Oops. Yesterday when I thought I’d better post a new update here I believed it had only been a week and a half or a fortnight at most since my last. How times flies, eh?
Halloween came and went for me. I was working so didn't get to have too much fun but it's a pretty massive day/night over here. Costumes were on sale for weeks beforehand. Kids even trick or treat the stores and shops! I managed to enjoy a few of the fireworks that were going off in the days either side (although nothing of the scale of a good old UK November the fifth).
The first week of November brought the sales at the store. Hermes, I’m told, only hold one or two sales per year, where a batch of previous seasons’ clothing and shoes come out for 5 days at 40% or 60% off the original price. Before you ask, no, no handbags are included and yes, unfortunately everything we have is out on display and there aren’t any different sizes out the back.
The only thing that I quite liked was a duffle coat but, while 60% off sounded like a good deal, over $4000 was just slightly out of my budget. I wondered how much stuff I could do with the $4000 (yea, like a seriously considered buying the coat...). There were some quite nice formal shoes as well but they only went up to size 45, so no good for me.
Anyway, the first day of the sale was absolutely mental. As I’ve previously mentioned, some people are absolutely obsessed with the brand and the hardcore were out in full force, queuing up outside the store for a good while before we opened. There must have been a line about 50-60 long when we opened at 10am. Let the mad scramble begin. The store was super-busy for the rest of the day and I had my doubts whether any stock would be left for the remaining days. One of my colleagues later told me an actual fight nearly broke out between two guys over a pair of shoes. Oh, how much progress the human race has made over the years. Fortunately the other 4 days of the sale were far less manic. For me it had just meant plenty of hours and therefore a nice pay check at the end of the week. Happy days.
The cold and damp weather caught up with me last week. At work on Tuesday I began suffering with the dreaded sore throat, runny nose, cough etc and ended up taking the next day off sick. Little did I know that this would lead me to help come to the rescue of an old fellow falling over just in the front of our house. Daniel was just setting off for work and I was sat watching TV feeling sorry for myself. Next thing I know, Daniel comes running back into the house asking for my help. I go outside and I’m confronted with an old guy collapsed on the floor and 3 or 4 people standing over him. As I get closer I realise that there is blood absolutely STREAMING out of his head, like nothing I’ve seen before. Daniel and another lady were both on the phone to the emergency services and this guy was in a really bad way. I’m not sure whether he slipped and hit his head on the sidewalk or if he’d smashed his head on the wall on the way down but it looked really serious. We managed to get a couple of blankets and I took on the role applying pressure to the guy’s head to try to stem the bleeding. I’ve got to say I’m glad I didn’t get a full view of the actual injury because it felt like I was actually holding the top of his head in place – not pleasant. We managed to do a pretty good job of keeping the guy calm and stable, despite the small lake of blood forming on the ground next to him. Thankfully it wasn’t too long before the ambulance and fire brigade turned up on the scene and took over getting the guy patched up and off to hospital. I don’t know what happened to him but he seemed to be alright when I went back inside so fingers crossed he’s on the mend.
The next day I was feeling a lot better and as it was my actual day off work I decided to go for a wander downtown. My goal was to get to the Vancouver Police Museum that I’d read about in one of my guidebooks. It was a much brighter, clearer day than it had been so took the camera as well. Here are some of the snaps I managed to get:
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| View from the waterfront across to the North Shore |
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| View from Waterfront/Gastown. Canada Place on the left. |
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| Canada Place |
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| Seaplane in front of Stanley Park |
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| There were a couple of Russian Navy ships in town. |
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| O CANADA! |
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| The Library - took me back to the Rome trip earlier this summer. |
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| Outside BC Place - home of the BC Lions CFL team and The Whitecaps football team. |
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| Rogers Arena - home of the mighty Canucks! Do you have the heart of a Canuck? I doubt it... |
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| Plaque tribute to my boy, Trevor Linden, outside Rogers Arena. |
The museum was also really cool. Quaint is how I’d describe it but certainly worth the $7 admission fee. The building itself was formerly the VPD’s ‘Bureau of Science’ as well as a courtroom and morgue. After reading about the history of the VPD I browsed through countless confiscated weapons, drugs, displays on Vancouver’s most notorious unsolved murders and into the morgue to look at preserved body parts and autopsy accounts. Apparently Errol Flynn had has autopsy there. To borrow the museum’s own catchphrase, it was an arresting experience. Boom-boom-tish.
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| Situated in a dodgy area but enough entertainment out of $7. |
Since then it has just been back to work and business as usual. I’m managing to put away some savings on a regular basis so it’s all good. I’ve finally managed to get some Skype time with my brother, Dad and Mark Step, which was really cool.
Sports also get a notable mention in this blog entry. Go Canucks go – still pretty inconsistent but a few W’s posted since the last update. Go Texans go – I’ve been following the Houston Texans closely again since arriving and they’re kicking butt, winning their last 4. Arsenal – going from strength to strength and England have just managed to scrape to another friendly victory. The BC Lions CFL team are going to the playoffs and this year the playoff finals are here in Vancouver. Unfortunately no NBA yet still but you can’t have everything.
In other news, Mark has booked a flight to Vietnam and will be leaving Canada in a few weeks time. God speed to you, sir. Just when I thought the house was settled in he dropped that news, so it looks like we'll be getting a new housemate very soon!
Simon x
