Sunday 10th - Saturday 30th November Hey all, You may have noticed that I've fallen hopelessly behind on the blog lately, so I think it's time for a re-vamp... Since beginning full time work I haven't had the time to do our weekly updates (and really there's nothing super exciting to report anyway - I mean who wants to read about our daily transit and work days lol), so from now on I've decided to post monthly updates instead. Fingers crossed I'll be able to get up to date up now... So here's what we've been up to since our last instalment: Ever since we arrived back in Canada we have been madly apartment hunting. Don't get me wrong, I adore Toby, but it's really no fun trying to get ready for work in him, there's just not enough space & trust me, packing a bag and dashing over to the shower block in the rain is starting to wear a bit thin (because y'know it's ALWAYS raining over here lol). Plus it's going to start getting cold soon and Tobes isn't really prepped for winter living - without proper winter insulation and better ventilation we run the risk of our pipes freezing up, icy/cracked windows, condensation & mould issues etc - sooo it's time to find ourselves an apartment. Over here people don't really list their rentals through an agency, and there's no 'legit' universal website like realestate.com.au like at home, so most listings are found on classifieds sites, Craigslist being the main one. So that's a different experience, you definitely have to watch out for scammers but mostly it's a really useful tool that comes in handy for house hunting, job hunting etc - you can find pretty much anything on their classified sites - it can be an eyeopener too ha! Sooo each day when we get up we've been religiously scouring Craigslist, Kijiji and what feels like the whole internet and I think we may finally have a winner! We set up a time & on Monday 11th we caught the train down a few stops to Sapperton (a suburb in New Westminster, about half an hour from downtown Vancouver) to view a garden suite that's for rent. The house is only a 5min walk from the skytrain station which will be awesome for me walking home late at night or in the rain. Plus I will walk right by the hospital so it's well lit up at night and always busy - much less creepy than my current 15min trek through the lonely industrial area to our RV park! We went to view the suite and met the landlords Kevin & Nathalie who live upstairs. They are such genuine, nice, friendly people who were very easy to get along with - we seemed to hit it off and stayed chatting with them for ages. The only thing that could go against us is that we have no rental references (having owned our own place for the last 5 years & never rented in Canada), but we explained our situation and as travellers themselves they were understanding, so we'll just have to see how we go. Oh and the suite is lovely too. It's basically the downstairs ground level of their home that has been turned into a fully furnished "granny flat" - they call them "suites" over here - flash eh. From the street, you walk down a path which leads around the side of the house to the backyard where you then come in the suite entrance, so it's nice and private. When you enter, you come into the kitchen/dining area, then go past the study nook & bathroom, through to the lounge & separate bedroom. Oh and there's a shared laundry you can access just off the kitchen. So it's pretty compact but definitely plenty big enough for both of us - the bonus is that it's like 5 times bigger than Toby so it feels like a palace haha and we both really like it. Afterwards we had a walk around the general neighbourhood to suss it out and grabbed a bite to eat - it's pretty quiet and seems like a nice area so fingers crossed. Literally just up the road from the house is the main street which has lots of different eateries, a pub, liquor store, coffee shops, hair/beauty salons, pharmacy & grocery store - all the essentials really. It's a very cute area, I like it already.   The next errand on our list was to get me a Canadian phone number of my own. We had previously been getting by with just sharing the one phone - with us travelling and being together all the time it made no sense to pay for one each - what was the point - but now that we're both going our separate ways to work each day, it's time! So Ben will keep the original number 604-355-1614 and (purely by coincidence) my new number is 604-355-1713 - funny eh. To get hold of us from Oz you will need to dial 0011-1-(phone number) or text 1(phone number). Anyhow a few days after we went for the viewing Nathalie called & offered us the suite if we wanted it - of course we said yes straight away, so we went & put down a deposit & started to prepare for our move. Soo excited to be getting into a nice, warm house for winter!!! RV-ing is heaps of fun when you're travelling, but not so much for living out of (unless you're a millionaire and your 'RV' is one of those big flash buses, basically a house on wheels, which shouldn't even be classified as an RV haha). Work has been great - very busy, but great! I'm sort of in denial that we're in the middle of November and Christmas is not very far away, but the hordes of shoppers coming through our store sure remind me!!! The mall we're attached to is the biggest in Vancouver with something like 400 odd shops, so you can imagine the amount of people we have coming in. Throw in the fact that Target is a new concept to Canada so everyone's curious to take a look, plus the fact that it's fourth quarter and almost Christmas time and to say it's been hectic is an understatement. Saturdays are especially crazy!! One Saturday near the end of the month we had 4 missing children within 2 hours!! All ended up being reunited with their families, but till then we're all action stations manning the exits and scouring the store looking for them. Fun times haha! The only thing is that I have been doing a lot of closing shifts at work, so I start at around 3pm while Ben's at work, then he's in bed by the time I get home after midnight. Then I'm still in bed when he's up early to go to work and so the cycle continues. We haven't had the chance to see each other properly for a while & I miss my Benny.... Speaking of Ben, he's been busy still working for Pristine Labour Hire, but definitely not loving it. The thing about Vancouver is that it rains here - a LOT. And I'm talking constant, drizzling, all-day miserable rain. Like it starts in the morning and just does not stop for days... And so just because it's raining doesn't mean construction gets shut down, no the show must go on. So poor Ben is constantly working out in the cold and rain and is getting pretty well over it to be honest. It's definitely time to start looking for a new job! Mid November we had a really cold snap for a few days where the temperature dropped and it got down to around -3 overnight. Brrr. That might not be so bad in a nice warm house, but let me tell you poor Tobes was a little icebox in the mornings when we woke up - the cold just seeps in through the floor and windows. It was very hard to get out of bed on those days. Ben and I would lay there in battle over who would be first to brave the chill "Why don't you get up and put the heater on, then I'll come down in a minute?" "No you're closer, why don't you go down first and put the heater on?". Lol. This cold week there were a couple of nights where we would even close all of the windows when we went to bed coz it was too cold to have them open. We usually leave them cracked open a little to ventilate the area and fight condensation build up (which comes basically just from us breathing in such a small space). On the next mornings we would wake up to find that condensation had indeed accumulated on the bedroom windows, but had then also frozen because it was that cold - so we had icy windows on the inside which we would then have to defrost! Also Tobes would have a centimetre thick layer of frost on his bonnet - yup it was chilly. We also knew it was getting cold when walking to the train we would see that the council had come through overnight and spread salt over the road, walkways and parking lots to melt any ice that might have frozen overnight. Not having ever lived anywhere before where it was cold enough to get icy/snowy this was a novelty for us! At the end of the month we were busy getting ready to move into our new place. Ben did some research and even spoke to Ed (Toby's old owner) again about what we needed to do to prep him for the winter so we were all good to go. Most places over here are rented by the month, and move in is usually at the beginning of each new month, but Nathalie & Kevin were happy for us to move in a little early as the suite was empty and ready to go. Monday 25th was set as our moving day so while I was at work on Sunday night Ben set about winterising Toby ready to go into storage. It actually wasn't that much work, but because we were still living in Toby and using everything, it couldn't be done until the last minute. Basically we just had to drain and flush everything out of the fresh water, hot water, grey and black water tanks and open all the inline valves to make sure nothing was trapped in the pipes. Moving day was a big day with a strict timeline - we needed to get moved into our new place, get Toby into storage and then me off to work again by 2pm. After working the closing shift the night before I found it a little tough to get up, but an early start was the key to getting everything done. We already had mostly everything packed and ready to go so in the morning it was simply a matter of getting up, doing a few finishing touches and then hitting the road. It was pretty cool out and we were worried for a split second that Tobes might have trouble getting started but we needn't have worried. He started right up like an old pro and once we got going he drove like a dream (as usual). Ben and I were cruising down the freeway, hair blowing in the breeze, grinning at each other like idiots saying "We should hit the road again, I miss this!!" But no, we had places to be and chores to do, so after stopping at our new place and unloading almost everything inside (you wouldn't believe how much stuff we have accumulated and managed to cram into one little motorhome haha), it was time to shoot over to the storage yard we'd found for Toby. After a quick bit of paperwork, it was time to back him in, give him a last check over and say goodbye for the winter. It sounds silly how sad I was to just park him up and walk away, but he's been our whole life for the last 6 months or so. As much as I am looking forward to moving into an actual house, I was still really sad to say goodbye (for now) to Tobes.... The upside though is that now we get to settle into our new place and you can bet our FIREPLACE is going to get a workout haha! Yeah I'm excited! Ciao for now, Benny & Loz Xoxoxoxo November's Special Events: 11th: Remembrance Day 15th: Happy Birthday Kimmy 19th: Happy Anniversary to Kurt and Sarah 20th: Happy Birthday to my little bro 24th: Today we should be wishing a big Happy 2nd Birthday to little angel Drew. Thinking of you Cole xxx