I've posted 5 blog entries, including this one so you might need to go back a few to see what's been going on. Links are here if easier.
I did my long run this morning and I was really hoping for rain which didn't come until later in the afternoon. But it went well and I'm glad I did it.
I had a shower and did some chores, made lunch for everyone and then set about catching up on my blogs, which went really well but with constant interruptions, it does take a long time.
Leo and Oscar played online with their cousins but Leo did spend a lot of time watching rubbish on his phone in bed, and Ellis spent the vast majority of his day in his room.
Rob eventually settled into his office for the day and that was it. We were all sitting in different rooms of the house doing our own things. But I do still feel like I've seen everyone a lot today. Not sure how that has happened. Like I said, strange day.😕
It tipped down this afternoon, like monsoon rain, lots of it, huge blobs of straight down rain, with some lightning and a thunder clap. Flooded the garden. I love it! I love looking at it, love the sound it makes, love the smell of rain and I like being out in it. 🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧
After the rain I snuggled with Leo on the sofa to watch the last bit of our film we started the other day. I love doing that but the boys aren't interested. I picture us with all our duvets and pillows, cosy, watching a film together, but nope. 😔 Rob doesn't watch TV or films so I end up just enjoying them on my own.
Ellis made his second meal which was cheeseburgers, wedges and coleslaw. Again he didn't really enjoy it to start with and had a hissy fit about cutting wedges but he does get excited when it all starts coming together. Rob loved it and hoovered it up.
For dessert Ellis had found a video that he wanted to follow. It is basically wraps covered in melted butter, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and put in the oven. You're supposed to dip them in marshmallows but we used Nutella instead and I pretty much ate the weight of a large hippo. 🦛
I've just finished putting Oscar and Leo to bed. It's 10:40pm 😳 I'm going to get up-to-date with my blog and then watch a bit of Netflix maybe or start my new book in bed.
We're off to Weston-Super-Mare tomorrow to see my big brother Mark and sister-in-law Nicky. Not sure if my lovely nieces will be there yet or not. Think Megan will be at work and Elin might be out with her boyfriend or friends. The boys are very excited about going to the beach and Leo wants to go in the sea. Think they might be a little disappointed.
Looking forward to not setting my alarm, although I haven't once got up with my alarm this week! I've not been going to bed early enough recently and I've stopped doing all the mindfulness and meditation audios too. Might try and start that up again, might. 😆
Where they to? - 25th July 2005 Vancouver
So much for doing a bit more when we got back to the room. After 17 hours of travelling, we got back to our room and collapsed on the bed in a heap.
When we were coming through passport control at Vancouver airport last night, Mush conspired to pick the queue which would turn out to be the slowest of the lot meaning that we were the very last people to get a grilling from the stern young lady about what on earth we thought we were doing coming into her country. Of course, my sophisticated charm and clean-cut good looks meant that our passage was assured and we were, eventually, allowed through to collect our bags.
Vancouver airport terminal building is a modern, airy construction with elevated walkways and elegant waterfalls adorning the walls. We found the tourist information desk on the way out of the airport and the lady on duty gave us some great advice on how to get about and what events were coming up during our stay. It turns out that there is a fireworks competition on Wednesday night in English Bay, which is about 3 miles from where we're staying. 3 different countries are competing so we are expecting something fairly impressive with there being national pride at stake. It also happens to be Vancouver Gay Pride Week Celebration although I refute the suggestion that my walking style, which is in no way whatsoever a mince, fits in just right.
We are staying in the YWCA hotel which is absolutely superb. For the equivalent of £18 per head, per night, we have an air-conditioned private room with a double bed, a sink and a fridge, a bathroom shared with 4 other rooms, a kitchen shared with 8 other rooms, laundry facilities, a TV lounge and access to a gym. And, if that weren't enough, the place is spotless. It's in the back of my mind though that, while we may have fallen on our feet this time, we are going to have to get used to some far worse facilities. Still, not to worry, this was meant to be a bit of a challenge, not a year of being molly-coddled with modern conveniences.
I think a world first happened this morning. I woke up at 4:30AM without the "assistance" of an alarm clock. Mush was still dreaming about Britney Spears and Buffy so I thought I'd take the opportunity to see what she'd packed in my rucksack to see me through the year. I have to say, she did quite a good job, although, I'm not quite sure what use she thought I'd have for a box of tampons and some size 9 ladies flip-flops.
We decided before we got here that we'd hire out some bikes on the first day to try to get a feel for the place. We left our room at about 8 and stopped at a continental style kerbside cafÈ for some breakfast. It was a pleasant way to start the day but I think we are very quickly going to have to learn to reign in the purse strings and use the self-catering facilities. We walked the 1.5 miles, or so, to Stanley Park which is one of North America's biggest urban parks containing beaches, formal gardens, semi-wild forest and bicycle trails. It has, in it, some totem poles in homage to it's aboriginal heritage. Quite why they had to make them so ugly is beyond me.
We found a local bicycle rental shop and, unwittingly, ordered a couple of mountain bikes with breeze blocks where the saddles were supposed to be. Padding or not, my arse wasn't designed for cycling. There is a bicycle trail that is a complete circuit of the park which, from the map, I would estimate is 5 miles, so we set that as our target. 8 miles later, as we found ourselves in a very unsavoury part of Chinatown, we finally agreed that we'd missed our turning. On a 200 yard stretch of Chinatown, we witnessed a woman trying to put her cardi on back-to-front which involved putting her head on the floor, another woman barking at herself and a bloke swinging from a lamp-post and trying to pull it out of the ground. We have a sneaking suspicion that drugs may have been involved. We gave one-another a quick, knowing glance and decided to drop the bikes down a few gears and put our feet down, reaching a fly-splattering 4MPH. Worried that we might start to effect the rate of rotation of the earth, we settled back to a more leisurely pace and happened upon a district called Gastown which has a very Dutch ambience to it. I think we may go back there later in the week for a cream tea and to have a nose around the souvenir shops. We eventually found our way back to the bicycle rental shop and dismounted to the sound normally only heard when you pull a welly from the mud at Glastonbury. All-in-all, I think we covered 10 miles; quite an achievement, although, I do feel a small pang of guilt over upstaging Lance Armstrong less than 24 hours after his greatest feat.
The rest of the day has been fairly uneventful with us doing some chores and planning the week ahead. I am left with an impression of Vancouver as a City of contrasts. Skyscrapers are set to a backdrop of mountains. Apartment blocks inhabited by the affluent have a striking number of tramps huddled up in their doorways. The wilds of Stanley park, minutes away from the hustle and bustle of Downtown. The aboriginal heritage, embraced, alongside modern architecture. The magnificent, thriving port and the "edgy" Chinatown. Vancouver's landscape and cosmopolitan population makes this a place where, literally, nothing is more than 30 minutes away. It's a great place to be and definitely somewhere that we'll be coming back to. I get the feeling you'd need many visits to experience everything it has to offer. It's been a good start to our trip; if this is anything to go by, it's going to be a great year.
I'm finally up-to-date. It's 11:15pm and I'm off to bed with my book. I've spent way too much time sitting today so looking forward to our walk tomorrow. Night all x
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