An incredible deal!

The main problem with Whistler over winter is that accomodation is an absolute joke. There is such a demand to live here that you just can't find accomodation anywhere and it's all ridiculously expensive. The first thing that employers ask you if your applying for work is whether or not you've got a place to live, it's a serious problem.
Our place that i mentioned at the end of the last blog, is a 4-star hotel. We got an awesome deal of a website that doesn't even disclose the name of the place your looking at because they wouldn't usually do such good deals. So i thought I was going to have to plead with the receptionists to get us a few more nights for the same price. They told us however that they are now offering some incredible deals on extended stays. It is insane, We can get a studio for $39 a night, which is what we're in now, it's pretty cosy but can easily live 2 people. It's got a little fire place, bathroom, fully furnished kitchen, fox tv, stereo, dvd and it gets cleaned everyday!! Tommorow however we're going to move into the Loft apartments which basically has the studio on the bottome level, and another Queen bed upstairs with TV, bathroom and SAUNA!!! It's absolutely incredible, it's going to be $49 a night but we can very comfortably and are allowed to fit 4 people in the room. Divide that by 4 and it's cheaper than the staff accomodation, in an incredible location and it has all the perks of the hotel along with it! It's a bit expensive while it's just Aly and i but considering we have no other option and we get everything that goes with it, it's a rather worthy splurge. Such good luck, cannot believe it. It's got a nice little fire place just beside our bed as well, gas fireplace which manages to cut through the tacky appeal actually, best looking false fireplace i've seen actually, probably because ther's real fire. The hotel also has heated pool and spa outside which will be awesome after a hard day skiing, this is so topped off by the sauna in our room!! The guys who work at reception are all pretty young and very cool, we had a good chat to Grant last night and he's been saying how awesome Whistler is. The thing that i found most interesting is the fact that he said it's even better in the summer. Says the amount of things you can do quadrooples. Just pack a tent and go hike for a couple of days through the incredible landscape and camp beside the picturesque lakes. Probably the coolest thing he said is just how many different activities you can pack into a day. Skiing on the glacier in the morning, then mountain bike riding which is apparently just as unbelievably addictive as snow sports, then golf and rafting and things, he said he's done all that in one day before, crazy. Apparently its a bit of a boy heaven, unlimited adventure activities, and that's what makes the whistler ratio of boys to girls about 10-1. So Alyson will have no trouble finding a job by the sounds of it. In fact one of the few times we split up she was offered a job at like one of the best bar/resteraunts in whistler! Apparently she could make hundreds of dollars in just one night just through tips if she can get that! We've applied at heaps of places but the general consencus is that it gets much busy in a few weeks and thats when most places are looking for workers. Unfortunately we have to hide from them that we are leaving shortly after that, something i'm not so good at but will just have to do. Wanna work at a hotel or something big where they are used to massive turnover and it won't really effect them. We applied for a perfect job at our place the Mountainside Lodge. It's a houseman job so apparently you just have to stock up the extra things when people need it, like taking pillows to a room or something, or sweeping stairs. Sounds perfect considering we'd be working at our home. And the wage is good and everything. Apparently there have been heaps of people applying for it though, Grant went and checked for us if our resumes were still in the pile and they weren't so i'm gonna fill out another one! good to have someone on the inside. Sounds like we just gotta keep going back everywhere and checking over and over.
Also it's rather dissapointing to see no snow in sight. Bit of a shame, particularly because Whistler isn't scheduled to open for another month. Hopefully they will get a dump a week or two early though, severly hopefully because other wise my snow time will be extremely limited. Either way though we'll have sweet accomodation and as long as we can find a job it will be cool to see the snow either gradually come or just all of a sudden be here.
I have really wanted to walk to the top of the mountain, haven't been able to convince Aly to come with me though. On the first day i went for a bit of a walk on my own and it was really cool. Mainly i was just freaked out about bears, I asked the guys at the front desk if it was likely or a danger but they were very casual about it and said that they used to see one everyday when one of them used to walk up the hill, and the other guy mentioned how a bear had been trying to get into his place the last few nights or something. Apparently if I were to come across one it would usually be from very far away which would be awesome, I'd love to see one just not so much on my own, but you just stay calm and look at it and back away, don't turn and run. The worst case is if you stumble across some cubs on their own, you shouldn't look around or panic in case the mother is just behind you. Apparently you just just start clapping and yelling to scare them off or something. That would not be a good situation.
On my walk/wonder there were quite a few other people around. It was cool to walk up the runs that will very shortly be covered in snow and thousands of people. There is a nice creek that runs between the two mountains which will look reall nice if that freezes ontop a bit and is still running underneath for a while, i'm assuming that will happen. Also their was a very nice sunset that day, our first two days here were really beautiful so it's a shame we didn't walk that far up the mountains, because today and the scheduled forecast for the next few days is raining, correct right now.
Came across the Whistler Skate Park which is probably the best skate park i've ever seen. It's got this incredibly aweosme flowing bowl/halfpipe continuation that has really smooth edges, just about no coping anywhere. Its really sweet to see the good guys carve through it. just looks like they're floating/surfing and they were going faster than i've ever seen any skaters go before, i tried to take some photos Phill but i don't think they will do any justice. You might be able to see it on the net or something. I'm tempted to come back next year because it will be easy cause i'll still have the valid working visa and SIN no. and even bank account. So Phill that's something i'll try and convince you to do with me because i think that when i leave here it will feel as if my work is very unfinished. Just come for the Uni break, we can still get a few months and it's the time of the best snow over here! Otherwise its very tempting to defer 2010 and spend a year here and do heaps of hikes and such. We'll see we'll see. Probably not that wise I guess, but on the other hand extremely.
Also it's Halloween on Friday which is MASSIVE over here. It seems like christmas for children, but its halloween for 3-40 yr olds. I'll have to purchase a mask or something, Look forward to it.
Hopefully have a candy fight.
Cannot wait to be skiing and hopefully shortly i'll have a job.

More Live from Vancouver.

Well I've pretty well recovered from my little cold patch. During the days we've been fairly routine now. We usually walk with Rachel to her work. Also we meet Rachel for lunch everyday where I have been getting a nice honey & lemon tea and Vege Somosa. Even tried a Cranberry cheesecake which was very pleasant from the nice gourmet grocery store where the ladies get their Croissants. They usually get a moccha to go along with this, all very routine and delightful. Then Aly and I walk around various places in Vancouver but are always back in time for Bruce's dinners.

We had a very nice walk along the sea wall just the other day, started from Granville Island where we shared some goods from the bakery and wandered back along the waters edge enjoying the view of the mountains in the backdrop. Another days walking was over the bridge into the downtown area. We got a bit lost and didn't want to end up around East Hastings where the homeless have claimed 2 whole blocks. I'm not kidding their are the most homeless I've ever seen in one area lining the streets. So we ended up in the gay district which had some interesting stores. Along the beachfront I got a vege hotdog from a stand, much better than the ones in NY. Even cooks it on a barbie and there are so many condiments at your disposal, I always go a little crazy with such a variety. Next time I'll just stick to the Banana Peppers, Mustard, Mayo, BBQ sauce and chilli sauce, i think that would be grand. 

What else has been happening. I finally set up my skype account properly, it was ridiculously easy, just put a bit of money on it and now can call for very cheap rates. I'd heard about it years ago but for some reason i've only just done it now. Well worth while, i recommend everyone do. 

We hadn't really been doing all that much after nightfall. Hired a couple of movies, factory girl and Team America, seen them before but both good viewing, the best thing was the guy working at the store showed us coupons which got us the movies for free. Was pretty great. Went in set up an account, got 2 movies for free and now i'll never go there again! 

Last night however we finally felt like getting a bit of a groove on. Was the best night out i've had in a long time actually, felt really good the whole time, till 4 in the morning. We went to have some drinks at Toms place, he's a friend from Rachels work. The houses are such awesome old estate houses around where he lives. Massive houses, particularly after living in units for so long now, really beautiful estate, with lots of nice cars mind. Apparently there are skunks around their too, we'r still holding out to see one. 

After having some drinks at Toms we headed downtown to a club called SweatShop. Its funny because we walked for about half an hour and then had to catch a taxi for the last few Km's because the place is ages away from anything. Very underground, very cool. You wouldn't really know anything was their, mainly because you wouldn't expect something so far out. But we had a good time there, it has an outside area with some old skate ramps and the downstairs room is much more hardcore which is a sweet change. 

Anyhow today we had a bit of a sleep in because of the late one and then I got very excited because Bruce told us we could go Ice Skating in the afternoon!! Unfortunately his friend had mixed the times and we could not make it today. That was ok i guess because we got to go back to sleep, this was our afternoon nap to try and catch up a bit. Regardless I was quite dissapointed, not quite as much as his friends son though, who they had forgotten to tell it was off, when he asked at 8pm and recieved the bad news he burst out in tears, I feel your pain little buddy I do. Hopefully we'll get to go sometime soon though. 

Alyson and myself went wondering through the nice suburbs today, saw some very grand houses, and I got lucky with one of the last houses having a BMW Z8 parked outside, I got a sneaky papparazi shot of it!! It was the second one of those I'd ever seen, the first I chased down the main street on friday. I guess i'll get onto news on the car front now. There have been a few more firsts, I saw my first ever Lamborghini Miura on the road, supercar from the 70's i believe, great classic now, absolutely through the roof expensive. I've now seen the complete Japanese trio, the Mitsubishi Evo X, the Lexus IS-F and the Nissan GT-R. Must give a bit of a wrap to the GT-R, they set out to be better than the Porshe 911 Turbo with that car, an absolutely incredible effort because they pretty well spanked it from what it sounds. I'll have to drive them both one day of course to give you my opinion but it laps the German Nurburgring faster than most of the supercars including the 911 Turbo. An insane feat because its about half the price as well. Also saw another Audi R8 which i like very much and some Astons, Bentleys, even some Lambo's and Ferrari's, just some perks of being out walking for large portions of the day. 

We can't really figure out where Vancouver gets its wealth from, doesn't seem to be that much industry really, nor that many big office buildings, I mean they really do have a lot of expensive cars, and those houses would be millions as well. We figure old money but it'd be interesting to know a bit more. 

Tommorow morning, well actually later on this morning considering it's quarter past one, we're heading up to Whistler! Staying in a 4-star hotel that we got for a great deal in the last minute deal section. Hopefully everything should be fine but once we got the confirmation email it said minimum age is 21, on the other site we booked through it said 19 so we should be in the clear. Will be looking very fiercely for jobs and accomodation. 

Before I go I must mention the predigament that dinner turned into. I had been intending on making a stir-fry the whole time. Then because we were so tired after last night Aly convinced me that if she cooks the fish and we just have a salad with it that will be fine, so we went home and slept instead of buying veges from Granville Is. Then she was waiting for Rachel to come home before she started making it, but Rachel had decided she wanted pizza, Alyson agreed. So they went a couple of doors down to the Pizza Hut and got 2 pizzas and a mountain dew. When I looked at the bill i couldn't believe it, one pizza cost $20 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From Pizza Hut?????? They bought two because the second one was a bargain at $10. Luckily the mountain dew was the average reasonable price but they still managed to spend 35 canadian dollars on two Pizza Hut pizzas. Hence I will never let them ever again make any decisions. Fortunately the pizza did taste remarkably good...... for Pizza Hut. 

Sorry all, this ones dedicated to Cars.

Well I've been a little bit sick lately and things have been slow going anyhow. But yesterday morning even though my sinuses were feeling full and my throat was rather sore i woke in a good mood. The morning was beautiful and you could see all the mountains so clearly and the city and the day beckoned. Also i couldn't stand waiting around for the girls to get ready so I headed out on my trip around the dealerships. Lots of nice cars, that's a given. There was a glorious white Ferrari F430, a nice Ferrari 456 which for some reason that car never took off, but I enjoy its subtle curves, intriguing. Lots of nice Astons of course, a nice V12 Vanquish S hiding in the back alley way which i really liked, its the back alley where lots of the dealerships met up. There were heaps of Bentleys and Lambos and Astons parked back there and somehow pulling off a more exotic feel in these surroundings then in their sterile showrooms. The cleaners and mechanics would drive past in a beautiful V8 Vantage or someone in a massive Bentley and squeeze through the tightest spots, it was hairy. Let's quickly get through some of the other bests, the Lambo Countach was fantastic, just like the framed one that has sat up on my wall for years, some exquisite new LP640 Murcielago's, one in red which is nice and different, and an entourage of Porsche and Lotus. The main component to the experience however were the salesmen. In most of the places they really don't care, they just want to make the sale, don't even really care about the cars from what it seems. 

Ok now i'm really pissed off cause the net keeps stuffing up and i've written the ending from here 2 times now. So i'm just going to skip everything and write the best part of the story. 

In the end i met an awesome guy who has done many incredible things. One night he went for a cruise in a Mercedes-McLaren SLR, another in a Porsche Carrera GT (the best and most expensive Porsche about 1 million), another in a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and finally the owner of all these drove his Lamborghini Reventon!!!!! There are only 20 Reventons, they cost about 2 million and they're the craziest cars you would ever see, but you'll never see one. Now most people surely couldn't comprehend how good that would have been but i'll tell you that the closest thing to it is heaven. Bruce i think his name was proved to me that with passion and good communication you can't just sell cars, but you can get close to the clients and drive the cars as well. It's just awesome the cars he has driven, on Saturday passed he was driving the Lambo Countach which i actually spotted from the apartment before seeing in the dealership. Let me see if this works finally.

A Lot Can Happen in a Few Days.

Haven't updated since the 14th, we're on the other side of Canada now and their has been much happenings; this could be long. 

Our plans for Wednesday were to visit the Andy Warhol exhibition and visit the Olympic Stadium site. I really wanted to go see the stadium first because i doubted the girls would actually come otherwise. We'd heard it was very far away you see, when we asked people where it was they said it was much too far too walk, I thought it must be an hour, hour and a half max and apparently that's all it would be. It's funny though because in NY walking for that long is nothing, you walk all day long because there are so many things to see everywhere around you. I guess the locals just don't usually have time because there were lots of beautiful sights along the way in Montreal for sure. Anyhow we ended up going to the Warhol exhibition first so I still had to prod the girls along with my words later on in the day. 

The exhibit was actually reflecting on the Andy Warhols influence within the music scene. Quite an interesting topic when he never really did anything directly focused on this but they pulled off a large exhibition to the contrary. There were a lot of interesting pieces but i must say i missed the headsets that tell you all about it like at the Guggenheim. There were some guided tours but only in French on that day. Makes it much more interesting with headsets, we still read all the information but it's not the same. Alyson and Rachel enjoyed it much more than me however, and its true that the works he was doing were far ahead of his time. 

Alright so after the art gallery we headed on our lengthy walk to the Olympic Stadium. On the way i saw my first Lexus IS-F also, a very new and great car, and I think i've also seen the new Nissan GT-R but it was at night and far away. Well from the get go the girls were saying that we should just catch a bus to the Stadium but i wanted to walk there and see everything along the way. It was fortunate that we did because we found the most spectacular park. All the trees there were falling, or whatever you call it when they die in such a beautiful manner. So many different shades of Autumn. The park has a great lake there as well and the best part is the squirrels. More squirrels than anywhere i think i've seen. Even they come in different shades, there are a variety of brown shades and black and even some white ones. We were relaxing under the trees on the leaf covered grass and feeding the squirrels dates. Thoroughly enjoyable time. 

Eventually we got to the Stadium and by that time noone cared about it except me, it was starting to get dark and apparently their legs were going to fall off, or had or something. It's a brilliant stadium though. The base looks like some big UFO and a massive leaning tower rises up with very strong curves. I liked it anyhow. 

We caught a train back, their train system is called the Metro and their trains are funny because the wheels are actually rubber tyres. I wonder how much more effective, or indeed if it is more effective than the metal wheels most trains have. I imagine they'd have to be replaced pretty regularly. Canada has a bit of a thing for quirky transport i think, the Vancouver buses are all electric, and they run off overhead cables which are everywhere, they have to go really slowly at the points where the extended arms that are attached to the electric wires need to change line. 

That night we the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona. Wasn't that good a movie but it had Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansen. Best thing is probably all the nice scenic shots around Barcelona, it looks amazing, or when they kiss. It's pretty much just about Vicky and Christina going to Barcelona. 

On the Thursday we went for a walk up the hill which i'd been wanting to do badly. Really wanted to go up and watch the sunset, didn't do that unfortunately. The view from the hill is again spectacular, looking out over Montreal which is all pretty flat with just the Olympic Stadium rising above everything in the distance. The walk up to the top is just as nice as the final view though. Everything was yellow. Honestly the colours of Montreal are just brilliant. 

There is a store that all the students know and love called Dollarama. It's a massive dollar store where everything in the store actually does just cost $1 or less. You could throw a really good party with all the costumes and disco balls and things. We just went for the candy and the tamagochi things. Alyson's and mine are still living, Rachel I'm afraid didn't give hers enough care or attention. 

In the afternoon Pete and Ian took us for some very cheap drinks at the UNI. It was funny because it feels like it's in a classroom but they had loud music and drinks are only a dollar. They have it every Thursday apparently but it's only from 4-7. Hence we started our night extremely early. After that it was a bit of a shamble trying to decide what was happening, the guys got caught watching rugby and by the time they felt like going out it was 12. Aly and I called it a night cause we'd tried to go out at one point but all we did was go get pizza pretty much. Rachel kept going and she met up with some girls she knew.

Friday

Had our last morning ritual of getting cheap croissants from the grocery store than going across to the cafe where the girls get their moccha and I got a fresh OJ. Today we splurged a little and bought some special chocolate butter croissants as well. 

We flew with Air Canada from Montreal to Vanc and it was pretty decent. Had a reasonable entertainment selection but somehow it was mostly crap. I watched The Happening which is a pretty sick movie. Some airborne virus that makes people kill themselves. Wasn't particularly good. Drinks were included but meals weren't so it was ok for a 5 hour flight. 

Vancouver! Rachel has been taking us with her on her daily schedule really. We walk her to and fro work and stop and get coffee and pizza at the best local places. Very good. 

On Saturday we went and had a look around Granville Island. It's quite a big area down on the waterfront that has a marketplace with nice fresh produce and a few stores around, but main focus is food. We ate by the water and spotted a seal swimming around. Vancouver is really beautiful too. Has lots of nice trees and mountains in the backdrop when it's clear enough to see them. Main problem here is the weather. Apparently it just about rains constantly for 4 months. Good though because that's when Whistler gets snow! Also the cars have been very good so far, saw an Aston V12 Vanquish almost immediately when we went walking! Then De Tomaso Pantera and scored big when I realised that the Aston Martin dealership is literally the next street down from where Rachel lives!!!! On further exploration the Lamborghini and Bentleys live just round the corner, i have to search more to see if the Ferrari's and Maserati's are close by. Very exciting. At the Aston dealer there are so many lined up, in perfectly straight lines, DB9's to one side and V8 Vantage to the other; heavenly. 

Rachel lives here with her dad Bruce. He's incredibly nice and when we got back he offered us to go hiking with him. Said it was a 6hr and 22km walk. It was funny because we were meant to have a night out with Rachel and her friends, but by the time we got back to them we were pretty well out of the mood. So we sat in a bar sharing hot chocolate and they all think we're incredibly sad; even when we told them that we had the opportunity to go on an amazing hike in British Columbia they weren't persuaded that we weren't losers. Funny. 

So early we woke, 7 am, the earliest in a long time at least. Got ready for our big adventure with a lot of apprehension. The group that Bruce goes with are all fitness freaks, himself included. Also funny is that they're pretty much all doctors, this was much more interesting after working in the hospital for three months where the doctors definately hold a superior aire about them. Well they're always incredibly busy at least but it was really a great group. One of the girls had just turned 30 and decided that she'd try and be healthy so instead of having a night out she went on a 30 km trail run; crazy stuff considering she walked 22km with us the next day. Apparently 2 weeks before that she'd done a half iron man, the distances i think are about 87km cycle, 21km run and 3 km swim, Bruce wants to do one of those before he turns 60 so he's got a few years to do that. You see that these are determined people and were were a little worried about how our fitness would go, have to say particularly Alyson judging from the amount of winging i've heard at points of this trip. She did incredibly well though and even by the end of it I got a smiling shot when we were both expecting her to be a heap on the ground for the final photo. The walk wasn't actually too bad, most of it was pretty flat and the gradients weren't that steep anyhow. The scenery though was spectacular. This was the second time i'd seen snow in my life and even though we didn't have any on our mountain top it looked incredible on the surrounding peaks. So exciting, cannot wait to be skiing again. I think i'd forgotten how great the outdoors are, it was just beautiful, their were some beautiful lakes where we stopped and had our lunch that Bruce packed for us. The best, biggest and healthiest meal i've had in a long time only to be topped by the dinner he cooked; Salmon smoked on a plank with some delightful sauce, and very nice salad and veges to go. The silence at the lakes was so nice, a really loud silence that makes you remember how long it's been since you've heard it and forces you to appreciate it. Another great thing was that Pete; the guy who organised it was able to tell Alyson some things about dietetics. He knows because he's a dietician and he is going to study medicine in Brisbane next year actually. And Christian was a German guy that they'd met on another hike when it was him and his girlfriend, who's now back in Germany. Well Christian did Engineering, focusing on the industrial design side which is what I have thought about. The company that he's just started with makes hydrogen fuel cells so we talked alot about that which was very interesting. It would be really great to work in that line, the future of cars but i still think the best thing would be automotive journalist so i'll head for that. So hiking in the British Columbia was a fantastic time and we didn't see any bears which is both fortunate and not, probably more fortunate. Also I had my first chance to use my camel, its the 2 litre plastic water pouch so that was good but it tasted very plasticky, apparently the key is to rinse it out with some mouth wash so i'll try that before the ski slopes, I bought it to minimise the stopping time on the ski slopes. Phill can understand I'm sure, now if i'm really keen i can just take up bars of some sort and pretty well go all day without stop i think. 

And finally today, well it hasn't been the best of days. I had a terrible sleep last night because i've had a bit of a sore throat and it was very bad last night. The weather is really bad also, has been raining or looking gloomy all day. We went out and got our SIN number which is just like tax file number and now we have to do resumes. Still not too bad a day of course, no work and i saw a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and when i finish my resume i'm gonna have a quick squiz round the dealerships:) 

Our room is really nice, well it's their lounge room but it has a very nice view, at night you can see all the lights from the city which is really nice and in the day you can see the mountains and the city and things. 

More from Montreal

Well what's been happening over here. The guys came back from their weekend in Quebec. They say that its really a beautiful place, more so than Montreal. Looks it too. Has all the amazing trees but they're surrounding lakes and things which is pretty great. Also the people that they went their with have some amazing properties. One of their places has it's own lake and hillside covered with incredible trees, very peaceful looking but they also have quadbikes! The other place is located just beside a chairlift at a snow field. Apparently this family also has property in Dubai, Singapore, Texas, Montreal and probably elsewhere, crazy.

Would have been awesome if we had a bit more time to go up to Quebec but it's still a few hours away and it will have to wait for some other time. We went walking yesterday in search of the art gallery which is showing an Andy Warhol exhibition. Decided instead that we'd do that today. But we got to see more of this very cool city.
Unfortunately our timing isn't so lucky with the uni schedule, everyone has mid-terms in the coming days so they can't show us around or come out so much. Thursday night i am told will be a large one.
We took it upon ourselves to actually go out last night. Mainly because I badly wanted to play beerpong which is a tuesday night thing over here. It was pretty good, would be great in a big group. It's different to what we played at straddie, at straddie we had the ping pong table and just played with cups in front of us, if you get it in the oppenents cup they have to drink the whole contents, if you hit the cup, just half. Over here they have tables set up and you start by splitting a jug into ten cups and having them in front of you in a triangle. You are in teams of two, luckily i managed to get Rachel to go with me. The teams take turns of throwing the ping pong ball at the other teams cups. If it goes in you have to take that cup away. Anyhow it was pretty good fun, would be great with a bigger group as I say, also I was kinda letting the team down, I only got one in and rachel got four. we lost.
I guess i don't have much if i've gone on about this for that long. Another thing however is that I still badly want a motorbike. Would love to ride around everywhere.
Today we're hopefully going to walk across to the Olympic Stadium area from where Montreal hosted the i think it was 86 olympics? Then onto the art gallery, Better get to it then.

Montreal- A place to live

I am really tempted to come and study overseas in Montreal now. Somehow it pulls of a small town feel even though it's really quite a big city. Everyone seems very friendly and it is very beautiful of course. Another deciding factor for me however, is that their are alot of nice cars that recide here. More than New York. Yesterday was one of my best car spotting days ever, I saw a Maybach; I know there are alot in NY but back home you'd never see one. Then there were two of the beautiful Ferrari F430's, A nice gaggle of Porsche's throughout the day. And then i saw her.
Well I'll throw in the story leading up to this. On this day, the girls decided once more that it would be another shopping day. I went along with them for a little while but i wasn't really in the mood, and i'm quite involved with my book at the moment, My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. So i thought i'd go walk up the hill to where the trees are colourful and get encaptured in my book. Unfortunately the position i chose for myself, which was a nice spot there were nice trees nearby and it was a lovely grassy area where i was seated. but there was a main road just down below. I can't concentrate on much when i'm near a main road, i'm too worried that i'll miss nice cars driving on by. For those of you who didn't know how obsessed i am i'm sure your starting to realise now.
Well I got a bit of reading done, but my concentration was very much divided. In one of the moment when i decided to look up at the road, i saw her. My very first ever glimpse of the Mercedes-McLaren SLR. That is one gorgeous car, wish i could have got a photo of it as it cruised on by. I watched it in disbelief until it vanished around the corner, happy to know that I could easily come and spend some of my life in Montreal. It's got everything I think a city needs.

Our very own Bachelor Pad!

Fortunately enough we have just managed to acquire ourselves a Bachelor Pad in Montreal. As you can imagine though the girls are Bachelorettes and have trouble grasping the simple pleasures that bachelors enjoy such as the lack of reason/necessity to clean, for example there are empty beer bottles throughout just about every room, you know, bachelor stuff. So they're currently scrambling around trying to clean up, they started on this merely five minutes after the guys had left for their weekend trip to Quebec.


The guys at hand are Ian, Pete, Lachy and Jake. They really are exceptionally nice. Rachel was the one who knew them and apparently she didn't even know them very well and they have been really nice to let us come and stay at their place, even while they're away for a few days as well. They are from Brisbane and are a few years older, all good rugby players and such apparenly, two of them are studying on exchange from UQ over here and the other two managed to get jobs coaching the college uni team they play for. We got in yesterday afternoon after about a 10 hr bus ride from New York. Must admit that a few dark jokes were passed around in reference to the Canadian bus experience that made worldwide headlines in the recent months. One was at a point when everyone was hungry because we didn't take much food, I stated to Alyson, "their is plenty of food around you." You really have to be in a strange mood to enjoy that one so sorry to those who found it inconsiderate/disrespectful. On the bus trip we passed through a lot of beautiful scenery, some really spectacular colourful landscapes with all the Autumn trees in bloom or dying.

Montreal has a massive French influence, not so much an influence as opposed to it is French. Never knew just how much it was, because most places i've been to that have had French influences in the past just have some cool architecture ie. Hoi An in Vietnam or Akaroa in NZ. Here everyone actually speaks French as well, big step up; however everyone can also speak English so it's not that different. I really wish we actually had a system in Australia where we properly learnt another language, wasn't just the bludge subject at school. Makes you feel quite stupid when everyone you meet travelling has at least two languages in their repetoire.

Back to these fetching lads. Well last night after we arrived here on the bus we got straight to it. Headlong into the bachelor lifestyle, first thing we did was go and get beer, then after this go and get cheap thai down the road, was very good actually. Then we started drinking.

Had a very good night actually, we had a few quick ones to catch up before we headed out. I think we left here at like 11.30. They have a really good location with their place, were very fortunate to get it apparently. So it wasn't a long walk to the main strip where all the clubs and pubs are. First place we went into had vouchers for free shots. When we went in their it was empty and we managed to rig the system without any effort at all and we all managed to get lots of free shots in the end. They were half shots, and then half oj, went down very well. I honestly got about 6 or 7, it was crazy. The girls and myself definately felt we were doing fine on the drinks side of things you know, woudln't need anymore for a good long whilebecause this was my first big night out in a long time due to saving every penny before the trip. But the next place we went into the bachelor lads found a deal that they couldn't refuse and we all put in for 15 shots for 30$. We were saying no but it happened anyhow haha. So it ended up being quite a big night really. So that was a fun night indeed, don't you worry mum, i reserved some brain cells for the future, sacrificing only the unnecessary ones would you believe.



Today we went with the boys for a bit of sightseeing. We went down to the Old Port area. It's a beautiful city Montreal and this area is particularly splendid. The trees are so incredible when they are all different colours of autumn. We had lunch at a crepe resteraunt which was a bit pricier than we would usually opt but it was worth it. They were absolutely beautiful and i wanted them because i had to try the Maple syrup in it's home country of course. Aly had a spinach, swiss and bechamel cheese for a savoury flavour. I indulged in toffee and icecream upon which i added Maple Syrup! It was delicious, by the end of it i was actually quite sickened; very happy however, very happy.

Alyson, Rachel and myself have just returned back from a college Ice Hockey game. It's such a great sport, i really wish that i understood more of the rules though. Very aggressive and it's on ice, great combinations. Aly was actually very intent on watching which was interesting, guess it hales back to her field hockey days; good to see her so interested in a sport. In the end the opposing team one with a goal in the last few mins to take it to 2-1. McGill is the uni that these guys go too. I had some pizza and a beer at the game and we all shared some popcorn too which was sweet. Aly had a hotdog, very US like.

Quick touch up on the last few days in NY. The main big thing was going to the top of the Empire State Building, which we did at night. It was such an awesome view. You can see for ages, and all that way is lights. Its such a big place it is just breathtaking. Also we went to the Magnolia Bakery where the girls in Sex & City go to. So again that was a big thing for the girls. They got many cupcakes from there and i was very into the white chocolate fudge brownie, quite divine.

Recent Events

Yesterday there were numerous things that happened of course, can't state or remember all of them but the main thing was that we had a wonderful explore around NY again, finding different places at every corner. It's really great if your just wandering and enjoying the sights, but it's so difficult if you actually want to navigate in this Massive(necessary capital M) city because every single street looks so different. Your only a street away from where you were before but you don't really have a clue. The signs say your in the right place, and you know your near, but somehow you can't find it and you get sidetracked and things very frequently. It's mainly hard to navigate because there are so many tall buildings that you can't see what the next street is going to look like. We went to lots of great places though, there is an awesome suburb called SOHO. Very cool little area which has some paved streets and things and everything just feels special. Also where Heath Ledger used to own an apartment which the girls love to discuss. At night we remembered that the Museums are free entry on friday nights, but we only rememberd this late in the day and we had to get back in time to sign in again because we have a different room for the last 5 nights when Rachel will be here. So we tried to rush back and sign in quickly and then headed back out to the city in search of the Museum of Modern Art, MOMA but by the time we got to its area it was quarter to 8 and it closes at 8. We still had a very nice time walking around Time Square at night and things which is awesome, very colourful and busy.
Rachel arrived today and we had a good time walking down the length of Manhattan once again from where we are posted on 118th down to the bottom. The ladies had a lot to winge about though i must say, an amazingly numerous reocurrence this is becoming. Still, again i'll admit we did walk quite along way, particularly after we've done it three days in a row for Aly and I, dunno why Rachel was joining in haha.
Have made a couple of purchases between us now, after looking in about 30 shoe stores I have made a shoe purchase, bought a very cool pair of Retro style Reeboks. It's actually not quite as good as I would have hoped the shoe shopping, mainly cause Footlocker.com is so good and cheap. They're really cool though and still an awesome price. And it is good I lie, if i didn't have tyo worry about bag space, and money for the end of the trip, I would ahve bought at least 10 pairs. Aly bought a very nice pair of Leather boots also, they'll last her along time and look very good. And today I purchased a very nice long coat from a second hand store in midtown somewhere. Got it for quite an incredible deal cause it was from a very nice store when it was new. Very happy with it, have wanted one of these coats for some time now.
Today we also visited Ground Zero, it's incredibly tragic but also too difficult to comprehend that the two largest buildings in NY used to be located at that spot. Also we didn't really find the massive memorial i was expecting, there was a little bit but not that much.
Also Alyson got some things from American Apparel which is good because Rachel works their and was able to provide her with some discounting.
Tommorow we are hopeful to make it to the Staten Island ferry, it's likely we'll make it cause we're going to rely on Subway, not Legs this time.

Must get faster at Blogging.

Well I've figured out that i must be more brief with my blogs. Last night i was on for 70 mins, meaning 7 dollars. If i did this every couple of days for 4 months i'd spent about $360 US. I'll get better i swear.
First and foremost today we discovered we are indeed jetlagged. Our sleeping patern had no real pattern. Aly went to be nice and early, but woke up at 2 in the morning. I stayed up blogging and so on until about 11:30, still not that late, but managed to wake up at quarter to 4. We both went down and watched some tv for a couple of hrs, just holding out for bfast the whole time. Had a great feast again this morning, it really excites me.
My main goal today was to walk downtown, all the way, until we had ourselves a view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty. We left for this adventure at about 8 30 in the morning. I'm glad to say it was a success, however we didn't get there till about 7 15pm. It was dark and the statue was actually a very long way away; still exciting though. I think Alyson's main goal throughout the day was to winge, wherever possible. She did well with her goal also. No no she did alright i guess, we were walking all day in and out of stores and we had had a terrible nights sleep.
We found Time Square today so that took up alot of our time funnily enough. Never seen such a mischevious grin from a girl before Alys in the Hersheys store. I think if we gave her some time alone in that place she'd do some serious damage.
We had some lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, some smoked ribs would you believe. We enjoyed them kind of but it's very sickening to go from mostly vegetarian to a Hard core meat meal. The place is packed with awesome memorabilia though, very cool place.
Got a couple of mins.
Just gotta mention that America is ridiculous for these things. First of all coffee, its just stupendously bad. I am quite glad that i never really cared for it, keep having to get it though cause otherwise we'll fall asleep. Also the fact that they are soooooooo overstaffed in every single shopping store. There are so many people, they all stand round and say hello when you walk in, come and offer you help, but it's all fake. They don't want to help you, they're not that nice when they help you. Well this is just the experience thus far. They just seem to enjoy their doing nothing, cause their are so many

My longest ever day + arriving at the Big Apple

Tuesday the 30 of September was the longest day I have ever and likely will ever live through. To be honest I don't think we really need 30 hrs in the day, or whatever i had. I think we'd sleep for a very large portion. Maybe it would be much more useful if the time wasn't spent in a seated position; within the confines of an airplane seat. Actually it wasn't so bad, I ended up watching 5 movies or so in the end. Let me break it up first, the Sydney to LA part was about 13 hours i think, we actually caught up with last nights darkness before it caught us once more somewhere near the West Coast Shore; i'm really not sure how that all worked. That leg we managed through a bit of sleep, a lot of movies, a couple of drinks for me and a large portion of excitment also. This was more challenging because the plane was packed and our seats where the two middle seats in the middle aisle. Fortunately Frederick the German lad on my side and the Indian woman on Alyson's were not bad companions. The second leg from LA to NY was actually particularly enjoyable. The plane was empty, well far less full than the previous much longer leg. Hence thereforth we went and found ourself some prime seats with a viewing window from which we were able to admire the West Coast of the US of A. Aprrox. five hours later we were looking over New York city and the East Coast of America, the joys and marvels of modern transportation. In this time period Alyson was found sleeping just about the whole time. Can't blame her, but I myself had to use up my rights to TV, Movies, Games, a pretty empty 747 and Alcoholic beverages and non. Quick run through of the movies i watched were Hancock, Zohan, Get Smart, Looking for Alabrandi and What Happens in Vegas. All were pretty equally average. In fact most of them I fell asleep very close towards the end. Also enjoyed a few shows, chasers, doco on Michael Moore; trying to prove his hyporcicy and what not,wasn't particularly convincing or riveting, a brief look at a doco on the A380 airbus, and i tell you that i didn't even watch the Top Gear episode they had!! I had seen it before of course, but still i'd usually watch it again, crazy.
Alright i'm taking far too long, lets see if i can do the rest in 7 mins.

Our accomodation. It's growing on me. It's really quite good, clean, nice comfy beds, the free breakfast is awesome but let me get back to that, the only bad thing is that you share the single (but clean) bathroom with at least 12 people, at most about 25 or something. Pretty bad, but again, somehow hasn't affected us that badly yet. Well the breakfast let me tell you. They have heaps of bagels, and heaps of muffing. Also OJ, tea and coffee. First I like to use the most savoury bagel of the bunch, spread with Phille cheese and ricotta or something similar, next a bagel with butter and grape jam, and finally a croissant with peanut butter and Nutella. Forgot to say theres croissants too, theres croissants.
Also they have a great little tv area down stairs, including lots of lazy couches, a couple of tv viewing areas and rugs everywhere, quit cool indeed. As well as this you get a courtyard area beside the building, and at the top of the building. A reasonably nice view at night, have yet to view it in daylight.
I need to go and get more money to continue so this will be the final sentence of this Blog.

Well what do you know i can update anyhow. I will leave the old sentence there anyway in memory of a time when i didn't have this knowledge.
The subway is pretty grotty, I should just say, it's not really frightening or anything, just heavily vandalised and the stations resemble modern day ancient time dungeons. They're very efficient, have not had to wait long at a station at all, and reasonably cheap as far as i can tell, therefore making them worthy and effective. So when we took our subway ride from the airport up to Harlem all i was trying to do most of the time was figure out which station we were at, because there are at least 100,000, probably closer to a million. So when you first get there its hard to figure out just whats going on, even though the map is pretty good it just can't fit some of the stations on is what seemed to be the case. I think it's just the leg from the airport that was particularly difficult because it wasn't so bad today. Also New York is such a big city that the streets are named in numerical order according to latitude, and a mixture as far as I can tell in the Longtitude between letters, numbers and names. I think i got my latitude and longtitude right, and my spelling of both. Anyhow although this would seem the most straightforward way to layout the city's streets it still becomes quite difficult. Downtown it isn't so bad.
Back to the Subway. Well after we changed over at 42nd Street or Central station we had our no. 2 train heading up to our stop on 116th street. The further uptown we got the greater the percentage of African Americans to otherwise it became, until it was 99% with just Aly and I the only non Gangsta's left. It was in no way threatening but it is different. Getting off at the station though becomes a bit frightening. When you walk up the stairs out of the subway and it's dark and everyone around you is much more of a G then you, and the rumours and reputation you've heard about the place, it is playing in your mind that someone might just pop a cap in yoo ass. Feels quite likely.
Didn't happen though all the G's were friendly as far as i can tell, the only conversation that happened was someone from a particularly chilled looking group stating that the maroujana was is good. Just thought he'd let me know i think. Wasn't implying i purchase any, just stating haha.
Alyson also felt that we really should be packing some heat. But i don't think we could ever be Gangsta's, they have serious style that you just can't attain when your born with a white complexion. Another quick mention, i do think I saw a pimp on this night, very exciting.

Let me try and be a little quicker when talking about today.
Well as i mentioned earlier the bfast was very impressive, looking forward to more tommorow. After eating we wanted to get out and see everything, so we got ourselves ready, went outside and headed south. We walked through Central Park for most of the way, i think we came out at around 60th st. maybe a bit lower. The Park is amazing, it's so wonderful that in a city so full and amazing and undoubtely ridiculous in real estate expense, it's great that they have maintained the Park. It is a beautiful beautiful park, inside you could be anywhere, the air feels clean and theres squirrels every where, very cute squirrels might i mention, i still want to see the Fat squirrels from your photos bvic n jacko. Maybe they get fat in winter, like triple their size. more actually I just can't spell anything higher than triple. Also there are so many little nooks and cranny's to the park that I think would take a few days in itself to look at them all.
Coming out into the city, honestly one of the first cars I saw was a Maybach, honestly i was stunned. I know you guys said there were heaps, but i just didn't believe you. For everyone else, only two have every been sold in Aus, they're like merc S class but the best you could possibly make one, with ugly but subtle and unnoticing styling. That's the one different selling point that makes it appeal to the ultra rich but retarded above the Roll's Phantom. Its just for the ones who want to go unnoticed. Also the cheapest one is like 1 million, most expensive about 2 i think.
Back to blog.
If anyone's still reading they've done an excellent job. I've fallen asleep way back when.
Just putting another dollar bill in the machine. Ahh, that's better. Another 10 mins.
The buildings are soo impressive, their size is unbelievable, and they're endless. One of my favourite things is looking down the street and seeing for like another Km that the smallest building is about 15 storeys, it looks spectacular. I recommend Brisbane do the same. Then there are so many amazing pieces of architecture in there, the Mac store has a Glass little cube coming out of the ground and a glass staircase and glass cylindrical elevator that takes you below to where the store actually is. Quite stunning. I would mention more but that's the only one I know. Other than the Empire State Building which is just magnificent mainly due to its' size, which is endless. It has no roof. Keeps going, as far as i could crank my neck at least. Trump Tower is pretty nice a marble or Granite waterfall inside, and I had a little experience in there, I went to walk down the esculators, however when i stepped onto it i walked backwards into Alyson. Big surprise because i honestly hadn't realised it was one coming up. I just expected it to be on the LEFT hand side but the crazy Americans use the right for everything don't they. Bit of a chuckle.
At the NBA store today Alonzo Mourning made an appearance to sign his new book, unfortunately I didn't get to see him though, probably didn't put in enough effort there.
Another thing that happens here is young hopeful rappers stand on street corners trying to sell their albums and just get recognised and get the word out about them. I didn't know this happened so often, felt kinda special the first time, especially when he started freestyling for us, wasn't really our choice but he did it, and he wasn't really that good.
Other crazy thing was seeing a motorbike rider and a taxi having a driving fight, turning into eachother and cursing, bikey kept punching and kicking the taxi that i think cut him off dangerously. The bike was a Ducati 1098, very nice. In the end the taxi cut him off hard enough that he had to stop and get off and they yelled for a bit. Really gotta go now. we also had good nachos and pizza today.