In my last blog I told of seeing snow for the first time. Although I didn’t fall to the ground and make a snow angel, make a snowball or have a play right there on the tarmac, it was snow and it was special to see for the first time.

I was very quick to get through customs thanks to an express line at Vancouver International that allows new workers through. I actually got my working visa and was the first person from the flight to get to the baggage carousel.

It was a moderately bleak evening in Vancouver, not quite as wet as Seattle but chillier. I left the airport and jumped on a bus to the hostel on Granville St. I had been warned by some people that I had been speaking to on couchsurfing.com (more on that later) that the city was a slushy mess (there was an unusual amount of snow in Vancouver in December). What was white, cute and pretty on the tarmac was perhaps the opposite in the city streets. The unmelted snow found on every sidewalk was about a foot high and resembled giant piles of steaming turd.

The hostel is nice and warm, in fact sometimes too warm. The dorm that I am in has four beds in a very small room but I can’t complain. The showers are immaculate and there is a free breakfast which includes bagels and cream cheese each morning.

The hostel also has free wireless internet which has complimented my new laptop tremendously as I have spent much time on a couch in the common area (along with a number of other people in similar situations to mine) sending off resumes.

(more…)

A lot has happened since my initial blog (which I wrote while delayed in Seattle), including: arriving in Vancouver, first snow, first snowball, first ice hockey match and first time seeing it snow. But I’ll get to most of that in another blog. In the meantime, the flight from Seattle to Vancouver (and yes, dudes who came on the Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand trip in 07, it was sketchier than the flight from Perth to Singapore with the phantom toilet cigarette smoker and the crazy woman that tried to open the door of the plane whilst in flight). (more…)

I was poking around Blockbuster yesterday and adjusting my queue.  Well I can across the best category ever and for this reason….I know LOVE Blockbuster.

What is the category you may ask….WOMEN WITH WEAPONS

(more…)

Greetings friends, family, randoms

A while back I was sitting on facebook (I don’t remember exactly the frame of mind I was in but I must have been feeling either fruity or bored) and I decided to locate other ‘Tim Haynes’ on Facebook. I added a heap and there are currently around 20 of us from memory. One of the other blokes decided to do something interesting and the result is The Tim Haynes Project – a site for various Tim Hayneses around the world to keep in touch and blog.

I haven’t really blogged before but as most of you know I have recently packed up my life in Perth (Western Australia) to move to Vancouver – a city where I am have no friends, nowhere to live and no job (it might sound daunting but I wouldn’t have had it any other way). Anyway I figure now might be a good time to start blogging as there are some that will be interested in my progress.

I am currently sitting in Seattle airport but I should probably start at the start. For those who don’t know me all that well or haven’t seen me in a while, my contract at the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR) ran out on December 19. I have been talking about moving overseas for some time but there has always been something keeping me in Perth, like a new contract at DSR for some exciting (or at least interesting) work. By about August it became clear to me that I had probably learnt as much as I could from the work that I had been doing at DSR and it would be fairly hard to move up in the organisation without moving sideways and upwards which wasn’t of particular interest to me (apologies to anyone from the Programs and Services division at DSR who might be reading this). (more…)

The Obama tax cuts are supposed to cut taxes to put money in our pockets to stimulate spending.  Ummm really…

Over the weekend, Obama officials announced that they would like Congress to direct 40 percent of the stimulus bill toward tax breaks aimed at businesses and middle-class workers. Most workers would receive a $500 payroll credit…

A $500 payroll credit means that I’ll get an extra $9.62.  So let me get this straight…an extra $9.62 is supposed to make me feel comfortable enough to start spending money all willy nilly.  (more…)

I brought in 2009 at home alone….by choice.  I made lasagne, watched movies and played a little WoW and wished my guildies a Happy New Year.

I wanted to bring in it alone so I could take the time to focus and reflect on 2008 and what changes I needed to make in 2009.  2008 has to be the first year I can say that I didn’t have a good year.  The only positive thing in my opinion was with my career… (more…)

Hello from the Great White North!  New Year’s Eve was a blast for us here, spending time with family and friends.  The neighbours went all out with a fireworks rig that was quite impressive.  However, it was too dern cold to actually stand outside and watch!!  Here are some photos from our hallway window.

All the best for the new year!!  Let’s hope ’09 brings us all more prosperity and fulfillment!

Welcome to the Tim Haynes Project!

The idea for The Tim Haynes Project came to me a few days after I received a friend request from another Tim Haynes.  I started a Facebook group called the Tim Haynes Project and now as I type this there are 17 members all named Tim Haynes.

Well…I later came up with the idea to create a blog where we can have Tim Haynes’ from around the world contribute to the posts.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment.  We are all tied together by name and  seeing how similar and how different we are and what is going on in our part of the world could be really eye opening.

I sent the idea to the Facebook group on December 2nd and received two replies.  One was from a Tim in London and the other was from a Tim in Australia.  With my being in the US, I thought that this would be a good start.

So here we are,  January 1, 2009…Let The Tim Haynes Project begin…..