Giving up the dream is the new living the dream.

I picked up the newspaper (the free one they leave outside work and I move inside) yesterday morning and was greeted by this cheery message. Thanks guys.

Quite why this is current news escapes me. Maybe it's because it's spring, people have started nesting and looking at fixer-uppers in East Van, and then remembered they aren't millionaires - which must be disappointing. Buying a house in Vancouver was pretty much impossible when I moved here 10 years ago... so I feel I am well ahead of the curve on this news.

Despite the harrowing disappointment of having to give up the dream I wasn't dreaming, I managed to pull myself together and sell our apartment. It seemed like a good time to do it. It was looking pretty nice too by the time we finished with it, and I hope the new owner likes it here. I know I have.

When you've been forced to "give up the dream", whether or not it actually was your dream, you need a new one. Dreams are like that - you can just make them for yourself and they're free. The Metro article didn't mention that, which I thought was a missed opportunity. We've been weaving our new dream for a while now, and it's fair to say we've made a bit of progress. It's looking like a fairly large fluffy rug with just a few holes left in it now - oh and the end's all frayed because we're not sure how to finish it yet.

Slightly before selling the apartment, Lina went and looked at a house in Vernon and said it was good. So I bought it. This left a rather tense week or so where I thought I might end up owning almost exactly twice the amount of very expensive things that I want to. Fortunately, Vancouver property hysteria worked its magic and someone bought our place straight away for the amount of money we needed to buy a "single-family home" in glittering Vernon BC (or more correctly, Coldstream).  Here's where you'll find us from the end of June. I could expand at length on the property buying/selling process and my views on the relative futures of Vancouver and Vernon - but how about I don't.

Meanwhile on the front page in Vernon...

Oh... ok.

The move is going to have some unusual features... like a bunch of Vancouver bicyclists showing up to stay for the Vernon ENDURO the day after I get the keys. I guess that will be our housewarming party. Then Lina and I are going on an exciting holiday immediately after that and won't move in for a week. The neighbors are going to think we're weird, but I suppose getting that out of the way on the first weekend makes sense...

Hot fluff

This weekend I was mostly helping to make this happen...

Deep, but not particularly crisp. 

If you picture three miniature combine harvesters mangling up bales of pink fuzz and then a big fan blowing the resulting mess down 100 feet of pink hose, you will visualize what Marc and I got up to this weekend. There was also squeezing into small spaces, clambering around in roof trusses, and sawing through the ceiling to enjoy.

Wild times indeed.

It's worth noting that Marc and Nikki's attic space reaches temperatures I've not experienced since we lived in China. Post-boiling adjournment to the forest for some recovery biking felt really good.

After all of that, there was visiting of Paul and Angie's new grown-up house (not grow-op house) on the Lulu Island Riviera. We visited their local where there was beer and food, so that was a pretty much unqualified success.

Other things also happened this weekend (and last night), but they will remain shrouded in mystery for a little while to make them more exciting.

End of communication.

Bicycle race

Ding ding!

Lessons learned:

1. Pre-riding the race course makes you slower and crash more
2. Pre-riding the race course makes for a nice day out before the race
3. There is a limit to how much pork one should consume before a bike race
4. The Sunshine Coast has both sunshine and great trails
5. The sea is cold
6. Beer tastes nice after a bike race
7. I enjoy bicycles