Shopping, Victoria, and supposedly Spring

I've been working now for about two months - at first I did a bit of temp work for Flight Centre, helping out, and then picked up some office work for a different company. It's exactly what I wanted - Monday to Friday, daytime hours, close to home (actually right opposite Andrew's work!), and I can walk in and walk out - no stress to take home with me! Perfect. At the moment I'm the "helper" but as of the end of July, the main girl is leaving, so I'll be the main person from then on, which means full time (although currently I work at least 30 hours a week). It's nice to be earning some money again, and yet we still have the evenings and weekends together.

At the end of March we went to see Bon Jovi in concert - the tickets were too cheap not to go! We paid $45 each, and although the seats weren't close, the view was still good. Great concert, and reminded me of singing in my bedroom when I was a teenager!

Mid-April I went for a girly shopping weekend with Nic, down to Seattle. We left Friday morning and came back Sunday night - three days of solid shopping. We were exhausted by the end of it! We ended up being a lot busier than we expected, but still managed to find a great little wine bar, where I tried a Georgian red (liked it!), and had a tasty gorgonzola pasta. And, of course, my favourite, the Cheesecake Factory. It is my new rule that you cannot go to Seattle without going to the Cheesecake Factory. And it's not even about the cheesecake, as normally you're to full to have it anyway! I love shopping in the USA. SO much cheaper, and so much more variety.

Easter weekend, Andrew and I went to Vancouver Island, to Victoria, which is the capital of British Columbia. This was our first time to the island - it's about a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride to get there. It's a big island, too, about 500km top to bottom. So we centred our trip on one small part, as we only had two nights (BC doesn't have Easter Monday as a holiday). The photo is of the hotel we stayed at - very chateau-esque! We were lucky enough to have great weather - the first time I haven't worn a jacket outside in Canada since about the end of August! It was so nice to have some blue sky and sunshine. We found some great pubs, and just explored. It's a great city, much smaller than Vancouver at only about 75,000, and it was nice to see some shops that weren't chain stores as is the norm in Vancouver.

The government buildings are a great showpiece, and at night they're just as nice, as they are lit up with thousands of fairy lights to outline them. With the hotel and the government buildings right on the waterfront, it is the centre of Victoria and a great place to wander, especially in the sun. We both really enjoyed Victoria, and the suburbs really reminded us of NZ, much more than Vancouver ever has.

On the Sunday we drove up through the Cowichan Valley, where there are lots of wineries. We went to a cidery for something different - they make lots of different ciders, which we tasted, and they had hot cross buns too! Mmmmm. There are some cute little towns here too, but unfortunately we struck a bit of typical west coast weather, so it was raining. I can see the potential though!

Now, it is playoff season for the hockey, so it is playoff fever everywhere in Vancouver. The Vancouver team, the Canucks, finished top of the NHL and are currently in the 2nd round, so it's all very exciting and means that every second night our life is dominated by the game at the moment! We love it though.

Supposedly it's spring, but really the only reason you can tell is that the cherry blossoms are out. We don't even hit double digits every day yet, and tomorrow is May - ridiculous! This is the eternal winter. It snowed downtown on the 21st of April, and considering it's only snowed downtown maybe 5 times all winter, it's crazy! Fingers crossed the real spring (or even summer) hurries up - I'm ready for some sunshine, and have been for some time now!