half to get to the house which was on the shore of beautiful Lake Geneva. Chris, whose house it was at was on exchange to Australia in 2001, the year we were in WA. Her exchange was Judy, a teacher that we did a few things with during that year. She ended up marrying a teacher she met in Australia. They have a lovely house on the shores of the lake.

Dinner was chilli and salad followed by desert. The best part though was the conversation and the stories we all shared. Elaine was there as well.

I had made arrangements to stay the night and was shown into the guest room which was decorated with an Australian influence. I woke up to a beautiful view of the lake with the bare trees affording a great view of the house that surrounded it. It was a very peaceful setting.

I left after breakfast and began the drive back to Canada. It was quite foggy for most of the trip. I called into Everett to check out some shops and found a clothing shop that was liquidating all stock, including the fittings, computers and registers. Shoes 5 for $10, jeans and tops $3.33 each, and long and short sleeved t-shirts for 50c. I bought a few things. I also picked up a tent and a GPS which has been and will be very handy for getting around.

I turned off the highway into Burlington and had a look around. There is water covering a lot of the farmland here and quite a few road closed because of the water. There are areas all around here and in the lower mainland of BC that are finding it hard to cope with the amount of water from the rain and snow-melt. Parts of BC have been declared disaster zones because of the flooding.

First week at school

Things started to get busy once school started. Class are pretty good. Have all their names pretty quickly. It is the staff that I am having trouble with. I have to pretty quickly work out where the kids are up to in all subject areas, and what direction we will take .

Chauffeured Nigel to Uni and a party during this week. Kelly-Erin one of the other Grade 4 teachers came and picked up the cat on Wednesday. She works 3 days a week. The other grade 4 class is shared by 3 teachers. Anyway on Friday she reported that it was settling in well. I am glad after having to wash my entire bedding twice in 3 days. It had been too cold and snowy to leave it outside all day.

I also went to LAN (Learning at Night) party. This was at Sutherland High School which is the closest high school to Eastview. Each hish school has several feeder elementary schools. It turns out that the LAN parties are one of the ways the district's is trying to PD staff in technology. There were three breakout sessions, link to the sessions (each of which had a Skype session with an educator from around the globe. One was from Australia, one from Sakatchewan and the other from the US. We came back to a dinner of pizza, juices and fruit. We then went into discussion groups to give feedback on the sessions that we went to and come up with strategies for our own schools. No-one else from my school attended, but I did meet some of the main tech people in the district. I now have my laptop connected to the school network and printers. It's not what you know ......

First day of school

The alarm was on for 5:40 so that I could drive Nigel back down to where his car was. The road outside had been ploughed so it was easier than the night before. There were not many cars on the road. It was also Nigel’s first day at his Uni course. We got to his car and we decided that I would follow him for a while incase his car overheated again. By the time we got to my turn off from the freeway he hadn’t shown any sign of problems so I left him and tried to get up the Mountain Highway to school.

I arrived at 18th street to find a van pulled up near the turn to school with hazard lights on. I stopped and hopped out. I put my hazard lights on and walked up the couple of hundred meters to the school carpark. I was walking through about 15 cm of snow on an uphill slope. Colleen had got her 4-wheel drive up but had problems. She decided to close the road and with one of the custodians started digging out paths for the kids to get to school. There are no school buses for this school. All students either walk, or get a lift from their home. I had to try and find a park somewhere. The church across the road had a carpark but that looked too dangerous. I met Blair Martin who is the vice-principal and he said he had parked 2 streets up the hill. I found one there also and walked back down to school. It was still dark.

Students began to arrive at about 8:40. There is no before, or after school supervision of students. There are no school buses. Most students walk to school and some get dropped off. Today they are arriving in gear to cope with the snow and rain. Their clothes and bags are hung up in the cloak area inside the classroom and they all have individual tables/desks. They start off on Mondays with 30 minutes of Music with a specialist. They all took their recorders with them. They get 3 Music sessions a week.

A daily timetable looks like:

9:00 – 10:30 class
10:30 – 10:50 recess
10:50 – 12:00 class
12:00 – 12:15 eating lunch in the classroom monitored by 7th grade students and duty persons specially employed to monitor the yard and halls and classrooms on an inside timetable. Teachers do not do yard duty. All teachers have a 45 minute break every day
12:15 – 12:45 Students at play
12:45 warning bell
12:50 – 2:50 class time
2:50 Dismissal

Staff meetings once a month.

I met several of the parents, who were all very welcoming. Everyone keeps saying how unusual it is to be getting so much snow in Vancouver.
I also took my class for a 40 minute session in the computer room and 40 minutes in the Library. I have 26 students, but only 23 today. They seem like an interesting bunch.

Got home to find that the snow plough had been along Prospect Avenue. It had left a pile of snow and ice about 60 cm high and about a meter wide across the driveway. I spent about 90 minutes clearing a path from the front steps to the driveway and then ½ the width of the driveway all the way to the roadway. I cleared all of the snow and ice left by the plough. As you clear the paths and drives the snow begins to get higher along the edge of these. There are piles on the road on either side of the driveway that are about 2 meters high. Luckily we have rain forecast for the next few days and not more snow.

Nigel came up and told me that he had managed to get his car to BCIT just before it overheated. He had to leave it there for the night because he needs to change a blown hose that he is getting shipped down from his parent’s place on the Sunshine Coast. He asked me to drive him to the shops so that he could buy binders, paper and supplies for his uni course. He has also asked for another lift to the bus interchange in the morning. That means leaving by just after 6 am again.

Problems in the snow

When I got home I could see that there had been about 30 cm of snow overnight. I spent an hour or so digging out a path up the drive and to create a space to park the car on the road. Impossible to get it into the driveway, and even if I could, it would be impossible to get it out. Most people who have any slope on their driveway are choosing to park on the road. While I was digging it began to snow again and it just seemed to be getting heavier. I gave up and went inside.

At about 8:00pm I got a call from Nigel, the guy from downstairs. He had finished work on Mt Seymour and was heading home, but could not get his car up the mountain to where we are. The roads were covered in snow and the buses had stopped running. He asked if I would pick he and Woody up and that they would wait at the 711 on Lonsdale. I put on my boots and coat and wondered if I was going to be able to get down the mountain in one piece, and if I did would I be able to get back. People were abandoning their cars and walking up the mountain. I was trying to avoid any banked up snow. I got to the 711 and nearly got stuck in their carpark. No sign of Nigel or Woody. I drove around several blocks and came back. I didn’t have Nigel’s number so I couldn’t call him, so I left to go home.

When I got home I needed to shovel some more snow along the pathways and where I was going to park the car. Nigel rang again and said that he had moved his car and parked at a 24 hour service station. Back again about 5 km to find him. We were just about back home and his mate Woody rang. He had been trying to get back home for about 6 hours. We turned back around an went to get him. All this time it was still snowing.

A visit to Allen Elementary

On Sunday I went with Patty to Allen to have a look around at the school and the renovations. Pretty much everything has changed. The Library is now in the old gym, they have built a brand new wing with a gym, stage and music/band room, and a new canteen and eating area. The office an staff rooms have moved and everything is updated. It looks great.

In the classrooms they all have data projectors, document cameras (or visualisers), pull down screens, and a sound system with a teacher clip on wireless microphone and another wireless one to be used by students. There are also 3 interactive SmartBoards in the school. They are planning to introduce more.

After leaving Allen I went up to Eagle Drive and pulled up in front of the house we lived in for 2001. Across the road I saw a figure in a dressing gown walking to the post box to get the newspaper. I walked over towards him and recognized Father Richards. I introduced myself and he asked, “How are Paula and Bridget and Daniel?” He remembered all your names. He also remembered that Paula’s sister had been sick. He said the Carol and Terry were only back now every second weekend, and that Carol had taken a year off teaching and they were now living most of their time in Winthrop.

On the way back to BC I called in to see Lou Spane but there was no one home. I left a note and said we would catch up during the year.

Instead of using the main highway crossing into Canada I turned off at Bellingham and headed for Lynden. There was only one car in front of me at the border. Straight through and heading for home.

Back to Burlington after 7 years

I decided that I wasn’t going to sit around for the weekend. It had snowed another 15 cm overnight and it’s still coming down.

I put in a sleeping bag and a thermarest, and a change of clothes just in case I decided to stay somewhere.

I thought that I should get a coat from a Thrift store, so I headed for Hastings Street. I bought a couple of coats and then headed for the US border. I got petrol (gas) in south Vancouver and a couple of bags of road salt, one to return to the neighbour, and one to help clear the ice on the path and around the garage.

As I was approaching the border the signs overhead suggested that it was approximately 90 minutes to cross at the Peace Arch, or 60 minutes at White Rock. All the cars were turning for White Rock so I went the other way. I decided to look at the Duty Free store and asked about the limits for alcohol. You can take a 1.1 lt bottle of alcohol per person and a twelve pack of beer. They suggested that you might take 3 bottles of alcohol and if questioned just pay the approx $2 per bottle tax. I bought a bottle of Jamieson for CA$19.95, and a 12 pack of beer for the same. You are officially supposed to be in the US for at least 48 hours before being able to bring any duty free back but I will leave the beer and see how I go with the whiskey. At Blaine, or the Peace Arch, they have a set of traffic lights overhead that change according to how many cars are waiting at the actual crossing area. Cars queue and wait for the lights to change before a group of maybe 50 cars is let through. It may be another 20 – 30 minutes before the next group is allowed through. There is a digital 90 second countdown to get ready before the green light comes on. This gives you time to start your engine and get ready to move. You are not allowed to queue with your engine running. It started to get a bit cold and I was lucky I had a few snack bars.

After nearly 2 hours I was finally back in Washington, nearly seven years since I had left. I headed down the highway for Burlington. When I got there I realized that I had left the phone numbers and addresses on the desk at home. I thought that I would be able to get to the Capron’s house, because I had seen it on Google Maps/Earth. I first headed for Costco to have a look around and then to the Cascade Mall. I picked up another international power adapter, and an RF – coaxial cable connector. Then I headed out towards Allen and the Capron’s. As I passed Allen I noticed that there was an entire new wing on the school, as well as seeing books on shelves through the door of what was the gym/hall.

When I got to what I thought was the Capron’s house the outside light was on, but no one was home. I left a calling card with a note that I would call back later. I was starving because I had only had a couple of snack bars since breakfast so I went into town and went to El Gitano, a Mexican restaurant in the main street. The food was great. Before I had ordered they brought a bowl of corn chips, salsa sauce and a glass of water. I had a Brocheta, which was sliced steak, bacon, onion, capsicum, mushroom and carrot served sizzling on a grill plate. This was accompanied by a plate of rice, beans, salsa, guacamole and lettuce, and served with 4 tortillas. There was so much I had to leave it on the table.

While I was eating I overheard a conversation about a basketball game between Sedro-Wooley and Burlington, which was being played in Burlington tonight. I guessed this was at the High School so I went to check it out. The car park was nearly full so I parked and went to find the gymnasium. It was half time and cost $5. I went in and found a seat in the stands near the Burlington students and cheerleaders. Burlington were nearly triple the other team’s score. I tried to look at the people in the stands trying to recognize anyone. I then heard them call out Ian Capron as having scored. He was in the team - #34 so there was a fair chance the rest of that family was there as well. I moved closer to the students and cheerleaders and spotted Lucy. Just before the end of the game I went over and tapped her on the shoulder and said “Hi.” She turned around and said “Hi.” back. Then she did the classic double take, and with a huge look of surprise asked what I was doing there. She said that the rest of her family, including Aunt Barb, was across the other side of the court. She called them on her cell phone and I could see Patty waving wildly.

I had also seen a couple of guys that I thought I recognized. I went over and asked one of them if his name was Joey. He looked at me and said, “Mr O’Halloran!” It was Joey Henderson from my grade 4 class at Allen in the first half of 2001. He looked at the other two and asked if I remembered Cody Roberts and Marcus Zimmerman. We chatted for a while.

After the game Patty, Roger, Olivia and Barb all came across and there were hugs and greetings all around. We chatted for a while as we waited for Ian. When he came out I saw that he is now slightly taller that me and I was introduced to his girlfriend – Danieka. They were so surprised to see me. I asked if they had some floor space at their place that I could bunk down for the night, which was OK with them, so we went back to their place and had a few beers and chatted into the night.

Living with ice and snow

Just listening to the news here has made me think about the differences in life between where I normally live and where I am now living.

Some of the headlines and news:

1. Terrified guests rescued after gondola plunge at Whistler-Blackcomb

2. VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A snowboarder who was lost for three days on a frigid, snowy western Canadian mountain said Thursday that it is wonderful to be alive. James Martin was found Wednesday on Mount Seymour (This is the mountain that I drove up on Jan 1st to take Nigel to work) in North Vancouver, British Columbia, after he lost his bearings Sunday while snowboarding the hills.

3. A man is presumed dead after going ice fishing. The unusually deep snow is insulating the ice and not allowing it to freeze. A man left on his snowmobile to go ice fishing and only cracked and broken ice has been found. It is presumed that the ice has broken and both he and the snowmobile have disappeared below the ice.

4. Two dead in avalanches near Whistler, B.C.

5. Grouse Mountain - just 2 km from our house. They got a lifetime ban on the mountain.

6. Avalanche warnings for the Southern half of BC.

7. 8 die in snowmobile avalanche accident - 3 survive.

8. The cost of removing the snow, with snow ploughs, and ice from the roads with salt is breaking council budgets.

9. Because of the snow and ice removal the roads are getting wrecked.

10. The cycle of thaw and freeze causes very dangerous road conditions.

New Year's Day

I drove Nigel to Mt Seymour ski area so that he could start work. It was impossible to move his car. The driveway was so icy and had too steep a slope. We had received about another 15 – 20 cm of now overnight.

I then went home and spent a couple of hours trying to clear the driveway. The snow on top was not too bad, but the ice on the driveway had to be chipped away. I finally got it out at about midday.

In the afternoon I drove around a bit to get my bearings by car. Not many shops were open on New Year’s Day. I did find the Capilano Mall, and they had a Wal-Mart and Sears stores open. I went in to wander round and compare prices on goods to those at home. Most things dollar for dollar appear about the same. Wal-Mart had groceries, so I got some things that I needed.

Nigel got a lift home from Mt Seymour and thanked me profusely for getting his car out. He said that he owes me a case of beer.

Buying a car

I had made arrangements with Steve Vincent, an Australian teacher who is returning to Australia soon to buy his car. He has been driving a Dodge Caravan and he also had some camping gear to sell. We decided to buy the lot.

Seeing as he was living in Enderby – about 5 hours drive inland, and he was coming down to visit friends in Abbotsford – I was to meet him there. I organized all the paperwork I needed and left it on the table ready for the next day.

On Wednesday, New Year’s Eve day, I walked down a couple of blocks to get the bus down to Lonsdale Quay. It snowed last night. There was about 2 cm of snow on the ground. It was actually very slippery trying to get up the driveway. $2.50 gets you 90 minutes on public transport in zone 1. That includes the Sea Bus and the Sky Train. I used both to get to the Greyhound bus terminal at Main Street Station. It cost $12.95 to go to Abbotsford, and I caught the 9.45am. We stopped at Coquitlam and Langley before arriving at about 11.30.

I got off and walked to Wal-Mart to have a look around. It wasn’t until I was leaving and thinking about making contact with Steve, or his friend in Abbotsford that I realized that I had left the contact numbers on a piece of paper next to the computer at home. I had grabbed the document wallet with all the other paperwork, but not the phone numbers.

One reason that we had made the arrangements for today was that we would be able to get the transfer and insurance paperwork done. Steve has to actually take the number plates off and hand them in, while I have to register the car in my name and pay the appropriate fees and I get a new set of number plates for the vehicle.

Anyway … “What to do???

I couldn’t remember the name of his friend in Abbotsford, so that was no use. I didn’t have his Enderby number and he wouldn’t be in the phone book there because he is on exchange here. I tried to find a place nearby that would have internet access. Luckily there was a coffee shop nearby that had a computer with internet access. They charged $1 for 20 minutes. I ordered a coffee as well and hoped that there would still be some emails from Steve on my Edumail account. I had been cleaning them out and transferring them to my computer, but I didn’t have that with me.

“Hooray!!” – there was one still there with his Enderby number. Now I had to find a public phone, work out how to use it, call Enderby and hope that there was someone to answer the phone at the other end. The phonecard I had bought in Vancouver couldn’t let me ring anywhere except from Vancouver, Toronto, or Victoria. I had to get the operator to help me connect and charged to credit card. “Thank goodness!”, his wife Bronte was home. I and gave me the numbers that I needed.
I tried Steve – no answer. I then called his friend John Davidson who came and picked me up. He is a retired policeman from the area. Originally Scottish, worked as a policeman in London for 5 years and then travelled the world. Met a Canadian while travelling and settled here. 25 years in the police force and now retired. We had a coffee and waited for Steve to arrive.

He arrived at about 2:30pm and we had a chat for a while until I suggested that some of the businesses might be closing early because of New Year’s Eve. So off we went to find an insurance broker. They do all the paperwork, and issue the plates. The first one we went to had already closed, so off we went to find another. The one we found was actually right next door to the coffee shop I had been at earlier. We started to organize the paperwork until the guy behind the counter said that he couldn’t go any further because the car was going to be registered in the Lower Mainland, and therefore needed to go through a CleanAir check. This meant another trip to the depot for testing the quality of the emissions from the car. At 4:00pm on New Year’s Eve there was no queue so we went straight in to the testing bay. $45 and 2 minutes later we were on our way back to the insurance broker, but at least the car has a clean bill of health, which is valid for 2 years.

Back at the insurance broker we were trading in one set of plates and forking out the registration and insurance for the new ones. This worked out to be $3027 for 12 months because the paperwork I had from the insurers was inadequate for the BC insurers, One other reason that the insurance is so high is that the area that we are living in, North Vancouver, has the highest accident rate, and consequently the highest premiums. After all this, I finally screwed the new plates on at about 4:30pm, which by the way meant that it was just on dark. I was a bit worried about driving on the opposite side to normal, but turned the key and off I went. I had a van full of 4 all weather tyres, currently winter tyres on the car, 4 sleeping bags, 4 Thermarests, a tent, and a cooking stove.

When I got home I was about to pull into the driveway when I saw that the tenant from downstairs, Nigel already had his car down near the garage. He looked like he was trying to dig it out. It had slid to the side of the driveway towards the house. I parked up on the road and came down to lend a hand. His car had locked up and slid down the driveway hitting the garage door and then sliding towards the house. He has damaged some of the panels of the door, but it can still be opened. We spent some time trying to dig out the snow. It was icy under foot. We had the neighbours come to help, but all to no avail. He was hoping to go out to a party, I went for a drive to get some driveway rock salt, but all the service stations and Wal-Mart had sold out. One of the neighbours lent him a bag and he put that down hoping to make the drive less slippery. Straight away you could hear the ice starting to crack, but there was not enough salt, and too much ice. He tried to get it moving several more times to no avail. I said that I would drive him to where he wanted to go, but he said that he needed his car out to get to work tomorrow, and as it was starting to snow lightly again, it was only likely to be worse tomorrow so he was going to try and get a tow truck to come and winch him up the drive. Seeing as he couldn’t get out to get drinks for the night we went down to Westview shops to the state alcohol distributor, but they were closed. In the end we came back home and he took some beers that I had.

A few hours later I was about to cook a pancake and he called from downstairs. The guy in the truck cancelled because it was snowing, so I told him to bring the beers upstairs and we got to know each other a bit better. It looks like I will be driving him to work on Mt Seymour early in the morning. This is a job that he has to help him get through his course and pay the rent on the space below. When going to bed at nearly 1:00am we must have had about 4 – 5 cm of snow.

First day exploring

December 29, 2008

I woke at about 6:00am went and had a drink and thought, “ I’ve only had about 6 hours sleep. I went and lay down again wondering whether I would fall asleep or not, only to be woken up at about 12:30pm by a guy asking if I was Mark. It was the young guy from downstairs – Nigel.

Nigel moved in about a week ago. His family live up on the Sunshine Coast which is northwest of Vancouver. You have to catch a ferry from Horseshoe Bay and then dive up the coast. He is about to start an Automotive apprenticeship course at Vancouver Institute of Technology in Barnaby. He said that something had happened to the wireless network connection. I didn’t realize that there was a wireless router on the connection here and had unplugged the Ethernet cable last night so that I could connect to “The Net”. Anyway he reset the connection and said he was heading out shortly.

I got a lift with him to Westview Village, which is a kms away. I started to walk back home after having a look at some shops but it was too much like hard work in the snow. I decided t jump on a bus which was heading for Lonsdale Quay $2:50 for a 90 minute ticket or $9 all day, which includes the Sea Bus and the Sky Bus. The Sea Bus goes across the harbour area to the main railway station, which is just near Water Street and the Gastown area and the Canada Centre where the Ocean liners dock. There were white caps on the waves in the harbour and the captain said that there was a gale blowing outside. It wasn’t a bad ride over though.

I had a bit of a walk around the Canada Centre, some shops and then down to the Gas clock area. It was quite chilly in the breeze, in fact bloody cold! I then caught the Sea Bus back. I had a bit of a walk around the Quay Market and then tried to work out which would be the best bus to get back home. I caught one to Edgemont Village, which is where Melodie and Mario suggested to open a bank account. The village looked nice with the snow everywhere and the Christmas lights. I walked through the village and then found the bus stop interchange. I was waiting there for about an hour for the bus that would get me closest to home. The closest I could get took me up Capilano towards Grouse Mountain. It must be about a 1 – 2 km walk up hill. Yesterday afternoon I walked around this area and it wasn’t too bad, but tonight it was like hard work. The temperature is lower and where the snow, which was melting has frozen and made the roads slippery. It was uphill nearly all the way. It was safer to walk on the crunching snow at the edge of the road than on the road. When I finally got to the house I had to carefully slide down the driveway. Glad to get back home.

Arriving in Vancouver

Arriving in Vancouver

Yes, I did get to see the end of the movie. There was about 15 minutes left. We ended up leaving Auckland a bit later than planned and ended up flying out at sunset – about 8:36pm.

This time we were in a 777-200 for the 11,424km to Vancouver. We were given an evening meal. I had chicken casserole. I watched two movies, The Kite Runner and Mr Magorium’s Magic Emporium before tying to get some sleep. I think I managed to get about 3 – 4 hours before being woken for breakfast of pancakes.

We landed at about noon Vancouver time. There was snow everywhere at the airport except for the runways. I made my way through the airport and found the section for immigrants, students and workers to go through the Visa process. I had to wait about 20 minutes before presenting my “Letter of Introduction” and having the visa issued and stapled into my passport. I have been granted a visa until the end of January 2010 – just before the Winter Olympics start here in Vancouver.

I proceeded to the luggage carousels and found the one that was gradually filling up with bags of all colours and sizes. I tried to find mine, but they weren’t out yet. It was only about 10 minutes before I was loaded up with a trolley of bags and heading through customs. Straight through!

As I emerged from the secure area to the arrivals area I was wondering who would be picking me up and how I would find them. I pushed the trolley up the walkway looking at the names that people were holding up and then heard someone call out “Mark, Mark”. I looked up to where the voice was coming from and saw a lady holding a piece of paper with my name on it. She proceeded to introduce herself as Colleen – the principal of Eastview Elementary and then introduced me to her husband who works at the North Vancouver Outdoor School. He knows Patrick O’Callagan and said that he has had several discussions with him in the past.

They drove me around Vancouver, which they thought was the quickest way to het to Melodie’s house. They weren’t prepared to go through the city with the chance that there might be floods from the melting snow. It was amazing to see so much snow. Cars buried under it on the side of the roads, people trudging through the snow each step going down through the snow to their knees, groups of people with toboggans at the slightest incline, and the rooves of houses and carports under about 60 cm of snow. The amount of snow has apparently broken a record for the most snow since 1964??

At Melodies house everyone was busy. I was greeted warmly and introduced to everyone. They also had some friends over who were helping them pack and taking them to the airport. Bruce and Paddy Kiloh have a farm in Langley, which is down near the US border. He retired from Handsworth High School at the end of last year, and they have been on an exchange to Cambridge, England, in the 1990’s. We took a couple of photos and I was given a Kilkenny to toast the occasion. Chelsea was making a gingerbread house and Marco and Nick were helping and loading the truck. Melodie went through some basics about the school, and then Mario took me for a quick tour of the house. 3:00pm came quickly and there was a mad rush to get into the truck and head off to the airport. There was a quick handover of keys and they were gone. They also left a bag with some gifts for us and paid me some cash for the car they will pick up in Australia.

It was nice to meet them. I think you will get on well with them in Australia.

Leaving Australia

Paula and Daniel drove me to the airport. We left Geelong at about 8:00am and arrived at Tullamarine just after 9:00am.

Flight NZ 0124 left Melbourne at 11:35 am on December 28, 2008. It was 29° C and I was sweating. I had just had to repack my bags. The personal allowance for luggage to North America is 2 bags, which total 46kg, and neither being heavier than 32kg. Carry on baggage is 1 bag not weighing more than 7kg. I was also carrying a backpack, which contained my laptop computer and a camera bag with a video camera. The big bags were just OK, but the carry-on was too heavy. The check-in attendant suggested putting some of the stuff from the carry-on into the bigger bags. After shuffling some items around she allowed me through with a note attached to the carry-on bag that it was 10kg, but to let it through.

Going through into the customs area the bag was again questioned, but finally allowed through. I turned around at one stage and caught sight of my nephew Tom, who is off to Thailand for a holiday. I also remembered to claim the GST from the items that I had bought. I looked through the Duty Free store and tried to buy some alcohol. I was advised that because I was transiting in NZ that I would not be able to buy it in Australia, and that I should wait until I got to NZ.

Seat 41C was on the aisle. I was on an NZ airlines, 747-400 and as I seated myself and looked around I noticed that each seat had a personal media screen in the back of the seat in front. There was also a remote handset in the arm of the seat. There was a choice of movies, music, or documentaries. I chose to check out the movies and watched “How to lose friends and Alienate People”.

The service started with a drink of water followed shortly after by a light meal. I had a ham and cheese toasted sandwich with coleslaw, ice-cream and a Sauvignon Blanc. This was followed by a black coffee. Towards the end of this movie they came around again offering drinks and I had a straight Jim Beam.

After the first movie I watched another - Babylon A.D. with Vin Diesel. There must have only been 5 or so minutes to go when it was turned off because we were coming in to land. I might be able to watch the end on the next leg.

I am currently in Auckland airport after having purchased my bottle of Jim Beam, some video tapes and batteries duty free. We have a three hour break here.

On the plane I thought that I recognised on of the other Victorian ITF teachers. I spoke to her in Auckland. Her name is Fiona. She and her husband and three children are off to Winnipeg for the year. She will be teaching secondary Art.

At the airport they have been making announcements for the last 20 minutes for the remaining passengers for a flight to go to their gate for take-off.

“…….Your aircraft is waiting to depart and all other passengers are waiting for you!!”
There were originally 10 they were waiting on, after 15 minutes they are down to 5.
They just made another call and named them all. As well as the public address system announcements there are airport attendants going through the airport calling out for those passengers.

The view from the airport lounge is relaxing. I am looking out past the airport, over the shimmering water to the nearby hills and islands. The sun shining on the water makes a great view.