Thanksgiving

This past weekend was Thanksgiving here is Canada. We had a long weekend and on Sunday our house attempted a Thanksgiving dinner. We opted for chicken instead of turkey and at one stage the oven caught on fire!! However it turned out to be a very successful night after all that.

 

        The smallest pumpkins IGA had!

The pumpkin pie I made 

Richmond Night Market

Every weekend throughout Summer the Richmond Night Market runs which is mainly a selection of Asian cuisine. It was the final weekend last week so I went to check it out with my housemate, Ziyad.

Deep fried cheesecake!!

Squids on the BBQ

Dim Sum

Freshly cooked squid tentacles

Sunny Autumn weather

Mt Pleasant (intersection of Kingsway and Main St)

Autumn leaves

10th Ave, bike route

Timber house being built near where I live

Mt Pleasant suburban streets

I have experienced the good and perhaps uglier side of Vancouver. First, the good; it was reported in the newspaper yesterday that Vancouver experienced the driest August and September on record since 1896. Which means the sunny weather is continuing for now!

 Now to perhaps the uglier/weird side of Vancouver. I just witnessed two men making their way into our neighbour's backyard. The houses back onto a lane way and each have wooden gates. The fences separating the properties are pretty low so I could see what they were doing. In Vancouver you can get a refund for glass bottles and cans, so these two men were raiding the green bins of houses to find these items! I was sitting in the yard next door where they could clearly see me, but didn't seem to care. I am just glad they didn't come into my yard! As they walked off one of them said "hopefully this will get us enough (money) to buy a bud" (of weed). Haha oh Vancouver, how you continue to surprise me each day!

Grand Final Aussie Style

On Friday night the AFL grand final was shown at an Irish pub downtown. It was organised by the Vancouver Cougars AFL team (a local footy team here in Vancouver, made up of mostly expats I think). Jess and I went along with Charlotte and Ziyad (my two French housemates) as well as Jess' friends who live here. It was definitely interesting watching it with four people who had never seen an AFL game before! However most of the 250+ crowd was made up of Aussies. I have never been so glad to hear an Australian accent before in my life! Everyone stood up for the National anthem, which I thought was really cool. As impressed as my French friends were at the display, I told them unfortunately this would rarely happen in Australia. It must be something about being overseas that makes you feel more patriotic. Suddenly I was really interested in a game of AFL...something which rarely occurs back home haha. When you are so far away from home you grasp at small things which remind you of your country; like enthusiastically watching a game of footy, or being over protective over your Vegemite. When I first arrived I thought Canada and Australia were pretty much the same. However as time has progressed I have noticed there are many subtle differences between the two, which has made me appreciate Australia so much more. For example our university system (they have nothing like HECS here), so university literally is only for the wealthy. As well as other things such as the choice to vote (whereas it it illegal in Australia not to vote). One of the most astounding differences is the only very recent change in laws allowing people to BYO to restaurants in Vancouver. Which meant before now the idea of bringing your own alcohol to a restaurant was foreign!! We definitely have it better in Aus in that regard!

This weekend coming up is Thanksgiving long weekend. We are having a big Thanksgiving dinner Sunday night, and then on Monday are hiring a car and going to Squamish for the day. Photos to follow!

Victoria, Vancouver Island

This weekend Jess and I ventured over to Victoria, Vancouver Island. We stayed with friends of a customer from the cafe I work at in Perth. I hope that makes sense! We received nothing short of amazing hospitality during our stay.

The ferry ride over, a little cloudy!

Jess & I

On Friday night we went out for dinner with a good family friend of mine; Izobell. She is the daughter of Mum's best friend. I hadn't seen her since 2009, as she is living in Victoria now. Hopefully she will come over to Vancouver while I am here to catch up again.

Izobell & I

The waterfront

Downtown Victoria

Very European influence

Jess & I with one of Canada's mythical creatures...although I am sure it is a character from a movie,

The typical Canadian tourist photo

The Empress historic hotel

Parliament house
( Victoria if the official capital of British Columbia, not Vancouver as many people think)

A sculpture carved completely in Jade which is harder than steel, yet translucent.

One of the dining rooms inside The Empress. There is a high tea here for a small $89 per person.
We gave that one a miss!

Killer whale hedges (kind of tacky haha)

Fan Tan Alley in Chinatown. Victoria's smallest official street

On Sunday we went to the Butchart Gardens, which is a world class venue. Over 100 years ago the area was a quarry pit. The Butchart family came in with a vision and made it what it is today. Members of the original family still operate the garden. The garden spans over 20 hectares, and every tree, flower, hedge and garden bed is in impeccable condition. I don't know if my photos do it justice, but this is just a small selection of the photos I took on Sunday.

The Rose garden, which smelled amazing!

The Japanese garden

View from the gardens overlooking the water

The sunken garden

Autumn colours

Water fountain surrounded by the walls of the original quarry

Historic Merry-go-round

Jess, Colleen (who we stayed with) & I

Arch to the Italian garden

The Italian garden

Colleen & I

The whole weekend was very memorable, especially with Colleen as our local tour guide!