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Friday 20 September 2013

Summer Photos!

I haven't posted a photo post in awhile, so here's a few of my favorites from the summer which I haven't shared yet.

Granville Street.


Stanley Park











Crossing Granville Bridge


Olympic Mural



Ian;s Birthday Cruise - up the Indian Arm!








Silver Falls






View of Downtown, from the boat.


Enjoying coffee and cream at The Templeton :D


         









Sculpture outside the Science Museum


Mt. Pleasant


False Creek, September 2013.

Thursday 19 September 2013

Pokemon World Championships

The weekend after I started work, I found out the Pokemon World Championship event was being held in Vancouver. I'd actually known about it before we'd even left England and excitedly saved the website page for the event and made a mental note to visit. I'd forgotten all about it and suddenly realised on the preceding Thursday that the 3 day weekend event was starting the very next day, so we made plans!

Friday was mostly a day for competitors day to sign in and some qualifying rounds where being played, so we headed down for a quick look before work. It took us a little while to realise we were in the wrong building of the convention centre (we followed the crowd and ended up with a bunch of people signing up to do a half marathon, eurgh, not a Pokemon in sight.) Eventually we made it to the right building, and was greeted by this...



Awesome right?

Unfortunately the shop was only open to competitors that day, so we didnt get to look around, but we decided to head back the next day and have a look, I was very tempted to buy a t-shirt and geek up.

Then we headed into the main hall where the competitors where preparing to battle! We walked through the doors and wereastounded at how huge the event was! We really didnt expect it to be so huge and to have so many participants, and from so many countries. People came from all over the world. The Tournament was for both the Trading Card Game and the Nintendo DS version, so their where seperate areas for the two types of gaming, and they were split up into age groups, and paired off on schedules dotted around the venue.

There was so much to see, blow up characters, people dressed as Pokemon, a cinema section which showed episodes of the anime series, and even the trophies were displayed in a show case. We spent quite some time wandering around and taking in the atmosphere, reliving our childhoods and getting very nostalgic. (We later looked into getting Game Boys and some older generation versions of the game but my God, they cost a bomb out here! When we head back to England I'm definitely going to play my original Pokemon Blue, circa 1999!)


The Venue


The tournament trophies!

Sadly we had to leave before the real playing got under way as we both had work, but we vowed to return the next day to make the most of it, and I wanted my merchandise!

The next day the event was a lot bigger as it was more open to the public, and more competitive as quilifying was over and players were being eliminated. There were even some camera crews filming certain games and performing interviews, we spent awhile wandering again and taking in the atmosphere.

Then we queued for the shop, which took about half an hour, and I got more and more worried as we got closer to the front, as they appeared to be running out of stock already! They had a list of products which were only available at that one event and which were limited, and the longer we waited the more things were struck from the list. Happily I got to the front, and managed to get myself  my t-shirt, though they ran out of the size I asked for, so I bought a size smaller instead and it fits like a glove anyway, happy days! Ian then surprised me by getting me a lifesize Pikachu plush as well (soppy and lovable git that he is) which I adore. We have come to the conclusion that when we return to England, we will now require an extra suitcase to get him home.





Saturday 14 September 2013

When life goes nuts!

So I've been absent from my blog for a little while (almost a month!!) And a fair bit has happened in the last few weeks. (Imminent posts on a few bits and pieces we've been up to, but for now I'm going to write about why I've been so quiet!)

At the beginning of August I started my job at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on Robson Street, and I got stuck in straight away. I very, very much enjoy my job, I found the first few days to be a little overwhelming (I've not worked in this environment before, and was mildly thrown in at the deep end, as I started during the busy summer tourist season) but I've settled in well, get on with everyone and now thoroughly enjoy it. My job entails selling chocolate, fudge, caramel apples and ice cream, being nice and friendly, and answering the same questions every day. 'How do you girls stay so thin?' 'Are you from Australia?' and 'Do you ever get used to the smell?' being the most frequent.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Shop! Yaaaaay!

And then...

Around 3 weeks ago I ate a piece of our Rocky Pop popcorn, and felt rough as hell afterwards. I didn't think much of it at first, then a few days later Ian was eating walnuts, and within minutes of him opening the bag I felt rough again. And then later, I ate something with a Pecan it and boom, my throat swelled up and I had to go and sit down and I became quite wheezy for awhile. Turns out I have tree nut allergies.

I'm not entirely sure which tree nuts, it may be a few or all of them, but so far I've reacted to walnuts and pecans. Drowsy allergy medication is amazing by the way, on one occasion I took some and felt amazingly spaced out and giggly for an hour, and then spectacularly crashed and slept for 4 hours in the middle of the day. They really knock you out!

So for a good 10 days I felt really bad, and it seemed to worsen when I was at work. I had taken to doping myself up on non-drowsy antihistamines before my shifts. But for 2 weeks I felt awful and I was convinced being at work and breathing in the nut dust (our place is pretty nut orientated) was making me ill. So I handed my notice in.

Around 4 days before I was due to finish at work I realised that actually something was not quite right. I felt bad, but not allergy bad, more just throaty bad. It turns out I had/still slightly have but am fighting off, a post nasal drip (not very pleasant so I won't go into details - but if you're interested - it's this!) And it turns out some forms of antihistamine can make it worse, so I immediately stopped taking mine. 2 days later I felt blooming wonderful. I skipped into work and asked if actually please could I keep my job after all, and they told me yes absolutely. So now I am alive and well and keeping my lovely, awesome, wonderful job. I'm just not eating nuts.

On Wednesday we got our seasonal Halloween and Thanksgiving products. (Canadian Thanksgiving is on October 16th, so not long!) We have chocolate skulls, ghosts, mummy lollies, caramel apples shaped like pumpkins and turkeys and woooooooooo, I'm so happy and excited I get to stay.




I've been asked if I'm happy to be trained in closing the shop, so I will have to learn to balance the tills and take on a bit more responsibility, which I think is a great sign. I'm really, really happy (as you may have guessed!) and feel lucky to have a job I love! So now I'm throwing myself into working hard and also persevering in updating this 'ere blog! New posts in the line include writing about our visit to the Pokemon World Tournament and our recent trip into Mt Pleasant where we checked out a vegetarian restaurant!