The Nat Bailey Nooner !

This Sunday saw me and a random gang of other hungover layabouts convene on the compact Nat Bailey Stadium looking to enjoy the sun and nurse sore heads from the previous evenings festivities !

The occaison being the one and only Vancouver Canadians baseball team (can I get a yee ha) fixture against the oh so glamorous and well known Tri-city Titans (give me another yeee ha) in what is known as a 'Nooner' out here. Obviously because it starts at 1:05pm ????? mmmm???

Meeting the token Welsh lad from my office Chris at main street sky train station, we staggered up the road bemoaning lack of sleep and dehydration, swapping tales of woe involving bottles of port until three am in Chris's case and falling asleep on the seabus in mine.

Walking through the door having spent a massive $8 on general admission seats each our faces lit up as we hooked up with Tammy (our receptionist) her man Dave and a random selection of locals and Brits who fabulously generally looked worse for wear than I and he put together !

Only one thing for it then ! One breakfast of lager and hotdogs coming up !

Being of course Hawaiian day all the staff were (as were we) wearing gloriously hideous shirts of floral nature that could only add to the general comedy mood of the whole event ! The classic chorus of Hawaii five oh bleeted out of the PA started things off as it was met of course by every bloke in the stand bearing their guts and surfing their imaginary surf boards in between pitches spilling beer all over the joint !

That mixed with all the other sounds of cartoon nature that only american sporting events can get away with blasting through the PA had me smiling at the whole goon show nature of it all ! As did the fact that it seemed perfectly acceptable to berate any opposition bloke who made it to third base where we home support goons were stationed !

I can remember hearing 'you'll never make the big leagues stumpy' being bleeted out under a hail of empty peanut shells at one point ! Class ! It reminded me of watching the movie Slap Shot but only it was baseball and live in front of me.

Pushing on with the beer kitty and nasty hot dogs I was actually really dissapointed when the game finished at around four pm by which time I had earned another gloroius pair of panda eyes underneath my sunnies, having again forgotten to wear any sun screen !

Not wishing to bail on the good start we had made the goon squad relocated to English bay beach for an evening of volleyball (and a crate of Kokanee) before finally ending up in some chinese joint with palm trees (???) at shift end.

All good fun what ! By all accounts the 'nooners' are generally where all the goons hang out as it is tradition to pull a sickie and head out to the game on a Friday afternoon. Count me in next time !

Roger takes on the Grind !

Being on the three day trip Roger had the explicit advantage over me when taking on the grind in that he had given himself plenty of sleep and more inteligently had taken on board a substantial breaky of five eggs, six pancakes, seven sausages, eight slices of toast and nine rashers of bacon !

This is typically known as the light option breakfast in a Canadian Denny's and would form a usual Cooper elevenses snack !

You see I on the other hand you will recall had gone straight from the pub armed with a banana, having quaffed two pints of lager ! As such Roger your time of 65 mins I am sorry is very poor given the military approach you took, as opposed to my cavalier 80 mins.


You must do better next time ! If you didn't tip your hat sir at every passer by on the trail you may have gone a bit quicker.

Whilst you look at the pictures from Rogers float plane trip to Victoria over on the island (for which I will not offer any notes as I have not done it yet) two bits of information from previous posts to update !

It turns out that the reason Mr Myagi was short hand chopping me to the gut last weekend in a random sushi bar was because I had the hiccups and Leigh suggested a whack to the belly would cure it in one. Mr Myagi by all accounts stepped forward with pleasure ! Mmmmmm ! Thanks for that ! I'm still hoping I find the joint some day so I can get my own back !

Secondly I mentioned that I was to run a second formal 10K race around Stanley Park sea wall on the Saturday after Rogers departure. Don't fall off your stools now folks but the Stig ran 55 mins 12 seconds ! Not bad even if I do say so myself for a week on the beers and burgers ! An afternoons cricket on the hottest day of the year so far however at 36C immediateley after, nearly killed me off !

Three more BA boys come flying by !

It only took 8 weeks and three trips but 'Me Lord Fonters Flying Cargo Service' finally managed to bring the last of my stuff out this last week, which considering the heat at the moment was bizarly a pair of skiing mittens, a fleece puffa jacket and an arctic sleeping bag !

So you didn't look at all stupid again Fonters walking through Vancouver on a sunny day down town ! Cheers again buddy.

Whilst walking through my office looking at where I slack my days away I was conscious of a look from one of our project assistants who later came out with the classic comment to me 'is he old enough?' when I explained to her what you do Fonters ! Class.

As me Lord got ready to depart, another member of flight school class AP161b was bizarly landing the bus that Fonters would be driving home that evening ! The one and only super Dave from days gone by in Surrenden Road and Brighton would be my companion for the next six hours battle against tiredness, joining the circus of Friday evening party peddlers piling out of down town offices ! Our journey down Granville street took a winding path through 'Republic' and the 'Yaletown Brewhouse' before ending up I think in 'Section 3'.

Completing the triple header the following Tuesday Roger 'Scooper dooper' Cooper landed in glorious sunshine to help me prepare in fine style for my upcoming 10k run around Stanley Park seawall the following Saturday !

Just a few more pitchers and wings then !

Roger was all smiles from ear to ear as he proudly announced (over celebratory irish coffee's ?) that he and Tash are expecting a brace of 'Mini Coopers' in the autumn !

Congratulations guys - I am chuffed to punch for you both (even if it means I won't see you for next years annual ski holiday) .

Some of mine and Rogers three day health binge (yeah righto) to follow !

A site meeting in the Okanagan Vineyards

Ok a little sneaky but............. hey when the project you are looking after is located in such beatiful countryside as this a little divertionary routing back to the airport and some devious time keeping was just too tempting for a good old skiver like me.

Finishing up on site at around normal time (honest) and with a late flight back (honest), my 'oops I'm lost' drive around the shores of Lake Okanagan (pronounced bizarly by the locals as the OH-KAN-AAAAAAAH-GAN Eh !) took in one of the finer Vineyards to be seen on the Westbank of the lake.

Built less than fifteen years ago Mission Hill is run by a Kiwi bloke and built in a very eclectic architectural style, but is well worth the tour round the cellars where they are proud to tell you that the wine boffins in France recently voted theirs the best Chardonnay in the world ? (I wonder if the tasting was conducted with chicken wings and not cheese at the ready and no spitting out into spitoons was allowed)

Needless to say the samplers at the end of the tour were welcome refreshment to the dry warm air blowing through and along the 68 miles length of the lake ! In predictable fashion there is a vast shop situated all of three steps from the tasting tables that cannot be side stepped en route back to the car and of course the temptation is to load up with fresh supplies for the new gaff.

Remebering however that I was booked onto the smallest turboprop known to man for the way home and that my baggage allowance was........ well............me ! I thought better of it and ran through the racks of gleaming bottles avoiding all the temptation to buy big in preparation for future visits by Mom and Mig !

Curiously the shop also offered a selection of fine Cuban Cigars ! Not at all on show to piss off the hoards of American punters unable to obtain them twenty miles away south of the border !


Don't worry mom there are only around another thirty vineyards to explore so you won't get bored during your visit ! I will endeavour to sort the chaff from the wheat by then ! Hic Hic !

Canada Cup of Beer !

Deciding not to embark upon arming up the new gaff with essentials such as pots, pans, plates, cutlery and other such boring inanimate objects and of course being known to have no legendary resolve what so ever at turning down events of an unhealthy nature my rubber arm played into fine effect again when asked if I cared to attend a beer tasting event - Canadian style !

So after depositing a further set of bags into Stigs dump 2 on the north shore I headed off to meet Russ and a few boys out at Thunderbird Stadium in the grounds of UBC.

Armed with a beer mug that held all of a 1/4 of a pint if you were lucky our initial concern that this would provide to be a slow afternoon was swiftly disregarded once we entered the field of play and were advised that thirty individual brewers were show casing their products ! Hubba Hubba !

Comencing with such house hold famous beers and favourites such as the 'Dead Frog brewing Corporation' and 'Red Truck Ale' we set about the mission of seeing off all thirty tents before time was called at 7pm. We being aussie Leigh and the real bona fide Canadian, Adam (they are actually quite rare out here)

With the team growing by one at five with the late arrival of Jo on a 24 hour hit in Vancouver (with a poor excuse that BA 085 was held up by headwinds) the pace was picked up when we realised that in order to use the pocket full of tickets we had remaining in the time left to us, a forty five minute game of next would be needed !

Oooooh dear !

As you would imagine it all gets a bit messy from here on in ! Suffice it to say I am eternally grateful to Oleg (you little russion beauty you in your vw polo where ever you are) for providing us a lift home when all buses seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet and as for the next picture...

Sorry, I can offer no valid reason for why this picture is on my camera, nor can I remember why a random Karate Kid waiter in a sushi bar was giving me short hand chops to the gut !

Probably not the best idea to come up with armed with a belly full of beer and raw fish but it no doubt seemed like a good idea at the time !

What a UDI combo ! Sore head from thirty random beers and sore gut thanks to Mr Myagi's karate lessions to Vancouver waiting staff !

I would go back and offer him round two but I can't remember where the place was ......

Sorry Mom, yes I will be carefull next time........

Candles and a Kebab !

Thanks to all those who sent good wishes over the various forms of modern technology to wish me Happy Birthday today !

I had good old snail mail cards, text messages, emails and telephone calls to let me know I had not been forgotten in this far off land !

It was great to talk to you Nan this morning and rest assured that whilst I didn't get a cake this year I did get to blow out some candles on a............ Birthday Kebab ! (of all things)

Russ (the agent who placed me out here) cottoned on that the Fourth of July was the big day and hastily invited myself and Rich round for an impromptu BBQ that was perfectly rounded off by his better half Jacki presenting me with a chicken kebab and candles (in true Glaswegian style)

Certainly a new form but welcome non the less ! Thanks guys !