Oh! Canada?

It’s been a busy few months since my last post: Lots of work and lots of play.

Starting with the latter, in late summer we took a trip down to Denver, then up into the mountains to Breckenridge for Robyn’s borther’s wedding. This of course involved meeting the in-laws (ish) for the first time, including mum, aunt and 96 year old grandmother. That was a little nerve wracking, but ultimately went well, as did the wedding, and the shenanigans beforehand. A fun trip then, although I regretted not being able to get hammered and embarrass myself at the wedding as much as usual, as well as not being able to get out and hike the mountains after the weather closed in at the end.

A month or so later we were headed down to Florida, for another wedding, a whistle stop tour of Robyn’s youthful haunts and 5 days hanging out at the family beach house on the gulf coast. It was a lovely holiday, and going in November meant the weather was still warm, but without the oppressive heat and bugs that apparently plague the summer.

The only thing that impeded my enjoyment was that I was still recovering from having had laser corrective surgery on my eyes a few weeks before. Totally elective decision before anyone starts to worry, but I chose a type of surgery (PRK) that takes a long while to recover from, and in my case a bit longer than average. This meant facing 10 days of Florida sunshine with serious light sensitivity. Ouchy. I look forward to going again without the hurty eyeballs and going around in cap and sunglasses looking like a terrorist.

On the work front things have been pleasingly busy, making social voting Facebook applications for a succession of major Canadian TV shows. What’s a “social voting application” I hear you yawn. Well, it’s a normal vote for stuff on a TV show type thing, except that the number of votes you get is proportional to how much you get involved with the show on Facebook and Twitter – telling your friends, following contestants, tweeting with them and so on. Do it enough and you get virtual trophies and appear on leaderboards and so on – effectively using social game mechanics to increase involvement and exposure. Kinda interesting, as is launching a new site every month in a small agency environment again – lots of late nights near TX dates and a proper blitz spirit camaraderie among the dev team. It’s fun.

Now I’m hanging out at Vancouver airport waiting for my third international trip in as many months – back to Blighty for the first time in 16 months. I never meant to leave it this long and am really, really excited to have a family Christmas and see my friends. The sad side is that Robyn won’t be joining me. She’s taking advantage of no-longer working in retail to have her first family Christmas in a decade though, so I can’t really begrudge her.

Anyway, my flight’s boarding. Oxford and Londoners – brace yourselves!

Has it really been a <insert timespan here>? Of course it has. I think I’ve just about got used to time flying now. I’m now in the middle of my second summer in Vancouver and, aside from the weather, all is well.

Robyn and I are settled into our apartment. It’s bright and spacious, with a south facing yard/garden for the dogs to systematically destroy. I’ve just signed up for a 9 month contract extension working 75% part-time for a small, but fiercely talented downtown agency making social games and applications on Facebook – which is a change as my former colleagues will grasp, but I’m learning a lot as a result, which feels good, and on occasion genuinely having fun. The time off will help us enjoy the summer, not that we’ve been slacking up to now. In May we took the (4-day) train to Toronto, then on to Montreal to spend some time with my sister and family (and watch the Formula 1).

Mat aficionados will recall that’s a train trip I’ve made before, but some last minute tickets made it possible to do it again, and with Robyn this time. Money saving tip: Two people can just about share a single cabin in comfort on VIA Rail. More recently we’ve spent a weekend at Randy’s Hardy Island getaway which we, and the dogs, loved. Add a spot of Grouse Grinding and a sunny bike ride down to Steveston and you’d never know the weather’s during (x) has been the worst for the last (y) as the sky and various news outlets insist it has been.

Next step is to use this period of relative calm to figure out where to go next. Sorry to throw in some genuine news this far in, however Robyn finally quit her job in May, escaping her abusive and mendacious boss. This was great news, however she’s without a work visa now, which we know she won’t find easy mid to long term, and has scant probability of getting a new one – especially given the bruising given by that last job makes her unlikely to want to get back into merchandising any time soon.

Ultimately this means we’re looking at moving to The States for a time, so soon I’ll be trying my luck in that job market – which I’m reliably informed won’t be particularly easy right now. Fingers crossed that second bubble holds out and some VC cash gets me in. As ever, watch this space. Same Mat time, same Mat channel.

I think, with the clocks having sprung forward, the snow line steadily rising on the mountains and trees blossoming outside the window I can comfortably call it spring now – always a good thing, but particularly welcome for me.

Not that winter here was horrible – to correct a misconception held by most English folks, winter in this part of Canada (far south west, sea level) is only a degree or two below London. However it nonetheless produced some ups and downs. The year started with my contract at Engine coming to an unexpected halt when it turned out the second month of work they had for me was some pretty heavy server-side stuff. Kinda outside my area, and while I could have struggled through, I wouldn’t have impressed anyone with the results. This made January a bit lean while I sought more work, but by the end of the month I was safely started at Blast Radius, a world wide agency of a scale familiar to me from my time at the BBC, and I’m still there, and thoroughly enjoying it. I’ll post my project once it launches, but it’s internationalisation of a big brand name, which will never harm the CV.

Cash-strapped January (made worse by buying an awesome old car in December, that unfortunately also needed work) put the kibosh on my plans to buy skiing gear and passes and hit  the slopes. Instead, Robyn (also cash strapped after changing apartments) and I have got quite into showshoeing, with trips to Grouse, Cypress and Whistler. It turns out to be fairly easy on the legs, and you can pretty much get anywhere, on any kind of snow, and the woods and views are always beautiful. Plus there’s usually a warm lodge and a cold beer available somewhere on the route. Not a bad plan B.

The early evenings, cold and rain had their usual effect though. I can certainly say I’m missing my friends and family more than ever, especially since both have produced babies over the winter, which I’d love to see of course, but for now I’m settled here, and with summer arriving fast Vancouver will once again come into its own, and the beach parties, barbeques and camping trips will start up. Bring it on.

One final low blow from winter before I finish though, but again one with a silver lining: We’re being kicked out of our great apartment. New owners have taken over the whole building, surveyed the place and realised they could get 50% more rent if they renovate and rearrange, so out we go. The good side? I’m going to move in with Robyn, which is news that makes me smile every time I think about it. Bring that on, too.

Hi everybody! </Dr. Nick>

The customary ice age or two has passed since I last wrote up here and as a result there’s lots to report but I’ll start with one of the two main reasons for the hiatus: I’ve started working! Regular readers will have noticed that my search for work wasn’t perhaps as ardent or immediate as it could have been upon leaving the BBC in July. In fact I did no more than email a couple of dozen agencies found using Google maps, but I lucked out and got some front end work with a Downtown web agency called Engine Digital.

It’s a cool place; Ping pong table, office dog, music playing, exposed brickwork, massive Flash animation on the website and really sound colleagues. Reminds me of CD9 actually (my much-missed dotcom boom employer). It’s a while since I’ve made this much content though, and indeed worked commercially, which I admit is a bit of a culture shock, but hopefully I’m not being too rubbish, and I’m certainly getting to learn new things (I <3 JQuery, Smarty less so).

Other things that have occurred include Charlotte visiting, putting a little effort into Crunchy Badger, finally buying a mountain bike, getting a year older, readying for Christmas and spending a week dogsitting for my girlfriend – who (if you can all pick your jaws off the floor for a second and brace for a smooth segue) is the second thing that’s been keeping me too busy to post. Her name’s Robyn, she’s smart, confident and gorgeous, and that’s about as much detail as  I’m going to be posting on a blog. Suffice to say I’m just that little bit less anxious about facing my first Christmas away from my family now.

Onwards!

Into October we go, the air is nippier, the leaves are starting to turn, and, while the promised weeks of solid autumn rain have yet to materialise, I sense they’re close. However for now, all is sunny, and I’ve been making the proverbial hay with one of the busiest months yet.

What’s that you ask? Looking for work? Spot on. And by spot on I mean no.  Instead I’ve moved house, started a new business and hosted my first UK visitors.

House first. I now live here, that’s my window top and center. It’s a huge flat, with two nice roomies (flatmates to you and I) and two nice cats. Crucially it’s also nearer the centre of town, so I can pretty much get anywhere in 10 minutes on the bike, or 20 by bus. London this ain’t.

Before that, in between bouts of Craigslist and apartment viewings, I finally knuckled down and set up my new T-shirt site that I’ve talked about so much over the last few months years. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Crunchy Badger. It’s a front end on another firm’s payment, printing and posting service, which leaves me free to do the fun bit without having to spend time on admin. That also unfortunately means I’m not going to make much money on it all, but it’s fun, and that’s the main thing.

Not many designs there yet, but you can follow the Badger on Facebook, Twitter or RSS to see how it all goes.

Finally, my parents have come to visit, which has meant a good solid week of touristing. If you’re a stalker the full list’s on my Dinqi diary as usual, but highlights have included the first growth forest at Lighthouse Park, the Eye of the Wind turbine on Grouse Mountain, the Harbour Center viewing platform, Van Dusen Gardens and lots of lovely restaurants.

That means I’m probably getting fat, but at least then I’ll be ready for winter. Bring it on.

So, another age has passed; I guess this isn’t going to be one of those blogs that posts irritatingly regularly about boring irrelevancies. No no. Boring irrelevancies will only appear here monthly or so.

Anyway, what have I been up to? The main event has been, somewhat incongruously, going back to the UK for a few weeks. The wedding of my lovely friends Gav and Alix, combined with the visit to the UK of my Montreal-dwelling sis, partner Philippe and nephew Diego, made a trip back irresistable, even so soon after I’d left. (Plus I got to collect another 20kg of my stuff for ‘free’ – though I didn’t make a big point of that with the family of course.

It was lovely to see Diego, toddling around and confidently pointing at things, then the wedding, where Gav was confidently toddling around and pointing at things, then getting back to London, where I was confidently… well, you get the idea. It was so nice to spend some quality time with friends and family. I miss you all of course.

Mid-August saw me back in Canada, throwing myself even more vigorously into work avoidance, with a couple of out of town camping trips. Firstly with the tennis gang to Randy’s lovely tranquil plot on the remote Hardy Island on the aptly-named Sunshine Coast to the north of Van, and then up to the utterly mesmerising Garibaldi Lake and Black Tusk, near Squamish.

Add to that a multitude of other activities, some stubbornly good weather, househunting (I fancy moving nearer the centre of town), and a side project (involving T-shirts again, if you can believe it) and I find my days full and fun. Soon the weather will close in, and my thoughts will turn to work, and getting a car, and all the other trappings of actually making a proper go at living somewhere, but for now? Well it’s gloriously sunny outside: I’m only human.

So at last, the fruition of all my plans and dreams: I’m unemployed.

As of three weeks ago actually, but such is the hectic social whirlwind of the great unwashed I’m only just posting now – and I have to say so far it’s been, on the most part, quite fun.

I started off with a weekend trip to see Nicole, Giles and their newly-toddling daughter Anais on Vancouver Island. Aside from being great to catch up with one of my all-time favourite Beebers, this also afforded a chance to take a beautiful ferry trip through the Gulf Islands, and to explore Victoria, which turned out to be a really pretty town – and with pleasingly little evidence of the much-vaunted Britishness of the place too. I’ll be back there I’m sure.

That’s been followed by myriad smaller trips and events, including a trip to Vancouver Aquarium with Gaz (courtesy of his missus Hills, who works there), many trips to the beach and barbecues in back gardens, balconies and roofs.

Elsewhere I’ve also started playing Sunday football regularly with another group, this time comprised of at least 50% seniors (as the over 50′s are known here) and at least one guy in his 70s. I thought initially this would be a good thing, considering my poor level of fitness having not played for a few months. It turns out however that age is no barrier round these parts, and most of them ran the legs off me first time out, so I’ve been trying to cycle and walk a lot to make things a bit more even.

To that end I went up the Grouse Grind at the start of this week. For the unfamiliar this is an aptly named route up the side of  Grouse mountain on the North Shore, and comprises of roughly hewn steps leading, without respite, directly up the side of the mountain. Many locals jog it. I didn’t.

Part of my plan for this time off is to sort out my CV & portfolio a bit – including filling in a few glaring omissions in my skillset that will cause hesitation when I try to get contracting work. With glorious weather and a new town to explore I think you can guess how that’s gone. However I have at least rewritten my personal site, and even managed the first update to Dinqi in a year, so it hasn’t been a complete loss. More will follow once I get lazing in the sunshine out of my system and my mood adjusts I think.

Now however I’m off to play a spot of tennis (my cousin’s boyfriend, John, has gamely agreed to coach me), so the keyboard will have to do without me yet again.

Ta ta!

So, a milestone: This is now the longest I’ve been outside the UK since Greece when I was six (correct me if I’m wrong, mum). I admit however, this sounds more important than it feels, probably because most days I walk downstairs, open up my laptop and immerse myself in the same old world of work for Auntie. Next week however is another milestone: I finally stop work – erk.

In the meantime most of my outings are at the weekend, so I thought I’d give those of you who haven’t been following me on Dinqi or elsewhere a bit of an insight, by telling you what I got up to:

Friday night Janney (flatmate) invited Jo (cousin), John (cousin’s feller) and Andrew (tennis-friend and fellow expat) round for a barbeque and a few drinks. Since everyone here has a big fancy barbecue you can imagine this is a pretty common occurance – also, given there’s no post-work drinking culture here it’s pretty easy to arrange as everyone wasn’t already down the pub and sloshed.

To make up for such healthy, adult behaviour I got up at 9:30 the next morning, went down the pub and got sloshed. No, really. England were playing, see? Once in the “Three Lions” bar (again, not kidding) I met up with Gaz, another new immigrant who, despite working two floors from for the last 5 years (small world), I had never previously met. Anyway, he, his wife and their friends turned out to be very friendly folk (unless you happened to be American of course) and a good time was had by all (unless you happened to be English of course).

After that, some all-too-predictable shopping for second-hand football boots in Sports Junkies on Broadway, a late lunch, an hour watching Jo and Janney finish their league tennis in Stanley Park (strong opponents, don’t ask about the scores) and then along to a beachfront bar with the team to watch the sun set over the bay and the ever-present tankers, with a couple of beers and a smattering of tennis gossip.

Next morning the alarm went off far too early to go and play the 9am football game I’d been invited to, but by 11 I felt awake enough to join Janney in a trip to the rather picturesque Granville Island for breakfast and thence to Queens Park for a round of pitch ‘n putt (where I discovered I’m ok at the former, and terrible at the latter) in glorious sunshine (my tan’s coming on nicely, thanks for asking).

Late lunch at a Vietnamese on Main that does incongruously excellent fresh French bread (hooray for colonialism) set us up to finish off the weekend at the sumptuous Jericho Tennis Club, watching the various finals of the provincial tennis championships, then watching the sun set over the bay from a slightly different angle, with a slightly different beer, and with slightly more Owen Wilson.

Roll on Saturday.

I’ve just discovered I’m going to have to take a driving test to get a Canadian licence. As someone who’s been driving for 15 years, the last 5 of which have been in a left hand drive north american car, this is an annoyance.

Especially since 15 years of bad habits mean I’ll almost certainly fail.

There’s a $15 ‘knowledge test’ (try the practice version here if you’re curious, it’s not too tough), then a road test, and, get this: If I fail, they give me a ‘learner’s licence’, and take my UK licence off me until I pass, cheeky sods.

On the plus side, Craigslist tells me it’s all worthwhile, and you know I’m not kidding…

UPDATE

Unbelievably the very day I went in to do the knowledge test and start the process off, BC announced UK licences were now eligible for a straight swop. 20 minutes and $30 later I was licenced. How awesome is that? Maybe they read this post…

When considering moving to Vancouver, aside from noticing than its core is a bit more compact than London, I didn’t particularly think about whether it would be a good city for cycling.

Well luckily it turns out to be pretty much the best cycling city I’ve ever visited.

The roads are wide, not too hilly and, off the main streets, mostly empty. The junctions use common sense, generally using four way stops and mini roundabouts rather than lights to allow you to keep going as long as it’s clear, and you can turn right on a red. Add to that the clearly signposted cycle routes scattered throughout the grid of roads, which regularly dead end for cars but not for bikes, and the infrastructure means cross town trips are pretty quick. And as an added bonus, with a grid you simply can’t get lost.

If you find yourself needing to go further then the busses all have cycle racks on the front, and the skytrain (the Jetsons style overhead train system) has designated bike areas on every train and lifts at all stations. All for no extra cost of course.

Away from the infrastructure I’ve also noticed the hierarchy of road users is also clear: Drivers give way to cyclists who give way to pedestrians – and without exception everyone sticks to it. The pedestrians also tend to cross only at junctions (the grid meaning this is usually where they’d want to cross anyway) and don’t jaywalk on the major roads. This means that, although you occasionally have to give way to a pedestrian you at least know what the deal is in advance, and being constantly waved on by cars makes it a pretty good trade.

The final jewel in Vancouver’s cycling crown is its coastal paths. Stanley Park, Kits beach, most of the coast of Richmond to name a just the routes I’ve done in the last fortnight. Stanley is the best so far, being beautiful, with a dedicated one-way lane for cyclists and rollerbladers – it’s going to be a while before I get bored of doing that circuit.

It’s not all sweetness and light here of course – and I guarantee I’ll post complaining about something at some point, but I doubt it’ll be the cycling.

Hmm, maybe the bus stop signage, or the cost of beer…