Little Christmas Blog

Stella reading a letter from Nance in Six Acres

There’s been lots of beer so far. Last week I went out with work people, unintentionally ended up being gooseberry on a (‘non’) second date. Turns out I’m really good at going on other people’s dates, I had a great time. Me and Stell had our own date night exploring more of Gastown, including Six Acres, Salt and Bitter. We sampled cheese plates, found a scotch egg, and persevered with finding beer we really like. 

Done lots of shopping too. Took another trip to Granville Island Market for Christmas treats, and explored the artsy shops; I found another Japanese style stationers (Paper Ya) and drooled in there for a while. I even ventured as far as Dunbar for real Christmas cake and paxo stuffing. 

LOOK HOW HAPPY I AM

Stockings

Christmas Dinner

I was really pleased to be invited to a mulled wine evening, which, followed by a trip to the Irish Heather, began the Christmas season wonderfully. On Christmas Eve, Stell and I went to a Carol Service, which aside from a few tune variations and an embarrassing pop ballad style rendition of ‘Mary did you know?’ , was very cute and festive. Afterwards, we struggled to find somewhere to drink (most places close for the entire Christmas period). We ended up going to the Railway Club which was very quiet, but the two of us had a lovely evening reminiscing about Christmases at home. As we were about to leave, we stumbled upon a small guitar band doing a Christmas sing-a-long, which was the perfect end to the evening.

The view from Vancouver Lookout

Christmas morning was bursting full of Skype sessions and bucks fizz. A bottle of bubbles later, we began the mammoth task of cooking a full Christmas dinner without an oven thermostat. It shouldn’t have worked, and we definitely should have been poisoned, but somehow it did! We had an amazing dinner followed by gifts from all the family. Favourites included a stationary set and library date stamp, a wonderful food hamper, PERCY PIGS, and some fancy slippers. Thanks everyone.

Vancouver FOUR

It’s getting closer to Christmas, and although I’m feeling increasingly more settled, I’m missing the thought of the holidays at home. I wrote my Christmas cards last week, and Stella’s made a ‘Christmas at the Movies’ playlist and has already bought (and experimented with) a tub of mulling spices. Today we bought a Christmas tree, balls, lights and bells and have spent the afternoon bringing the ‘yuletide gay’ to our apartment. I mulled some wine and bought some satsumas (stems on), and have started the obligatory Christmas ‘goobie tray’.  We are also listening to the Glee Christmas album- yes I watch glee now. The list we have made for Christmas food shopping is insane as we’re trying to incorporate both our family’s funny traditions. That means ‘Some like it Hot’ and prawn cocktails, followed by white chocolate cheesecake and ‘Muppets Christmas Carol’. 

The biggest news these past few weeks is our housing drama. We had solved the mice problem and given up on relying on our landlady. But we had a visit from the building manager who was issuing a court order to evict our landlady from the property because she hadn’t been paying her rent. So she’d been taking our money, not paying her rent, and ultimately we were the ones dealing with the consequences. The bailiffs were on their way and we were set to be evicted. Luckily the manager was really sweet, and he’s now our friend. He’s letting us stay here anyway until the end of the month, and I think then we’ll be moving into an apartment downstairs. Phew. It still hasn’t put me completely at ease, and I’ve been relieved coming home each night to find the locks unchanged and our belongings still intact. We’ve had to laugh I suppose, but we can’t believe what a mess we’ve ended up in, and so close to Christmas. 

English Bay

We’ve been exploring a little more. We took a stroll along English bay, which is only a few minutes from our flat. Those familiar with Seaburn will be pleased to learn they have a Boxing Day ‘Polar Bear Swim’ where all the hardcore Vancouver oldies go for a dip. We have also started to frequent what is sure to become our local pub- the Fountainhead. Unfortunately the beer is crap and the use of the phrase ‘patio seating’ is questionable, but it’s super gay and the only thing that feels like a pub close to home. 

 I joined the library and have already ogled the amazing book and film collections. To structure my Vancouver reading I’ve joined a book club (yes a lesbian one), that meets in January. Still haven’t finished the book I came with, which I can’t believe I hadn’t finished the first time round, His Dark Materials (thank you, Karen Eastwood- perfect holiday book!)

These past weeks, we’ve been getting to know new people and working hard at our jobs. We’re doing close to full-time right now, in the hope for saving for a lavish Christmas dinner, and travelling in the New Year. I’ve even fashioned my first latte ‘rosetta’. I went for drinks with work people a few days ago and got taken to the most amazing bar called the Alibi Room, which I liked purely for the fact it reminded me of Friday nights being silly in Alibi, Sheffield. 

Winning Ticket

Oh, and have I mentioned my big bingo win?! We went to a bingo night at a gay club on Davie Street. It was massively cheesy, but great. I was so nervous about winning anything because I knew it would involve being on stage, getting the piss taken by some enormous drag queens. So obviously, that meant I won the jackpot prize. This included a Mini Cooper for a weekend of my choosing, $100, casino coupons, a bath robe, a Mini T-shirt, Umbrella, key rings, torch, thermos cup... As well as the win we had a great night and met some nice people and were introduced to a very trendy, darkly lit bar in the gay village (1181). 

We have managed to venture out of downtown once or twice, but it’s hard when there’s so much on our doorstep. We finally made it to Kitsilano, and the Museum of Anthropology. We learnt lots about the First Nations people and were very impressed by the foyer of Totem poles, which dwarfed the ones we’d seen before in Stanley Park. We also saw an exhibit of photographs taken of clothing that survived the Hiroshima bombing (Ishuchi Miyako). It had been on our to-do list since we arrived, but we felt it was lacking in information, which is definitely weird for a museum. Or at least it made me feel like I wanted to know much more about what happened to First Nations people, and how they live now. 

On another  cultural endeavour I’ve been trying to see some theatre, and finally satisfied this with a production of ‘The Tempermentals’ at the PAL. The venue was unusual in that it was a high rise of affordable housing for people who have dedicated their lives to the poorly paid arts, with a studio space at the top. It was very cute and obviously underfunded, but I really liked the mugs of tea and Kitkats served from a kitchenette in the studio entrance. The play was about a group of men in pre-Stonewall America, who founded the Mattachine Society and were the first people to acknowledge a gay civil rights movement. All these reasons made me really want to like it, but ultimately it was just OK.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Vancouver Three

We’ve found and started our jobs this week, and settled into the new apartment this weekend so we haven’t had much of a chance to be tourists anymore. This has been exciting though- because we have finally ticked off everything we needed to do! 

The apartment was awful when we arrived. The landlady had already called me at work a few days before to ask for our rent money to be deposited in her account early so there was bad feeling by the time we came to move in. As we walked into the bathroom and kitchen especially she tried to act like it was fine when it was clearly horrendous. We spent the whole weekend cleaning. Not the best start to our first apartment together- but I think we’ve got it looking really good now. We’re excited about getting a little Christmas tree and hanging fairy lights everywhere (because there aren’t actually any lights in the bedroom/living room!) 

I now work at the Salty Tongue in Gastown. It’s a trendy cafe/coffee shop in the historic part of Vancouver near the bay. It’s also the boozy part of town. They really make a lot of fuss about their coffee- I’m learning to calibrate my shots and I’m sure to be learning latte-art any day now. It’s really nice though that they make a big deal of it- I’m learning loads. My manager is a competitive barista so it’s a pretty high standard, I’m not even allowed to start serving the coffee yet! 

I had a couple more interviews last week, one was at a soup market on Granville Island- very cute and wholesome and I had to do a food quiz when I got there! Unfortunately I’d forgotten everything I’d learnt from Masterchef and a few Canadian-isms like mornay and arugula didn’t help. I got a trial shift but cancelled it because I got the other job. I also had an interview to work at a crisis shelter for young people. I was most excited about this and it sounded like the most rewarding but I ran into a sticky phone interview where they explained their catholic founder (which I was obviously fine with) and therefore their stance on pro-life and anti-contraception. I was in a bit of a moral dilemma, so I’m really glad some other jobs came up. 

I’ve also spent the last couple of weeks doing the odd shift at the American Apparel warehouse sale. This was supposed to be a form of trial shift with opportunities for full time employment in one of their stores, but so far it just seems like they needed bodies to pick up after rummaging shoppers! 

Last weekend we went to our fist gig in Vancouver- UH HUH HER- at the ‘Keep A Breast’ cancer awareness tour.  It was jam packed with hard core Lword fans, but they were actually really good in their own right and it was nice to do something that wasn’t the usual tourist stuff.  The same day I also had my trial shift at Salty and managed to spill my first latte all down myself in front of my manager and the other new staff member- the embarrassment there continues. 

On one of our frequent rainy days when we can’t decide what to do (of which there are many), we visited Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. As much as I’m not a huge fan of this kind of rainy day activity, weaving amongst hundreds of school kids and mommies with prams, we actually had a great time! It was really interesting because all the weird sea creatures weren’t from some far off exotic place, but from along the coast all over BC.

Points for an Lword spot!

I’m just off to meet Stell from work and go for a drink. We’re just starting to explore our new neighbourhood.

Vancouver Two

Last Thursday we moved to West Vancouver to stay with the Cobbs & Rogers. On the drive over here we went over the Lions Gate bridge to the North shore and up into West Van. We left the garish delights of the city and are now over the bay in a temperate rainforest. MORE RAIN. It’s been nice to have some comfort and home cooked meals though. We arrived here just after we’d managed to find a house we like! It’s a studio apartment in the west end, close to the beach and Stanley Park and it’s on a pretty tree-lined street. After the trauma of shared accommodation we decided to throw money at the problem and get our own place- let’s hope we get jobs soon! We move in on 13^th. 

Last week we took the boat trip to Granville Island. We were needlessly excited about the boat. It held about 7 people and took about 45 seconds. But it was a nice way to see the city and the mountains beyond. The island is a reclaimed rubbish dump, and now has a brewery, university and the best food market I have ever seen. We went for fish and chips Vancouver style, which just means the fish was superb. We explored the small streets, which makes a nice change for Vancouver, and pottered in and out of markets, and artsy boutiques. The Granville Island Brewery was also an obvious pit-stop. We had samples of all the beers on offer- which was all we could have. They must have strange licensing laws here because some bars make you have food before you can order a 2^nd or 3^rd round of drinks, and even at the brewery we were only allowed to have 12oz of beer each. 

On Saturday we went down Main street to the Regional Assembly of Text, which is a stationary store with a reading room full of self published books and zines. Spent ages ogling everything- shame you weren’t there to loiter around the entrance for me dad! After, we took our first trip to Gastown, which is the cool bars and restaurants area. It made a nice change from the Granville strip, and we peered in at plenty of exposed brick work and fancy tasting platters. A little expensive for us, we stayed for a few drinks then headed off for a ‘cheap eat’ downtown. We went to the diner I mentioned in the first blog, we never made it because we were exhausted, and it was worth the wait. We had local beers and enormous burgers in a booth with a mini juke box- and it was even nicer that we weren’t outside with the rest of Vancouver who were all halloween’d up to the eyeballs and stumbling around the streets. They are mad on Halloween here- every porch step has at least 5 pumpkins on it. And cobwebs. And blood. And huge inflatable ghosts....

The start of this week was time for serious job-hunting. I suppose we don’t really need to start looking yet, but I think it’s going to be good for meeting people and settling into life as a Vancouverite. Applied for lots, and dropped into the gay and lesbian community centre to offer our volunteering services. I’m also thinking about getting involved with teaching English as a foreign language. 

By Tuesday Stell already has a job interview. Swot. At Vancouver’s technology shop catered to the LGBTQA community (i.e. selling gay phones). After we went for a post interview hot dog with a Japanese twist-as you do. See Stell’s food blog for more on how we nearly died in the aftermath. 

On Wednesday the job hunt continued with an interview with a temp agency, set up by SWAP, which was a big waste of time- pretty sure we won’t get jobs as a result. After, we went to explore Yaletown, another district of fancy bars and coffee shops. We sampled some more local beer, which is lovely, but we’re feeling a pang for a pub- which we are yet to find. Then we headed to Chinatown in hope of finding lots of choices of teatime destinations. It wasn’t quite what we expected, a little rough around the edges and the restaurants had what looked to be patio furniture in them- and no people. But then we found the most amazing candlelit Chinese-tapas style eatery, Bao Bei. It was the most unlikely of places to find in those surroundings, and inevitably involved more dim sum. Yum. 

I also got a JOB INTERVIEW and a trial shift on Saturday. It’s as a Barista in a super trendy cafe in Gastown, where there’s just one long table where everyone sits and eats meat cured on the premises. YES. I overdressed for the interview, and was overly conscious of my accent, but otherwise I’m hoping it went well. 

We’re having a lovely time being looked after at Sandi & Steve’s but are itching to get back into the city to move into our new home. It’s bear country out here, and people die on the mountains not far from the house! We’re yet to see a bear but we like to sing a ‘go away bears’ song we made up on the walk up the driveway. 

Here are some pictures...

Gastown steam clock. Lots of bars around, and my job interview was for a place just round the corner. 

Stell at the Diner.

Me at the Diner.

Stell in a cutesy dowtown sandwich shop. 

My first Vancouver beer.

Chinese garden in the middle of the city. The blocks in the water read Earth reflects the heavens but they float so don't always  say the same thing.

This was written on the side of a cafe we have noted to visit at some point on the trip. It seems to be a popular ethos with much of Vancouver. 

This is THE view from Stanley park. 

First Nations totem pole

A view from Commercial drive, just outside the city. The lights are from the Canucks ice hockey stadium.

Street Dog.

Our tasting flight of Granville beers.

View from boat to Granville Island.

This is our new house- where we don't quite live yet. 

Vancouver ONE

Been feeling pretty weird the past few days... turns out it hadn’t really hit me that we’ve moved to Canada (not like I had an extra 10 months to prepare or anything). But in between these bouts, I’m starting to think I really like it here. This is so far - 

I had hoped everything could go smoothly on our journey. But Manchester airport had to be awful. Queues outside the airport and a realisation that we couldn’t have the seats we’d paid for got me in a right flap (not as much as Stell). Thanks to the offering of an early Christmas present, we ended up with an upgrade. Fancy.

We got to Vancouver 11 hours later, after plenty of plane food and a quick look at Calgary. Vancouver airport is amazing- lots of First Nations art and an indoor waterfall at baggage claim! Getting our visas was wonderfully easy and we were quickly aboard the Skytrain to downtown Vancouver. We checked in at the hostel, sat on the bed, and started to freak out a bit. This was soon dispelled by our first beers in Davie Street’s best gay pub- the Fountainhead. We were warmly welcomed to our new ‘community’ by recommendations of the best ‘chick’s nights’ around. It’s not at all like the sometimes hostile queer scene at home. We will definitely be back here. We tried to power through the jet lag, but over 24 hours with no sleep and plenty of panicking, we crashed. 

The hostel has been a surprise. We have a private room with nice bedding, close to the clean ‘washrooms’ and it has a great atmosphere, cheap bar, and a bagel frenzy at breakfast. No more needed. We’ve even extended our stay. 

Yesterday was our first full day and we tried to explore as much as possible. Whilst we are trying to find more permanent accommodation we need to know what’s nice and what’s not. We stroll through Chinatown and visit the gardens and find a bakery serving the steamed pork dumplings Stell has been perving at in the guide books since before we even got here. The excitement of the huge steamers on the counter proves too much and we try two varieties. LUSH. We also find Commercial Drive (the drive), home to Vancouver’s lesbian community. This basically means a high street with plenty of organic produce, coffee shops brewing serious coffee, and pubs with regular poetry nights. We stop for coffee and mull over where to go next- South Main (Soma). Struggling through the outdoor outlets trying to find suitable waterproofs and footwear (it rains here all the time- not just in a British way, in a biblical way). After a while we soon realise we don’t belong among the hiking gear and ski equipment and head back to the hostel for naps before heading out to the aforementioned chick night. On our way we stop by the Little Sister’s Book Emporium, which is the hub of the LGBTQ community, looking for tips on the best bars. We also browsed the women’s fiction and Stell ogled over Sue Sylvester’s biography. Later we found ourselves at the weekly women’s night and had a really amazing evening. The atmosphere was inclusive, friendly, and we felt right at home. 

Today we hammered the house hunt and have a few viewings lined up for the next few days (Obviously as close to Commercial Drive as is possible!) We also took a visit to Stanley Park, the sun was out and we caught some of the best views of Vancouver over harbour- we took a short walk around the sea wall, dodging the cyclists and rollerbladers to find some of the totem poles dotted around the park that pay homage to the indigenous people.  We have plans to go to a diner later this evening to maybe sample some poutine and milkshakes. Just got to wake Stell, the jet lag lingers...