The Olympics are here… and so are sh*t loads of people!

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When we first arrived and wandered around the clean streets of Vancouver for the first time, my first though was ‘where is everybody?’. Having been used to London and, even on many occasions, Nottingham streets being fairly packed on a normal shopping/working day I was a bit perturbed by the fact that you could walk along a pavement block (the bit between roads on the grid system adopted in the city) and be pretty much on you own. That all changed last Friday.

I ended up getting stuck in and landing a job as a tech/stagehand for the opening ceremony at BC place stadium, which meant on the big day I was right in there high-fiving athletes as they walked past on their way to the stage, seeing Donald Sutherland speed past on a golf cart on his way to pop up from under stage, etc.  The company who are responsible for putting on the show (DAEP) are one of only two or three in the world who do this sort of thing. It is massive on a massive scale. Huge armies of people are responsible for makeup, hair, costume, cleaning, stage props, fireworks, set building, and catering. 

The resulting show was amazing, despite a major hiccup after a chain broke on a mechanical shutter, casing only three of the four Olympic flame ‘arms’ to extend on the big moment at the end.  The excitement backstage is huge with cast members coming on and off stage whooping uncontrollably. The athletes enter and walk around an underground perimeter, collecting their national flag on the way, then enter the stage to a deafening roar.  That experience alone makes you instantly realise why the Olympic games are so special to those who compete. It’s a chance to shine in front of thousands at venues, millions on television and billions on the web. 

Slovakia

Some of the various athletes I met: Slovakia!

Switz

Switzerland!

Morroco

Morocco! Only one athlete!

Canada

The hosts Canada

Italy

Italy

China

China. High fives all the way!

Gb

Great Britain!

Team GB enter the arena

So now the place is rammed with tourists, media, athletes, coaches, officials, touts, beggars, students, hangers on and of course me and the wife (www.nicolaunderdown.com). There are parties every night so I expect we’ll spend the next week soaking it all up before closing ceremony rehearsals start and they need some help shovelling fake snow!

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Shovelling up the fake snow ready for the closing ceremony. The stage is bigger than a football pitch.

Not forgetting the sport, we’re off to watch the Women’s Skeleton in Whistler on Friday (one of GB’s major medal hopes) and the Curling in Vancouver on Saturday (the other).  Here’s hoping for a medal.

Life on the beach

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It took a while, a few weeks slogging on the internet and a week once we arrived, but we have found quite a cool place to live over here in Vancouver.

We’re located right on the beach overlooking English bay with a truly wonderful view. Perfect for the Olympic light shows and sunset is dead ahead!

 

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We lucked out really, managing to rent a room from a very pleasant Canadian lady who has been great and charges us reasonable rates unlike the majority of responses we got to our internet advert.  We posted something along the lines of ‘British couple seeking accommodation for February and March, no stupid Olympic prices!’ and received responses along the lines of…

‘Hi. I have a furnished downtown condo within walking distance of blah blah Olympic event’ 

My reply would always have been…how much? Then you’d get a mail back saying, and I’m not kidding in some cases here, $5000 per week! Yes, that was the exception, but the average price for a studio flat in Vancouver from the responders was in the region of $1000 per week. Bear in mind that a 2 bed flat in the best part of town comes in at around $2000 per month here and you see what ridiculous profiteering comes hand in hand with the Olympics. I wasn’t surprised to see lots of websites offering homeowners in Vancouver the chance to make money while they could…move out for the games and rent your place to rich tourists. I wonder who pays the money? Not me. 

London will see people in Luton offering pokey ground floor hovels for extortionate prices with sales pitches like ‘only 40 minutes from the Olympic stadium’ and ‘near shops’. 

We did, however, get some reasonable responses in our internet search for a place to live. One sounded great, under $500 per month, in a great neighbourhood not too far from town (considering the cost). The owner sent us an address and, just like I’d been doing for every property, I looked it up on google maps. This is where it was…

Great thing about google maps is that you can now zoom to street view and actually have a look at the place front on. Things still looked good when I did that…

 

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But, something caught my eye on the image. There was a figure sitting in the porch (look again above), so I zoomed in and saw this…

 

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We decided against it!

 

The Winter Olympics: 10 days to go! Moanfest at it’s peak.

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It’s little over a week until the start of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and you’d think it’s an exciting time to be in the city. The build up here has provided me with some idea to what we can all expect to happen when then ‘five ring circus’ rolls into London in two years time.
Things is… the locals don’t seem too keen. I mean, I’m sure the majority are well up for it but whenever you turn on the local news or look in the paper you see TRAFFIC CHAOS and PUBLIC WALKWAY CLOSED headlines. The disruption is pretty huge, the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) resemble an invading army coming in and telling people where they can go and what they can do, so I’m not surprised that many Vancouverites are complaining about a ‘two-week skiing competition’ interrupting their daily commute.
Another example I read about today was that the British Columbian authorities have introduced a bylaw which bans the distribution of anti-Olympic materials and signage. Basically, if you don’t like it, don’t tell anyone or you’ll get banged up for the night. I was even told that the police have powers to come into private residences and remove anti-Olympic signage displayed from windows. They’re effectively suspending their constitutional rights for the duration of the games! Needless to say some dude is taking them to court…I’m sure he’ll win his case just after the closing ceremony fireworks have finished. Can we expect that in London?
On top of this there’s the moaning about the lack of snow (it’s being delivered by lorries to one of the competition areas), the high prices of everything, the changing bus timetables, oh, and the fact that people are docking massive cruise ships to use as floating hotels everywhere. Maybe it’s just the press picking up on the negative aspects to make a story but I can’t help thinking that if all these easy going, happy Canadians are kicking up a stink I can’t imagine what all the cockneys up the East End will make of it all.

On top of it all VANOC are spending a staggering $1Bn on security! That’s alot of money you ain’t gonna see again.
Anyway, as a tourist, which is sort of what we are it’s going to be brilliant. And provided you don’t have to live and work in London in 2012, I’m sure it’ll be brilliant then too.

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Cypress Mountain: Snow good, we’ll have to truck it in! honk honk

p.s You can read more about our trip on Nich’s blog too! http://nicolaunderdown.posterous.com/

January 26th – Australia Day in Whistler

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Whilst watching coverage of the Aussie open last night and seeing the Australia day celebrations, I didn’t really go to sleep in Whistler, BC thinking that I would the whole party again 17 hours later. 

This place is absolutely rammed full of Australian teenagers, all working at the bars, shops, restaurants and on the lifts. One guy told us that the resort would grind to a halt if they all left. Well, I can tell you that it didn’t grind to a halt when they all got the day off to dress in shorts and flips flops and get wasted in the snow.  

The beauty of it is that despite being 13,500 miles from Sydney, they don’t seem to under-do the patriotism thing, so you can easily spot them. Aussie flags, rugby shirts, cricket shirts, koala suits etc are everywhere and INXS is on at every bar by 3pm as they get on the tables to have a dance (the lifts close at 3pm here… cue the party).

Why don’t we do St Georges day like this? 

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Sunday 24th January – Vancouver, BC

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From what I’ve seen so far, Vancouver is a funny place. It’s America, basically. There are diners, massive cars with wheels bigger than people, adverts are 90% of the telly, etc etc. However, that’s just all cities. You can’t expect to go to a western city these days and not see things that you can find in any city in the world. 

 

But, it is different in 2 ways. There are quotes everywhere telling you that the city is the ‘top place to live in the world’ or whatever, and these differences are possibly the reason for this…
1. You can see snow covered mountains all around you. Yeah, I know there are other places where this is the case but usually without number 2. 
2. You are by the sea. 

It ain’t the thames. It’s the sea.

We’re almost a week into our big trip. The one where Nich has quit her job and I’ve put my career on hold, all to find out what everyday life is like in a different country. So far we have managed to land an apartment on the beach, 20 minutes walk from the city, attend the Vancouver International Mountain Film festival (and meet more blokes who’ve climbed Everest and the Eiger than I could ever have imagined), and have a couple of job interviews. Olympics start in 2 weeks so we’re off to Whistler tomorrow to get a week of boarding in before the rush.

 

Not seen a bear yet.