It takes a montage, pt 2

The remainder

It takes a montage

A few snaps from today

Nothing comes for free

One of the odd things about being outside NZ is the lack of public facilities. For instance, here are no public toilets and very few ATMs.

If you get caught out needing to take a slash while you're downtown, you need to sneak into a bar/cafe/department store and use theirs. But even then most places lock their bathrooms and you need to get a key. ATMs are almost all prvately owned, and you have to pay $1.50 or $2 to make a withdrawal. It's certainly not like NZ where there are bank-owned ATMs on almost every corner.

Gym regimen

Well I'm still keeping up my training at the gym, and I think you'll agree I'm developing some good strength.

Trip to the beach

Couple of pics from a few weeks ago- sunset at the beach. Downtown Vancouver is visible in the right hand side of the first picture. (Click for a larger image)

Weekend excursion

Here's a couple of pics from my weekend trip to Lake Bentzen in Port Moody.

I may even get organised and take some pics of Vancouver!

Vancouver- the good

A while ago I posted a list of things that really bugged me about Vancouver. This was something of an essay in culture shock for the small town Kiwi boy arriving in the big (north) American city.

Now that I've been here a while, I've gotten to know the city pretty well, and there *are* some good points to the city.

1. The huge numbers of Asian students here means that even geeky white boys have the opportunity to have a hot girlfriend
2. You save lots of money on coffee, as no way am I forking out $4 for a Starbucks coffee that is a crime against humanity
3. You learn all sorts of interesting facts from friendly locals. Just the other day I learned that the Canadian government put acid in school children's milk, and that the reason for Canada's generous immigration policy was to build an army of Asians and Sub-continentals to fight against Europe in WW3
4. Sushi is damn cheap and tasty.
5. The preponderance of beggars, panhandlers and tip-demanding servers means that you are never burdened for long having to carry around loose change.
6. When you suddenly find you are running low on canine sushi sets and doggy sweaters with 'bling' spelled out in diamantes, your only problem is which store to buy them from.
7. It's real purdy here. Not even any facetiousness in this one!

Stupid behaviour watch

Today I saw a woman gesturing vigorously while talking on the phone AND driving her car. Couple of thoughts:

1. your caller can't see your gestures
2. you only have 2 hands, one of which is holding the phone to your ear.

I guess driving falls down the list of priorties when taking those always important cell phone calls.