The Apartment Building

Well, todays overcast and rainy - good sleeping in weather. It doesn't feel that cold, but for some reason I've been feeling cold... hmmm.

Anyway, besides sleeping in I've kept myself busy working around the apartment building. There's about 6 apartments empty at the moment that are being renovated, and I've had the job of shifting old furniture into storage, using a garden rake to clear rubbish into garbage bags, and chucking the old carpet and foam underlay off the balconies and filling up industrial bins. My favourite part is throwing stuff from the balcony's. Elias and I threw this huge urine smelling stinky leather couch from two stories and it made a satisfying thump. Also studying the flight behaviour of single beds from the third floor is cool, if not a little scary to think if it pulled out from its dive a little sooner it could have gone into passing traffic. Yish. All in a day's work.

I'm also learning a few secrets of the building. There's a small 1 and a half foot square access door near the lift in the basement that I've never given a second thought too. It doesn't look much, but on the other side it opens out into a hallway with four apartments (framed but not plastered) that were locked away due to lack of parking. It's just crazy. There's still evidence of the people that squatted there. Some basic furniture and a type writer (of all things). They're not certain how long people lived there for, but they got busted when they accidently caused an electrical fire trying to tap into the wiring, and the fire department came out. Crazy. I also got a key to the roof which has the most amazing view. I reckon it should be set up as a community garden.

So sick of time limited computers....

Brad and Greggies questions...

dill (dĭl) n.
An aromatic herb (Anethum graveolens) native to Eurasia, having finely dissected leaves and small yellow flowers clustered in umbels.
The leaves or seeds of this plant, used as a seasoning.

Yes to less dill and more Whistler... (accompanied by big dry cracking lip smile)

Whistler is a ski resort township about 2 hours drive from Vancouver along the Sea to Sky highway. The scenery is spectacular with passages of water surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. Photos taken from my window while driving will be added to this blog at a future date.

This last week I worked 5 nights in a row from 9:30pm -4am, and despite the cruisiness of the work, felt a little sore and sick for the start of Fridays shift. Finished at 4 and came home and instead of going straight to bed like normal, I started reading one of my new library books on skin on frame boat building. Read that till 5 and thought I should try and sleep. At 5:30 I noticed the sun was up, it was a beautiful day, recalled Whistler was open and decided to go.

I got to Whistler Blackcomb ski mountain at 9, bought my ticket and then slept for an hour in my van, and then enjoyed 7 hours of ski lift assisted gravity magic. Not sure how many runs I did all up, but from 2pm thru to 5:30 we would have ridden at least 8, 10-15 minute runs. Phenomenal. There's a green trail- which I did once for a warm up and its like a garden path covered in rocks, blue which is slightly technical, black diamond and double black which involves steep rock faces, foot wide narrow wooden bridges over 6 foot high, drop offs, etc. Being a bit older and wiser (maybe not wise, but I've hurt myself enough to know I don't like pain and don't have any need to try and prove myself) I rode/walked around the stuff that posed potential helicopter rides out. I did still ride steep, root and drop off infested lines though, and had fun.

I also saw my first bears, and they are so cute. A mother black bear with two cubs (it could've been a house dad actually, or being the weekend taking them out in the woods for a play). Either way they are cute. I've heard you are not meant to get between a bear and her cubs. And most people say if you see a bear, get away as quick as you can.

On one of the crazier trails we did (Schleyer I think) there was a section with a foot wide log that went down pretty steep for 20 feet, dropped two feet to another foot wide log for another 30 feet before a 5 foot drop. The logs were at least five feet off the ground. We stopped at the top of this obstacle to see a bear cub climbing a tree on either side of the log. They were cute and cuddly looking, but where you see a cub, there should be a mother, so we were looking every where. Dan, a young Kiwi fella I met up with starts saying to me in a hushed tone, the bears behind me, the bears behind me. My brain is trying to process what he's saying and look behind me and then figure, when someone's talking about 'me' they are usually referring to themselves. The bear was behind him putting us fair smack in between mama and baby. Dan took off down the log, Jonathon the Frenchman had gone, Marcele the Brazilian didn't want to ride the log but did and I was left. By this time mama wandered around to our right. Normally theres' tracks down the side, but this was an area I had to climb down. So I awkwardly lowered my bike and climbed down this stretch all the while talking friendly like it was a dog. Anyway, it didn't eat me or make threatening noises. I still think they're cute but don't think I'll cuddle any in the near future.

The tracks.... my two favourites were actually blue ones. B-line was fast and flowy with fun berms and really nice double and table top jumps. Angry pirate was really twisty and technical single track with lots of holes. Even though you couldn't pedal, you could pump the back through the holes and get good speed up.

A-line was also fun with big berms and tonnes of jumps, but these were bigger thans B-line. I could do 50% and land short the other 50. Marcele had a few big crashes on them which made me cautious, but his skill levels not huge, he's still learning about pain I think.

All in all a fun day out that left me tired, stinky, sunburnt but with a big smile. Ski lifts are good. I'll be back again.

Regarding the dills, I just got a phone call that I can't work at Extra Foods again till I get my SIN number (social insurance). My heart is broken.... not sure if I'll ever drop it in.

Work

How to start a blogging entrance... that is the question???

Well, I have a job. After not looking for a job, but lots of people continually asking me if I'd found work yet, I can say I now have a job. Sunday arvo I finally snapped and thought I should look for a job, 2 hours later it was organised I'd start Monday night.

It's with much sleepiness that I inform people I've started packing shelves at one of the local grocery stores from 9:30pm till 4 in the morning, and its not the most interesting job I've done. Probably on par with cotton chipping but for lower pay... minimum wage for a 15 year old at McDonalds?? It is crazy the number of options the consumer is given. 13 options of whole dill pickles... plain dills, dills with garlic, dills with no added salt, dills with half the salt, dills shaken not stirred. Then the 3 different size jars, with the option of buying the name brand or the no name brand made by the name brand company.... then theres the baby dills, the sliced dills, and on and on. But the scam works. If you have so many options, peoples brains go crazy and they buy heaps of other stuff while they're looking. I always wondered why I came away with more stuff than I needed.

The one thing it has done is make me desperately look for an enjoyable job... I just find I'm too picky. I dropped my resume to a company called 'race face' yesterday. They look really good, so fingers crossed.

Besides working I have been exploring Vancouver and discovering some beautiful lakes and national parks that need to be walked in the future. I was planning to go fishing this arvo, but it's raining so maybe not. Even with 8 hours sleep I'm feeling rather stiff and tired from being up most the night... so maybe back to bed.