Merry Canuckmas

Dear blog,

Finally I get a chance to sit down and update you! I've been working a lot in the run-up to Christmas, including the last six days in a row, so it's nice to get a relaxing day off!

So I managed to get to my first Vancouver Canucks game on Decemeber 6th when the Colorado Avalanche came to town. One word: INCREDIBLE. The atmosphere inside Rogers Arena was absolutely amazing. I can't imagine how much the place'll be rocking come playoff time! I've mentioned previously how much the hockey team means to the city and finally I got a piece of the action myself. For those interested, you can read about the game here but in summary the Canucks absolutely dominated proceedings, running out 6-0 winners. I managed to get a few pictures and couple of videos, so here's a taster:

Pre-game

Face off!

Our #1 goaltender - Roberto "LUUUUOOOOOO!!!!!" Luongo

Canucks celebrating at the bench after going 4-0 up!

I even managed to catch the sixth goal on camera for your enjoyment:

So I was a very happy boy leaving Rogers Arena that night. I actually only got a ticket for that game due to a mix-up by the guy selling tickets giving me one for the game on the 6th rather than the game on the 19th that Daniel and the girls were going to. I was more than happy with the way things turned out though!


Another highlight night was the Hermes Christmas party on the 12th. Everyone turned out for a fantastic meal at Blue Water Cafe, supposedly the best seafood restaurant in Vancouver. I wasn't left disappointed. The sablefish main I had was definitely in the top 5 meals of my life! The president of Hermes Canada was due to join us but unfortunately she had to pull out a couple of days before due to illness, so I wasn't able to do the networking I'd hoped! Fortunately a couple of colleagues from the Toronto store came in her place (one of whom was her son, who worked in the Vancouver store for the following week) so hopefully they'll put in a good word for me with the boss in case I'm in need of a few hours when I get round to Toronto or Montreal!

Our starter - the seafood tower. Two tiers of oysters, prawns, seared red tuna, smoked salmon,
jellyfish, scallops ceviche, clams and mussels.

I think a good night was had by all. Probably too good on my part as I was feeling absolutely awful the next day in work! I went a little bit too hard for someone who didn't have the next day off. Thankfully I managed to make it through but it was straight to bed when I got back home in the evening! I managed to tick one of the "to do before I die" list by having oysters for the first time. Must say I was pleasantly surprised to get some nice Hermes christmas gifts too!

My tour of the various restaurants of Vancouver has also continued. I joined Rita for Vietnamese and Chinese lunches last week, both of which were great. Also went back to my favourite Arsenal-watching bar up the road from work, Joey Burrard, for a bite to eat, couple of drinks and to watch the Canucks game with Gina and Irina last week.

The only big night out I've had amongst all these Christmas hours was on Saturday night to the Red Bull Thr3estyle DJ World Finals which were on at the Commodore Ballroom on Granville St. I went for a few drinks for Linda's leaving do beforehand. Linda is a friend of Daniel's from back in Ireland and she's now come to the end of her year. Nice girl and now I'm not sure who's going to look after Danny boy from now on! The DJs were ok - I was hoping it'd be more electronic/trance/house kind of sound but it turned out to be almost every genre and the DJs trying to showcase their mixing and crowd-pleasing skills more than anything. Still, something different and fairly enjoyable. It turned out that the Canadian DJ won - of course, no bias there whatsoever.

So that's about it really. I've got Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. Unfortunately back to it Boxing Day so I'm not able to join Daniel and the rest head up to a Kelowna ski lodge for Christmas. Would have been awesome I'm sure. Looks like it'll be a turkey dinner for one for me! Hopefully I can meet up with a couple of friends in town and I'll have ample time to Skype home to the family.

Merry Canuckmas one and all,
Simon x

Here comes the winter / BC Lions check into Boomtown

Hi all,

How are you? I hope you're well.

So, we had our first snow here in Burnaby on Nov 17th. It was what I'd call a 'UK snowfall' - a light dusting of not much significance but cool all the same. It lasted about a day, ultimately only making the sidewalks slippery as hell. The mountains have had a lot more of the stuff. The SameSun facebook pages have been regularly notifying me of snow in Banff and Kelowna, and the mountains around Vancouver now have that picturesque white top to them. It looks awesome on the horizon.

Last weekend saw the Grey Cup festival take place in Vancouver. BC Place, the big downtown stadium that recently re-opened after having its roof renovated, was hosting the Canadian Football League (American football) playoff finals this year, and it just so happened that the hometown BC Lions had made the final after a storming end to the season. The festival ran 24-27th November and there was certainly a football buzz around town. Not only BC Lions fans but fans of all the CFL teams seemed to have decended on the city for the activities, parade and game.

The big parade happened on Saturday morning. It was raining in typical Vancouver fashion but that didn't deter the crowds. I was working as usual but luckily the parade was running right down Burrard St, in front of the store, so I didn't miss any of the cheerleaders. The store was completely dead for the first 2.5 hours of the day as all eyes were on the street, meaning I got to watch the whole thing! There were tons of floats, marching bands, cheerleaders and flag-wavers entertaining the masses. I even got the chance to do my best wide receiver impression after I spotted promo balls being thrown into the crowd by a few makeshift quarterbacks. I dashed out of the store and claimed a ball for my own (despite, admittedly, a pretty poor fumble).

By no means the most exciting pictures you'll ever see but proof it happened:

And here's a quick snap of my souveneir:

The final itself was played between the BC Lions and Winnipeg. It was a great game and BC came out on top 34-23! Champions!!! Hopefully it'll inspire the Canucks to go one better in the ice hockey playoffs this year! Here's a photo of our MVP quarterback hero, Travis Lulay, with the Grey Cup:

From: http://www.theprovince.com/sports/5775895.bin?size=620x400s

I also got my first taster of a Japanese noodle bar, thanks to my colleague Boney (Bonnie) taking me for lunch a couple of days ago. We went to a place called Benkei just a block away from the store which she had recommended to me a couple of days earlier. She's originally from Hong Kong and has been in the city for a long time now, so I've been trying to get as many oriental restaurant recommendations out of her as possible. I can't remember the exact name of the dish but it was a spicy pork number and I had some pork dumpings on the side. Deeeeelicious! No problems wielding the chopsticks again either.

Other than that it's just been the usual work, gym, watching ice hockey lark. I had a day off sick and one day the SkyTrain wasn't working at all, so had to take 3 different buses to downtown and ended up being 1h30 late. There hasn't really been much other excitement apart from Dan's birthday last weekend. We went for a few drinks at his bar, The Corner, then on to the Yaletown Brewing Company which was a good laugh. Mark and I bought him a Canucks t-shirt which he seemed chuffed with. Happy days.


Finally, Mark is flying off to the Far East on Monday, so all the best to him on his travels. See you in another life, brother.

Ciao for now,
Si x