Two weeks ago my alarm went off at 6:30am as normal. I quietly moaned to myself for a couple of minutes, thrashed around for a couple more, then staggered out of bed, showered, made myself some Pesto and cheese sandwiches and cycled to work. Since then it's been non-stop, but cycling, I've discovered, is so much better than taking the bus for a number of reasons.
Firstly, you get a great amount of Exercise.
Second: it's actually quicker to cycle to work, than it is to use public transport. My bike ride to work consists of one long hill down Granville Street, a slow cycle up and across Granville Bridge, then a quick blast around the grid layout of Yaletown - the 'yuppie' district of Downtown Vancouver. Normally somewhere along this route, usually down Granville Hill, I will overtake the number 10 bus - my old mode of transport, and I have to say, in all the time I have worked in this office, once I have got past the bus it has never got by me once again.
Thirdly, it's cheap. Unfortunately my cycling hasn't been quite as cheap as it could have been, as I have to admit that I am on my second bike in a month. Unfortunately my previous bicycle, that I was so pleased with, after spending many hours with Dylan (who had his bike nicked the other day) toiling over to get into a roadworthy state, was stolen from outside my work in broad daylight. I spent about two hours feeling incredibly pissed off about the whole situation, but then came to the conclusion that bikes are cheap, and at least the thief had stolen a good, roadworthy bike, that would not need any work for quite a while.
Undeterred, I logged on to the haven of bargains that is Craigslist.ca, and within 24 hours of having Bike #1 stolen, I had purchased the vastly superior Bike #2. This one comes with (just about working) front suspension, and grip shift gears. Granted, the brakes aren't great, and I've managed to lose one set of gears (the front set, so it's not all bad) but I will sort these issues out eventually, and I will end up with a better bike.
Finally, biking around Downtown is great fun. I love weaving my way down the traffic, fitting into gaps and generally getting places 10 times faster than walking, and at least three times faster than those trying to navigate Downtown in gas-guzzling cars. I love it, and now I realise why Tom, my brother, enjoys cycling so much.
Anyway, with regards to work, I haven't actually had a day off since that Monday a couple of weeks back, and since then the workload has been mounting up thick and fast. Gone are the days of internet surfing, and now all I seem to do is sit around 'Mining Data' to gather random reference numbers, and creating "Super Administrators" for various companies all around the globe. It's a huge software company I work for, and their customers range from the Bank of America, to the United Nations, to the US Air Force. It's soul-destroyingly dull, but it pays fairly well, and it allows me to buy Pesto, arrogant French Brie, and London Fog drinks - so I'm happy.
Speaking of London Fog drinks - I have no idea where they've been all my life, or why I've never heard of them but MY GOD, they are incredible. It all started one fateful day when I was hanging around at Mink -my usual post-work-can't-be-arsed-to-cycle-home place, where my Aussie friend Lynda works. Mink is an extremely classy Chocolate Cafe, residing at the bottom of Hornby Street, in Downtown Vancouver, near the waterfront. It's a lovely location to hang out for a while, and I've got to know the staff pretty well. I've often been offered 'discounted' drinks in my time there, and one such time one of the staff, Jason, offered me a beverage I'd never heard of before. The London Fog, or simply 'Fog' as it's now known by us, is made up of steamed milk, organic Earl Grey tea (try $15 a box, but the teabags are made of silk, literally), a dash of Vanilla Syrup, and the option of Cinnamon on top. I tasted one of these for the first time a couple of weeks ago and ever since I've been hooked. It's got to the point where I make my own, rather less incredible, but still impressive, versions at work, and that has helped me get through the monotony of life at Business Objects.
Don't get me wrong, it's a laugh working here. The other temps I work with are all friendly and we get on well, but the work is mind-numbing, and nothing ever comes along that is in the slightest bit interesting. So, with this in mind, the prospect of overtime would probably be something I wouldn't even consider, right? Wrong, on Thursday all the temps were called into a meeting. Our boss Marnie asked how how we would like triple pay ($40.50/hour before tax) on Monday - a national holiday. We all stated, with generous dollops of understatement, that we'd probably be interested in that. The deal was to do at least four hours on both Saturday and Sunday, at double pay, and we could have our 40 bucks an hour on Monday. Needless to say we all took the offer up, and so on Monday, after personally working 12 hours over the weekend, everyone worked an epic Excel Spreadsheet shift of 12 gut-wrenching hours. It had to rank as one of the worst days of my life, sitting alongside writing-off my mothers beloved Fiat Punto, and failing my driving test, but the paycheque, which will arrive next week, should be spectacular.
Aside from that I've managed to do a lot of cheap activities. The other week Dylan, Andrew, Sabrina and myself climbed Grouse Mountain. Grouse is located behind North Vancouver, and we had planned to do it one weekend. The climb, known as the Grouse Grind, was tough, and after about 45 minutes we thought we were getting on pretty well. That was until we realised we weren't even half-way up. The trail is made up of an endless chain of steps made out of rock, branches and soil, which you conquer, one after another, in an fashion which seems like it will never end. Fortunately we all managed it, and had the splendor of an awe-inspiring view of Vancouver, the Burrard Inlet, and the coast of Vancouver Island in the distance. It took us an hour and-a-half, but it was totally worth it, especially for the Gondola ride back down.
Also in Vancouver there has recently been a fireworks competition. The basic idea is a few countries get together and try and out-do each other with as many different explosives as possible on Wednesday and Saturday nights. The views available from all over Downtown are spectacular, and I particularly enjoyed being able to get a great view of the city by moonlight, thus taking far far too many long-exposure shots with my Nikon.
All-in-all it's been a tough few weeks, but the pay will be worth it. I finish at my work in a week and-a-half, to take some well-earned time off. My trip to Canada is supposed to be a Working Holiday, and so I need to ensure I keep that in mind, rather than spending every waking moment in the workplace. I might not necessarily work 100% of the time when I'm there, but being here, rather than being outside enjoying the city and the surrounding area is important.
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