A month late we may be, but HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! Did you have a good Christmas and New Year? Apologies once again for being lazy and not updating the blog for ages but better late than never, right? Well here’s what we’ve been doing over the past couple of months; it’s been one celebration after another!
The run up to Christmas was filled with festivities, as it should be! We were both a bit apprehensive about our first Christmas away from home, so made a special effort to keep up holiday traditions. We got a massive tree (my first ever real Christmas tree!!) and with our housemates decorated it with the dollar store’s finest decorations. Reliving our childhood didn’t end there as we made paper snowflakes to make up for the fact that it’s only snowed here once since we arrived; I hear it was quite a different story back home!
We also made a night time visit to Capilano Suspension Bridge, one of Vancouver’s biggest tourist attractions. The bridge is over 120 years old and for the Christmas period they lit up the whole park with fairy lights. Crossing the bridge is one of the few memories I have from when I visited Vancouver as a child, so I wasn’t too bothered by the 200-foot drop into the gorge below. Unfortunately Lucy couldn’t say the same, and almost sprinted across after some kids started rocking the bridge as we began to cross. By the time we headed back though she’d composed herself enough to enjoy it!
So by Christmas morning we were ready for some gifts to exchange hands and Lucy and I spent the morning swapping presents. She did me proud with (amongst other things) an amazing tin of treats that included Reece’s Pieces, Hershey’s chocolate, Lindt snowballs, jelly beans, toblerone and literally a million other things…suffice to say it was gone in less than a week! In return I got her a stocking full of goodies including a bottle of wine, some Canadian souvenirs and a pair of VERY fetching slippers, as well as some MAC eye shadow bringing her tally up to 27 different shades (I wish I was joking but I’m really not!)
After Skypeing family and friends we headed to Kerri’s house--Kerri is Scottish and likes to flash her fufu at anyone who will look, she is a disgrace to the great name of Kestrel but we love her anyway--where about 10 of us (all on working visa’s from the UK) pitched in to make an awesome Christmas dinner. Lucy and I were in charge of the pigs in blankets, which we made from scratch (no frozen crap here!) and cranberry sauce that came courtesy of the deli of dreams. Naturally we all overindulged and not only polished of a starter and an enormous turkey, but also consumed a massive trifle and two trays of the most amazing chocolate brownies I’ve ever known. Following the feast we spent about 5 hours playing the most ridiculously addictive celebrity name game ever. Me and Lucy won 2 out of the 4 rounds and were runners up the two times we lost; clearly all those years of reading ‘heat’ magazine have paid off!
Before we knew it New Years Eve was upon us, and it’s always a bit hit or miss. We’ve had some pretty awesome ones over the past few years: musicals karaoke and sailing the canals of Manchester on a barge, anyone? So the pressure was on to make it an extra special one this year. We ended up in a little club with a 13-piece live band and it was a really great night. I must admit that I’m struggling to recall many of the night’s events but I do seem to remember Lucy crashing the stage during an epic rendition of Hey Jude, a few cheeky New Year’s kisses, and doing a lot of push ups. The last one is down to what’s known in our house as ‘The Game of Life’. The rules are simple, but if I tell them to you it means you have to play. Intrigued? Basically if anyone is prompted to say the word M-I-N-E then they have to drop and do 10 push ups for every time they said the word, it doesn’t matter where it happens, the rules of the game must be followed. After you’ve been playing for a while, you begin to notice when people are trying to catch you out and you get accustomed to saying alternates like ‘that belongs to me,’ however after a couple of drinks you become far more likely to forget, hence why I spent a decent portion of the night on my hands and knees as seen in the picture below!
After New Years it was back to the routine of regular life for the long month of January, which has actually flown by. It’s hard to believe that we’re almost a third of the way through our year here! However the party wasn’t completely over as we still had two very special birthdays to celebrate. The first was for our housemate Kate who turned 26 on the 3rd. It’s testament to the kind of girl Kate is that for her 26th birthday she celebrated with an ice-cream cake, piñata, sparklers, board games, and a pink unicorn called Jeffrey! Both her and Josh (who are boyfriend and girlfriend and love each other very much, and are going to get married one day) really are the best housemates we could have hoped for.
The second birthday of the month belonged to none other that our very own Lucy Madden. The old bird turned 23 on January 21st and it was a day to remember indeed. Naturally, Lucy being Lucy the celebrations were stretched out all week long. We began with a hilarious night at Vancouver’s top Drag Show where the ‘ladies’ were out in force to celebrate with us, and my goodness it’s a long time since either of us have let loose on a dance floor like we did that night; pretty sure I pulled a couple of muscles flailing around to ‘Telephone’ by Beyoncé and Gaga (and maybe ‘Party in the USA’ too!)
The following day (hangover aside) Lucy awoke to a birthday morning treasure hunt in order to find all her presents. I can’t think of what considerate friend would take the time to go to all that trouble! And the birthday treats didn’t end there. Kitted out in her new jeggings flown over directly from Topshop, and a rather fashionable Urban Outfitters cardigan courtesy of previously mentioned amazing friend who shall remain nameless, Lucy headed off to the Aquarium which has officially become my favourite place in the whole of Vancouver. Seriously it makes the London Aquarium look like your local pet shop. We saw a live shark feeding, BELUGA whales, an awesome dolphin show, parrots, crocodiles, snakes, frogs, spiders, and a really amazing 4D showing of the underwater episode of Planet Earth. It was all in 3D and then while you’re watching they spray you in the face with water, and make the seats vibrate, and make things tickle your ankles under the seat to match what’s happening on the screen! So cool. We rounded the day off with birthday cupcakes and nice meal at our new favourite Mexican restaurant, where they gave Lucy a free tequila slammer with a sparkler in; they know how to celebrate over here I tell you! Finally the following weekend a messy night ensued as a final commemoration of Lucy’s coming of age and weeklong birthday was DONE!
And so we come to the end of the party season…for now anyway!
Miss you all lots! Danny and Lucy x
