The Taelemans´ Blog

This topic probably shows that I don’t have anything interesting to say:).
We went to Earls for dinner and the Canucks (Vancouver ice hockey team) were playing. I don’t understand the rules of the game but it’s pretty fun to watch. Every 10 t0 15 minutes there is a fight between both teams. Somebody from team A hooked a guy from team B, or they just start punching each other, for no reason (probably with a reason but a reason I don’t understand). But besides that it is actually cool to watch.

Yesterday we went to the Canadian Superstore and they had the most cutest Elmo I’ve ever seen (you know, the red puppet from Sesame Street). He was really adorable AND he could talk, throw kisses,…
Again this shows I don’t have anything useful to tell you guys, so I will make it rather short today.

I’m preparing myself for the Trick or Treat event tomorrow evening. Pictures will follow. And we hope we can see some Halloween fireworks from our apartment.

On Sunday we will probably go to Vancouver Island to visit Gold Stream Park and see the Salmon run. And maybe, if we are very lucky we can see some whales when we take the ferry. Fingers crossed.

One more day and it’s weekend!!

Small update: Freggels got his old habit back, just like Kris, addicted to games.
If you watch the pictures closely, you can see Freggels is focused on the little plane flying towards him.

Conclusion of the day: I’m totally out of shape. (moment of wishful thinking: not for long!!)

For those who don’t know the meaning of a boot camp (or for those who know the incorrect meaning of a boot camp). Boot camp refers to a military recruit training. No, I did not join the army because I was desperate or something like that. Boot camp is a word that Canadian people use to refer to sport classes. ( for the computer people among us, it has nothing to do with Apple).

So now we got this out of our way, I’m going to tell you guys about my experience with my first boot camp. I actually hate classes like tae bo, aerobics and stuff like that. But this was slightly different. It was a mixture of tae bo, some kick boxing and work out exercises and the best thing of it all was actually “coach Caz”. She is a really nice woman and she knows how to make boring exercises less boring. So I completed my first class, and guess what, I’m actually going to the next one too:).

In a previous post I mentioned that I’m a volunteer for the Halloween Trick or Treat event in our community. I received some more information about it, and on Friday I’m going to help decorate things a little bit, and hand out some trick or treat bags to the children, besides that I just secretly hope to enjoy my first Halloween:).

As from today my life as I know it, is over. I’ve bought Kris an Xbox, so I can’t watch my series anymore. Unless I buy a second and smaller tv (to place in our bedroom), or I just sabotage the whole thing, since I am officially the owner:).

That was it for today, I’m going outside for a small walk and enjoy the last day of nice weather (probably for a long time).

Today was a sunny day in Port Moody. Since we could only go to Fright Night at 6pm we decided to take a walk. There is a trail that starts not far from our apartment. It’s a rather short one, but definitely worth doing.

It’s a trail along the the bay and the path you are walking on, is a wooden path, so you feel like you are walking in the “Hoge Venen” (at least I felt like that:))

We were standing on some kind of platform and watching the shoreline and then suddenly somebody said: look there are some bear paws next to the water. So since it was still low water it meant that the bear had probably visited this spot early this morning (the footprint wasn’t washed away and it’s high water around 4pm).

If you click on the pictures you will be able to see them a little bit bigger and you will be able to see the paw. On the second picture you can find the paw in the shadow of the pole. Just underneath the small rock.

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I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

We went to a bar on Friday night and we met some guys (2 locals and 1 Mexian guy) and I have to say we had fun. We didn’t plan on staying all night (we actually just wanted to have dinner and after that go home and watch a movie). But we started talking to those guys and 4 beers and 3 Coronas later we decided to head home:) Although it was raining, it was a pretty nice walk:).

Today we returned our rental car and after that we went shopping for some sporting clothes. So I’ve bought some weights, a yoga mat and some clothes. Of course I can’t forget the household things (to satisfy our moms: yes I did the laundry, yes I cleaned the apartment )

For dinner we went to the Frogstone Grill. It’s a really nice place with a lot of different kinds of food. I have to say, the service was excellent! We both ordered quesadillas and they prepared the guacamole at our table, so now we know how to make good tasting guacamole at home.

We started driving home and Kris noticed two big orange colored eyes on the shoulder of the road. We actually thought we saw a cat, but when we came closer the two orange colored eyes suddenly became 4 orange colored eyes. And when we were at a distance of 2m we saw that the cats weren’t cats but they where 2 raccoons, only 100 m away from our apartment. That was definitely a pleasant surprise.

Now I’m going to watch a movie and Kris is probably going to play some games on his computer.
Tomorrow: Fright night here we come!

Well I have to say that my pumpkin turned out pretty cool. Below you can see the result. For those who can’t see what it is. it’s a cat:p

I will probably make some more next week (maybe try out some more difficult patterns).

Besides that I also subscribed for some dance/fitness class which takes place every Tuesday and Thursday in the Canoe club. It’s a combination of Tae Bo, fitness, … Looks cool, intense and exhausting but cool, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
I’m also thinking about doing some martial arts again, but I’m not sure which discipline to chose yet, let’s see what comes up in the next couple of weeks.

We haven’t planned anything yet for this weekend. Probably do some hiking and on Monday we are going to Fright Night at Playland. Playland is some kind of theme park. Because of Halloween they organize something special called Fright Night. Fright Night is about roller coasters and haunted mansions. So I’ll go for the roller coasters and Kris will visit the haunted mansions:)

Enjoy your weekend!

Today I’ve bought a pumpkin and a carving kit. I was prepared, at least I thought I was. I was planning to make soup with the leftovers of the pumpkin, but then I got home and I realized that I didn’t have a hand blender… So, I just got back from the mall and I’ve bought myself a blender.

Tomorrow I can start.

In the pictures you can of course see the pumpkin, the hand blender and the pumpkin carving kit.
It’s really amazing the things they have to carve pumpkins. A mini drill, saw,… I’m going to try to carve a cat in the pumpkin, I will probably fail miserably and try several times. Kris won’t be happy about it since he doesn’t really like pumpkin soup… So can only hope that my first pumpkin carving will be a success.

I will take some pictures of the result. If I screw up you’ll going to see a lot of pictures.

We went to a local pub this evening, tried to socialize a little bit. No, just kidding, we just wanted to do something instead of sitting at home. Not far from here there is a pretty cool pub so we decided to take a walk.

I asked for a martini and Kris asked for a beer. I’m normally not a martini drinker but I thought I’d give it a shot. It turned out pretty nice: orange flavored martini.

After the martini I decided to be a good girl an order a regular Sprite, apparently, the guy didn’t approve so he served me an unknown drink.
It was another martini but with apple liquor and cinnamon and some other stuff. I have to say: a really nice drink but too much alcohol.

We’re both a bit tipsy right now, but we definitely had fun:). Off to bed and tomorrow I’m going to prepare myself a pumpkin for Halloween.

Yes I know, it’s probably the biggest cliche, but what else do I keep myself busy with…

Well I’ve bought myself a few dvd’s of Sex and the city. I was thinking: I can’t send resumes and cover letters all day long so I had to find something else to do.  (Except for going to the fitness everyday (well at least, that is one of my resolutions), and of course the cool job searching.

Everybody has probably seen it for a thousand times but I just got addicted to it. It’s a nice serie and pretty funny.

Something totally different now, Kris has finally got his pc, so soon, you will be able to read some posts of him.  I’m going to leave you guys for now and do some laundry (I know this sounds unbelievable, but it’s true:)). I’m definitely being a real house manager right now

Ooh, and by the way, for all of you who’ve send us mails, text messages, commennts and,… Thanks a lot, really we miss all of you!

This morning after our breakfast (with a boiled egg and some orange juice) we’ve made our backpack (lunch, drinks, spray and camera). We arrived at Buntzen Lake around 12:15.

We decided to start wit an easy hike, so we did the Buntzen Lake trail. The book said the trail was 8km long and it would take us 4 to 5 hours to complete it. The maximum elevation gain was 100m.

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We totally changed our plans for this weekend. I did go to the career fair, but it wasn’t what I expected it to be. But since we were in North Vancouver (because of the fair) we decided to visit the fish hatchery to see salmon jump upstream. Pretty cool actually. I’ve made a movie with my mobile, but they are jumping so fast that you can’t see it:) A bit useless to post.

We also bought a tree for Freggels today, just to make him feel at home. It’s a scratch pole and apparently it’s made in British Columbia. So I think that also Freggels got settled.

About the change of plans, normally we would go to a hockey game tomorrow, but since it’s going to be a sunny day, we decided to go to Buntzen lake instead and go for a hike. But, I took my precautions, we bought some bear spray and a book with 109 walks around British Columbia. Buying the bear spray was more difficult than I thought… We actually had to sign a paper which said that in case the spray doesn’t work, the shop can’t be held responsible, and that I won’t use it to harm people. It took quite a long time until we finished all the paperwork. But we are good to go now. Although I think Kris won’t be happy with the spray, because I used to walk around with his tripod (that was the only thing I had to defend myself in case I would get attacked:p) Now Kris will need to carry his own stuff. (I’m over exaggerating just a little bit;))

Let’s hope I see some bears tomorrow (or other wildlife) but I prefer to see them from a distance . Enjoy your Sunday!