Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: to get run over by an SUV

Since I've been in Vancouver I've had 3 very close calls crossing the street and almost been run over. And before you start blaming it on my unfamiliarity with right-hand driving, I would add that all of those near-misses were when I was crossing with a pedestrian walk signal.

I know 3 people who have been hit by cars since I've been here, plus have been witness to a hit and run.

A few reasons spring to mind to explain this pedestrian risk:

• there is a free right hand turn at any time (equivalent to a left hand turn in NZ), even through a red light, so people just assume they can drive through without checking whether pedestrians have a cross signal
• if you are turning left across traffic you have to give way to everyone, even those turning right, so people try to sneak through as soon as possible rather than wait for all traffic to clear. You often see cars trying to sneak through a gap between pedestrians
• the preponderance of foreign drivers, SUVs, and people using cellphones or supping on frappuchinos instead of concentrating on the road.
  

Hardware bargains trump social order and toilet training

If you ever needed any reminder that large groups of people are nothing more than a herd of animals then read the following:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/16/computer.frenzy.ap/index.html

A scary encounter for a little white girl

Sophie's story: 

i was driving home from work and i saw this thing on the road so i slowed down. then i realised it was a man stumbling so i figured he was drunk. i had to slow right down and eventually had to stop. he was right in front of the car like 3 metres away and he turned and looked at me.
   he was this massive maori with scary eyes and a shaved head. i was like " shit" and then he started to walk towards the car with his arms strecthed out to the sides like he was gonna take me on. he was sweraing
so i yanked the car into reverse and tried to get away from him. he was still coming for me and i just boosted off and had to dodge him by going onto the other side of the road. he tried to chase after me still sweraing and stuff. he was so aggro. i nearly crapped my daks.

Nightscape

Here's a couple of shots taken from the living room of my new 9th floor apartment.

Tempy Worky

So I've registered as a temp with one of the local temp agencies. Probly starting work next week.

Now I get to work with people who will assume I am a moron, lose braincells from the sheer drudgery of the work and join the ranks of other social pariahs who call themselves temps.

On the plus side, I pretty much get all the free white-out I could ever hope for.

New addy

*Update: note the correction to the postal code*

My new address is

#906
1155 Homer St
Vancouver BC
V6B 5T5
CANADA

Not that ya bums ever send me anything...

Flat hunting

After about a month of searching and two weeks of that being intensive searching, I've managed to find somewhere to live again. I was shocked at how difficult it was to find anything. Some of the more notable things I encountered were:
* People implying that because I was foreign I was not to be trusted
* People renting out the living room (sleeping on the couch) of their tiny and over-filled apartment
* Finding a queue out the door and on to the street to view a place
* Making an appointment to view and finding the place has already been rented
* Never receiving a single phone call back to let me know that a place has been rented out.

It seems that no one has discovered the concept of the courtesy phone call here in Vancouver. I must have viewed over 20 places (not counting all the ones I phoned), and not one called back to say it had been let, even when they assured me they would. It's the same as the job situation, where not once have I heard back to say that the position had been filled. Not even an automated email or letter!

That's what drinking Starbucks will do to you.