Hello Downtown!

Hi everyone,

The pretty big news from the last few weeks is that I've moved to Downtown Vancouver! I'm now living in an apartment in a building called Conference Plaza, on the corner on Seymour and W. Pender.

The whole move came pretty suddenly. As you know, I was the last one left in our place in Burnaby after Dan and Mark had moved out and moved on. My landlord, Jun, came round out of the blue one evening after I'd got back from work and said he wanted to have a quick chat. I knew exactly what he was going to say and, to be honest, the timing was right for me too as I'd had tentative thoughts about giving Downtown living a try. Anyway, Jun explained that he was having a hard time finding two individuals to fill the two vacant rooms but he'd found a family that wanted to take the whole place. I said that it was no problem for me to move out and he said I could take as long as I needed to find a place.

I started scouring Craigslist that evening (the go-to website for just about anything here) and managed to find a few rooms that seemed suitable. Obviously I'm trying to save money each month for travelling at the end of this trip so I decided that I'd just look for a small room or den that was available in a shared apartment. I only have a suitcase of stuff with me so I don't need a big room (there was plenty of square feet wasted in my room in Edmonds) - basically just somewhere with a bed and a bit of storage space. A few calls/emails later I had a couple of viewings arranged but ended up taking the first place I looked at.

The location is great and I'm within walking distance to just about anywhere I need to go (thanks to my 'mad strides', eh Angie?). It takes less than 10 minutes to walk to work and I'm only a few minutes walk from the waterfront and all the bars/restaurants on and around Granville St. I'm also only a couple of blocks away from the Vancouver Convention Centre, where handily Trevor Linden is opening one of his cheap membership 'Club 16' gyms very shortly, so I've managed to get my membership transferred to there ready for opening day.

My new place is in a building in the shadow of the Harbour Centre. Still waiting for a nice day to go check out the views from the Observation deck!

I'm really happy with the place so far. I'm actually in one of the 'larger' rooms until April 1st when I'll switch to a den. I'm living with 3 other guys, who are all students and all originally from the Middle East I believe. They seem like cool, respectful guys but I don't seem them all that often. Whether I'll be staying in this same apartment or moving to another which has a den available on April 1st remains to be seen.

The building itself is pretty modern and has it's own little gym, swimming pool, hot tub and sauna, which of course I've been making maximum use of! I have a quick swim and a sauna pretty much every morning. Barely anyone else uses it! The gym doesn't have very much equipment but has been keeping me ticking over until Club 16 opens in April.

Happy days

Being downtown has also helped the social life a lot as well now I don't have to spend time skytraining and busing to wherever I need to go. I guess it's both a pro and a con because having bars and restaurants right on my doorstep has proved too much of a temptation and I've probably spent a little more than I've wanted to since moving in! But as Jared would say, you can't put a price on a good time. It's actually been nice not having to get on the skytrain every day and I no longer have to fork out $110/month for the transit pass.

The other major con of living downtown is that the number of homeless people/bums that I encounter has increased exponentially. No, I don't have any spare change!!!

In terms of stuff that I've done, as I mentioned above, it's been a lot of eats and drinks out and about. Much to my Uncle Peter's dismay I went to Gorilla Food (the raw organic vegan place) again, this time with Penny who is in the midst of a 30-day vegan challenge. She seems to be doing really well and from some of the photos of the food she's prepared she's gone to a lot of effort. She's certainly put my vegetarian effort to shame! Well done, Penny!!

This time I tried the 'Main St. Monkey' sandwich and the 'Choco-Gorilla' shake. Decent! Still, I don't miss vegetarianism.

I took a stroll on one of my days off last week, starting off down at the waterfront, along past Coal Harbour to the edge of Stanley Park, then back round to English Bay, Davie St then back home. Weather wasn't great but I hadn't been down to Stanley Park in a few months so it was good to remind myself where I was and what I now have on my doorstep!

The Olympic Cauldron from the 2010 games.

Coal Harbour aparments which must have one of the best views ever.

Down at English Bay

The bronze laughing men statues byYue Minjun in the West End

So now it's just a few weeks until the boys come over from the UK. Time has gone so fast! Really looking forward to seeing them again. Also it won't be long till I jet over to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix. SUPER excited about that - especially after my boy Jenson stormed to victory in the 1st race of the season last weekend! I really should book my flight soon! Hoping to get my tax rebate through before I do though! :P

Suppose I should put a little mention of how Tottenham 'Mind the Gap' Hotspur have now surrendered 3rd place to the mighty Gooners. Oh, and a mention of Thomas Vermaelen's late winner vs. the Toon Army for Uncle P. I guess this 'worst Arsenal team for a generation' isn't so bad after all. I've got to say the team spirit is easily the best I've seen for 4 or 5 years. Hopefully we can keep pushing on and secure a top 4 place in the next few weeks!

Tonight I'm off to Penny and Jason's place for an English-only night, so I should be making a couple more ex-pat friends over that most British of dishes - yes, you guessed it right - curry! Looking forward to it!


Peace and love,
Simon x