You are currently browsing the Maple MOLE weblog archives for January, 2008.

Snow again

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

The boys can’t believe it – yet more snow. We had some on Sunday, but school still went ahead on Monday. As we now have a car and it’s exam week. O had 2 exams on Monday so I agreed to collect him. The school just happens to be on the perfect sledging hill. Kids go to school prepared, ski pants and sledge or snow disc. At break, lunch and after school they are out the door whizzing down the hill. What a great way to end the school day especially when you have been working hard. Overnight there was another ‘dump’ of snow, about 6 – 8 inches so school was out. BC are geared up for this and exams are just rescheduled ASAP, however if they have more than 5 days closure the school year is extended for the equivalent number of days. So it might be fun having time off but they still have to fit the same number of school days in.

We are mobile

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Yippee, after 4 months of waiting we have a car. Once the house sale was completed funds were realised to make the purchase. However we took our time, as we didn’t know which hunk of metal we should get. Should we have a 4×4, a people carrier, a family car or just a little run around. The dilemma didn’t end there, should we buy new, nearly new, 5-8years old, or a really old banger – after all we are getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road.

Having wandered around several car lots I was just overwhelmed and had no idea what I wanted, I just want a car came the whines from O, I was beginning to feel the same way but E was excited and taking Mark to look at the biggest trucks around. Some are so big that if you wanted to look inside you had to stand on top of the front wheel. One Sunday afternoon we left the boys at home saying we won’t be long………. Ops 4 hours later we returned home with a car. Mr & Mrs Practical purchased a Ford Focus. We had stopped for a tea break, after chatting around things and listing out our needs, which included something that E can learn to drive in we decided to just look at 1 more garage – you guessed it. There it was, a black shinny, well-kept, low mileage – kilometres, leather seats, air con, and the right price. I call this and answer to prayer. Much to Marks amazement it was manual and it had alloy wheels. So many cars, even top of the range still have plastic wheel trims.

Car dealers do things very differently here. You have the traditional test drive, and if you give the nod you then barter a little, not with the sales man, he takes your offer to the headman in the office. Once you have done the deal your away. You move along an office to the finance man and on to the insurance broker. Well if you can call them a broker, BC only have 1 insurance group operated by the government, there are a few independent ones – advice from friends was – don’t waste your time. After parting with mega bucks you choose your number plate. They fit the plate, give you the keys and off you go.

I had to drive home as Mark hadn’t taken his test. I passed mine in December – that another blog entry on another day.

News Years Day

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

So having froze yesterday we thought another outing was in order. As newbies to Vancouver we didn’t know that New Years day really is a holiday. That meant everywhere was closed so once again we froze. Thankfully we did manage to find a Starbucks open. The one good thing – it wasn’t raining, so we did some window shopping and stopped to take in the views from and around Granville Island. Granville Island is an unusual but interesting place. It has an indoor market and some local artist have set up small businesses in shop units, a brewery, cement factory, train museum, Kids Market, coffee shops and restaurants. The cement factory was shut, all the trucks lined up in the yard ready to go, but this was was still dressed for Christmas looking pretty. So next time you think about sticking a little Christmas tree on the car dash remember this pic and let you imagination go wild.

New Years Eve

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

I had been watching the weather, as we wanted to make a trip up Grouse Mountain, the locals say you need to go on a good day to take in the views. I decided New Years Eve was going to be our best option with sun forecast. However when we arrived the gondola was very busy as this is the only way up, that means skiers, snowboarders and tourist alike, you all take the same route. After a family + visitor huddle we decided to head back down the mountainside a little way to Capilano Suspension Bridge. Note to self-Capilano is best visited on a warm day. Remember my past comments about going up the mountain – even a little bit means the temperature drops rapidly. Well it was already cold, so we had a good but freezing visit. So you can see below a picture of the bridge, looks mild from the photo, until you look at the facts. I know you can’t read the blurb, but you get the 2 jet planes underneath the bridge…………….. and its only 230 feet above the river following below…………………. Its breath taking, scary, amazing etc etc. We followed the cliff top trails and spotted two bald eagle trying to catch fish down below, tree top walks with more wobbly bridges, but not so scary. Unfortunately there’s only 1 way in and out so I have done the bridge twice……. Visitors beware as BC residents we now have an annual pass. Oh yes and got very cold, which made us very hungry, so had an enforced stop on the way home at Lonsdale Quay in a nice warm spot with good food that had been tried and tested before.

We had been invited out to some friends for new years eve, however after a group huddle it was decided none of us could face getting cold again so we would stay up home on one condition – we stayed up until midnight. After more food that wasn’t a problem as we played a new card game we learnt on Boxing day called nurts – all players use a whole deck of cards each! However midnight came and ended up being a bit of a let down. No Big Ben, no fire works, no Jules Holland, no old langsyne (can’t say I missed that) just some singer on TV who we didn’t know. That was just a distraction in the card game that went on until 2am!!!!