The Canadian Adventure

Part 3 - 4th October 1996

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Fall has arrived bang on time, and the main characteristic of fall is RAIN. Lots of it. On the positive side, it's the friendly kind of rain that has the decency to make it worth turning on your windscreen wipers, but doesn't blow into your crevices when you’re outside, so I guess that's good.

My voyage of discovery continues. I'm gradually getting to see more of Vancouver, and meet more of its inhabitants. Next weekend is Thanksgiving here, and I've been invited to feed myself to capacity at one of my workmates family get-togethers. Last night I helped a friend pick up some plants from his mother's house and she fed me apple pie. And I've met up with some friends who live close to me and they are introducing me to new techniques with vegetables. Spot the food connection?

I've moved into an apartment in the Kitsilano part of town, which is where the hippies and students did their thing in the sixties and seventies. They have stayed, but now drive BMWs, only wearing kaftans when no-one is looking. Excellent restaurants abound, along with curio shops and kitchen gadgeteries which exert an overwhelming pull on my credit card.

One thing I’ve learned is that road numbers indicate the distance from the start of the road, not the number of houses on it. This makes it easy to find places since all the numbers count upwards from Main St (for east-west roads) and upwards from Downtown (for north-south roads). The roads pretty much stick to the square block system. Easy.

My apartment follows the local pattern - huge lounge with no nuilt-in lighting (the assumpt5ion being that you will bring your own lamps), decent sized bedroom, tiny kitchen, shower powerful enough to remove skin, light switches and electric sockets apparently made in the 1920's, fridge big enough to keep a whole cow in. Actually the kitchen is quite a treat. Definitely still in its original decor, with wooden cupboards and turqoise formica, but teamed with a monstrous old cooker in a Baba-Papa shade of pink. Turquoise and pink. Mmmmm.

I've aquired some plants and a chair, bought a TV (you should see the guide - 45 TV channels need something more substantial than the TV Times) and assembled a futon without loosing my temper or any blood. I’m getting quite adept at following Ikea instruction diagrams, which mostly revolve around the balancing of things across your thighs/stomach/neck while you to screw other bits together with an entirely inadequate Allen key.

Work is getting interesting. The programme is quite challenging but I am enjoying the user interface job I've landed, and the people on the team have a good social life organised. For those of you in the trade its another Ada, UNIX, air traffic control project, due for delivery in January '99, and I'm working on the training simulator software.

To keep me in touch with the old country I get the BBC world service radio broadcast from the University of BC. This reminds me that world events as reported by the predominantly US TV stations has a somewhat North American slant. The newspapers are similarly dire, making it quite tough to keep up with world events. My local bookshop sells the Independent on Sunday I notice (albeit on Tuesdays), but it could be a compulsory purchase.

And you know the best thing of all? With judicious channel surfing I can watch Star Trek, all night, every night!! What a country!