I have been so disappointed at myself that I haven't posted anything in English in a while. I decided to publish this title and try to update you what has happened so far this year. Amazing but almost half of the year is gone already...
* * *
Edit June 22nd: Here we finally go with the text...
Is it just me, or does the time go by really fast these days. It is already almost mid-June, almost summer time. I have been blogging mostly in Finnish and my blog has turned into a diary which I have tried to avoid. …but hey, that’s life.
I guess the biggest thing to report is that Jari is working in Finland temporarily, he’s there on a short term transfer for 3 months. He will be back in 2 weeks time, he left at the end of March and then he was back in Vancouver for two weeks in the end of May when his sister and her boyfriend were visiting. I can’t say I have fully enjoyed being home alone but it hasn’t been the end of the world either. I am really looking forward to having him back home in early July, can’t wait to share all the summer stuff with him.
I have been quite busy at work for a few months now which is great, I love what I do! At times work has been a bit stressful but nothing too bad. I have to say I am privileged with my commute, I don’t think I would enjoy a long commute by bus so a little bit of walking and a bus or Aquabus is perfect. I should walk more but crossing the Granville bridge on foot is not an enjoyable experience. Granville Island is a great place to work at, it is a tourist destination for sure so it can get a bit busy so I am glad I can be flexible with my lunch times.
So, what else has been happening… Not much out of the ordinary really. I have travelled for work a couple of times. I did a day trip to Prince George (the largest city in northern BC) in February and then I visited Quebec City and Montreal in April. It was my first visit to the province of Quebec and I really enjoyed both cities, especially Montreal. When Jari was here in May we visited Seattle and Tofino. My travels this summer will be limited to the local area, I am saving my vacation days for Christmas time, hopefully an amazing trip to South America.
It snowed a lot on the mountains over the winter, I only went skiing once though and that was in Whistler. We spent two weekends in Whistler, one with the boys and another with the Finns to see the downhill skiing world cup. I also went snowshoeing for the first time this winter and it happened to be an amazing sunny day on Mount Seymour. It was so much fun! It snowed more than usual in the city too, we had 17 snow days in Vancouver.
It always takes forever to summer to arrive, that is the case this year too. Spring weather has been quite strange, we’ve had quite a few days in June with max temperature just a bit above +10 C. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this summer will be better than last summer. Last summer the weather was nice during the week and on weekends it rained, so disappointing!!!
I saw a couple of concerts this spring, two Finnish bands played in Vancouver this spring: Apocalyptica and Nightwish. We also went to see Mika’s concert and saw Margaret Cho’s show in March. The best is yet to come though: Madonna on October 30th, can’t wait!!!
The high rise across the street from our place is finished now and people have moved in. The angle is actually okay so the building is not directly opposite to us and the people can’t see directly to our apartment. The building boom continues and there are cranes everywhere. In my opinion downtown Vancouver is becoming too densely built, there are so many towers going up, it’s just crazy… Housing prices have gone up steadily in Vancouver but looks like things have slowed down a bit. I actually have a bit of a home fever but with these prices, not going to happen. We’ll see where life takes us next, hopefully somewhere we can find a nice home of our own.
I feel that quality of life has come down considerably during the 7 years we have lived here. It is more crowded, the streets are lots more congested, there are more homeless people and drug / gang problems etc. The surroundings are still amazing and I enjoy living here. Reality in “the best place on earth” for many people is not that rosy. There is a huge labour shortage, especially in fields where pay is not high and people have to spend quite a bit of money for housing. I would say the city has gone downhill during these 7 years but Vancouver still ranks high in the surveys; in Mercer’s Quality of Living 2008 survey Vancouver is #4 after Zurich, Vienna and Geneva, Vancouver tops The Economist’s Most Livable Cities 2008 survey and MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index ranks Vancouver as the world's "most livable city”. Apparently I shouldn’t be complaining…
I guess this is all I have to type about the year so far. I will try to blog in English more frequently…
* * *
Edit June 22nd: Here we finally go with the text...
Is it just me, or does the time go by really fast these days. It is already almost mid-June, almost summer time. I have been blogging mostly in Finnish and my blog has turned into a diary which I have tried to avoid. …but hey, that’s life.
I guess the biggest thing to report is that Jari is working in Finland temporarily, he’s there on a short term transfer for 3 months. He will be back in 2 weeks time, he left at the end of March and then he was back in Vancouver for two weeks in the end of May when his sister and her boyfriend were visiting. I can’t say I have fully enjoyed being home alone but it hasn’t been the end of the world either. I am really looking forward to having him back home in early July, can’t wait to share all the summer stuff with him.
I have been quite busy at work for a few months now which is great, I love what I do! At times work has been a bit stressful but nothing too bad. I have to say I am privileged with my commute, I don’t think I would enjoy a long commute by bus so a little bit of walking and a bus or Aquabus is perfect. I should walk more but crossing the Granville bridge on foot is not an enjoyable experience. Granville Island is a great place to work at, it is a tourist destination for sure so it can get a bit busy so I am glad I can be flexible with my lunch times.
So, what else has been happening… Not much out of the ordinary really. I have travelled for work a couple of times. I did a day trip to Prince George (the largest city in northern BC) in February and then I visited Quebec City and Montreal in April. It was my first visit to the province of Quebec and I really enjoyed both cities, especially Montreal. When Jari was here in May we visited Seattle and Tofino. My travels this summer will be limited to the local area, I am saving my vacation days for Christmas time, hopefully an amazing trip to South America.
It snowed a lot on the mountains over the winter, I only went skiing once though and that was in Whistler. We spent two weekends in Whistler, one with the boys and another with the Finns to see the downhill skiing world cup. I also went snowshoeing for the first time this winter and it happened to be an amazing sunny day on Mount Seymour. It was so much fun! It snowed more than usual in the city too, we had 17 snow days in Vancouver.
It always takes forever to summer to arrive, that is the case this year too. Spring weather has been quite strange, we’ve had quite a few days in June with max temperature just a bit above +10 C. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this summer will be better than last summer. Last summer the weather was nice during the week and on weekends it rained, so disappointing!!!
I saw a couple of concerts this spring, two Finnish bands played in Vancouver this spring: Apocalyptica and Nightwish. We also went to see Mika’s concert and saw Margaret Cho’s show in March. The best is yet to come though: Madonna on October 30th, can’t wait!!!
The high rise across the street from our place is finished now and people have moved in. The angle is actually okay so the building is not directly opposite to us and the people can’t see directly to our apartment. The building boom continues and there are cranes everywhere. In my opinion downtown Vancouver is becoming too densely built, there are so many towers going up, it’s just crazy… Housing prices have gone up steadily in Vancouver but looks like things have slowed down a bit. I actually have a bit of a home fever but with these prices, not going to happen. We’ll see where life takes us next, hopefully somewhere we can find a nice home of our own.
I feel that quality of life has come down considerably during the 7 years we have lived here. It is more crowded, the streets are lots more congested, there are more homeless people and drug / gang problems etc. The surroundings are still amazing and I enjoy living here. Reality in “the best place on earth” for many people is not that rosy. There is a huge labour shortage, especially in fields where pay is not high and people have to spend quite a bit of money for housing. I would say the city has gone downhill during these 7 years but Vancouver still ranks high in the surveys; in Mercer’s Quality of Living 2008 survey Vancouver is #4 after Zurich, Vienna and Geneva, Vancouver tops The Economist’s Most Livable Cities 2008 survey and MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index ranks Vancouver as the world's "most livable city”. Apparently I shouldn’t be complaining…
I guess this is all I have to type about the year so far. I will try to blog in English more frequently…
No comments:
Post a Comment