Well I'm still in Canada, and still working at Mink Chocolates. Fortunately this is legal, because I can still be in the country and continue to work whilst my work permit application is processed. After a number of phonecalls to check the status of my papers, I was informed that my situation should be resolved by the end of June. The whole process has been extremely arduous; I first started looking into the sponsorship progress back in January - almost six months ago, and only now is there some light at the end of the tunnel.
It is amazing that a year has already passed. Last week I said goodbye to Helen, my flightbuddy from Heathrow last year. Her 12 months is also over, and she was about to head back across the Atlantic to England, to save up for her next big adventure. All of my friends from Jericho Hostel have now gone. Lynda & Andrew, my Aussie buddies, have both gone off to pastures new, with Lynda heading back home via the UK, and Andrew driving across Canada in a GMC Yukon. All that's left now is me.
I made a trip back to the Hostel recently, where I spent my first weeks in Canada, the surroundings of Jericho Park, and the local beaches. The Hostel itself has changed dramatically since I was there. It has had a generous amount of restoration carried out. New coats of paint adorn the walls and fittings, the kitchen and TV room have been refurbished, and everywhere generally looks clean and fresh.
Visiting there brought memories of last summer flooding back. A whole new country, new people, a new city, daily trips to the beach, playing soccer with the locals, Hide & Seek, sitting forlornly in the kitchen at the end of June still wondering where I was going to live, trying to communicate with a guy from Chile through pictures, the huge Canada Day party - just endless fun times. All that seems distant now, but the photos we all took, and the memories we have remain.
It seems strange now to think of how lost I felt when I first started wandering around Vancouver. Anybody would be when arriving in a new place, an it is now great to see the pre-Olympic development gathering pace, and is nice to be able to get around the whole city without even having to think about where I'm heading. Vancouver seems very much like home now.
So by the end of the month my future will be resolved. One place I do know for sure I'll be going to is Armenia. On 15 September I'll be flying there with my parents from Heathrow for my brothers wedding - now I just need to know if it'll be following a flight from Vancouver. If so it will mean 32 hours flying in 10 days - pretty tiring, but it will be worth it. My brother Tom, my parents and myself have not been together now for two years, so being reunited, at Tom's wedding no less, will be very special. Tom is currently in Dubai, awaiting news of his Iranian visa application. He travelled to the Arabian peninsular from Djibouti on the East coast of Africa in a wooden boat with 600 cows. Since then he has negotiated Yemen, Oman, and finally the United Arab Emirates. He is now very close to being able to take a ferry to the southern coast of Iran, before taking a sleeper train to the capital, Tehran. There he will be reunited with Tenny, his fiancee. I am very excited to finally be able to meet her, and to have a new sister-in-law.
With Tom's global cycle ride in my consciousness so much in the past couple of years, I have taken it upon myself to embrace this eco-friendly form of transport. To think when we were both younger Tom and I hated the bike rides our parents took us on. Now one of us is cycling the globe. It is an extreme change, but a very good one. I've also become very much into cycling over the past year. That will probably come as a surprise to people who know me in the UK as the guy who always bought and sold cars, but I've tired of that.
Now, I cycle to work and back every day on an old 10-speed racing bike. It's very enjoyable, Vancouver caters for cyclists very well, and it has the additional bonus if providing me with great exercise. It's also cheap. Life is good.
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