Sea Plane Wake-Up Call

There are many advantages and upsides living with a view of the Vancouver harbour, however, one thing that I am having to get accustomed to is our wake-up call in the mornings. Regular as clock-work if we are not awake by 7am, then we can rely on the launching and landing of the Sea-Planes in the harbour as our alarm clock. Not quite a traditional farmyard cockerel.... Watch the video to see what I mean.

Easter Weekend on Vancouver Island

We enjoyed a great Easter weekend with Bob and Wendy on Vancouver Island, in Victoria. A relaxing time was had by all with walks around the local area to Ogden Point, local beach and Mount Douglas Park. Furthermore, Countless hot tubs were enjoyed in Bob and Wendy's back garden, with three taken in one day alone! Enclosed are a selection of photos for perusal....


We also had the privilege of being passengers in a 1950s Chevrolet owned by Peter (Wendy's brother), this was certainly a blast from the past. I especially liked the wooden stick which acted as the hood stand - very authentic. Check out this second album of photos...

Welcoming Present from Vancouver

Last week (while moving apartments) I had a very random experience - Nancy phoned me to say that the local Virgin radio station was doing a prize draw nearby. So I made a dash from the apartment to meet them first to win the prize. After my run in the pouring rain I found them parked-up and announced the word "Virgin"!

They took me over to a local bicycle shop and then allowed me to choose any bike in the store. As a result, I'm now a proud owner of a new black, 21-gear mountain bike - worth $450! What a welcoming present from Vancouver and Virgin Radio.

Lions Gate Bridge Walk

With the prospect of Sunday breakfast at the White Spot with Betty (Nancy's Grandmother) on the North Shore of Vancouver, we enjoyed an early morning walk across the Lions Gate Bridge. The eggs benny and hash browns were certainly worth the effort. Check out the pictures .....

Views from Broughton Street

Check out a selection of photos showing the view from our apartment. Provides a bit of a flavour of what we can see from our front room!

Apartment Move Completed

It is official we have now moved into our new apartment in Vancouver @ 588 Broughton Street. Over the last couple of days we have moved across town, although, we are living a minimalistic lifestyle with only a bed, sofa and big-screen TV as furniture! However, the views are amazing.

We will get some more photos and video organised and uploaded to the blog soon. In the meantime, this photo is a view of our building, looking back from Stanley park on the other side of the harbour. (Double-click the photo for an enlarged view)

Grouse Mountain Skiing

One of the major draws of moving to Vancouver was the potential for regular skiing. This weekend was our first opportunity to experience skiing on Grouse Mountain.

The weather and the snow was perfect and we enjoyed over five hours of skiing on Saturday afternoon. With unrestricted viewing conditions we had a vista of Vancouver and beyond - which you can just see in this photo.

Bring on more skiing!!

Fulham Beat Man Utd 2-0!

Initially it has proved tough to be Fulham Football Fan from a distance, with match times being on early in the morning and the Canadians being more interested in ice hockey.

However, with the power of the internet and waking up early enough - Nancy and I got to watch the fantastic FULHAM beat Man Utd in the Premiership. To put this in context, this is the first time Fulham having won against Man U since 1964!! More importantly it means that Fulham reach the magic 40 league points to ensure survival in the league for another season.

Great experience to watch the stylish, attractive passing of Fulham in the first half and then the nail-biting second half. Followed by a well-taken Zolten Gera goal to settle it!

For a better match report - check out. Come on your Whites!

New Vancouver Apartment View

From the 1st April we move into a new Apartment in Coal Harbour, Vancouver.

Check out the view of the harbour, Stanley Park and mountains......

Canadian Induction

Firstly thank you to everyone that attended my Vancouver welcoming party, including Scott (Marks), Linz, Stu, Gina, Paul, Jessica and all associated kids.

But a special thanks goes to Gina and Stu who, as the picture shows, they provided me with a gift pack to make me feel part of the local Canadian culture.

The items included my own lumberjack shirt, ice hockey stick (miniature), Molson Canadian Beer, Canucks hat (the local Ice Hockey Team), Tim Hortons coffee mug and bottle of local whiskey with shot glass. Probably the most impressive gift being the camping chair in Canadian colours, emblazoned with a maple leaf motive (beer holder included)!

What can I say.... thank you for the Canadian welcome!

My First Snow in Vancouver

On my recent arrival to Vancouver, Nancy organised a welcoming party on the snowy slopes of Grouse Mountain. A bunch of friends, snow and an inner tube.... what more fun could be had.

The photo shows the group getting ready for a joint run down the slope in formation.

Check out the video for our snow-tubing fun!

And we are back.....

Following a number of adventures in the past few months (all since the Iceland trip), we are back updating the Codename WFNS blog.

As a quick summary to get everyone up to date with our recent adventures, the list below includes some of our highlights:

- In September, Ross and Bethany Shears visit the UK for a top time, including bowling and poker fun
- Craig and Rana Wedding with lots of fun had by all
- Watched the British Davis Cup tennis team lose at Wimbledon
- Visited Windsor Castle to see if the Queen was in (she wasn't)
- Drove over 1800 miles to the Stelvio Pass in Northern Italy and back to the UK on an awesome roadtrip in 4 days. Top Gear TV show would be proud
- New branch on the Shears family tree was born (Abigail) on 8 November 2008
- Dad and I went to Mercedes-Benz World and experienced track driving in an S-Class limo
- We enjoyed an excellent Christmas, New Year and 31st Birthday in Washington DC with Ross, Laura and the kids
- Watched Fulham Footy team beat Portsmouth 3-1 at the Cottage
- In early Feb, took advantage of freak snow weather to have three snow days off work
- Another roadtrip, but this time we went to the Land's End - the most southern point in the UK!

This then brings us to the major news, which is that Nancy and I have both moved to Vancouver for the next chapter in our married lives. As of Thursday 5th March 2009, we are calling Vancouver, Canada home and so the adventure begins.....

More posts to come soon!

It Rains in Iceland!!

We recently enjoyed a long weekend traveling around the interesting world of Iceland. After landing at the airport we went straight to the famous Blue Lagoon spa for a relaxing dip.

We then went on to visit the local geysers, and the famous Gullfoss waterfall (as in this photo) and the capital of Reykjavik.

However, the highlight has to be a hot tub with an awesome view of local fjords and mountains. It was rated as one of the top 5 hot tubs views in the world!!

Check out more of our Iceland photos at this link:http://www.flickr.com/photos/86692714@N00/

MBA Graduation - job done!

This is the moment when I picked up my MBA (Masters in Business) certificate at my graduation ceremony.

Yes - after the last two and half years all my studying is done and dusted. This picture captures the proud moment of the realisation that I do not have sweat over text books and a laptop into the wee small hours anymore!

Official Wedding Photos Available

The offical wedding photography has now arrived on UK shores and we have a CD with all 700 images from the day!

If you would like any of the images please let us know and we can send them to you by email or on a disc.

It is amazing to think that the wedding is now 60 days again and that we are two months into married life! Bring it on.

Whale Watching

This is the group photo from the whale watching trip, on the day before the wedding.

We all look like orange teletubbies in those jumpsuits!