24 Hours in Vancouver

All phone and laptop issues have been resolved. I can now make and receive calls, but cannot send or receive texts!!!

I spent hours trying to get EEEPC left mouse button to work. I emailed ASUS and they told me to reboot which meant I lost everything (thankfully I copied my photos first) and it still didn't work. I then prised the button off the computer without breaking it and cleaned it. It now works. Must've been Lucy or Leigh eating biscuits over it.

Yesterday afternoon (Sat) I strolled to the info centre then onto Steamworks which is a brewery/bar/restaurant. I started with a pint of India Pale Ale (was the best), followed by a pint of Pale Ale and then 1/2 pint of Porter (very nice). At this point I started talking to strangers and realised on slightly older than me couple wanted to buy me drinks and go out for a meal with them. They were pretty jolly so I declined and wobbled my way back to Hotel. By now Tina and I had missed each other three times on phone.

I then headed down the road and found a Vietnamese restaurant and sat at my table for one and had beautiful calamari, spicy chicken and a Canadian beer. I was now 'tired' so went home to bed.

I was about to leave my room at 9.00 for a run around Stanley Park when Tina rang and arranged to pick me up at 10.30 for a MTB ride. I dashed out for a quick brakfast of fruit and bagel (without the fruit because they forgot it but didn't charge me anyway.) Must be something to do with my accent as at lunch today I ordered a bacon and mushroom filo and they tried to give me a vegetarian one!

Tina picked me up and drove skillfully for about 45 minutes to SFU (Simon Fraser University). I had Greg's bike and I forgot to see what it was, but it was very nice! Brakes are on the other side though!

We started off with some very gnarly, gentle uphill single track - lots of roots, rocks, narrow bridges etc - and I only fell on my broken rib side once as I couldn't unclip. After about 20 minutes of that we had a steep granny gear climb up a gravel road to the top - about 30-40 minutes steeper than Amokura and it was very hot. Who told me it was going to be cold over here?

Then the fun started! From there there was about 20-30 minutes of downhill single track with the aforementioned rocks and roots and narrow bridges with some high drop offs thrown in. Once I realised the bike could cope with anything in its path I relaxed and only dismounted twice.

I was absolutely buggared but it was a great ride. No bears or cougars! I took my camera and only took one photo. Tina just kept going!

Tina took a wrong turn on the way back and we headed off in the wrong direction, but we soon got back.

Will post a couple of photos later.

I've registered and am about to head down to the welcome.