It looks like this blog updating is not happening as regularly as I thought it would.. it's been over a month since the last post and again there's bound to be a bunch of entertaining things happened that I have forgotten to note down.. perhaps i'll try and do smaller posts more often from now on.. cos this one is going to be realy long..
Guitar, Jamming, and Musical Awesomeness
I FINALLY got myself a guitar to use. My lovely friend Lucy actually offered this guitar when I first arrived but she said it was pretty terrible and I felt it was too early in the friendship to take something like that. Two months later however, I was CRAVING guitar so i took it. It was in pretty bad shape! The strings were a good 15mm off the fretboard up at the 12th fret and the tuning and intonation were completely off.. so i pulled the strings off, adjusted the neck truss, sanded the bridge down maybe 7mm and put some new super light strings on - WOW a playable guitar! YAY! Some friends of mine are pretty regular jammers, one friend Aimee had a birthday party with heaps of people playing instruments.. it doesnt work too well with too many drunken people, but other smaller sessions have been really fun. I haven't had that much experience playing music collaboratively, so it's a great learning experience. I love it. Focusing really hard on learning my scales now.
Another friend new Mariana leaving for Mexico had a going away bonfire at a secluded beach which was amazing, about 40 people were there in the end including homeless people who just drifted along with instruments, half naked loud drunken jock to entertain people, lots of djembe's and even a muted trumpet player. We ended up having a REALLY nice music session that lasted for quite a while. a GREAT night.
The Bonfire
View of West Van from bonfire
Vancouver 420 Day
420 is a term used in North America to refer to weed. A lot of people think this is a reference to a police code for possesion or something ("we've got a possible 420 here", etc) but it's actually a term coined by a group of highschool potheads referring to the time of day after school that they'd meet up and get high. In Vancouver, or i think BC in general, peaceful drug use is tolerated, police here have made it policy not to arrest people who are really not harming anyone, or if anyone - themselves. As far as I'm aware this also applies to harder drugs, people caught injecting will be taken to a safe injecting room rather than a police lockup. "420 Day" falls unsurprisingly on April 20 and celebrates not only this liberty but raises awareness and peaceful protest of marijuana prohibition. Held at the arts centre downtown (with big lawns and steps etc), thousands of people gather to celebrate this day, culminating at 4:20pm.
Wow, i've never seen ANYTHING like this. there were literally thousands of people all just hanging out smoking weed, playing hacky sack, listening to awesome tunes and pretty much just chilling. For the entire time i was there, i saw ONE person of authority, a solitary police officer concerned that some people were getting a little close to the traffic and ushering them to safety in a very friendly manner. I understand the police tollerance on peaceful use.. but there were stalls here literally SELLING weed.. I really dont understand that one.. some guy bought $260 worth of infused butter to cook with. hahaha outrageous!
It's interesting to note the contrast between this and the police policy on public drinking. I've heard stories of cops on the beach walk past a group of people smoking weed to confiscate the solitary beers 2 guys nearby were consuming. I guess on the bigger scale it makes sense, a group of people smoking for a duration on the beach is statistically going to be a lot less trouble than a group of people drinking.. It's a shame tho, a cold beer on a hot day at the beach is quite enjoyable.. at least we have an alternative!
Anzac Day
Some Australian friends of mine informed me that there was an ANZAC Day party being held, turned out it was 1 block away from my house (score!) It was pretty much as to be expected, footy, rugby, loud drunken aussies, quiet insecure kiwis (haha jk), lamingtons, anzac biscuits, damper with vegemite, meat pies, bbq, meat fest, meat tray auction, turkey raffle, burgers with the lot. Most of which my extremely unaustralian vegetarianism didnt really take to. But the company and beer was great. Apparently there were competitions to recite "Six Pieces of Fish and Chips" in the thuckist frishist NZ accent, and the best pub joke told in the worst ocker accent. Missed it... Spewin' ;)
Hahaha stupid tiny Aussie flag..
Work!!!!
So I've had some work come my way, the temp agency I signed up with to do office and clerical crap finally called but what they had to offer was a little different to that... they initially told me it involved the following: me and some other guy dressed up in tuxedos in a booth at an expo promoting tiffany. This was cringworthy enough - however, not exactly what went down... I get there and after introductions with Steph the organiser for some lukemia organisation (not Tifanny), I find that i'm actually on my own, in a tux and wandering around the crowds with a silver platter of empty Tiffany boxes luring unsuspecting women and sending them BACK to the booth where Steph was.. This was at the signup marquee for the Vancouver Marathon, the idea is there's a Marathon in San Francisco where anyone who completes the race gets a Tifanny necklace and medalion presented to them by firemen dressed in tuxedos who apparantly I was supposed to be representing.. FAIL. On top of this. there was no changing rooms. so I had to trek to some port-a-loo's to get dressed... *sigh*... look, I'm not that vain a guy but if I'm going to be donned up as psuedo eye-candy for an afternoon I wouldn't mind a mirror just to check if things are looking ok.. maybe straighten the bowtie.. anyway the first hour was a bit unnerving but after I relaxed and realised that like 90% of women go gaga when they see a tiffany box and dont really care what you say, it was all smooth sailing. After 4 hours I was done.. easy money.
Since then I've done some work at another charity organisation in a hospital, no tuxedos this time. Pretty boring data entry stuff.. i think if i'm going to be doing crap jobs i'd much prefer them to be manual labour.. at least you keep active and fit that way.. sedintary work where you're not evening utilising your brain is seriously soul destroying.
About a month ago I signed up with Hollywood North Extras, an agency for background work in films, and got my first gig this coming friday! It is in one of the most ridicuously titled films of all time - "Hot Tub Time Machine" with John Cusack. No it's not a porno. It's up on Mt. Seymour at night, i'm in an 80s scene at a rock concert. I think my actual role would be Rock Concert Atendee #209 ahahaha its the part I was born to play, baby.
Some Other Notable Things
I went with Sacha and Amin to see Ozomatli in downtown Vancouver, fantastic gig as always, however they have dropped their horns section for some reason?!? They used to have these 2 or 3 guys with tumpet trumbone sax etc who would dance around and put on a great show.. nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining evening of funky latin hiphop. One highlight being an extremely drunken nearly 7ft tall man trying for about 5 minutes (very unsucessfully) to roll a joint in front of me, when he lifted it to his mouth and tried to light what looked like a scrunched up piece of paper with weed falling everywhere I offered my assistance, to which he responded by shoving his entire stash in my hand and saying "fine, you do it" so i did it, but by the time i had finished (about 45 seconds later) he had disapeared, and was never to be seen again for the remainder of the evening. Oops.
Went to a downtown bowling alley and it was a bit strange. Instead of 10pin bowling, they have 6 pin!? the pins are smaller, the ball is smaller with no finger holes, and apparently each pin has a different amount of points? i dont get it.. we didnt play that night as the lanes were full, but i guess i'll try one day. Instead we went to the foosball tables, shortly after we started playing these two guys rocked up and pulled out their own grip, of course this resulted in a challenge from Amin and Aaron, two of the most average mexican foosball players to ever have graced the table. Here is a video of the match.. there really isnt enough frames per second to capture just how quickly they were shooting for goal.
I was sick for nearly 4 weeks straight.. sucked a lot just cold stuff but it stopped me from doing things like applying for jobs interviews etc, i think the broken rib stopped me from coughing enough.. anyway i went to this local free clinic (yes it is totally free, you just take a number and see a perfectly qualified doctor for nothing no medicare no nothing, they also have giant tubs filled with condoms which they encourage you to stock up on - for free) . While I was waiting, there was a couple nearby arguing, I wasnt really listening but the following line grabbed my attention so i wrote it down to share with you, the girl exclaims "are you kidding me? do you really think that i want to cook you and your useless friends food while you play world of warcraft?? you are completely delusional!" ahahaha it was hard not to laugh!!
Sacha and I went to a houseparty, which was funny because essentially Sacha knew a guy who knew a guy who wasn't going to this party and that was our in. it really didnt matter, this was your classic house party, not just any house either, but in the middle of the cbd.. imagine walking down say.. william street in melbourne and having a break in the corporate buildings only to have a solitary 3 story house standing there - that's where we were partying. it was crazy. at least 100 people must have come through the place. with a keg, an army of police out the front and many spontaneous chants of Go Canucks Go! it was a true true canadian house party..
Speaking of Canucks, for those who dont know they're the Vancouver Ice Hockey team. Something we dont experience in melbourne (in addition to ice hockey) is having a sport that is suported by a large percentage of the poplation with a single team for the city, what this means is everyone is united which is refreshing... They lost the first round of playoffs but I happened to be downtown when they won a game and the whole city was going off, cars just driving around with horns blaring etc. actually i guess its kinda like world cup fever in melbourne.. but more enthusiastic :)
I went camping this weekend just passed, to Squamish, BC. We had one tent between 5 of us that fit 4 cramped, Amin slept in the car. The only issue was that we dont really have any camping gear like stoves, lights, chairs, etc.. which normally wouldnt be too much of a problem except that the ground we stayed in didnt allow fires at all. nor had any bbqs. But we only went for one night and survived on crap food, some candles and the trusty guitar to keep us company. BC is SOOOOOO beautiful!! So green, like the richest most vibrant greens i've ever seen.. Camilo Pau and Amin's friend Meriyam did a hike on the sunday evening, but Amin and I relaxed and waited til the next day and we all did a short hike to Shannon Falls, check out some pics below. VERY inspired to do more camping over the summer.
Needs no description
Also needs no description
Thus ends a glimps of another active month for me.. Hopefully will be getting more work soon so i can keep this up... But at the same time, it's good learning how to have a lot of fun with very little money :) Again, I'll attempt to make the next post sooner and shorter..
Til then...
Some Reminders:
Sacha - Australian girl who was friends with my sister Alana and arrived shortly after Alana left, now friends with me.
Amin, Camilo, Pau - Housemates
Guitar, Jamming, and Musical Awesomeness
I FINALLY got myself a guitar to use. My lovely friend Lucy actually offered this guitar when I first arrived but she said it was pretty terrible and I felt it was too early in the friendship to take something like that. Two months later however, I was CRAVING guitar so i took it. It was in pretty bad shape! The strings were a good 15mm off the fretboard up at the 12th fret and the tuning and intonation were completely off.. so i pulled the strings off, adjusted the neck truss, sanded the bridge down maybe 7mm and put some new super light strings on - WOW a playable guitar! YAY! Some friends of mine are pretty regular jammers, one friend Aimee had a birthday party with heaps of people playing instruments.. it doesnt work too well with too many drunken people, but other smaller sessions have been really fun. I haven't had that much experience playing music collaboratively, so it's a great learning experience. I love it. Focusing really hard on learning my scales now.
Another friend new Mariana leaving for Mexico had a going away bonfire at a secluded beach which was amazing, about 40 people were there in the end including homeless people who just drifted along with instruments, half naked loud drunken jock to entertain people, lots of djembe's and even a muted trumpet player. We ended up having a REALLY nice music session that lasted for quite a while. a GREAT night.
The Bonfire
View of West Van from bonfire
Vancouver 420 Day
420 is a term used in North America to refer to weed. A lot of people think this is a reference to a police code for possesion or something ("we've got a possible 420 here", etc) but it's actually a term coined by a group of highschool potheads referring to the time of day after school that they'd meet up and get high. In Vancouver, or i think BC in general, peaceful drug use is tolerated, police here have made it policy not to arrest people who are really not harming anyone, or if anyone - themselves. As far as I'm aware this also applies to harder drugs, people caught injecting will be taken to a safe injecting room rather than a police lockup. "420 Day" falls unsurprisingly on April 20 and celebrates not only this liberty but raises awareness and peaceful protest of marijuana prohibition. Held at the arts centre downtown (with big lawns and steps etc), thousands of people gather to celebrate this day, culminating at 4:20pm.
Wow, i've never seen ANYTHING like this. there were literally thousands of people all just hanging out smoking weed, playing hacky sack, listening to awesome tunes and pretty much just chilling. For the entire time i was there, i saw ONE person of authority, a solitary police officer concerned that some people were getting a little close to the traffic and ushering them to safety in a very friendly manner. I understand the police tollerance on peaceful use.. but there were stalls here literally SELLING weed.. I really dont understand that one.. some guy bought $260 worth of infused butter to cook with. hahaha outrageous!
It's interesting to note the contrast between this and the police policy on public drinking. I've heard stories of cops on the beach walk past a group of people smoking weed to confiscate the solitary beers 2 guys nearby were consuming. I guess on the bigger scale it makes sense, a group of people smoking for a duration on the beach is statistically going to be a lot less trouble than a group of people drinking.. It's a shame tho, a cold beer on a hot day at the beach is quite enjoyable.. at least we have an alternative!
Some Australian friends of mine informed me that there was an ANZAC Day party being held, turned out it was 1 block away from my house (score!) It was pretty much as to be expected, footy, rugby, loud drunken aussies, quiet insecure kiwis (haha jk), lamingtons, anzac biscuits, damper with vegemite, meat pies, bbq, meat fest, meat tray auction, turkey raffle, burgers with the lot. Most of which my extremely unaustralian vegetarianism didnt really take to. But the company and beer was great. Apparently there were competitions to recite "Six Pieces of Fish and Chips" in the thuckist frishist NZ accent, and the best pub joke told in the worst ocker accent. Missed it... Spewin' ;)
Hahaha stupid tiny Aussie flag..
Work!!!!
So I've had some work come my way, the temp agency I signed up with to do office and clerical crap finally called but what they had to offer was a little different to that... they initially told me it involved the following: me and some other guy dressed up in tuxedos in a booth at an expo promoting tiffany. This was cringworthy enough - however, not exactly what went down... I get there and after introductions with Steph the organiser for some lukemia organisation (not Tifanny), I find that i'm actually on my own, in a tux and wandering around the crowds with a silver platter of empty Tiffany boxes luring unsuspecting women and sending them BACK to the booth where Steph was.. This was at the signup marquee for the Vancouver Marathon, the idea is there's a Marathon in San Francisco where anyone who completes the race gets a Tifanny necklace and medalion presented to them by firemen dressed in tuxedos who apparantly I was supposed to be representing.. FAIL. On top of this. there was no changing rooms. so I had to trek to some port-a-loo's to get dressed... *sigh*... look, I'm not that vain a guy but if I'm going to be donned up as psuedo eye-candy for an afternoon I wouldn't mind a mirror just to check if things are looking ok.. maybe straighten the bowtie.. anyway the first hour was a bit unnerving but after I relaxed and realised that like 90% of women go gaga when they see a tiffany box and dont really care what you say, it was all smooth sailing. After 4 hours I was done.. easy money.
Since then I've done some work at another charity organisation in a hospital, no tuxedos this time. Pretty boring data entry stuff.. i think if i'm going to be doing crap jobs i'd much prefer them to be manual labour.. at least you keep active and fit that way.. sedintary work where you're not evening utilising your brain is seriously soul destroying.
About a month ago I signed up with Hollywood North Extras, an agency for background work in films, and got my first gig this coming friday! It is in one of the most ridicuously titled films of all time - "Hot Tub Time Machine" with John Cusack. No it's not a porno. It's up on Mt. Seymour at night, i'm in an 80s scene at a rock concert. I think my actual role would be Rock Concert Atendee #209 ahahaha its the part I was born to play, baby.
Some Other Notable Things
I went with Sacha and Amin to see Ozomatli in downtown Vancouver, fantastic gig as always, however they have dropped their horns section for some reason?!? They used to have these 2 or 3 guys with tumpet trumbone sax etc who would dance around and put on a great show.. nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining evening of funky latin hiphop. One highlight being an extremely drunken nearly 7ft tall man trying for about 5 minutes (very unsucessfully) to roll a joint in front of me, when he lifted it to his mouth and tried to light what looked like a scrunched up piece of paper with weed falling everywhere I offered my assistance, to which he responded by shoving his entire stash in my hand and saying "fine, you do it" so i did it, but by the time i had finished (about 45 seconds later) he had disapeared, and was never to be seen again for the remainder of the evening. Oops.
Went to a downtown bowling alley and it was a bit strange. Instead of 10pin bowling, they have 6 pin!? the pins are smaller, the ball is smaller with no finger holes, and apparently each pin has a different amount of points? i dont get it.. we didnt play that night as the lanes were full, but i guess i'll try one day. Instead we went to the foosball tables, shortly after we started playing these two guys rocked up and pulled out their own grip, of course this resulted in a challenge from Amin and Aaron, two of the most average mexican foosball players to ever have graced the table. Here is a video of the match.. there really isnt enough frames per second to capture just how quickly they were shooting for goal.
I was sick for nearly 4 weeks straight.. sucked a lot just cold stuff but it stopped me from doing things like applying for jobs interviews etc, i think the broken rib stopped me from coughing enough.. anyway i went to this local free clinic (yes it is totally free, you just take a number and see a perfectly qualified doctor for nothing no medicare no nothing, they also have giant tubs filled with condoms which they encourage you to stock up on - for free) . While I was waiting, there was a couple nearby arguing, I wasnt really listening but the following line grabbed my attention so i wrote it down to share with you, the girl exclaims "are you kidding me? do you really think that i want to cook you and your useless friends food while you play world of warcraft?? you are completely delusional!" ahahaha it was hard not to laugh!!
Sacha and I went to a houseparty, which was funny because essentially Sacha knew a guy who knew a guy who wasn't going to this party and that was our in. it really didnt matter, this was your classic house party, not just any house either, but in the middle of the cbd.. imagine walking down say.. william street in melbourne and having a break in the corporate buildings only to have a solitary 3 story house standing there - that's where we were partying. it was crazy. at least 100 people must have come through the place. with a keg, an army of police out the front and many spontaneous chants of Go Canucks Go! it was a true true canadian house party..
Speaking of Canucks, for those who dont know they're the Vancouver Ice Hockey team. Something we dont experience in melbourne (in addition to ice hockey) is having a sport that is suported by a large percentage of the poplation with a single team for the city, what this means is everyone is united which is refreshing... They lost the first round of playoffs but I happened to be downtown when they won a game and the whole city was going off, cars just driving around with horns blaring etc. actually i guess its kinda like world cup fever in melbourne.. but more enthusiastic :)
I went camping this weekend just passed, to Squamish, BC. We had one tent between 5 of us that fit 4 cramped, Amin slept in the car. The only issue was that we dont really have any camping gear like stoves, lights, chairs, etc.. which normally wouldnt be too much of a problem except that the ground we stayed in didnt allow fires at all. nor had any bbqs. But we only went for one night and survived on crap food, some candles and the trusty guitar to keep us company. BC is SOOOOOO beautiful!! So green, like the richest most vibrant greens i've ever seen.. Camilo Pau and Amin's friend Meriyam did a hike on the sunday evening, but Amin and I relaxed and waited til the next day and we all did a short hike to Shannon Falls, check out some pics below. VERY inspired to do more camping over the summer.
On the way there...
Entrance to campsite & The Chief in the background
Needs no description
Also needs no description
Thus ends a glimps of another active month for me.. Hopefully will be getting more work soon so i can keep this up... But at the same time, it's good learning how to have a lot of fun with very little money :) Again, I'll attempt to make the next post sooner and shorter..
Til then...
Sacha - Australian girl who was friends with my sister Alana and arrived shortly after Alana left, now friends with me.
Amin, Camilo, Pau - Housemates
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