Dan and Dave in Canada

BLUE SKIES HIT VANCOUVER!!!

On January 30th, after months of grey skies and cloud (not to mention 27 days of non-stop rain) blue skis and sunshine hit Vancouver!!! It made the headline news, the entire population was out running at lunchtime and everyone wore a smile on their face. It's amazing what typical Aussie weather will do to people up here - scary really!

How gorgeous is this city WHEN IT'S NOT RAINING?!!!!!!!

So to celebrate, Dan did the very "Vancouverite" thing to do and spent the afternoon rollerblading around the 10km seawall in Stanley Park, just a few minutes out of the city centre.

After a rough start (taking off her rollerblades every 5 minutes to walk down the hills!) it was an amazing day. Can't wait 'til Summer!! Anyone have any annual leave in June?!

Lyons Gate Bridge

Along the seawall in Stanley Park.

Happy Australia Day!!

As difficult as it was to get these crazy Canadians to understand what "come 'round at middee to have some snags and a pav" meant, we celebrated Oz Day 2006 with an attempt at an Aussie BBQ with our friends here. After much clarification as to the starting time, minus the rain, slush, wind and the fact that when we suggested we go outside around the barbie, we were confronted with faces of sheer confusion - our party went off with a bang and we were proud to call Australia home (Dave soon realised not to play that song to Dan though, unless he wanted to wipe away the homesick tears!)

Mum (aka "Dan") baked some home-made Aussie delights - a damper, lamingtons and good ol' choccie crackles. Mum did let the child in her come shining through at times though... But we wonder how Dan's face ended up like that (...Dave?!)

Most of the Aussie favourites were well-received, except Dan's banning of peanut butter and her forcing everyone to accompany their damper with large servings of vegemite! BTW: We're currently sharing/rationing a tube of vegemite with our Aussie friends who live up the street. The supermarket still hasn't replaced the last jar that was excitedly purchased by Dan 2 months ago and Dave is getting sick of spending weekends hunting through Vancouver for the stuff!! Hint Hint...

"Happy Oz Day" from Czarina and Kari,

Kelly and Maarten...

Sonya, Isabelle and Mark... (How cute is she?!)

John and Hannah...

And of course Czarina and our favourite - the highlight of the day - Bruce the Koala!

The party was such a success that by the end of a day filled with Aussie songs, snags and slang, they were all lining up for shares in vegemite and tomato sauce (the word 'ketchup' was also banned for the day) and all were keen to learn the words to "Your the Voice". Lamington recipes were handed around and all thumbs were up. As hard as they all tried though, none of them managed to get the "Aussie" thing quite right (note the flags!) ... Dave and Dan still have a lot of work to do here by the looks of things!

Our flatmate Nicole - you would have thought living with us for 3 months would have taught her to fly our flag the right way! At least she loves Lamingtons though!!

And the dutchies Ad and Maarten - no hope.

-8 Degrees, Powder, Visibility: Unlimited

Conditions read:
Temp: -8 degrees
Base: 180cm
New snow: 11cm overnight
Snow: Dry, powder
Visibility: Unlimited

"Are you thinking what I am D1?"
"I think I am D2" ...
"It's ski time!"

Yep - Dave and Dan escaped the city of rain with their friends, Czarina and Maartin (below), to ski, snowboard, drink red wine and make snow angels, at Manning Park Ski Resort (about 3 hours east of Vancouver)