First week in Vancouver

Most of my free time was spent house hunting - many places were visited, and they were generally very acceptable (by my standards anyways) and there was the usual pro and con of staying further for less and closer for more and saving time. After much ado and headbanging, I decided to go the spend-more-live-closer route, mainly because for just a bit more I got a very nice and small place.

One of the earlier places was just off Davies street, and had a frakking amazing view from the 20th story. I was imagining the amount of time lapses I could do off the balcony, and it was a very good price as well. In addition, the grocery store was built into the same building! However, being the lazy bastard that I am, it clocked it at about 25 minutes to get to work. While 25 minutes walk not too bad - it's healthy too - I think about almost an hour in this supposed wet winter and I decided to just pony up for a closer apartment.

I'm also preparing to move into the new place, and while usually I have had partially furnished places, this is my 2nd unfurnished place I will be moving into. Last time I moved into an unfurnished place, I explored sleeping on a single futon, and it was great! This time round, I instead got a Therm-a-rest Mondoking camping mattress to try out. It's sitting besides me at the moment, and I'll know more next week when I actually use it.

I'm probably going to get a single cover for it, a duvet of course, and hopefully can find a shot pile area rug to put it above. Apart from that, I will need a desk and some cooking appliances (steamer, air fryer etc) and I should be sorted for the year.

My new favourite store here is London Drugs. Not that I'm buying much from them, but they are located just across the street from work, and I thought they were only a pharmacy or something, the basement of their massive establishment had an incredible amount of electronics and household items. They even had ram for laptops! I can't remember the last time I saw a high street shop selling DIY components.

Transport here in Vancouver, so far, appears to be pretty good. Even during peak-ish hours, the train ("Skytrains") are hardly packed, especially by my Singaporean standards. What's interesting is that they appear to be moving to a new tap-to-ride system ala Singapore and many other countries, and I wish they wouldn't. The current system involves buying a ticket (or a book of tickets, as my commuting colleagues do), validating said ticket near the station entrance, then board the train, with no gates in the way. The tickets are good for 90 minutes, and can be transferred for use on buses as well.

Gates would suck, and I wonder if it will really help against fare dodgers. I've witnessed too many times in rome and london, people just vaulting over the gates.

I'm looking forward to moving in next week, then settling down for some r/c heli flying, music, houdini and unity explorations!