To Do List

Even though I'm technically on holidays, I'm not exactly sitting by the pool, sipping margaritas. There are a few reasons for this - most notably that I don't drink and it's too bloody cold to be swimming in Vancouver right now. A lot of my time is being chewed up by packing, selling stuff, paying bills, and organizing things for my voyage home. I've made a page that lists out all the stuff I'd really like to sell and most of the bigger items are getting some interest, which is good. Every Canadian dollar will help prolong my Thai ladyboy experience.

I've learned a few interesting things, though. One was about Shaw, the cable company I got digital TV and internet through. They have a buyback scheme for both their set top boxes and cable modems - you can take them into a retail outlet and get $80 for the box and $20 for the modem. I'm still trying to sell those off to friends who are interested, but it's nice to know I have a backup plan. Another thing I learned is that Canada Post's Change of Address service costs $70 for international addresses, instead of the usual $35 within Canada. Not very exciting, but good to know if you're fleeing the country.

I'm also learning that my decision to refrain from spending $2000 on a swanky new laptop was probably a good one. With all the packing and postage costs, final bills, dinners, spare batteries, photocopy charges and apartment cleaning bills, my stash of cash is being whittled away rather quickly. My old laptop does suck pretty hard though. The hard drive is glacially slow, the screen is painfully dim and it only has USB1.1, but the big dinger is that the battery lasts about three minutes before dying. No really, I actually mean three minutes - as in, 180 seconds. It starts beeping after about a minute, and dies shortly after that. I could probably arrange a new battery in the time I have left, but considering the laptop's age and paltry specs, I should probably just grit my teeth and bear it.

As well as all this screwing around, I'm trying to get a last few good things in before I leave. I went to Cypress last weekend and had a decent run, and it looks like I'm actually going to make it to Lake Louise next weekend. I might even take one more trip over to Vancouver Island before I go as well, if we can get some decent weather. It's annoying that my lumbar predicament prevents me from going sea kayaking and mountain climbing right now, but I'll do that sometime later.