Maple MOLE

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!

Our 1st hockey game in BC met all expectations. We had good seats – not intentional, the game was fast, there was fighting, the boys had hot dogs, 1 or 2 hockey players met with the plexiglass right in front of us and O was given a hockey puck by one of the ice officials. After that what more do you need to know, oh yes at the very end they were giving away creamy dill crisps……… we soon found out why they were fee, lets just say we haven’t rushed to the local supermarket to buy up their stock.

The game was between the Vancouver Giants and Kamloops Blazers. Tickets for the Vancouver Canucks are sold out for the whole season, the Giants are the second team. As I am not a Hockey pro that didn’t worry me. Prior to puck drop we took a look at the programme, at this point E & O decided they wouldn’t try and make a career a professional player as the Giants are all around E’s age and about a foot taller! To round off the evening the Giants won, I am sure we will be returning to watch another game. Hockey is so big here it even takes over prime time TV on a Saturday evening. I have decided you either join in the whole experience or feel like Billy no mates on a Saturday evening.

Now those of you who know us well will understand our disappointment when the caretakers of the premises put up a notice ‘No live Christmas tree to be taken across public areas due to the fire hazard’ Hmmmm, bar hum bug! We had been looking around at Christmas lights as we noticed some people had tasteful lights on their balconies. This appealed to us, and being miffed about the tree I decided I would make a tree for the balcony. O was a little worried when we went for a ‘walk’ one day to collect branches, but mum they said no live trees. This is not a tree it’s a branch, it does not have any leaves or pine needles on it. However once I cut them to size and arranged the lights it looked very ‘tree’ like and festive. It looked better from a distance, but I think you get the idea. (picture to the left) However we still had to make do with an artificial one for inside. I used a few boxes that we still had around to act as a display area so created a Christmas zone. All the other Christmas bits came out and our Christmas pyramid took up is normal residence on the dinning room table. I am please to say the boxes have now gone and we have some real storage and display units. In Vancouver there is no ‘Trafalgar Square’ to display a large Christmas tree so they just decorate LOADS of trees, either by draping the lights over the top, like in the picture or wind white or blue lights into the branches. Giving all sorts of places the Christmas feel.

During December the children’s farm in Stanley Park becomes a winter wonderland. Vancouver decorate many trees with Christmas lights, making the bare trees come to life. We decided we would check out Bright nights in Stanley Park to see what it was all about. This is a fund raising event by BC Professional Fire Fighters Burns Fund. This is a fund that helps burns survivors and their families. We arrived in Stanley Park early to take in some of the scenery and the views across to the North shore and to look at the mountains just because we can. I captured this amazing reflection in some shallow water near the Totem Poles.

As it started to get dark we then headed to the farmyard, stopping on route to munch on some food. Entering the farmyard you are taken in to a fairy tail trail. The trees and displays are illuminated with thousands of lights and you can see Mr & Mrs Christmas resting before the big day, candy land, the gingerbread house and many other scenes with Christmas music being piped from the trees……. For the smaller children there is a train ride that takes you past Santa’s workshop, the train is also covered in lights, so cute, unfortunately no little children to share the cuteness with left me feeling a bit flat. You can imagine what the boys said!

There are more pictures on my Picasa site but they don’t really capture the event as you could also smell the roasting chestnuts (on an open fire), hot chocolate, warm over sized pretzels, cotton candy, cinnamon sticks – very yummy, kind of doughnut texture dipped in cinnamon, hot dogs etc. I think next year I will have to borrow some little children and book a train ride in advance as it gets very busy.

Now it didn’t plan on being out so early in the morning. However O was selected for the school Basketball team which means attending practice. No problem I said, he can stay after school, that’s easy. What he didn’t tell me was that sometimes they practice before school, starting at 7:15. Now that’s commitment, I guess it helps the coach to see who is really dedicated to the team. So yes we got up and left home whilst it was still dark. We may have been the only people on the bus, but when I took the picture there was a stream of traffic heading into Vancouver on the highway. You can just about make it out on the photo, its the long line of lights just right of the centre. The bonus of still using public transport and being out at this hour of the morning meant we where rewarded by seeing the dawn break. Oh is that what people mean by ‘the crack of dawn’ normally a figure of speech but yep that’s the real thing. A while later when I returned home walking back up the hill gave a slightly different view but still stunning. The sun is just shining on the far mountains, the pictures are also on my Picasa site where you can see a bigger picture. Enjoy

SNOW, yeahhhh, its cool, and we have a hill in walking distance of the apartment. The locals didn’t appear to take much notice of it, life went on as usual, the sky train and buses run with out a hitch, the highway was cleared and gritted with all lanes open. I didn’t take to kindly to the mini snow plough clearing the road below our bedroom window at 6:30 in the morning! So the sledge was out and we put on our warmest kit we could find with the essential tuque and gloves. Tuque – french Canadian for woolie hat! It was very cold, the kinda cold that you feel down inside you when you breath in. The snow was amazing we made real snow balls, ones that stick together and made a great THUD when they hit you, although a bit of a shock when caught me in the head. Our stalwart sledge of some 23yrs served us well. It worked just as well as the plastic ones whizzing down the hill, plus is carries 2 people with ease. It snowed non-stop Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday there was about 6 inches, much to the boys disappointment it turned to rain late Sunday afternoon so it was back to school on Monday, by Monday evening only the snow stacks in the car-parks remained. There are more pics to look at on my picasa site.

Having received news of two miracle babies being safely delivered in UK, 2 close friends had their babies on the same day – God’s planning. I was feeling a little bereft of cuddling a new born. Not to worry E to the rescue. It OK Mum I have to look after the computer baby soon. Caring for the computer baby gives E 4 credits towards his graduation. This means 48 hours with total responsibility. The teacher programmes the baby and you are supplied with an electronic bottle and diaper. E had to wear a coded wrist band which meant the baby would only respond to him doing what ever was necessary, including winding and cuddling when needed. He was able to put the baby in ‘daycare’ whilst he was working, but still had to tend to the babies needs during school and through the night. It was very real and even smelt like a baby, so I had a cuddle and was able to give the baby back and not have to tend to its needs. Once E had got used to the little ways he was well away. No need to change a diaper when you can slide the new chip down the back of the original diaper, feeding was more tricky. You could prop the baby on the sofa and the baby would hold the bottle, however the baby would then get lots of wind and need a cuddle, so the moral is, its always best to do these things properly. Scarf around the neck gives extra protection, so you don’t need to worry about supporting the head! In the short time that E cared for the baby he learnt 1 very important task whilst caring for young babies – how to multi task! You can, play a game on the computer, eat a bagel, drink and cuddle a baby – hmm not so sure about the ‘cuddle’