Tick, tock, steam clock

So today I've been here a week. Time flies when you're having fun eh?

Today was an 8am to 3.30pm shift, but I couldn't quite get myself going and the thought of walking, and breathing, in the cold didn't inspire me, so I decided to book myself a "Lyft". Such a good idea. Took less than 10 minutes from order to arrival.

Checked in, headed to my transport office and was taken over to Canada Place, Vancouver Convention Centre East, down in the car park where the busses were dropping off and picking up, except there weren't many people flowing through today, so we got really excited when a bus did arrive that had people on.

I was working with Carl, Tanya and briefly with Justin.

I had extra layers on today so felt a lot warmer  but the snotty nose still there and my throat getting sore I was working through my stash of cold and flu capsules brought from home. 

Justin left us around 10am and the rest of us took it in turns to go up to the break room and grab a hot drink, warm up and use the washrooms. 

Carl and I headed to lunch early while Tanya held the fort. Lunch was a very tasty chicken tandoori masala with dhal, naan bread and rice.

Bumped into Ian while in the lunch room and we were looking at getting some closing ceremony tickets. Choice $83 or $350 which included hospitality. Not even sure I could eat/drink that much in hospitality even without a cold. He's going to investigate further.

Little happened in the afternoon, though one of the bus lifts got stuck, so a Ukrainian competitor couldn't get off, but his teammate with the aid of Google translate, managed to persuade some of the policemen at the other end of the bus parking, to come and help. All's well that ends well.

The bus went back to the depot to get fixed. We didn't see it again.

Towards the end of our shift, Tanya and I headed into the village, nice to grab a free hot chocolate and just warm up. With the shift nearly done, I decided to head into "Gastown" where the "steam clock" was situated. Sadly, although it was steaming, the time on the clock was wrong, so I didn't get to hear the tune on the hour. (Time says 4.15, it was 3.50 when I got here) 

Stopped briefly, after seeing the clock, into a "Canadian" souvenir store. I may have to go back to get some maple syrup goodies to take home.

Then one more stop at the "drugstore" to get some more cold tablets, only I couldn't actually work out what it was I wanted or needed compared to the ones from home, so I left them. I can always stop by again tomorrow.

Funnily, cold air and cold drinks, seem to help clear the head. Maybe I just need to keep wandering around drinking iced water. Later shift start tomorrow, so maybe a good night's sleep will help.