September 27, 2006
Visa received!
Thank you Canada for letting me stay another year!
Also thank you for the weather, 25c+ all this week, it's like Summer again...
Posted by Mark at 12:17 PM | TrackBack
September 9, 2006
New house, no visa
I had to pause for a minute when categorising this into Summer, it's raining for the first time in 30 days and the temperature has dropped below 30, again for the first time.
First off, the most exciting news is that Ron and I found a new place to live. It's a stonking brand new home, un-lived in, just bought for $2m and we have the 2 bed suite below the main house (but still on the ground floor). The family up top are great, really got on with them and I think they'll end up being family away from home. The rent is a very very reasonable $1500 for 2 bed, both en-suite, however the place is unfurnished which means we have to buy our own huge HDTV and memory foam matress beds weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Last night I went for dinner at Araxi for a "Staff Appreciation Evening" or "An excuse to eat lavish beef" with Duane, Meghan and Tania, I've never really chatted to any of them but they're a really fun bunch and the offer of working down at Chris' and Duanes office is growing more appealing, I kind of miss the office banter.
Visa update, since I hadn't heard anything from the shitty lawyer I thought I'd get in touch, apparently I can expect another 2-3 months of waiting just to hear a response (or more likely for them to open the envelope) from the consulate regarding my expidited application. Since my work permit that hasn't even arrived yet will only run until October 1st next year it's looking increasingly likely that I'll not have my residency by then even. This is dispite the numerous articles displaying a massive demand for more foreign workers.
Off to get the keys to the new place. Pictures later!
Posted by Mark at 6:42 AM | TrackBack
September 3, 2006
Call for gear...
So as the Summer comes to an end, except it's still forecast 30 day in and out, it's time to start focusing on Winter again, actually, my visa runs out in 29 days so I should probably be focusing on that but hopefully it's on its way, so back to focusing on the 94 days until Blackcomb opens.. eeeeeeeeeeee!
Fast approaching first of all is the need for a ski pass, which needs to be bought before mid October and should rock in at a nice round $1,000 this year after taking a half day programme on how to promote Whistler. Then equipment again, always need for equipment, like the bindings bought at rock bottom price last week, and the top of the range Smith Prodigys bought for a measly $74 this weekend. Indeed, the Turkey Sale is on October 7th/8th this year, I can't really scope out prices too much as it's like a free-for-all market but if there's any specific requests get them in now and I'll bring them home at Christmas.
Posted by Mark at 4:25 PM | TrackBack
September 1, 2006
Rainbow Lake Hike.
Robyn and I started out on a short ~5km walk yesterday that ended up being a 20km epic up to Rainbow Lake, the walk up was a lot more varied and interesting than Singing Pass, berries to pick and eat along the way, changes in shrubs from berries, deep dark forest, meadows and eventually the lake which was absolutely incredible, shame it took us 4 hours to get up and we had to rush our way down (which we did in 2 hours) to make it to Luna Fliks (massive outdoor movie screening at Lost Lake) which was really cool, albeit bloody freezing and we didn't prepare anywhere near as well as the people with chairs, duvets, pillows...
Pictures of Rainbow are up in Flickr, obviously completely failing to capture the incredible beauty of the place. I need a new camera. Donations welcome.
Posted by Mark at 10:28 AM | TrackBack
August 17, 2006
First winter purchase made
I made a steal of a purchase today. 06/07 Flow "The Pro" snowboard bindings, new for a cut down price of $200 cash.
As you can see, they're going to go awesomely with my new Prior board (still to be bought)
Cheeky link to get my new site indexed: Whistlerbase
Posted by Mark at 6:35 PM | TrackBack
August 14, 2006
House hunting.
Since the landbaron PVG is not willing to shift on the rent by $150 we're going to flee his sweaty grip and find somewhere else. Currently he's after $1800 for a 2-bedroom apartment (which is very nice) but he seems to have grand illusions of it being the nicest apartment in the world, which it really isn't. Anyway I've had enough of him so hopefully we can find something similar for a more reasonable $1500, there's tonnes of property around at the moment.
Small bike ride yesterday, as my knee is still sore, and then chilled out beside the Hilton swimming pool. Work is busy as ever and Robyn comes next Thursday, about time I say.
Edit: Infact, you know what would be really nice. To hear something back from the laywer regarding the documents they received TWO WEEKS AGO. Lets get these rants up in the search engine with a few carefully placed links about Campbell Cohen Immigration Services and hopefully someone searching for a Canada Visa Campbell Cohen Review will stumble across them and save themselves some money. Maybe if he spent less time writing on his David Cohen Visa Services Blog he could give his staff a kick up the arse.
Wow. I just found this. Scroll down to London, it's literally staggering how long these applications take.
Posted by Mark at 9:37 AM | TrackBack
August 6, 2006
Back in Business...
The lack of updates has been due to me moving the site to a new server and not being able to get it running again but here we are hooray!
Ok so my parents visited the last week, we initially went to Victoria which was no more pleasant than when I went in November in the pouring rain. Sure, the harbour is okay but there's literally nothing there except old people and mime acts, now if you were to integrate the two you'd be onto something... The drive up the island proved rather pleasant, indeed it's a shame we didn't have more time to explore but nevermind.
Next was Whistler which of course struck awe into my amazed folks. Actually I don't think they were too bothered except by the Mongolie Grill which is enough to make the most unimpressed of Sea-to-Sky consumers vocal. They got to see a bear right on the Blueberry trail which was pretty awesome for me and them. I dropped them off back in Vancouver Friday and managed to lose the car for about an hour. Don't ask.
Other news is a bit slim on the ground, work is busy, my teeth finally healed after 3-4 days of absolute soul destroying pain and blood, Robyn arrives on the 25th! I sent off my visa work application (for a years extension) and also got all my documents together to speed up my residency application, although the lawyer is being typically useless and hasn't got back to me, but that's a whole other rant saved for when I have the documents in my hands.
Sarah left me :-( :-( Very sad to see her go, we have a great friendship and I'm going to miss her loads. Ron has moved into the apartment as a long-term tennant, we haven't spoken much but he seems pretty cool, I'm fairly sure we're going to get on fine.
I'll throw a few pictures up that I found later.
Posted by Mark at 4:37 PM | TrackBack
July 23, 2006
Singing Pass Hike
Yesterday we decided to try and escape the 38c heat and hike part of Whistler, the initial plan was just up the Flute, part of Whistlers "Musical Bumps" and the best in-bound "back-country" skiing during the winter. Eventually we found ourselves heading down the back of the mountain, into the Garibaldi Provincial Park and onto the Singing Pass Trail, as described:
Whistler Mountain Gondola to Whistler Village via Musical Bumps - Length, 21 km; suggested time, 6 to 8 hours; elevation change, 1,300 metres. From the top of the gondola, Singing Pass is accessible by an alpine route traversing Piccolo, Flute and Oboe peaks. From the pass, return to the village via the Singing Pass trail.
Yeah. 21km. We did it in 7 hours, by the end of which my knee was very disappointed in me. This morning we were all aching in the calves but the views were worth it, from white topped mountain ranged to Gone with the Wind style meadows. Photos are uploaded, although nothing can honestly capture the sheer beauty.
The heat persists, 36c again today and I'm spending the day desperately trying to keep cool and move my legs as little as possible. Mum and Dad arrive next weekend and I believe I have found a replacement housemate (or rather a couple) for Sarah when she departs at the same time.
Posted by Mark at 4:09 PM | TrackBack
July 16, 2006
New photos
Nothing to tell except for my near-death experience yesterday when I fell off a small cliff and my bike fell on top of me. Not fun, still I had a pretty enjoyable run down "Cut yer bars", names for the fact that the trees are so close together the handlebars barely fit through.
Keith and I went to the peak today and walked over to Harmony, the part way to the Flute and took some wicked photos. Those and a couple of others have been uploaded and I'll add some more when I get hold of Keiths camera.
Posted by Mark at 6:04 PM | TrackBack
July 13, 2006
Good news day
Today, 13th July 2006, is officially good news day. It's still not even the middle of the day and;
a) I won a competition in the local newspaper for free cinema tickets at the outside cinema (on the lake) which is pretty neat.
b) I got my HRSDC job approval which basically means they accept there are no Canadians that can do my job (yeah, right) and so my residency application will be expidited to sometime in January hopefully!
c) My flight home at Christmas is costing me a massive £38 (since I had written off ever actually using the return flight I booked last year, but now can just change the date)
d) I won the lottery (this didn't happen yet but I'm pre-empting the inevitable)
So I'll be back in Blighty on the 20th December, no return flight booked yet. I'm taking orders for Whistler merchandise, snowboards, ski's, bindings, maple syrup or anything else that is cheap due to the exchange rate.
Incidentally if anyone is looking for a house in Whistler may I recommend this?
Posted by Mark at 11:18 AM | TrackBack
July 11, 2006
Back from the 'shwa
I have returned from the beautiful Oshawa, Ontario. What a delightful place.
We spent Canada Day watching England lose miserably and then headed into the city for sushi and to catch up with Nat (Robyns partner in crime in Whistler back in February) and over to a park to watch a free open air concert and some fireworks, which finished literally just as the heavens opened. The rest of the weekend was completed in a pretty similar fashion, hanging out in the city, on the beaches and with ice cream. All in all, Toronto is a nice and diverse place but the humidity and general feel of the city isn't one that would drag me back time and time again.
Back in Whistler I've slumped back into the usual routine, Monday-Friday work and hang out and bike at the weekends. Sarah is set to leave me at the end of the month and Keith is moving down to the city leaving me plenty friendless and in need of another housemate to cover the rent.
The immigration situation hasn't changed, still waiting to hear back from the HRSDC who should, now that we've wasted money on adverts, let me in. The folks come for a visit at the end of the month so I'll hopefully pop down to the city and to Victoria for a mini-break, hopefully the weather will be nice as its fluctuating daily at the moment.
I also have the pleasure of paying $1,000 to have someone smash my jaw in and extract my wisdom teeth in a couple of weeks which I'm overjoyed at.
Posted by Mark at 10:17 AM | TrackBack
June 21, 2006
Immigration woes
Going back to the immigration situation, which was meant to change for the better this week. My job sponsor heard back from the Canadian Human Resources Department saying that he hadn't advertised in enough places for a Canadian to fill the position. So now he's forced to place ads in the city press, local press and on the web, which is fair enough, but surely if he's gone to the time and effort to try and employ and immigrant, any applications are going to be looked on less favourably, it just seems a little pointless.
It amazes me why they make it so hard for a skilled worker to get into the country for a legitimate reason and job when every day the press is reporting on the status of a) illegal immigrants b) diminishing population c) lack of skilled workers within the current employment pool?
Edit: Joy - $300 paid to place an Ad that is effectively useless.
Posted by Mark at 11:36 AM | TrackBack
June 13, 2006
Glacier Skiing
Ok I meant to make this update at the weekend when I had loads of exciting news but I have forgotten what it all was now so I guess it can't have been that exciting.
Saturday was spent on the mountain, skiing on the glacier. The snow was suprisingly good and it was beautiful to be up on the hill in such glorious weather, it's difficult to complain when you can go skiing in June. It was the last weekend I was able to go up using my winter pass so I guess bye bye mountain, until next time. Anyway, I also bumped into a bear on the lift, ok he was underneath, but I managed to snag a couple of photos of him chilling out which was kind of neat.
Unfortunately work beckoned on Sunday but a client needed some immediate help and 8 hours work paid my rent for a month which one cannot scoff at.
I'm travelling to Toronto on Friday, woo! Actually it's come round pretty quick - work has been insane recently and I think the stress contributed to a bout of wicked insomnia last week leaving me absolutely obliterated for a couple of days.
I also meant to say that Portugal are going to win the World Cup, it's been an awesome tournament so far even though it's in its infancy. Except England were absolutely shocking, since when did we play the long ball game and more importantly why did I only see 2 crosses from out wide during the entire game, pitiful.
Posted by Mark at 10:30 PM | TrackBack
June 4, 2006
Biking photos
Not much to say, the weather remains poor. I obliterated my legs on a 4 hour bike ride yesterday covering "A River Runs Through It" a very technical black run with seesaws, bridges, drops etc. A nice short downhill run called "Rainbow Falls" which follows the waterfall down and "Beaver Pass" kind of a mix of the two, which starts pretty high up and meant a 700m vertical climb (oww).
Anyway I added a few photos to Flickr - I guess I should change the image at the top at some point...
Whistler closed today, apparently it's appalling conditions up there, having not been up for a fortnight I couldn't possibly comment but I guess thats it for the season!
I get 2 weeks free glacier skiing on Blackcomb starting Monday so I'll make use of those then pack the skis and board up for the season.
Posted by Mark at 3:47 PM | TrackBack
May 21, 2006
Rocks are sharper than snow
So, yes, uhm hi. Kind of a forced update since I have very little news but as every well respected writer knows you have to keep the fans happy.
I bought a bike, $1150 for a Kona Stuff it is very pretty and bouncy and brakey. Hyrdraulic brakes operate very well and if you are not very careful you go flying over the handlebars. (note: I was not very careful). It has other nice things like wheels and a frame and gears.
I've not been on the mountain with it yet as that requires all sorts of expensive armour and a full face helmet, I figure I need to work on my skills a bit more too, I spent today up at Lost Lake, there's a bunch of varying trails up there and I threw myself down some of the more difficult today, my backside feels like I've been on the set of Brokeback and my legs and arms ache like day 1 of the ski season.
I received a wonderful letter from the lawyer who informed me that the London office had processed my application (2 months earlier than expected) and I would now not expect to hear from them for FORTY TWO MONTHS. A lot can happen in 42 months. I could die, or Canada could sink, or the Earth could slip off its orbit and be sucked into the Sun, or, and yes this is pretty unlikely, I might change my mind about Canada all together. Anyway, I'm fairly sure they screwed it up and my visa is supposed to be expidited to ~6 months due to the job offer. We'll see what the lawyer says.
Work continues as normal. As does my sadness of the Champions League final result.
Finally, I'm heading over to Toronto June 16th for a couple of weeks to stay with Robyn. It'll be nice to finally see a bit more of Canada even if we only have the weekends (we're both still working while I'm there) and maybe I'll have some more interesting tourist pictures to update with. I should also grab some of the biking really...
The trip also conveniently means I have minimised the time difference for the World Cup games but that was just a fortunate result of my burning desire to see Robyn really ;-)
Posted by Mark at 4:15 PM | TrackBack
May 6, 2006
Canada has bugs...
...Nobody told me about that. Now Summer is effectively in full force (okay okay it's snowing outside but it was 23c yesterday and I wore shorts and flip flops) the bugs have come out to play. Here's my current bug observations (read this in a Samuel L Jackson voice): Moths. HOLY SHIT MOTHS. They have something called the Giant Moth which is not an understatement, they actually scream as they fly past your face! Ants are about as big as dinosaurs. Mosquitos bite a lot and I appear to be allergic to them, my legs are currently bright blotchy red and itch like a bath full of ticks.
I've started my new 9-5 phone answering job which is cool to a degree except I can't just get up and wander into the village when I feel like it and have to speak to the most moronic people to grace the planet. Seriously half of them can barely talk I really don't know how they go about setting up what is a rather technical system but the phone rings maybe 15-20 times a day and I'm being paid a healthy wage for a job which allows me to continue my web development between calls
Aside from that I appear to have landed myself quite a sweet deal with the local web companies who are all fighting over me which puts me in a very pleasant position of picking up a bunch of money for doing nice and simple stuff.
Last night was Keiths birthday party and we headed over to his new house in Lost Lake for a BBQ - lovely apartment and beautiful location. It was a great night out and I met a bunch of new people which is kind of important as the last of the leaving parties was this week as I bid a fond farewell to Cath and Helen.
A few people asked about a visa update - my application is now in London and it apparently takes them 3 months to actually open the envelope and give me an application ID. At that sort of rate I might be a Canadian just in time for my ashes to be scattered over Blackcomb.
I went boarding twice in April and have yet to go up this month. I feel very bad and can only apologise to those stuck back in England but I am actually a little bored of it to be perfectly honest. Bring on the summer activities!
Anyway, I have some serious scratching to do if you'll excuse me.