Birthdays!

Today is my birthday (Chris), and we're renting a car.
Aimee said to me, "what do you want to do?" and I replied "Drive".
Aimee has a job interview tomorrow too, so it's going to be convenient to be able to drive her there.

I've just realised something else I need for my birthday - towels.
I only brought 2 with me, but they were older and even with regular washing they smell a bit.
It was also highlited last week when we went swimming at Canada's wonderland and my towel went missing while we were in line for the waterslide. Fortunately it turned up exactly where we'd left it, an hour later. Somebody had simply 'borrowed' it.

Yesterday we celebrated 2 other birthdays. The 2 females in this house both have their birthdays on July 30th, and since yesterday was my birthday in NZ we had a triple celebration. Cookies and Cream cake, ice cream... mmmm, drool


Anyway, that brings me to my next order of business. Things I miss about NZ;

1. Familiarity. Knowing who you are, where you are, where to go and how to get there.
Edit: This includes family and friends of course! Hi sis!

2. My bike.

3. My car. It wasn't much, but it was mine and took me where I needed to go.

4. Steak and cheese pies. Being part of the commonwealth means there is a lot of british influence, so we can get Fish and Chips at quite a few locations and it is actually fish and chips, but there's still no pies.

5. Pizza. Now you may say "but Toronto is half Italian so how?" and I say,
"when you're limited to 2 toppings, and one of them has to be pepperoni, that's not pizza".

6. My computer and a decent internet connection. While people bitch and moan about Telecom's poor speed, I was pretty happy with my 5mbps download ADSL line thanks very much. Here most people are on cable, and out in the 'burbs we've got a stunning 256kbps line.
I also have to line up to use Aimee's laptop. When I get a job and move into my own place that's the first thing on my shopping list, desktop computer with a 22-30" widescreen.

7. Jaffas. We can get most things Cadbury and Nestle here, but haven't seen Jaffas anywhere.

8. A job. Looking forward to getting a job, getting to meet and work with real Canadians and finding out all the little differences in our culture.

9. Coffee. Although i'm not really a big coffee drinker, I miss all the cafe's of wellington. Here if you want anything other than straight black coffee, you're limited to Starbucks or Tim Hortons.
Timmy's was Canadian owned and is a combination of Starbucks, Dunkin donuts and Subway.


Movies I've seen lately; Harry Potter, Transformers, Fantastic Four. All of them I'd rate about 7/10.

DVDs you need to see soon;

Who killed the Electric Car. An excellent expose on electric cars and how the car and oil companies are working so hard to keep them from getting to mass market.
It's totally changed my views on it all. DON'T buy a hydrogen car unless you also intend to buy a kit to make hydrogen at home.
Go get a hybrid. We had a ride in a Prius in Vancouver. Brilliant cars and all the American car companies are saying "How can Toyota be making any money" to try and stop people from buying them.

Then once you're done with that DVD, watch An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore makes a lot of very good points in his filmed lecture about the science behind global warming.

Right, I've got to go now and pick up our rental car. A gas guzzling V6.

Jobbing

So we're still trying to find jobs. Things are slow going, and we've hit a few snags.
As you would expect, most employers don't want to spend money training up a new employee, only to have them leave in 9 months time, so we're left with 2 options.

1. Take on a contract role (if only someone will offer us one!)
2. Move here permanently.

They also seem to want "Canadian experience'. While it sounds silly, you're considered to have more potential if you've worked in Canada before. Strange, but true.

Hopefully with the number of applications we've sent out, things will start to materialise soon.

NZ on TV

I just saw NZ on the TV news here!

As hard as it is to get news outside of the American continent, we just saw footage of flooding in "New Zeeland's north island".
It even showed footage of a woman commenting about how fast the floodwaters came up.

Bike repairs

I've been trying to avoid ending the holiday.
Aimee is busy writing her resume, so I'm outside fixing up one of the bikes in the shed here. It's got a couple of flat tyres and the gears need work but otherwise it's in fine condition. It's just a bit short for me so Aimee will be the one doing the riding.

Today is my turn to finish my resume. I need to compact my 6 page CV into a 1 - 2 page executive summary of my career and skills highlighting my strengths which will hopefully be enough tantalising information to get me an interview.
If anybody knows of an system engineer job going in the downtown Toronto area which is paying well, hook a brother up!

If we get this done today, then we're off to Canada's Wonderland again. Some roller coasters again and also some swimming! Last time we only did a few of them, most are similar to rides in Gold Coast except for the Tomb Raider ride - you lie flat as you fly like superman through loops and twists. There's also a ride where you're standing up, and can feel the G forces as you pull through corners. Very cool...

Right, enough stalling, must continue talking myself up.

A Home Away From Home

We've been in toronto for three weeks now. and so far so good, we are loving every minute of it! but i do get homesick every now and then, still missing everyone so much :) but thanks to our home away from home(at my aunt's), we are very much comfortable and enjoying the canadian summer!!! very hot hot hot at the moment, with temperatures ranging from 25-30 degrees everyday, no wind and very little rain. i'm becoming even more tan and chris is turning into a lovely pink person heheh nah, he's got a good tan too :)

We are currently staying in woodbridge, Ontario, 32 km away from downtown toronto, which according to my brother, a suburbia that resembles pleasantville. The houses are very similar to each other, made out of brick, with family cars parked just outside the house, we don't quite understand why canadians don't use their garage, its something we've pondered over and over again... we've also visited my cousin's school which is nearby, check out the indoor swimming pool, nice eh? this school is fairly new, but it made me wish to be in school again, they have a pool table in their common room, and subsequent rooms allocated for "other" school activities hahaha. Also, instead of seeing the rugby/cricket/softball fields, they have the baseball/hockey/soccer fields. Apparently the skating rink that we now see will be transformed into an ice skating park which chris and i are really looking forward to! Some pictures of the Dominguez' neighbor and their house below, their spa makes life divine:) a bundle of THANK YOU Tita(aunt) Haydee and Tito(unlce) Joy!!!










our trips to downtown have proven really exciting. we love the challenge of finding our way, which is pretty much knowing where north is(they're very big on the whole N-E-S-W), and with a city map of course. From woodbridge, we have to catch a bus to the Wilson subway station, this trip takes up most of the time, a one-hour ride. I just wish they didn't have to stop on every block! and then on to the underground trains which is very reliable since it runs every 5-10 minutes. We haven't really been exploring much of the city, we figured when we move closer to town we'll have the chance to see it "up close and personal", although we have seen nice parks, University of Toronto, the Eaton centre(huge mall) and the underground walkways. These walkways are not so popular at the moment since it's summer, but i'm imagining it to be packed during winter when temperatures are below zero(eeek!). The paths are really done up well, it's almost walking in a hotel lobby.

Summer

Agggghhhh, it's soooo hot here!
The metservice here are about as reliable as the one back home.

Today was supposed to be 34 degrees, humidity to be making it like 40! But we woke up to torrential rain!
We were driving down the motorway and watching the forked lightning hit the nearby buildings, it was incredible. No photos unfortunately...

Lazy days

Fortunately things have calmed down here a bit. Yesterday we got our Social Insurance Numbers (like the IRD number) so we can legally work, HURRAY!

Today we're going to the bank and hopefully get a free iPod when we open an account with TD. Or not...

Am working on putting up the rest of our photos now, I know some of you out there want pictures, instead of reading a thousand words...
Will post the link when done, but keep checking here

Chris

Niagara Falls

Canada day sales! Oh yeah, the Americans know how to make some money; when Canada has a public holiday the American malls near the border have sales!

We headed south, stopped briefly at the Niagara falls for a quick photo op, then went over the bridge, back to the USA which Aimee and I had only left 6 days ago.
There is an immediate change in atmosphere when you go back into America, I definitely feel safer in Canada. Anyway, outlet mall shopping is certainly great. We brought some label clothing for very cheap prices, it leaves Dressmart for dead. There was GAP, Oakley, Calvin Klein, Burburry to name a few. All at reasonable prices (except Burburry).
We did some good shopping there, then headed down to another mall further into the US. Again, more name brand shops, but with our $US getting low, Aimee and I really took the time to explore.

We found the Apple shop, and had a play with the new iPhone. It certainly is a cool device, but with only one provider offering it (AT&T, a non-sim card service like Telecom) there's a big delay in people getting their phones activated.
We took some photos with it, looked at youTube, browsed the internet, listened to music, sent text messages but never actually figured out how to make a call.

Passing the cheesecake factory on the way out, it was hard not to go in and just sniff the air, but we managed. There's more time to get back down there i'm sure.

The drive back seemed to take a long time, and everyone was a little nervous coming back across into Canada cos we'd outdone our $50 limit per person. If you break this limit, you have to pay tax on the goods you're bringing back, DOH!
Fortunately it was very busy and we were waved through.

Another successful day done, we're looking forward to a day off tomorrow.

Toronto

Our last day in Vancouver involved sleeping, and packing.
Vancouver airport looks a lot different departing than it does for arriving, perhaps they hold all the nice shops for the international passengers and the domestic passengers just get a gate lounge.
The flight was delayed when we checked in, and for the second time this trip we needed to re-organise our bags at the airport cos Aimee was overweight (the bag, not her!).

So after waiting the extra 30 minutes, we got on the plane to go to Toronto.
It was dark when we arrived, and we had time to look around the airport a bit before our host family came to pick us up. In true Filipino style, they had been out partying and were delighted to see us.
Aimee's Aunt Haydee, Uncle Joy, counsins Jun-jun and Hanna live in the very nice city of Vaughn, in the suburb of Woodbridge which is about 20 minutes north of Toronto downtown area.

They have a beautiful house and have been kind enough to open their doors and share their beds with us while we get settled here in Toronto.

The next day we had a bit of a relaxing start. Then because it is Sunday, we headed of to their church. After a very musical service, we assisted in pulling a few weeds from the front garden, before heading off to drop Aimee's brother Alex off to the airport. He's continuing his trip around the world, and it was nice to catch up with him, even if it's only for a few hours.
We head home for a 'early' night as it's a big day tomorrow.

Oohh, before I forget, it's Canada day today! July 1st is Canada day (like our Waitangi day) and a day for all Canadians to be proud of their country and wave flags. They also have a big fireworks show.

Vancouver - part quatre

Waking up on our final full day in Vancouver, we see that it's greyer than it was yesterday. Bugger.
Our plan for today is to head up grouse mountain, and see the Capilano swing bridge.

Aimee and I get up nice and early anyway, and head out to our public transport. We buy a 2 zone ticket and catch the train one stop from Burrard st to the waterfront, then use the same ticket to board the seabus going across the harbour. Then we use the same ticket to board the bus on the other side which leaves shortly after the ferry arrives.

The bus winds its way through the lovely northern shores of Vancouver, dropping us to the bottom of Grouse mountain.
There is a 100 person cable car going to the top, but we are advised that the weather is very clouded in, and visibility is low.
Unfortunately for us, this is our only remaining opportunity to visit so we have to do it.
We board the cable car, and Neil from Yorkshire gives us the commentary as we go up the hill.
We take a look around, and eagerly check out the timing for the 'world famous lumberjack show'. We decide to have some lunch first, hot dogs and hamburgers. It turns out that visibility and rain is such that the lumberjack show has been called off for that session. This time we were prepared, so using my umbrella we take a look around the top of the mountain. We manage to spot the grizzly bears that are housed in the park. These bears were rescued from certain death as both had lost their mothers in separate incidents. Normally bear cubs cannot survive without their mothers and are put down. However a facility was setup on Grouse Mountain to see if these guys could be looked after, and so far it's been a great success. They are surviving well and have put on healthy weight. They even have been through a winter with their enclosure covered in snow and them in hibernation.

By the time 2:30 comes around, the mist has cleared enough, so we and the hundred or so other punters dry off seats for the lumberjack show. And what a show it was! They chopped logs with axes, cut logs with saws and had a log rolling contest (you know the one where they're both running on a log, just like in the cartoons).

So with Grouse mountain covered, we headed back to the bottom of the hill, and caught the bus back to the Capilano swing bridge. This is on the main road back to town, and was not affected by the weather.
The bridge was built over a 450 foot wide canyon back in 1889. It really is a swing bridge, it rocks back and forth with all the people walking on it, I saw a lot of people walking very uncertainly, holding on to the rails.
While it swings a lot, it has proven it's strength. Last year, back in november, a 46 ton, 300 year old Douglas fir tree lost it's hold on the sodden earth and fell onto the bridge, hitting it at approx 100kmh. The bridge held although the concrete mounts at the west end moved 2 metres.
The tree then had to be cut off in sections, otherwise if all the weight was lifted the bridge would spring up and catapault the poor guy holding the chainsaw 230 feet into the canyon below (apparently this actually happened with an earlier version of the bridge and the guy miraculously survived!). The swing bridge is not the original one from 1889, it's actually been replaced and rebuilt 4 times!

The walk across the bridge was only half the attraction. On the other side of the canyon is a series of paths allowing you to walk around the area. Most are at ground level, and you get a sense like it's a NZ bush walk, but there is also the treetop walk, which is a series of bridges joining the big trees. It allows you to walk above the ground, getting more of a 'birdseye' perspective on the forest and almost brings you up into the canopy of the trees. A truly amazing experience.
There is also the clifftop walk, where the paths lead out onto the edge of the cliff allowing you to look straight down into the river below.
This is a very well maintained and put together attraction and we'd reccomend it to anybody in Vancouver. Link


Exhausted, we made our way back to Vancouver and ate dinner at Red Robin. The burgers we had are probably the best we've had so far, rivaling the Kiwi fish and chip shop burgers, even getting close to the ones we make on the BBQ at home!

Vancouver - part trois

I awoke to the smell of pancakes. Aimee had gotten up early and began to cook breakfast (bless her!).

We began our Vancouver exploration with the novelty map that Mum had given me, but it did prove reasonably helpful. The city is like Wellington in the sense that it's nice and compact.
We walked a few blocks down to the waterfront, around the pier where the cruise ships dock and then continued down the city. It began to rain and as we huddled for shelter and we realised that we were in Gastown. The steam clock was right in front of us, and about to strike 2:30pm.
We took a look and were showered with spray as it's steam vents opened up.

History: The name has nothing to do with Gas. Gastown is actually named after a man, "Gassy" John Deighton who had the 'gift of the gab' and liked to tell tall tales.

We looked around the shops for a bit, while we eagerly awaited the 3pm tolling of the clock. It was also raining so we needed an excuse to get out of the rain as I'd left my umbrella in the hotel room.

After watching the clock imitate the Big Ben at 3pm, we headed up. Up to the Vancouver lookout. I'd seen it earlier in the day, a kind of UFO perched on top of a tall building. It looked like it should have been a tower behind another building, but it was just the observation deck.
We go a good [dry] look at Vancouver, and got talking to one of the guides up the top. He was actually French, and had only been in the country 5 months, so gave us some good tips on looking for accomodation, and also showed us how to use the public transport.

Public transport in Vancouver is incredible. It runs like a well oiled machine, the skytrain every 6 minutes and the seabus every 15. The train does a short loop around the city, before heading out into the suburbs, starting and finishing at the seabus dock, which is a 12 minute ferry ride across the harbour.
The coolest thing about these is there seems to be no driver. In fact, the skytrain really is an automated train. There is no driver.
The seabus also appeared to be computer controlled, but i did see a guy leaning out the window to control the doors.

We caught the skytrain on the advice of our french friend out to Metrotown. We got off a couple of stops too early, and had a walk around a really nice suburb, before getting back onto the train and arriving at the Mall. Metrotown was a big mall. It had lots of shops and Aimee and I really enjoyed checking them all out.
We couldn't buy too much, cos we had to carry it all back on the train, but grabbed some dinner and a few small purchases.

Vancouver - part deux

So after a short rest in our hotel, we decided to head out for something to eat. Aimee and I are finding the timezones very hard to get used to, especially since the sun doesn't go down until 9pm! Very weird after it getting dark by 5pm in Wellington.

We walked out into the main centre, which wasn't far. We found Robson St, and wandered down. The city is so different to San fran. So clean, so nice. We instantly fell in love with it.
We ended up at burger king for dinner (i was too hungry to care) but it gave me the energy to keep going. By now my cold had totally taken hold and I was feeling very lethargic and coughing a lot. We pretty much headed back the way we'd come, although stopped off at a starbucks for a frappuchino.
I was amazed to see another starbucks on the other corner of the intersection! It was just as busy as the one we were in!

We decided that tomorrow we were going to explore the city a bit and head down to gas-town.
So on the way back we grabbed some pancake mix and some maple syrup to make breakfast with.

Vancouver - part Un

Well, we made it safely out of America. It took a while though, security in was very tight in San Francisco airport.
Because we were nice and early it was merely an inconvenience to us but some people weren't so lucky; They had 30 minutes to get on their plane and the line to go through security snaked along all the check-in counters. A funny guy with a megaphone was directing people, pulling out all the 7:40's, and anybody boarding after 7:40 was told to "stay where you are!"

Once into the security area, we were set into the maze of barriers, and were told that we'd been 'randomly selected' by a computer for Super Special Security Screening (SSSS). There we had to remove our shoes, then step into a bomb sniffing machine which blew air at us to see if we'd been in contact with bomb making materials.
Our checked luggage was then searched for anything suspicious, although a least the security guard was chatty and friendly.

We purchased a bit of duty free, then went to the gate to wait. After our boarding time had passed and there was no boarding call, we got a bit worried, when word came over the speaker that our flight had been delayed by 20 minutes due to some 'technical difficulties'.
So after finally getting on a the nice new plane (2005), we listened to the cabin crew give their messages in both french and english. This was a weird concept for Aimee,
as each message was repeated in a seemingly speeded-up, incomprehensible language.


The trip was short and un-eventful and we made a smooth landing at Vancouver airport, unfortunately so did about 10 other planes so there must have been about 2000 people clearing customs! The customs hall was at least the size of a rugby field, and was full. And still they kept coming!

We worked out that we walked approx 500 metres through the barrier maze to get to the front, where we formally entered Canada. We then collected our bags, left them in a corner (!) and went into immigration. A nice immigration lady gave us our work permits, valid for 365 days, and invited us to work in Vancouver, telling us it's much better than Toronto...

Customs then presented no problems, we simply walked out into the airport! all the signs about food and illegal imports were never checked up on, and we just walked out.
We were surprised again by the row of taxis. No falcons, no giant yellow cabs, just a long line of compact Toyota Prius's, the hybrid cars. The driver had a bit of a squeeze getting all our luggage in, but he did it.

Vancouver didn't have quite the same motorway leading into the city that I was expecting, it was just a main road with lots of traffic lights.
Then once in the main downtown area (which is actually a peninsular) it was a maze of one way streets.
The driver dropped us off to the front of the hotel, and I was surprised to have a porter take care of our bags for us.
It was a very grand hotel, but with us checking in at 2pm, they weren't quite ready for us. Our original room was supposed to be 1208, but it was still in cleaning, so they gave us one on the 8th floor. But when Aimee, the porter and I got up there it too was still in cleaning! So we went back down to the ground and they told us 1208 was ready. When we got up there, the cleaning lady said '5 more minutes...'

Eventually we were allowed in, and it was worth the wait. It was a really nice room, with a good view of the construction sites across the road. Mum tells me that 2 years ago you could see the sea, but now there is a hotel in the way.

So we settled in, unpacked a few things and lay down for a rest - Travelling makes you tired!