Gulag Living (V & VI):..... Gula Gula Gulag Me ! from Depressed to Delirious

Sunday, Day 5

The reference........ Creature of the night ..... ;-)

12:30 am
This is when the neighbour's visitor arrives and demands entry with loud knocking on the door....  then they start moving furniture....  


4:30


7:00
STILL EARLY..... and no wine left..... I already flipped over the bike and waxed the chain because I'm so bored.....  it's drizzling again outside..... maybe I should fly home in six days ?

8:00
I've done it..... I've submitted my VERY FIRST EVER airbnb booking request .....


...and I guess that means I also have decided to stay in Canada for 6 weeks......  but I'm not sure I will handle the change from 12 hours of sun per day to maybe 3 or 4 hours .... ah well...;-(

So I'm SURE I'm going to regret that decision..... but a long bike tour will be good for me and my midsection ;-)


By 9:00 I still haven't received a confirmation..... I'm sitting at Denny's....I didn't want Kenny as my server after yesterday.... but my booth is in his section ;-(....  I order.... and it takes them 10 minutes to tell me that they're OUT OF curry sauce..... JUST HOW INCOMPETENT can people get ????  I order a side of toast instead...... SCREW THIS !



9:45
I'm ANGRY.... it's DARK and it's RAINING.....SCREW THIS, I'm going to return the rental car.... there is nowhere in this town I want to go anyway in the rain...  I even buy a chocolate bar in the Persian market..... that's how cranky I am, LOL.

It gets worse (no REALLY)..... my airbnb reservation request gets DENIED..... now should I interpret this as a SIGN ?   My computer mouse hovers over the book-the-flight-to-Vietnam button .....

NO, I use Booking.com to book a room on the Sunshine Coast.... it costs me  $115 instead of the $102 on airbnb (and less than half of what I'd pay in Vancouver) and I don't have to be begging some strange host to accept my request !

11:00

14:30
OH.... it is SO HARD to get out of bed .... I just want to sleep MORE.... 
and that temptation is BACK.... all it takes is a click of the mouse and I'd be back home in Vietnam next weekend.....

15:15
Time for lunch/dinner with Eda..... 





I'm still worn out/grumpy when I hop in her car but half an hour later I am in such a good mood...... 


....some people just have that effect on me..... 


Tesekku"r Eda!






17:00

19:00 SOOOO TIRED !

Instead of just going back to bed I recognize that sluggishness for what it is, namely lack of movement!
So I hop on the bike ;-)

No wonder it's always DARK on the North Shore !

21:00
I just realize that I HAVE TO change my schedule!  Because ....

NOT my picture

The Squamish Nation Pow Wow...

....is taking place on July 12th right around the corner from my hotel....

NOT my picture

I've never been to that particular Pow Wow (one of the biggest in Canada!) and this is the perfect opportunity !

22:00
An e-mail exchange later: Eda is coming too !!!!

Monday Day 6
3:00
OK, I'm wide awake so I might as well get up!  Together with yesterday's afternoon nap, I got enough sleep.

The problem with getting up this early is:  The stores I have to visit to complete today's errands only open at 9:00 or 10:00..... what to do with all those hours ?



9:15
Denny's:  I'm willing to bet that they are STILL out of curry sauce....  and I would have won that bet..... Denny's is so unimaginably poorly managed.... they've had days when they ran out of bread or bacon, LOL.

Then the billing is off and takes a hilarious turn when being corrected....... Eda is the best manager EVER!

Off for a quick ride to West Vancouver.....

Good Bye, Earls Tin Palace!

And here is the reason why I HATE this city...... only yesterday, the forecast for today was SUNNY.  This morning they changed it to MAINLY SUNNY...... and THIS is what that looks like:

.... and this is not an isolated incidence.... this overly rosy weather forecasting is NORMAL for Vancouver.....

Still things to do ....
11:30
The bike is saddled....

... time to visit Grandma....

She's grumpy..... the mattresses again.... She no longer can distinguish important from non-important things.... and then she gets nasty when I make suggestions to clear some of the garbage out of her house..... Mind your own business, she tells me.....YES, Madam! .... I should book a flight today, LOL.

15:00
FINALLY the sun is coming out..... but I'm overdue for a nap ....

19:00
I'm SO SLUGGISH.... go eat or not?....

21:00
Maybe some food will help.... since it's this late, I don't have many choices left..... Denny's it is..... NO, Eda, STILL no Curry Chicken Bowl..... So I order my fall-back meal..... Senior Tilapia Dinner...... NO, they do NOT have that either....  then they get the order wrong TWICE......  but that's not the worst...... a typical unhappy Canadian older woman with that utterly-devoid-of-joy leaking-faucet voice sits in the booth next to me and complains away to her booth-companion about this and that for half an hour....all in that squeaky faucet voice ... A country of misery & bitterness.

22:30