June was an interesting month – I managed to see Dane Cook and Coldplay up at GM Place in downtown Vancouver. Cook had two opening acts; Al Del Bene and Robert Kelly. Del Bene was definitely the highlight of the night. In a 10-minute set, he told more jokes than the other two combined, showing his enthusiasm for his first child, a “blank hard drive to load my thoughts into”. Kelly’s act consisted of farting and sex jokes, which lead to Dane.

Dane had a few funny anecdotes; One being using a TV remote control to satisfy a young ’skank’ (“she was so dirty her crabs had herpes”). All in all it wasn’t too bad – but I’m sure he appeals to women more! Big thanks to Nikki who surprised me with tickets to Dane Cook..

In return, I surprised Nikki with 2 tickets to Coldplay, a soldout 2 day show at GM Place. We went on the Saturday & it was a complete hit and well worth the dollars. Snow Patrol and the Howling Bells were the opening act.

When Chris Martin & the band came out on the stage there was an electric feel through the atmosphere. A thunderous applause and the scream of fans.

Immediately, the opening notes to Violet Hill sparked howls from the scream-happy crowd — a mixed bag of old, young, hip and square, peppered with plenty of couples holding hands. “If we made it to Vancouver,” Martin sang, to the lilting melody of Violet Hill. “If the rumours about you being the best crowd in the world are true.”Pause. That’s when he sang to the crowd that — of all the cities to choose from on their world tour — they had chosen to film Vancouver tonight.

The past two sunny weekends have involved heading up Blackcomb Mountain out at Whistler and sailing over to Vancouver Island. The major highlight of this trip was zip-lining through the tree tops at a town called Sooke – a 45 minute drive from Victoria. For those not familiar with zip-lining; this is being strapped into a harness 200 ft from the forest floor to a steel line from tree to tree.

I have been up to Whistler Village so many times that I’ve lost count!

But have I actually been up on Blackcomb or Whistler mountain? Can’t say I have.. Until now!

My friend Suzi was travelling this way, so I decided to take her up to Whistler to check out the sights. We couldn’t do any skiing as she had a broken leg from her adventures up at Kelowna.. So we did the touristy thing and took the chairlift up the mountain to have a brew at the top.

At the Cafe at the top with a great view of Whistler Mountain.

The village of Whistler..

Suzi & I with Whistler in the background

Heading back down the mountain – Whistler Village in the distance.

While we were driving back to Vancouver; I noticed this mountain in the distance. A huge avalanche!!

The following weekend we headed out to Vancouver Island due to the Victoria Day long weekend. This was the second time I had been over and it is just as beautiful as the last time.

On the Sunday we headed out early to the town of Sooke, where we did some Zip-Lining. This was alot of fun and something you should try if you are ever over on the island!

Josh being strapped in.

We were about 150 to 200 ft up in the air; and you pick up some speed going across these lines..

One of the guys going across the 600 ft line..

This was the 1,000 ft line! Took a good 30 seconds to go from one end to the other – an experience to remember!!

The platform on the other end. Absolutely worth the money – it cost about $70 CAD for a couple of hours up in the tree-tops. All in all a couple of good weekends with some good sights. Other than this; I have been working hard and saving/searching for a solid second hand 2005 Mustang GT.. Hopefully I find it soon!!

Till next time, take it easy.

February, March & April have involved; watching my first live ice hockey game at Pacific Coliseum to watch the Vancouver Giants vs the Spokane Chiefs, hitting the local & downtown clubs/pubs and heading out to Abbotsford to see the B.C. Custom Car show – where I had the chance to meet Chip Foose from the TV Show Overhaulin’ & Foose Designs.

The Custom Car show was held the weekend before last out at Abbotsford B.C; about a 30 – 40 minute drive from Vancouver. There were loads of hot American muscle rides – just the way I like it!

The next three pictures are of a 1970’s Plymouth Barracuda – very highly customized right down to the illuminated tachometers in the dash to the custom color paint job.

This was a 1967 Shelby GT – just like the one from Gone in 60 Seconds (Nicholas Cage). This one featured the dash signed by Carol Shelby. This had a great mix of classic & modern done just right.

A highly customized 1979 Firebird Trans Am. The mag wheels were nicely done on this, the edges inside the wheels were painted gold while the face was painted gloss black. A neat and subtle effect.

This was my favourite Corvette from the show – a 1970 C3 Corvette.

A highly customized 1969 Chevelle SS Coupe

A highly customized 1968 Camaro

A 1955 Chrysler wagon

Chip Foose’s Dodge Hemisphere. The coupe is a cross between a muscle car and a hot rod, and is equipped with suspension by Hotchkis and a Baer brake system. Powering it is a new Mopar 392 HEMI SEFI Crate Engine, which is visible through the car’s rear window. This engine sports a deep-skirted cast iron block with cross-bolted mains, CNC ported aluminum twin-plug cylinder heads, and delivers a monster 540 horsepower and 490 lf ft of torque.

So I got to meet the legendary Chip; had a conversation with him and he signed some gear for me! A really nice guy and I look forward to watching a new series!

In February I was invited to see a Giants vs Spokane hockey match at the Pacific Coliseum. I have always wanted to check out a live hockey game!

During the past month we’ve hit a few different pubs and clubs in Vancouver; with Nikki, Andy & Josh (my New Zealander house mate). Josh with booze in hand!

Nikki & I sharing a ‘Kodak’ moment..

Been some great times, and summer is finally here with more sunny days than not! I look forward to taking more snaps and heading on more adventures!

Till next time, take it easy..

So last week I mentioned I’d be headed to Seymour mountain for some snowboarding action – will now I can say I have officially snowboarded in Canada, enjoyed it to the max, and as a result I have had a sore ass all week. Mid-week we headed to Richards on Richards in downtown Vancouver where we watched one of my favourite alternative rock bands (Anberlin) play live. An awesome experience which was as good as the last time I saw them in Perth.

Nikki & I at the slopes on Seymour Mountain all kitted up & ready to go! Was a fantastic sunny day (a rarity in Vancouver), so it made the perfect day for a newbie boarder.

OK – so I’m kitted up and ready to rock n roll. I go to get up and it is really awkward because I start to slide down the mountain.. i’m watching these little kids – they have the board parallel to the slope, lean forward, get up and they are off down the slope. So I follow suit and sure enough I’m standing up and starting to slide forward!

The next thing I know I’m starting to build up a heap of speed and I’m thinking “Oh sh!t, how do I slow dow..” – next thing I know I’ve lost my balance and completely wiped out!

I spent half an hour practicing the basics, stopping, starting, turning & wiping out – watching and learning off the pro kids! Anyway I finally reached the bottom and we had to jump into the chair-lift.

Doing this for the first time is a pretty big deal (it was for me anyway!) – your not strapped into the chair, and you got a foot in one strap and your dangling about 20 meters from the ground!!

The ‘best part’ was getting off. The chairlift dosen’t stop as you probably know, but the tricky part is you have half your snowboard strapped in and you have to time sliding off without stacking it, or you are going to get hit by the chairlift and eventually the people behind you!

Nikki getting ready to go!

She’s up & off – what a pro..

A cute pro!!

Newbie snowboarder!

After all the practice, I managed to get the hang of it by the end of the day. I could do a long run, keep the balance, turn & stop.. Was soo much fun! I can’t wait to get up there for the next time, and eventually board down Whistler & Blackcombe.

A beautiful day & view of the run and the mountains of Eastern B.C.

So Mid-week Nikki & I went to see one of my favourite bands – Anberlin in downtown. I hadn’t seen these guys play live since 2007! The tickets were alot cheaper than they were in Perth – I guess thats the benefits you get for living up here!!

Up on stage! Absolutely rockin..

Played pretty much all their songs – more so from their 2008 album New Surrender.

Cannot wait until they come back!! Another great evening.. Other than the above events, its mainly the work grind – however I’m planning a few more bits and pieces. Until then take it easy, and stay tuned for the next update!

Jet-lagged in good company would be one word to describe my stumble into 2009. I returned from Hong Kong one day prior to New Years Eve & ended up sleeping the whole da/night – needless to say this pretty much put my sleeping pattern way outta whack for the next couple of days..

The ‘08/’09 New Years celebrations were pretty good, we rounded up the troops and met up in downtown at the Cellar where we partied until the wee hours of daylight the following day! On the weekend following New Years myself, Nikki, Gaz & Dave crammed into my small pick-up truck & drove up to the slopes of Cypress for some snow action..

The first round of shots to start off: Gaz, Nikki, Dave, Danielle & Craig.. A couple of Jager-bombs each & a few shots of tequilla for extra measure!

“OK guys – we better take a group shot while we are all still a little sober..” – Andy, Danielle, Gaz, Craig, Nikki, Dave & Me

Dirty dancin’ on the floor.. Waatch out!

The Cellar was absolutely packed, and played good beats as always.

Yeep – all tanked up on booze!

An awesome night, with loads of dancin’ and drinking. Always having an absolute blast at the Cellar! The only pain in the ass was the fact that public transport didn’t run all night/morning. We missed the last bus from the Skytrain station, and there were no taxi’s to be seen.

I had to make the trek back to the condo to pickup the truck, to come pick up the frozen corpses back at the Skytrain station.. That wasn’t fun!! Trekking up-hill through a blizzard on foot in sub-zero temperatures!! Never again!

The weekend after (our recovery) was a trip up to Cypress Mountain. This was taken outside Dave’s place in Port Moody, the sheer amount of snow up there was huge. I have never seen so much snow in an urban area in my life!

It was a fun drive up in the snow though, I can drift the pickup around the corners so easily with no weight in the back..

Nikki in the snow.

Nikki & I up at Cypress!

The temperature was over -10c up on the mountain plus the windchill factor on top. Didn’t really help not having snow-pants.. I was absolutely drenched at the end of the day.

Dave & Gaz tubing @ Cypress Mountain

Getting towed up! Stay tuned for pictures of next weekend, I’ll be heading to Seymour Mountain to do some snow boarding.. Weather permitting I’ll have a multi-tude of shots for you to see my spectactular stacks.

Till then, take it easy.