Vroom Vroom!

Do you like our new car??

Only joking! I would never be able to park that! The cars and pickup trucks over here are huge! This is our new car>>

Still going to be a reversing and parking challenge for me but the Dodge Caravans are everywhere here and with our diving, biking and camping gear the extra space will come in really useful. A few questions have come through about driving over here and yes you do need a car, Martyn especially as he wouldn’t be able to get to work but I’m looking at jobs along the skytrain route which is within walking distance of our apartment. It’s like the tube but cleaner, more reliable and with better views! We want to go and explore so having a car is a necessity, and to get to all those stash shops it’s a must!!

The weather this weekend was fantastic! It was really sunny and warm; we were the typical English abroad and got a bit sunburnt! Have now bought some sunscreen but it’s gone a bit cloudy now…typical! Last week a beluga whale at the Vancouver Aquarium gave birth to a little girl. It’s not an everyday occurrence so we thought we would go and take a look on Sunday. As the baby was only 5 days old they were controlling the number of visitors but it was worth the wait…it was a great experience. Martyn took a short video of mother and baby and it can be viewed by clicking here VIDEO. The aquarium is great and my favourite are the otters>

I wanted to take this one home! After the aquarium we walked down to the beach at English Bay and had an ice cream on the sand! The beaches here all have logs on them so you have something to lean up against and it gives the beach some order so it never feels crowded. Another picture to make you all jealous! >

On the job front Martyn is settling in well into his role and I have now had 3 interviews and another one scheduled for next week. Just waiting back now for second interviews or for someone to say they want me! Fingers crossed it will happen soon!

Glad the dive to Lochaline went well, and a little birdie told me that Jakey’s “one pair of pants” approach didn’t work!! I’m not surprised Kev didn’t want them back!! Has anyone won the pink sash of shame yet?? Has Paul finally shut up and actually listened to anyone yet?? We have been told of a few great dives just up the coast from where we are so as soon as our gear arrives we will be checking them out and will post some pics of all the lobster and crabs we will be picking up so you won’t need to send that sash over here!!

Right back to the job search!

Take Care
Hayley & Martyn xxx

Normal Service Has Been Resumed!

Hello all! Wow – it’s been mad since the last post! Sorry it’s been so long but we had to wait before the cable guys (incidentally a company called Shaw!) could come in and connect our telephone, internet and cable up – yes that’s exactly 10 days without TV or internet access! We have managed not to kill each other but it’s been tough! ha ha!!

We moved into our apartment on Sunday June 1st – its lovely! This is a relief as we hadn’t seen any pictures before we leased it! It’s within walking distance of a large shopping mall, the sky train and a bus station so all in all we’ve done really well – especially me with all the shops and food court!! Some pics of our apartment are here >>> there’s not much in it yet, we’re slowly getting stuff, our sofa is being delivered by Ikea (it was a lovely familiar shopping trip!) in a couple of weeks and we’ve had an estimated delivery date for our container of June 25th so by the end of the month we’ll have all our stuff.

On the job front – it’s been a bit slow for me; no one seems to want me!! But Martyn has had 2 job offers! One was selling cars for a large dealership and the other a service advisor for an auto repair shop. Typical, (marvellous) Martyn gets 2 offers and I haven’t had an interview yet!! He’s decided to go with the service advisor one as it’s more secure and involves no weekends!! The motor trade is looked upon much more highly here than in the UK, the pay is much better! He started work yesterday and all is going well!

We’ve been trying to get out and about as much as possible so it’s not all job hunting and sitting in listening to the radio!! We’ve been downtown a couple of times to Granville Island and Lonsdale Quay – which both have fantastic markets. On Saturday 7th we drove to Minnekhada Park for a gentle walk, that’s not what we got! 2 hours later after what can only be described as a bloody hard trek we arrived back to the car thankful (but also slightly disappointed) that we didn’t come across any bears!! Not something you have to worry about at Roundhay Park!

Minnekhada Park View

Martyn with his bear stick!!

On Sunday 8th we drove down to White Rock which is about 30 mins away towards the US border. It has its own little beach as it’s on the coast and there are loads of fish n chip restaurants!! We were economising so had taken sandwiches with us but we are definitely going again when the weather gets better so we can walk along the pier with our chips!! It’s a lovely little place, definitely on our “settling down” list for later on!

White Rock Seafront

White Rock Pier

The scenery here is breathtaking and you are never far away from a mountain view – where we are, Surrey, we have to cross a bridge to get to the Lower Vancouver area and it’s quite dangerous as the views are very distracting!! We are starting to get the hang of things but there are a few things that we’ve noticed: - the robins here are huge! They are the same size a blackbirds!! They don’t have squash here – it’s all ready mixed with water!! And you can’t get small bags of crisps, opps sorry chips!

Will post again soon and we will try and reply to our emails too!!

Take care
Hayley & Martyn xxx