February 26, 2010

Basecamp

My friend Lara offered me her basement suite, while it was unoccupied, for me to crash in. It's self contained, furnished and in North Van. It would be nice to establish a space where I can operate from while I try and land a job sos this works out well for me. The condition is, if someone decides to take the place I'm out so it's not perfect but for the time being it'll be nice not to have to haul around my hockey bag.

Woke up at noon today, went to the Fairway market where I was exposed to one of the strangest meat sections. They had all manner of stuff there which included, of all things and much to my squeamish horror, pork bung (whatever the hell that is), and fresh pork uterus (because we all love some fresh uterus now and again). 

Bleh...

I was amazed though at the diversity of food you could get in this little market. It was pretty cool. I wish there were markets like that in Calgary. We made udon for lunch. The fellas didn't have much in the way of noodle or soup bowls so we did it up old school and ate straight out of the pot. Haven't done that in ages. Was a very good meal and only cost $15. Gotta start getting used to living on a shoestring budget. 

I packed and headed back to the mainland on the 5 o'clock ferry. It was drizzly out and I was a little sad to leave Xuan. She's been a great ray of sun in my life. She has such an unusual view on life that it's always refreshing to be around her. She gave me her spinner ring and I traded her my pinkie ring and my yoga mat. She was looking for one and mine was weighing me down a bit. Besides, I imagine wherever I go, I should be able to replace it fairly easily. I hope she has a great time in Mexico. I hope she doesn't get into too much trouble down there. 

I arrived in Horseshoe Bay and was the last one off the ferry. With my big bag I figured it was best not to get in the way of anyone. It's frickin heavy still. Trying to figure out how I can lighten this load somehow. Hmmm... When I got to the top of the ramp, the security guy looked at me and exclaimed, "Woah, big bag. You gonna be able to carry that down the stairs?"

I looked to the left where exiting passengers are supposed to head and saw a steep set of stairs. I looked back at him, he laughed and said, "why don't you wait for these passengers to get on and then you can take the elevator down."

Uh, ya. good plan. There is no way in hell I'm stair carrying this thing. Another 15 minutes later I finally made my way out to the terminal entrance where Lara and I rather ham-handedly stuffed the behemoth into the backseat of her car. A lady came over at one point offering help because she said the whole scenario looked "rather comical" and she felt sorry for us. Thanks. Glad to know we're entertaining you.

Finally got to Lara's, settled in and watched the end of the Canada-Slovakia game while eating pizza. The plucky Slovaks who had dispatched the Russians and eliminated the Swedes made a game of it late in the third but Canada survived a furious salvo at the end including Demietra missing a yawning cage with Luongo down to win the game 3-2 and advance to the gold medal game versus the U.S.

The gold medal game should be a gooder. Canada better bring their A-game cos it's going to be a doozy. 

Crashing out early tonight so that I can help Tomoko move in the morning. Hasta Manyana.