It’s been ages and ages since I wrote anything of consequence on Notes for a couple of reasons. One, things were going on here that were totally Notes material but I didn’t want to publicly write about them. Two, the past month has been crazy busy (related to point One).

Last week, after months and months of waiting, I officially became a Permanent Resident of Australia. Yay! It doesn’t really change my day-to-day life all that much at the moment but it does allow me to come and go without any restrictions (more or less). Immigration took ages longer than they said they would granting the visa and it was really starting to stress me out. Not because I was worried I’d get knocked back but because…

Amanda and I are moving to Vancouver next week. We’d been thinking about it for ages but over the past six months or so we really got ourselves organized. When we sent in Amanda’s Canadian visa application my Australian residency application had been in the mail for ages and we assumed I’d be made a permanent resident long before we made any official decision. Turns out, my visa arrived about 12 days before our departure date. Cutting it a little close!

We love that we have options now. We’re both permanent residents of the other’s home country and if we decide to move back to Sydney, we can (at least that’s how I read my visa restrictions!).

Anyway, it’s been an exciting, stressful few months but on Monday we head off to Vancouver for a new adventure. I’m really not sure what’s going to happen with this blog. It will likely continue to gather cobwebs. I’ve got a few more posts planned for this week (time permitting) but after that Notes may go dark, permanently.

I’ve loved having this blog despite its lack of updates the past year or so. It’s been totally self-indulgent and no one reads it but being able to have some memories and photos from my four years in Sydney in one centralized spot has been great.

Also, as Amanda said, moving is pants.

I wasn’t totally crushed when the Canucks were knocked out of the playoffs recently. I know that makes me a bad person…

But the honest, dark, truth is that on the other hand I really don’t want the Canucks to win the Stanely Cup while I’m not there. The city would be irrevocably changed. A city of losing would have a championship to savour and talk about forever. And I would not be a part of it. People would look different…more confident. They’d reminisce in large groups about the team of 2007 and I would find myself quietly nodding along, the last kid at the party who had yet to kiss a girl. I’m actually not sure I could ever go home again. It wouldn’t be the same home anymore.

I wrote that in April 2007 when the Canucks were in the playoffs and here I am two years later once again cheering on my home team but also desperately hoping they don’t actually with the Stanley Cup. And dispensing with the Blues in a sweep last week has only fuelled my anguish.

Go Blackhawks?

Blergh.

…really, really reminds me of home. I love it.

As a kid growing up in Vancouver, you always, ALWAYS looked forward to snow. Despite Canada’s (well-deserved) wintery reputation, the southwest corner of B.C. doesn’t receive all that much snow. Sure it falls up on the mountains, but down where all us cityfolk live, a couple snowfalls a year is all we could look forward to as kids.

A white Christmas, therefore, was pretty rare. I can remember a couple but they were years and years ago. So last year, when I missed out on a white Vancouver Christmas, I was kind of choked. Of course Vancouver would wait until I was gone before finally putting on a Christmas show. What hurts even more, is that it looks like it’s going to happen for the second year in a row.

Here was the forecast a few days ago. When I saw this, I died a little inside:

Now it has changed a bit…and it currently looks like this:

Screw you, Vancouver.

The only “white” Christmas around here is the unrelenting, blazing glare of a sun that feels as though it is just a few metres over your head. So while many members of my family (in both Vancouver and Boston) might be lamenting the snow at Christmas time, they should know that I would trade some sun for some snow in a heartbeat at the moment.

This is my fifth Christmas in Australia (more or less) but I still can’t get used to the whole summer Christmas thing. The other day we were watching TV and a Coles ad came on advertising all their Christmas food specials. The ad featured a family gathered around a table.

But it was a picnic table.

And it was outdoors.

And I’m pretty sure I saw someone standing at a barbecue.

Safeway Christmas ads back in Canada are a tad different.

Last week I claimed that summer had arrived in Sydney.

I lied.

It is currently 14.1 degrees Celsius outside and it’s overcast and drizzly. Last night we discussed “wind chill” on our pub crawl and further away in the Blue Mountains it snowed.

No one here likes it but I am certainly not complaining about a little bit of Vancouver weather here in November.

Back in May I wrote:

But I may be that prick at work who wins stuff without any skill whatsoever. Hate me, hate me now.

Well, a few weeks ago when the NRL regular season wrapped up, our footy tipping competition at work came to an end. And it turns out that I CAME IN SECOND PLACE! How does that taste, LOSERS? You all (well almost all) lost to a Canadian in a footy tipping competition. Ouch.

My achievement was awarded with a cool $255! It all came down to the last weekend when I picked one result more than someone I had been even with for weeks. He was not pleased. My pick ended up costing him some cash (we would have split the second place prize).

People at work were not happy with me for a couple reasons. First, I obviously know nothing about the sport. In fact, I find it really dull. The Grand Final just wrapped up a little while ago and I didn’t watch a single second; I probably saw 15 minutes of game play the entire season. Second, I was tipping the last few weeks via email while I was on vacation in Vancouver; a Canadian beat them….FROM CANADA.

Anyway, it was a great day at work when I walked into the office to be greeted by accolades, scorn, obscenities, and an envelope containing $255 cash.

So I’m currently back in Vancouver for a little visit. It’s kind of odd being back at times. While I’m thrilled to be able to spend time with friends and family, I kind of feel like things have moved on without me in Vancouver. HOW DARE THEY. The fact that Vancouver is hosting the Olympics in 18 months hasn’t helped; many parts of the city are undergoing pretty big changes at the moment (rapid transit in Richmond!).

When I moved away (three years ago today, actually) I secretly hoped that Vancouver would just freeze as it was when I left. This way I could come back, things would unfreeze and everything would be exactly as I remember. The buildings, the restaurants, my friends, everything.

But I’m back and things have not worked out like that. Things change. Some for the better, some for the worse. I still find things to take comfort in, however. On my second day back home, when I was feeling particularly stuck between Vancouver and Sydney, I was in the car listening to the 99.3 The Fox and Econoline Crush’s All That You Are came on the radio. It’s very comforting to know that some things never, ever change.

Things I Did In Bed Last Night/This Morning
Internet
Listened to albums by Sigur Ros and Bjork
Read a few chapters of Yukio Mishima’s Spring Snow
Played Solitaire on my iPod
Listened to two episodes of the Flight of the Conchords BBC radio series
Watched it get light outside

Things I Did Not Do In Bed Last Night/This Morning
Sleep