Sunday was very, very quiet, as you can imagine after having a major blow out!!
Round Up was is on this week in Vancouver, like Diggers n Dealers in Kal but the Canadian version. Horn and I went later after a big day and caught up with Brendo and the crew. Jaimie, an awesome engineer I used to work with was there.
I hadn’t seen her for four years and it was great! It was cold when we left, that cold that at 9pm it started snowing (rare for Vancouver City). After talking geo stuff for a while we left for the pub and eventually headed back to Leo and Brendo’s. “Australians have this affinity for frozen water” is what one Canadian guy, Cookson, always used to say! It is true as the snow was just awesome. 
The view of the snow covered streets from Horn’s apartment was white and tranquil.
The church outside across the street looked different covered in snow.
The following morning, the streets were covered in snow and it was still snowing!! 
The view from the office window was a blanket of white. 
Tan and I hooked up with Jaimie and Brendo at our favourite sushi train (boats) on Robson St. Yum. 
That night we ended up going to Plan B (which isn’t Canadian for “just get ‘er done”). Brendo, Lesley, Jaimie, Tan and I had a large (and expensive) and tasty selection of appetizers ranging from cod, lamb, foie gras, scallops, beef and vegetarian samosas (in a shell of capsicum). It was another late one. 
Tired from the big nights before, we decided to stay in. I got a random call from Horn. “Would you like to come snow boarding? We are leaving in 15 minutes.” I couldn’t let the opportunity pass on this cold and rainy Vancouver night. Jason, one of Leo’s mates, picked me up and we were off. At the base of the lift it was snowing! Jason and Leo were great helping me get my gear and Brendo leant me his board.
All sorted we hit the mountain. I was somewhat apprehensive as I had only had 4 hours on the snow board to date. We hit the green run, The Cut, and I got to bottom without falling. One more run on the cut and we were onto the intermediate runs. I was surprised that my speed and turns got better. The other day from the kiddies run I was looking at the summit thinking how steep is that. Well, following Jason and Leo, we hit the summit and other runs. It was snowing quite hard and the visibility progressively got worse (it didn’t help with foggy goggles – something I need to work on). The highlights of the night was getting 1m of air off a kicker and sticking the landing in my 6th hour of snowboarding! The second was going down a powder covered (really powdery) un lit black run at night on my second go of snowboarding. I ate a lot of snow but I got to the bottom!!! We finished up near white out conditions, with low visiblity and a strong wind in 10 - 15cm of fresh fluffy snow.
By the end of the night I was exhausted, but oh so ready to hit Whistler and Blackcomb on the weekend. Leo and Jason were inspirational.
Round Up was is on this week in Vancouver, like Diggers n Dealers in Kal but the Canadian version. Horn and I went later after a big day and caught up with Brendo and the crew. Jaimie, an awesome engineer I used to work with was there.
I hadn’t seen her for four years and it was great! It was cold when we left, that cold that at 9pm it started snowing (rare for Vancouver City). After talking geo stuff for a while we left for the pub and eventually headed back to Leo and Brendo’s. “Australians have this affinity for frozen water” is what one Canadian guy, Cookson, always used to say! It is true as the snow was just awesome. The view of the snow covered streets from Horn’s apartment was white and tranquil.The church outside across the street looked different covered in snow.The following morning, the streets were covered in snow and it was still snowing!! The view from the office window was a blanket of white. Tan and I hooked up with Jaimie and Brendo at our favourite sushi train (boats) on Robson St. Yum. That night we ended up going to Plan B (which isn’t Canadian for “just get ‘er done”). Brendo, Lesley, Jaimie, Tan and I had a large (and expensive) and tasty selection of appetizers ranging from cod, lamb, foie gras, scallops, beef and vegetarian samosas (in a shell of capsicum). It was another late one. Tired from the big nights before, we decided to stay in. I got a random call from Horn. “Would you like to come snow boarding? We are leaving in 15 minutes.” I couldn’t let the opportunity pass on this cold and rainy Vancouver night. Jason, one of Leo’s mates, picked me up and we were off. At the base of the lift it was snowing! Jason and Leo were great helping me get my gear and Brendo leant me his board.All sorted we hit the mountain. I was somewhat apprehensive as I had only had 4 hours on the snow board to date. We hit the green run, The Cut, and I got to bottom without falling. One more run on the cut and we were onto the intermediate runs. I was surprised that my speed and turns got better. The other day from the kiddies run I was looking at the summit thinking how steep is that. Well, following Jason and Leo, we hit the summit and other runs. It was snowing quite hard and the visibility progressively got worse (it didn’t help with foggy goggles – something I need to work on). The highlights of the night was getting 1m of air off a kicker and sticking the landing in my 6th hour of snowboarding! The second was going down a powder covered (really powdery) un lit black run at night on my second go of snowboarding. I ate a lot of snow but I got to the bottom!!! We finished up near white out conditions, with low visiblity and a strong wind in 10 - 15cm of fresh fluffy snow.
By the end of the night I was exhausted, but oh so ready to hit Whistler and Blackcomb on the weekend. Leo and Jason were inspirational.
Most of this morning was spent sitting in a travel agents trying to sort out where next before we head home. After three hours we left literally empty handed with nothing booked. Out dream of island hopping through the Caribbean appears dashed. We need a multiple entry visa and of course our ever helpful consulate in Canada was closed and would be closed on Monday as they get the public holiday off for Australia Day. Bugger. Not all is lost though. The great thing about today though is that it snowed. 
Whilst Perth braved 38 degrees and hung round the warm weather and BBQ we rugged up and wandered out in the snow. An Australia Day not to forget. We got some photo’s including this one of Dan with the Australian Flag outside the Gotham Steak House where two people were shot dead (murdered last week) whilst Keanu Reeves dined inside apparently. This place is a block from where we are staying. Never a dull moment in Vancouver! 
Now Australia Day in Vancouver was always going to be a big one for a number of reasons. Firstly because well, there are a lot of Australians living here and secondly because in addition to Australia Day we were also celebrating Hornado’s (surprise) birthday. To start the festivities we all met up at the Moose Down Under Pub. So it seemed did every other Aussie in town. Flags, T’shirts, tattoo’s (it’s too cold to wear a singlet and thongs here) and Aussie pride were up there. 
The pub was decorated with the Aussie theme. We enjoyed Muriel’s wedding on the big screen and lots of good Aussie music too! Coopers was on tap and menu consisted of meat pies, sausage rolls, vegemite toast and all the things we had been missing at home. There was even the good old Aussie meat raffle doing the rounds.
We settled in for a few hours and then made some lame excuse about going out for dinner when we had to go home, grab our gear for the themed “wigs and plaid” party for Hornado and beat him back to his girlfriends house where the party was. At the house, everyone drifted in. Some in plaid, some in (dreadful) wigs. 
Australia Day/Hornado birthday was the theme and they had managed to find Aussie Flags, Tim Tams, Freddo Frogs, Violet Crumbles and Cherry Ripes. Someone had even made a pavlova. The large Australian contingency were drooling. 
Shortly after we all hide upstairs and yelled “surprise” when Hornado arrived. 
The next few hours consisted of lots of dancing, drinking (not Tan- on a no drinking binge again) and fun. The wigs and plaid were a hit all round (oh and the Canada flag got a workout too).
Horn received his Australia Birthday Cake – made with love. 
At 11.00pm we headed off to the Coppertank (home of the last massive Vancouver Blowout). We met other Western Australians (living in Baldivis!!) and had a ball. There was a great band on and after wishing Hornado a happy birthday he took the microphone and proceeded to make our eats bleed with some terrible beatboxing. The pub finally closed and he headed next door to another pub briefly. With Dan a little worse for wear (me still cold stone sober) we called it a night,
Happy Birthday Hornado. It was a great one! 
We crammed into the Gondola – we didn’t actually think that you could get that many people into a Gondola and we were off – eight minutes to the top. 
Although no snow had fallen the previous night it was fresh and thick all around us. 
We hopped off at the top and marveled at the difference. Many of the things that we had seen in summer were buried under the snow which sat at 401cm thick. The path that we had walked on was now a skating rink and other than that, snow was everywhere. The view to Vancouver was amazing too. Being a clear day you could look down at the city with the sun shining on it.
We went to the ski rental area and picked up our boots, ski’s and snowboard. After some help we kitted up and went outside to meet our instructors. At this point the less said about how crappy I was at skiing, the better. Over to Dan to talk about his snowboarding.
I’ve never snow boarded before but with years of skateboarding under my belt I thought I’d go okay. I didn’t know how to put the boots on. Not a good start! While I was waiting for the lesson, I strapped myself into the bindings and promptly fell over three times on flat ground. (It’s harder than it looks).
We had five in our two lessons, and from not knowing anything, I was able to do turns and going up the rope tow (lift). Needless to say I fell over a lot but it didn’t matter as it was awesome fun. Once the lesson finished, I went back and grabbed Tan and we warmed up with hot chocolate.
