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Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too...

Well - things ground to a halt today work-wise. All bets are off because a shroud of heavy fog has kept everything covered for most of the day. I am due out on the airfield at 4pm which is the only time I could get an airside escort. Unfortunately this means I will have to work fast because the sun sets at 17:00. Might have to pack torches when I go and do my maintenance!

I was all set to go home Friday but I've extended a few more days in light of this maintenance and also because of the big match on Saturday - Liverpool are playing Everton so i'll have to get up at 04:30 to watch it, but I'd rather do that than be on a plane and miss it all together.

Vancouver Canucks lost last night, second loss in the shootouts in recent days. They are playing again tomorrow, let's hope they can get back to winning ways.

... Sunday always comes too late...

Well, it's an uneventful day. I dragged myself out of bed and into work early this morning and nothing has happened work-wise. We are approaching the "so called" hot-time of the day when things normally happen. I await it with baited breath.

Having email problems at the moment. I don't know that my QinetiQ webmail was working properly. Just spent 20 mins trying to work out if I've got an issue or not and I'm still not sure. I guess I'll know when people from work say "where is that email you promised...!"

Had a fairly quiet day yesterday - came to work from 9 until 3:30, went to the Foggy Dew for a coke and a club sandwich. Last night a couple of us went to the Thirsty Turtle (a block down from the Dew) and I found out that their chicken wrap with plum sauce and house salad is very nice :) and quite healthy too compared to the fish and chips and popcorn shrimp that everybody else had...

Going to stick around in work until 3 or 4 again today. Not sure about plans for tonight. Maybe I'll go watch a movie. I don't think there is any hockey on for me to watch...

Flying Wedge Pizza...
... is what I had for lunch! 2 slices of pizza for $10. Bargain! I had to reinstate the food picture after complaints from the readership! Not much to report today. Not much at all. Which is very good from a work point of view. I'm listening to Big Country at the moment. I can feel some more purchases from iTunes coming up, I need some new tunes.

Still getting my head around the fact I am not flying today. I had sort of prepared myself to come home today, and it's weird that I'm still going to be here, albeit only for 1 more week. A few people I've got to know over the last 4 months turned up in the Dew last night to buy me a drink and celebrate(!) my departure, only for me to say "nah, I am leaving next Friday now!"

Going to be taking it easy this weekend - perhaps even coming in to work on both days. I'd like to do some things like go down to Stanley Park once more (haven't done that this trip), and go downtown, which unbelievably I haven't done. Previous trips, we've been downtown lots of times.

There's no football match for Liverpool this weekend so I don't have to get up at an ungodly hour to watch the game. I am tempted to have a real good lie-in tomorrow but I also want to come in to work - I won't be able to just sit at the hotel not knowing how our system is performing....

Leavin' on a jet-plane...

...but not 'til next week!

So, I have a stay of execution - I am now due to fly out on Feb 2nd - and by the sounds of it as soon as I land, I am straight to work on the next job. Nothing like keeping busy.

Well - work is going very well today considering, so I celebrated with an english muffin and orange juice from Burger King. No pictures though, sorry. I am slightly less agitated about my bank situation than I was yesterday but I think I'll still be having words with them when I do get home.

I finished reading a book yesterday - the Dirt on Motley Crue - it was a good read even though I don't really like their music that much. It was interesting to read that at one time they spent a while in Vancouver making an album.

So, anyway, all my best laid plans are shaken up now. I was planning on going shooting with Paul next week for the last day of the shooting season, but I won't get back in time. I also wanted to take a few days off just to refocus and chill out and get used to being home, but it looks like that's not going to be possible either because of the work we all have to do. Oh well!

Staying on that bit longer gives me a chance to go out a few more times and try some of the places to eat we've wanted to go, but never found time to get to. I wanted to go to the Stone Grill under Granville bridge but it doesn't have good write ups. I'll definitely try and make time to go to Gotham again for a killer steak. It would be quite nice to go there with all the great people I've met and have one massive meal before I leave! We'll see what happens.

On the music front I am listening to Dream Theater more and more, and Dan is right, they are amazing. The music at first seems a bit haphazard sometimes but you start to appreciate some of the brilliant things they are doing with the instruments the more you listen to it.

Here's some Dream Theater from youtube - this is on the CD I bought



I'll definitely be getting more of their stuff at a later date, perhaps the live DVD that the clip above was taken from.

Edit - I don't believe what some people on the internet have the time to do - but this is amazing! Must have taken ages:

Kenny - You da man!






and for those wondering what this is? Well, it's the result of the tequila and $900 win on scratchcards that I mentioned! I guess you won't get it if you've never seen the film "The Anchorman" with Will Ferrell. If not, go check it out!

Hmm...

... Well, after the last few days I have decided that for a while at least, I'm not drinking again. We had an interesting night on Monday, involving $900 winnings on pull-tabs, and lots of tequila, vodka, and beer. It was in fact an impromtu leaving party for me I guess. Suffice to say, things rapidly went downhill, as they always do when loads of money and tequila are involved. I found out today that I said a few things to a few people that (1) I don't remember saying, and (2) I probably should NOT have said. Damn.

Well, it's done now, and I can't take it back, so got to swallow and get on with it.

Work is proving to be a real pain at the moment too. I honestly don't know whether I am coming or going - it seems I *should* be on the plane on Friday, but I *might* not be. Except the way things are shaping up, I won't know I'm going or staying until the last minute. Actually, to be honest, after today, I'd rather just come home.

No food adventures to speak of - I am not in the mood. Was having a few problems late last week and into this week actually using my cashcard to get money. My bank said over the phone that they were having computer problems that meant people in North America could not take out cash. It turns out after a phone call this morning that my bank's fraud people had noticed a "suspicious" transaction on my account, and therefore had blocked the card from use. Funny - they didn't think to tell the Telephone banking staff. I got the old chesnut from the fraud people this morning - "Oh, we use different computer systems." That answer should be made an absolute nonsense. Any time a corporation says it, it's a crock of sh*t. The mobile phone people in England, 02, are exactly the same. You order a phone from them on the internet and then have a problem so you go into an O2 shop. Except they say - "Oh, the O2 internet site is on a different system to the O2 retail group, we can't help" and vice versa.

Sorry, but in today's day and age, there is no reason why a multinational financial institution should have different departments and different systems that don't show a customer's full details. So anyway, the kind lady from the Fraud department told me they'd put a block on the card because of a suspicious transaction "somewhere in Canada". I said, "Yes, funny that. I've been travelling back and forward between the UK and Canada for the last 6 months." At which point she said "oh ok, in that case, it's obviously not fraud. I'll unblock your card for you". Now, I have several issues with this:

(1) I was repeatedly told last week by the bank that I had funds in my account and there was no problem whatsoever with my card - i.e. it had not been blocked out.
(2) I first visited Canada in July, and have done so regularly since then. Hence my account has many many cash withdrawls from Canadian cash-machines. Why did it take them 6 months to twig on that I was using the card in another country. And when they saw the "suspicious" transaction, did they not see the other transactions that have been taking place since Jan 5th?
(3) The card was apparently "blocked". That meant that for most of the day I could not use it. However by pure luck I found that on 3 of the last 6 days, I have been able to withdraw money (at the same time each day.) That is how I have been getting by. So, not only did they block my card, but in fact the block did not work anyway and I was still able to withdraw the best part of £250. Way to go, Natwest....

Anyway, in case you couldn't tell, I am not in the best of moods, so this entry has become a bit of a rant......

Oh Noes!!

The word has come down from above - I am to fly home as planned on Friday. It will be very strange to leave this time as there is no return date set! It could be forever :( I have air-miles saved up though so for sure it's not the last time I'll visit! There's a shoot on the Saturday out at Upton but I won't be landing until the afternoon so I'll have to give it a miss.

I don't want to talk about food like normal. The last few days have been a battle against the deep fat (no fried foods whatsoever) but last night I slipped up and after our little soiree we went to Dennys and got cheeseburger, fries and gravy! Awesome! Was a good night out as always, but eating a meal like that (having already had dinner earlier that night) is not the best plan. One bonus of course is that there is no hangover and you can get up as fresh a spring daisy the next morning (yeah right....!)

So the weather is rubbish - no more snow and still cold but hey it's the middle of winter so we can't expect miracles. Work is going quietly, had a few things to discuss but it's all doing OK for now. Going to spend the rest of the day writing things up and making sure i have tied up any loose ends before leaving Friday. I'm loving the Shed Seven album I bought from iTunes, it's really good and it's making me remember school days when we listened to them the first time around. Dunno if I mentioned this before but I got the theme song from the new Bond film, Casino Royale. It's sung by Chris Cornell, (who I often mention when I talk about music!) and it's quite a good tune -if a bit cheesy but then which James Bond theme isn't?!

Tonight we're heading to Legends in Richmond for some pulltabbing and keno! Nice! Should be fun again but I'll definitely need a nap before I go out to recharge the batteries - and no late night cheeseburgers tonight!!!

I guess tomorrow I need to start thinking about getting packed and doing all my laundry so I take a case of clean clothes home rather than all crammed in and dirty! Oh, what a life!

Good Weekend of football

So, we beat Chelski! About time. I tried to stay awake to watch the match, and despite phone-calls to people to ring me and keep me awake, I fell asleep and missed the match. It was 4am, and I needed to wait until 4:45am until kick off. Last thing I remember is sitting in the chair watching the pre-game chat. Next thing, it's the morning and I'm sitting in the chair with the remote in my hand. Not such a bad thing though as the game was shown again so I did get to watch it :)

I see Manchester United lost to Arsenal 2-1, good result but it means the gooners are right behind us in 4th place. We'll need to beat United and Arsenal to cement the league position. If we can beat United it means they need to lose 3 games and we need to win all our games to get above them. A tall order, it pains me to say it but they are looking strong.

Onto the weather :) Well, it's raining a lot. All of the snow and ice has been washed away which is a good thing. No headaches on that front any more. The forecast says lots more rain. My scheduled leaving date is the 26th so it's less than a week away. Still not sure if I am staying on longer or not. Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow!!!

I watched the Ricky Hatton fight last night - he won easily but it wasn't the best. Makes a nice change for me to be able to watch a sporting event at a comfortable time while everyone in England is having to wait up until 4am to watch it :)

That's all for now folks!

iTunes strikes again...

...I am now three albums better off:

Shed Seven - Going For Gold
Counting Crows - Films About Ghosts
Dream Theater - Live at Budokan

Paul was responsible for the first two - I wish he would stop talking about bands to me. Dream Theater is somewhat of an oddity. Dan at work is a big fan of theirs and has showed me a DVD of them in concert and we've listened to some of their music as well. I don't really know how to describe them other than to say they are a progressive rock band. This is something that is a step away from my normal listening material but their music is really good. Each musician is technically very very good, and they do some clever things in their performances (for example, the drummer will drop beats mid bar, and change the tempo mid song, and everyone keeps up faultlessly.) If you like something that bit different, give them a listen.

It started snowing again this morning - light stuff that wasn't really settling. The forecast for the next 5 days says rain so I hope that holds true and washes away all the snow and ice so I can get work done!

Picked up series 1 and series 2 of "24" today - so about 5 years after everyone else, I can finally see what the fuss is about. Funny how I never got around to watching it the first time. I guess once you've missed so much of something there is no point picking it up mid season or mid series-run. There are some other shows I wouldn't mind catching up on - The Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica to name a couple that come to mind.

So, I know there are people out there reading who want to know what I had for lunch today - so, here it is - California rolls! Dinner last night was the foggy dew again - a "Dews" burger. Tonight I might (shock horror) go somewhere different - but I'll be back at the Dew afterwards for the Foggy Dew Name that Tune night :)

Here's hoping there is loads of rain for the rest of the week.

Lunch!

Monster sandwich from Flying Wedge Pizza with some fresh veggies... If this ain't healthy I don't know what is!

Good morning, jobseekers...

I am thinking I should add some new random quotes to my list. (The ones that sit just below the website banner - they change every time the page is refreshed.) I took my original inspiration from shows like "The League Of Gentlemen", "Red Dwarf", "Phoenix Nights", and some famous films. I'm sort of lacking as to what to add now. Canadian TV isn't the best. It's mostly repeated shows month after month. There are shows on now that I saw over here in July! And the advert breaks really get you down. I was watching South Park last night, and there were 5 commercial breaks. 5! In England you'd get 1 break for a 23 min episode. It does my head in.

Well - it seems I now have a new tradition to keep up - along with the weather, this blog has become famous for detailing the food I am eating. I guess it's a way to ensure I don't eat loads of junk food and put on even more weight than I have since starting this North American jaunt. Well, let's get the weather out of the way first... Environment Canada says today will be "cloudy with sunny periods", and a positively boiling temperature of 4 degrees centigrade. Interestingly the last 24 hours conditions don't show rain - but cloud and fog. That is odd as I am sure the ground was wet when I left the hotel this morning... (hmm, that sounds like something Peter Kay would say).

So - onto the food! Spinach salad last night with a chopped up chicken breast on it and italian dressing. Very nice. And no beer either. I am now drinking mostly 7-up, sometimes the odd cranberry and soda here and there. Lunch today is going to be a chore, I really want to go back to Toshi and get California rolls but I need to get something different. Subway is out - I am sick of them from weeks of eating them before. Although a meatball sub might be a possibility. A+W is also out coz it's burgers, fries, and root beer. Fortune Wok / Toshi are out because if I go there, I'll get sushi. Burger King - oh, a double whopper with cheese would be awesome but NO.

So, that leaves me greek food or pizza. Pizza I think.... as for dinner tonight (especially for Tom!) well, I think the Foggy Dew as I can't be bothered to go further afield by the time I've got home and been the gym. (and the fact all my friends work in there so I have people to talk to :P)

As we speak Paul is sending me random youtube links for songs. I don't like it when he does that. It usually means I end up logging on to iTunes and buying yet another album. On the list at the moment is REM - Monster, some Incubus, some Bon Jovi, and a few others. Fair play though, he recommended one the other day that is really good, Scott Matthews - Elusive - hard to describe but he sounds a bit like a cross between Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder. It's worth checking out anyway. He has some samples on his homepage.

Moving on to sports news - Canucks beat Montreal Canadiens 4-0 and are now top of their division. I don't know how the playoff system works here but I think being top of their mini-league can't be a bad thing, so they might get into the playoffs for the Stanley cup. Liverpool have got Chelsea this weekend which means I am up at 4:30am Saturday morning to watch it. Because of this I fully expect them to lose. I hope not though we are due a win against them...

Anyway, enough for now... I will report back after lunch of course.

It's lunchtime...

...and that means one thing - California rolls courtesy of my good friends at Toshi! Was tempted on pizza but no - i will stick to the healthy stuff :)

Tomorrow I will have to have something different. Burger King? Subway? A+W? Tim Horton's? Fortune Wok? Flying Wedge Pizza? The list of choices is endless!!

And the rain came tumbling down...

Finally! Houston, we have rainfall. The snow might start to melt now. It was predicted that there would be snowfall overnight but no! I woke this morning and it was raining! Just what I need to melt some of this snow away.

Hon's last night was awesome! We ordered enough chinese food to feed a small army but it was really nice! Yeung chow fried rice, pot stickers, beef and green peppers, and lettuce dumplings. Oh, and don't forget the won-ton soup with BBQ pork in it! Suffice to say after that there wasn't much room for anything else so I went grocery shopping to pick up a few bits and pieces and then went back to the hotel and played computer games for a while. Ended up falling asleep then waking at about 2am unable to sleep. Doh! It was ok though, had work things to read that had arrived via email and that soon did the job of making me sleepy.

Still no official word on when I go home - things are getting interesting back at home - lots of work to be done - so I wonder if I am better off over here out of the way :)

Not had breakfast yet... not sure whether to wait until lunch or go hit A+W for a ham n' egger! Speaking of breakfast it's a miracle that I have not been to Starbucks once since I arrived this time. That must be some sort of record.

There is a good chance...

... that i might be getting addicted to california rolls. I have had them for lunch every day for the last 3 or 4 days I think! You can get them from Toshi or Fortune Wok here at the airport. I have been getting packs of 6 for $4.75, which is a bargain. They're not unhealthy, not too big a portion, and a nice lunchtime snack to keep you going until dinner. I don't know what I'll do when I get back home. Never seen them in England.

Well in time honoured fashion I will update any readers on the Vancouver weather situation - it's still very cold (sub zero at night) and snow is almost guaranteed for later today. It's going to further delay work so I guess my stay will need to be extended unless someone else is shipped out to replace me.

Hmm, wondering about dinner tonight - a few of us from the Foggy Dew have a date and we are going to Hon's Won Ton house for a bite to eat. I've been there once before and it was interesting. It's very basic inside but the food is great :)

12 more days...

... until I go home. It's still really cold here. There hasn't been any fresh snow but because of the cold the stuff that was left is just not melting! People are saying the snow and ice might not dissapear for a week or more if the cold temperatures keep up.

Yesterday, I was up at 4:30am to watch Watford vs Liverpool. Convincing win by Liverpool - Watford were awful. Went into work after that for a couple of hours. I got back to the hotel at around 2pm, and spent a while playing EVE Online. Then it was downstairs to the Foggy Dew for the Canucks vs Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game. Yesterday was "Hockey Day" in Canada and they had games on all day. The guys from the Foggy Dew surpassed themselves! They had reserved me a table right in front of the big screen, and had cooked me a special lunch - a proper roast beef dinner with yorkshire pudding! They don't do it on the menu but sometimes the chef makes yorkshires so he made a batch and cooked up some beef as well. It was superb! Roast dinners are the one thing I've not been able to find over here, so it went down a treat. Really nice of them to do it! :) The problem is, I will be in there every weekend asking for it now...!

Well, onto the hockey.... Toronto were all over Vancouver in the first period and it wasn't looking too good. Vancouver scored a goal on the break and the period ended 1-0 Canucks. Toronto had taken 17 shots, Vancouver had taken only 1 and scored! The second period was cagey, and Toronto got a dubious goal back to make it 1-1. Canucks managed to score again and it was 2-1. The goaltender Luongo was having a great game. In the third period Vancouver managed to score 2 goals on the same powerplay to make it 4-1 and they scored 2 more goals on the break to make it 6-1 final score. Great result!

After that we hung around in the bar for a while deciding whether or not to go downtown and watch the Bodyworlds exhibition. It finishes today :(

It was sold out according to the internet, but you had a slight chance of getting in if you went down at 3am - it was running 24hours for the last few days. So, we hung around until about 2:30, and then a couple of us got a cab into downtown. We got to ScienceWorld and found there were no queues - good stuff - but unfortunately when we got inside, they said all tickets were sold and we would not get in - even if people did not turn up for their tickets. There was nothing we could do, except hail a cab and go back to Richmond. Oh well, dissapointment but at least we tried to go and see it, better than sitting around wondering whether we would have got in or not.

So onto today - well, I have to go to the airport to do my normal daily stuff. We were supposed to be going to Steveston for "real" fish and chips but that's been put on hold for now - the other guys who I was going with are busy with some last minute stuff. I'll probably hit the gym after the airport which is obviously much better than going eating fish and chips! :)

That's all for now!

Nice Weather

Things are not improved weather-wise. Still cold, and as I speak there is a bad hailstorm going on. It's allegedly going to turn to snow later. Fun!

Had a busy day today work-wise, lots to get done. Bob is flying home tonight so we've been getting data ready for his return. Nice weather to fly in anyway. Was supposed to be heading out onto the runways tonight but looking at the weather I don't think that will be happening especially if the snow arrives.

We broke with tradition and did not eat at the Fairmont Hotel today - Bob declined as he didn't think there would be much on the menu to like. Instead we headed down to Milestones in the domestic terminal - I had the Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich - was quite nice but a bit dry. Also, their Sprite tasted crap. Must have run out of syrup in the dispenser.

Not sure what tonight will hold now - I am pretty much on hold for runway activity. It will get to a point where we have to call it off though, and try and get it done later in the week.

Snow again?

We are back in Vancouver, and as you'd expect, it's cold, wet and windy. Not quite as cold as last time though. Arrived back on Friday night, and after a slight delay, managed to get to the hotel and checked in by about 8:30. Then it was straight to the Foggy Dew for a pint of Sleeman's Honey Brown and some chicken wings. We arrived just in time to see the Canucks win 3-2 in Overtime.

Saturday, no rest - straight to work to get started on things. We spent most of the day at work before retiring at around 5pm. Had a dinner of fish and chips in the Foggy again! Well, like the manager said, what's the point in taking a gamble with anywhere else - we know the menu, we know the staff - and if something's wrong with the food or drink they'll gladly take care of it! Plus it reminds us of O'Neils at home and that's always a good thing.

Met up with some of the YVR staff on Saturday night and went bowling and then to a pub called the Brewhouse which was cool. It's about £13 away in a taxi though so I doubt I'll be going there that often.

Sunday - called into work for a couple hours to see how things were ticking over, and reported back to base. Went to the gym in the afternoon then came home to watch some TV and just relax - Dog the Bounty Hunter marathon was on so that killed 3 hours. Then at 6:30, you guessed it - down to the Foggy Dew for Veggies and dip, and then a Taco salad while the Canucks were on PPV. After a close game, they won 4-3 after a shootout. Good fun, and some of the people in the pub were going bananas.

So, an early start today (7am) which was not fun - but got into work and everything is looking good. Not sure about plans for later today - gym of course after work - but as for dinner, I may try and persuade Bob to venture to the Flying Beaver, or even somewhere further afield. We shall see......