Work, work and more work...

That is what life seems to be all about at the moment! Since I finished all my exams (all went well, I even passed Spanish and walked with an A average for the year) I have been working at a restaurant down on Kitsilano Beach called Watermark. It has been going well, all the staff are pretty cool and the place has a view that is hard to beat. Every night there are the most stunning sunsets, the sun falling behind the mountains and the light reflecting off the water... Beautiful. But as ever, if you spend long enough in one place you start to get a little jaded, and seeing as I spent 101 hours there over the past two weeks I am feeling a little over it! But having said that, I gave my notice on Saturday, so I only have a couple more weeks there before I am off and away.

Plans are all starting to fall into place, Simon and I are heading to Seattle on the 25th of June for a few nights, to party it up one last time before we head our separate ways back to Aus. It has been great hanging out with him over the past year, a really solid guy who I look forward to seeing more when we are both back in Aus. I then fly on to Chicago to catch up with my friends from the Dave Matthews Band shows at the Gorge (see previous posts) as one of them is having his bachelor party there. I'm looking forward to that, it should be awsome to see Chicago and we're gonna hit a baseball game and a few other quintessentially American things I think. Good times. From there I fly on to Montreal, which I am really excited about. Sim is there now and says it is amazing. I can't wait for the food, and I may have to relent on my determination to not drink coffee until I get back to Aus! I have about a week there, with one night in Quebec City. Hopefully I'll get to catch up with a few friends from Uni there and I am there while the Jazz Festival is on so am hoping to see a couple of shows too... It's going to be great!

From there I fly back to Van, have a day to do laundry and gather myself together before the day that I have been looking forward to for a while now... Tess arrives here on the 10th of July, which is going to be amazing. We have heaps planned already and it looks like it could be quite a busy few weeks!

So those are my plans, but I have also been doing some fun stuff, believe it or not! A couple of weeks back my mate Sebastian and I had a final day at Blackcomb, which was fun. The snow was decidedly slushy but we had a good day. While waiting for the Gondola to open we saw a young Black Bear rummaging through a rubbish bin, and then another while we were on the way up the Gondola - so now I don't have to see any more bears thank you very much! It was great to hit the mountain in the sun, and I must admit that we stopped often for a beer and a relax in the sun!

A couple of weeks before that I went to Victoria with Simon and a couple of other friends Maria and Becky. It was a slightly spur of the moment trip, but all organised by Sim which was awesome. We stayed at a little hostel and lived it up for a couple of nights! Basically we got off the ferry, dumped our bags and headed straight for a patio to drink beer in the sun! It was just what I needed to do after a couple of intense weeks at work, and really good times with Maria, who has also become a good mate, before she flew back to Sweden. Walking through the harbour the next day I spotted something in the water, which turned out to be a Sea Otter, just cruising around, foraging for food and playing in the water. We stood and watched it for a few minutes, and while we were there a Sea Eagle of some kind just dropped from the sky and scooped up a fish, right there in front of us. It was amazing to see that kind of wildlife right in the harbour of the city. The rest of the day was basically spent hanging out in the sun, talking to seals (that apparently understood Swedish) and then having some more beers! Dinner that night was amazing, in a little place called Ferris Oyster Bar, fantastic seafood, simple and not overpriced... Love it! Victoria was on the whole fantastic, great shops (found some good t-shirts and a nice vintage Speedo jacket!), good food and good company! I spent maybe too much money, but that is par for the course at the moment!

Apart from that, I have just been catching the odd live band, saw Ozomatli a couple of weeks back, and a local band called Hey Ocean twice recently which was great. Off to another gig next week, a band called OAR who I came across seeing DMB last summer, which I am looking forward to seeing in a small venue. Catching Melbourne band Architecture in Helsinki this week with my friend Sebastian which should be cool - I never saw them in Melbs so it is quite funny to be seeing them here!

Other than that it is work work work! Fourteen more days of that and then off and away again, I can't wait. I hope all is good in your world, maybe I'll be seeing some of you in the next couple of months... Take care and stay in touch!