Where did that week go! Another week over already. No jetlag, but lots of work again. To get everything done, I’m now starting work at 6:30am, so I can get some work done then get to the office for 9am. At least it means I can leave the office at 4, and spend a quality evening with Veronica . Have been making the most of the gym, and if I can’t make it there, trying to use the small gym in the basement of the apartment block.
On Monday and Tuesday, we saw a couple of movies from the Vancouver Film Festival. Monday was Cold Weather. It wasn’t exactly an inspiring movie. It was incredible slow starting, interesting in the middle, then it just stopped, without resolving the story at all. Admittedly, the audience was laughing at things we just didn’t get, so there may be some cultural humour involved, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Tuesday, we saw The Ugly Duckling, which was a Russian animation, set to the music of Tchaikovsky’s ballets. I loved it, it was amusing, sentimental, and I think captured the spirit of the story very well. The Canadians didn’t seem to like it so much, maybe its another cultural thing. I grew up with the story and always liked it – most of them are from Chinese families, so maybe they had different stories.
Yesterday, we went on a whale watching trip with Wild Whales Vancouver. Nearly seven hours in an open boat.. but it was worth it. We headed down near San Juan Island – so we actually crossed well into US waters.
On the way we found a group of Dall’s Porpoise, which surfed along the bow wave of our boat. They were so fast, and never quite came to the surface, so it was almost impossible to get a good photo of them. The spray they make when they coast the surface like that is called a “rooster tail”, and it’s much more impressive than photos do justice to.
Not long after that, we arrived at our destination. This was the first view we saw – a whole pod of orcas in the distance. We stayed close to them for over an hour – at one point, a male, female and calf swam within a foot of our boat. They’re such impressive creatures, I didn’t want to spend the whole trip looking at them through a lens. The rest of my pictures are here: Orca Watching
After we got back.. we needed some recovery food – so we had Jiffy Pop. I’m glad to report that we were not murdered by serial killers while the Jiffy Pop caught fire on the stove.