Oink

Glad you are having a good time. Jet lag is the worst.

At least you are having nice weather. I've probably gone a buggered that up now for you.

The4BellsLondon

Hamburger Mary's is fab - and I have done the grind and by god it hurts!!

jerry brewer

Hi
For pricing comparisms on supermarkets try:-

Real Canadian Superstore, for basics.

Save On Foods, or Safeway, for the more specialised stuff.

cheers
Jerry

P.S.
what type of jobs you hunting for ?

Aviator

Urban fare is an interesting store for specialised products too.
http://www.urbanfare.com/about/locations.html

Oink

Meinhardt's is pretty good as well although you can't use your Save on Food card in there.

SugarPlum

It was great to meet you guys tonight. Hope you have a wonderful time in Vancouver.

If you need anymore info please dont hesitate to ask.

The little one fell asleep just after you left, bless her she didnt want to go to bed while you where here.

__TJ__

have seen hat one, will deffo give it a go, thanks.,

thanks thats good to know ( will save embarrassment later on )

Aviator

If you are going to the suspension bridge, Lynn Canyon in my view is nicer than Capilano and free

The4BellsLondon

yup - was there on Sunday - lovely - dogs not too keen tho!!

__TJ__

* special wave to sugar plum* thank you so much for having us round to your (massive) house last night. wayne has already been to the union and got a few contacts there so the info has already been very helpful. thank you




ok for anyone still with me then...

Monday 5th October day 3.
Up at 6am again, cant seem to get used to the time change, feet still hurt but hungry. Question is am i hungry enough to walk all the way to davie street again or do we try the rooftop restaurant or somewhere else. Too hungry to faff about today. LOL we went to the cloud 9 revolving restaurant for food in the end. It was ok but at $18 each it was twice the price of marys in davie and nowhere near as good. Also not revolving either. What a swizz. Don’t think we will bother with that again too soon.

Well off to edgemount again, we really like it there, had coffee at starbucks again so i could use the wifi to speak to the kids. They are doing well at mums but i miss them.
We went to capilano and ( $60 appx, used my student card) went across the suspension bridge *shudder* it was so shaky. Wayne was fine, i was a blithering wreck, but it was breathtakingly beautiful. Got some great photos. We walked around the other side where they have a tree top trail ( yes more suspension bridges) and some fish ponds/lakes they had rubber stamps of which bits you had completed. I got a keyring and pin badge for my scrapbook and off we went.
Then we went to find the ICBC driver centre, and get their highway code ( which is free) then we went for lunch at Lonsdale quay and they have a massive food court there so we found fish and chips. It was awesome. Really the best fish and chips i have ever had ( and that is saying something) after lunch and a stroll on the promenade where we could see the Canada place across the water(glorious weather the sun was blinding off the waves) in one of the shops in the mall there i found some paua shell earrings of an inukshuk and a bracelet with different Canadian icons ( this is my anniversary pressie cos i never got round to buying one in august and wayne said i should so this counts as that )
we went to look for the crane company i had a listing for on the north shore. Unfortunately it wasn’t there anymore so we had a drive around and then made our way back on the way we crossed the lions gate bridge but traffic was gnarly, found out why a bit further on, there was a numpty hanging off a bridge across the road so they had shut it and police everywhere. Our lane was moving but the other side was chocca. He had a sign on his back saying “climate change will kill us” which although i value his right to express himself, is stupid, cos hanging off a bridge, either a truck or angry motorists will do the job a lot faster than this glorious weather we are having.

Still planning on whale watching at some point and the aquarium in Stanley park. Van island would be nice if we get time but we only have 3.5 days left ( we leave here Friday lunchtime.)
Have to keep reminding myself we are here to get wayne a job not to galavant around the place LOL.
The jetlag is still there and having crossed that susp bridge i still feel like the ground is moving, wayne said he had that before he went across the bridge so it must be jetlag and not just wussy-ness LOL.

Well wayne called his contact ( he made thru cold calling) he said “come on over to my house” so we drove out to maple ridge and had a look around before popping in on him his wife and and their little one. They were really nice people and we stayed for over 2 hours getting tips & good info. he pointed us to the union, who deal with everything here, you have to be in the union to get a job in cranes basically, the union pay you and can actually get you a job here so wayne will go to see them tomorrow, also he suggested getting in as an AP because that may be another avenue if we cant get here with crane driving alone. Their house is massive! Their little one has a room downstairs just for her bouncy castle! Catherine would love it. ( this is on top of her bedroom and play room adjoining)) just massive. They mentioned there is a lot of wildlife here, 9 wasp nests in a year so far for them, bears in the bins racoons squirrels. He said he bought a gun LOL.
Also they gave us a tip about car insurance, wayne has full no claims, i have about 2 years, they said as long as im a named driver on that policy ( which i always have been) then the letters from the insurance companies to “confirm the periods of no claims made” count for both of us so i would benefit from his no claims as well. And we could both get insurance. They said it was about $2500pa but you get up to 43% off with full no claims so technically it could be around $1400 which is £700 ish, so maybe double than we are paying now but not the $5k we had heard people speak of.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was 10 but wayne fancied a drink so we went out to shenanighhans again, bit louder, few more people but still as crud as last time LOL. Not anyones local i think.
We had a couple of jugs and then went back to hotel to see if we can actually get some sleep tonight. Both of us have had really annoying jetlag and been wide awake by 2am.

another great day. we are both really happy to have met up with people who have actually upped sticks and done it, and we have a much better focus of where to go from here tomorrow to make our job hunting as effective as possible.

BTW sunny all day long and highs of about 16. left my coat in the car all day

The4BellsLondon

ps clouding up now!!

Aviator

I would not count on getting 43% off the bat. You need a letter from your insurer in the UK stating you have no at fault claims, not the discount you get in the UK. There is a letter format on the ICBC website. Without your letter in that format you may get no discount at all. They are very particular in the way it has to be worded. They may give you a discount to start off with then ask for it back if you letter is not what they want. Also, you don't name drivers on an ICBC policy, anyone can drive with the drivers permission. What does bring it down is a 10 year experience rider. Not sure, but that maybe 10 years north American experience.
You have to have basic insurance with ICBC, add on can be with a third party insurer, read the fine print, as many of these have a 10 year North American experience clause.

SugarPlum

It did take us a few months to get all the letters from the all the different insurance companies for the car insurance but we did get it Yay!!! Keep pestering them as it did pay off for us in the end

Always fill in your tax forms from the Inland Revenue!! We got over 2000 pounds back from the UK. We couldnt believe it!! We never got a bloody thing when we lived there.

It was so good meeting you guys and best of luck in coming to Canada!!

Yoong

This company in New Westminster is looking for riggers and crane operators.

http://www.acropolisventures.ca/aw_careers.shtml
Good luck,
Yoong

Londonuck

Did you get the tramp in an old suit run up to you with a toy mobile saying he needs to borrow some money cos someone has stolen his car and his mobile is out of money? They usually appear down Cambie.