just a little corner

power rages

in true british style I shall begin with a comment about the weather.

it sucks.

gale force winds this week, and a storm on thursday means that 250,000 people were left without power in their homes.

including us. given that EVERYTHING [apart from our phones (and even they need electricity to charge) ] runs on electricity it feels like survival. i slept in clothes last night and thick socks - and was warm enough (although also had a few drinks inside of me which i helped!) but this morning i couldn't even make a cup of tea to warm my insides. so mark and i are hanging downtown (where they have power) and comtemplating spending tonight in a hotel.

we've no idea how long this will go on for, we sat in starbucks charging our phones this morning. yesterday was worse, i travel to work over one of the bridges, near to our apartment. they closed that in the night, and so the only other way of crossing the water is the seabus (see picture in this post- scroll down) which means a bus then the 20 minute crossing. stupidly i took the bus which goes all round the mountains (ok not quite) and was getting frustrated cos it started snowing just to add to everything and it took ages, but luckily didn't have to queue too long for the seabus and miraculously wasn't horrendously late for work.

but still, trying times!

other excitements- the landlord has been redoing the laundry room floor - so i have a LARGE pile of laundry to do. He put the machines back in this morning (yes we have a tumble dryer- everyone in vancouver seems to have one- my theory is cos it rains so much they never get to dry their washing outside!) but unfortunately without power they don't work. oh well. have resorted to handwashing (in cold water of course!)

saw the landlord going into the elevators at work, we happen to work in the same building (my job at the mo is filing) and so i wisely took the next one!

and had a lovely experience on wednesday, went out for a drink in an irish bar with an irish guy called colin (worked with him for a week in data entry job then we braved 8 hours pushing trolleys in a supermarket car park so couldnt help but became friends). firstly managed to meet my first canadian who made me laugh (in my head) when he said eh? on the end of every sentence [from saskatschewan] secondly, I paid for a drink AT THE BAR, and watched football (soccer) Man Utd vs. Liverpool. very weird english experience.
then... i bumped into someone. so exciting. ok so now i hope your reading 'bumped into' as 'ran into' no, still doesn't work, 'had an unplanned meeting with someone' !the hostel guys were having their xmas party do in the bar that we went to and it was amazing - in this big city i saw someone i knew in a bar. it happens back home (particularly in the imperial!) but it felt like i was a true vacouverite!actually it happened with paul in sears a while ago but he's english so that doesnt count. and all this even before colin had even arrived!

hsbc christmas party last night! getting ready for a party is not easy when your only light source is from a mobile, but i didnt attempt to apply make up by phone light for fear of disastrous effects: instead dropped in on paul (who is currently living downtown) to use his bathroom mirror. small mercies!
the party was a sit down meal, with wine and drinks tickets. it was lovely cos i knew about 80% of people there, and many were spouses who some people didnt know either. and i had a lovely steak and cheesecake for pud. and some people were a little bit tipsy! im back there on tuesday yippee!

this has turned into a long post. i do often think of things to blog about on the bus, including thinking that thinking on the bus is blogworthy news.

Rachel has gone home, so it's just mark and I for christmas!ok and paul, but if i mention him again on this blog he'll start moaning that i write about his life too much or something!

going to go have lunch in a WARM place where they have LIGHTS and RADIOS and HOT FOOD! ah luxury!

posted by Claire @ 8:14 pm