It Was a Weekend Fling But I'd Never Forget It...

I spent this past weekend in Vancouver visiting my dear friend, Carolyn, who had the misfortune of moving there roughly six painfully long weeks ago. Carolyn is not only a fantastic friend but she was my running buddy so it was a real Boo-urns moment for me. Yay for Carolyn for going after what she wants in life and all that, but if it's okay I'm just going to sit in the corner and be a little bitter about it. Originally my plan had been to surprise Carolyn by just showing up on her doorstep on Friday night (with a little help from the Boy, of course, because I didn't even know how to get to their place) but then she started saying things like 'come to Victoria' and 'visit' so I quashed that idea the only way I knew how: blowing the first surprise of the weekend.

I would have posted my own pictures but when I got home, I realised that the only pictures I took

were of wine bottles because they talked about Sheila having a few roos loose in the top paddock. Classy!

I still managed to surprise her with a little trip to the spa to get our mani-pedi's on because if anyone deserves a little spa time, it's her. It was great to be waited on by four women (even if one of them did nick my big toe and drew a little blood) but it was even better doing it while watching Sex and the City 2. Cheesy, girly good times! Other than a little stroll that same afternoon, we spent much of our time just hanging out at her apartment which is really want I wanted: spending time with an awesome friend. She lives sinfully close to Max's so we were never without good food to go with our good alcohol!

This was also the weekend where I met a bunch of strangers. Okay, it wasn't a bunch, it was two: Stacey and Shannon. Are they still strangers if you know them through the Internet and they're not part of Nigeria's royal family*? We had plans to meet at the flower stand at Granville Island Market. I arrived a tad early after lunch with another Vancouver friend so I wandered aimlessly around the market trying to eat up some time. In wandering, I realised that such a busy time at such a sizable location when they don't really know what I look like and vice versa might not have been the best idea. Oh well. I wandered back to the flower stand and hoped for the best. Not only did we find each other, but we had a really pleasant afternoon. The girl's were lovely to chat with as Stacey ate her cinnamon bun (Your secret's out, Stacey. Sorry.) and I drank my coffee. The conversation flowed, I never once looked at my phone to see my twitter updates (although I did look once to check the time), and I would gladly hang out with them again. If all blogger meet ups are this awesome, sign me up for more! Especially if they're part of the Nigerian Royal Family!

I was a little surprised how many photos of accidents appeared when I googled 'BC Ferries' but

then I thought of all the accidents I remember times by the number I probably don't...

I realise that I'm very trusting of a corporation which has crashed more times than Super Dave Osborne.

Of course, all good things must come to an end so I woke up Monday morning, packed my bag, figured out my schedule and then headed off for one last coffee with Carolyn in a downpour of epic proportions. I would just like to take this moment to give a shout out to the awesomeness that is Gore-Tex. My jacket is four years old and it has kept me dry in Tanzania's rainy season and in Victoria/Vancouver's mini-monsoon season. Worth. Every. Penny. The ferry ride was exciting as it was the first time I had ever used the wi-fi. I was thinking I would write a quick blog just say 'dudes, posting from the ferry!' but by the time I made it through the 100+ blog updates in my reader, I had 10 minutes before we docked. Egads, that was a lot of reading.

It was fun, Vancouver, if over a little too quickly. Here's hoping we get to do it again real soon.

*My favourite scam email was 'someone in Benin with a last name that is the same as yours has died leaving no relatives and we need someone to claim the money'. Honey, there's very few people in Ireland with the same last name as mine (my own family has two different spellings, true story!), never mind a small West African nation.