The frost and the return cometh ever closer..

I woke up this morning to find it still pitch black outside.
Yup. 7:00 and still dark.
Upon checking my weather widget, I discovered that the temp had dropped to a comfortably balmy -4c last night.
After leaving the house I noticed that the garden was white, and everything was coated in a fine layer of ice too. Back indoors and another two layers of clothing later, and I was on my way to Passport Canada to see an end to two months of paperwork, (again, I reiterate.. NEVER let your passport expire..).

But we're skipping ahead here.
Let's backtrack a little.
So last week saw the arrival of Halloween fever, and seriously, does this continent ever get caught up in all this stuff!
After the aforementioned party on Deadman's Island last week, (see previous blog post) it was down to Seattle for the weekend, where I stayed once more at Sean's place. (and I might add that I had an awesome weekend Sean, despite the cold, and the fact that my pumpkin had turned to mush.. Thanks for having me again!!)
Saturday night was the big halloween party there, and no kidding, this place was seriously hammering. At once point I stepped out the front door to get a little air, and saw a line of people backing down the garden path and up the street, in a que to get in.. Madness.. The cops didn't bother breaking it up this time either (which unfortunately was the case last time the gang held a house party there) because they had their hands full, we discovered the next morning that there had been a couple of shootings in the neighbourhood in the wee hours of the morning.. (Don't freak out mum, this only happens every few days..)

Anyway, good times all around. I dressed as Harry Potter this time, and DJ'd the night away on my trusty laptop, carefully concealed from the wild gyrations of the crowd under faux spider web on the bookshelf.. I'm sure at some point people found themselves dancing and singing along to Spice Girls, but by that time nobody cared. Good times.

I amused myself on the bus trip back to Vancouver by catching up on the last three episodes of Battlestar Galactica. (Holy geez this show keeps getting better.. during the last episode I cried, I'll admit it.. and that's not a good thing when you're sitting next to a Hell's Angel.. more metal on him than Arnold had in 'Predator' I says...)

Anyway! Only 34 days until my return to Oz, let's start clearing the playroom please, I want the couch by the back wall so we can set up a table for food & drinks, then the TV can go in the corner.. I'll set up a slideshow.. and I'll need two cables to connect the speakers there-..

Cheers all!

Jimzip :D

20 days.. and 1 gigantic blog entry..

Firstly, let me sincerely apologise for the 20-day gap between blog entries..
I'm not going to make excuses.. but really it was all Canphlap's fault.. Silly trollop.
Anyone who is familiar with cheesy marketing campaigns knows that 'a lot can happen in 20 days', and they're right unfortunately.

Anyway, let me update you on the state of things.

So last night was the LLV Big Bash...
One of the reasons I've been so quiet lately was that I have been having a rather busy couple of weeks with work, the vodcast, and... other stuff..
Setting up the Big Bash (not-so aptly named after all may I add) was a major headache because I only had a week to find the venue, write the script for the last show, plan something fun to do at the event, promote the party, and create and send out invites.
Yup.
Had it been my way, I'd have had the party next month, but Michelle's increasingly busy schedule only allowed her to do it on exactly the night of October the 20th..
So it was late nights working, early afternoons on the corner of Burrard street handing out flyers, and plenty of sugary beverages until the end of the week..
Anyway, in all the party was as much a success as I had imagined, we had a great crowd, and the last episode went really well. It will be up on Tuesday morning for yer viewin' pleasure. KaRV really is a great venue, I encourage anyone in Vancouver to check it out even if you are just there for the 'Tiki Wings' or the 'Fish Tacos' (and if anyone badmouths the fish tacos there'll be hell to pay..).

I'd also like to add a rather exciting note.
Though the LLV is over, Michelle is moving on to bigger and better things.
She'll soon be hosting a new entertainment program, which you can find at VancouverTV.tv
I was really happy to find that the vodcast came in handy in helping her get this position, the creator of VanTV saw the Lemon Lime vodcast and loved what he saw. I wish her all the success in the world. It looks like a great new project!

As for myself, well I now have weekends to do whatever I like again!! Huzzah!
I've loved making the show but I can't say I'm not going to enjoy the new three-days of free time I'll have per week.. Mmexcellent.

In other news.
Let's get dismal!! (applause)
On Tuesday night I arrived home to my roomie asking me how much my camera was worth.
Initially I almost passed out and split my head open on the gas-cooker. But after confirming that he wasn't talking about my video camera, I recovered somewhat, and then was calmly notified that he had borrowed my camera to take some shots of the city, which was at that point shrouded in a mysterious fog, only to have his backpack stolen while he was at the skate park, my camera inside.
So, I've been recieving cash amounts on my desk at random intervals as he's paying me back. I feel bad cause I know exactly what he's going through so there was no point getting all angry about it. Sh*t happens right? (Apparently.. a *lot* of sh*t happens when your name is James Wilson.. Word.)

Thursday morning of that same week was a beautiful day. I cycled into work, and actually made a lot of progress on a presentation I've been working on for the past few weeks. The boss is happy, I'm happy.
On leaving the office however, I found that the bike rack I had chained my ride to was empty.

Joy.

So the cascading waterfall of fun continues, in one week both my camera and bike were stolen.
I'm not going to say that I didn't want to repeat a certain action that led to the bleeding of my knuckles before I left Melbourne at the beginning of this year (recap time! It involved a pane of glass and a broken speaker cable..). But once again my calm demeanor got the best of me, and I only felt like gently maiming whoever took it. Probably some cracked-out bum who needed his fix.. I hope he rots in the gutter.
On that note though, anything particularly woeful or intoxicatingly miserable happen to any of you folk? I'd love to hear about it in my comments, I'm even thinking about reviving that age old 'brownie point' system..

That night my anger dissolved almost entirely though. I went to a Scotch and Beer tasting at Caprice Nightclub downtown, organised by Adam once again, which was great fun. Now that I can't workout, I have no reservations about binge drinking at least once a week. (Sorry liver..)

Tonight I'm out once again to a Halloween party on the previously restricted 'Deadman's Island'.. Where apparently there's an actual haunted house.. There's a story behind it.. something about a series of people getting murdered or whatnot.
Anyway should be fun. Though I don't get my real costume until next week, when I head to Seattle for another Halloween party! (I've been taken in by all this Americanised celebrating let me tell you.. it's good times..)

Anyway, once agian ('agian' which is the inattentively-misspelled version of 'again' and curiously also the name of an especially sardonic German prince who lived in the late 1300's..) let me just say, that I can't wait to get home and see you all again.
I actually had a dream last night that I was wakeboarding on one of those.. those.. beaches? (The word has almost left my vocabulary..)

Anyway I'd love to hear what's happening with everyone. Post something in my comments and we'll see who can win some of those coveted (but ultimately meaningless..) brownie points!
I'll be writing much more often now I swear.

Cheers all,

Jimzip :D