March 2008

Despite a forecast of rain and overcast here in Bermuda, March seemed determined to come in with a weekend of rather pleasant weather. And as my second to last weekend on the island, I tried to make it as enjoyable as possible. I ended up renting a scooter again on Saturday, which greatly enhanced my mobility and thus my opportunity to get out and take advantage of the nice days. Among other outings, it was my third weekend in a row at the beach. The water was chilly but manageable. I was thinking that this would definitely been the most often I’d been at the beach in such a short period of time, but I momentarily forgot about my five day beach odyssey in Montenegro last summer. Those beaches didn’t have sand though, so the experience is different. However I look at it, my “beach density” is at an all time high.

Other highlights of the weekend involve getting lost in a posh-looking golf course, limestone caves, a BBQ and a dinner party. You can see photos of the BBQ in my darkroom. It is the story of my life when it comes to living somewhere temporarily. It is always the last couple weeks that I start to find my place. Perhaps the prospect of leaving goads me into action. And next week my parents and brother are here to visit so it will likely be fairly action packed. A nice way to close out my time here before I fly out to Vancouver.

After living in Bermuda for four months and nine days, I am disconnecting my Internet connection today and packing up my belonging to fly off to Vancouver. It is a bittersweet departure, as I am both looking forward to the new adventure and challenges of living and working in Vancouver, but at the same time, I have managed to make a number of friends here in Bermuda, and I am sorry my time here has to end.

Thank you Bermuda, your friendly welcoming nature made the past months enjoyable. And thanks to my Bermuda coworkers who also made my arrival and transition easier.

On a slightly geekier note, today is Pi Day (3.14) and Albert Einstein’s birthday. Enjoy.

Grabbing a bite to eat is more of an ordeal when you are a 90 year old Galapagos tortoise. On our visit to the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo yesterday, we witnessed this large male tortoise slowly make his way to a banana which was about 15 feet away. It wasn’t an easy journey. These land based reptiles lack some of the underwater grace of their marine cousins, turtles. After a few false starts, this big guy managed to get over a rock that was in his way and make it within inches of the prize. Only I guess that last step was the hardest because when he finally plunked down, he was still just short of the banana. Not to be outdone, he stretched out his neck and made a few chomps in vain before finally snagging the fruit and bringing it a bit closer to feast on it — or smear it over his face, it depends on how you look at it.

This tortoise arrived in Bermuda in the 1930s and was one of the first Galapagos tortoises to be bred in captivity.

How many bags does your life fit into? Mine pretty much fits into four bags, five if you count my camera bag, but if need be I could squeeze that into one of the other bags. As everyone knows, I’ve moved around a lot in the past couple of years, but all of those trips and locations, including Bermuda, were finite. They all had expiration dates. Now I’ve moved to Vancouver, clear across Canada from where I grew up. It is exciting not knowing how long I am going to be here. Exciting realizing that this is the first day of the rest of my life.

But for now I will be unpacking my four bags and trying to temporarily eek out a life in this strange, yet ultimately much more familiar city. Back to familiar currency, language, and driving laws. You’ll be kept informed.

It was a lot of walking. It was good for me, but it was still quite a tiring experience, one that I have no regrets about. It started on Friday, Good Friday, and I thought it would be cool to visit the Vancouver Aquarium for the afternoon. I really like aquariums, as they allow us to not only see creatures that we can’t readily see in the wild, but we can witness the awe of a completely foreign environment. Short on the heels of the Bermuda Aquarium, I knew the one in Vancouver would be significantly more impressive.

And I was impressed — with the length of the queue. After bussing into downtown and meeting up with my friend Jordan, we walked over to Stanley park. For a couple of supposedly clever guys, we weren’t clever enough to predict the vast number of people who were trying to get in, that the last day of the kids’ spring break and a holiday as well. So we went, we saw and we kept right on walking. We walked up to the sea wall on the other side of the running track. We then strolled along the scenic walk to the lighthouse and beyond, back to the entrance to the park. Continuing along the waterfront we walked into the downtown core, towards Canada Place and then cut up back to Jordan’s place.

After a brief rest for our feet, we headed out to Science World to meet some friends of Jordan’s for a couple of shows at the Omnimax. It was a nice walk, past the GM Place, where a Canucks game was obviously starting, out to the end of False Creek. Since Science World was closed at that point, only open to patrons of the Omnimax, Jordan and I had a chance to play with all of the toys and puzzles which are available on the first floor. There were two movies, one about Egyptian Mummies, and the other about the Grand Canyon and Colorado River.

Saturday was another day with a fair bit of walking. Jordan and I met up with another coworker to head over to North Vancouver on the Seabus, just to check it out. North Vancouver is quite a hilly place, being at the foot of a mountain, and we climbed the streets up to Keith Street. We then wound back down to the waterfront and eventually headed back downtown. Seabus, Skytrain and then back on foot down Granville to El Furniture Warehouse. We stopped in for drinks and at that point we were joined by yet another coworker. After a bit we all headed back to our places, with me retreating to Jordan’s place as I don’t live downtown. In the end, no one was able to meet up again, so we ended up just hanging out for a bit before I headed back.

Sunday didn’t have much walking. It did, however, have a great Easter meal prepared by my aunt. It was a gathering of relatives and a few friends as well. There was some dissidence about the lack of mashed potatoes, but I thought it was absolutely great. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Easter weekend.