Vancouver/Whistler, Canada Days 31-41

YoYo,

Been a while since the last posting, so apologies on that front but, we've had lots to do. Vancouver started where we left off in Barnes with our old roomies 4 years ago.........lots of wine, beer and nostalgia (more on that later).

Not much to write home about Seattle - although Pike Place Market was a cool day out with loads of stalls selling vintage kitch (1973 PLAYBOY mags etc etc.). We also popped into the Seattle Public Library, those design enthusiasts amongst us will know it as an iconic Rem Koolhaas creation. Definately lives up to the hype with vast asymmetric, concrete spaces, signature primary colours and no lack of high spec fittings (Vitra all over the place!)

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Seattle_Public_Library.html

After 2 or so days in Seattle we took a bus from the airport to VC. At the border post we were greeted by a very serious looking crew who were taking NO crap - small heart failiure at the 1st check point where they asked for my visa and I had to explain that as a Polish passport holder I did not require a visa - a quick check down the list confirmed my statement, you'd think they would bloody well know! Another 45 minutes in the queue were spent at check point no 2 where we watched one guy get deported and another caught falsifying statements about the car he was bringing to Canada. Once again though, Kimmy did her sweat-talking PR bit with the customs officials and the rest was plain sailing (lets hope it's the same coming back in tomorrow!)

Nopiel and Mich have not changed a bit. Neil still works half days and gets paid for 3 and both are not shy of a few social glasses of wine. Mich has cool job working for the 2010 Winter Olympics and they both seemed to have settled really well into Canada (who wouldn't with ski slopes and a beach 20minutes away from your front door!).

A couple of days were spent in Whistler where Mich showed us some of the plans for the games. (Stu and Debs, thanks so much for the use of your condo - if you're ever in Cape Town give us a buzz, we'd love to have you over at our place). Although the snow has now mostly disappeared the slopes are still a hive of activity with insane people taking to the gradients with their mountain bikes! They apparently have more people hospitalised in Whistler over the summer months than winter and watching these ''nutters'', we can easily understand why.

The weather has not really played ball again and we probably could have seen more of VC but, in truth, we were more excited about visiting Neil & Mich and Mich's folks Mike and Penny. To all 4 of you, thank you so much for your company and overwhelming generosity. All the pounds lost eating canned rations around a campfire across the US have been put back on - We've had a fantastic stay in Canada and will definitely be saving our rands for a return trip in the not too distant future.

Take care, hope to see you soon in Cape Town.