Vancouvering On

I've settled into Vancouver life so I haven't had much to report during the past month or two.

I worked for four weeks at Levitt Safety in Richmond, which required me to spend 12 1/2 hours a week in transit. The job was okay though and they gave me a cool hat at the end of it. I'm wearing it now (I have to be careful with the hat because my wardrobe includes a favourite ironic t-shirt - and two bits of ironic clothing worn at once is just ridiculous I'm sure you'd agree).

After Levitt I worked at a glassworks in Burnaby, which also required more than 2 hours transit a day although I got to take the Skytrain and the Skytrain rocks. Everyday the office had a 9:35am "huddle", which was a meeting that curiously ended with everyone stretching and me, consequently, stifling laughter. The boss (who led the stretches) didn't talk to me the whole time I was there but when I saw him out on the turps he hugged me - a couple of times. I wasn't entirely comfortable with that.

Then I spent a day working for, um, I forget. They were nice however and let me claim a full day's work even though I finished my task ahead of schedule. Then I temped at the temp agency for a couple of days, which was hard to explain to people. "I'm doing temp work at the temp agency I work for" "Huh?". That was fun because I got to listen to temp assigners do their jobs - lying pack of wolves they are! Then I did the hardest day's work of my life at a used office furniture auction house. Man those desks are heavy. Not only did I have to carry desks around i had to smash up unsaleable (is that a word?) furniture with a sledgehammer. The sledgehammering was fun until I nearly decapitated myself upon unleashing a large chunk of metal shrapnel. I also had to shove a falling desk in order to save my Mexican workmate from becoming my flat Mexican workmate. I wonder if he would have resembled one of those Mexican-on-a-bike Rorschach's? My next assignment is working for Electronic Arts, which should be much more fun and a hell of a lot safer.

I moved out of the basement sweeet and into the dodgiest backpackers in Vancouver for a little while. At ten bucks a night the American (henceforth known as the Bugbiter) is the cheapest place to stay in town. There are several reasons for that. For one thing, as a fellow lodger remarked, "you have to wipe your feet on the way out". The place wasn't all bad though - you get a free night if bitten by bed bugs and there's a sign up on the notice board advertising the fact that the brothel next door offers discounts for Bugbiter backpackers (no mum, I wasn't tempted). More importantly, the hostel puts on a free keg once a week. I met some crazy people there, and it was fun, but the beg bugs were too much. I was covered in red bites. Luckily, I was able to move up the road to the Dunsmuir International Student Village. No I'm not a student but my big mate Chewy works behind the desk. The place is pretty basic but I get my own bug-free room and the chance to meet folk from around the world. Oh, I get cable as well. Sweet.

The other day I was walking back to the Bugbiter and I saw what looked like a bunch of rock star wannabes strolling my way. I thought, "what a bunch of rock star wannabes". But as they got closer they looked less like they wanted to be Jet and more like they were Jet. It was odd running into Aus rock stars on an otherwise empty Vancouver street. I said, "hello Jet, how are you going". They said, "good thanks" and we all kept walking. Weird.