Well I made it!

After 8 months of planning (most of it in the last 2 weeks!) I've arrived safely in Vancouver, Canada.

It was a long trip over, starting when I woke up at 2:30AM Sunday morning to finalise my packing and to catch my Bne-Syd flight at 5:25. Had 2 hours sleep and dealt with the drama of not being able to locate my credit card! oops!

I was pretty tired by the time I boarded my Air Canda flight in Sydney for the direct flight to Vancouver. Got a good bulkhead seat and jetted off over the Pacific. Didn't get any sleep on the flight (14 hours) but saw a few flicks on board. The New Indiana Jones film (very disappointing), The Sex and the City movie (for the 5th time :) and Recount.

Arrived in YVR pretty trashed, not from drinking booze on the flight though, more so from the severe fatigue I was suffering. Got through Immigration pretty quickly and hopped into a cab to meet up with Mr Ryan at his 10th floor pad.

Ryan was there to greet me and when he opened the door we were both beaming! Was so good to see Ryan again - friends reunited!

Chain-smoked 2 ciggies (as the last I had was back in Sydney - and yes I'm giving up on the 12th!) and headed out with Ryan for a quick orientation of Vancouver City. Walked along Davey St (Think Sydney's Oxford St) but not as busy or dirty!

Rainbow flags everywhere; pink bus-stops and bins. We then walked down to Coal Bay and had a bit of saunter around. The trees are gorgeous with their mauve, yellow and golden hue-coloured leaves, getting ready for the onslaught of a Canadian winter.

It's pretty cool here - was 3 degrees when I first arrived, but manages to hit between 10-14 during the day.

Came back to Ryan's and had a little snooze; the fatigue and jetlag finally beating me down. Woke up feeling pretty good!

A couple of Coronas later and we were ready to hit a few bars! The first one we went to was called "Score" and had a sports-bar feel to it (no nothing like Sporties at home - their 70 inch Plasma TV prolly cost more than the total of Sporties recent "rennovations". Had a Belgian Beer (forgotten the name already!) which was pretty heavy - 6.5%. One of those down and I was on my way. Then ordered a cocktail that was not dissimilar to a Mai Tai - ahh bless.

Left Score and then went to "Pumping Jack's" (I kid you not!). Okay, so we're waiting outside in line to get in and we begin to notice the erm, "clientelle" that was entering and leaving the bar. We walked in and our nostrils were immediately assaulted with the stench of Chlorine! very much in the vain of a Gay Sauna!

The average age of the punters inside was about 40+ - all big burly types with flanny/cheque shirts and very large bodies. Yup, we'd walked into a "Bear" pub which is highly ironic in the sense that this was the topic of discussion with my work team just days prior! Not just a Bear bar, but a Leather bar too - boy did we look out of place! I remember looking at Ryan and we both just lost it! I'll never forget the smell though - sheesh! Raw and Dirty like. One thing I noticed too was that when you were getting checked out, it wasn't your face, your butt or perhaps, your legs that were being scanned...it was the size of your chest! They were all looking at my chest! And I'm sorry to say I think I failed to impress; this poor frail, little white body just didn't cut it! Very funny though - needless to say we finished our one and only drink there and hightailed it out!

The next place we went to was called "Oasis", a very chilled, ambient little lounge bar (located upstairs from a shopfront on Davey St). This was my kinda thing; oh and the bar boy was definitely Ryan's type of "thing'! Very attractive lad. Oh and they were playing 80's music so I was like soooo in my element. Nena's "99 Luft Balloons" came on and I had to smile. There's nothing like familiar and well loved music to instantly relax you - no matter where you are!

Stayed for a couple fo drinks there and headed back home. 1 home-made scotch later I had passed out watching "The South Park Movie" - sorry Ryan! End of Day 1.