A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Thursday, August 15, 2002
My week in Vancouver is just about over, so what else have i been up to, other than watching big gay fireworks displays and grooving to weird Icelandic bands?
I went to the cinema the other night, and watched 'The road to Perdition'. The gangster subject area is a bit of a departure from American Beauty, for Sam Mendes, but it's done in a similar style, and is very enjoyable.
The plot was almost a direct copy of a certain classic British Gangster film, which i won't name here, as it would totally give away the ending. And maybe police crime-detection levels in thirties America weren't great, but I think they would have paid slightly more attention to all the wholesale slaughter that was going on at times, than was shown in the film. Good stuff though.
Yesterday i went for a bit of excercise by climbing the 'Grouse Grind' as fast as i could, which was actually quite slowly by the end. The Grouse grind is a well used, super steep route up Grouse mountain, just outside of town. Lots of people use it as a training run, and the whole thing is made more competitive & fun by having smart card machines at the top and bottom to time your run. Your time then pops up on a screen in the cable car station at the top, and is shown along side the best for the day, season etc. Quite a good motivation to drag your ass up there just a little bit quicker. I made it in 64 minutes, not a patch on the record 26mins, and would have placed me 424 out of 492 people in last years race there, probably somewhere in the middle of the 50+ ladies competitors, yay!
I've also spent quite a bit of time ambling around town, trying and failing to find the world's thinnest building, i suppose it must really very thin indeed. Annoyingly it's in an extremely rough part of town, not an place where you want to hang around, staring gormlessly at your Lonely Planet for too long. In fact one of the things that has struck me about Vancouver is the horrendous number of bums hassling you for money all the time. Apparently it has such a bad problem as it's the warmest place in Canada, and the only place that you can be homeless and live through the winter.
Even so, i'm sure not all of the people hassling you are homeless, some even have signs saying "Need $$$'s for pot". (Reminds me, i was stopped by a guy in Hawaii asking for money so he could go to the cinema! - er, piss off mate)
A lot of their signs totally confused me, as they asked for, "A Loonie to get me through the night". Eh? Until I realised that Loonie is the Canadian slang for a one dollar coin.
Anyway, after a year in virtually homelessness free NZ, i'm getting a bit fed up with it. First I felt sad for them, then guilty that I wasn't helping them more and finally just pissed off with being hassled wherever i went. So i'm happy to report i'm getting away from Vancouver, and my 18-30's hostel, and getting out into the real Canada, bears and all, on a 7-day cycle tour!
It was supposed to be a big group thing, but apparently i'm the only person that's booked for it :oS However i've had a chat to the bloke running it (Sadly a cockney), and he seems like a fairly chatty, positive, entertaining type, so fingers crossed we won't be feeding each other to the bears after 2 days. I would write more about it here, but i've got to go and get packed up, and get a bit of kip really, so this link will have to suffice (Oh, i'm not doing the Yoga bit though). This is the guy i'll be with, and as his London - Australia ride is slightly more bad-ass than my Christchurch - Akaroa ride, he can carry the tent!
Nuts. My trainers have picked a bad night to fall to pieces.
