£40million pound bank robbery, Kent.

Police believe it to be the work of thieves. The whole pattern is extremely reminiscent of past robberies where they have found thieves to be involved - the tell tale loss of property, the snatching away of the money substances. It all points to thieves.

B. Tutt (PCAS).

All Things considered

I'm off for a holiday to New Mexico in a couple of weeks. This got me thinking that I have been in Canada nearly 5 months already. It's gone so fast, I can't imagine the next 7 months going any slower.

I am pretty settled in Vancouver. I love the batcave. Living with Ian has proved as harmonious as I could have possibly hoped for (wait for the ear bashing that been brewing in him when I get home) and I'm surrounded by people who like to give new things a try. Instead of ideas being shunned on the perception of 'Being Sad', even slightly crazy ideas such as the roadtrip are met with "I'm in" and to quote the title of Simons Blog "Why Not?".

Part of me thinks this s because we're in a foreign country and therefore only have a limited time to try all these new things, we are more inclined to take a few more risks. But what harm has it done us. NONE! And I don't think it will. We're not stupid. Just open minded and enthused
So why stop when we get home? We'll even be in a better financial state to do things there? It's easier to get built into a routine at home, but we are blessed with lost of things to do, especially if you live in London.

We have the opportunity to start anew when we get back to Britain and I'll relish that challenge when it comes. Nevertheless, we still have 7 glorious months of warmer sunny weather to look forward to here before we go back. So lets start as we mean to go on, because I honestly don't think I've ever been happier.

Thanks everyone! (especially Ian and Laura for putting up with me beyond the call of duty)

Cheers,

Andy

Happy Valentines Day Everyone. From the Hoff

I have completely ripped this off a freinds blog, but my justification is that the Hoff belongs to everyone!!

Quick!! Get your factor 30!! The sun is here

Ladies and Gentlemen. Firstly, I would like to thank all of you who have voted for my blog in Si's best Bunacers blog competition. It means a lot to me and I am still ahead of Ian (There have been charges laid against me that I am a Multiple voter and a terrible guitar player. Fear not dear reader, there is not a grain of truth to these libelous accusations. I am merely a developing guitarist)

On Saturday I decided to take myself off for a haircut. As I stepped outside of the batcave, I had trouble seeing. I couldn't work it out. I ran back inside and shook Ian out of his alcohol induced coma. His wise old hurting head pointed out that this was in fact sunshine. It had been so slong since I had seen any that I dropped my book and bus pass and grabbed my camera. As I walked to the barbers, and then onto North Vancouver where we met up with Si and Gav, I took a pictorial record of this 'sunshine'. Just incase I didn't see it again for a few months.

Welcome to Kitsilano!

This is Kits beach. It's a beautiful walk at any time, but when the sun comes out it's glorious. Summer here is going to be fantastic. Look at the mountains in the background. Oh how I miss Ilford.

Downtown as seen from the Burrard Bridge

Again from Burrard bridge. This view looks out towards the coves of English Bay. Next stop Japan!

The houses here are often smartly painted. They are all protected buildings and therefore have to be maintained by law. They probably date from about 1910 -20. It reminds me of San Francisco a bit.
The Vanouver Club, for the more discerning members of Vanouverite society. Ian and I are of course members, but don't tell the others, it only causes jealousy.
In the afternoon we took the ferry over to North Vancouver. The best thing about North Vancouver is the view back to downtown & the Q hotel which has a giant revolving Q (as seen above) which is very large. However it also possesses some remarkably good charity stores which we ransacked yesterday. Ian gave and Si bought anybody 30 Cassette tapes of 80's classics (we don't even have a tape player), American Monopoly and Canadian Trivial pursuit, which we played last night. We were pretty crap to be honest, but we made the best of it and had a good laughed. Ian even put on some of my Jazz CD's. Could it be possible that I have fallen into fashion???
The View back to Vancouver from the Q hotel.

Gavin won the Trivial pursuit. I think he had an unfair advantage as he was the only person alive in the 1970's. The version of the game we bought in the shop was the 1981 genius edition. Poor Chris at 21 had not a chance bless him. Keenie was the surprise package. He knew a lot of the answers to the questions, especially the ones he was asking (Suspicious!!!)

Righty Ho, must shoot off. I have some business to attend to. I would read through and spell check, but you're only going to look at the pictures aren't you!!!!!

Love to all,

Andy xxx

All hail the power of the Blog!

Laura was walking back up Davie on her way home/out and stumbled into Paul 'Banksy' Banks (origional). Mrs Banks, who is currently in Vancouver to open the newest wing of the Paul Banks residence cried out in shrieks of excitement "that's Laura, Andy's Girlfriend!"

It just goes to show that those of you lucky enough to be mentioned on my blog can look forward to fame and fortune. Manifestly, go to Simons Blog and vote mine as the best of the Bunacers (even though Ian's is clearly better) so I can claim the star prize.

I look forward to munching on my mars bar winnings!!!

In other news: everything else is fine. That flat is looking quite tidy.

Thanks very much,

Andy

Hey!! We're off to New Mexico!!

Yes, it's true. Laura is taking me home! Don't worry, not to keep, just to borrow. I have left Ian with food in the fridge and the Video Club membership card, so he'll be well looked after.

I'm going on March 7th and returning on 15th. I'll finally have something exciting and worthwhile news to challenge the growing number of young upstarts who have created their own blogs and are challenging the supremacy of the Old Guard, of which I count myself.

Mr and Mrs Banks are in town!! How exciting. Mrs Banks, being a devoted fan of nextquestion is obviously a woman of sound judgment, sophistication and taste. I am looking forward to meeting them both, if Paul can fit Ian and myself in during their busy schedule.

Other news: The sun came out yesterday. Many Vancouverites ran about screaming thinking the world was at an end. Ian and me, sensibly waited until after dark to go out for a walk. All those UV ultra-violent rays could seriously damage skin that hasn't seen the sun since 2005.

Oh last thing! We had a video night on saturday and watched Casablanca. It was very cool. Ian and I had to set the scene a bit, telling Jade, Hannah, the South African (I think her name is Gilly??) and Laura, the fact that their was a big war a long time ago and it made people very sad and they had to move house!

Once the scene was set the film made a lot more sense. We all had a great night. Must do it again soon.

TTFN!