Well, here's the first web-log entry. It's been a long time coming but now it's up and running I hope this website will be worth it. As I'm what passes for the techie round here I guess it's my fault for the delay but I'd have to say that we've been having too good (or too busy) a time to devote a long enough effort to sorting something out.
Hopefully over the coming months there'll be a flavour of what has been going on up to this point.
Thanks
Simon
The country is just stunning. There is tons of natural beauty, not developed into houses or businesses yet as there is just so much space. So forests and snow capped mountains sit side by side with the very tall buildings of the city scape.
We went up Grouse Mountain www.grousemountain.com - it is called the peak of Vancouver. You drive up out of town for while and then you get a cable car for an 8 minute ride up the mountain, or you can walk up it in 1 1/2 hours if you are fit (Jane is not). We went up late afternoon and watched a lumberjack show, saw 2 orphaned bears playing about in the water, went on an eco walk, watched the story of the 2 orphaned bears in the Theatre in the Sky and then ate our dinner sat out on the open air balcony watching the lights go on all over Vancouver. Fantastic.
UpDate in October:
Lonsdale Quay is a market nearby that sells fresh bread, cheeses, salads, deli mixes, soups, beavertails (yes, beavertails - sort of crispy pancakes shaped like a beavertail with various toppings - traditionally cinnamon sugar) ice cream, fresh fruit and vegetables, food for lunch from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Mexico, Italy, India, France, Greece, UK (fish and chips!) and of course Canada - fresh sea fish made into baps in salads, prawn parcels etc. There are live fish, crabs and lobsters kept in tanks ready for you to buy and take home and cook, of course we have not bought anything live as we would not know what to do with it, apart from set it free.
Lonsdale Quay from the Outside:
View from Lonsdale Quay to Downtown Vancouver:
Until we recently got our laptop, our only access to the internet was an hour a day at the North Vancouver library, this was very limiting to say the least. We got our laptop just over a week ago and the very next day the nice man from Shaw got us connected to the internet. We all heaved a sigh of relief and have been fighting for control of the flaming thing ever since.
There is a Starbucks on every corner and the boys have their own Starbucks cards (I know I know), you can put money on them and then they can go and buy their own drinks, they feel very grown up but I am painfully aware of the exploitation going on there (of us that is).