What's new from BC Brit
Hidden treasure
As a follow up to my last post I thought I’d add that help is at hand for all professional job hunters in the Vancouver area. However, it’s a case of unearthing the buried treasure. There seems to be a multitude of Provincial and National Government funded programmes that the intrepid professional job hunter can...Continue reading→
What they don’t tell you when you apply
Is it naivety or could I have prepared better than I did? What’s become very apparent is that Canadian employers do not offer a level playing field to new entrants. I’ve been told stories about professional people arriving, seeking employment and ending up in the land of under-employment (in jobs far below their potential). So...Continue reading→
Rainy day on Georgia
I was downtown meeting with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) today and discovered that when it rains in Vancouver, boy, can it rain. On the positive side, it seems that rather than complain about the weather, locals just break out the brolly and get on with life. I captured brolly culture at Georgia and...Continue reading→
Around Kits
What a fantastic Autumn day. It’s days like this when being in Vancouver really makes sense. After discovering Zulu Records I returned with the family for another visit a wander along part of 4th Avenue followed by a stroll along Kitsilano Beach at English Bay. 4th is a real old fashioned high street with a...Continue reading→
This ‘aint no HMV
What a great find. A real record store, not a multi-national clone store. I was on a mission to get a ticket for the Athlete gig next month. Tickets for a lot of bands that play Vancouver are available from record stores or, unfortunately, Ticketmaster (not worthy a link) who happily add around $10 to...Continue reading→
Learning the lingo
Occasionally the language barrier cuts in and I find myself thinking, “what?” A great example was a couple of days ago when I found myself on the receiving end of ‘in the boonies’ twice. Now it may be that I’m simply not as well travelled as I should be and that the folks in the...Continue reading→
Light up, rain down
One thing I’ve discovered about Vancouver is that it rains. In fact it rains a lot. Some might say that for a Brit, what could be better, move to somewhere ‘exotic’ and still be able to complain about the rain. Actually, I don’t believe I’m someone that really gets agitated about the weather, and besides,...Continue reading→
The puck drops here
Tonight is hockey night. Vancouver is a hockey town, and, as a newcomer I’m looking in with a mix of wonder, admiration and maybe a touch of amusement at the sight of local buses displaying Go Canucks Go across the number/destination matrix. I’ve just not come across this before and I guess this stems from...Continue reading→
Taste the, well, beetroot
One of the hardest things to resolve since moving from the UK to BC has been regulating my diet. My yeast and dairy intolerance make a standard diet kind of hard. So, finding Capers has been a real boon. Capers is stuffed full of organic produce, a vast range of other foods, drinks and supplements...Continue reading→
What's new from BC Brit
Editors at Richards
When I found out that Editors were playing Richards on Richards I decided that it had to be my first gig in Vancouver. Through John Bollwitt’s PodCast, RadioZoom I felt I knew Richards before even setting foot in the place. What I wasn’t prepared for was the somewhat different experience. First shock was ‘no minors’,...Continue reading→
Testing the healthcare service
We hadn’t intended to test the healthcare service until we were covered by BC Medical Services Plan (MSP), which has a 3 month from month of landing qualification period. Maybe we should have know better when the lads bought rollerblades within the first week of arrival. The short version is this. I ended up at...Continue reading→
Hotels and suitcases
Don’t live out of suitcases, particularly when there’s 7 cases to choose from. It’s as simple as that. The first few days after arrival were mentally and physically draining. After the best part of 16 years of stability in the same house, living out of suitcases across 2 hotels was a slog. Why 2 hotels?...Continue reading→
First thoughts
In her blog, Lesley neatly summarised the testing, first few hours of our departure from the UK, and it certainly was a test of how calm we could remain. Delays in Maidstone, delays on the M25 and a fire alarm at Gatwick were all thrown at us, but the feeling was that it would take...Continue reading→